Orange cranberry rice recipe

Hey everyone!  I am super excited to share a tasty recipe I MADE ALL BY MYSELF.  That's right.  I rule.

Downside.  It was a last minute weeknight meal discovery, and I have no photos.  But I am sure you will do just fine.

Orange-cranberry rice with toasted almonds
1c almonds
1/2 c dried cranberries
2 c white jasmine rice (brown jasmine would work great too, but the cooking times will be different)
3 1/2 c water
1 orange

1) in a medium saucepan, combine the water and rice.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

2) Rinse the outside of the orange off and remove labels, etc.  Zest the entire orange over the pan.  Cut the orange in half, and use a citrus press or your hands to squeeze the juice of the orange into the pan.  Add cranberries and gently fold to combine everything, being careful not to bruise the grains of rice (over stirring will make the rice very sticky). Cover the pan and cook about 20 minutes, or until rice is tender and all the water has been absorbed.

3) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.  Coarsely chop the almonds with a knife.  I have not yet found an "easy" way to do this that keeps my fingers safe, so just chop each one, one at a time.  You don't need to cut them really finely, just into 3 or 4 pieces from each almond.  Bigger gives more crunch!  Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and bake the almonds about 7 minutes, or until they are lightly golden brown and fragrant.

4) Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and scoop onto a plate.  Sprinkle the nuts on top of the rice and serve.

I made this VERY impromptu side with Caribean Jerk Chicken that my hubs grilled up along with some veggie kabobs.  The sweet rice went very well with the spicy chicken, and the smoky grilled flavor of the veggies.  I wouldn't pair it with anything bland as I think the flavor will be really off, but with something spicy, it is perfect.  Hope you like it!
Enjoy!!

Homemade Sugar Free Applesauce

I started making applesauce for my son because I didn't trust commercial applesauces to actually be healthy and sugar free, and those little jars of baby food are way overpriced for just applesauce.  And then my husband tried it, you know, just licking off the spoon while feeding the baby.  Or something.  And now I am not ALLOWED to buy the store stuff haha.  Admittedly, I sometimes add a little brown sugar to get the apples to release their juices faster and add that caramel flavor, but its really not needed and I love the taste without.  This is a rough recipe because I usually make it "till it looks right" but I absolutely hate it when people say that in recipes, so I have done my best to measure things and time things at least generally.  Feel free to tweak where needed! :-)

Homemade Applesauce

4 Lbs of Apples - a mix of varieties is fine, and even recommended as long as they cook at roughly the same speed.  Choose a bagged bulk apple to save money.  Avoid using flavorless or overly tart apples like red delicious and granny smiths.  Try McIntosh, Pink Lady, Gala, Golden Delicious, or another tasty, firm fleshed variety.
2 t cinnamon
1/2 c raisins
Paring knife or peeler
chef's knife/santoku
Large stockpot or saucepan with a lid
food processor, blender, or potato masher
containers for storage

That's it!

1) Peel your apples using a paring knife or a vegetable peeler.  I prefer a knife because I think it actually goes faster while doing a better job and giving me more control, but I do tend to waste a little more apple.  If using a knife, make sure it is good and sharp to avoid slipping and cutting yourself!  Sharp knives are WAY less dangerous!

2) Once all your apples are peeled, use your chef knife to cut them into thin slices.  Rather than coring them the traditional way (cut into fourths and cut out the core with a paring knife, then slice into tiny wedges) which makes it hard to get even slices, try my way.  Put the apple on the board and place your knife about 1/4-1/2" away from the core.  Slice away that piece.

Put the apple cut side down on the cutting board and slice the same 1/4-1/2" away from the core on each side.

Turn to one side and cut out the last chunk.

I cut into the core which leaves hard pieces in the applesauce. Ick...

Hopefully you will have cleared the core!  If not try out a little farther on the next apple.  Slice each piece into thin slices (about 1/8" or so).  Try to keep your slices even.  If you have to, it is better to cut larger slices than to have uneven slices, because they will all cook at the same rate.  If you are very unsure of slices, cube them up.  Cubes work fine, but takes a little longer to cook.

