Love My Slow Cooker: White Bean Soup with Italian Sausage and Kale

I’m a sucker for slow cookers these days. Recipes I can throw in the crockpot in the morning and come home to in the evening are the best.

It’s like I have a personal chef who is preparing dinner for me while I’m on my way home from work. The house smells great and the food is ready to scoop and serve. I don't know why I never did this much before this year!

My Top 3 Favorite Recipes from Last Week

As a sort of review, and an easy digest, I have decided to share my favorite recipes that I try each week. This blog shares two recipes I have not yet shared: broiled tilapia parmesan and Indian eggplant. And points to one that I have already shared.

It's been a good week for food. So without further ado, here are three recipes I would recommend trying out:

1. Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

Two Mexican Recipes I Loved: Enchiladas and Lasagna

It’s been a good week for food. That’s according to my husband, when I asked him which of two Mexican dishes he liked best out of the two I’ve made in the seven days: green chili enchiladas or Mexican lasagna.

Lessons from cooking: I need to practice more of everything

It hit me today. I really am getting better at cooking. And this time I figured that out on my own.

My husband has told me a couple of times recently that I have improved (and he managed to say it in a way that seemed like a compliment). Though I take his opinion seriously – we are frequently brutally honest with one another – it usually takes awhile for my confidence to catch up.

Goodbye Gamey Taste: Venison meatballs

I made meatballs for our annual holiday party to go along with all the pre-packaged items we served. They were a hit and the best meatballs I've ever made. The kicker: No fancy ingredients and a very simple setup.

Goodbye Gamey Taste: Marinated venison steak

This is the first of a series of posts on cooking venison, aka deer meat. In particular the deer that my husband got while hunting a few weeks ago. I'll post one recipe a week and then rank that recipe on how well it got rid of that wild game taste that so often accompanies, well, wild game. I'm not a fan.

That said, venison is a very lean meat and because of that is a great alternative to beef. There's also something to be said for using the meat that comes from a successful hunt. On the other hand, I admit it would have been better had I not seen Bambi before he was taken in for processing.

Adventures in Pork: Fifth time's a charm

Thanks to my father, I finally know how to cook pork. I'll just consider my first four tries at cooking this meat practice.

When I went home to Nebraska to visit this fall, we went out and bought a pork loin to cook for dinner. The idea was that he would walk me through how to do it properly.

I learned the following tips:

Catching up on recipes: 4 that worked for me

My recent cooking has not been a total disaster. Not everything I make is under- or over-seasoned. Here are four recipes that worked ... mostly. It's all relative.


1. Bacon-wrapped chicken breast. Because really, everything is better wrapped in bacon. Even the bananas I had at a fancy restaurant once. This particular bacon was left over from a pack of fresh bacon I bought from the meat counter, and we wrapped some chicken with it. Thick, juicy bacon. Yum.

A severe case of over-seasoning: I've got to find a balance!

In the time I've not been blogging, I've kept trying new things in the kitchen, consistent with my goal to learn to cook. While I used to have a severe case of under-seasoning, which I thought I had fixed, I'm now fighting with too much seasoning.

Mostly, everything's ending up much too salty.

Banana bread with honey - Yum!

This one's for you Dad ... I'm finally back, and writing about the oh-so-exciting topic of banana bread. I have had a very difficult time as of late making anything that tastes great. I have gone through a spell of over-seasoning (as opposed to my previous problem of under-seasoning...), so I was pleasantly surprised when my banana bread, using this recipe from the Food Network, turned out well. Especially considering I'm not much of a baker.

And I'm back.

Where have I been for the past month + ? Well, I haven't been blogging. The good news however is that I did not stop trying new things in the kitchen. The bad news is that I didn't do much of anything else. Even my mountain biking has suffered.

The next few days, I'll post some cooking posts, as well as an update on where I am with my 40 by 40 goals. Perhaps I'll even add a few, since I don't exactly have 40 on my list yet.

Here's to catching up ...

