Homemade lasagna

To start, I am sorry for no picture. I had not eaten all day and my phone is dead... so it just did not happen.

So. Here is my recipe for homemade lasagna.

Whatcha are going to need:
1 box of lasagna noodles(I got mine at the dollar tree because I am cheap)
1 50oz package (or a package w/ three scoops removed) of ricotta cheese
1 ball of fresh mozzerella
Some parm cheese (amounts may vary)
2  eggs
1 T Basil (fresh, frozen or dried)
2 cloves of garlic 
1 T of Italian Seasoning
1 Can or Jar of Pre-made tomato Sauce(unless you are not lazy and want to make your own)
1 Onion

Ok, so to start you need to get those noodles cooked. Boil water and cook it. Once it is cooked, drain it and VERY IMPORTANT. DRY those noodles. (For many years my mom would make nasty lasanga that was watery because she would not DRY THE NOODLES)

For your sauce. Dice that onion, sautee it in a bit of olive oil and add the garlic cloves squeezed or diced or however you like making garlic flavor come out. Once the onions start going soft, add your cheap sauce because you are a thrifty mother fucker. Now make it taste better with that basil and italian seasoning. If you always have a bottle of open going bad red wine sitting around... like I do...splash some of that in there too.  Let this mixture cook and thicken.

Now for the cheese sauce. Toss all the ricotta, the eggs, a few tablespoons of parm, and shred about 2/3rd of that parm ball into a bowl. Mix it up!.

Next is layering time.

Start with a layer of sauce, just enough to lube the pan.
Then a layer of noodles. Overlay them a bit so there is no space in the pan. Now take 1/3 of your fancy cheese mix and spread it over the noodles. Next add some sauce over that.... then noodles again... then cheese... then sauce... then noodles.... then cheese. Then sauce and that should fill your tray. I used a 9 by 12 pan myself.  If not keep going until you A:Run out of ingredients or B: run out of  space.

Now it is time to cook!
350 degrees. Cover your lasagna and cook for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes pull it out, uncover it. Shred the rest of your mozzarella on top, and cook for another 15 minutes covered. You should be all set. Dinner time!

Notes: I never cook with salt, you might want to add some.
Moar sauce is better than less.

National Grilled Cheese Day

April 12th, as some of you may, or may not know. Is the day of Grilled Cheese. Now when I think grilled cheese two flavors come to mind. The first is the horrors of plastic American singles slices on nutrition less white bread slices. This appalling tragedy seems to be a common placed food for American children, and truly I pity them and my past self. I remember going to expensive fancys venues as a little girl, and seeing my mother eating exquisite delicacies, and having a plate of badly baked fries and a this pathetic excuse for grilled cheese on my plate.

Later in life my family decided to get healthy. The only bread we bought was crunchy wheat bread that tasted like saw dust. This bread is NOT CONDUCTIVE TO GRILLED CHEESE. It should never be used for this purpose. My mother also was only buying provolone(ass) cheese and sawdust and ass should NOT be mixed.

There are good memories of grilled cheese, to counter the bad, fortunately. My work place 'The Natural Cafe' in mid college served delicious grilled cheese... or at least when I ordered them for myself they were delicious, topped with grilled onions and red bell peppers ^_^.

My creation for this holiday was surprisingly delicious as well! Taking a few slices of roasted garlic bread from Cosco, and a couple gobs of fresh Tillamock cheddar cheese from this very valley, and the right application of time on the forum grill, this grilled cheese sandwich was D-licious. The cheddar was cooked long enough to seep out the sides a bit and get crunchy. Perfect grilled cheese combo. A++

"Fudge" Popsicles

Further adventures in Popsicle making... This time we have CHOCOLATE!. I think I used too little chocolate because my Fudgesicles came out weird and cracked looking. I also think my chocolate chips were not real chocolate. They refused to melt properly in my double boiler. Sometimes I really wonder what I am doing making these Popsicles. I am making them in a very anti-intuitive fashion. I never would imagine HEATING ingredients to make Popsicles. Because... I am going to freeze them... and it takes longer for hot things to cool down. So maybe my mistake was pre-making the hot part of the batter before hand. On taste, it was very sweet and milky, and you could almost taste the caloric overload explosion in your mouth. At 140 calories each, their taste was just not worth it. Never again.

