Risotto - a few variations

I've been on a risotto kick recently. It goes so well with everything, chicken, pork, steak, and it's so easy to make. I think a lot of people are intimidated by it, because you have to pay attention to it. But I think it's a great quick side to make if you're going to have to be at the stove watching other things cook anyways, or while something finishes roasting in the oven.

1 cup aborio rice - this used to be hard to find, but these days I can get it at any grocery store, next to the other "fancy" rices

1 box of stock, vegetable, chicken, or beef all work just fine.

1 shallot, chopped

1 Tablespoon chopped dried roasted garlic, or regular garlic - See below

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 Tablespoon butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional

1/4 cup white cheese, I use parmesan or feta

splash of white wine (I usually use this as a good excuse to have a glass while I'm cooking)

Saute the aborio rice and the shallot in the olive oil till rice is lightly browned. If using fresh garlic add it in this first step, if using dried garlic add it with the broth. Add the broth, about a quarter cup at a time to start, making sure you are stirring while you add it, and that none of the rice is sticking to the bottom of the pan. You want to keep the heat set so that the rice is simmering when you add the broth. Keep adding broth and stirring until the rice is cooked through, its generally about 3 cups but can vary depending on the temperature it's boiling at and the rice itself. Stir in the butter, and cheese and wine if using, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

I get dried roasted garlic at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, this is the website for the dealer who sells it, but I can't find it on their website right now.

Tri-Color Chicken Noodle Soup

We've got a couple of major house projects going on right now. We're completely re-decorating our basement and finishing re-finishing our kitchen. We will also be changing my office into a second guest room in preparation for a friend staying with us through the summer. And we have to do it all as cheaply as possible now that I've been laid off. Luckily we have a friend who used to build houses and accepts payment in food. Last Saturday I made this chicken noodle soup, with cheddar bacon corn bread from the King Arthurs Flour cookbook. Unfortunately the recipe isn't online, but I will post it soon because it was very delicious and I've already been asked to make it again.

1 Tblsp olive oil

2 medium shallots, dices

1 Tblsp garlic, diced

1 pound chicken tenders

2 1/2 boxes chicken broth

1 small bag baby carrots

4 bell peppers diced, this is where the tri-color comes in, I used 1 orange, 1 yellow, and 2 red to balance out the corn and carrots.

8 ounces of corn kernels, approximately

1 can Hunts Diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper, or more to taste

1 large pinch rubbed sage

3 small leaves fresh basil, chopped

3/4 tsp diced rosemary

1/8 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp cumin, or more to taste

3-4 cups wheat penne, cooked separately

Caramelize the shallots and garlic in olive oil. Continue to cook until the shallots are mostly clear, and add the chicken tenders, leaving them whole. Add just enough chicken broth to cover the chicken and simmer till cooked through. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the good flavors. Remove the chicken tenders and set aside. Add the carrots, corn, and 1 box of the broth, cook for about ten minutes. Add peppers, tomato, and dice the chicken and add it back in as well. Add remainder of broth, seasonings, and cook until vegetables are as soft as you would like. Add the penne and let sit for a few minutes to warm the noodles. Soup is done!

Everyone really enjoyed this soup, I will certainly be making it again. It was great for a winter lunch, and I think will be wonderful in the summer when I can get all of the vegetables fresh from the farmers market as well. I recommend freezing the leftovers, so the noodles don't soak up too much broth and get too soft. Like I mentioned, I served it with a bacon cheddar corn bread, next time I think I'll stick with a regular corn bread as this soup can certainly hold it's own flavor wise.

Peanut Butter Cookies

When The Man joined a new office right before Christmas I sent a lot of my extra baking in with him. Since then he regularly brings home requests from his workers. The most recent was for peanut butter cookies, which I think was just an excuse to get me to make them since they're his favorites. I don't make them very often because my recipe is a little messy. But the results are worth it.

1/2 cup butter, very soft - this is important, the butter wont mix well with the honey and peanut butter if its not soft enough.

