Buffalo chicken dip

In the Food Processor: 10 oz can of chicken (drained), a block of cream cheese, half a cup of sour cream, some ranch dressing, a whole bunch of Frank's Red Hot Original. Serve cold or put it in a baking dish and heat in the oven until browned on top. Best with honey wheat pretzel sticks!

Happy New Year!

Sunday freezer cooking

Coconut red curry chicken with spinach and cilantro

Chicken Alfredo with spinach and broccoli

Cilantro lime chicken with corn and black beans

Black bean taco soup

Cooking in Europe on a bike (sort of)

I will have a very unique cooking challenge on my plate (GET IT?) in just a month: I'll be traveling for three weeks from Milan to Gothenberg, cooking for five adults and a baby with naught more than a camping stove. My sister Haley and her husband Rob are going to be biking that route with their friends Jonas and Louis. I will be in the car with their baby!

In preparation, I've started learning vegetable names in German. (I'm a wordnerd; have you seen my other blog?) Here are the cutest:

• der Kohl (cabbage, like "coleslaw"
• der Blumenkohl (cauliflower, lit. flower cabbage)
• der Rosenkohl (brussel sprouts, lit. rose cabbages)
• der Broccoli (I'll give you one guess.) 

And I purchased a new camera! This little point-and-shoot guy will be in my pocket capturing the grocery stores, farmers' markets, and restaurants on the adventure -- as well as a lot of shots of one cute kid, my nephew August.

You can expect some videos to be posted from the trip, as well as maybe some fancy videos to be posted after (have you seen this? Rob made it).

Is it weird that I'm really excited to have a decent camera again because I want to take pictures of food? This blog will get a whole lot prettier in just a week or so when it arrives. I've been making do with the craptacular camera on my dinky QWERTYslide middleschooler's phone. Now that the trip to Europe is actually happening, I'm regretting having only gotten 16GB of memory because it was on sale... I really should have sprung for this one: Transcend 32GB Class 4 microSDHC Flash Memory Card - TS32GUSDHC4.)

In the meantime, here is a crappy photo of some delicious chicken cabbage tacos I made last week. Chicken and onion, carrots, cucumber, and cilantro wrapped up in cabbage leaves with a red curry peanut butter sauce. 

Don't waste it!

I've been really into NOT THROWING ANY FOOD AWAY EVER. And two really great things have come of this: homemade broth, and (TMI) I'm really regular. More on that in a minute.

So all that stuff you usually throw away -- broccoli stalks; the thick ends of asparagus; the stems and edges of bell peppers, onions, carrots; the stems and stalks from kale and cilantro and dill and parsley; the outside leaves of lettuce and cabbage; the slimy spinach at the bottom of the bag -- all that is good stuff!! To assuage my guilt at throwing away perfectly edible food that I had paid good money for, I used to made pickled broccoli medallions (ehhh), but I've recently realized two greater ends for these means. 

1. Homemade broth! 

Seen below is my homemade broth. It's reddish because I usually cheat a little with bouillon cube and Sazon Goya, but it's made of all the ends of stuff that I put in a bag and freeze until there's enough to make a pot of broth. You can of course make this vegetarian, but if you're good with your timing and you've got, say, the picked over leftover bones from an emergency grocery-store rotisserie chicken -- that there would be dee-licious too. 

2. Green ice cubes!

(This is the TMI part) -- If you're a shake person like me, green ice cubes are the perfect use for all those extra bits -- EXCEPT ONIONS, believe me. Leave out the onion bits for green ice cubes. But talk about a serious way to get extra nutrients and stay regular, especially if you're into Brassica oleracea -- that is broccoli, kale, califlower. They're all the same species, and they all make you gassy. The good spin on it is that if you're ever not regular and you wanna fix that, juice away and take a fresh shot. Guaranteed that by morning you'll be feeling right as rain and totally empty. 

So because I usually store up a bunch of ends and bits until I have enough that makes it worth my time to get out the juicer, I bought a couple of extra ice cube trays so I can make green ice cubes with all the juice. They're not always green -- one time we just had too many carrots by accident so I juiced the ones that were on their way out, so the cubes were actually orange. 

I also have one more spare ice cube tray that I use for all little bit of coffee at the bottom of the pot every morning. Those coffee ice cubes are great in coffee, Bailey's, ice cream, and morning shakes depending on the flavor (peanut butter banana chocolate coffee shake, anyone?). 


With all this beautiful smashed up vegetable pulp, one of my goals for this summer is to get on board with composting. 


