cheers to the sun...

...because it gets butter to room temperature faster :p 

Our favorite view. I hope the dogs don't knock down the solar lights we just installed!

I think this kitchen view always makes our dishes better. It's THE little sumthin' sumthin' that makes food special,
not drool that gets mixed into my brownie batter, as some have speculated.

Rarely photographed but I love these trees. They make me feel...smaller.

The sun is one of the things I am really grateful for lately. I can go to sleep without a jacket on. I love the cool weather in the farm, don't get me wrong, but a little variation is always fun. I love how one day I need to wear a hoodie, socks, Crocs (yes, I do now), and terry cloth pants and the next, I can wear a shirt, slippers and, well, terry cloth pants still. :p 

This dude is missing his terry cloth pants but looks to be enjoying the sun too.

Even the cupcake frostings I made over the weekend are celebratory of the sunny days. As I was about to put the BEST frosting EVER on the now on-demand (mind the small audience I have here) red velvet brownies, I had to stop myself and put the spatula down. I don't know if it's the five-times-in-two-weeks-is-too-much syndrome or the general let's-get-out-of-this-before-it-becomes-a-rut panic attack, but I just wanted to put another frosting on those brownies. I like to change it up. I'm crazy like that. I'm also boring like that. However you want to judge it. Anyway, I decided to make this cream cheese frosting instead.  I know, it's the classic combo and there's a reason for it. The frosting cuts through and complements the richness of the brownies. PERFECT. I just wanted to be a bad-ass and frost it with something non-cream cheese-y. Go against convention. Be the cool, non-conformist new baker. I failed. 


Now with a bowl of the BEST frosting EVER (red velvet exception already emphasized earlier) sitting in the fridge, I decided to make the Amy Sedaris vanilla cupcakes. I wanted to make the Magnolia Bakery recipe but I had only one egg left in the pantry, so...there. A good recipe but not quite the super moist cake I was looking for. I probably overbaked it since it was darker than the picture called for BUT it had a really great egg-y taste which I loooooved. 


I divided the frosting into two and added one heaping (HEAPING) tablespoon of Nutella to one (I've been meaning to make Nutella cookies and haven't gotten around to it, so thanks to Kats for the cupcake inspiration) and smooth peanut butter to the other. VOILA. BEST frosting EVER now even BEST-er!! :) 

I know. I need to use frosting bags. I don't know if I'll ever have the energy for it though. 

There is no limit to the Nutella you can add to the frosting recipe. It is ALL goooood.

Ditto for peanut butter. Go ahead. You know you want to. 

Important note, in case the photo captions are not clear enough: add as much Nutella or peanut butter as you like. Of course, consider the consistency of the frosting as you go too. You don't want a thick blob on your cupcake that you can't handle. Whatever that limit is :p


xoxo, 
Janice

big things come...

...in big packages. 


That's the case this week, at least. After a less than ideal Tuesday morning (my fault...of course), we came home early and found our duty-free port purchases being delivered and assembled in the garage!! Weeeeheeeeeeeee!! 


Mr. G got this (or as he says, WE got this) as a wedding present from the godparents R&D (a hundred bear hugs are not enough!!):

Yes, we have a small house but we make room for important stuff  :p

BUT I got this:

I clearly won "Most Metallic Purchase" 

...which now allows me to have these any time I want...

FYI: These are red velvet cupcakes. Just in case they looked like something else.

...well, not ANY time. There are times when I don't want to lift a finger and I wish the cookies would bring me, ummmm, themselves dunked in a glass of milk. I made these after we had cooked lunch for more people who were helping out, fixed cables, cleaned floors and walls previously covered by old cabinets and the oven. So we REALLY deserved to have some cupcakes. My friend Kats had been asking me to make these cupcakes and frosting for a while and I thought the new oven deserved a chance. It didn't disappoint but I was not wowed since I think I left them in the oven for too long. I was so used having to bake something for at least 50% longer than the recommended time that I didn't check on it too soon. 


