Moroccan Dinner - Part 2

Evidently I was on a Rachael Ray kick or maybe it was that Rachael Ray was on a Moroccan kick. Couscous is my new favorite grain. It is so simple and yummy. Here's Rachael's recipe: http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/rachael-ray-30-minute-meals/Grilled-Fish-with-Moroccan-Chermoula-Sauce-and-Zucchini-Couscous.

The only variation I made was I used Whole Wheat Couscous and Chicken broth rather than stock. I evidently forgot to take a picture of it, but we just shoveled it into the bowl with the meatballs and mixed it all together.

I also made a side of tzatziki to complement the dish!

16 oz Greek yogurt

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and grated (be sure to squeeze out excess water as these retain A LOT of water)

5-6 cloves garlic, minced (to taste)

2 tsp red wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

Handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients and serve.

Moroccan Dinner - Part 1

As ridiculous as it may sound, a meal at Walt Disney World inspired an obsession in our house with all things Moroccan and lamb! We had an amazing lunch at "Morocco" at Epcot with delicious gyros, couscous and tzatziki. Since coming back to the StL, we have been searching out recipes and restaurants to fulfill our desires for Morocco! I saw a recipe in a recent issue of The Rachael Ray Magazine for Moroccan-Style Mini Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Eggs and Flatbreads and decided to give it a try. Normally I try to avoid all things Rachael, but every once in a while you have to break your own rules and live on the wild side!

The accoutrement's for the lamb

Miniature balls of lamby goodness! Note all of the juices that the parchment paper caught! Totally made for easier clean-up!

Here's her original recipe: http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/rachael-ray-30-minute-meals/Moroccan-Style-Mini-Meatballs-in-Tomato-Sauce-with-Eggs-and-Flatbread. See below for my adaptation. I felt like hers had way too much meat (which became evident upon finishing my variation, which made four full servings) and decreased it accordingly.

Makes four servings

1 pound ground lamb

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

6 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp Hungarian paprika

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 white onion diced

1 cup chicken broth

28 oz can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 tsp cloves

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment. This is essential because lamb is so juicy when cooked and this will minimize the mess to the fullest. Combine the lamb, parsley, two-thirds garlic, lemon zest, chili powder, paprika and cumin. Season with salt and pepper. In my attempt I forgot that I was decreasing the lamb total by half and put the full amount of other ingredients per Rachael. This turned out great and tasted delicious and I will do that next time too! Form mini meatballs (about 34) and lay on parchment. Cook until browned, about 10-12 minutes depending on the size of the balls made.

In stockpot heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until softened, roughly 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Crush cloves and add those plus cinnamon to stockpot. Cook another 10 minutes until thick. Add meatballs and simmer for 10 minutes.

Rachael recommended that one immediately pour the meatballs plus sauce into a bowl and crack an egg into it. She then said to cover the bowl with a plate tightly and let stand for 3 minutes to cook the egg. I tried this and it went horribly horribly wrong. The egg didn't cook ... at all. We had to microwave the bowls for a few minutes to cook the egg. Then instead of being a nice looking cooked egg, it was a mish-mash of scrambled eggs throughout. Do not recommend. Yuck!

Nutrition per Serving (approx. per sparkpeople.com): 429 calories, 29.9 g fat, 12.5 g sat fat, 2.8 g polyunsat fat, 12.8 g monounsat fat, 87.3 mg cholesterol, 428.3 mg sodium, 581.3 mg potassium, 18.7 g carbs, 6 g dietary fiber, 8 g sugars, 23.3 g protein.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nothing says fall like rustling leaves and pumpkin. I found a great recipe from Picky Palate and used it as a road map for my cookies. The original recipe from Picky Palate may be found here: http://picky-palate.com/2010/10/14/double-pumpkin-kissed-chocolate-chunk-cookies/ Essentially, I removed the Hershey's Kisses and added extra chocolate chips and spices.

