Italian Sausage with bell peppers and onions

I have been forgetting to update this thing. So much for resolutions for this year. I made this dish a while ago. Bell peppers and sausage make a great combo.

uncooked sausage in the pan

defrosted portion of frozen peppers and onions 

Cooked sausage in some extra virgin olive oil and chicken broth, with Italian seasoning sprinkled on top

cut up sausage and peppers

Italian sausage with peppers served with rice and string beans

Ingredients

• 1 package of mild Italian sausage
• 1/2 cup frozen peppers and onions
• ~1 tsp Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Directions

1. Place sausage in a large pan with the olive oil.
2. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side.
3. Defrost the frozen peppers and onions in the microwave according to the microwave instructions.
4. Add the peppers and onions to the pan along with , Italian seasoning, salt pepper, and chicken broth.
5. Cook until sausage is no longer pink the middle.
6. Cut sausages into small medallion slices.
7. Add cornstarch to the pan and let the sauce thicken.

Basic Black Bean Chili

My friend loves my chili because it's different every time, but it contains the same basic ingredients each time. Sometimes I vary the ratios of the spices or I just eyeball how much I should add. Other times, I happen to have cilantro or some oranges in the fridge. (Yes, I just said oranges. No, it is not weird---it's delicious in the chili.)

I like my chili a little spicy served over rice or spaghetti or a potato. Recently I made chili served over both a baked potato and some white rice.

Here are all the ingredients nicely displayed.

First, brown the ground beef with some onion and all the spices.

Then, add all the canned ingredients.

Chili served over a potato.

Chili served over some white rice.

Basic Black Bean Chili
Ingredients:

• 1 can (14.5 oz) of diced tomato with green chilies
• 1 can (~15oz) of black beans
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ~1lb ground beef
• ~1/4 cup diced onion
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1.5 tsp of cumin
• 1/2 tsp of garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp of onion salt
• 1/4 tsp of curry powder
• 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper
• optional: cilantro, ground black pepper, minced garlic, oranges

Method:

1. Dice the onion and fry it in a large pot with the olive oil until slightly see-through. 
2. Add ground beef and the spices. Cook until meat is no longer red.
3. Add the canned tomatoes and black beans
4. Stir the ingredients until well mixed and let simmer uncovered for approximately 20 minutes.
5. Serve over rice, potato, or spaghetti. Enjoy!

Italian Pie...or rather Meat Pie

The only thing that makes this recipe resemble a pie is the pie crust that you put over it and even that doesn't hold it together very well. This is yet another Publix Apron Simple Meals recipe, but far from simple. I never trust the estimated cooking time because it always takes longer that what the recipe states. I changed this recipe a bit and it took longer for me to prepare it because I didn't have ready-made bruschetta spread. Why buy bruschetta spread when you can make it? I looked up what bruschetta spread was and there's a bunch of different kinds, so I went with tomato bruschetta. Basically, I added some diced tomatoes, butter, fresh chopped basil and parsley, sliced onion, and sliced mushrooms. All this slicing, dicing, and chopping took some time. Overall, this recipe was overwhelmingly meaty but very filling.  This recipe also called for a ton of ingredients; I looked back into my fridge once I was done cooking and realized how empty it was after making this. Now I know how I ended up spending ~$90 last week at the grocery store.

Next time, I have to remember that tomatoes hold a lot of water and I should evaporate out this excess water, drain it, or add extra egg. Also, I forgot to drain the jar of pimientos. Oh, and next time I need to put in some minced garlic. I keep saying next time, but do I really have the intention of cooking something like this (Some thing that required so many ingredients and so much prep and so much time) again?

Without the pie crust this would have been just loose meat.

Here you can see the pool of liquid.

I wonder if I can figure out a vegetarian version of this recipe.  I foresee a lot of tofu and tempeh with some nutritional yeast.

