Food blog!

Caitlin and I now have a blog dedicated to our cooking adventures. Check it out, friends!

Julie and Julia and me

Since now is the time for resolutions, it's time I share mine. The majority of resolutions probably have to do something with exercising or losing weight, but I'm going to go another direction. While I do have the desire to be healthier and will make an effort to exercise more, Caitlin and I have decided to each make 100 recipes in 2011, and blog about them. I'm already a step ahead of Caitlin, since I have a blog. Maybe we'll start a new one together--depends on how motivated I feel.

This goal will help me in three ways:
1. I will eat at home more often instead of going out to eat.
2. I will hone my cooking skills to an Iron Chef-like ability.
3. It will encourage me to blog more often, instead of having month-long gaps.
4. I will fatten-up Matt so the hot girls in his office won't flirt with him. (Kidding! Sort of.)

In order to make this easy on myself, I'm not really setting any rules. Caitlin made the executive decision that drink recipes should also be allowed (she's a boozer). Let's see how long it is before the inevitable happens and I, like the rest of the nation, forget about my resolution.

Recipe Round-up

Cooking is a relatively new hobby of mine. This probably surprises the family members who read this blog, because I have had quite a few cooking mishaps in my life and didn't cook much until the past couple years. Luckily, I was born into a family of fantastic cooks, so I have many people to call with my questions. This list includes my sister Caitlin who wants to go to culinary school for pastry arts. She is the biggest foodie I know, and her knowledge comes in handy because she can answer my questions about weird ingredients, and knows a lot about different coffees and cheeses (among other things). She's also down for trying weird food combos, and is what I call an adventurous eater.

My mom is also a wonderful cook, but she often cooks without recipes, and her measurements are usually "some," "a little bit," "a handful," etc. Cooking is like a weird instinct for her, and she always seems to know what flavors go together. She also has a gift for picking out good recipes (she did not inherit that trait from her mother, but that's a topic for another post). Lucky for me, she has a HUGE sweet tooth. She makes homemade caramel, fudge, and marshmallows each year for Christmas, and we devour them the second we get to my parents' house. She's the best person to go to when I don't understand a direction, or if I don't have a particular tool or ingredient. She also knows all these crazy substitutions for things, which comes in handy because I don't always have a fully-stocked kitchen.

A few people have asked that I share recipes that I've found on the 'net. Here are a few I've tried and enjoyed. (**NOTE: I do not claim to be a healthy eater/chef, and reserve the right to cook with the following: butter, bacon, cream, sugar, cheese, etc.)

Corn and Keilbasa Chowder
(from Rachael Ray Magazine)

Caitlin found this recipe and shared it with my mom who shared it with me. I did make a few changes though:
I only used about 1/2-3/4 c. of onions. Two onions seemed like way too much.
Though this was a Rachael Ray recipe, I added an additional teaspoon of butter to the onions while they were cooking in homage to Paula Deen.
I omitted the step that says "puree 1 cup chowder until smooth," because I couldn't find the top to my food processor.
I added 1 tsp. of jarred garlic (jarlic), per Caitlin's request.
I used about 12 ounces of keilbasa instead of 8.
Caitlin sprinkled some shredded cheddar on top of hers, and my mom used evaporated milk instead of cream. Both versions were tasty.

Chicken Empanadas
(Paula Deen)

The first time I made this recipe I followed the directions exactly as written. I've made it several times since, a bit different each time. For starters, I used puff pastry instead of the pre-made pie crust, and just rolled it a little thinner. Puff pastry was a good choice, because it made a nice flaky crust. The original recipe wasn't spicy enough for my liking, so in the second incarnation I added some cayenne and green chilies. Another time I added green onions and a can of the diced tomatoes with green chilies. Also, mine were squares instead of half-circles.

Quinoa Fried Rice
(Gina's WW recipes)

After the past two recipes, it's time for a healthy recipe, right? I don't do Weight Watchers, but this website has some tasty meals that even unhealthy eaters will love. I want to try her stuffed zucchini, the avocado mango salsa, the Asian turkey meatballs, and lots of others! Matt had a gluten-free diet for a while, so we ate a lot of quinoa. I made it several ways, but his favorites were the "fried rice" version and a southwest version (listed below). For the fried-rice style quinoa, I made it the same as the recipe, but omitted the fish oil because I didn't have any on hand, and added peas.

Southwest Quinoa

I made this one up on my own, believe it or not! I am not great at writing recipes, so bear with me. You can also substitute rice for the quinoa if you want, but it isn't as healthy.
4 servings of quinoa, cooked per package instructions (I cook mine in broth instead of water for extra flavoring)
stir in the following:
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can of black beans, drained
3 chopped green onions
1 diced avocado
1 squeeze of lime juice

Perfect Pound Cake
(Ree Drumond aka The Pioneer Woman)

I didn't make this recipe, but I ate it, which should count for something. My mom made it a few months ago, and rumor has it she is making it again this weekend. It was THE BEST pound cake I've ever had! Give it a try; you won't be disappointed.


