Category Archives: Food

#WeVerb12: Cook

Posted by Ayesha in Food

What was your best recipe/dish of the year?

I am not a great, innovative cook. We eat in most nights and I do put together our food, but I don’t really make a lot of involved recipes. I rotate through some standard recipes and add in something special every once in a while (thanks to Pinterest!). Something that really helps me with the regular schedule is the Crock Pot. I LOVE my Crock Pot, and probably use it two or three times a week. It has really helped me make two night’s worth of food and have most of the dish ready by the time I get home. I’ve even gotten pretty good at modifying recipes to work with the Crock Pot. Our favorite is probably this recipe for Mexican-style Shredded Chicken.

The recipe is actually for tacos, but we use the chicken for various dishes. The first time I made this recipe, I followed it pretty closely, but it was fairly time-consuming. So, I modified it for the Crock Pot.

Here’s the recipe with my modifications:

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp salt

1/3 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dry oregano

Enough water to just cover the chicken, usually 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups. 

(This recipe is not spicy, but if you want some kick, a dash of cayenne pepper would do the trick.)

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (or do what I do, and just dump each one in one at a time). Wash the chicken and place the pieces in the crock pot so that the bottom is covered. Sprinkle the dry mix over the chicken. Pour in water. Cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours, or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

When done, drain and shred the chicken. Serve with tortillas and taco fixings. Or make quesadillas. Or a knock off Chipotle salad. Or spice up your mac and cheese by mixing this in. That’s our newest favorite! I love that we can use this recipe for a few different dinners, and between the two of us, this recipe lasts us two dinners and a couple of lunches as well.

I’m more about practical cooking, and this recipe falls right in line with that. What do you love to make in your Crock Pot?

I originally had pictures of this recipe, but chicken breasts floating in water aren’t pretty. So, use your imagination. 

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“Bread. Butter. Cheese. Victory!”

Posted by Ayesha in Food, Friends

Caitlin and I took the one free weekend we both had and immediately filled it. And what was on the top of our Bestie Saturday list? The Grilled Cheese Invitational in Pasadena!

That’s right. Grilled Cheese galore. There were free samples from Cabot Creamery, Izze, Boulder Canyon Chips, and Fuze.

personal image all Instagrammed

Pepper Jack makes my life, kids. Especially all melted and delicious like in wheat bread. They also gave us an extra sharp Cheddar sample. That was very tasty, but the cheese was a little dry at that point. The Pepper Jack won this round.

After we were done with the free samples, we walked around and tried to decide which samples from which trucks we should try, all while listening to a guy play bass with a balloon and one string. It was kind of fascinating for the two music nerds. Whie everyone was in line talking about what sandwich they wanted, we were talking about the unique Midi-like tone of the balloon and string. We refocused and got two sample from the Rebel Bite: a shitake mushroom and blue cheese sandwich, and the meatier Karl Marx, which featured short ribs, bolognese sauce, caramelized onions, and cheddar. The Karl Marx was actually too sweet for me. I much preferred the tangier bite that came with the mushroom sammie. And I don’t even like mushrooms! It was so good. Karl Marx by the Rebel Bite pictured below.

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We sampled one more sandwich, at a stand whose name I don’t remember (blogger fail). It was a scrumptious mozzarella, tomato, and pesto grilled cheese sandwich. We sat in the shade and listened to original (read: questionable) poems about cheese and grilled cheese. There were several rounds of cooking competitions, but Caitlin and I weren’t judges, and we didn’t think it would be worth it to stand in the sun in a crowd where we would see less than we were seeing sitting down in the shade.

We ended our visit to the Invitational with ice cream from Cool Haus! Caitlin was a little intimidated by the flavors, but I think she liked it. Fresh peanut butter cookies make most things less intimidating. =)

All in all, it was a great day. We didn’t eat too much, and what we ate was great. I would have liked to try more, but I was comfortably full. I didn’t want to be so full that I felt sick. I was drawn to the trucks that offered a $2 quarter sandwich sample rather than only a $7 sandwich option. It made it easy to try more, and share with my best friend.

It’s definitely an event I would return to in the future. What’s your favorite grilled cheese sandwich? All “recipes” welcome. Thanks!

How To Make Your Man’s Breakfast Even Better

Posted by Ayesha in Food, Humor, Nerd and tagged with

personal photo

Star Wars pancake molds by Williams Sonoma! OK, so depending on who you are, this could also make your breakfast even better. There are three molds in a pack. One pack comes with a Storm Trooper helmet (pictured above), Darth Vader’s helmet, and Yoda’s head. The other pack I have has the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star, and a TIE Fighter. After some difficulty with the batter I was using and the molds, I decided to only try three shapes. Here is the Millennium Falcon:

Yoda was a bit of a casualty:

Tips to avoid a brainless Yoda (where most of the Force lies).

1. Use a non-stick griddle (duh), but also spray some non-stick on the mold rims.

2. Use a thinner batter, and try to control how much batter goes in the mold. Maybe these are meant to be Star Wars crepes. How’s that for manly?

3. Take a butter knife and run around inner edges of the mold to release the pancake from it right before you’re ready to flip. Otherwise, you might lift the mold and the pancake, too!

E was pretty happy even though these were a little mangled. It was fun making them, and I hope they will work out a little better next time!

Recipe Time: It Tastes Like Home!

Posted by Ayesha in Food, Happiness Project and tagged with ,

In the time since moving out of my parents’ house, I have only had a few opportunities to cook Filipino or Bengali dishes. Even white jasmine rice seems like a luxury sometimes. E doesn’t really like to eat the things I grew up eating, mostly because of the smells they create when cooking. So, I usually try to choose opportune moments to have these special dishes. E is gone for a few days, so I am taking advantage of me time, and making my favorite home cooked meals. My most favorite is sinigang, a tamarind based soup from the Philippines. It’s like the Filipino version of hot and sour soup. I have recently started making this soup in a Crock Pot while I am away at work. And the best part about this soup is that you can’t overcook it! Want the recipe?

Indgredients:

1 lb cubed stew meat

2 serrano chiles slit

1 daikon peeled and sliced

1 medium tomato sliced

1 medium onion diced

1 eggplant cubed (or 2 Japanese eggplants cubed)

1 or 2 handfuls of green or string beans (however many fit in your pot)

2 handfuls of spinach (whatever fits in your crock pot)

1 packet of Knorr Sinigang sa Sampalok mix (the magic of this dish)

6 cups of water

image via pinoyoutlet.com

Place the beef at the bottom of the crock pot with the two chiles. Pour the soup mix on top. Then add the onions, tomatoes, daikon and eggplant. Add the water, and see how much space you have in the pot for the green beans. Add what fits, leaving a little bit of room for the spinach later. Set it on low for 7 to 8 hours. (I have left it on longer, and it is still wonderful!) In the last hour, add the spinach. Mix it in to the soup so that it cooks properly.

Not the prettiest dish, but oh so tasty! personal photo

Serve over white or brown rice.

Tips:

I like mine a bit more sour, so I add a little (just a little!) more powder. In my house, we would each add powder to our bowls to flavor it to our own tastes.

If it all doesn’t fit in your Crock Pot, and you are at home, go ahead and put it in a stock pot on simmer for a few hours. My coworker did this and it worked out perfectly!

This dish makes me feel all warm inside, and it tastes even better the next day! What are your special meals from home? Are they for special occasions? Or do you get to eat them whenever you want?