Sunday, January 29, 2012

NRW 4-Brown Butter Greens

New Recipe Week 4: Brown Butter Creamed Greens

Trying to get more greens into our diet I've been looking for savory recipes that appeal to our taste. Looks like I found a winner! This week we tried out Brown Butter Creamed Collard Greens from Epicurious.com

I made some changes to the recipe and used the same pot for each step cuz I had a fussy baby taking up my left arm:-) It's a long process to make but well worth it.

We loved this creamy steamy goodness and will be making it again except without the red pepper flakes and less salt. The recipe doesn't account for the salt in the pork and the greens already have their particular spice so none need to be added.

3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, divided (1 & 2)
1 Tbsp Flour
1 C. Milk (I used Non-Fat)
2 Tbsp Shallot (Sliced)
1/2 California Bay Leaf
1/8 Tsp Coarse Ground Pepper
2 lbs mixed winter greens such as collards, mustard greens, and kale
3 Slices of Bacon, cut into 1/4 inch  slices
1/2 C. Onion (Chopped)
1/4 C. Heavy Cream
1/2 Tsp Crushed Garlic
1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes (I will omit next time)
1 Tsp Cider Vinegar

-Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a heavy pot over medium heat, then add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute.
-Add milk in a stream, whisking, then add shallot, bay leaf, and pepper and bring to a boil, whisking. Simmer, whisking occasionally, 5 minutes. Strain Béchamel sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids, and cover surface with parchment paper.
-Discard stems and center ribs from greens, then coarsely chop leaves.
-Cook Bacon in the pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown but not crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
-Heat 2 Tbsp butter in pot with bacon grease over medium-low heat until browned and fragrant, then cook onion, stirring, until softened.
-Increase heat to medium-high, then stir in greens, 1 handful at a time, letting each handful wilt before adding next. Add Béchamel, Cream, Garlic, 1/4 Tsp Salt, and 1/2 Tsp Pepper and boil, uncovered, stirring, until sauce coats greens and greens are tender.
-Stir in Bacon & Vinegar.

I served this with Pesto Pasta and Butternut Squash using this recipe (also new:-)


Saturday, January 28, 2012

A Bag from the Past

I was at a friends house and saw a bag I made her a couple of years ago. I gave it to her with a bunch of apples from our yard. Now her 2 year old son uses it to go 'grocery shopping' at home with his toy foods, so cute! I need to make more of these bags before next apple season! When I do, I'll post the process.

The bag is about 9" high, 7" wide and fully lined:

Thursday, January 26, 2012

In the Mood for Mom's Food

I had some ground lamb to cook with tonight and there's really only 1 recipe from my childhood that my mom made with Lamb and that's Cabbage Rolls. Passed on to her by her Egyptian Mother In-Law, my mom showed me how to make this when I was 10 and it's still a favorite.

The recipe is a process but the ingredients are minimal. Of course I've made my own changes to the recipe so here goes:

1 Head of Cabbage
2/3 lb Ground Lamb
1/4 C. Rice (uncooked)
1/4 White Onion (chopped)
1 Lemon (Large)
1 C. Water
Salt, Pepper & Garlic Powder

-Cut 4 slices into the Cabbage from the stem towards the inside. (this will allow the individual cabbage leaves to come off more easily) Then steam the cabbage until soft.
-In a bowl mix Lamb, Rice, Onion, 1/2 Lemon Juice & Spices.
-Pull off the top 2 leaves of the cabbage and place in the bottom of a heavy pot. Take the next leaf and fill with 3-4 Tbls of lamb mix and roll up like a burrito then place in pot on top of cabbage. Make more rolls with remaining lamb.
-Cover rolls completely with remaining cabbage.
-Combine Water with remaining 1/2 Lemon Juice and poor over cabbage rolls.
-Place on med-high heat until boiling then reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 mins or until lamb/rice is cooked through.
-Serve with plain greek yogurt or sour cream.

This photo has the rolls, yogurt and potatoes I boiled then browned in butter with S&P.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

NRW 3-Bob's Red Mill Black Bean Soup-Kinda

New Recipe Week 3

Well for this week I decided to try out Bob's Red Mill Bountiful Black Bean Soup, but it ended up more of a (tomato-less) Black Bean Chili.