2/3 cup honey

1/2 cup sugar + extra for decoration

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and use greased baking sheets for this recipe, or parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and set aside.

Cream the butter and honey together till completely incorporated, add the sugar and mix well. Mix in the peanut butter, scrape the bowl often to make sure the ingredients are completely incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, continuing to scrape the sides of the bowl completely. Fold in the dry ingredients until completely incorporated, but don't over mix. Chill the dough for a half hour, scoop out 1-1 1/2 inch balls of dough, flatten using the bottom of a glass coated in sugar. Bake for 13-15 minutes, cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. This is where the parchment paper comes in handy, you can just pick up the entire sheet and move it to a wire rack. I get about 3 dozen cookies from this recipe, but it all depends on the size of your cookies.

This is one of those recipes where you really have to make sure all of the wet ingredients are very well mixed before you add the dry, I've been making these cookies for ten years and the first few times I'd end up with big lumps of plain butter or peanut butter or sugar. I like to use a hand held mixer instead of my kitchen aid, because its easier to get to the sides and bottom of the bowl. I use a drinking glass with a star burst pattern on the bottom to press the cookies. It gives them a unique design. I just spray the bottom of the glass with nonstick spray and press it into a bowl of sugar. I usually have to respray it every 4 cookies or so. These were a huge hit at his office, and there were a couple of requests for the recipe, so here it is.

Black Bean Chicken Chili

A couple of weeks ago I had lots of ingredients and nothing that worked together. I also had chicken that I needed to get cooked. It was one of those nights where the food you have to cook is not the food you planned to cook. Suddenly I was improvising. More then once these have turned out to be some of my best meals, which is why I started keeping a notebook in my kitchen to write things down as I go. I'm hoping to get my new camera figured out soon so I can start putting some pictures of the finished products up with the recipes. Until then you will just have to trust me that this looked great with some shredded cheese on top and a big dollop of sour cream.

This was planned to be something more like an italian soup, and ended up as a nice thick chicken chili. With lentils.

1/2 white onion diced

1 teaspoon garlic diced

1 pound boneless skinless chicken, cubed

1 can dice tomatoes with jalapeno, I used Hunts Petite Diced with Zesty Jalapeno - It's been in my house for months so I'm glad I finally got it used up.

1-2 teaspoons (or more to taste) of Penzy's Chili 3000 - the best chili powder I've ever found

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne

1/2 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1 large can black beans, well rinsed

1 1/2 32 oz box of Beef broth - see note below

4 shakes of red chili pepper flakes - using a standard shaker like the ones you see at pizza places

2/3 cup red lintels

Saute the onion and garlic until they begin to brown, add the chicken and cook till half done. Add tomatoes with juice, and boil for 1 - 2 minutes. Stir in chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt and pepper and cook for about 1 minute. I add the seasonings before the broth so they have some time to cook, I think it helps develop and blend the flavors. I usually season again towards the end, to get the flavor just right. Add black beans, and 1 box broth and bring to low boil. Simmer until it's beginning to thicken, add the lentils and remaining broth, and cook 30 minutes until lentils are soft.

You could skip the lentils if you have time to let it boil down on it's own, I was getting very hungry and wanted to thicken it up quickly. That being said, I loved the lentils in this, made it a little different from my standard chili, which is a white chicken chili. Also, I used beef broth with chicken because it's what I had and I needed to use it up. Normally I wouldn't mix chicken and beef like that, but I really liked it in this, and I think it went very well with the black beans and the lentils. I might even do it on purpose next time. If someone makes this with chicken broth please let me know what you think.

Crispin Cider Beef Stew

This year for Christmas I received a very nice blank recipe book from a good friend. That means I need to fill it up. On a recent grocery trip I decided at the last minute to get the ingredients for beef stew, which of course means I forgot a few things. Which lead to a little improvisation, and a new "secret ingredient". This is a great new stew that I will definitely be making again.

