buffalo sammies

I was thinking about making some BBQ chicken sandwiches. The thing is though, buffalo chicken sandwiches are... ummm... tastier. So I found this. I had around 7 hours till Pete usually leaves for work so there was just time enough (hopefully!). I began.

Frank's happens to be delicious. I've heard it is used by Jack in the Box for their new Mini Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches as well as rumors of it being the base for Native New Yorker's Hot Wings. If you like wing sauce, you might want to give it a try.

here we have chicken with some ingredients scattered about and around for a do-it-yourself kind of ranch salad dressing mix. I did not have a store-bought ranch mix on hand.

The chicken was ready in about 5 hours - I turned up the heat towards the 2nd half of the cooking time to try to ensure it being ready early enough.

After I started the chicken in the crockpot I was thinking how we'd have to go buy some rolls. this occurred to me after I had started making bread in our bread machine less than an hour before. Oh yeah... you can make rolls!

Here is the recipe. I split the flour pretty evenly whole wheat/white.

pre-risen dough

dough ready for it's second rising

voila! 2nd rising complete

pre-baked

ding!

post-baked

I didn't get a picture of the sandwiches put all together but they were really good. Really.

and while we're here let me introduce one of our newest kitchen utensils: Cleaver.

Welcome, Cleaver.
You might not get much use, but you look pretty neat just being around

Queen of Torts??

I've made corn tortillas before - those are easy

the good news is - these are easy too!

I got the instructions/recipe from here.

These were made with 100% Whole Wheat Flour

:Ingredients were simple : mixed the dough : "de-ringed" for kneading:

:let dough rest: poked for no apparent reason: shaped and rested dough again:


:rolled on oiled surface: cooked:


:ate them:
OK - not all of them, yet. A number of them since last night, but not all of them.

thus saying, I plan on making these again but with less salt (probably half the salt). I don't know if I put a heaping tsp. in or if I did the classic Tbsp. for tsp. or what but the tortillas by themselves are much too salty. Thankfully covered with cheese or filled with peanut butter and honey they are just fine. That was a close one.

I made these this time because I was planning to go to Trader Joe's to purchase some of their 100% ww tortilla's and other baked goods. Then I realized I could try to make them. I think this was a better deal (money-wise, and probably comparable time-wise too since TJ's is about 35 min. away) and these are good - maybe even as good as TJ's!

'tis the season...

...for strawberries!

We had a little left of this jam in our freezer from last year until very recently... it was actually still good after getting under the icy top

we choose to go the "reduced sugar" route this time after trying both last year

strawberry freezer jam

dehydrated strawberries

yummy!

Homemade Yogurt & Chocolate Sheet Cake

Some of this Jack's kitchen adventures/experiments have been low on the to-do-list (along with many other things...) but hopefully the kitchen is back to being inhabited a little more often

Yogurt
Normal store-bought yogurt, if you don't buy plain, is often:
1. full of slightly, if not highly, disturbing ingredients
2. way to sweet to choke down
3. more expensive than I'd like (free would be preferable)

As we happened to be fortunate enough to have a yogurt maker passed down to us, we made yogurt. Actually, Pete made the first batch while I was feeling sick and my mom and I made the second while Pete was working. The pictures are mostly products of the second batch

2

pretty much all you need ingredient-wise is milk (we used skim) and 2 T. yogurt (used as a starter)
We also added some non-fat powdered milk.
Here's the directions we used:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yogurt

I have heard there are ways of using a crockpot to make yogurt although we haven't tried that, yet.

For eating purposes, it is rather bland by itself but delicious with honey.
I like berries on top too.

Cake

Secondly I made this for our church community group

those bumps on top are powdered sugar clumps (I hope!) that didn't quite make it. that was a sad misfortune and only so many could be picked out by a non-perfectionist youngest child (they probably taste real good that way anyways)

OK, honestly, I didn't even try this cake. I am not big on chocolate on chocolate with more chocolate, but some people are. I heard many good "reviews" and am inclined to believe them because I got the recipe from this super fun site which has a lot of yummy recipes on it. Maybe they also liked it because it has a lot of butter, sugar, and chocolate - also a possibility

Not the "healthiest" choice of baking but one should probably not bring whole wheat bran muffins when signed up for snacks - it just might not go over well

beans, refried

OK, the sad part about this little bean story is that out of all the times I have made these the time I take pictures of the process they turn out to be my least favorite so far. Thankfully I believe I know why and can share that with you as well... alas.