Chocolate Kimberleys

There's a biscuit out there, a biscuit that many are yet to taste and experience. It's the kind of biscuit that completely alters your biscuit eating habits. It's the kind of biscuit you'd like to think you could imagine, but could never exactly conjure up in your head. It's the the kind of biscuit you pine after once you've let it pass down your throat, hoping that today might be the day you get sick, so, at the very least, you might grab a little taste of this wonderful biscuit once more, as your chunder flows from your mouth (hopefully into a sink or toilet, or somewhere that won't be too troublesome to clean as long as you can hold your breath for a sufficient amount of time). This biscuit is the Jacobs Elite Chocolate Kimberley.

Forgive the gruesome imagery I used, which, in retrospect, was a little extreme, but I used it only to try put forth my great love for these biscuits. And I suppose I should address a notable point to begin with: this biscuit describes itself as a cake, a "Milk chocolate covered mallow cake" to be exact. While I would, in a casual setting, around fellow lovers of the Chocolate Kimberley, treat it more as a biscuit, nibbling eagerly on a few while I occasionally sipped a cup of Earl Grey tea, the cake description isn't wrong. I don't want to get into the semantics of the legal differences of a biscuit and a cake (i've hijacked too many talk-radio shows about that already in my lifetime), so I won't be addressing those, just to be clear. The reason I say it's not an ill-fitting description is because, like a cake, the Chocolate Kimberley is, for the majority of times while being eaten, something that bit more special than another custard cream or some other blandly uninteresting biscuit. I think we can all agree that cake is great, and the Chocolate Kimberley is a bite-sized piece of cake-ish wonder that goes that bit beyond being merely "great".

I should insert a little back story here: i'm from the Republic of Ireland, and Chocolate Kimberleys are a relic from my time there. My parents will travels back to that often soggy, lilted-accent land every so often, and when they do my siblings and I utter one word over and over to them upon their departure: "Kimberleys". And for the most part, they haven't failed us in bringing back some of the biscuits in question. Sometimes they even bring back a whole pack for each of us! But as time has gone on, locating Chocolate Kimberley biscuits in Ireland is, apparently, becoming increasingly difficult. Why, I recall upon the return of one trip from leprechaun land, after ignoring the polite formalities such as "How was you trip?" and "Hello", and searching through their hand luggage in a bid to find the expected gifts, we were informed that yes, Kimberleys had been obtained, but only luckily in the petrol station in Northern Ireland! I didn't worry about it much at the time as I had Kimberleys to eat. But I realized subsequently that the days of enjoying a Chocolate Kimberley may well be a scarce treat in the future.

Anyway, I should probably pass comment on what these damn things actually taste like - this is a food blog, after all. But deary, deary me! Much like the fact that one does not simply walk into Mordor, one does not simply describe the taste of a Chocolate Kimberley! The experience of one of these treats passing your through your mouth (pausing to chew, of course), is such an ineffable one that words seem lacklustre. Stephen Fry once said:

"You cannot explain a work of art in words. A painter makes a painting out of paint - paint is its language. If you can describe it, nail it, comprehend it in words then something is rather wrong. A work of art is precisely that which remains when you have run out of words to describe it."

Eating a Chocolate Kimberley is akin to taking in a piece of art. Although the purple outer wrapping of each Chocolate Kimberley is enticing and almost regal, admittedly the biscuit held inside isn't something that will strike your upon your first glance (the main result of a Google Image Search is a rather unflattering and poor example). It's only when you've partook in one that the sight of it becomes something else, something illustrious, something tempting, something you want.

But the sight is not important. Restaurateurs and other sorts might well state that presentation is everything, but it's not. You're not going to being eating one of these in a high class establishment where you've had to put on your best shirt, and shine your shoes to enter. No, you'll be sat with your family, joking about how the  youngest sibling, even at eighteen years old, still can't say the word "Birmingham" correctly. Or you'll be sat in front of the television, watching a classic Bill Forsyth film as the evening light fades away outside. This is a biscuit for a real person, not some overtly fancy overdone chocolate dipped piece of half-baked shortbread that you'll feel guilty about spending more than three pounds on, and only be left disappointed with afterwards. The Chocolate Kimberley makes you feel good about yourself. Yes, they aren't cheap (especially if you choose to import them from Ireland), but they warrant the reasonable price-tag put upon them. You eat one and you might suddenly realise that you don't have to spend your life going to bed at a reasonable hour, or adhering to every pointless rule set by the money-hungry company that employs you. If there ever was an epiphany biscuit, then the Chocolate Kimberley would surely be a front runner in the race.

