Thursday, January 27, 2011

Semi-Apologies, Big News, Crab and Tortellini Soup...

First of all, I semi-apologize for being absent last week and the good majority of this week. There have been some major developments among The Lady's household, and so I've been managing that.

What are these developments? Well! Frank and I will finally be moving OUT of the box! We've secured an apartment within the Country Club Villa complex in North-East San Jose. It's situated at the edge of the Foothills right near the San Jose Country Club. On February 13 (Happy Valentine's Day to us!) we'll get the keys to our huge, 900 sq ft 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. That's right, I said it! 2 whole bedrooms and 2 whole bathrooms! I was literally lost for words when I got the call that our applications had been approved. We're planning a combo House warming/Birthday Party on April 2nd, so keep your eyes open for that!

As for the crab, well, what can I say... The January Sons of Sicily Crab Feed was amazing, as usual. Since February's feed is always so crowded and sells out quickly, January is more relaxed and roomier. Despite the crab being small, it was delicious! I'm nearly an expert crab cleaner and I didn't get one single whole piece of crab out of the shells I cleaned. I was a little frustrated with my ability, but then I realized it had everything to do with the way they were cracked, and the size of the crab. ugh! Anyway, I'm very excited about February's crab feed, because I fully intend to eat my weight in crab with my whole family. That photo is me and momma at last years January Crab Feed.



And now, this amazing creation I made for dinner I call Spicy Tortellini Soup! This soup didn't follow a recipe, rather, I'm trying to clean out my refrigerator in an effort to NOT move food. So I knew that we had a package of tortellini, some chicken broth, a can of tomatoes and a bag of onions onions. I picked up some spicy italian sausage links, spinach and green onion at the store, and used everything else from home. 

I removed the sausage from the casing and crumbled and browned it in the bottom of a heavy pot. I sauteed diced onion and crushed garlic in the renderings from the sausage. I added a can of diced tomatoes flavored with roasted garlic to the mix. I let it all simmer together and dissolved 2 chicken bullion cubes in hot water. I buy the cheap kind, it's called Caldo de Pollo. I added that to about 4 cups of water let it warm before adding it to my big pot. I also had about 2 cups of left over chicken broth from the Cream of Cauliflower soup so I threw that in as well.

After the whole pot was boiling, I added a whole 1 lb package of cheese tortellini. I salted the soup with a hefty serving of Pete's salt, black pepper, garlic powder and dried basil. As the tortellini were about done cooking, I added about 3 cups of chopped fresh baby spinach. When the tortellini were done cooking I turned the burner off and let the spinach wilt and the soup cool. I served it with plain biscuits and topped it with Parmesan cheese and green onion. Keep in mind that isn't my photo because I'd left my phone in the car and didn't take a one. Sorry! There's a lot left over and I brought some for lunch today, so I might replace this photo with my own before lunch.

The result: Wow, this soup was really good. While I felt it needed some additional flavoring, it came out really well for not having a recipe, and for never having made soup. If you have any recommendations for adding some flavor, I'd love to hear them!

Keep an eye out for another recipe coming soon, and you can be sure to expect a video tour of the empty box apartment. I might even give a "before" tour of the new apartment and one "after" when it's all furnished! In the words of the wonderful Ru Paul "I'm so excited I could just spit!"

Absolutely,
The  Lady

Thursday, January 13, 2011

No Recipe, New Cautionary Tale and Other Useless Information

So While the plan was supposed to be a new recipe every week, this week has been crazy with unexpected events to keep both Frank and I busy. Monday my mom and I went shopping, as we do almost every Monday that my dad attends his weekly meeting with the 7:30 Club, but this time Frank went with him for guest night. Apparently he's considering joining. Who knew? Haha! 