Italian Pie (meat pie) adapted from Publix Apron recipe
Ingredients
1 (10 oz) box frozen chopped spinach
6 slices salami (~1 1/2 oz)
1 1/4 lb ground beef (85/15)
dried basil and oregano to taste (~ 1/2 tsp each)
1/4 cup diced pimientos, drained
1/4 cup turkey (or regular) pepperoni (1oz)
1 large tomato, diced
~4 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
half a small yellow onion, sliced
1 1/2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
2 cups shredded Italian-blend cheese
1 ready-to-bake pie crust

Prep
1. Slice, dice, and chop the ingredients that need to be sliced, diced, or chopped.
2. Thaw the spinach and drain the excess liquid from it.
3. Preheat oven to 425F
4. Cut salami and pepperoni into bite-size pieces

Steps
1. Melt the butter in a large pan and cook onions and mushrooms. 1-2 minutes
2. Add ground beef, tomato, dried basil and oregano, salt and pepper. Cook until beef is no longer pink.
3. Stir in the pepperoni, salami, fresh basil and parsley, and spinach. Cook until everything is thoroughly heated.
4. Turn off burner and stir in cheese and tomato. If the pan doesn't fit all the ingredients, transfer ingredients into a large pot.
5. Transfer the well-mixed pie filling into a baking pan. Cover the baking pan with the pie crust; trim and seal or crimp edges.  Make sure you ventilate the crust by poking holes in it or putting a cut in the center.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Shrimp Scampi

Soundtrack: Stone Temple Pilots, Album: Purple

Technically, I made this for breakfast since I didn't wake up until about noon today. I found a recipe at http://southernfood.about.com/od/shrimprecipes/r/bln81.htm, halved it and added onion to it. It turned out delicious! I am glad I added onion. I usually don't order shrimp scampi at restaurants because it's so easy to make at home. Making this dish reminded me how much butter is in this recipe, which I plan on cutting in half next time I cook it. Seriously, 8 tablespoons of butter is a bit frightening to see melting in a large skillet. Scampi is pretty much all butter with some white wine. Also, this dish reminds me that parsley is definitely not my favorite herb and is best in small doses. On another note, I put on Purple and started the dish and finished cooking when the CD ended. I'd say that's quite a feat. Now I know that I cooked for exactly 46 minutes and 59 seconds. That's 46 minutes and 59 seconds of good cooking and awesome 90s rock/grunge. I felt like I should have been cooking something like mac and cheese or a pizza to go with the music instead of shrimp scampi.

Tomato Ham Pie

This is another Publix Apron simple meals recipe. I had tried it at the Publix sample counter. I made a couple of changes to the recipe. It still needs a little tweaking, but it was definitely delicious! Next time I need to cut the tomatoes and onion thinner and possibly add more basil.

Tomato Ham Pie
Ingredients:
4 medium tomatoes (sliced in 1/4 in thick pieces)
1 oz basil coarsely chopped
thin sliced ham
1 frozen prepared pie crust
1/4 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup light mayo
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 head of garlic
half a small yellow onion, thinly sliced
dried basil and oregano
extra virgin olive oil

Procedure:
1. Peel off most of the skin of the garlic leaving one or two layers. Pour the olive oil on the head of garlic making sure it is mostly covered in oil.
2. Place the head of garlic in the oven on a baking pan and bake at 350F for approximately 10 minutes or until the garlic becomes very soft and mashable.
3. Peel the rest of the skin off the garlic and mash and the garlic. Then mix the mashed garlic with the cream cheese. Add the dried basil and oregano to the garlic-cream cheese mixture until you are satisfied with the flavor.
4. Place the pie crust on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 400F or until lightly browned.
5. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle 2 tbsp over bottom of crust. Layer with some of the tomatoes and onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Combine the garlic-cream cheese mixture with the mayo and spread half of the mixture over the tomatoes and onion.
7. Place the slices of ham evenly over the tomatoes and onion.
8. Add another layer of tomato and onion. Evenly spread the coarsely chopped basil over the tomatoes and onions, spread the rest of the garlic-cream cheese-mayo mixture, and place some more ham slices evenly over everything.
9. Top everything with the rest of the bread crumb/Parmesan cheese mixture.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Spaghetti alfredo and meatballs

I wasn't expecting to make something worthy of a blog post for dinner tonight and then I remembered that I had all the fixings for alfredo sauce even though I didn't have fettuccine noodles to go with it. I sort of winged the recipe and it turned out pretty good though now I realize that stroganoff and alfredo have a lot in common as far is creamy white sauces go. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference between alfredo and stroganoff. I guess you could say that alfredo is more cheesy and stroganoff is more sour creamy.

It would have been prettier if I had fettuccine noodles, but I think it turned out great with the materials that I had.

