Best Gravy Ever

Lost a job, gained a job in the food industry once again.  I have the personality for being a waitress, and well, that is what I am doing again.  Except this time I will be in a nice Italian restaurant.  Never done this before, but I love Italian so I am game.  Plus it is a job and for that I am great full.  It will help me expand my culinary talents here in Sequim. 

Last night I made a simple dinner of roast chicken, roasted beets, a spinach salad and of course mashed potatoes and gravy.  The trick to mashed potatoes is to not whip them into submission but to smash them.  I did that.  However, I have never been the queen of gravy until now.  I made the most amazing cream gravy ever, I think.  Wanna know my secret.  Well of course you do, why else would you read.  OK here is my secret, sauteed leeks finely chopped.  I cheated and used the food processor. 

What you will need.
Drippings from chicken or turkey (broth will work too)
Salt
Pepper
Milk
1/2 leek
Water
Touch of flour

I want thick gravy so I added a bit ( I say bit because it depends on how much you want to make) of flour. It is just me and I don't particularly like a lot of leftover gravy. I also added a little water to get a bit more from my very small amount of chicken drippings (I am guessing I had 2 cup at most with water added).  Sprinkled a bit of salt (two shakes), and quit a bit of pepper (at least four good shakes).  I then popped it into the oven with my roasted beets.  It thickened up nicely.  I pulled out my milk and started pouring it in till I got the constancy I wanted.  Then I added my EVOO sauteed and finely chopped leeks.  I whisked it all together and served over mashed potatoes and my chicken.  I have also thought about adding roasted garlic.  Mmmmm next time.  

I have to run errands today and then get to cooking something else wonderful.  I am not sure what it will be tonight.  I am hedging towards a new version of tuna and noodles.  I will keep you posted.  Oh yeah since Thanksgiving is coming up I will measure all these ingredients out for you.  She is a winner after all.  Until then Happy Cooking.       

Down Time

Literally.......  So the sad news is I lost my job.  I am scared, this is a first for me; for both losing a job and not having any prospects to move onto.  I have always had something else, and while this job was a stepping stone I wanted to step out when I was ready.  Not, when I was forced to.  I hit the pavement today and got very disgruntled.  I was under the impression it might be easier.  Jobs and business (when I owned my own company) have always come very easy for me.  I was "slapped" across the face with reality today and the state of our economy.  OK enough whining, you really don't want to hear all about it.  Tomorrow I am off to give resumes to the local restaurants in town.  If that doesn't pan out I will move down a tier and try some of the box stores.  Meanwhile this is my chance to put a game face on and do my good deeds.  I have time and I cannot panic (which I have done believe me).  So I will cook.  And since I have chosen to help others I am going start by helping someone who has been nothing but good to me.  My friends whom shall remain anonymous at the moment will be the recipient of my 4th Good Deeds Meals on Wheels Campaign.  My first was with the Thai Pumpkin Soup, second was mac and cheese which I was able to give to a boy I used to work with who was helping his friend through a crisis and didn't have time to eat/cook anything.  Third was a chicken and vegetable/barley soup to a very nice man who was working so his co-worker could rescue his truck from the side of a mountain.  Pssssttt, I enhanced it night before last, Way Better second time around with the new ingredients.  I will share that recipe with you.  However, I am going to indulge you in a new spin of my way favorite enchiladas.  These were put up to a enchilada master for comparison and while not quit as good definitely better for you ;-) 

Tortillas (I am using the uncooked ones you can get in Costco) or I also use Trader Joes
1 zucchini
4 or 5 cloves of garlic (mine were small)
Green tomato salsa (oops I will share that with you later once I perfect it) or salsa verde
Peppers
Spinach
Plain Yogurt
Cheese

I know scary ingredients right, but really you can use anything inside.  I got the shells laid out.  Chopped up my zucchini, peppers, garlic and spinach and mixed into pile.  Shredded some sharp cheddar cheese and laid a sprinkling of cheese in the middle of the tortilla.  Then I added my veges and rolled.  I topped the enchiladas with Plain yogurt, sprinkled a little more cheese and then added my green tomato salsa.  Baked for oh about 15 minutes and served with a side of re fried beans.

If you are interested in the Good Deeds Meals on Wheels Campaign post a comment.  You can donate if you like or if you want to join in let me know and I will give you my vision of that this is going to be.  I am always up for ideas too.  Well, that wraps this post up.  I am off to walk my dogs and decompress on this lovely fall evening.  Happy Cooking!!!!! 