Okay, so even though I did say that describing the taste of a Chocolate Kimberley is near enough impossible, I will make a modest attempt. And similarly, this biscuit is equally modest upon first bite. Your teeth go past the chocolate and you discover a two biscuit bases sandwiching a simple marshmallow centre. It goes down easy: soft but delightfully so; chewable but never a struggle, even for a pair of worn dentures; moreish but not in an instantly addictive fashion. The whole thing might well be gone in a matter bites and a matter of seconds, and you might wonder what the fuss was all about. But that's when the ginger after-taste comes in. Your tongue licks your upper teeth, and you remember that light milk chocolate covering that you bit through moment ago. You smile, and realise, "that was actually a really nice biscuit". Then you ask if you can have another one.

But there isn't another one! As I worried, the population of Chocolate Kimberleys has declined. Attaining some to bring back from the magical biscuit-making realms of Ireland has become harder and harder. Or maybe my parents just aren't making a good enough effort. Either way, the supply given to me over the past year has been depressingly low. Sometime last summer I got packet for myself, and I cherished them, only eating one when I needed some great cheering up, or when I'd done something to deserve one, like rescuing someone from a burning building, or haven written a song that will unite countries and bring and end to all wars. My kind-hearted self even took a couple of them to work, so my colleagues could partake in the joy. Predictably, once they had finished their treat, they enquired about the possibility of having another one (an enquiry I had to give a selfish and negative answer to).

And so I sit here, reminiscing over the taste of this wonderful breed of biscuit as my final one stares at me silently. Oh, how I want to tear its wrapper off, like a lover seized in passion wants to undress his partner. Oh, how I want to once again taste the soft centre within. Oh, how I pine after this near-mythical treat! I know there are other versions of the Kimberley. Why, I came across a pack of the unchocolated kind in my local supermarket the other week, and while they were an admirable tribute to the biscuits of focus here, they were no substitute. If anything, it just made me want my last one even more. And defeating the desire to give into temptation is so very, very hard, like a recovering alcoholic would lick his lips at the sight of chilled beer, or a clean, former drug addict's nose might twitch at the mention of some cocaine. That is the power of a Chocolate Kimberley. Once you've had it you will know no better, and want no other.

Buttered Popcorn Popsicles

What was I thinking? Why did I ever think that butter and popcorn flavored Popsicles could be good? I really have no clue. But it happened. I actually made these monstrosities. Biting into them, they had  the flavor of salt and fat women trying for weight loss. I could literally not pallet more than one bite... Never make buttered popcorn flavored popsicles. Just don't do it.

I also tried to make a carmel sauce, but it ended up just being burnt candy bits. It tasted good but was in no way smooth enough to get onto these Popsicle without melting them.

I won't give y'all the recipe, because trying this is cruelty to ones mouth.

Success with Quiche

Hi, I'm Jen. Some of you already know me or have talked to me. I have my own food/traveling blog and JoDee invited me to join this one too, so here I am. I love cooking and baking, and trying food from other places I visit.

Ever since I visited Tartine Bakery in San Francisco last weekend and got a slice of their quiche, I have wanted to make a quiche of my own, better than any quiche I have made before. I wanted to make a really good quiche, so I turned to Deb at Smitten Kitchen because her recipes are excellent. For the custard filling and an idea of measurements to make the size of quiche I wanted, I took the example of a mushroom quiche she recently made, but added in less mushrooms and some of my own vegetables, and using pre-made crust.

