52 Photos Project: Whats Cooking?

  What to take a picture of for the topic "Whats Cooking?" My favorite dessert, Cupcakes! These are Hot Chocolate cupcakes with a marshmallow frosting, from a boxed mix but still delicious, and candy cane crumbs on top.

  Every January I tell myself that this year will be different, and that I will work on my gifts a little through out the year, and have a stress free December. And every year I am wrong. For the last few weeks I've been furiously crafting to finish all my gifts in time for Christmas. Then this morning I checked my list, and laid everything out, and discovered that I was almost done! I still have a few small things left, and I need to wrap and package everything, but I'm quite confidant that I'll have everything done in time to ship tomorrow.
  Everything being considered, this year was much better than past years, I had been picking up a few things here and there, and I had several gifts made before Thanksgiving. Not nearly as bad as the time I wrapped gifts in the Fedex parking lot, just in time for the one day shipping deadline. I blame Jon for that one, he really should have told me sooner that he hadn't gotten any gifts for his side of the family yet. Then again, perhaps I should have expected to do his shopping for him.

  I haven't gotten all my decorations up, but I did make time this weekend to put my village out. This isn't the final set up, I plan to add some more landscaping, hide the cords, etc. but for now I'm just glad to have it out of the boxes instead of collecting dust in the attic.

New Food: Quinoa

, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

  Over the past year I've been trying to lose weight, and just be healthier in general. I've had limited success, losing and regaining small amounts of weight, but I do feel healthier. I've been eating better and working out again, mostly yoga and walking.

  Recently I decided to try cooking one new food a week, mostly inspired by the new Whole Foods that opened in Virginia Beach, with all its containers of interesting dry goods. This week was quinoa, I bought it months ago and for no good reason hadn't tried cooking with it yet. It really was just as easy as making rice, but with a deeper more complex flavor.
Basically I followed this recipe for a mushroom pilaf, making some changes based on the ingredients I had on hand. Then I served it with a sautéed chicken breast and spinach. It was very good, and I think I could easily feed it to my picky boyfriend, who claims homemade rice (not from a box of chemicals and processed food) has no flavor.

Sprouts!

Have you tried growing sprouts? Its really easy and much cheaper than store bought sprouts. Its also great way to grow some vegetables in a small amount of space, or in the winter, when outdoor gardening becomes more difficult. You can add them to salads, stirfries, and sandwiches, and they are a good source of vitamins.


To grow sprouts you will need sprouting seed, a mesh screen, and a mason jar with a lid. Sprouting seed are different than seeds needed for full sized plants, so you may have a hard time finding them. I got mine at the local hippy store, as well as a mason jar sized screen to use in place of the lid. There are several websites you can by sprouting seeds from too.

First, place 2-4 tablespoons of seeds in your mason jar, and cover with twice as much water. Leave them to sit over night. Drain in the morning.
Twice a day, rinse the seeds with water, and drain.
Your seeds should start to sprout in a few days, and should have grown enough to be edible within a week.

There have been some issues with sprouts getting moldy, or carrying salmonella. That was with large corporations, and not something that I worry about with my home grown sprouts. My advice would be to only grow a small amount of sprouts at a time, and to refrigerate them once they are done growing. If you are really concerned about this you can buy more complicated (and expensive) growing systems, made up of a series of mesh trays.

Project 365

I started January all motivated, but I've been in a funk for the last week or so. Nothing major is wrong, just little things. I haven't been feeling great, so I've just been tired. And I'm having software issues, which has been time consuming and frustrating. And the weather has been awful, cold, windy, and rainy, keeping me cooped up indoors.
Here are some photos from the last week, even though I didn't take one everyday. I guess looking at these should remind me that even when I'm feeling down there are moments of beauty.

6/365: Heart plant pot cozy

8/365: Heart pillow. Ok so I'm going a little crazy with the Valentines decorations. I think I'm overcompensating for not decorating much for Christmas this year. Some of the buttons are vintage, from my grandmother's button jar.

