Soy/Mustard Glazed Salmon

Just a heads up. You do not need a grill for this, but I swear it makes it taste better.

Ingredients are:

Once again, notice my Mom's fabulous handwriting.

I like all of the proportions of this recipe, but looking at it I realize that I have NEVER added the horseradish. I want to say that I never have it in the fridge, but actually sometimes I do. I think the addition of the horseradish would probably be awesome, but I haven't done it, so if you don't have it, just skip it.

Put all of the ingredients (except the salmon) into a bowl and whisk it together. When I made this last week I added some stone ground mustard and I am convinced it made it better than ever before - so do that if you have some. Or just add some of the mustard seeds if you have those. I have those (you will see why when I post how to make my mom's most amazing salad dressing).

Put the salmon into a container with sides. I use a 13 x 9 baking pan. Pour or spoon about half of the glaze on top of the salmon. I like to let it sit while I (or Tom) heat up the grill. If you need to broil it then heat up your broiler. I think that people say to leave the door of your oven part way open when broiling. I am not sure about this and I always open and close it while worrying that I will blow up the oven or something.

Grill the salmon on a high heat on the grill for about 12 minutes. Half way through the grilling I would pour the rest of the glaze on the salmon. This will cause a minor flare up on the gas or charcoal grill...but I think it makes it taste even better and smokier! We always want to over-grill it, but I think 12-14 minutes (unless you have an insanely FAT salmon) is enough. You don't want to dry it out!

I like to serve this with cous-cous. Normally I serve it with what I call "normal cous-cous" that I have cooked in chicken broth. I do 1 cup cous-cous to 1 cup chicken broth. This time I served it with sushi rice which is just so delightfully sticky and wonderful. I bought this brand rice at an Asian Market and I love it. I'm pretty sure it's from Cali. Notice the SUPER cool green top??? I got that in my stocking. It is so super cool. It goes on to packages that have no tops, and it makes it have a top. That might be the worst explanation ever, but I am in love with it. Thanks Liane!

I just recently made Israeli cous-cous, so you could try that too - but I feel that it has a bit too much of a pasta feel for me.

Notice Tom's snazzy headlight. And to my brother, Tom is using your wedding present!!! And Allison don't look too closely, that is totally your paper towel dispenser.

Spaghetti sauce - meat or not meat

For those of you that buy spaghetti sauce in jars, please stop! Not only is it full of junk (preservatives and god knows what else), it's just plain gross (in my opinion).

So here is a simple sauce that I make all the time. It makes enough to eat a big dinner, have a lunch and freeze enough for another dinner.

Ingredients to buy at the store
2 28oz cans of tomatoes. My favorites are the Muir Glen fire roasted, or San Marzano's. Plain old regular ones are fine but they won't give you as much flavor.
One medium-large onion (yellow or white)
Garlic (a few cloves)
Tomato paste (not necessary, but I think it helps)
Basil (preferably fresh, but dried is ok)
Salt, Sugar, Pepper, Olive oil (hopefully those are staples)
Red pepper flakes (if you like a bit of spice)
Spaghetti or Angel Hair or whatever noodles you want

Chop the onion. If you are not planning on blending this sauce (I use a stick blender that I adore), then cut the onion into the size pieces you would like to eat. Open the cans of tomatoes and either press or mince the garlic (or buy it pre-chopped like I do). Carefully cut up your basil if it is fresh.

Heat oil in a saute pan. If you don't know that means here is an example. You can probably use a dutch oven (like a Le Creuset) or really any sort of pot will probably do. When the oil is warmed up add the onion pieces. Stir so they don't stick or burn. Then add the garlic. Continue stirring for about 5-7 minutes to get out the flavor (I made that up....hopefully it brings out the flavor, I don't really know).

Then add the tomatoes. Here is where you have a choice. If you have a stick blender you can just dump them all in even if they are whole, because you can blend them later. If you aren't going to blend it, then what I used to do is wash my hands and then pick up each whole tomato and break it into little pieces with my hands. It will squirt, so beware!!! Now squeeze in some tomato paste (or from a jar....I am convinced the ones in the squirt tubes are better, but probably not). I don't measure an amount. If I had to guess I would say maybe 2 or 3 Tablespoons. Then I add a spoonful of white sugar (it helps cut the acid of the tomatoes....ok I made that up too, but it might be true) and a few sprinkles of salt and pepper. If you are doing fresh basil then add as much as you can. I'd say at least one cup chopped and loosely packed. If you are doing dry basil then maybe a teaspoon or so. Other people like oregano, but I do not. You can add it if you like it.