Spring Quiche

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated pie crusts
10 ozs mushrooms (you can use a variety of kinds)
4 spears of asparagus
Half a zucchini
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (shred by hand, it'll melt in better that way)
6 eggs
2 cups milk (I used soy milk)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt

Instructions:
 0. Preheat oven to 325.
1. In a 9 inch Springform pan, place the pre-made pie dough. You might want to coat the pan with a little olive oil before you put the crust in but I didn't and it didn't stick. Refrigerate for later.
2. Chop up vegetables and cook for 5 minutes in a frying pan with the olive oil. Add the butter, garlic and thyme and cook on medium for 10 more minutes.
3. Whip three eggs in a bowl. Then add 1 cup milk and 1 cup heavy whipping cream, plus some salt and a few grates of the nutmeg, and beat vigorously with a whisk until frothy, 5-10 minutes. This would be a lot easier with a kitchen aid but you don't need one.
4. Take out the pan from the fridge,  add 1/4 cup of the cheese, half the vegetable mixture, and the custard mixture. Repeat the custard mixture with remaining eggs/milk/salt/nutmeg, sprinkle another 1/4 cup cheese ontop of the first custard mixture, add in the rest of vegetables, and pour in the second batch of your custard mixture to fill the pan. Then sprinkle the last 1/4 cup of the cheese ontop of that and bake in the oven for an hour and a half or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool on a wire rack or away from the stove for 15 minutes. Place on a baking sheet, unhinge the pan and remove the outer part of the pan to cut the first piece. It's easier to cut after you cut the first piece and you can put the pan back together after that.

It will be so nice to have this quiche for any meal of the day. Glad I decided to make it. :)

Candylude 1:Andes Mints

As a little girl, my Grandad on my Fathers side, Roy, use to give me Andes mints when I would come talk to him. He was an artistic, yet stubborn man, who died before I was a teenager from lung cancer. He is actually the reason I am so adamantly against smoking, but my political opinions really do not belong lingering in this blog. These mints remind me of sticky days, in smokey rooms listening to the sound of an oxygen machine, the Price is Right playing on the television screen.  Later in my life, they would remind me of long boring evenings sitting at a Mexican food restaurant listening to my parents talk to friends.

These little chocolates have a smoothe mint flavor, unlike many mint candies, you can still taste the chocolate in them behind the mint flavor. I have always been a fan of eating the chocolate layers first, then the mint layer. But I am a strange flower.

These little candies have an elegant feel, and make a normal night just a bit more classy.

Strawberry Banana Popsicle

Well, last night I tried my 2nt Popsicle in my fancy Popsicle maker. At the request of my boyfriend, I made 'strawberry banana' Popsicle. The recipe used really made it taste like a smoothie on a stick, mixing a bit of milk and yogurt with fresh strawberries really makes a delicious flavor. The banana batter was a bit too thick to pour correctly into the mold, and banana flavored things are really just NOT my cup of tea. Overall, it is still a better Popsicle than a store bought one, but just not as good as the strawberry shortcake one I made earlier.



Recipe:
Strawberry 'Batter'
1 Tb Sugar
2 Tb Milk
1 T vanilla yogurt
1.25 cups strawberries

Banana Batter:
2 Tb sugar
2 Tb Milk
3/4 cup banana

Curried Mac Bake

So as anyone who cooks often knows, the way you learn is by making mistakes and experimenting. Today for lunch I experienced failure in more than one way.

My friend Nate was suppose to come over this afternoon, and being too poor to go out I decided to make lunch for when he was here. My Aunt had given me a Mac&Cheese cookbook for Christmas, and last night while looking through it I had found a recipe for 'Curried Mac Bake' being a fan of curry I decided to make it.
My first mistake was using honey-wheat bread instead of the called for sourdough to make a topping. My second was burning the topping.

In the end my curry tasted like burned bread and had a aftertaste of burned bread and curry which just did not taste good (I could barely finish a bowl for myself and I did not want to not eat any of it and waste a box of mac and cheese)

The other failure was that Nate had my address wrong and ended up a few miles away knocking on some other apartments door to be greeted by a large black man who did not know who 'JoDee' was. Poor Nate, at least he did not have to eat this terrible food >.<

Mung Bean Noodle Thai Stirfry

 So one of my favorite healthy meals to make is Mung Bean Noodle Stir Fry. Mung beans are a low fat and low glycemic index noodle made from of course, mung beans. They are used in most Asian cultures and can be found at Asian grocery stores and sometimes on the Asian isle of normal grocery stores. Low in price, they do not require boiling in hot water to soften, and thus take less energy to prepare. They are pretty much tasteless, so it is required that the person preparing them understand basic flavoring to give these noodles substance.