Here's the Recipe

Starting off with "overnight" soaked pinto beans, add them to boiling water
with onions and garlic

A low effort way to peel garlic is to cut off the hard end, put them in a dishcloth and smash them against the counter.It works surprisingly well.
My thought is that a little older garlic works better than brand spanking fresh, but that is just a guess

simmer, simmer, simmer... the onions look different now

cook some onions in butter, add some seasonings...
(I use the same "big" pot for everything, I just transfer the cooked beans to
a bowl and then the vitamix to mash them)


And voila! You have yourself some homemade refried beans!


Now for the sad part. I used my vitamix too much, if that is possible... which apparently it is.
I "chopped" the onions in the said machine which, I believe, made them too runny and made the beans a little more oniony than I like. So the moral of the story is, chop, don't puree your onions! I think by cooking some more plain pinto beans (with salt) and adding them to my now frozen beans would solve the problem.

Notable Changes I made of the real recipe...
I used more beans than 1.25 cups because I think that is just too few!!
I didn't put cilantro in this batch, I didn't have any.
I have never used feta for garnish but that sounds interesting!

I like to use these refried beans (when they turn out less oniony!) for bean bowls:
layered- brown rice, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and usually some salsa for good measure.
They really are good!

A Greek Easter

There were many a photo to be a had in many a home to document the preparation for this Easter Meal. Few were taken. Thankfully, I have a faithful photographer mom who saved this food from being neglected entirely as well as perhaps saving our camera from death by spurts of sizzling lamb grease. I am thankful for both.

On the Menu: Lamb, Chicken, Pitas, Tabouli, Tzatziki, Hummus, Lemon Rice, Greek Salad, Roasted Potatoes, and Squash
(Tasty Non-Greek Dessert Followed)

I was impressed with this picture

I did not make all the food seen in the pictures. The recipes for the food I made... I got the lamb recipe... here. The lemony greek rice... here. The greek potatoes... here. The Tabouli... here. Okay now, putting in links is fun.

just in case you ever think about making these...

the lamb went over well and seemed to be cooked as much as it should have been - this, I was happy about. I would advise, when making these, you make the patties small (we had them like gyros in a pita) because lamb is rich and one can get too much of it pretty quickly. I made them in a skillet (hence the spurts and sizzles from the grease). The Bashas by us seems to often have ground lamb on managers special... I'd advise to look for specials because full price, at least at Fry's, was mighty pricey.

the greek rice I put way more oregano in it than called for and way less garlic. The former because I thought it said tablespoons when in fact it said teaspoons (classic) and the latter because I thought there was going to be plenty of garlic going around in other dishes. That's probably what the author of the recipe meant anyhow. Anyways, I think the rice was one of my favorites. I might add more feta next time (I did not measure it when I put it in) because it was awfully nice to get a little chunk of feta with a bite of rice every once and while.
I didn't even use brown rice (shocker) and next time, if I make it again, I would be very tempted to do so.

Potatoes didn't seem to brown too well although they weren't unappetizing, (were they?), they just kind of tasted like potatoes.

The tabouli I think turned out well although I was lighter on the mint than I should have been. I'm not a huge tabouli fan in general so it's hard for me to say if it was really great. Let's just say we ate the leftover rice in a day or two but are still housing the tabouli in the fridge.

the bottom of the food pyramid

We've been eating homemade bread lately

Homemade, by the breadmaker

The aforesaid breadmaker bakes a pretty great looking loaf, sometimes.
This particular time it baked a pretty great looking ball.
The sometimes globular structure produced by the breadmaker is readily pardoned for the ease of baking bread it supplies.
Looks aren't everything anyways.

here's is the recipe:
(from http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_wheat_bread)

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Yield: 1 loaf(1.5lbs.)

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon soy lecithin (if using granules, add to the water at the beginning)

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (replace 3 tablespoons of the flour)

3 cups (minus 3 tablespoons) whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast

a pinch of citric acid (use sparingly)

a sprinkling of ginger

Instructions:

1. *Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; stir.

2. Add flours and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.

3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan and cover. Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If loaf starts browning too soon, lightly lay a piece of foil on top of the loaf to prevent too much darkening.

5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm! Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed.

*If you have a bread maker, you can use the dough setting to knead it for you. Just put ingredients in according to order listed.