It's Pumpkin Time

With Halloween just around the corner and the fall chill in the air I started making soups again.  Now I love soups and I am actually good at making soup if you can believe that.  It just so happened that I had a pumpkin who took a little spill at work and cracked open.  Hmmmm, now I am forced ;-) to make something with this pumpkin for it cannot go to waste.  With that being said my soup craze kicked off.  I visualized, I pondered and ended up making Thai Pumpkin Soup.  I shared with a few daring folks (apparently the name just doesn't strike people as appealing) and everyone raved about it.  So come on, it is good for you, is cheap and easy to make and best of all it is very filling.  Here is what you will need to get

 1 shallot
2 or 3 Thai chilis
Ginger
4 or 5 Garlic cloves
1 pumpkin
3 cans coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock
Cilantro
2 TB mushroom-flavored soy sauce
1 Lemongrass stalk
3 Kafir lime leaves

All I did was cut the pumpkin in half and roast it to soften the insides.  It doesn't have to be completely cooked through.  Scoop out the insides into a crock pot or soup pot.  Add all wet ingredients, maybe even a little salt and pepper if desired.  In a skillet I took the ginger, chilis, garlic and shallot coarsely chopped and sauteed them in a little olive oil.  Then I put them into my food processor and chopped finely.  Added all the rest of the goodies into the crock pot and put the lid on.  Came home to a wonderful aroma and a delicious healthy soup.  

P.S.  I did puree the soup afterwards in my food processor, but some preferred it chunkier.  

Today I am going to be working on a chicken vegetable soup.  It is still chilly out there.  However, I must get to cleaning my house and then off to take some fall pictures.  Have a fabulous day folks.  Happy cooking!

Hashing it out

I am keeping this short but sweet.  Blackberries are in full swing and I need to take my girls for a walk.  Well, this means a little of both.  I will pick blackberries along the trail and the girls will walk along.  Hannah will carry the backpack so I can put my containers and be hands free.

I wanted everyone to know that I made boiled peanuts yesterday, which are a huge success I think.  In fact I might be forced to make more.  I, of course, have to sample along the way to make sure the flavor is just right.  I also made a simple yet delicious hash of sorts  Fresh potatoes (an incredibly easy crop to grow mind you) with red and green peppers, onion, chopped garlic, salt and pepper and topped with feta cheese.  Yep bake  it in the oven and once the potatoes are cooked you are done.  So easy and so good.  I added just a little Rosemary to the equation for good measure.

OK off to walk the dogs and pick blackberries.  Look for highlights, I have no idea what I am going to do with them other then make a fine sauce to put over my ice cream.  I have friends making jam for me, so that option is out.  Yum Yum.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Happy cooking folks!!  

Chicken It's Not What's for Dinner

Hello all.  What a crazy busy week I have had.  To reward myself I am taking the girls (my two dogs) and going on a weekend camping trip.  That means no blog.  Tell you what though I will try to make something truly amazing in my dutch oven.  Got to hone my skills I am up for a competition next year.  Oh, you want to know what made this week so busy.  Well, we had our first annual Sequim Balloon Festival.  Yep the hot air was here.  I am a crew member now, so any other spare time I might actually have I will be crewing.  It is amazing and the wonderful people you meet.  Wow!  Speaking of people, I want to get delve more into that subject because I am thinking of trying a pay it forward kind of thing with food and I want to run it by my fans.  There are some of you right?  I have been blessed with some of the most devoted friends I could ever ask for.  Kindness and giving go a long way I think, and I need to do more of it.  Actually, I think we all do.  A little item goes a long way, just remember that.  Don't get me wrong I am soooo guilty of being mean at times.  I am slowly learning to just walk away, vent in my own personal way and avoid those folks when they turn up in my life again.  But there are those out there who work hard, help when they can and are unfortunately eeking out a living.  Mind you I am not rich, but I am rich with food and good friends who would help me at the drop of the hat.  My neighbor is completely home bound, what kind of life is that.  I admit I don't see much of her, but I fully intend to make her a very nice meal and deliver it to her. So here is my plan.  Eventually, I will set up a special fund for donations and for every $20 dollars received I will make a  meal and deliver it to a selected person. Yes it is in this area, but who knows perhaps if anybody else is interested in doing this I might just add on.  Are you all game?  I say $20 only because that would make say a few days worth of food.  I am not targeting just the folks struggling, although I do have some on my list, but those who are being generous and doing good for others as well.  So there you go.  I am off to make another wonderful creation.  Happy Cooking!!!   

CC Shrimp Scampi
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
1/2 shallot
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon dill
1 teaspoon taragon
1 cup white wine
Pasta of choice

Saute shallot and garlic in the butter. Add shrimp and remaining ingredients and simmer until your pasta is done cooking. Toss pasta with shrimp and volaaa dinner is served.