Had to show off my good slicing!

3) Preheat your saucepan/stockpot on medium.  After all the apples are sliced, toss them in the pan.  They should sizzle just a tiny bit.  Cover the pot.  Stir them every 5 minutes or so, but try to keep them covered to keep in the moisture.  If the apples are sticking to the bottom, add a small amount of water (a Tablespoon or so) to loosen them up.  You may need to add more water if you have less juicy apples, but you would be surprised at how much water the apples release, and you are just diluting flavor when you add water, so hold off unless its absolutely necessary to keep them from burning!

If you don't see any steam, add a little water to the pot.

4) Cook about 15 minutes until the apples are starting to break down.  Add cinnamon and raisins to the pot. Cover and cook another 10-15 minutes until the apples are nicely broken down and the raisins are plump.

5) Dump the apples into a food processor or blender, or leave them in the pan and use a potato masher to smash them up (they may need to be a little more tender for the potato masher... use your judgement.  This is part of that "cook it till it looks right" thing haha).  Blend or process until the apples are in small pieces or completely blended if you want to use as a first food for babies.  I leave it chunky now because my 15 month old can handle it, but when he was first starting solids I added a little water or 100% juice and pureed the heck out of it!  It is delicious warm, or you can refrigerate 5 days or so, or freeze it in portions and thaw when you want it.  Makes roughly 5-6 cups. (10-12 jars of baby food)

Just add spoon.

If you like, you can add other dried fruit, add ginger or nutmeg with the cinnamon, or add some sugar.  Play with it and make it your own!  Hope you like it!

Live Well Network

I have been so stuck on TV lately.  Its the end of winter, but its still cold, I am getting stir crazy, its grey and dark and not energizing... TV soothes me.  I am a bad person, I know.  Moving on.

I discovered a new network.  Its probably only local, but its part of my channel 4 band - I don't know what to call those "dash" channels yet...  Anyway, for me it is 4-3, part of NBC I think.  Locals, correct me if I am wrong.  I don't really watch the regular channel enough to know lol.

Anyway, it is like PBS for grown ups.  Its a lot of silly, cheaply produced shows with a crap load of content. The hosts are unpolished, there are repeats and obvious filler episodes from time to time, the editing is so so at best and often times it shows, as the commercials cut off some of the transitions, but the CONTENT.  Damn!  It spans everything I love from AMAZING cooking shows (admittedly my favorite) to interior design shows (admittedly my least favorite).  There is even a show called Deals that has great (and some not so great) ideas for how to save money.  Its like they reached in my brain and decided to make a network for me.  I actually like the not so polished look and feel as it is less produced and more human.

My favorite shows are the cooking ones, which are fantastic.  I still love America's Test Kitchen on PBS, but I have to say, Best Recipes Ever, Mexico: One Plate At a Time, and the best one, Let's Dish, are creeping in as my favorites.  I have made several recipes from Best Recipes Ever so far, including an apple, cabbage, and bratwurst braise that was fabulous!  I am dying to try out the decadent mexican recipes.  The host of the Mexico show is a master chef down in Chicago and his recipes are awesome and totally from scratch, but I have to go hunt down some of the ingredients.  Let's Dish is the perfect fusion of fancy foods and less fussy stuff.  They have great tips on prep and how to do things like slice an onion like a chef, which I love watching, but they have everything from microwave meals (not my speed) and simple, modern french fancy foods.  I can't really explain - just watch!

The cooking shows aren't all of it though.  Many of the other shows have great DIY projects, like Mirror/Mirror which is a fashion and beauty show, the kind of annoying talk show, Steven and Chris, and of course, Deals.  I love DIY ideas, and while many of them are not earth shattering, I have gotten some good ideas.  And its not Divorce court during daytime hours, which in itself is worthwhile!

Okay, now that my newest secret is out, I will start crafting again soon.  I have been busy making stock for a  friend's business (I put things in her shop on consignment) so check that out at www.thebabiesnook.com, but I will post some new tutorials someday... I promise!