Mushroom Alfredo
Ingredients:
~8ox sliced mushrooms
~1 tbsp butter
garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp corn starch
basil and oregano to taste (optional)

Procedure:
1. Melt butter in sauce pan at medium heat then add garlic and mushrooms.
2. Cook mushrooms in butter and garlic for approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir regularly to make sure everything is melted and well mixed.
4. Cook mixture for about 10 minutes to let flavors mix.

Beefy Stroganoff and green beans

I just realized that I haven't posted in a month. Things haven't really been busy, but there really wasn't anything noteworthy to post. Yesterday I was bitten by the cooking bug after taking a short 4 hour nap. I made a grocery list and an hour and a half later I returned from Publix about $90 poorer, but totally thrilled. I didn't care that I spent so much money on only two weeks' worth of food or that it was 10PM and I still hadn't eaten dinner. I didn't want a quick meal. All I wanted was to get cooking. I'm glad to say that I was satisfied with the result.

The recipe for the beef stroganoff was from one of the Publix Apron's recipe cards that you can get for free at the store. I changed the recipe a bit, using half the amount of beef but putting in extra mushroom and onions. The green beans were something I had lying around was was seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. I'm going to really enjoying eating the leftovers.

On another note, I have some rather awesome Publix inspired meals to share in the next few days.

Book Review: Atonement by Ian McEwan

Instead of studying for my exam tomorrow, I decided to finish the last bit of this book. It was totally worth it. Synopsis from the back cover of the book:

"On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose reprecussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century."

Whenever I find myself enjoying a novel I eat up the plot, going along with the thrills, spills, and chills and sometimes forget the importance of character development. In this novel, the sequence of events are important but the struggle of the characters' feelings and the study of the flaws of people really outshine the plot. I could really connect to the characters and believe they were real. The movie can't capture the different perspectives of the story or the inner turmoil of each character. I don't want to spoil the book and at the same time I feel like I'm giving a terribly broad description of the novel. I feel like I am butchering this review. In the end the novel just leaves me moved and the words "I'll wait for you. Come back." will remain with me, haunt me if you will.

Fancy open-faced ham sandwich

Hurray! This is something that I made that my boyfriend actually, genuinely enjoyed eating. It's really simple. I had half an Italian multi-grain loaf of bread, ham, half a tomato, and two slices of provolone cheese. The tricky part was making the garlic butter. I roasted half a head of garlic in the toaster oven, mashed the garlic (after I peeled the skin off, of course) and buttered up the slices of bread and put the garlic mash on top. Finally, put the cheese, tomato and ham on top. This was a really great snack.

Edited 6/7/2012

I realized that I was too lazy to put up a recipe when I originally posted this blog entry, so here it is!

Garlic Butter

Ingredients

1 head of garlic

~2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (can substitute with vegetable oil if olive oil is not available)

~1/2 cup unsalted butter (I say approximately because I never measure it out. Typically I just eyeball it. The more butter, the less garlicky it will be.)

salt to taste

Procedure

1. Cover a cookie sheet with foil (for easy clean up) and preheat oven to 400F.

2. Take off most of the skin from the head of garlic, leaving only one or two layers.

3. Place the head of garlic on the foil covered cookie sheet and cover the garlic with the olive oil.

4. Bake garlic for approximately 20 minutes or until garlic is easily pierced by a fork. Color of garlic should no longer be opaque white and should be a little but golden and clear.

5. Separate the roasted garlic from the skins, carefully. Mash the garlic in a bowl with a fork. Mix in butter and salt.

Lentil Stew

Soundtrack: Fredric Chopin--Polonaise
I felt classy and decided to listen to some classical music while I cooked. I think I will start noting what I have been listening to while cooking. Rarely do I cook without music.

On another note, I finally had all the ingredients for a good stew: carrots, onion, celery, tomato. I had some Lentils lying around that were begging to be cooked and so other random things. I threw it all into a slow cooker and waited for everything to be cooked. My one regret is not having chicken broth on hand.

In addition:
I made a ton of it. I had left over stew that shared with some friends. Together we had an awesome night of cooking that included two pies, panko encrusted shrimp and whiting fish, along with the left over stew and several glasses of red wine.

Here's the spread.

Pies!