Ps, will someone please buy me this Cooking With Calphalon 9-Pc. Utensil Set?? kthx. Also this: 

Gumbo in the new house

Buying a house is stressful. Finally on the other side of it, I cooked a big ol' pot of my Momma's and my Maw-Maw's Cajun gumbo. And a big heaping pile of "the best potato salad you'll ever taste" (Mom). Here's the prep:

Molly Preps Gumbo: Experimental Cookery Stop Motion from Molly O on Vimeo.

I had to stop stopmotioning because I needed to videochat with my Mom while I was making the roux because it's scary and hard. I didn't take any pictures of the finished product because I had some girlfriends over, but believe you me it was delicious.

And I had it again for lunch the next day.

Garlic Cilantro Butter + Asparagus Chicken Roll-Ups

This is me at the end of my latest culinary journey, enjoying a glass of wine with a very rich, delicious meal.

It all started with butter. I stood in the grocery store flipping through cooking magazines looking for pretty pictures to adulterate. Then: the colors grabbed me. A rich, rosy orange; a creamy white speckled with a deep green. Baked salmon with a herb-infused yogurt sauce. Yum... I think?

Somehow the wires crossed in my brain to the extra butter we had at my house -- both my roommate and I bought some the same day -- and one of my favorite flavors, cilantro -- which my roommate hates. Weirdo! (I know quite a few people who don't like cilantro; they say it tastes like soap. I have to admit I love the taste of soap bubbles...)

I wanted to try it two different ways: with regular, store-bought butter and with homemade whipped butter. To whip your own butter, you just get some heavy whipping cream, whip it up with a mixer until it's whipped cream -- then keep whipping until it's butter. With the regular butter, it's best to leave it out until it's room temperature before the mixing.


Then I chopped up some cilantro and used my garlic press for some fresh garlic smooshies. Just mix it in!

Now, the whipped butter won't be the same consistency as real butter so I packaged these products differently. With the real butter, I rolled it up in some wax paper and stuck it back in the fridge. Once it cools off again, it'll harden up and you can take the wax paper off for a nice roll to keep in your butter dish.

I also used these two different butters very differently. The whipped butter was a delicious and light topping for Triscuits or fancy bread or something. Here's a little product placement from last Friday's ANGRY BAKING night:

The real butter was obviously too rich to be a topping right on a Triscuit, unless you're really into heart disease. I prefer to use butter when cooking so I check out what was in my fridge the next day landed on some chicken and asparagus.

I'm really into putting good food inside other food -- which is why I have a small obsession with crescent rolls. I wanted to have chicken breasts with asparagus rolled up in them -- but once I started cooking, I realized I didn't have chicken breasts, I had chicken tenderloins. What? If you're in the mood for chicken fingers, why would you cook them at home instead of just going to whatever family restaurant is closest to you?

Anyway, I took these already tiny tenderloins and pounded 'em flat and even so that I could actually fit asparagus in them. While pounding, I broke apart the asparagus and sauteed it up in some of the cilantro garlic butter. The magic of the garlic butter is that 1. I didn't have to messy my hands with garlic and 2. the kitchen instantly smelled soooooo good. Buttery and garlicy and cilantroey mmmmm.
In the MiniVideoBlog in the previous post, I talk about the genius of fresh flavored butter. I think I'll always have a stick of garlic butter ready for cooking.


The rolling was fun. It'd have been easier with chicken breasts. A lot of toothpicks later, here are the tiny roll-ups just in the frying pan, seasoned with Tony's, of course.

I let these cook on pretty low heat with a cover.


The result was really rich, seemingly fancy finger food! Here's the beau enjoying. He doesn't look like he is, but he is.

So, here's to butter. I know it's not the healthiest food, but, god, it tastes soooo good. There are a few things I never ever compromise on, even though there are low-fat alternatives: butter, sour cream and mayonnaise. May you allow a little bit of fat into your life.

Thanksgiving! - Turkey Deluxe and More!

I had an amazing Thanksgiving. The preparation of the food was thrust upon me and my sister at very near the last moment. We were at the grocery store until midnight on the phone with our mom. But you know what? We didn't mess anything up! We cooked everything we set out to cook! And it was delicious! I'm so proud.

The hardest thing about Thanksgiving was getting the timing right. We had so many things to cook in the oven that all had to be done before the turkey. We were up until three baking the night before, and Haley was up at six to finish before putting in the turkey around 830 or 9.