I turn up the heat to bring it to a boil. Once it boils I turn it down to simmer and put the top on tightly for about 30 minutes.

If you would like to add meat, I cook the meat in a fry pan separate from the sauce. When it's cooked through (or like 90% through) I spoon off all of the fat and then I dump it into the sauce AFTER the 30 minutes is up. I also like to add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to the sauce for a bite.

After 30 minutes I take the top off and then I put on a pot of water to boil. Between the water heating up and the pasta cooking, that's probably about 15 minutes or so of more cooking.
First picture is AFTER blending it, second picture is BEFORE blending.

When all done I like to pour more Kraft Parmesan (I know, gross, but I love it) than humanly possible on top and eat eat eat.

Peanut noodles make everything better

It's so odd. I have never been a fan of peanut butter. When all my friends would bring PB&J sandwiches to school I don't remember what I had. I pretend that it was bagels and cream cheese, but that would mean I ate a bagel and cream cheese for lunch from 1st grade THROUGH the present. That seems extreme, but as you can tell I do like my bagels.

Anyway the point is that I have always liked sesame/peanut noodles. I can remember my brother going through a phase where he was obsessed with ordering them at Chinese restaurants.

This recipe is for SURE not truly Asian, but it is Asian inspired.

It's from Cooking Light, but I have slightly adapted it to make it my own.

Ingredients you need to buy before getting too excited: Please note that the first measurement is what the magazine says. After it in parentheses is what I used.

8-12 oz uncooked spaghetti (I say go for the whole package!!)
1/2 cup chicken broth (maybe a little more...like 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter (closer to 1/3 cup!)
2 TB sesame seeds, divided into 1TB piles
1 TB brown sugar (overflowing and packed in there)
2 TB rice vinegar (plus an extra shake or two)
2 TB low sodium soy sauce (plus an extra shake or two)
1 TB fresh lime juice (just cut the lime in 1/2 and squeeze the heck out of it)
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (or siricha if you want spicier
2 TB canola oil
3/4 lb chicken tenders, cut in one inch pieces (I do more like 1 - 2 lbs)
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups matchstick carrots (true!)
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions (true!)
The recipe does NOT call for ginger....but it would be good in the peanut sauce so you can add it if you want.

Ok so first you trim the heck out of your chicken so that it is not fatty. Then you cut it up into small chunks. Cooks Illustrated recently said that it doesn't matter what kind of cutting board you use for your chicken as long as you use diluted bleach water to rinse it all off. Tom likes to yell "AH! Uncle Sal is here!!" whenever I cut chicken. "Uncle Sal" is salmonella. I found it amusing at first but now it's just getting old. Put your cut chicken aside.

Now you can kill yourself by peeling and chopping your carrots into matchsticks, or you can just buy 1-2 packages of matchstick carrots at the supermarket. Let me warn you though that those packages are often sort of dry and borderline almost going bad. So if you don't want to buy them, but baby carrots (which are always juice??? Why?) and slice those up. At least then you don't have to peel or cut as much. Really do 2 full cups - especially if you are opting for more chicken and more noodles like I do. Put carrots aside.

Now chop up a whole bunch of green onions/scallions. Put those aside.

Put the water on to boil for the pasta. While you wait for it to boil, get a bowl and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, peanut butter, sesame seeds (1 TB), chicken broth (I recently used beef broth and all was good), lime juice and hot sauce. I would use a whisk, but a fork works well too. One trick my mom told me (or maybe I read it) is to spray the measuring cup with some PAM before you add the peanut butter - then it will slide out lickety-split. Also here is where you might want to add a bit of ginger if you like it. It gives a nice tang to the sauce.

Now the sauce is made and the water is heating up. Put a frying pan on over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add the chicken, sprinkle with some salt, and saute until it is cooked. Then dump in the carrots and green onions and cook a few more minutes.

Drain your pasta, but save a few tablespoons of the water. Now dump the pasta into the pan with the chicken and carrots and green onions (or dump the chicken mixture into the pasta bowl) and then re-whisk the peanut sauce and add that too. Stir it all around and then sprinkle the rest of the sesame seeds on top.

I like to squeeze lime over my bowl too, and while I haven't done it, I bet some chopped cilantro would be delish on top too. Cilantro is amazing on everything.