BUT they were still pretty darn good. 


Mr. G ate two of these out of boredom the next day. 


We still think the red velvet brownies are better. Frosting for that is still THE BEST EVER. Which is good for me because the hardest thing about making cupcakes is putting the batter in the molds. Too messy. And I'm a lazy ass. Then again, I get to eat all the batter I clean out from the sides of the molds. Yoohoo. 


Anyway, lunch (and dinner) that day was chicken curry. Oh what can I say. Curry paste is heaven. It should be made into currency. It makes life yummy. YUMMY. 

I had intended to follow Donna Hay's thai chicken curry recipe but I couldn't find any fish sauce here and I wanted to use some potatoes too. So I searched for another one and found this chicken curry with potatoes recipe from Rasa Malaysia. I married the two recipes with my special home cook license and voila! Fragrant, yummy, tummy-filling curry!

Peeling the potatoes is optional. I got baby potatoes because I'm lazy.

xoxo,
Janice

snippets of the long weekend

Okaaaaay...


So, I haven't posted in a few days and someone already noticed. :p Anyway, I was happy to see on Facebook and i-message updates that my sisters and several friends were going on cooking sprees while I was pigging out 6 hours away from home. My hubby and I went with our godparents (in marriage) R & D, to Golfito to ogle, well, buy appliances and other stuff (ooops) in the duty-free port. I won't go into the gory details of what we bought for the house and wish we could take home (yes, stand mixer, you), but I will say we had THE most amazing time and gorged on the yummiest food. :) And yes, I remain to be a dumb-dumb and forgot to take pictures during the trip, but with a new camera in hand, I promise to document our next trips better. 


After we got back, we spent the following day on a cooking and baking spree since we...ummm...like to eat? Okay, so it was so we could use up leftover ingredients that almost went bad while we were out. It's hard to not have stuff get spoiled when you're only cooking for two (with an appetite for four) and most things in the grocery are packaged for more people to consume. 


Anyway, thus banana cupcakes. They turned out a little greasier than I thought they should. But who else is to blame but me because I used an entire stick of butter instead of about 3/4 because I was too lazy to guesstimate how much to leave in the container. ANYWAY... 

Mashing bananas is good for anger management.

...and PF Chang lettuce wraps, which is the best thing to cook (after fried rice) to use up leftover food in the fridge and pantry. The sauce is to die for too! Can be used for salads, just add more lemon or vinegar if you want.Thanks to my friend Anya who is also getting domesticated over in the coast of Australia for this idea :) 

Lettuce, schmettuce. We ended up eating this with rice.

We were also having some friends over after lunch, so we made our favorites to share: red velvet brownies...

I love the dude...so I handed over the whisk after mixing. 

...and chipotle wings. I. LOVE. YOU.

Wings for the brave.

It was a super nice and sunny day and a lot of them came out to play :p

Candy is the queen of the deck.

Bright additions to any party.

Of course, also those who can have chocolate and (tons of) alcohol. 

The weekend extended to the next morning as memories (or the lack of) courtesy of four vodka cranberries kept haunting me. I thought I was going insane when I looked out the kitchen window and saw this:

How was I surprised?! We have horses. We live in a farm.

xoxo, 
Janice


P.S. My new babies just arrived. Will drool over these after my much-needed nap! 

Dear Donna and Ina - We thank you for the excess pounds.

an apology to our oven

Okay. So...I have not been shy to blame all my so-so baked creations on our 20-ish old oven. Cake not too moist? Oven was too hot. Brownies with a burnt top? Oven was dumb. And the list goes on. 

friend or foe?

I owe this oven the biggest apology given by a human to a non-living thing. I don't know how many other times this has happened in history, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the most important one. 


After giving us the best chipotle wings this side of town (I don't know how competitors there are either), and the most awesome red velvet brownies EVER (it's the first we've tasted but still...whatever... the BEST...on top of it was the best frosting EVER too), and most recently, moist and tasty chicken with olives, I should have known it was never the oven's fault. 