So my 'Recipe' (it is hard to have recipes when you cook on the fly with what is at hand.)

3 chicken 'tenders(half a large breast), 1 package of mung bean noodles, half a bag of mung beans, 2 onions, 1 red pepper, 2 carrots, a handful of cilantro, 1 T vegetable oil, 4 T soy sauce, 1.5 T Fish Sauce, 1.5 T Rice wine vinegar, 1/2 a medium cabbage, 1/2 cup flour, 2 T cornstarch, T pepper and Salt, 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup chicken stock

Writing this down I am starting to realize that recipes I consider 'a breeze' are more complicated that I realize >.>

To start, open your mung bean noodles, and put them in a bowl and cover them with water and set aside, after 15-20 minutes, pour them into a colander and let the water stain off.

After this, you dry your chicken (thawed!) off, then mix the flour, cornstarch, pepper and salt together, and coat bite size piece of chicken in the mixture. Set a wok/large and deep frying pan up with the vegetable oil, and brown the chicken until it is about 90% cooked. Remove the chicken and place in a covered container/plate on the side.

Next you cut up your onions and red pepper and cook them down, then add the garlic and cabbage and chicken stock(which helps steam the cabbage) and cook until the chicken stock has mostly cooked down and the cabbage is starting to wilt down. Now it is time to add your noodles and mung beans, then once you have them stirred with the vegetable, add your sauces (fish, soy and rice vinegar), and re add the chicken (it will have finished cooking because of its own steam if you had it covered, and if you cooked it all the way before hand it is going to be dry and chewy) and then cook for another 3-5 minutes on medium heat to get all that flavor soak in.

Now all that is left is putting the food on a plate, and adding finely chopped raw carrots and fresh cilantro to the top.

This meal has a very heavy 'health' flavor to it. The carrots add crunch and there is a plethora of textures and flavors from all the veggies. You can easily make this vegetarian as well by deleting the fish sauce (:(), and chicken and substituting mushroom/vegetable broth.

Oh yes and on a final note, the drink in the top picture is one of toms and my favorites. It is a sour blue raspberry soda. You take about 1.5 ounces of Rosas cocktail mix blue raspberry, a few small squirts of raspberry agave nectar(to sweeten!), a few drops of lemon, and top with soda water and you get a first class sour blue raspberry soda.

Beer Blogging: Bell's Hopslam

Style: Imperial India Pale Ale
ABV: 10%
IBU: Unlisted, but high (~70)
Availability: Regional, seasonal (Winter/spring)

Hopslam is one of the most highly regarded ales from Bell's Brewery of Kalamazoo, Michigan, one of the larger and more highly regarded craft breweries in the United States.

Pour of this beer is a reasonably deep amber color, something that may surprise people who simply hear that it is a pale ale (although the more seasoned IPA drinker will recognize this as fairly normal among the more extreme variants in the style, which Hopslam clearly is).

Fragrance is quite floral, with some lesser citrus notes and a hint of sweetness (from the honey that goes into brewing the beer). This is a very hop-forward bouquet, but basically what is expected from the style.

Initial flavor is very heavy on floral and herbal flavor notes, with traces of grapefruit, honey, and caramel as well (the latter just letting you know how much malts went into the production of a beer like this). Alcohol is fairly hidden until later in the mouthfeel, but it will sneak up on you. This is not a six-pack sort of beer - drinking six of these will probably put the uninitiated on the floor.

Finish is very clean, with a dry, almost white wine-like feel on the palate, something that is provided by the fermented honey (mead is also very similar in this regard).

Overall, this is a very high-quality IPA that pairs well with chicken, fish, or spicy food, but is balanced well enough to stand up on its own. Well worth having if you can find it in your area (when in season, should be available in most of the eastern US).

Strawberry Shortcake Popsicle

So my good friend Ali(another member of this co-op) got me a fancy Zoku Popsicle maker for my Birthday a few weeks ago. This thing is amazing in that you just keep it in your freezer and it instant freezes popsicles in under 8 minutes. (wut!)