Local Ethnic Groceries

I have been really uninspired lately hence the lack of blog posts and boring posts that I do post.  Then today I did a crap ton-o-running around and it hit me - I have GOT to share my little secret with you!

I went to my favorite little secret spot.  My local Indian grocery.  The people there are very nice, its family owned, and it has amazing GEMS for sale.  I get "weird" (read: Indian or Thai) food there every once in a while, but I mostly hit them up for spices.  They have GREAT deals on good quality spices.  Granted they come in a plastic baggie that I have to store somehow to keep them from getting all cakey, but that is why I obsessively hoard empty spice bottles.  That is another issue for another day, however.

Anyway, I bought a whole ounce of bay leaves, a giant bag of mustard powder, mustard seeds, pink Himalayan salt, and a bag of cinnamon sticks.  All for like $12.  Whoa.  And it's not just the Indian groceries that rule.  Back in California I used to hit up the Korean groceries and the Japanese ones.  So much yummy stuff.  The coolest part is they carry unusual items that for foodies is just too interesting to pass up.  And its always affordable.

But wait, there's more!  I also used to go to the Indian section of town to check out all the other cool stuff, like saris, other clothing, bangle bracelets, Indian music CDs and movies, and all the other AMAZING stuff that you just can't find anywhere else.  I admit that I didn't brave the clothing shops and henna salons without my Indian friends as guides, but everyone was really nice once they got over me being interested in their culture.  Usually, they were a little like... why?  Oh, ok, cool.  Here's some neat stuff! Just remember that in many cultures bartering is the way to go.  Some times its okay and sometimes not.  When in doubt, ask a native!

So, go.  Explore.  Enjoy!!!

Tamale Pie Recipe

This is a long time coming to a lot of my friends and family.  I am terrible at remembering to give recipes to people.  Its not intentional as if I didn't want to share my culinary secrets or something, I am just really bad at remembering, and often too lazy to write things out via pen and ink or email.  Sue me.  I am busy surfing the web for random craft supplies.  Duh.  Anyway, this is a really popular (and super simple) recipe that I always get asked for.  Not sure exactly where it came from, although my mom says my grandma used to make it all the time.  So here it is!

Tamale Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb Hamburger, preferably ground chuck
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1-16 oz can tomatoes (I have used diced and stewed; different flavors but both good)
1-16 ox can corn, drained
1 can black olives, drained and sliced (or buy sliced olives)
3 T chili powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 c cornmeal
1 c milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 c shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Step 1: Brown the hamburger and onion in a large saucepan.  Drain.  Add garlic and cook till fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Step 2: While meat is browning, mix together cornmeal, eggs, and milk. Set aside.

Step 3: Stir tomatoes (with liquid), olives, corn, chili powder, and salt in with the meat mixture.  Heat till boiling.  Pour into a 13x9 glass baking dish. Stir up the cornmeal mixture (it will settle very quickly, so do this or it will be an uneven crust) and pour it over the meat mixture.  Top with cheese.

Step 4: Bake the casserole for about 50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly and delicious looking.  Let stand a bit before serving.  EAT.

There you have it.  The mostly canned ingredients (which are staples in my pantry) make it a super easy and often last minute meal at my house.  Hope you like it!

This is how I Roll

I haven't done a cooking post in a super ridiculous long time... So here we go.

I am REALLY tired of commercial bread.  It has all these weird ingredients which totally goes against healthy eating.  I am all about making my family as healthy as possible, but yeast scares the living crap out of me.  Its SO much work to make the dang bread and most of the time what I get is less than stellar, and sometimes downright inedible.  Which sucks when I put all my proverbial eggs in one basket and try my hand at bread to go with the soup I am making.  If it sucks, we have no bread.  Which makes this carb lover unhappy.  My dad has a breadmaker, and while the results are edible, they are far from fabulous.  So I continued with the mystery ingredients until a better solution presented itself.  Enter my happy solution.

