Into It

A few things I am into lately this fine spring season...

 Into this candle scent. It is fresh and perfect for spring. I found it at anthropologie.

Digging this brew lately. It's a great grilling beer. Drink while you grill, you know the drill.

 Childhood flashback? I HATED PB&J when I was a kid. I now super love my grown up version with JIF and strawberry jelly on toast. All day.

 This sweet face. Who am I kidding, I am into her all the time, not just lately.

Have a great weekend!

Favorite Kitchen Tools

"I've got gadgets and gizmos a plenty...." -my girl Ariel

via

Errrmmm, moving on.... Here are a few of my favorite kitchen gadgets/tools!  I figured I should start making some notes on what I like and don't like to use on the regular and tell all 10 of you about it!!! Which, by the way, thank you for humoring me by reading this blog.

I'll start with the big stuff: These are the mac-daddy kitchen essentials. Technically, you don't need these but they sure do make life a lot easier when cooking for your fam.

1. Kitchen Aid Mixer. LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY COLORS THEY HAVE NOW. Y'all know what's up with this. I use this at least 3 times a week for pizza dough, pasta dough rolling and mixing, any excuse I have for using it, I usually do. I'm really interested in the ice cream maker attachment for it. Can you imagine!?!?!? I'd really be hurtin for a personal trainer then.

 via 

2. Food Processor - This hefty guy makes hummus, date bars, sauces, etc. It's the bomb. I use this weekly for my hummus (way cheaper than store bought) that I take to work (will post recipe soon). This chops veggies, slices potatoes, and so much more. There are some neat attachments I haven't tried yet, but my hibernation begins during winter when I only leave the house for work, groceries or wine, so that's probably a good time to try them out, right? I will report back. 

Image via google

3. A Great Set of Knives A great chef, ahem....like myself, should always have a great set of knives. We have this set of Henckels. The key to a great, efficient knife is keeping it sharp. When you have a dull knife, you will know, that crap is majorly annoying. You technically should get your knives sharpened every few months or so. Which reminds me....

Also, I know these aren't the best of the best kind of knives around - but they work great for us and we try to take good care of them- which reminds me again....need to get these sharpened...

Image via Bed Bath and Beyond

4. A Non-Stick Pan. Seriously, one of the better "As Seen on TV" items I've encountered. I've said before, we are suckers for any "As Seen on TV" items.  This pan cooks eggs like a DREAM. Omelettes, no problem. Pancakes? Check. This is a great pan for $20. I'm sure there are *better* pans out there, but this one fits us just fine!

Image via Target

5. Spider This guy is a dream for deep frying, pasta retrieval, grabbing veggies from boiling water, etc. I recently picked this up after a marathon browsing session at Williams-Sonoma. I could spend days in there, just can't spend all the monies. Boo. But, for $15, I had to have it.

Image via Williams-Sonoma

*update: I realize I say "like a dream" alot. I'm not even sorry about it.

Pot Roast

I love my pot roast. Joey loves my pot roast. My daddio loves my pot roast!

So here's how you make you and all of your favorite men and women in your life happy!!

The setup - See the pretty cabinets? ehhhhh.
Top: One big onion, 2 baking potatoes deeply scrubbed (no joke, get the sh*t off of them), baby bella mushrooms, S&P (duh)
Bottom: Carrots (i know, I slacked), celery, 3 lb chuck roast
Missing: Garlic (sorry, late memory)

The way to start it off: Preheat oven to 325. Heat your pot on Med/High while you chop up all of your veggies. You won't need to chop them fine…I do around 2 inch cuts. They get SUPER soft and delish when roasting so you really won't be disappointed. I just cut the onion in half, and sliced into chunks. Carrots- I cheated and bought pre-peeled and baby ones. So basically did similar sized cuts. SORRY!!!! The mushrooms were a suggested from Joey. (great suggestion, ps) Garlic should be chopped. It gets soft too so you won't be biting into big chunks when you are eating.