Visitors

I haven't forgotten the blog, but I actually have had a good friend from Australia visiting me.  I have been cooking, cleaning and riding on the back of a bike every night. It was grand fun, and thus I have been slacking a bit on my blog.  Yikes!!!!  So here we are back to it once again.

I had a bit of a mishap, a major meltdown and mostly a learning experience the other day.  The mishap was I was hiking and I lost my keys.  I had my girls with me and I was messing around.  I got into the stinging nettles and amid my silent cursing at myself and the nettles I bumped into a tree.  My key slipped out of my pocket unbeknownst to me so when I got back to the car, no keys.  The sick feeling starting sinking in as I rampaged through my pockets and turned up nothing.  So I proceeded to go back out on the trail and hunt.  4 miles later no dice.  Once more out and about halfway it was getting dark.  So I am searching along the trail with my cell phone light as my flashlight.  Nope no luck.  I have a spare so I can at least get home.  So I went back to the car in the dark to find the spare.  They aren't there either.  After all these years it has fallen off.  I am in full on meltdown mode now because it is late, I have to walk home now in the dark and I have no one to call to come pick me up.  I have to leave my purse, my car, my camera locked in the car unattended.  So I call my family and Drew crying because I am mad at myself for being so silly.  Long story short I ended the night having my car towed to the house by my new wonderful friends at Evergreen Towing.  The guy was so nice and patient with me at midnight.  I was in bed fast asleep at 1 in the morning and up with a dog in tow for another round of searching at 6:30.  Needless to say Saturday I was exhausted, but I had my keys!!!!!

So you ask what did I learn.  I learned that you need to keep checking on that spare set of keys, which once I get another one made I will do.  I also learned that I can handle anything even amid a meltdown.  I am an independent woman and while life throws curve balls for me I somehow manage to pick myself up and keep on going.  The most important thing, sometimes we do have to rely on others to help us out no matter how embarrassing the situation.  Sometimes it will be our turn for help and other times we will return the favor by  helping someone else.  Remember that.  We need more kindness in this world, and it is little things that can make a big difference.  That tow truck driver was my hero for the night, and while he probably laughed in the truck at my misfortune he never once got upset with me and went out of his way to make sure that I could get reconnected with a key (if I had to have new ones made).   

I am making true garden stir fry tonight so harvest away my friends.

Garden Goodness Stirfry

1 Kohlrabi slightly cooked
Snap peas - any desired amount
2 stalks Celery
1 Red pepper
Scallions (or onion or chives)
4 Cloves of Garlic
Radish pods - any desired amount again
2 drops Sesame Oil 
4 drops Soy sauce
1 slice of ginger diced up
Quinoa

I added all the hard veges first like the Kohlrabi and celery with a little olive oil for a quick saute.  I then added my peas and radish pods garlic, scallions for their saute.  It is Quinoa time, cook as instructed.  I use a chicken broth base just to give it a little flavor.  Meanwhile I am just letting my saute cook a little bit at the lowest setting your stove will allow.  I add all the other ingredients, plus anything else you might want after all it is stir fry.  Quinoa is done so add that to your veges and flash heat  for about 1 minute.  Serve with a big helping of YummmmO and I made some roasted garlic bread and salmon.  I will share that special salmon dish with you tomorrow. 

Tacos

Someone once told me that when you are a baby inside your mothers womb magic happens and you get taste buds just like that.  I don't remember her exact words, but it boiled down to you usually enjoy whatever it was your mother was eating at the time.  I think mine was tacos.  I love tacos; fish, chicken, beef, bean tacos are all good to me.  So as you can imagine I have continued to enhance my taco experience throughout my life.  None are as good as my mothers however.  When I have company I usually get the request for tacos and I am truly flattered.  Now, because I love tacos so much I often get a hankering for them.  This is usually once a month, but sometimes twice and I have been known to eat them every week for awhile too, but shhhhh that is our secret.  The disadvantage for me is they require a lot of work.  Not as much as fried chicken, but between all the slicing, dicing, chopping, frying it gets messy.  The other disadvantage is I can't eat as many as I used to.  When my family would get together we would have taco eating competitions.  The record holder ate 12, that was NOT me.  I didn't even come close, my max has been 6.  So enough about tacos for now, I had my hankering and I made some. Holly and I are planning a little cook-off so at that time we will share our recipes.  Let you decide whose tacos rain supreme.         