Exercising the new top front teeth

I got this recipe off of Pinterest, and then tweaked it to make it manageable for weeknight meals and made them whole wheat instead of white rolls.

Whole Wheat Buttercrust Rolls
Original recipe from Jenna on Eat, Live, Run


Ingredients:
4 1/2 t dry active yeast (2 packets)
1/4 c warm water (about 125 degrees)
1 1/4 c hot water
1/3 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
5T powdered buttermilk
1.5 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
3 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2-2 1/2 c all purpose flour plus more for dusting
2 eggs

1 egg yolk plus 1 T warm water for wash

1) Dissolve the yeast in the water and let sit for five minutes, until foamy.

2) While the yeast is activating, microwave the 1 1/4c of hot water until really hot/starting to boil. Add the butter, stirring so the butter melts completely. Add the sugar and stir till it dissolves. Let cool for 5-10 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, mix flours*, baking soda, salt, and powdered buttermilk in the bowl of a standing mixer (you can knead this by hand if you want, but it takes some serious time and effort). Pour in the yeast/water mixture, followed by the semi-cooled water/butter/sugar mixture, and finally the eggs. Knead by hand or with the dough hook on your standing mixer until smooth and elastic, about six minutes (perhaps longer if doing it by hand). Make sure the dry ingredients are being incorporated, and stir a bit if needed. Add flour if the dough seems really sticky. If using a mixer, turn the dough out onto the counter, and knead a few times by hand.  Form the dough into a ball

4) Lightly oil a bowl and plop the ball in, cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel (to prevent the dough from drying out) and place in a warm area to rise (about 80-90 degrees is ideal).  Let rise till doubled in size or about 1 hr.

5) Preheat oven to 375. Punch down dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 2-oz balls (use a food scale or make small golf balls). Roll each ball into a rope and tie it into a knot, trying not to let the end stick out too much.

6) Line baking sheets with parchment paper, place rolls about 2" apart, and brush each one with the egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.


* Add the lesser amount of flour at first.  Flour in different climates in different seasons will have varying amounts of moisture in them. As the dough mixes, sprinkle the flour in a little at a time until the dough has the "right" consistency.  Its hard to explain what the right consistency is, but here goes: it should be sticky, but not SO sticky that you cannot get it off your hands and is impossible to work with.  This dough is a little wetter than some other bread doughs, so don't worry if it is a little stickier than you are used to.  Just flour your work surface and carry on. :-)

My 1 year old son LOVES these rolls and I admit, I am a big fan, too.  I made the white flour version for Thanksgiving, and then gave the half whole wheat flour a spin recently, and both came out just stellar.  I may swap out the egg wash for a butter wash just to see what they do, but they are really glossy and pretty this way.  Enjoy your preservative- and weird-ingredient-free bread!

Fresh vs. Powdered Buttermilk

I hate buttermilk. It smells and it's expensive and I can never tell when it's gone bad. But it's an essential acid in lots of baking recipes, like in quick breads. As an acid, the buttermilk reacts with baking soda and baking powder to create gas bubbles that leaven without yeast. But I am not always a great planner and I often find myself without this critical ingredient in the house when I need it, or if i do get it for a recipe, I have to get a mega sized container because that is all they have and I end up pouring the remainder down the drain. If there is one thing I hate, its wasting food and money!! Okay that's 2 things, but work with me :)

Then I found out about powdered buttermilk. I was really skeptical. I mean, reconstituted anything is worse than its fresh counterpart, right? But for baking, would it do the trick? I decided it was worth a try.

I made some cornbread and Irish soda bread with it. Although the rise was a tiny bit lower than with fresh, especially with the heavy cornmeal in the cornbread, the taste was fine and it was still very acceptable. I'll admit, I didn't do any side by side tests (who needs that much cornbread) but the bottom line is that it makes palatable results. The small container seems like it will last a long time, and it's reasonable in cost, especially compared to buying fresh and wasting half every time.