Port wine mushroom sauce

Whenever I go to the store part of me keeps an eye on the wine section--specifically port wine. The first time I had it, I loved it because it was so sweet and I knew it would be great with dessert and for cooking in general. Unfortunately, the one time I buy port wine and taste it, I wasn't as delighted as I was the first time and I was rather disappointed. I probably chose a bad vineyard...label...um...whatever you call it. So I decided to look up recipes that use port wine instead of having to suffer through drinking the entire bottle on my own. I modified a recipe found at this website:  <http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1166/Bistro-Chicken-With-Port-Mushr121118.shtml>. I didn't have all the ingredients it called for so I made some of my own adjustments and substitutions:

Cooked the chicken separately and served over penne

Port Wine and Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup onion diced
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ~6 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp flour
• 1/2 cup port wine
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and add the olive oil. 
2. Add the onion and the mushrooms and cook until onions are clear.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan except for the flour.
4. Let about half of the port wine evaporate or let evaporate until you get the amount of sauce that you want.
5. Add flour and stir to make sure the flour doesn't clump together.

I need to try this recipe again because I used a sweet vidalia onion instead of a regular onion so the sauce became too sweet. I also want to try adding the chicken to the sauce while the sauce is cooking instead of cooking the chicken separately so that the flavors of the sauce can get cooked into the chicken. 

"Guacamole is a vegetable too!"

I have been really bored this week. Almost everyone is out of town because of the break between spring and summer session. I was glad when a friend messaged me to hang out today and make guacamole. Honestly, I don't think enough people like guacamole. Avocados are really yummy and really good for you. Who needs a vegetable side dish to make a well-balanced meal. That's when I decided guacamole is a vegetable too. So enough with the words. Here are the pictures:

Lunch: Tilapia (seasoned with spices and parmesean) and brown rice.

With a large heaping of guacamole.

On a random note: really bright green bug on my car.

Also, I've started plastic bag stuff again.

This is how bored I am.

Beef Stew, first attempt

I've never made beef stew, but I saw some beef labeled "beef for stew" at Publix and decided to give it a try. I pulled out the brand new slow cooker that my mom bought for me four years ago and to my surprise and delight it came with a little recipe book along with the instructions. Since I didn't have all the ingredients to the beef stew recipe in the book I decided to wing it a little.

These are all of the ingredients.

Here's my shiny, never been used slow cooker.

Before.

4.5 hours later, we have beef stew

Served over rice.

Next time I need to add less pepper. It was a little too spicy. Also, it kind of turned into beef soup rather than beef stew, so I'll have to remember to add some flour to thicken it a bit. All in all, first attempt was a relative success. Now I get to eat stew for the next four meals! Hurray! I'll post the recipe upon request. 

Portobello, pasta and parfait

This is what I had for dinner. It was so much fun to make and there's tons left over.

I love the colors! Hurray for Buittoni mixed cheese tortellini.

The smell of the chicken, wine, and butter just made my mouth water. I guess it didn't help that I was also really hungry when I was cooking this.

And to end the meal, we have a mixed berry parfait. There's layers of vanilla fro yo, mixed berries blended with whipped cream and fresh slices of strawberries. Oh, and the whipped cream was from scratch. Whipped cream from scratch is the best! Note to self: whip the whipping cream before blending with the mixed berries.

Day 1: Thus begins a summer of food, photos, and fun

So I am starting this blog because I wanted to make a photodiary for this summer. I got the idea for a photodiary from Sierra's photodiary (I hope she doesn't mind me copying her idea). Then Peter says, "If you're going to do that, why don't you go all the way and start a blog?" And that's how this all started.

Oh and I bet you're wondering why this blog is called "Experimental Cookie Dough." Well to make a long story short, I was baking a pie and making the dough for the crust until I realized I did something wrong. Instead of tossing out the dough I decided to make cookie dough from my mistake. I made note of what I put in it just in case it turned out surprisingly good. You know what? It didn't turn out half bad. Now I have a recipe called "Experimental Cookie Dough" in my collection of scribbled down, clipped out recipes.

I hope to not only express my love for cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, but to also remember this summer. This will be the last summer before I have to find a job and start a new chapter in my life. I'm really hoping that new chapter in my life will actually involve a decent paying career because I really don't have a plan B.

I don't want to end in a negative note. Recently I've been trying to be more positive. Life's too short not to have a bit of fun every once in a while. That's something that I'm learning slowly. If I work too hard, I'm going to burn out. From where I stand now, this summer has the potential for many adventures both inside and out of the kitchen. : D