Roasted Garlic Taco Salads

My day was not simple.  I may put on a great coverup (I use Clinique by the way) but I sometimes feel so overwhelmed.  I am the worst kind of procrastinator, but I also get my best work done this way.  I am in a catch 22 because I do inadvertently put things aside to do this or that.  For example I am planting a semi- edible  garden.  It is mostly flowers, but some are edible by me and not just for the hummingbirds.  I also have a lettuce border for said garden.  Now, I need to be composting it, mulching it planting and weeding it.  I also need to be harvesting my vegetable garden, instead I waited to the last minute to put together my photos for the fair.  So the plants wait to go into the ground because I am running helter skelter to get the photos done and mounted.  Should've done that during my weekend.  I did clean my pantry, and I mean deep cleaned for the weekend and It sparkles!  So after stressing and getting that done, working an 8 hour shift, come home walk my two sweet dogs and I still have to make dinner.  It just so happens Garlic is in season.  It also happens that my co worker grows an abundant amount of garlic and gave me plenty.  Lucky me I cook with garlic, A LOT.  It is so good for you, the health benefits out way any bad breath I may have. So I have garlic, I have lettuce from the garden, I have hamburger from eastern WA without any hormones and grass fed and I have cheese from Costco.  I also cooked up a big batch of black beans recently.  What am I envisioning.......  a healthy taco salad that's what.

Home Grown Garlic from a wonderful friend's beautiful garden

Now as most of you know I don't measure often.  Unless I am baking I rarely follow a recipe either.  I get ideas and then roll with it.  So bare with me and remember you really can't go wrong with adding or substituting.  Some of my best creations come out from doing just that.  So without further delay let me share my Roasted Garlic Taco Salad with you.


Roast Garlic, depending on the size this could be about 10 minutes to  nearly half an hour (I had large garlic) at 350 in the oven.  If you have one of those garlic roasters great, of not remember to put it on aluminum foil or the oil will drip and make a mess in your oven 

Meanwhile go out to the garden and pick lettuce, spinach or whatever you got.  Place it directly into the salad spinner so you can rinse and spin.  Easy as that.  A colander just doesn't get all the water out trust me.  I also prep my other ingredients.  Chop up a tomato or two, slice an avocado or two ;-)

Take out your hamburger, brown in skillet with 1/2 onion and a few peppers, which I also grow.  I used a mix of mini sweet bell peppers and a serrano pepper for a bit of kick.  If you are into spice punch it up with some cherry bomb's or jalapenos.

Hamburger is browning, lettuce is done, garlic is roasted so I throw it in with my hamburger for the final impact.  Leave it whole or mash as I do.  Work it in with the hamburger really good.  And finishing browning.  Turn off the stove,but not the oven.  Meanwhile I crunch chips (because those taco salad shells are really not that tasty) in a baking dish.  Grate cheese over chips, top with hamburger mix and black beans, put in the oven for about 5 minutes at the most.  Just enough to let the cheese melt.  Bring out your plate, put mix on top of your bed of salad.  Then I added all the other goodies.  The tomato, the cilantro, some extra peppers, avocado, chopped black olives and just a splash of fresh lime juice. Dinner is ready.  Yummmm O says this Country Girl.

See y'all tomorrow.  My menu says we will be having Pesto Salmon.  Tonight y'all have to sit tight.  There is a little cook off planned between my fellow blogger  http://www.hollidaysmtncafe.blogspot.com/ and I.  We are saving it for a later date, but I am making my very popular tacos tonight.  I can't share the recipe until the cook off ;-)  It will be worth it though, just keep on reading. 

Hello

Well hello all. Come on and cook with me as I cook my way through life. I get through life one day at a time.  Sometimes I am lavash and other days I just want to break down and cry. 

So I suppose you want to know a little about me first.  I am a regular girl from all over.  I recently moved to Washington from my beloved state of Montana for numerous reasons, but mostly because of family.  I love horseback riding, hiking, camping, fishing, photography is my sidekick, and recently I have become the proud owner of a therapy dog.  But mostly, I want to make a difference in whatever small way I can, if I can.  I want to show the kindnesses that others have bestowed upon me and pay it forward.  It hasn't been easy for me, I have lost a lot of loved ones in my shorter life (yikes I am not 30).  My best friend was the hardest, she was my hero, my inspiration my bosom friend (as they say in Anne of Green Gables).  We were going to grow old and raise our kids together, they were going to be best friends just like us.  It just didn't work out that way.  So here I am, cooking because it is what I know how I do and what I love.  I love sitting in the kitchen figuring out my menu for the week, and smelling the food as it melds together in mouthwatering fashion.  I love shopping for ingredients, the smell of fresh food from the farmers market.  The nutrients going into my body, and mostly seeing others smile over the good food they were served.  So here we go through some bumbled recipes they call life.  Cheers!