What am I making tonight? I have no idea. Caitlin had the idea to make my grandma's famous plum cake (today would have been her birthday), which contains jarred plum baby food. It sounds weird, but it's very tasty.

What are your favorite recipes?

A post about vegetables and math

Has it really been a month and a half since I last posted? I haven't had anything good to blog about lately, so I will bore you all with a post about my latest fascination: romanesco broccoli.

I saw this creepy-yet-beautiful veggie in my co-worker's seed catalog, and was drawn to it. Laura Anderson from the New York Times food blog describes it best as "the lovechild of cauliflower and broccoli with some alien DNA thrown in." I didn't really care about its taste; I'm far too nerdy for that. Instead, I immediately wondered if its spiral design followed the Fibonacci sequence.



For those of you who aren't huge nerds, the Fibonacci sequence is a pattern of numbers that is often found in nature. Matt says that is because it is the most efficient sequence. It's found in pinecones, sunflowers, artichokes, and the beach in Half Moon Bay, California. If you want to geek out, you can read about it on Wikipedia. The broccoli is also an example of a fractal, because all those little knobby things are exact replicas of the big knobby things. I am sure there are more technical ways to describe it, but I'm not a mathematician--that's Matt's role in this relationship.



Foodies say that romanesco broccoli has a soft and slightly nutty flavor. Would you try it?

I've got mad culinary skillz

Since people seem to think that Matt is losing weight because of my poor culinary skills, I've decided to blog more about what I've been cooking. Not one, but TWO people commented that Matt seemed to have lost weight after getting married, and it has to be because of Brianna's cooking. I'd like to remind them that we lived in sin before we got married, so he's been eating my crappy meals for years; in fact, it was my cooking that made him gain weight in the first place. Just kidding about the crappy meals part; my meals are pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

While I have had a few kitchen mishaps (there was an incident with a pot roast), my year of unemployement consisted of many hours watching the Food Network. Maybe Matt's weight loss is due to the fact that I've been cooking salmon and steamed vegetables, or because we eat whole grains and veggie burgers, while some people (namely, one of the people who commented on my alleged bad cooking) serve Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese as a side dish on a regular basis. And I'm not saying I always cook healthy meals--I do the fried chicken and mashed potatoes thing sometimes--but I am more conscious about what we are eating lately.

So, on to the post about what I've been cooking....
It was cold and rainy yesterday, so I decided to make some soup. It turned out pretty damn good (go me!). It's based on my mom's minestrone recipe, which is tasty and super easy to make. You basically take some beef broth and add in some seasonings and whatever you have in your cupboard. I added beef, 1/2 an onion (diced), kidney beans, green beans, macaroni, a fresh tomato, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. I served it with cheddar corn muffins, and Matt and Caitlin said they both enjoyed it. Matt ate three corn muffins, and while I don't have any physical proof that I'm not starving him, he will attest to the fact that my meal was the bomb-diggity.

Recipe: Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin

If you haven't noticed, I've been too lazy to write a real post, so I'm just throwing out links right and left.

Here's a link to dish I'd like to try:

Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin

Tonight's menu: meat wrapped in meat cooked in meat juice

A couple weeks ago I tried a new recipe for pork roast. Everyone loved it so I'm making it again, but with some changes.
My recipe is based on Giada's Pancetta-Wrapped Pork Roast, but with the following changes:

I substituted chicken broth for the wine (couldn't get my bottle open, ugh) and added a little vinegar
I used jarred garlic instead of fresh cloves
Bacon instead of pancetta
Put it in the crockpot for 6 hours on low instead of the oven

Tonight's menu:

Salmon fillets stuffed with shrimp and crab (and other stuff)

Wish me luck!!!!

How to make a healthy meal unhealthy

If you know me well, you know that I love meat, especially burgers. I've always been very anti-veggie burger, because I don't think it's right to create substitutes for delicious tasty meat.

But, my opinions on the subject changed during a visit to Costco over the weekend. Matt doesn't usually like to go to the grocery store, but he accompanied his mom and I (and Katie) on a trip to Costco, because he likes to eat the samples. One of the samples that day was of Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burgers. I reluctantly tasted a bite, and surprisingly LOVED it!

I think the key to a good veggie burger is this: the "burger" has to realize that it is what it is--veggies. Veggie burgers that try to taste like hamburgers are shitty. But, Dr. Praeger's owns up to its veggie ingredients, and just wants to taste like veggies, not burgers.

We ended up buying a big pack of the veggie burgers, because it was about $10 for 16 patties, which are individually wrapped. I like individually wrapped meat (or faux-meat) products because it's helpful when cooking for two people; you don't have to open up a whole pack of something.

I could have served them up on buns, with a healthy side dish. Instead, I melted cheddar cheese on them, and garnished with bacon, tomatoes, and grilled portobello mushrooms, and put them on buttered and toasted buns. They were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.