I. AM. AN. AIRHEAD. Let's take this in the general sense and not get into specific circumstances, eh? It boils down to me not reading recipes well enough. For example, there is a SLIGHT difference when recipes ask for degrees C or F in oven temperatures. Basic stuff like that. An average person would have known. But I ain't average. I am below that. Vertically. And otherwise. 


So I suppose, I should move on to the most recent gifts from this oven to close out this apology. I'll feature the most recent 2 which have given us so much joy, we've allotted a specific range of weight gain this month just so we can enjoy without guilt. 


First up, red velvet brownies. I don't even need to tell you more than my husband ate 6 of these before lunch. I got a text from him after Spanish class saying, "There is cheese cake no more :( sorry!!" Okay, to get this right, let me set 2 facts straight: one, they were brownies (he loved them so much they could have been called doogie-shmoo-poo and he would have eaten them anyway); and second, he didn't eat them ALL. He just ate all the contents of the first of two containers. And his justification when I called him to get an explanation: "BUT baaaaabe, you said to eat something before lunch because it wouldn't be until 130pm!!" 

moist inside with a delicious layer of crunch on top

oh yes, those are squiggly frostings. because I'm fancy like DAT. but i later decided to squish down all of them.

I would marry this brownie if I weren't already taken.

I married the most awesome dude. 


Sooooo...the reason lunch would not be until 130pm that day was because I made chicken with olives via a recipe by Pioneer Woman. The lady knows her dark meat is all I can say. This is a slightly more complex "prep and forget-about-it" meal. I still managed to lay down on the couch with my husband while the chicken was in the oven. So, I say it counts under this category. I'm trying to rack up a couple of these easy meals to make so I can still cook when I start working. I imagine our weekdays to be: get home, prep ingredients, stick it in the oven or leave on the stove, shower or email (ahem), take it out, eat, wash dishes, eat dessert, brush teeth, sneak another dessert, brush teeth, pass out with a cookie in one hand. PERFECT. 

chicken thigh heaven

thanks for being so good. 

In other news, we just survived our first domestic disaster. I found it weird that there were flies around the kitchen. So we lit up candles (his 30th birthday ones) and put them on top of...an egg carton. My idea. OF COURSE. Soon enough, the whole thing lit on fire. Mr. G threw it out on the deck steps, managing to drop some burning bits of egg and carton on the couch and floor. Ergo...

and this is not even the worst burnt bit on the couch

this used to be my favorite pillow

I love how together, Mr. G and I manage to get into these comedic episodes. Anyway, time to get some more eggs! :)


xoxo,
Janice

yes, we can be healthy...

...despite what would be the most obvious judgement of us after the butter, sugar, and calorie fest we had over the weekend.

yes, we had intended to gain some weight after getting sick over our wedding week, BUT we had probably not chosen the best path to our goal. ooops. So as a couple, we VOWED to eat better yesterday right after we downed more chocolate cupcakes ala mode after lunch. luckily, I chatted with my best friend Mela (who now lives in Sydney and is becoming domesticated too) who mentioned her weekend lunch: a grilled vegetable sandwich. ding ding ding. fantastic idea all over: solves the dilemma on what to do with the vegetables in our crisper, it's pretty easy to do, and SEEMS like a light meal. 

The result? A fantastic dinner which was everything BUT light. :p Of course. Trust us to turn it into a big meal, no matter the original intent. Anyway, the point it, it was a great meal which I will now classify as "prep and forget" kind of meal, that is, you prep (chop then toss in olive oil, salt and pepper) for 5 minutes and then put it in a pre-heated oven and forget about it...as long as you remember to set your alarm to take it out of the oven after 45 minutes. During the waiting time, we had a little snack of chips and salsa because...that's what we do when we're...waiting. :)

So, back to the meal. Once it was out of the oven, we toasted some bread, sliced the avocado (Mela had said this was the "binder" of all the veggies in the sandwich...she was right), and took out some salt & pepper and kalamata olive spread for our condiments. 

hello there. onions, garlic, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes,  and zucchini

because we're fancy like that

A DIY open sandwich night...an invitation to overeating BUT hey, it's only veggies :p 

Mr. G's version. first of four.

my baby for the night. with the olive spread.