Bottom line: Try it for yourself! I certainly think it works! Just remember to add it to the dry ingredients and add the water in place of the buttermilk when the recipe calls for it.

Giant Soft Pretzel Skeleton

I used to be a massage therapist (seems like another life, really).  In my course of study, I learned all the bones of the body.  Well, I actually learned them in high school and then learned way MORE about them in massage school, but that makes me sound like too much of a nerd...  So when hubby came home a few weeks ago and asked if I could make him a snack to take to his office Halloween party, I immediately longed for an anatomically correct skeleton.  I am so tired of seeing incorrectly formed skeletons casually on display.  And I love eating and making soft pretzels.  It seemed like a match made in heaven!

I am not a total idiot, and I know that I will have to make some compromises on the anatomical accuracy.  For example, I am not going to make a hyoid bone.  (Look it up.)  Or a crapload of tarsals and carpals.  No one would recognize them in dough form anyway... :-)  But I can do better than the leg bone is connected to the other leg bone. The skeleton at least deserves to have a tibia and a fibula and a femur separated by a patella, right?

To make the skeleton somewhat proportional, Hubby and I looked up some art charts to see what the ratios are between body parts.  We found that 8 heads is about right for height, and the shoulders are about 3 head heights across (although not anatomically correct, the 8 head height looks better to the human eye, so we ran with that.  In reality its more like 6.5-7 heads, or so I read).  We wanted to fit the skeleton on 2 large cookie sheets that were 16" long each, so we used 4" as our "head height" and then used that as the basis for everything else.  I drew up a quick sketch of what the bones should look like so I had something to follow, and went to town on the pretzel dough!

my foot looks lame, but I ran out of room and can't really draw worth a darn...

Soft Pretzels
2 1/4 t yeast (one packet/envelope)
1 1/2 c water at about 110 degrees
1 t salt
1T sugar
4c flour
1 egg
coarse salt
extra flour for kneading and dusting

Combine yeast, water, salt, and sugar in a small bowl or measuring cup.  Allow the yeast to activate (bubbles should form).  Add yeast mixture to flour and knead.  Add flour until dough is not sticky, but still is a little tacky.  Knead until dough is silky.  Put dough in a bowl or leave on counter, cover it with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes.  If you do not let the dough rest, it will be harder to roll out and will spring back on itself a LOT, so don't skip this step unless you want to fight with your shapes.  It will puff up a little from the yeast, but knead it a little and it will deflate again.

Kneading dough is therapeutic!

For the regular bones, I rolled the dough into ropes and cut it up, then shaped it as I wanted.  To roll the dough into ropes, start with your hands in the middle and roll them outwards away from one another.  If the dough is not tacky, it will not stick to the counter and will not roll nicely.  If this is the case, dampen your hands and continue to roll it.  Make sure you do NOT flour the surface you are rolling on or it will not work, either. :-)  My counter still had flour on it from kneading, so don't be confused!

Some of the bones, like the femur and humerus, I left very thick and created knobby "dog bone" ends by splitting the ends with a knife about 1 cm in and shaping each bit into a knobby ball.  The other bones I made of varying thicknesses as was appropriate and shaped them as needed.  Tip: use a butter knife to cut off the tapered ends after you roll the dough into ropes to keep more uniform thickness to your pieces.  

For the solid bones of the hip and skull, I rolled the dough out with a rolling pin and cut out the shape with a butter knife.  Once it was on the cookie sheet I smoothed the shapes a little with my hands.

I traced one hip bone to make the other so they looked kind of symmetrical.

For the patella, the "carpals" and "tarsals" I pulled a piece of dough out, rolled it in my hands, and flattened it into an appropriately shaped disc.

 

most of the upper skeleton and the hips

hands!

feet... only marginally better than my drawing... if even that.

Brush the pieces with egg, sprinkle with salt (if you want salt) and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes.  You may want to bake the larger bones together and the smaller bones together on separate sheets and then rearrange them later, so you do not over or underbake certain ones.  Keep in mind that your bones will puff a little in the oven so you may want to space them a little farther than you will in the fully assembled skeleton, and you may want to adjust your dough shapes to make sure the puffing doesn't affect the overall look.