Tuesday yielded a slow day at work and I was excited to try a new recipe that night, but lo and behold, the King of the Empire (owner of the company I work for), wasn't feeling well and raffled off his 2 pairs of Sharks tickets (we're talking 12th row, center ice), so Naturally I had to enter. And I won. Frank was in a dull mood and tired, so I called my best gal Laura and of course she was raring to go, I mean, who wouldn't be (except Frank)? So we ventured to the Sharks game where there was an alarming number of Toronto Maple Leafs fans around us and I couldn't help but yell "GO BACK TO CANADA" every chance I got. The Sharks ended up loosing and I decided I'm going on a Sharks hockey hiatus for the next 3 weeks to see if they can pull their shit together again.


Last night I had  my monthly board meeting for the WAC over at the Drying Shed on the east side. I don't like driving over there by  myself so I caught a ride with Frank's mom Janet. We chatted about moving and all that and worked some things out. Also, the apartments we've decided we'd really like to move to are over in that area, not to mention Frank's aunt and some of our other family friends live in the same complex, so I spoke to one of the women in my club who helps manage them (as her family owns them) and we're hoping to be able to move into a 2 bedroom on her property by the end of March. Ugh, moving is getting so close I can almost taste it, I'm dreading packing, but can't help dreaming of all the space that would be offered with a 2 bedroom, rather than a 450 sq ft box!

So now, aaaaallllll of this brings us to today, where I'm working hard and hardly working all at the same time and my mother and I and hopefully a few other women will walk 2 miles at the Campbell Community Center tonight at 6pm. If you're reading this, available, and in the area, you should come join us. We don't walk super fast, but we're done in under an hour and then go home and have a healthy dinner. So come on out! We may have a new recipe tonight, I'm not sure. It depends on if I go home and cook for Frank and myself or if we go over to mom's. 

And now, for the cautionary tale. If you ever decide to wax your arms at home, by yourself, I would advise against it if you'd like to keep your top layer of skin... Haha! I know it doesn't sound funny, but it is, because I decided that since I wax my eyebrows, and my sideburns, and I used to wax my legs that I could totally wax my arms. and I did, for about 10 minutes and then realized I'd also waxed off some skin near my wrist on my left arm. So I concluded nothing good could come of this anymore and I should stop. You really couldn't tell unless I pointed it out to you, and really, it just looked like a peeling sunburn. I know, I know: I'm lucky I didn't pull more skin off. It didn't hurt and as soon as I realized what I did I stopped and cleaned myself up and slathered the freshly waxed area with neosporin. So now, the next time I decide I need to remove the hair on my arms and I want results that will last longer than shaving, I will totally go to a salon and have someone else rip the hair out of my skin. Thanks for making it seem so easy, Sally Hansen. You liar!

Oh, By the way, I made this for my sister for her birthday... Happy Birthday Baby Boo!


Absolutely,

The Lady



Friday, January 7, 2011

Mediterranean Pizza Skillet and a 3 mile walk.

Alright, so the original plan for this blog was to cook one new recipe a week, however, this week I made 2 different dishes. I just couldn't help myself because they both looked so good! So after making the crab cakes on Tuesday night I was on a kick, so I ran with it. Even though Frank had to go do laundry, I brought everything to his mom's house to make dinner. I loved this dish! It's a Mediterranean pizza skillet, and literally, it's a one pan meal.

Of course, we never follow recipes exactly around here, so here's what I did: I used chicken tenders seasoned with Pete's salt, cut them into little chunks and sauteed them with garlic for about 5 minutes. I added 1 can of diced tomatoes flavored with garlic and basil, and 1 can of drained quartered artichoke hearts packed in water. I let that boil for about a minute and then reduced the heat to low. While it was cooking down I sliced medium black olives in half along with some green onion. I tossed just the olives into the pan, leaving the olives for later. I sliced a loaf of soft French bread, put it on a cookie sheet and broiled it on high for about 4 minutes, this way the top gets nice and brown but the bottom stays soft. 


When the bread was done I removed it and let it cool a bit while I added baby spinach to the pan. I rubbed the toasted side of each slice of bread with raw garlic and spread butter over the top and put it back on the pan. Then I put them back in the warm oven until the spinach was wilted. I topped the skillet mixture with the green onions.I placed 2 slices of bread on each plate and topped them with the skillet mixture and a sprinkling of garlic and herb feta cheese.




