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