Sorry no pictures - I just made this at a friend's house.

KitchenAids suck

Seriously? Why do KitchenAids come with a dough hook if they cannot handle mixing dough for bagels? This is quite ridiculous I might say. I just found another blog that talked about burning out their gears on bread dough (which is what I did). So I can take it in to get fixed somewhere and pay more than enough money OR I can take it apart and put in a new plastic gear for probably $10-$20. The problem is - I cannot make bread dough in it anymore.

Now I am going to break my arms kneading high gluten flour balls and I am going to end up spending more at the hospital to have my arms reattached! This is not a win-win situation.

The other option is to spend a ton of money on something that Bosch makes called the Universal Mixer
This will cost me $400 which is quite a lot. My solution is to wait a few months and see how many times I make bagels and bread. If I am still making it all the time (AND not weighing 200 pounds yet) then I will splurge. Hopefully this will coincide somewhat with my birthday and other people will just chip in on the mixer (especially Tom if he wants to continue eating bagels) and I will be all set.

Until then - watch out for my guns - I mean my arms. They muscles are going to be out of control from all of the kneading.

So delicious Allison might eat it (if she could pick out the string beans)

Tonight's dinner is one of our staples. My mom used to make it when we were younger - and then she even made it when we were older, but then she used FAKE meat instead of real beef. I can remember her trying to tempt my high school boyfriend into eating it and he was NOT having it. It's quick and easy and it comes from the hysterically named book "Living the High Carbohydrate Way" by Jane Brody. Hey is that really any crazier than eating NO carbs and lots of bacon? Not really.

To prove how much of a staple this meal is, look at the recipe card! It is a mess. You can still make out my mom's impeccable handwriting though. Beware: I don't perfectly follow this recipe - well really I just double the amount of beef! Everything else stays about the same.

First put some rice on to cook. I don't know what proportion of rice you like to the stuff on top, but I like quite a bit. So for the two of us and leftovers I make 1 1/2 cups of rice. I am not including a recipe for rice because that would assume that whomever reads this is stupid. Check your rice package.

Have a helpful assistant (or yourself) cut off the ends of the string beans and then cut them into pieces. You can make them as small or large as you want. Here's how we do it in the Hodgman household:

Ok I lied that does NOT show you the size, but I cut them into about 1/2s of thirds or fourths if they are really big. Notice the AMAZING new Shun knife that Tom is carefully using. Really... they are worth the investment.

When your string beans are cut up put them in a bowl - you will need it for later.

Get a bowl and make the sauce. Dump in 1/3 cup of broth - I don't know why it says it should be warmed, I think that is ridiculous, one heaping Tablespoon of soy sauce, one heaping teaspoon of cider vinegar, one heaping teaspoon of sherry, and two teaspoons of cornstarch (to thicken it up). The heaping amounts should only be if you choose to double the beef. If you like skimpy amounts of beef then don't heap the liquids! Mix this all up with a whisk making sure to incorporate the cornstarch in. You'll need to stir this again later, but now you can just leave it.

Heat a frying pan over HIGH heat for however long it takes for it to get hot. The recipe says 30 seconds but currently we have an insanely slow electric stove. 30 seconds is good on a gas stove for sure. Put in some canola/vegetable oil - I'd say about 1-2 Tablespoons (2T) and swirl it around. Dump in the green beans and maybe turn the heat to JUST below high. Stir and let them sizzle. Don't burn them, but the sizzle is a good sign. Cook them for about 4-5 minutes. Then dump them out of the pan into the bowl and put to the side.

Now it is here that the recipe unwisely tells you to add garlic and ginger to the pan. If you do that (as I have done countless times) you will burn the crap out of the ginger and garlic, and it will spit and burn the crap out of you. Take the pan off the heat for a little bit if electric.....if you have gas just turn it the HECK down and let it cool down. When it is somewhat cooler and you feel safe, add a little more oil to the pan (I always need a little more) and add the garlic - 2 teaspoons (2t) and the ginger. I add way more ginger than it calls for. I probably do 2T instead of 2t. I like ginger. I use the pre-bottled kind because I got sick of peeling the ginger and having it be all stringy and nasty.