Much puffier now than before baking.  But much more beautifully golden!

I wanted to make a spicy cheese dip to go with this, but I was too sick this weekend to mess with it.  I am sending hubby with mustard instead.  All in all, this took a whole afternoon, but it was totally worth it because it was so fun and looked so cool!  We had a bit of dough left, so I baked that up and snacked on it while making dinner.

Originally I wanted the hips on the top sheet, but the hands took up too much space so I added some vertebrae and moved it to the bottom.  The feet STILL look lame.  Oh well.  I tried.

Of course, you could just make pretzels and forget the whole skeleton thing... They still taste just as good!

Baked Apples

Fall is here.  As much as I hate to say goodbye to the warmth of the summer sun, seasons are real in Wisconsin, and I have chosen to live here.  I CHOSE to live here?  I am an idiot.  But I digress.  With fall comes cooler temps, gorgeous colors, and a great excuse to heat the house with the oven.  So I get to do a lot more baking!  Also with fall comes fall tastes in the home - soups, cream, cinnamon, apples, squash... So many great things we don't get at other times of the year, right?  Hey, I am trying to look on the bright side, here.

As a kid growing up in California, I never had to deal with the extreme cold that is the north/midwest/hinterlands.  However, as it cooled outside, my dad and I did do a few things differently, mainly cooking warm things.  One of those was baked apples.  My dad was pretty much a fly by the seat of your pants cook (read: no planning and no training).  If he couldn't "throw" it together, we didn't eat it.  There is a reason I took over in the cooking department at a young age.  One thing he did make that totally rocked, though, was baked apples.  We would alternately make them in the oven or in the microwave depending on our patience level, but either way, the results were fabulous and for a seriously minimal amount of effort.  I set out to recreate this childhood favorite the way I remember it...

Baked Apples:
4 Granny smith apples (if you prefer, try a spicy apple such as a Mcintosh.  This does NOT lend itself well to soft or sweet apples like red delicious, although some people would argue with me)
Cinnamon
Brown sugar
Butter

1) Core the apples.  Score the peel with a paring knife down the sides in quarters and across the middle.

Bad drawing, but act like you were going to cut the apple in quarters and then in half across the middle, but only just score the peel.  It will  allow the juices to get out a little and make the apple easier to eat later.

Place them in an 8x8 baking dish.  If the bottoms are not flat on the bottom of the baking dish, cut a small slice off to make them sit flat.  This will keep the yumminess from leaking out.
2)  In the center of each apple, put 1T of brown sugar, about 1/4t cinnamon and 1T of butter.
3)  Put in 350 degree oven.  After 15-20 minutes of baking, check the apples.  They should have released some juices in the bottom of the pan.  Baste the apples with their juices and continue to bake, basting occasionally until apples are tender but not mushy, about one hour total depending on the size of your apples.
4) Cool the apples for about 5 minutes.  Using a spoon or solid spatula so you don't loose all the goodies inside, scoop the apples into a bowl.  Enjoy!

There are lots of variations - baking the apples in a little bit (1c or so) of OJ (add more sugar to this one or they will come out tart - granulated sugar works well), adding raisins or other dried fruit and various nuts to the mix, adding spices like nutmeg... Explore what you like and what your family likes.  You can serve them as is, with ice cream, whipped cream, or in just about any iteration.  This is so simple and will heat up your kitchen nicely for the cool evenings.  Its also a great way to make your house SMELL fantastic! :-)

Food slicer fun

I think I mentioned that I like kitchen gadgets.  Well, the newest one in my repertoire is my food slicer.  It is a totally fluffy, unnecessary kitchen gadget, but holy crap has it proven its usefulness.  I was a little skeptical at first, driven away by high prices and bad reviews.  But hubby and I were at JC Penney the other day and I decided to go ahead and take the plunge (on sale of course) for around $55.

