Saturday Kitchen Gadgets

This is a totally useless tool but I think it’s pretty funny looking.
It’s a safe cherry pitter.

This cracked me up, it’s a pig snout bowl/pan cover.

I think I’d buy this pizza cutter for Himself.

Now, this one I want! A bacon usb stick.
Because everything works better with bacon.

Dessert!

This recipe came from a friend.
I haven’t done many dessert yet, I tend to not have a sweet tooth but this one looks like good one to try for the weekend.

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Ingredients
Unsweetened cocoa
2 (8-ounce) packages semisweet chocolate squares, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar

Grease a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with unsweetened cocoa; set aside.
Melt chopped chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.
Whisk together egg yolks and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually stir in chocolate mixture; whisk until well blended.
Beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar dissolves and stiff peaks form. Fold one-third beaten egg white mixture into chocolate mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture just until blended. Spoon batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. (Do not overbake.) Let stand in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes before removing sides of pan.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions
In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips with cream over low heat. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool to just above room temperature, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 40 minutes.
Pour over cake, allowing some to flow down the edges to completely coat. Chill until set.

Add raspberries or strawberries when serving.

Enjoy!

Happy Wednesday!

How about spices?

I have a lot of spices, I’m a spice hoarder I guess.

Besides the usual, salt and pepper the question stands: do you need to go out and buy the spices you might normally not use on a regular basis?

Spices only keep so long unless you know you’ll be using say, tarragon, at least 4-5 times a month it’s probably not worth buying a large bottle.
I have saffron, there are so many uses for it to counter act the pricy-ness of it.
I have put a little bit on top of my mac and cheese, it gives it a bit of a kick.
But then again I tend to pick recipes that I know I have the spices for and because I do cook a bit outside the lines I do have the more “exotic” spices.

If you are planning to cook more of my foods then at first I’d suggest buying the smaller versions of things like tarragon, smoked paprika or the other spices I use.
With the shelf life of things like dried parsley and cilantro, definitely buy small.
You should cook with vibrant green herbs like that, not the grey kind.

To be honest I rarely toss spices, unless they caked/smell funky or of the grey kind.

I told you I’m a hoarder of spices.

Veggies and meat, easy in one dish.

I like dishes like these, they get assembled, go in the oven and are done.
No extra things to do but clean the kitchen.
This was an Emeril Lagasse recipe from over 20 years ago that I tweaked (I took out the rice)
I’ve used pasta sauce for the tomato sauce and if you want it leaner use just beef.

4 green bell peppers, tops cut away and seeds removed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch red pepper flakes
8 ounces tomato sauce
1/2 cup cheese, mozzarella is good.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling water, parboil the peppers until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry on paper towels.

In a large saute pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the shallots and chopped bell peppers and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes.
Add the beef, pork, garlic, parsley, salt, black pepper, and pepper flakes.
Cook until the meat is browned, about 6 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and stir well.
Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning, to taste.

Pour enough water into a baking dish to just cover the bottom, about 1/8-inch deep.
Stuff the bell peppers with the meat mixture and place in the baking dish.
Bake until the peppers are very tender and the filling is heated through, 25 to 30 minutes.

About 5 minutes before done sprinkle with cheese and allow it to melt.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Swedish Chef Sunday

More kitchen gadgets

If it wasn’t for my promise to Himself after buying rounded kebab skewers I’d be looking closer at these gadgets.

If you have to do dishes you might as well have some fun with it.

I think I could convince Himself, the scientist, that I need these. Cross contamination anyone?
Sadly, MoMa doesn’t sell them anymore.

If I needed big bonus points with The Boy I’d invest in this one, besides our toaster just died.

And, what is not great about these skewers?
Himself announced it was a !@#$ to take the meat off.

Blue, blue baby!

Yes this is a repeat, from 2010.
I do have a new fish recipe for Friday but wanted to take a picture but can’t before I make it right?
So that’s next week, until then try this one today.

Cod with Blue cheese.
For 4 people:

12-16 ounces True Cod or Rock Cod
2.5 ounces Blue cheese, Stilton, Danish Blue
4 ounces of Creme Fraiche or
Sour Cream but use less and use 3 ounces of Blue Cheese.
1/2 cup to 3/4 Cup sliced almonds, I like the ones with the skin on them
Parsley for decoration

Wash the fish and dry it.
Preheat oven to 325.
Mix Creme Fraiche and Blue Cheese until it becomes a paste.
Spread the mixture over the fish, I try not to get the edges. It will melt and coat the rest of the fish.
Sprinkle with almonds, use as much as you want.

Bake the fish for 20 minutes, less for thin pieces.
Fish should be flaky, so check it after 15 minutes.
The cheese will melt but should not burn.

Cooking block of sorts

The age old question “what do you want to have for dinner” doesn’t really come up in my house.
I do the planning and shopping.
And the cooking, that’s a given.
Himself and the Boy only fend for themselves Thursday night when I go to my craft night.
And even then there are plenty of options in the freezer or fridge.

I don’t do all this because I’m super-mom/woman, I have been the cook since early on in our relationship because (as Himself pointed out) “you can cook, if it were for me we’d eat poorly”.

I enjoy cooking and since the blog started I’ve expanded my cooking repertoire by quite a bit.
I want to offer tasty, easy food and with that comes the question “what food do I blog about today”
Sometimes it comes super easy and I’ll be able to blog while standing in line at the grocery store.
Most of the times I see a recipe, try it out and blog about it.
There have been a few times the recipe looked good but the flavors fell short and I needed to re-make it.
And then there are few lapses where I just don’t have a clue.

This is where YOU come in, what do you want to eat?
Pretend you’ll be sitting at my dinner table, it holds 10 after all, and you’ll be having dinner with us.

Thanks to this nifty little map WordPress shows me every day I know I have readers in far of places such as India,Poland, Italy and Indonesia!

Speak up and help me out!

Happy Wednesday!