Ideas for the Costco bread packs...

I know, I know...yet again it's been a while since my last post. However, I did start a new job and managed to catch some sinus cold!

I did find and tried a very easy meatball sandwich recipe which turned out REALLY yummy! My husband had bought these long baguettes (similar to french bread) from Costco, and naturally everything from Costco comes in super packs. So, we were trying to find things to use the bread with before they went bad. So, on top of making roast beef and cheddar sandwiches, we made meatball sandwiches, and homemade pizza's!

Here's the recipes for the meatball sandwiches (found on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 French baguette
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 pinch salt, or to taste
• 1 (14 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 4 slices provolone cheese - we used mozzarella instead ;-)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, gently mix by hand the ground beef, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Shape into 12 meatballs, and place in a baking dish.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cooked through. Meanwhile, cut the baguette in half lengthwise, and remove some of the bread from the inside to make a well for the meatballs. Brush with olive oil, and season with garlic powder and salt. Slip the baguette into the oven during the last 5 minutes of the meatball's time, or until lightly toasted.
4. While the bread toasts, warm the spaghetti sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. When the meatballs are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the sauce. Spoon onto the baguette and top with slices of provolone cheese. Return to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Cool slightly, cut into servings, and enjoy!

***ONE NOTE*** Try to make your meatballs on the smaller side, otherwise they'll roll right off the bread!

The Pizza was originally my idea, but my wonderful husband executed this one.

All we did was toast the bread with a little bit of olive oil and italian seasoning and some garlic powder in the oven (similar to the toasting done in the meatball sandwich recipe above). Then you warm up some spaghetti sauce (either microwave or stovetop). Then you spread a thin layer of the spaghetti sauce on the pre-toasted bread and then layer mozzarella cheese on top and place back in the oven long enough for the cheese to melt. Naturally, you can grab whatever toppings fit your fancy with this one!

Both of these recipes are quick and easy and allow for either a small snack or they can be a complete meal!

To Blog or not to blog...that is the question!

Well, my husband (and a few others) make fun of me for having a blog. Hence my blogging silence in a while! However, today I have decided that I don't care what people think...this blog is really for me! Since I couldn't find a cooking class to take and learn through a teacher, I find that this blog encourages me to learn, encourages me to cook and motivates me to push myself and try!

What's weird about the whole "bad cooking" thing is the fact that once upon a time I was a pretty good cook. However, for the longest time I stopped cooking and therefor my cooking confidence and skills have depreciated. I guess it's true...practice does make perfect!

So, a few quick/easy fix meals that I have made recently are some of my favorites for those nights that you just don't feel like cooking because of a long day or whatever.

1. Hawaiian Marinated Chicken with Coconut Rice

• We use the Lowry's Hawaiian marinade --> You'll usually find this in the salad dressing aisle at grocery stores. This stuff is great! When using this marinade, we've found that using chicken thighs is best as it holds the flavor much better! You just throw in some marinade with the chicken thighs for 30 minutes (minimum) and then toss the chicken on the bbq!
• Coconut Rice --> With this you make the rice in a rice cooker per usual, however instead of filling it completely with water, you use about 1 - 2 cans of coconut mlk (depending on how much rice you're trying to make) and then fill to the required marker based on your rice cooker instructions with water.

2. Classic Betty Crocker Meatloaf

• Yeah I just follow the recipe in my handy dandy cook book on this one! This last time that I made it I used BBQ sauce on top instead of ketchup and actually like that a lot better! So, I will probably make it that way in the future. I also added some garlic powder, which the recipe does not call for. I made some yummy smashed potatoes and actually microwaved up some of those frozen veggies that are in the cheese sauce. I know I could have made these myself...but yeah it's so much easier this way!

I'm also VERY excited! My wonderful husband got us a flat screen LCD TV for the kitchen and installed it on Friday! Now I have set the DVR to record a few tv shows and I can now watch them in the kitchen while I cook! So, I will get to see and then do now...and I am very excited about this! Right now I'm watching Iron Chef America, and they are cooking everything with Mexican Chocolate! Oh my this looks REALLY good! I actually would absolutely love to get my hands on the recipe for the Arepa De Puerco!

Anyways, that's the latest! This week I am really wanting to make korean bbq short ribs and steamed white rice. This is another item that we make fairly often, but we haven't in a while and I'm really wanting some! This is one of those that Jarrod really makes because of the fact it should only marinate for a certain number of hours and since he is home during the day he gets to put it together and then I come home and throw it on the grill! It's a good team effort for some yummy food!

CUPCAKES!

(not my photo, but looks pretty much the same as mine!)

So, after watching a zillion episodes of Cupcake Wars (and after not being able to bring myself to spend $3.00 per cupcake at a bakery), I decided to tackle the homemade way of baking!

It has definitely been a lengthy process...partly because I was really taking my time and ensuring that I was doing everything correctly. No matter what, it's definitely too long compared to the pre-mixes!

Granted, I was not baking or prepping the entire time, but a dragged out part was constantly checking and stirring and waiting for the chocolate ganache to be the right consistency.