Pumpkin added to whipped sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla

After addition of everything except chocolate

Ready to be spooned out and baked

Makes about 48 cookies

226 g unsalted butter

200 g sugar

135 g brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

15 oz. of pure pumpkin (from can)

390 g whole wheat flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

15 oz semi-sweet morsels

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract until well combined.

3. Add pumpkin.

4. Add whole wheat flour a bit at a time until fully combined. Then add spices. Taste and adjust spices as needed.

5. Add semi-sweet morsels.

6. Cook 15 minutes on cookie sheet lined with parchment or silicone baking mat.

Nutrition per cookie (approx. per sparkpeople.com): 138.4 calories, 6.9 g fat, 4.1 g sat. fat, 0.3 g polyunsat. fat, 2.1 g monounsat. fat, 19.2 mg cholesterol, 80.6 mg sodium, 67.3 mg potassium, 20.6 g carbs, 2 g dietary fiber, 13.1 g sugars and 1.9 g protein

Look at how fluffy they are when they come out of the oven! Also, after seeing everyone on Top Chef: Just Desserts use baking mats, I decided to invest in one. It is amazing and dishwasher safe! Yeah!

French Onion Soup ala Julia Child

Check one item off of my to do list. I've been wanting to make French Onion Soup for quite some time and given the chill in the air, I felt like today was the day! I found a recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child et al and tinkered with it to make it my own!

Makes roughly 9 servings

2 lbs. thinly sliced yellow onion

1/2 lb. thinly sliced shallot

4 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

~ 1 tsp. salt

~ 1/2 tsp. sugar (per Mastering the Art of French Cooking this helps with browning)

4 Tbsp. flour

6 & 2/3 cups beef broth (boiling)

6 & 2/3 cups chicken broth

2/3 cup pinot grigio

4 sprigs thyme

3.5 oz of parmesan plus rind

First off, let's begin with what a pain thinly slicing shallots is! Way more challenging than thinly sliced onions. Add onions, shallots, butter and oil to large stockpot. Cover and cook onions for about 15 minutes.

Onions & Shallots

After 15 minutes of covered cooking

Uncover and increase heat to moderate. Add sugar and salt and cook for 45 minutes. Add flour and stir for about three minutes.

After addition of flour. Note the black "stuff" on the pan. Insert fears that my pot will never be clean again :(

Remove stockpot from heat and add boiling beef and chicken broth. I decided to do half beef and half chicken because I don't eat beef and wanted to avoid punishing my stomach with full beef broth (I've had a few unpleasant run ins when I eat some beef off of my husband's plate to double check and see if I still don't like it). I then decided to throw a few sprigs of fresh thyme into the pot. I also had 3 1/2 oz of leftover parmesan rind/cheese so I decided to throw that in there too for flavor! Simmer half covered for 45 minutes.

Following addition of remaining ingredients

My stockpot will never be the same :(

Nutrition (approx. per sparkpeople.com): 163.3 calories, 7.3 g fat, 3.9 g sat. fat, 1.2 g polyunsat. fat, 3.3 g monounsat. fat, 17.5 mg cholesterol, 1,397.4 mg sodium, 566 mg potassium, 17.7 g carbs, 2 g dietary fiber, 1 g sugars, 5.9 g protein

Halloween Crafts

When I was little, I LOVED LOVED LOVED doing arts and crafts with my mom. We made crafts for everything possible and now that I have some extra free time on my hands, I've decided to try my had at creating some festive holiday decor for our house!

We don't have a lot of Halloween decorations at our house, given that Halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays. It has something to do with the fact that growing up trashy folks would drive into our newly built neighborhood to trick-or-treat with their infant children and would stand on our stoop drinking and smoking. Coupled with the fact that they wouldn't even tell jokes (um, hello, you have to work for your candy folks), it made me disdain Halloween.

So a few Halloween decorations are in order! I had a few Michael's coupons (love that place) so I headed off to the store to find some supplies.

