This is Pumpkin, our food cat. She looks like giant cat to me here. She’s usually slinking around when there’s activity in the kitchen. For this shot, we had come back from the grocery store and were putting our things away. Here, she’s in D.’s pile of ingredients for some cheesy potatoes that he made. A quick and easy casserole, of sorts.
That’s one cooking difference between us… he likes to use prepared food when he cooks, and I prefer to start from scratch when I’m cooking. If I was making a potato casserole, I’d grab the bag of potatoes, scrub ‘em down, and then start cubing. D. would grab the bag of Ore-Ida O’Brien (shown above), and start cooking. Just preferences. Here’s the ingredients for making D.’s Cheesy Creamy Potato Casserole:
- Ore-Ida O’Brien Frozen Cubed Potatoes (2 bags)
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Powder
- 2 Cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup
- Small Container of Sour Cream
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese (about 2 cups)
- Crunchy Onion Ring Thingys
Basically, stir the seasonings in with the frozen potatoes, to coat. Stir in the cream of mushroom soups and sour cream. Then stir in the cheddar cheese. Sometimes D. adds some cream cheese, but today we didn’t. Smooth into a lightly oiled baking pan and cook at 325 degrees or so, for 40 minutes, or til bubbly. Then add the crunchy onion ring thingys and cook for about 5 minutes more, til browned on top. It’s a quick and easy and yummy dish.
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It being Friday and all, we had planned on getting a pizza from the local joint down the road for this evening. However, when D. tried to call in the pizza, he got no answer. Repeatedly. I almost missed the message on my cell phone telling me that, til I pulled into the parking lot. [...]
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D. cooked this pizza up for us this weekend. He got the idea from a co-worker, who asked him what he would put on a Mexican pizza. He calls it Enchilada Pizza, since it uses enchilada sauce to keep the ingredients together. This is what he used:
- Boboli – type Pizza Crust. He used one that was slightly thinner, but definitely less bumpy.
- Refried Black Beans. A new favorite in our house… much preferred over the standard refried pinto beans.
- Enchilada Sauce. Yum.
- Pulled Chicken. Cooked first, cooled, then pulled, and reheated in the Enchilada Sauce for a spell.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Shredded Chihuahua Cheese – A Mexican melty goodness type of cheese.
- Green Onions
- Black Olives (Optional – which for me, means absent)
D. mixed the beans with the enchilada sauce and some cheese, and heated it in the microwave to make it creamy and spreadable. The cooked chicken was simmering in some more enchilada sauce during this time. Next, the bean mixture was spread over the pizza crusts. I spread the saucy chicken on top. We sprinkled the cheeses on, and then added the green onions and olives. I personally may have added some mushrooms on my pizza, but then there’s not much many cooking situations where I won’t add them. Cook in oven, let cool slightly and enjoy!
This meal came out very well, as it was very tasty. I had thought of adding salsa to the mix, although as D. said, it may have made the sauce too watery. Something to play with… The enchilada sauce is definitely an ingredient to continue playing with, in the kitchen, in general.
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged News on March 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Well, this seems to be the food recall story of the weekend. The FDA issued an alert for cantaloupes from… “a Honduran manufacturer believed to be linked to a salmonella outbreak”. There are 16 states listed in where cantaloupes are suspected to have caused this foodborne illness. It seems that the basic [...]
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Posted in Food Sources on March 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here is a map, linking food suppliers and consumers. Food Industry Market Makers. It looks very interesting, even though it looks to be in the early stages….
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This dish is what I would call a throw-together meal. I had made some brown rice earlier in the week… that’s always a handy thing to do. Arriving home after work, I took stock of what was in the fridge and pantry, and this is what we ate. Honestly, it was pretty darn yummy. I’m not certain of the exact proportions of the ingredients, but here they are, in no particular order:
- Cooked Brown Rice – Sauteed with olive oil, perhaps sesame oil instead, and perhaps with some soy sauce
- Eggs – Semi-scrambled, like an omelette-base, but I used Egg Beaters here
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Garlic
- Seasonings
- Sliced Almonds
- Chopped Onions (leftover from another meal)
- Cubed Chicken Breast (leftovers)
- Chopped Green Onion
Basically, I ‘fried’ the cooked rice to heat it through. I made the egg cake, and let it cool enough to slice into strips. I sauteed the remaining ingredients together, adding the cooked chicken near the end to heat that through. Serve in shallow bowls and top with green onion.
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged News on March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Food Safety System Near “Breaking Point”: FDA
If you’ve been paying attention, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. This article claims that our food system in the U.S. is not broken, but it could become so, and that we may be “just one incident away from some catastrophic event”. Some days, I would [...]
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Posted in Tips, tagged Tips on March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Credit where credit is due – I saw this cooking tip on The Food Network. Use an egg slicer for slicing button mushrooms. This tip caught my interest, since I love mushrooms and cook with them frequently (if not daily). So, I got an egg slicer, and proceeded to [...]
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that this next post would be more exciting. At least, nominally food-related. I did register my domain name, though, so I’m moving along. Albeit, slowly but surely. Steady steps here… Just keep ‘em moving. That’s what I plan on doing.
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Known as The Food Groove. I plan on posting recipes, pics, food-related articles and links, and whatever else may suit my fancy. I’m going to start posting daily, even though I’ll be working on the layout, links, logo and such over the next week or two, or three. For now, I’d like to get in [...]
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