I have long had a v-slicer (a cheapy version of a mandoline) which essentially does the same thing, but did not have an adjustable blade, has a much narrower blade, and takes a lot more muscle.  The v-slicer faced some serious limitations.  For one, I had to cut things down to make them fit the limited width of the blade.  One of my favorite dishes is French Onion Soup, and slicing 3 lbs of onions into 1/8" slices with a knife with ANY kind of consistency is near impossible, not to mention the strain on your tear ducts.  A v-slicer makes this much easier, but large red onions are too big to fit in the handle or over the blade, forcing me to cut them in half, which ruins the aesthetics of my soup (I never claimed to be sane), not to mention, an onion cut in half tends to pop out its inner rings, making wrangling the things even harder.  Another, more significant limitation was its inability to cut things like meat and cheese.  For anything that caused major friction across the blade, it took more force than I was able to give it to get a slice, and even if I did manage, they came out all wrinkled up and uneven.  And of course, because I did not have a true mandoline, my slice width was not adjustable.  Rather than spend $70 for a nice mandoline that still suffered from the first two limitations, I decided to try a cheap version of an electric slicer.

I got the Cook's brand from JC Penney (their house brand I believe) because it was on sale and I saw it on display and it looked reasonably sturdy and useful.  It adjusts from about 1/8"-5/8" slices, and is on a dial, so although each number on the dial corresponds to a 1/8" increment, it can do anything in between as well.  I think if I tested it with something a little more sturdy I could even get less than 1/8", but I have not tried with success yet.  To test it out, I made French onion soup which requires the aforementioned sliced red onions as well as sliced swiss cheese for the yummy broiled topping. I didn't try slicing the baguette that is also used for the soup since it is cut on the bias and would be a pain to keep even in the slicer and I only needed 4 pieces, but bread is supposedly sliceable as well.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are my results:

Beautiful, even slices.  Quick, simple operation.  It worked like a champ.  I had all the onions done before the butter foamed in my dutch oven.  I had all the cheese done before I even thought about it.  And of course, I was jumping up and down, squealing with joy at how cool it was the whole while.  Poor hubby... Intrigued, I tried it on some provolone I had wanted to slice for sandwiches.

Cutting the round food was a little harder, but other than some slightly jagged edges, I couldn't see any fault with them, either.  I wanted to try it on some meat, but I didn't have anything handy, so I will have to post again with some ham and roast beef.

All was not perfect, though.  There is some waste for each item you cut, because the slicer cannot get in that last slice very well (that's the one you lose fingers on with a knife).  Also, because the back of the slicer is made of silver plastic and not metal, it flexes under pressure and can make some uneven slices, although it was well within the limit of acceptability for me.  This did result in awkward shaped rinds left over though.  The v-slicer has the same issue, so I wasn't too dismayed.  I also did have a little problem keeping even pressure on the pusher so that it fed evenly without bending that plastic piece back too much. I needed an extra hand almost so that the food stayed in place and slid back and forth correctly.  I did manage to wedge a piece of swiss down into the mechanism once when I tried to get that one last slice.  It was easy to retrieve, but I felt like an idiot for getting it stuck.  (of course I turned the blade OFF before sticking my hand in there!)

Oops.  Stuck cheese.  Luckily that front part flips toward you for easy retrieval.

As for everything else, it was pretty great.  The blade comes off for easy cleaning, as does the plastic pusher,  and everything else just required a wipe down with a washcloth or sponge.  The cheese left a little film of cheesy goodness on everything, but unless you let it dry on there, I don't see it being an issue to wipe off.  All in all, it outperformed my expectations.  I half expected it not to cut through cheese without leaving a mangled mess.  I am sure it works better on harder cheeses than the softer ones I tested it on, so I am glad to report even the softer ones held up pretty well.

My main motive was to save money by slicing my own lunch meat and cheese with this machine (and make it myself since I am not allowed to have deli food during pregnancy.  Stupid food-borne illness).  At $55 it will take a while to pay for itself, but the simplicity of the design makes other kitchen slicing tasks less of a bear and much faster, so it was totally worth it.  And then of course there is its inherent coolness.  I mean, who doesn't want to use a power tool?  As Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor would say, "More power!"  Oh, and grunt grunt.