Supplies:

Two wooden pumpkins

One wooden Skull and Cross Bones Door Hanger

Orange Craft Paint

Black Craft Paint

Green Craft Paint

White Craft Paint

Paint Brushes

Glitter Letters

Fishing Line

Martha Stewart Craft Glue in Halloween colors (Black, Orange, Green, Silver)

Craft Paint Sealer

I started painting the pumpkins orange, with green stems. It took a few coats to get the wood adequately covered. Then I also had to paint the flip sides. I did make the mistake of not fully letting the paint dry when I flipped them, so I had to pick off little pieces of newspaper (or lazily cover with paint repeatedly until you couldn't tell that there had been paper there). Damn being so impatient! Grrrrrr. I also experimented with outlining the eyes in black paint on one of the pumpkins. Next up was glitter time! Orange glitter on the orange paint, green glitter on the green paint and black glitter on black paint (duh!).

On another I outlined the eyes in silver glitter to change it up a little!

After much drying time, I did a quick coat of sealer on both sides and ran a piece of fishing line through the pre-existing hole. Then I hung them up in our front windows. They spin slightly, but look pretty great!

Another festive item is the make your own door hanger. I painted the skull and crossbones with white and painted the hanging sign with black. Actually I painted the hanging sign in black, then orange, then white, then back to black. I tried to get fancy but can't paint a straight line even with a ruler to save my life. Then I super glued some sparkly letters spelling out CAUTION and covered the skull and cross bones with a blend of black and silver glitter glue. A quick seal with the spray sealer and it was hung on the door and ready to roll!

Farm to Table - Applesauce

We spent an afternoon recently at a small family run farm in Belleville, IL doing some apple picking. The farm was the anti-thesis of other area farms that are uber-commercialized, with just a small family working in the barn. We were driven out to the orchards by one of the sons who then sat on the tractor and waited for us as we harvested apples! It was slightly weird having him waiting, as we almost felt rushed since he was sitting in the sun baking, while we frolicked in the fields!

We brought the harvest home and I decided to whip up some from scratch applesauce. I looked for a few recipes online, but altered them to suit my tastes.

Applesauce

8 apples, peeled and cubed

approximately 1 cup on apple cider

approximately 1-2 Tbsp. cinnamon

sugar to taste (about 1/4 cup)

Add apples, cider and cinnamon to saucepan. Heat until boiling. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Mash apples after simmering (apples should be soft and shouldn't take much effort to mash to desired texture.) While still on the heat, add sugar to taste. After sugar is dissolved, take off heat and eat.

This makes the house smell AMAZING! And my family is obsessed with this stuff. My dad actually took it from our fridge because he loved it so much, and the man doesn't eat ANYTHING!

Refinishing the Basement

So, our basement is covered in the most awful wood paneling. Actually, some of it isn't even wood. Half is covered in high quality wood paneling, half is what I can only guess is particle board with textured pictures of wood on it (cute, huh?) My latest endeavor is to cover this disgusting stuff and make the basement an actual living space.

Note the TWO types of paneling

After much googling, I discovered that the best method to take care of the paneling is to cover it with drywall mudding. So, I purchased a 61 lb. container of mud and set off to cover this awful stuff. I made a decision early on in the process to do one full wall completely, so I could develop better techniques. Wise move! After covering two walls twice with mud, I came to the realization that I could mud the cracks between panels first, then do a full coat over everything. This definitely lessened the workload.

After a little mudding!

Next came sanding. To put it mildly, it sucked to the nth degree. I started with a sanding brick. Not smart on my part. Too much arm effort involved. Then we bought two more hopefully fun toys - a hand sander and an attachment for the drill that sands. The hand sander was definitely easier than the sanding block, but the drill attachment sucked. But we were making progress! I had no idea how dusty the process was going to be! Our basement looks like Columbian drug lords have been messily cutting cocaine in our basement. Next toy was an electric sander, also known as my new favorite toy! My dad had it laying around un-opened in his basement and didn't think to offer it up until I asked him if he had one. The electric sander is amazing! Not only does it minimize the mess that ends up on the floors, but it is so damn efficient! The only drawback is that it makes a whole lot of dust in the air. Thank goodness for goggles and breathing masks because the basement now looks like Snoop's tour bus!

Post a round of sanding

Stay tuned ....