Anyhow. Decided to try it out today. So I made 'Strawberry Shortcake pops' (I used the recipe from the book that came with it, I know, super creative, but that is what recipe books are for!).

The vanilla part is made with 2 vanilla pudding cups, 3/4 cup water, 3 T sugar and 1 T vanilla extract all whisked together. While the strawberry layer is frozen strawberries I microwaved pureed with 2 T fresh clover Beaverton OR honey, 3/4 T water and 1/8 T vanilla.

Calorie Count: ~75 calories each.
You can buy tons of 'low calorie' snacks that taste far worse that this that market themselves as '100 calories each!' or you can make your own for less money, and better flavor. I am sure you can make these in ice cube trays or cheap popsicles makers as well, and just leave them freezing over night.

My boyfriend, Tom commented that 'normally Popsicle are watery and lacking in flavor and suffer from this, and they(the ones I made) do not' I was reminded of a creamsicle and margaritas myself.

So there you have it, my first adventure in Popsicle making.

Candylude 1:Nerds Rainbow Mix

We all love candy right? Ok maybe not everyone does. But I definitely do! I figured between main posts, I would write some 'Candyludes' interludes about candy I try.

Nerds
These Wonka treats have been around since as long as I can remember. According to Wiki they have been around since 1983, which would be why they have been around as long as I remember. I am happy to say the rainbow nerds pack NO LONGER INCLUDES WHITE (my nemesis and hated flavor). Nerds are tangy and sweet and a perfect treat for a long road trip or eating while you watch a movie. I tend to obsessively eat all my least favorite flavors out of the pack, then separate the large nerds from the small. I eat all the small ones first, saving the tasty large ones for last.
I found this package at the Dollar Tree.

Flavors:
Yellow: WHAT flavor is this. Pineapple? I think? IDK but I am really not a fan.
Green: Watermelon. Nom my favorite flavor for candys!
Ornage: Ornage (duh!)
Purple: Grape, pretty average here too.
Pink: Strawberry.

Wait... where is the cherry(red!) :(.
Well I guess I will take an lack of cherry to not have whites... but yellow might be the new white.

This has been a candylude!

Oven Roasted Mini Peppers

Bought a bag of these Mini-Sweet peppers. Having no real plans for them, but not wanting them to go to waste in my fridge and mold. I scoured the internet for a good recipe.

I am not a fan of overly complicated dishes, or using too many expensive ingredients. What if the dish comes out bad? What if I do not have the talents to execute the proper steps to make top dollar peppers! The horrors of my over active imagination.


So instead of risking them to a recipe I did not have at hand, and instead of wasting time cooking all night. I continued reading my current book and instead, cut off the ends and cleaned them out. Arranged them haphazardly on a tray. Gave them a spray of butter (because butter is the only flavor of canned oil I have right now, Olive oil would have been better) and then dusted them with garlic salt.

Instead of making an elegant meal to serve them with, I ordered a few pizzas from Dominos(who happened to be having a 5.99 for medium two topping pizzas deal). and placed these on top of them. Dinner.

P.S. I don't take the skins off, I happen to like the flavor/texture the skin provides.

Starting a new blog

I cook, a whole heck of a lot, but I seem to forget to chronicle it, so here is to hoping I can have the remembrance to keep up this time.

Edit:
I have decided to open this blog up to my friends and a few other people who, like me have lives and don't post constantly. I am hoping that in combination all of us can make this a great place to come read about foodventures of varied people with varied backgrounds and tastes.

For note. I am JoDee. Admin of this blog, and lover of food(as my wasteline shows adequately). I am 25, and I almost wrote 22, that is how off I am on the real world. Graduated in 2011 from University of Hawaii at Hilo with a bachelors of Art in Marine Science. I have a love for eating and making good food, that no one can really equate this love  to my upbringing. I remember my first lover expressing how food is for passion just like love and feeding me delightful new foods that brought out new tastes to me. Foods I had never tried, such as curry, avocado, hummus and lychees suddenly revolutionized the boring world of food my parents had given me. Since then I have explored multiple cuisines, pondered and discarded the idea of being a chef and even been paid for my food. While rarely beautiful, I like to think of everything I cook as flavorful.