It came out pretty yummy and I served it over Trader Joe's Corn Bread. It was the perfect meal for this rainy January night. What I would change for next time: actually use real chili peppers instead of the Cayenne Pepper, add more seasoning like Italian seasoning mix, it was a tad on the bland side.

Here's my version of the recipe (Serves 6):

1 Cup Roasted Corn (put frozen corn on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 mins.)
1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 Onion (Chopped)
1/2 Red Bell Pepper (Chopped)
1 Tsp Crushed Garlic
3 Cups Veggie Stock (homemade-see directions below)
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Black Bean Soup Mix
1 Cup Butternut Squash (Chopped)
1 1/2 Cups Shredded Turkey
2 Bay Leaves
1 Tsp Ea. Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Paprika & Cayenne Pepper
Salt & Pepper to Taste

-In a Heavy Soup Pot heat oil then saute onion for a few mins. Add Red Bell Peppers & Garlic and saute another minute.
-Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours.


Veggie Stock: I keep a freezer bag in the freezer and fill it with veggie trimmings when I'm prepping various dishes. I fill it with squash tops/bottoms, onion trimmings, carrot shavings, etc. and it takes me about a month to fill the bag. Then I combine with 6-8 quarts of water in a large stock pot, boil and simmer for about 2 hrs. This produces about 20 cups of broth which I strain into quart size freezer bags, freeze then use when needed!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Autumn Quilt

The Holidays have been over for a while now and all my Christmas stuff has been packed away since December 28th, that is except for my Christmas Quilt, and that's because it's the only quilt I have. It's been so cold that I hate to pack away it's warmth...so I decided to make 2 new quilts for my bed. But for now I'm just going to concentrate on one, which I have named my Autumn quilt.

I decided to follow this Heirloom Quilt pattern by Quilting in the Rain but I'm going to double the size for my queen bed. If I calculated right, that should be 48 7in blocks to make the triangles and 48 6 1/4in solid blocks for a 70" by 93" quilt. My queen is 60" x 84" so I think I'll only need a 1" border, but I have yet to choose the fabric for the border.

All of the fabrics are from Hearts Fabrics in Santa Cruz. I only have 7 colors and I need one more which I'll pick out at their annual super bowl sale in a couple of weeks, but for now here are the 6 1/4 in squares:



I've cut all the remaining fabric for the 7 in squares and will be sewing them soon. I'll post an update when I complete a couple of them.

Maiyo's Christmas Stocking

I mentioned to my friend Jennifer (of Gourmet Food the Healthy Way) that I was going to purchase a christmas stocking for Maiyo from Pottery Barn and have his name embroidered on it and she said I should just make one. Well of course, why didn't I think of that:-)

So I decided to quilt one! I sat down, hashed out a pattern, picked out some fabulous christmas fabric and had at it.And while I was at it, I decided to make one for each of us.

Here's the finished tops:


I sewed on a plain back to the tops in order to keep all the stitching from coming apart and to make it easier to sew onto the actual stocking which I made out of bolt felt.

Full Stocking:

Then I hand stitched the corner holds and our names on the upper part of the stocking but I didn't take pictures of them, instead here's a cute pick of Maiyo with his stocking:)

And this one's to give you an idea of the size


Shouse Family Baby Quilt

Ana's cousin is expecting their first granddaughter and so of course I had to make a quilt. It's the same layout as Maiyo's, an Irish Chain Quilt and I got the pattern here.

Front/Back
 Back
 Front
I loved making this quilt. Again, it's made with flannel material, which I love for baby blankets, and I decided to tie this off which I didn't do with Maiyo's. I put in way more ties than were needed but that's because I like to tie in pattern and the blocks are only 6 in wide:-) The colors are very feminine so this will work out great for the baby girl, hope she likes it!

NRW 2-PB Cookies

New Recipe Week 2: Peanut Butter Cookies

A bit late but last week (2nd week of my new recipe a week project) I tried out a new recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies. I love cookies, they are my weakness, but I actually made these for Ana cuz he likes crunchy cookies which is just what these are...also ends up it's a gluten free recipe for those interested:-)

The recipe was super easy to make and very few ingredients but only made 11 cookies. If you want to double, be prepared to use a whole jar of peanut butter!

New Year's Resolution

Well I'm not really into resolutions but this one I got from a Facebook friend and thought it was a good idea...Cook 1 new recipe a week!

