I apologize

To all my followers, I apologize. I haven't been great at blogging my efforts to be a better cook. The truth is I completed a 21 day cleanse and gave up animal products, diary products, gluten, sugar, and caffeine. I felt great. After 21 day, I did a semi-cleanse and 2 days ago went back to my old pathetic ways and ate it all.

So on Monday, I am re-cleansing so that I can feel great again.

Cookies with Pinch My Salt

I found this amazing site when I did a recent search for potato leek soup. This woman has amazing photography and very step by step recipes (with pics). I am definately returning to this site. Check it out! These cookies were AWESOME! They are the lemon shortbread cookies from her site!

http://pinchmysalt.com/

Sunday afternoon Cooking

I took a week off from my resolution to recover from my horrible stomach flu. It's amazing what that can do to one's appetite. In fact, chicken broth never tasted so good. So the vietnamese restaurant in town became my mecca for the few days that I felt ill. Started up the cooking with a few recipes from the internet.
In the past, I looked up tomatillo salsa. It has become a staple in our house. Very simple. I use about 2 lbs of fresh tomatillos. I peel, wash, and roast them along with one yellow onion, and 2 roasted poblano peppers. Cilantro, salt, and pepper all get added to a blender and then I blend it all together. For this dish, I grilled chicken and then added the sauce. Nothing tough or challenging about this dish.
Here is the first step to my carnitas. I used about 2 lbs of pork shoulder and followed the standard recipe from the internet which uses orange juice. I am not going to repost the recipe as halfway through cooking, I noticed that things on the list of ingrediants were not added to the step by step procedure so I ad libbed midway through. After boiling with cumin, mexican oregano, orange juice, chicken broth, salt and pepper, I took it out and refried it. 2lbs lasted a few lunches and dinners here in my household.
I bought leeks a few weeks ago because I thought they looked cool. I had no idea what to do with them so decided to use them in a soup. This soup was really thick and I did have to add chicken broth to make it more "liquidy." The recipe was super easy and located at:

http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/03/19/a-hearty-potato-leek-soup-recipe-for-the-last-days-of-winter/

Natalia is my biggest fan. She eats almost everything that I make. She LOVED the soup and asked for a second bowl with a little cheddar cheese. Not your everyday soup, but it has been so cold so it works for me.

Stomach Flu

Thought it was something I ate, but it may be the stomach flu. I will not be cooking this weekend. I think soup (broth) is in order.

Marathon cooking day

Once again, the weather is rainy and cold. So my thinking was to make more comfort food. I set out to the market for ingredients to prep Ina Garten's Parker's Beef Stew, The Neely's Mama's Lasagna, Marcela Valladolid Chilaquiles with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, and another batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Now during the week last week, I did have the opportunity to make a delicious Chicken Scalopini from the Oprah's Favorite Cookbook. The chicken was breaded in pine nuts, parmesian, and panko crumbs. It was amazing.

The finished product. Had to ask my husband not to eat the left overs so we could have more the next night.

I've realized that I tend to bite off more than I can chew and cooking and prepping all these meals for the week has really drained me. I need a nap now. Fortunately, they all look delicious; however, was very disappointed in the chilaquiles as I may have undercooked the tortillas (it was more soft than a slight crunch). Anyway, I sprinkled it with feta (no Mexican cheese in the house) and took a few bites. Great salsa. Not my favorite dish.

Learning my Limit

Thinking today would be a good day for marathon cooking, I headed to store and filled up on ingredients for four dishes: Chicken Scalopini, Ropa Vieja, Pozole, gnocci, crab cakes, and chocolate cookies. I loaded up on veggies, meat, and chocolate chips at Trader Joes's and Raley's, but decided toward the end of the shopping spree to fan the crab cakes because I couldn't find the crab.

I got home and immediately started on the Ropa Vieja.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced (bottled)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 large onion (for about 1 cup slices)
• 2 lbs skirt steaks (or flank)
• 1 red bell pepper (for about 1 cup pieces)
• 1 green bell pepper (for about 1 cup pieces)
• 14 1/2 ounces garlic balsamic & olive oil diced tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked rice (for serving)
• All of that (omit the rice) goes into the crockpot for 8 hours. Done!
• Next, I started on the Pozole (Natalia's favorite). I have a favorite recipe and went searching internet to locate another copy. Well, I ended up chosing a another one and it did not taste the same. It's not bad, but not my favorite. I won't post the recipe and will do my best to locate the one that taste terrific. Natalia is not concerned. Its her favorite "sopa."

Dropped the idea of cooking Chicken Scalopini tonight. I'm getting tired.

• While all of this is happening, potatoes are baking in the oven. I decided to defrost the chicken for the scalopini and begin making the cookie dough. The recipe for the cookies comes from someone else's blog. I made them last year and realized that if I didn't want to weigh 200 pounds, i should stop making them. Once in a while isn't bad right. Back to the gnocci. Crap! The Cuisanart doesn't work and I don't have a ricer. I have cooked potatoes on the counter and decided to sit and watch Oprah while eating chocolate chip cookies.
• The Ropa Vieja is still slow cooking. I'll update my post later to share the results.

Ina Garten's Company Pot Roast (or not)

Okay...I admit. My first mistake. I am not an avid meat eater, nor do I peruse the meat counter at the supermarket. So when I bought the meat for Ina Garten's Company pot roast, I didn't realize I bought a prime rib and not a chuck roast. I'm still a bit puzzled on the difference.

So in order not to ruin a good prime rib, I decided to save all the ingredients for the the company pot roast and season the prime rib for the oven. In it went at 6:55 with salt, pepper, and garlic to emerge from the oven at 135 degrees 1 1/2 hours later....a nice medium rare. I had a few tiny pieces and surrendered it to my husband for lunch time consumption.

Now during the week, I dare not promise many cooking attempts, but I shall return for a new cooking experience on Thursday or Friday. I'm thinking about testing out the slow cooker. Hmmm.....decisions, decisions. Any suggestions?