Step Uno: Pat your beef with a paper towel. It helps the searing process. Do it, don't ask questions!!!  S&P your beef. More than you think. Sear that sucker in your hot pan you have been heating up when you've been cutting up your veggies. 

Brown on both sides for about 7-10 minutes a side or when you can see there is a delightful crust of s&p on there…you will know.  Take the roast out of the pan and put on a plate to rest. I don't waste a good plate on it. Use a plastic plate or an ugly plate. Cooking isn't always pretty.

This tool is awesome to help you get the roast out to rest it before you add all the veggies.

See the purdy crust?

Once you pull out the meat - VERY important: turn heat down to medium/low and make sure to pour white wine or chicken stock (1/2 cup) into your pot to save all those yummy fatty beef flavors that stayed on the bottom of the pan. Then add all the veggies to your pot.

Once I put all of my veggies minus the potatoes in the pot, I realized there really wasn't room for the taters. This was kinda awesome because they are better roasted anyway….more on that in a second.

I took all the veggies out onto a plate after about 15 minutes of stirring, and getting a little browning on them...and then put my roast at the bottom of the empty pan, covered it with chicken stock (you can add any stock you want but that's what I had) and then added my veggies back on top!

Cover that sucker and leave it alone for 3 hours!

All the pretty veggies pre-roasted

Best way in the world to make sure you season your potatoes right: big plastic bag. I put my potatoes in the bag (cut them to about equal size), olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and s&p. Really, however much you want.  I do the same method with all veggies. Start small, then close the bag, throw it around, and see what distributed. Add more if you are feeling wild (:-) When there was 30 minutes left on my roast (after 2.5 hours the roast was already in the oven at 325) I put them on a pan and put them in the oven. They will be done at the same time your roast is.

After around 3 hours, your roast should be inventing your own candle scent to how great it smells in your house. But, alas, we all can't do that, so take the top off your pot,  break up the roast with tongs, and dish out as MUCH as you want! 

And that's all she wrote. You can plate it however you feel!

Errrr. Doesn't look like there is roast on there, but there is!! It's hidden behind all the delish veggies. Trust.

Sometimes I make gravy out of the drippings but did not tonight. Will share that later! It's still good with the drippings poured over your whole dish. Make sure you get all the goods on your plate. 

Tell me what you make in one pot!

Chilly? Chili.

It's cold.

Time to make Chili.

One of my fave wedding gifts. A clutch item in the kitchen.

I never have claimed any recipes on this website as my own and I don't plan on doing it anytime soon. I   like to follow them and happen to do it well.

#1 rule EVER and it's so important and everything ever that is pure and good in chili. Ground Beef. 80/20. Just do it. You skinnies on a diet - Run an extra 5 minutes tomorrow.  I asked J if he wanted chili and his response was "only if it's made with ground beef". Sometimes (that's a stretch) we are healthy kids around here but when it comes to this comfort food, you keep it the right way.

This chili recipe is taken from one of my mom's BFFs, Margie. Its DELISH and doesn't need noodles. It's its own star of the show.

You: "What's Margie's secret!?"
Me: Bloemers

There is chili paste and chili powder in the Bloemer's line that is a must have. Also, when picking up ingredients don't forget the soup crackers (oyster crackers). Fun touch and always necessary for some crunch.

The Lineup

You're gonna need:

2 lb ground beef
2 cans mild chili beans (I prefer Brooks, but generic are fine)
1 packet  or 2 oz Bloemer's chili powder
1 8 oz package of Bloemer's chili paste/base
2 15 oz cans Hunt's tomato sauce
According to my dad - 3 chili bean cans of water (best kind of measurements)
S&P
Shredded Cheddar for topping
Optional: Chives and Sour Cream (I don't use these but if you want to, be my guest!)


Brown your beef on med/high heat in either a cast iron pot or big pot of your choice. (Note: Chili stains everything. Get your scour pad ready and get some Madonna arms - without the veins. Or soak your pot afterwards if you want) Drain the fat. Side note: I wish so badly my dog was not allergic to everything, otherwise, because of all this snow on the ground I would make her a doggie snow cone with a touch of beef fat….but alas, bad idea and a terrible clean up later on.