...here's the second one because I am an idiot and I forgot to put roasted garlic on my first sandwich. BOY did it make a world of a difference. And a note to couples who are still trying to be cute with each other: omit the garlic. Else, your relationship will take a turn either for the better or worse :p

...because I can and I REALLY wanted to have a second  serving.

Because we were SOOOO good and healthy for dinner, we had more cupcakes ala mode an hour after. We so deserved it. 

xoxo, 

Janice

cookin' saturday

Mr. G is finally home from his business trip and a beautiful sunny Saturday (and a giddy me) welcomed him! :) 

After hugs for him and my new Ina Garten cookbook, we headed to the grocery for some much-needed edible retail therapy :) Of course, there was no other thing to do next other than to cook, eat, nap, cook, eat for the rest of the day. Perfect. 

First up, a very easy paella dish from Donna Hay. I just substituted shrimp for some mexican chorizo which I had used in my Jamie Oliver carbonara the day before. AND after sauteing everything, I just dumped it in the rice cooker and added the meat when most of the liquid was gone. I got a little stressed when the cooker turned off and the rice was still hard, so I just added more water and let it cook for a little more (and kept it in "warm" mode for 10 minutes before serving).

It smelled and tasted awesome. Mr. G declared it could be one thing he can eat a few times a week, which made me super happy because it was easy to make, so it won't be too stressful to make once I start working. Of course, variations are needed - different meats, add eggs, shrimp, eat it with potato chips (which is the only way we can eat here). Live a little, go crazy!

easiest paella. adding boiled eggs would be the hardest part. 

I suggest ogling her site because most recipes are not too daunting. I'm not sure which networks carry her show, but fortunately we have it here, which is how I discovered her stuff! 

Of course, we HAD to have dessert, despite being so full from the paella. We heated up one of the chocolate and cheesecake brownies (disastrous-looking) from the day before and topped it with vanilla ice cream. AWESOME. The inside was soo gooey and perfect. It wasn't such a disaster after all :p The result: 

napping at the deck...

...and then later at the couch (okay, we drooled over Tempur mattresses and pillows for while)...and then off to sleep. We woke up at 630pm. I know, we are awful people. But that's how we spend our Saturdays. It can be worse. WORSE. Believe me. Anyway, we finally got up and prepared for dinner. Oh yeaaaaah. Mr. G was in charge of drinks: 

the man loves green label. 

...and I made these: 

chipotle wings. sides: vodka cranberry and JW green label on the rocks.

Thanks to my friend Katrina, who recommended this marinade to me. I used chicken wings instead of thighs because...I felt like it. I will be eternally grateful to the beautiful and funny Christy Teigen who introduced this recipe to the masses. The recipe is basic and chipotle IS hot, so you can modify the recipe to your taste (Christy recommends this). I almost put 2 CANS of chipotle vs the 2 pieces the recipe called for. Remember, I'm an airhead. Katrina was kind enough to tell me that I should add at least 3 times the amount of sugar before tasting. Boy am I glad I followed her because I would have passed out if I tasted the basic recipe. The stuff is HAAAAWT. I almost choked and Mr. G asked what was going on in the kitchen because I was making weird sounds. Anyway, more lemon, ketchup and sugar helped tons. I just marinated the chicken in the marinade, threw it in a pre-heated oven and an hour later, I had a front row seat to this: 

the man loves his wings too.

Oh boy was it oh so spicy, tangy, sweet, juicy. Everything we want in wings, which is one of the things we are absolutely bananas about (also: Amazon, Apple, etc). If it's too much, just eat it with sour cream or blue cheese dressing...or just drink more. If you can get your hands on chipotle (I use the canned ones), then PLEASE make the marinade. It will be money well spent. 