We made:

• turkey & gravy
  
• cranberry goo
• sautéed squash
• creamed spinach
• cornbread dressing
• rice
• mashed potatoes
• cheesy potatoes
• corn
• pumpkin crunch
• pecan bars

Turkey Deluxe

Neither of us had cooked a turkey before. We had consulted with Mom, of course, and I had chatted with a customer where I work the day before. He swore it would be no good unless we brined the turkey first. Haley is a science nerd and thusly loves Alton Brown (I do too!) -- so we started with his Roast Turkey recipe here that Haley had seen on the teevee. Here's her prepping the brine.


We used a big fine gallon paint bucket to brine it. The brine is basically lots of salt, brown sugar, pepper and vegetable broth. You boil it up, pour it in the bucket, stick the turkey in breasts down, then cover it with icy cold water. It stayed out on my porch for about six hours, and we flipped it halfway through. I think with brining, the longer the better. Ed from the clinic said he brines his for twelve hours!

Next you add some aromatics -- the stuff you stick inside the turkey. We followed Alton and did apples (Minnesota Honeycrisp, a variety of apple designed by my alma mater) and onions.

Then you just stick it in the oven. You do it extra hot first, like, 450 or something. Then you bring it down after about half an hour. Unfortunately my oven is about this _____ big and really old, so even after we somehow made the 19 pound turkey fit inside of it, the house filled up with black smoke really badly. And I ain't got no ventilation. So we took it out and decided to bring it over to Nate's parents' house. Here's me with the already lovely turkey at 9 in the morning.


When we got there, the Rowans showed us their turkey trick: a big plastic baking bag. It keeps the moisture and flavor locked in and keeps things from burning and smoking. It cooked maybe... four hours? I won't give you the turkey porn 'til the end. Here's some other food.


Cranberry Goo

This is just cranberry goo. From cans. One of them was regular cranberry sauce (not jelly) and the other was whole cranberries. Mixed together. Rob made this. And how!


Creamed Spinach

Creamed spinach was easier and deliciouser than I thought. Apparently this is a staple to my sister because it's something her best friend always makes for Thanksgiving. We used two blocks of frozen spinach, cooked according to the directions. Then you sauté some onions -- usually scallions or something -- but we used purple because that's all we had by the time we got it -- with some butter and garlic. Once the spinach is done, throw it in and add about a cup of cream or half & half. Cook it until it thickens up. Don't forget salt & pepper. Voila!



Simple Squash

Oh god I love squash. Ain't nothin' better than sautéed squash. Just butter, onions and squash until they soften. And lots of Tony's.



Canfield Cornbread Dressing

Next is the crown jewel of this Thanksgiving -- my Maw-Maw's cornbread dressing. I was never a very big fan of this, but holy cow was it the most delicious thing ever when we made it. I think the reason was that it was a little crispier this time around.

It's sort of an ordeal, but worth it. Start by baking two boxes of cornbread into either one 9x13 or two 9x9s. Once it cools, crumble it up!

Then you boil a pound of chicken after seasoning. My mom does thighs, but I did breasts because I hate bones. While it's boiling, brown a pound of ground beef, well seasoned. Take the chicken out, let cool and then shred. You can do this with your hands or a couple of forks. It's a technique that anyone who's made authentic Mexican food should be familiar with.

While you're shredding, put all the turkey giblets (You know, they extra stuff that's in a bag inside the turkey. It's, like, the liver and heart and stuff.) into the same chicken water and boil those too. I know it's gross, but it's delicious. Now, if I'm not mistaken, my mom puts the giblets into the cornbread dressing -- or at least the neck meat. I know I couldn't stomach getting the neck meat off. Haley tried, but even she got grossed out. (In my mind, I have Nate quoting Napoleon's brother Kip: "You're bruising my neck meat!") Phydeaux was really happy to get the giblets. For us, they just made the broth amazing.

Chop up a couple of green bell peppers, an onion, some green onions and a bunch of parsley. Mix the crumbled cornbread, the shredded chicken, the ground beef, the peppers, the onions, the green onions and the parsley. Then put them in either one 9x13 or two 9x9s (or 8x8s?). Smush it down so it's packed tight, then pour the chicken and giblet broth over it. Not too much! You don't want it to be soggy. Then bake 'em!! About an hour at 350, of course. When they're golden brown around the edges, you'll want to scoop it up out of the hot baking dish with your bare hands it'll smell so good. Don't though!


Please make this your desktop background like I did. It's just so beautiful.


The Rest

This is the pumpkin crunch featured in the last post!


You know Krusteaz? Haley had wanted to make pecan pie, but we settled for a box of pecan bars. They're great! Really. Try them.