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Large Tablespoon garlic

1 purple onion, diced

1 pound beef or lamb stew meat - I used beef the first time, and I can't wait to make it again with lamb

3/4 cup Crispin Lansdowne Cider

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 pinches rubbed sage

1 heaping spoon tomato paste

5 small yellow potatoes

2 handfulls baby carrots, or 4 regular carrots, diced

1 regular box Swanson beef broth

2 long splashes worcestershire sauce

I caramelized the garlic and onion in a tablespoon of oil. I like to use Smart Balance Vegetable oil, veggie oil because it has a lower smoke point, Smart Balance because The Man's family has a history of heart problems. I added the stew meat and cooked it till browned, letting the pan build up a good amount of coating. Pour the cider down the sides of the pan and stir well, bring to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pan. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cider is reduced by 2/3. Season the meat and cook for 1 minute, add tomato paste, broth, and vegetables. Bring stew to a boil, add worcestershire sauce, and reduce to simmer till thickened as desired. I found that using the cider made for a very well rounded flavor. The Lansdowne is made with organic molasses and Irish Stout yeast. That makes it a very beer-like cider, or as the official Crispin PR says "Unfiltered Extra Stout Bodied Super-Premium Export Quality". There is a great review of it here on Will Write For Beer. I've had plenty of it in my day, and the large bottle means there is plenty of it left over to enjoy with a big bowl of stew.

Things I'm trying now

I've been thinking and thinking for 2 days now, trying to come up with a good post. It's not that I can't think of anything, it's mostly that I think of too many things. Kind of like I talk too much, and tend to write in run on sentences. So I'll go over a couple of goals, things I've been doing recently to help myself save money, products I'm testing out in my constant search for just the right thing.

1. Saving money. I've recently started using a piggy bank, a real honest to god shaped like a pig, piggy bank. I've been trying for a long while to find a good way to save up money for specific goals, and I'm hoping this will finally be it. In the past I've done well with a coin jar, but I'm trying to save more money in a shorter period of time, so I want something I can put cash into w/o seeing it, so I'm putting half my part-time income into the piggy each week, and occasionally dumping coins into him as well. I think there is 60 in him now, but I really have no idea. I like it that way. When I know how much there is it's easier to spend it on something else.

2. Cooking better. We've been doing a lot of shopping at the farmers markets this summer. Not quite as much as I would like, but a good amount. I love it, because we can get everything we want, for much cheaper. It also means I have to cook, because we are getting raw ingredients at the peak of their ripeness so they have to be prepared quickly. Sometimes this means getting creative and making something on Monday that I don't intend to eat until Thursday. For example this roasted sweet corn and pepper salad I made last week. It was quick and easy and lovely.
5 ears sweet corn
2 bell peppers
3-6 assorted peppers, Anaheim, jalapeno, and sweet red
Garlic to taste
Olive oil
shuck the corn and lightly oil, cook on a hot grill till the kernels start to char and rotate so it's cooked evenly, at the same time lightly grill all the peppers, you want a blackened outside but there should still be some crunch in them.
Remove the corn from the cop, chop the peppers (I take out all of the jalapeno seeds because I don't want it too spicy) and mix in garlic and oil to taste.
This is what I like to do when I have too much sweet corn, which seems to happen to a lot of us in MN this time of year. The Man east it, I eat it, and it's easy to freeze if needed.

3. Conserve money in regards to my beauty routine. This one is breaking my heart. I spent a year plus being under employed, and only working my part-time job. And since getting a real job again it feels like my hair and skin have suffered the price. Not only am I no longer working for a company (don't want to use the name) that makes amazing natural skin and hair care products, but I can't seem to afford to get the other brands I've been wanting to try either. Earlier this week I was at Target and saw that they have Bumble and Bumble Seaweed shampoo and conditioner in their buy 1 get 1 packages. I just couldn't justify $40 for shampoo and conditioner, even though I tried, oh trust me I tried. I've been growing my hair out for almost a year, doesn't that deserve some type of pampering? It's almost to my shoulders, I need to start caring for it better right? Well, fortunately or not I have been blessed with strong thick hair and no, I don't really need to spend $40 on shampoo right now.