The result? Good grief! This dish is amazing! It's a one pan wonder and I will most definitely make it again. Total cooking time for the whole skillet is about 20 minutes, and you prepare the bread during that time, too. I served this with a salad and Frank's mom made these delicious cauliflower fritters (another recipe soon to come, don't worry). 

My only suggestion would be to leave out the chicken next time and make it a vegetarian dish, OR crumble some Italian sausage and then follow the same recipe. The recipe I had called for kalmata olives rather than black olives, and romaine lettuce or escarole instead of spinach. I had a can of black olives and didn't want to buy the others, and I don't like warm lettuce and escarole is expensive. So I adjusted based on what I know we all like, and it was great. Definitely a 4 star dish!

And now for the more exciting part, tomorrow morning I will join my mom, Frank's mom, a co-worker and some of the women from our Women's Auxiliary Club to walk 3 miles. This group began around this time last year and I joined them in February and the pounds just started melting off, so at the start of this year I took the initiative and contacted all the women and let them know my mom and I wanted to start walking again. Hopefully we'll stay on track (no pun intended) and keep going through out the year. We'll meet at least 2 days a week. Once on Saturdays for a 3 mile walk at Almaden Lake, and once during the week, typically Wednesday, for a 2 mile walk in Campbell. This is the year to get fit... for all of us. I can feel it.

Absolutely,
The Lady




Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Crab Cakes and a Mini Fridge!

Alright, so, I'm really proud of myself thus far. I've already lost almost 2 pounds, and I've been really diligent about bringing my lunch to work. I was spending a lot of money on lunches because I refused to either A) Make my own lunch, or B) Put anything in the fridge in the kitchen at work because it's like a science experiment. So my dad brought me a mini fridge he had in the basement at my parents' house. Now it's stocked full of fruit cups, yogurt, lite cream cheese, bagel thins and water. Plus it let's me bring my lunch to work. My new favorite thing is  a whole wheat pita pocket spread with lite chive cream cheese and stuffed with lettuce and turkey. It's what I've brought for lunch the last few days and it tastes really yummy.

Anyway, how about some Crab Cakes! My mom and I found this recipe online and while I mostly followed it, I didn't really measure everything exactly. So, really, they're not hard to make at all! We mixed plain panko bread crumbs and mayonnaise with lemon juice, black pepper, red pepper sauce, parsley, green onion, dijon mustard and egg yolks. After mixing that together, I gently folded in about 12-16 oz fresh crab meat. The recipe called for 18 oz canned lump crab meat, we used  fresh since we had all that crab! If you're going to use fresh crab meat, check it for shells! We had 2 containers of crab, I dumped the first one in and picked through the second one since I saw a shell. Oops! Should have picked through both of them because Frank and momma found a few shells!


After I folded the crab meat into the binding mixture I made the breading mixture. More panko bread crumbs, melted butter and old bay seasoning. I know that panko bread crumbs are unsalted, I added a sprinkle of Pete's Salt (the seasoned salt Frank's godfather makes)*, and since Old Bay seasoning can be a little strong, I didn't measure it, I just added it to taste. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup and packed down the cakes and coated them with the buttered bread crumbs and placed them on a baking sheet. The recipe said measured 18 crab cakes and I made 17. So it was pretty spot on. We baked them in the oven for more time than is said and didn't flip them because when we tried the first one, it almost fell apart.

The results? Delicious! My only comment would be that next time, I will absolutely ad more flavors, like some Pete's Salt to the crab mix, more onions and some garlic powder. But man oh man, with some tarter sauce, they were so good! Damn near restaurant flavor! You can find the recipe we used here on AllRecipes.com. Though we substituted green onion for chive, used fresh crab rather than canned and used less Old Bay seasoning and added Pete's Salt.