Sharon made her signature turkey gravy. Cold water and a Thunderstick are the two secrets, but I won't give away any more without permission.


Nate's Dad Bruce always cuts the turkey with this ancient electric knife, but this year he passed the honors on to Natey! I cried a little; it was my first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner and Nate's first time cutting the turkey. How pukishly domestic of us. I love it!!


Here's the food porn. GUH. SO GOOD.




All in all, the holiday was a complete success. Haley and I didn't sleep much, but we learned that moms and dads that cook Thanksgiving dinners do a lot of work with a lot of love. I'm really happy that I got to share the experience with Haley and Rob and Nate. And Charlie came to dinner too!

Thanks to the Rowans for letting us bring all the food over to their house and helping with the turkey when we were clueless. Thanks to Rob for some awesome photographic memories and help with dinner. Thanks to Nate for cutting the turkey and playing mandola all day. Thanks to Charlie for his pure self. Thanks to Mom for the Thanksgiving know-how and the many years of home-cooked meals. Thanks to Alton Brown for the rest. And a big dumb sentimental thanks to my big dumb sentimental sister Haley. I miss you!


The one thing I missed this Thanksgiving? Good ol' green bean casserole. But when I tried to make it, I didn't have enough green beans! What ever did I improvise? How badly did I adulterate a classic?? Find out next time in ... Experimental Cookery!

Cous-cous masterpieces v.2

My sister just moved out of Minneapolis -- real quick too. She asked if I could go to her apartment and clean out the rest of the stuff there. I thought it would be quick and painless, but there was actually a bunch of junk there, some Haley's, some the bitchy roommate's, some old roommates'. It was an exhausting but good day of organizing and recycling and giving things away to neighbors in Uptown. One old lady was so happy to get Haley's ironing board, and some dude got a really nice desk chair.

I got a few consolation prizes: a small crockpot, a crappy blender, a metal bowl that's now Phydeaux's water dish, a maybe-working electric blanket and my black corduroy jacket that I thought had been lost forever. Maybe my favorite find was a fun kitchen toy: STACKS - the pyramid kit. If you look close, you can see that Haley bought it for $1.69, my guess is at Arc's Value Village thrift store. And I got it for free! Sucka.

The first thing I thought upon finding the box was cous-cous. They're basically metal molds in the shape of a pyramid. They also come in triangle, square, round and heart shapes -- though I've heard that surrounding yourself in pyramids helps the energy flow in your life or something. This even extends to eating your food in the shape of pyramid. Plus it looks awesome. You can read some cool stuff about the feng shui of pyramids here; note the angry tone when the author says that the awareness of the impact of geometrical shapes on human energy is disappearing thanks to modern feng shuists. I blame the fat guy on Trading Spaces.

Now the tricky part about the pyramid shape is that you have to find some way to balance them while you fill them. The tiny booklet in the box suggested bowls, but I didn't have any that were deep enough. I ended up using the steamer top of the big pot I usually cook chili in. Two of the pyramids happened to fit side-by-side, and the point of the pyramid fit perfectly into one of the holes, so they didn't slip around. Much. I won't lie and say it was perfect, but it worked.

There were a few recipes in the box, but they were gross and complicated and stupid. Apparently the "creator" of the Stacks system has a whole series of cookbooks you can buy. She posits, "Why cook a meal when you can create a sensation?" Why indeed. I say, "Why use someone else's recipe when you can use your own?"

The idea that really makes the Stacks system beautiful is that of layers. It'd still be cool to eat your cous-cous in a pyramid shape, as a quick plating gimmick, but the layers are totally where it's at. I had a few things in the fridge I wanted to use up, leftovers from a giant chili party we had for Nate's birthday. So that's where I started, but of course this meal is completely versatile, depending on what you've got on hand. Easily vegetarian, easily themed. No cous-cous? Use rice, like on the box.

I left the cous-cous (~1 cup) grossly underseasoned by my usually standards so that it could stand alone as its own flavor. The main centerpiece of these pyramids was the yellow onion (~1/2), yellow squash (~1/2) and zucchini (~1/2) medley that I sautéed with a little butter and olive oil, never forgetting my trusted Tony's.

I also had one extra chicken breast that I seasoned and cooked up on a skillet real quick. While it was sizzling, I chopped up one tomato and a bunch of walnuts into tiny little pieces. I julienned some spinach as well. Then chopped the chicken real small too.