9/365: View of the marsh at Back Bay NWR

12/365: Linzer Tarts. I was pretty sure these cookies would be a disaster. My blender died in the middle of making them, I didn't use enough butter and had to add another half cup at the end of mixing the dough, I didn't have cinnamon so instead used apple pie spice, and the dough was very crumbly and hard to work with. But they taste great, so it was worth it.


And here is a great post I found this week
Be thankful: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/26/132263637/perfect-thank-you-notes-heartfelt-and-handwritten?sc=tw&cc=share

One Pan Roast Pork

Here is a really easy and tasty one pan meal of Roasted Pork Loin with Sweet Potato Fries and Broccoli.

Ingredients:
1-2 lb Pork Loin
Sweet Potatoes (1 per every 1-2 people)
Broccoli
Caesar Vinaigrette Salad Dressing, or a garlic and herb marinade

Several Hours before cooking, marinate the pork loin in caesar dressing (I actually used a pre-marinated pork loin here because it was on sale).

Preheat the oven to 375
Microwave the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, should be not quite cooked through. Cut the broccoli into large peices, with some stem still attached and marinate in caesar dressing.
Lay the pork loin in the center of a large baking dish, slice the potatoes into wedges and arrange around the edges of the pan. Drizzle more caesar dressing on the potatoes.

Bake for approx 30-35 min, or about 20 min/pound. About 10 min before the pork and potatoes are done, arrange the broccoli on top and place back in the oven.
Everything is done when the pork reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees.

This meal is also very easy to cook on the grill, including the vegetables.

Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet

I wasn't planning on offering a recipe today, but I made a dessert that came out so good I had to share it. Like the other recipes I've blogged, this is easy to make, but it does require a few specialized pieces of kitchen equipment: a food processor and an ice cream maker, and patience. Also, although this does contain alot of sugar, the main ingredients are real fruit, so it does have some nutritional value.

Ingredients:
1 cup of Sugar
1 cup of Water
2 stalks of Rhubarb
2 guarts of Strawberries
half a Lemon

Before you do anything else, make sure the bowl for your ice cream maker is properly chilled, place it in the freezer the night before you plan to use your ice cream maker.

Over med-high heat combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, and allow to boil until all the sugar is dissolved, 1-2 minutes. You have just made a simple syrup.

While the syrup is cooking, slice your rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Add to the boiling simple syrup. Turn down to a simmer, and leave until the rhubarb is soft. Then, with a wooden or silicon spoon, mash the rhubarb against the side of the pan. Warning: the rhubarb will smell terrible while it is cooking, this is normal and your sorbet will not taste bad.

Cut up your strawberries; chop off the tops, and any soft spots, and cut into large chunks. Puree your strawberries in the food processor.

In a non reactive bowl, combine the strawberry puree, the rhubarb simple syrup, and the juice from half a lemon. Stir well. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 5 hrs.

Once everything is properly chilled, set up your ice cream maker, and pour in the puree mixture. Let the ice cream maker do its thing, and in about half an hour you should have a frosty sorbet.

Baked Chicken Wings

Another very easy recipe, this one for baked chicken wings. These are surprisingly easy to make at home, and while not healthy, they at least aren't as bad for you as the deep fried ones you get in a restaurant, and my boyfriend requests them almost every weekend. They would also be good for a party because they require very little hands on time.

Marinate the Chicken Wings for at least an hour. You can buy them in the grocery store in either small or family size. If I get the family size I divide them up into several quart size freezer bags, put a different marinade in each, and put the extras in the freezer. You can buy sauces specifically for wings but most flavors of marinade work well: BBQ, teriyaki, or my favorite Ceasar salad dressing (the oily kind). Usually I just use whatever is already open.

Line a baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, spray generously with cooking spray, then spread the wings out so that they aren't touching eachother.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, flipping half way through.
You're done! Just put them on a plate and serve with cut up veggies and a dipping sauce or salad dressing.