Ok so stir the garlic and ginger for maybe 30 seconds to get some flavor out. Sometimes I don't even add them first - I just add the meat and garlic and ginger at the same time. I do not think there is a big difference - so you choose. Now dump in your meat. Then add in a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Once again add as much as the amount of spice that you want. Like I said before I like to add 1 pound of meat instead of 1/2 a pound. This is where you veggie-only eaters could add tempeh or some other fake "I taste like meat" substance. Stir the stuff until the meat cooks through. Then very carefully spoon off the grease. I like to pour it into a glass jar that is now empty (veering off from this idea, I find it sad that only small things come in glass jars. I still have fond memories of the old Hellman's glass jars being reused by my parents. Isn't plastic worse than glass? Or is just that it's cheaper?) There will be varying amounts of fat depending on what meat you bought. Spoon off as much as you can.

Now at this point hopefully your rice is done!

Re-whisk the sauce and dump it into the beef/ginger/garlic/red pepper flakes mixture. Stir and turn the heat up a bit. When it starts to thicken (30 seconds) then add the string beans and stir them up so they can get warm again. Serve over the rice. Ta-da.

                          

I'd say it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish (including prep time). This serves 2 people with enough leftovers for one big lunch or two small lunches (I am basing that on the way Tom and I eat). I have made it to feed 4 people, but I feel like that is stretching it a bit. I'd say 3 normal eating people and maybe an anorexic friend too.... but not 4 normal people.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Spinach...Healthy? Jury still out.

Ok I will not try to become one of nine million gazillion food blogs, however I really do like writing about food. My life (at this moment) is just not that exciting - but food is!

I made it through my first day back at work. In fact the second I saw the little second grade faces I melted and remembered that I adored them. Even though I left them in December all hyped up on sugar and looking like gremlins, they are once again normal looking and acting. Wow, I like them more off the sugar! We discussed presents and what we did over vacation. One second grader (not in my class) informed me that she loved, "the color of my hair." I am not sure how it is any different than the color it has been all year, but hey I'll take a compliment wherever I can right?

So back to cooking. Tonight I made. Wait I have to stop because Tom just informed me that I have soot covering my entire face. How is it that I rearrange the fire for 10 seconds and immediately am covered in soot, but Tom can play with the fire all night and have NO soot on himself. I don't get it. Ok so cooking. Tonight I made something that I started making a few years ago when Leah and I had cooking dates with each other (miss you Leah and Bailey....and Nate). It's a Cooking Light (although not very light) version of Spaghetti Carbonara (with the apparently healthy addition of spinach - although I'm not sure spinach makes bacon and cheese healthy). I will give simple instructions - hopefully Deana can even follow them!

First cut up some spinach. Cut up way more spinach than you could imagine needing to eat. It calls for a 6 oz bag of baby spinach. I think that's a lie. I buy the regular spinach and one bunch is seriously NOT enough - I would do two bunches. Cut off the stems and then chop it up a little bit, but not too small. Heat a frying pan and coat it with some cooking spray (or olive oil or butter if you please). Add the spinach and a little sprinkle of salt and let it cook until it wilts. Once again the recipe says 1 minute, but that is BS. I think it's more like 3 minutes.

While that's cooking chop up about 6 pieces of bacon into smaller pieces (you can probably do as much or as little bacon as you like....but you need something to add some flavor). Sharp knives (such as the ridiculously amazing Shun knives I now have) make it super easy. Take the spinach out of the pan and put it into a bowl. Now add the bacon. Beware that if you have bought organic not so fatty bacon (as we now do. I think we became official yuppies with this Seattle move) you might even want to add a bit of oil to the pan. Cook for as long as you want. Depends on how crisp you like your bacon. The lying recipe says 3 minutes but it has never taken me less than 6 minutes to get it even near to being crisp. Ok so now take the bacon out and put on a plate with a paper towel (if you have a better draining idea let me know).

Add about 1/2 a large onion (around a cup or so) to the pan with the drippings. If you used super fatty bacon then skim off the fat and leave maybe a tablespoon or so. If you used yuppie bacon you might need to add some oil. Cook the onions over medium to medium high heat (really i hate those ranges. On my stove I cook it at about a 7!). Scrape up the bacon goodness too while you are at it. Cook for about 3 minutes (that part is correct - yay recipe!) and then add 2 tablespoons dry white wine. I think you can add whatever you want here. I had no dry white wine tonight so I added sherry. It came out the same as before. I wouldn't stress about this part at all - no wine - whatever, don't add it. Ok so now the wine cooks off for like 30 seconds.