Also, I've designed and printed out sheets to help me plan dinners each week. This way I know what we're having and can take things out of the freezer accordingly, rather than arguing with Frank about what we're having for dinner when I get home from work. It also has a little box for "notes". Like last night I made Crab Cakes at mom's house, and tonight I'm making a skillet pizza dish, but we'll be eating at Frank's parents', so it gives me a place to note that. While I was this morning I learned that if you serve dinner from the stove or the counter rather than from the table, your almost 50% less likely to have a second or third helping because you really make yourself think about if you want to get up and serve yourself if you're not still hungry. Which is what we do in the Box because there's not enough room on the table, but still, I think I'll keep this in mind anyway. If you'd like to receive a PDF copy of the meal planner, feel free to comment here, contact me on facebook, or if you know my email, send me a personal email.

I will definitely update tomorrow with how the pizza skillet goes. It should be really good!

Absolutely,
The Lady

*A note about Pete's Salt: We have no idea what's in it, and he won't tell anyone. It's a seasoned salt, but it's much different than Lawry's. It's mostly white, has hints of garlic and onion as well as oregano or parsley. I've gotten some from Frank's mom for my parents and my sister, and Frank and I use it almost regularly instead of table salt. In Frank's fathers house, the only reason they have table salt is for pasta water. Pete's salt is used for everything else. Including salting meat for the barbecue, chicken for a saute, vegetable, potatoes, pork, beef, stir fry. EVERYTHING!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

I literally just sat here for more than a minute staring at the screen, drawing a blank while my sisters dog sat on Frank's lap getting spoiled when she suddenly burped up food and then proceeded to smack her nasty little mouth as she swallowed it back down. Gross! Ugh! 

Anyway, Friday night we went to dinner with my parents at Frank's parents' house. We had this special dinner from Northern Italy called bagna calda (pronounced bania calda). It's oil and butter simmered with with mashed garlic and mashed anchovies. Now, I don't like anchovies, but this stuff was to die for. But let me tell you, if you don't have a cast iron stomach, prepare to feel wrecked about 10-20 minutes after eating it. But it's so good, you don't even care. After dinner we ran home and got ready for our first night out in a long time. We headed to my friends house for a cool little cocktail party and celebrated the new year. We went home early because, well, let's face it, we're not that young anymore and it's a little harder to party now than when we were younger. We spent Saturday recovering., well Frank needed a little more time to recover than I did, but anyway. I went to visit a friend and had lunch with her and her babies. We hung out and played Wii with the kids for a while in the afternoon. Frank and I went to dinner at his moms for the new year. 

Bringing us up to speed for the new thing I baked today! My mom and dad marinated a bunch of crab & shrimp, andmy mom made baked rigatoni for a belated family Christmas since my immediate famiglia and I ventrued to Clayton for Christmas  since my sister was out of commission. Anyway my aunt came over with her friend, her daughter and her 4 daughters. My cousin had a birthday the week before, so, duh! I made a cake for her. I created what I call Banana Split Cake. I baked yellow cake, turned a small portion of it chocolate with cocoa powder and marbled it. I baked it in 2 round pans and let it cool. I used whipping cream and I mixed it with strawberry jelly to create strawberry cream filling. I spread that on the bottom cake and topped it with thinly sliced banana.


Now, I've watched plenty of cooking shows and my mother worked in the Albertson's bakery for several years before she got pregnant with my sister, so I know a bit about assembling layer cakes. First I put some of the jelly in a bag and piped it around the edge of the bottom cake before spreading the strawberry cream and banana so that the weight from the top cake would cause it all to come oozing out the sides. Then I frosted the cake with whipped cream and topped it with chopped peanuts. It was perhaps one of the best creations I've made in a long time. The only thing I would change is that I used salted dry roasted peanuts my mom had left over, and it gave the whipped cream kind of an odd salty flavor. So in the future, I believe I will use unsalted nuts, or buy the ice cream nut topping from Safeway. But still, it was really good and perhaps one of the best confections I've made in a long time, if not ever. 


Bonus, my cousin Susan and I cleaned all the left over crab after tonight's feast, and mom and I are definitely going to make crab cakes for dinner Tuesday night. Thus giving me the new recipe to try this week. Be excited, cause I am! Haha!


Happy New Year Babies!

Absolutely, 
The Lady