Then all I did was stuff the pyramids. I started and ended with cous-cous, thinking that it'd definitely keep its shape best. Next layer was walnuts, then a thick squash and zucchini layer. Under that was the chicken, then the spinach and the end layer of cous-cous. Firm but gentle pressure is the key to making it stick. My honeybee spatula was just right for firm, flat, even pressure. I put the plate on top of the pyramid, flipped them together and gently removed the pyramid form. (Also, the recipes always recommend spraying the inside of the pyramid with vegetable spray or something. If I were baking, I'd do this, but I skipped this step and they came out just perfect.)

I had a little cous-cous and squash & zucchini left, so I used some tiny condiment thingies for some contrastive shapes. I made a dessert cous-cous mound with walnuts, cranberries and cous-cous. Delicious.

Here are some amazingly beautiful photos of this amazingly beautiful meal.




I thought that the once you stuck your fork in the thing, it would all be ruined, but actually, they kept their shape pretty well. It was like cous-cous pyramid Jenga. Always play with your food.

I'm most looking forward to baking with theses puppies. Stay tuned!

I love cous-cous

Seriously. I love it.

It's sort of a 'signature dish' in our house. My fiancé Nate and I have been playing with and perfecting our cous-cous for nearly three years now, and we're still not sick of it. (Nate and I noodle around in the kitchen together a lot. I'll always give him credit here if we teamwork an awesome meal together. :) Here's me stirring a big pot of cous-cous while Amanda threatens my drooling dog, Phydeaux.


The reason we can eat cous-cous for three years and not get sick of it is that it's so darn versatile. You can put whatever you want into it! It's a great vegetarian dish, and it works well as the main dish or on the side. Nate and I have come up with a pretty standard preparation that'll feed the two of us and leave leftovers:

I set the cous-cous (~2 cups uncooked) a-cooking according to the directions: 1 cup water to 1 cup cous-cous. I add butter and olive oil (~1 tblsp each for each cup of cous-cous). I buy it in a plastic container thing because we use it so much, but if you're just cooking for one, the boxes of seasoned cous-cous work well (but is only about 1 cup of cous-cous). I love the one with the little bits of dried broccoli in it.

I season my cous-cous with Tony's, which is, like, the most important thing in my kitchen. You can put in on anything and everything. I never use salt. I always use Tony's. I always keep a back-up. Get used to it!


I also am in charge of fresh herbs. Julienned basil rocks in cous-cous; when I don't have it, dried basil suffices. Fresh garlic is good, but I often forego it and cut corners by seasoned the cous-cous with garlic powder. Then I open, drain and rinse a can of kidney beans, usually dark red - or whatever's in the pantry. No need to cook them.

Nate chops the purple onion (~1/2-1), tomato (~2-3) and cucumber (~2). Nate prefers the cucumber skin on, but I prefer it off since it's sometimes too bitter, so I peel them and scrape out the seeds with a spoon - otherwise things get too soggy.

While Nate is finishing chopping, I fluff the cous-cous and start folding in the goodness. Lastly, lemon juice (~1/2 a lemon) is squeezed on it all and mixed in.

So that's the basics. But - the thing that will make your cous-cous taste the awesomest is bacon (~3 strips), cooked and crumbled into tiny tiny bits. You don't need much. It's not about the bacon; it's about the subtle taste of the bacon in your cous-cous.

Cous-cous itself has a very delicious flavor, but a simple one. I try not to junk up the cous-cous too much, preferring to add ingredients that complement the cous-cous instead of using it as a backdrop.

Other favorite ingredients include: nuts (walnuts or pine nuts especially, in small pieces), spinach (julienned), chicken (seasoned, cooked and diced), dressing (ranch and italian both work, but use sparingly). If you don't like basil, I've also used rosemary and oregano on separate occasions (but I like basil best).

---

For advanced adventurers:

An extended use of cous-cous is one of my favorites: cous-cous stuffed chicken breasts. Simple, too.


I've found that there are two keys to stuffing chicken breasts with anything. Firstly, pound them out so that they're big and flat, so you have enough to work with. I try to only use free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken breasts, which tend to be larger and thicker than other yuckier, meaner chicken breasts.

Secondly, use a whole bunch of toothpicks. I take an end, make a little pouch and toothpick the crap out of it. Then you can stuff it really full -- go on, cram it in there. When your end pouch is full, I stitch the chicken into a tube with more toothpicks, then stuff some more. Just make sure you can close it off.

These are easy and great because I just put 'em right on the Foreman grill. Season the outside, pop them on for a few minutes and you're good to go. Delicious.

Here's Nate enjoying. =]


Be prepared for more awesome cous-cous posts. Seriously -- awesome.