Back to the chili:

Add chili powder to ground beef for a couple of minutes and let all the spices incorporate to make it extra delicious. What does adding the spice at this time do? Who knows, and who cares!? It makes it taste good, okay?

Add in the rest of the ingredients. Stir together until all combined smoothly. As for the S&P, I do a couple of twists on each grinder and have not been disappointed. Don't add too much salt please. Hold back…I'm guilty too! Just don't over salt it! Read: Don't ruin this chili. I bring to a bubble and then turn down the heat to low/simmer and cover for 2 hours.

Make it bubble like this. Then turn down the heat. 

I usually serve with mild or sharp shredded cheddar sprinkled in
and some soup crackers on the side.

One of these days I want to try to make chili with peanut butter (a la Damaris). SO wondering how that would taste.

P.S. AND one day I will get a nice camera and show you how to make delicious AND purdy food. For now, deal with my iPhone pics. Plus, if you are reading this, you know I am a beginner.

Dinner Date and Fancy Word Friday

If you are married, in a relationship, engaged, just friends, single, with girlfriends, with guy friends, etc it is REALLY REALLY important to go out to eat with people you like spending time with. It keeps you sane. JoJo loves a good date night, and I can't ever deny him one. If only it was acceptable to wear pajamas or the elastic ankle sweats from Walmart (my go-to at home, stop judging, and you will probably find me in them if you knocked on my door for a random drop in, so don't if you are offended by them) to dinner and look chic. Maybe I'll try that one day just to say I did it… or, erhmmm, probably not. It is a treat to go out to eat, you don't have to cook unless you are eating fondue (It is totally 80s to do this but I am a huge fan), and it is worth every penny if you go to the right place.

The trick to saving money when you go out to eat is to PRE-GAME. Yes, I know you are laughing and calling me cheap - but whatever. That bottle of wine I got to pre-game is the same price as one glass of wine at the restaurant we are going to. I'm not made of money, people! And I'll have plenty of vino waiting for me when I get home from a delicious meal. I've mentioned wine in 50% of my posts so far. Have I talked about my love for a cheap decent red?

The conversation between Joey and I goes a little something like this.
"Can I take you on a date?
"Sure! "
"Where do you want to go? "
"I dunno, where do YOU want to go?"

It continues for a few minutes of text, then, I will be completely honest with you... I will tell him the restaurant I really have been wanting to go to the whole conversation, and we go there. Jackpot, I know.

We went to Mojitos, and accidentally swiped a couple seats at the bar from some people waiting longer than we were. Oops. Joey told me about it after I had blindly done it…thanks, Joe. Gotta get those bar seats!!!

Think about it though, bartenders are usually a promotion above a server (but not always), so they are probably a) really cool peeps and b)knowledgeable about the menu/a good server. Did you know I was a bartender once?  That's not the point….

Baguette, Green Apples, Manchego Cheese, Mini Pickles, Smoked Honey. Hey OH!

FANCY WORD OF THE DAY:

Charcuterie (/ʃɑrˌkuːtəˈriː/ or /ʃɑrˈkuːtəri/; northern French: [ʃaʁ.kyt.'ʁi] or southernFrench: [ʃaʁ.kytə'ʁi], from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked') is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines,galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.

(from wikipedia.com)

When you are on a date, split a meat and cheese app. Trust. They are delightful together.

 Serrano Ham. Yum.

When you go to any restaurant in the near future- get the short ribs if are on the menu. Chefs are really perfecting these. Mine were DELISH.

Joey got the filet with bleu cheese caramelized on it.

Editor Note: I wish I loved two things in life: olives and bleu cheese. Luckily, Joey loves both so I live vicariously through him and watch him enjoy both. 

The point of this post is: Go on a date with your friend, dad, mom, sister, brother, best friend you have a crush on, your enemy….who cares…just go enjoy the fruits of others labor and enjoy a well cooked restaurant meal. 

P.S. TIP YOUR SERVER. SERIOUSLY, no one likes a bad tipper.