I have another cranberry vodka to down before we move on to our LOST marathon, so I need to go now. :p 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

xoxo, 

Janice

try and try...

Since my last entry, I've baked two more times with mixed results. I still blame our old oven since I'm getting less than desired textural results. It could ALSO be that I'm a big bonehead when it comes to combining ingredients. Okay, I just won the discussion in my head (duh) and it's easier to blame the damn oven. :p


Day 4: Start of foodgawker experiments. First, a warning on foodgawker (and dwellinggawkr...and houzz. This requires another blog entry.) - DO NOT download any of these apps on your iphone (or better...iPad) if you have concerns on productivity. It will decline yours. Believe me. I spend hours ogling pictures and recipes on this site. I justify this since I am still on leave from work BUT you know, whatever. 

highly addictive. don't say you i didn't warn you.

Anyway, first was the chocolate chip cookies from Scientifically Sweet. Mine turned out way fatter BUT were chewy, which is my biggest criteria for cookies. So I'm happy and will likely stick to this recipe for a while BUT will try in another oven. :p I will leave the search for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe to my friend Katrina, who is doing an AWESOME job. I won't get in the way of her methodology, and will hope to benefit from the results ;) She is also responsible for introducing Ina Garten's herbed egg recipe and chipotle chilies to us common folk, so she knows her stuff. 

milk-dunkability: serious competition for oreo

Day 5: No cooking. Finished an entire container of yellow rice and chicken from the grocery PLUS chips (best ever. Another blog entry needed) AND leftover steak from lunch the day before. Entonces (I am learning Spanish after all), I fell asleep on the couch right after eating and wasted the entire afternoon. An ode to my single life...brings back fond memories with my sister. :)


Day 6: One recipe found via foodgawker for chocolate and cheesecake cupcakes and another via my wonderful Jamie Oliver app for sausage and zucchini carbonara. 

let me TRY to explain

Okay, so yes, they look less than desirable. I agree completely. They came out WAY different than expected. 


It turned into a complete meal: (1) the top is crunchy and can be used as a scooper, (2) the sides are perfect and can be the main course, and (3) the middle is gooey and can be the condiment. :p


I think I put them at the wrong temperature (seriously, I can't figure out how to  work our stove) and as per the layering, I think next time, I'll put the cheesecake mixture at the bottom or at least swirl it around with the chocolate base, instead of putting a big dollop on top, which caused the collapsed look. Taste-wise, only minor adjustments needed: less chips and use milk chocolate vs semi-sweet. 


I also had some leftover mixtures, so I dumped it in a loaf pan and I think it yielded better results - as brownies. I know it doesn't look too good, but it is :p 

Now before I get to the main course, I have to say Jamie Oliver is a rock star. Therefore, I begged pretty please to my husband so I could buy the recipe sets for this app. A total of $10 bucks well spent. :) Anyway, on to the results.

thanks to Mata for the recommendation :)

 


Okay, carbonara was...PERFECT. Spicy mexican sausage, sweet zucchini and onions, creamy egg sauce, and smooth tagliatelle. I. WANT. MORE. It is taking every pound of me to not touch the leftovers for my husband who is arriving from a business trip tonight. Poor Mr. G. Seriously, people! It is simple to make and absolutely delicious. A few simple steps: 


1. Cook pasta as per package directions. 
2. Saute onions and sausage (until brown) in olive oil. Add zucchini and cook until soft. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Whisk egg yolks, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese in a bowl. Season with pepper. 
4. Drain pasta and immediately pour into the bowl with the egg and cream mixture. The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs. (I am drooling as I type this.)
5. Pour sausage and zucchini mixture to the pasta or vice versa (ie pasta and egg mixture to the saute pan). Taste but resist the urge to finish the whole thing. Oh, season again if you must before serving.
6. Drool. Serve. Drool. Eat. 

my insides are calling for more of this

I need to finish this blog entry before I eat more of the carbonara...and the brownies. I've had 3 cupcakes. And it's only 8pm. 


xoxo, 
Janice