I started with Martha Stewarts Devil Food cupcake recipe. Honestly, these were really good! I ate one without any frosting just to make sure they tasted good, and they taste amazing without frosting! The only thing that I would recommend here is, in step 2 they tell you to melt the sugar and butter in a saucepan together. I would recommend melting the butter completely first and then adding the sugar in. Otherwise you get some clumps that take longer to melt.

However, my chocolate cupcake vision naturally didn't stop there! My end all plan was to fill these chocolate treats with silky, chocolate ganache and then top everything off with a mexican hot chocolate frosting!

The recipe for the ganache has been interested (again Martha Stewart). I did notice once I started filling the cupcakes with it that I had made way too much ganache! The recipe essentially tells you to make that much because they are intending for you to cover the cupcakes with the ganache. I hadn't really put the fact that I only need a small amount per cupcake, together prior to making it. So, now I have like a pound of ganache in the fridge. Although, I have read online that the ganache freezes well...so yes, it will be going in there, until I find another recipe to use it in (there are tons!). Out of this whole process however, the ganache has been my least favorite aspect. Not so much the actual taste of it, but just the process of making it. This particular recipe was a pain! You have to stir it every 5 minutes and then put it back in the refrigerator. Finally after about 45 minutes of doing this, I started leaving the ganache in the fridge for about 10 minutes before stirring.

As for my favorite part, the Mexican Hot Chocolate frosting! I've found lots of websites that all have the same recipe, so here it is:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

To prepare the frosting:

Using a handheld electric beater, cream the cream cheese and butter together thoroughly.

Add the chili power and cinnamon, mixing to incorporate.

Add the salt, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar.

Finally, mix in the melted chocolate and blend thoroughly until smooth.

***If additional thickening is needed, add more sifted confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, until a spreadable consistency is reached***

Essentially, I did have a lot of fun with this experience...however, it is one that I probably will not ever do again (unless I'm absolutely bored with nothing else to do). As for me, I will gladly stick with using the pre-mixes you buy at the store! I can also see why bakeries charge $3.00 per cupcake now, and I won't feel so bad about possibly buying one in the future (I never have before).

In addition to the above, I also made shredded beef taco's with beans and rice for dinner! ...I don't want to even discuss how many dishes I had to clean for all of this stuff being made today! Needless to say, I am tired and I bid you goodnight :-)

Disappearance?

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but I must confess I got into another lazy cooking spell!

Typically on my husbands weekend we eat out quite a bit, which is exactly what has been happening. As you read in my last post we went the Chili's. Well, Friday night we met up with a friend for TGI Fridays. Which I must say was a much better experience than our night at Chili's. My TGI Fridays experience started off with a yummy Mai Tai. Then my husband and I did the 2 for $20 deal (trust me these things really are deals!). We started off with potato skins (which 3 people sharing could barely finish). Then Jarrod had his grilled shrimp and I had chicken crispers. To top off our meal, TGI Fridays includes a dessert in their 2 for $20 meal. So, we had the banana split! Their banana splits are one of the best and we truly do enjoy it!

Saturday our food venture included Lucille's...one of our favorite places (it was even where we had our rehearsal dinner for the wedding). There is actually a particular story that is the prime reason to our visit on this day. Back before the wedding rehearsal dinner, we had picked out a menu along with our reservation so that we wouldn't have to wait forever for either a table or for food to arrive. Low and behold, what happened? Yep, we get there and we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table, then once we were seated, there were menu's sitting out on the tables. Jarrod and I were a bit confused by this since we had already selected a menu previously. About 15 minutes later drinks were brought out to our party of 25 and the servers started asking us if we wanted any appetizers. This was a signal to us that something was wrong, as we had chosen appetizers in our pre-selections. So we mention to one of the servers that we had a menu all selected and that it included apps. Needless to say, none of the managers or hosts had ever notified the servers about the pre-order. So, it took about 45 minutes on a Thursday night to get our appetizers and we ended up being there for quite a long time.

Anyways, I had emailed corporate through their website to let them know of our experience (back in November 2010), and I just got a call about 2 weeks ago from the manager. He was calling to apologize one for the lateness in replying and two for the experience he had. He then proceeded to invite us back to their restaurant location and that there would be $50.00 available for us to use on our visit. So far every visit that we have had at the Tustin, CA Lucille's has not been good (including this previous one). The service is lacking and inattentive and for whatever reason, this particular location always has extremely fatty brisket.

Essentially we were all extremely full from Lucilles, and didn't eat dinner Saturday night.

Sunday, we went to church and then Red Robin (which ended up being a huge disappointment). We use to go to Red Robin all the time, but haven't been in a while...and now we remember why!

Sunday night dinner for me ended up just being a simple microwaved baked potato (I know extremely lazy!). I actually really did want a baked potato, however after eating it I soon realized that I should have taken the time to actually bake it and put some effort into it. It just was unsatisfying, but filling.

Monday I actually did cook! I finally cooked that Tri-Tip that my husband prepared (discussed in previous post). So, I don't know if you would count this as "cooking", since all I did was use our trusty BBQ grill and cook up the yummy tri-tip. I also cooked up a box of KRAFT mac n cheese to go with it.

Tonight...left over night ;-)

I do need to figure out something for tomorrow night...but I am really on a cooking block (no pun intended).