Making lasagna

So, I totally wimped out and purchased my fettuccine noodles for the other night.  Determined not to be too afraid to try something new, I decided to use my pasta maker for lasagna noodles instead.  A coworker of hubby's had a family emergency, so I decided to make them a lasagna to make things a little easier.  Thus began the all day affair in my kitchen making zucchini bread and lasagna...

To start things off, I read the instruction manual for my new pasta machine.  Wow... That was interesting.  It seems like it was written in Chinese and then badly translated to English... So useless.  For one thing there is no illustration for how to clamp it to a tabletop... So, through trial and error, I figured out how to work with the machine.  Then I used the included recipe for pasta dough.  Hurdle #2.  There was WAY too much flour to incorporate so eventually I gave up.  I kneaded it by hand way longer than the 2-3 minutes it recommended.  I added more flour to keep it from being sticky when I ran it through the machine to work it to a soft consistency, but it still didn't amount to the quantity in the recipe.  Then I began to thin the pasta sheets.  The instructions didn't have a guideline for lasagna noodles, so I guessed and made them pretty thin, the second smallest setting.  I think next time I will make them 1 thicker, but I am not sure it will be a hugely noticeable difference.  Then I cut them to a good length and boiled those puppies!  There were no cook times in the instructions, either, so I cooked them for about 4 minutes or so - I basically just cooked them until they looked right.  Other than looking pale compared to store bought noodles, they were pretty much indistinguishable.  They tasted good!  Success!  So I made my lasagna :-)

Jenni's Lasagna:

Noodles:
about 1 1/2 C all purpose flour plus more for dusting
3 eggs

in a bowl or on a floured worktop, create a well in the middle of the flour and crack in the eggs.  With a fork, incorporate the flour slowly into the egg without breaking the side of the well until the egg is no longer wet and runny.  continue to work the dough until it is less sticky, then knead in the flour by hand until well incorporated and the dough is not sticky when pulled apart.  Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Roll the dough out with a rolling pin into a narrow strip that will fit through the machine.  Run the dough through the widest setting.  Dust the rectangle with flour and then fold the strip in thirds.  Repeat 9 times or until the dough is very silky, dusting the dough each time and the machine as needed.  Dial the machine down size by size, cutting the length in half when it becomes too long to deal with and working each half separately, until the desired thickness is achieved.  Dust the sheets with flour and then cut them to the desired length for your pan.  I also cut some in half long ways (after I boiled them) because about one and a half sheets fit the width of my pan, but overlap is good too :-)  If using fresh spinach, drain the pasta water over the spinach to wilt it.

Rest of Lasagna:
1 lb ground beef or italian sausage
1 medium onion
1T or so italian spice
2 cloves garlic or ~1t garlic powder
1Lb frozen or fresh spinach
1 egg
1.5 oz or so freshly grated Parmesan
16 oz ricotta (the smaller container in the store)
1t parsley
8 oz mozzarella, grated
1 can Hunts Four cheese tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Brown meat and onion in med skillet over med hi heat; drain fat.  Add spices and cook until flavors meld, 2-3 mins.  Layer noodles in bottom of pan and spread the meat over the noodles.  Add 1/2 can of sauce over the meat and spread it evenly.  Add another layer of noodles.  Microwave the spinach until it is no longer frozen, or if using fresh, pour the hot noodle water over them to wilt it.  If you forgot this step, no biggie, just put it in raw.  It will wilt in the oven just fine, but the layer will be a bit bulkier.  Add another layer of noodles.  In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, parsley, and a little of the Parmesan (the rest will go on top of the lasagna so use your judgement).  Mix thoroughly and spread the mixture over the noodles.  Add another layer of noodles, spread the remaining sauce over the noodles and top with the mozzarella and the rest of the Parmesan.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese on top is browning and bubbly.  Enjoy!