So for now the recipes will be for the grown ups, but once Maiyo starts eating solids in 2 months, I'll start posting kid friendly food.

To start I decided to do a simple recipe cuz I'm burnt out from all the holiday baking and cooking: Lemon Oregano Chicken served over polenta (1/2 recipe made with equal parts turkey stock & water) and steamed veggies.

I changed the Chicken Recipe as follows: 
-I used chicken breast (1 big breast that I sliced into 2 pieces) & marinated in 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder & oregano for 20 mins.
-Heat 1/2 tbsp butter in skillet on high and brown both sides of chicken then transfer to baking dish.
-Add 1/2 tbsp butter, 1/4 c turkey broth and 2 tbsp lemon juice back to skillet and reduced by half.
-Pour the sauce over chicken and bake for 20mins at 450. 

This came out super yummy and more lemony which is what I wanted. Enjoy!

Major Nesting

So I officially got the nesting bug last week and it just keeps getting stronger.

It started with a quilt I was making for my friends son. I had tried making a blanket for him at his birth but I messed it up and put it away to take to a real sewer to help me with it...2 years later and I decided to scrap it and make a quilt instead.

Using the Irish Chain pattern I used for Baby Flores, I thought it'd be nice to make it bigger than toddler size so I used the size 12x12 blocks...well, a little miss calculation later and I end up making a Full size quilt!!!

Here's some photos of the progress & finished quilt:

1 Chain of 12x12 Blocks
 
Chains sewn together & Finished backside:
Finished Quilt!
In the middle of making this I had a break cuz I ran out of fabric so I started on another toddler quilt for another friend who is expecting their first in October:
And just to top things off, I have a 1 year old b-day party to go to this weekend so I thought I'd make another blanket as a gift: (not a quilt but did sew & tie off to give the allusion of one)

I also made a stacking toy (without a pattern), which didn't turn out as I hoped but I learned a lot so will try again soon. Here's a pic:
Because I can't sit at the sewing machine all day, so I also started making jams and canning. The process is really intense and takes roughly 3-4 hours! I've made Blackberry, Strawberry & Plum Jams as well as Lemon Curd. I canned 70 little jars as favors for the Baby Shower BBQ and several half pints that I plan to give for presents. We cracked open a strawberry this week and all I have to say is, there's nothing like homemade jam! Next up is Peach Jam & Peach Chutney!

Maiyo's Baby Quilt & My First One!

So a few weeks after we found out we were pregnant, our local fabric store (Hearts Fabric) was having their annual sale which is the only one they have each year! So I decided that I wanted to try and make a baby quilt!

No experience in quilting and no pattern to boot, I set off and went crazy. $150 later, I had all kinds of fabric swatches & yards of fun fabrics, and went straight home to hopefully find an easy quilt pattern online. I googled 'baby quilt patterns' and found this one: http://quilting.about.com/od/blockofthemonth/ss/irish_chain_3.htm

So I began work. First I thought I'd use several different fabric patterns for the blocks:



But then I decided to use just the one Owl & Monkey fabric pattern & then use the Hot Dog fabric for the start & finish of the quilt. Those two mixed with the brown as the main boarder and I was left with the ABC fabric pattern to use as the inner boarder and decided to have it as the back side of the quilt as well, instead of the plain brown.

I had a lot of fun with this quilt, though I did make one mistake, I sewed the backside upside down, but the thing is, all the fabrics, except the ABC one, can be viewed either way, so you can't really tell! It took me a total of 4 straight sewing days to make this. That's about 25 hours! (of course this was my first and I had a lot of trial, error, and what the %$&! going on:-)


Since I used all flannel fabric it came out really comfy and you can even catch me cozying up with it! Definitely need to make a full size one of these for me! (Lots of work though!!!)


And I even gave it my personal little touch. I just hope that the baby will enjoy this and keep it for many, many years:-)


Wine Bags

These bags where made back in 2009. They hold 2 bottles of wine and I gave them out as podium bags for the Surf City Cyclocross Series. I kinda used this Simple Tote Bag pattern but of course changed it up a bit and added liners inside. I plan on making more soon and will post the process then...

New Blog

Decided to separate my food/craft posts from my blog about my son Maiyo. Hope you enjoy!