So this will be what my blog will hopefully be focusing on in the next month. I will continue with the goal of at least 1 post a week, which I was successful with in August. Now I will have something to grow those posts about. When I write about a product review, it is likely it will be something cheaper, or at least purchased on sale. When I'm writing about cooking I will hopefully be writing about easy and healthy meals and recipes I am developing. And I will be constantly searching for ways to save money and have fun on the cheap.

Happy Friday!

Spill The Wine

Spill The Wine is a restaurant in downtown Mpls across the street from the Guthrie theater that I have been wanting to visit for over a year. They just happened to have a groupon of a $50 gift certificate for $25 earlier this week so I jumped at the chance to check this place out on the cheap (well that's what I thought at the time, more on that later). The Man and I made reservations for last night, and I was so very excited. The only time they had available was 7 pm which worked out well for me to get home from work, get dressed a little fancy, and make a nice night of it.

When the night arrived there were a few changes in plans which resulted in the evening being more casual then my original plan. When we arrived I was glad, this is a very nice place, the decor and atmosphere are casual and elegant but most of the clientele were in jeans and tank tops, not the theater crowd or downtown yuppies I had expected. At first everything was lovely, if a little loud due to the high ceilings, the crowd seemed happy and the wait staff was smiling. A couple of notes, the menu is short. Like, 4 entree's short. Of course they have a good wine list, with the wines being well labeled so you can easily choose between a Spanish red or a New Zealand white. There is a short selection of appetizers, a decent selection of salads, a couple of pastas and 4 entree's, none of which are vegetarian friendly. I'm sure if asked the kitchen could do something special for you, but you'll have to find a way to ask. Which brings me to the main problem we found with this restaurant. The service. The hostess and the server were very friendly when they were at our table, however they seemed to be a little understaffed. I can see that they might have been overwhelmed by the sudden business due to the groupon, but most of the people I saw arriving had reservations so I would think they could have called in extra help. Having worked in the restaurant industry for many years I am very sensitive to busy restaurants. I'm happy to wait my turn, and I understand that good food takes longer than cheap food. But, we seemed to wait far too long for simple things like our cheese place and our wine to arrive, and The Man was not happy to have to flag someone down to have his water glass refilled, twice. When our cheese plate did arrived it was dropped by the hostess who didn't stop to describe the cheese's to us. We had no idea if these were locally produced or exotic imported cheeses from France or Italy, which might have justified the $13.00 we paid for 3 teen tiny pieces. The same happened with his wine flight, yes they had one of those lovely papers the glasses go one, but usually they recommend which wine to start with, or at least tell you a little about them. Instead our glasses were dropped at the table by a different waitress who seemed to be a little frustrated that her night had been reduced running other tables orders.

Let's move on to the entrees, which were both amazing. The Man had the steak, served with roasted potatoes and spinach I believe. He loved it, though it was a little overdone for my tastes. He ate every last thing on his plate and felt it was the perfect portion for a good filling meal. I had the lamb ragout as recommended by the server, which came in a bowl with full of sauce, spinach and deliciously chewy gnocchi. It was topped with just a dollop of some kind of cream, which I can't for the life of me remember. My only problem was trying to find all of the lamb mixed in with the mushrooms, gnocchi and sauce, so I could make sure I didn't leave any behind. We skipped dessert because we had ice cream at home. And he wont let me get desserts when we're out any more, the big meanie.

All in all, as much as I loved the food, I probably wont be going back. It wasn't just the service, because our actual waitress was very knowledgeable when she could get to us. It was the cost, even after the $50 gift card our dinner still cost another $60 with the tip. That's just too much for wine that's ok, food that we have to wait for, and website that hasn't been updated with the most current menu (I tried to look up my dish to find out what the cream was, and the item I had isn't on the website). If I'm in the mood for something similar I will stick with First Course, our favorite restaurant in town. They might not have a best website either, but the staff remembered us after the second time we visited, and every Tuesday the wine list is half price.