The Great French Fry Challenge: Starting off with basic sweet potato fries

My husband has set upon me a challenge to learn how to make french fries of all shapes and sizes ... regular, crinkle cut, waffle fries, and so on. He's especially interested in the waffle fries, but I decided to start with regular old fries. In particular, I decided to try making sweet potato fries.

Mango chicken: A fitting use of a fruit I love

I have never cooked with mango. In fact, I would venture to say I had never purchased a mango until this past week.

The fact I had mangoes was because I have been trying to incorporate more fruit and vegetables into my diet, per my decision to try to follow the new MyPlate guidelines as much as possible. This is also part of my learning how to cook, a 40 by 40 goal. 

Taking the New MyPlate Guidelines for a Spin

Over the past week, I've eaten salad nearly every day. I started doing so after learning that I had gained nearly five pounds after a month of traveling. (Read: lots of wine and rich food) So I've integrated just a simple mixed greens salad, with grape tomatoes and sometimes shaved carrots with a low-cal dressing, into one meal a day hoping it will help fill me up and minimize what I eat of everything else.

It got me to thinking about the new MyPlate guidelines from the government. The almost ridiculously simple setup is designed to replace the Food Pyramid. 

'Add This One to the Rotation': Lemon Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

I'm nearly done traveling for the summer - just one more trip this weekend through the early part of next week - so I'm finally getting a chance to get back to cooking.

You all know I can't create my own recipes. I'm just on a mission to learn how to cook, so I use everyone else's. And with the multitude of recipes on the Interwebs these days, there's plenty of opportunity to do so. I was in the mood for chicken tonight, but tired of barbecued chicken.

Going crazy for potatoes - sweet and otherwise

I am tired of boring side dishes. So this week I went in search of recipes for side dishes that would be better than my typical sautéed vegetables, pasta or fries.

First, some wine. My husband brought home some wine "made from organic grapes" from Alfalfa's, the new organic/natural foods store in Boulder. It was lovely. It was a mild Malbec, and we will definitely purchase it again. It was called Pircas Negras (on the left).

Now back to potatoes:

Suffering from a severe case of under-seasoning

I have had so much steak in the past month or so, and while I recognize a regular diet of steak is not necessarily a great idea, I do love a good steak. It's the Nebraskan in me. But I apparently suffer from a severe case of under-seasoning. I watched my brother season some steaks this weekend when I was in Nebraska for a mini-vacation, and he – the king of cooking meat – seasoned those steaks like mad.

Steak with a beer and brown sugar marinade: Oh how I love cooking with beer

If you haven't figured it out yet, I have not tapped the Betty Crocker cookbook in awhile. I wasn't satisfied with the first few recipes I tried, and so I've decided to use it for comfort food and baked goods, and to use the goodness of the web for everything else. In fact I am using the Betty Crocker chili recipe as a base for a pot that I have cooking right now.

Last Thursday night, I decided to take my friend's advice and make steak to supplement my iron levels for giving blood the following day. Really I love any excuse to make steak, and I feel like I am steadily improving my steak-grilling skills. I have not overcooked a steak in awhile.

Thursday I found a simple marinade: Beer and Brown Sugar Marinade.

Tomato and Almond Pesto in my wannabe food processor

I made this dish probably two weeks ago. I don't know why I haven't blogged about it until now, but it was a lovely dish that was an easy and quick meal and I plan to make it again.

Here's the link to the recipe I used for Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto.

I made this after finding it at America's Test Kitchen's website. However, I did not feel like registering to get the full recipe, so I found it in several other places on the web. Not sure if it was the exact recipe I would have got from America's Test Kitchen. But it was good.

Success with steak, arugula and roasted pepper salad

Last night, I was bored, so I decided to find a fun recipe for dinner in one of the many cookbooks we have in our cupboards. I chose Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Arugula and Roasted Pepper Salad. Why? Well, I've never cooked with rib-eye steak, nor with arugula. And the last time I had a roasted red pepper was in Armenia, where it is part of the horavats tradition, aka barbecue; peppers are "roasted" in the horavats pit, and peeled and devoured along with any number of delicious bbq'ed meats and vegetables. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Anyway. This is the recipe, except I followed the nearly identical one in our under-used cookbook: Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes featuring Giada de Laurentis.