Oh crap....hopefully you have already started boiling your water. I think this pasta is better with spaghetti noodles rather than angel hair (I typically only eat angel hair...not sure why....but I like it the best). Recipe calls for 8 oz...I say make however much you want. I probably made about 12 oz. Just know that the more you make, the less sauce to go around. When you drain the pasta save about 1/4 cup of the liquid. Once again the recipe says 2 T, but I say save some more.

So the pasta is done and drained. The onions have cooked all yummy and brown. You now need to mix one entire egg and one egg white (today I did two eggs because I felt too lazy to separate... all was still delish), a pinch of salt and pepper and a ton (probably a packed 1/2 cup measure) of parmesan cheese. Those of you who know me know that I am addicted to Kraft cheese (I just am!), but I actually added a better quality tonight. The better the cheese I think the yummier the meal for sure. However I still advise putting Kraft cheese on top when you are done (I just can't help it). So you mix the egg, egg white, s & p and cheese with a whisk in a bowl. Put it in a big bowl or you will get egg chunks all over yourself!

Now dump the pasta into the pan with the onions. Add the extra cooking liquid from the pasta. Stir it all around. To make it easier to stir you might want to cut up the pasta while in the pan (I still cut my pasta when I eat it, so this makes me life doubly easy). Now add the bacon and spinach back in and put the pan at around a 4 (medium?). Mix it all around - good luck if you haven't cut your pasta!!! Now dump in the egg cheese goo mixture and stir stir stir. Cook long enough to not freak out about the egg. Recipe says 1 minute, I go for probably 3 minutes. Do this while still stirring. When all done sprinkle some parsley on top and then of course I like to cover my entire plate with parmesan cheese. YUM!

Cooking and Baking and Bagels Oh My

So if I were to not work I would spend time cooking and baking. These past two weeks I have been pretending that I will never work again. It was a great two weeks. Now I want to cry. I love my kids, but baking and cooking and snuggling the dog is WAY better than working.

With that said, here are a few things I decided to make TODAY, my last day of not working.

I made a batch of bagels - they SUCKED. I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe but I put it in the bread machine and I think it kneaded like 20 times longer than it was supposed to. We ended up with hockey pucks that tasted salty and gross. First totally failed bagel attempt. Of course we had our neighbors over to see our "amazing" bagels and then the bagels blew. See below. So sad and hockey puck like with no brown toasted look to them. GROSS!!

To redeem myself (and to try to forget that I have work tomorrow) I decided to make another batch. I followed an egg bagel recipe from a book of bread machine recipes that my mom got me years ago. I channeled Bob Ettinger briefly in thinking that nothing could supersede Cooks Illustrated, but then I thought, "What the hell?"

I threw all the ingredients into the machine and followed the directions completely. I even boiled them for 7 minutes (well maybe 6) instead of the 35 seconds suggested by the Cooks Illustrated recipe. They were way way way more soft and doughy than the other recipe (from the magazine that must not be named). Here they are in the oven:

I then brushed them with an egg glaze and added sesame seeds and baked them at a much lower temp (375 instead of 450) for a much longer time (35 minutes instead of 14). They appear beautiful.

They have a nice crunchy exterior and a chewy and delicious inside. They are not YELLOW like the egg bagels you buy in the store which leads me to believe that stores add some sort of yellow food coloring or something else gross. So take that Cooks Illustrated - yummy bagels with a TOTALLY different recipe that did not BREAK my Kitchenaid. Yes, the sad news is that my second to last bagel foray broke my Kitchenaid stand mixer. The motor still works but the gears don't. It will no longer turn. Too much gluten I suppose. I am not excited to get it fixed, but alas it will happen sometime.

Ok so while making the bagels I decided to make a Canadian spiced meat pie. This recipe is from Cooking Light. First Tom (my assistant) chopped up the onions, carrots, celery, potatoes and chives. I was busy bagel making. Then I browned the meat with cinnamon and cloves and some salt and red pepper flakes. Then I sauteed the veggies. Then I added the meat back into the mix and added some flour and chicken broth.

After the meat and broth was all thickened I dumped it into a pie pan and added a pie crust. Now it is happily baking in the oven. Picture of baked and delicious meat pie to come!

So I will leave you with Harper's Bagel Bazaar's first advertising picture. The tag line is - if Harper wants 'em then you'll want 'em too.

Ok I had to add some pictures of the totally baked pork pie. So delicious.