Whatever Wednesday

Apparently I'm on a blogging roll today.  Get it? Blog roll?  That's a little blog humor for you!

Besides soup, I think one of the easiest things to make to use random vegetables is fried rice.  Mostly because we always have a gigantic bag of rice on hand.

I have previously included a "recipe" for fried rice, so I won't bore you.  Except to say that with my new sophisticated taste buds I would consider adding any of the following items to your rice:

Red Pepper Flakes
Lime Juice
Ginger
Low Sodium Soy Sauce

Very sophisticated ingredients, I know.

Oh, and kale is also pretty sophisticated in my opinion.

Make sure to take a picture of your fried rice with an artsy partial shot of the soy sauce bottle.  It makes all the difference.

Tater Tuesday

I think the perfect remedy to stressful, white knuckle, commutes is to cook with ones cast iron skillet.  Who's with me?

We had excess potatoes and eggs, so my brain was screaming: BREAKFAST FOR DINNER!

Spicy Cast Iron Hash

2 Potatoes, cubed
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Chili Powder
2 eggs
1 cup salsa, your choice
1/2 cup cheese, shredded

I boiled the potatoes for 5 minutes before cubing them (see: not long enough).  I cubed the potatoes and threw them in my skillet with oil and seasonings.

Fry the potatoes until they are done, and for the sake of not making my mistakes, please wait until they are ACTUALLY done.

Scramble two eggs, and pour the salsa over the top to heat.  Sprinkle cheese over the top.

If you have poor upper arm strength, get someone else to lift this pan into the broiler.  Because it's heavy.  Broil for 2 minutes.

Mmmm.  Crunchy potatoes.  Ooops.  Other than that minor detail, it was actually pretty good.

Hannah's Lesson of the Day:  Cook your Potatoes People!

Mellow Monday

You should know by now that we love soup.  I mean really, is there anything better than soup? Especially on long stretches of Minnesota days with much snow and cold and little sunshine?

The answer to my question is no.  On Monday, when one of my favorite blogs: Gina's Skinny Recipes, popped up with a Chicken Pot Pie Soup, my mind was made up.

I followed the recipe pretty exactly, but used vegetable stock instead of bouillon cubes, used broccoli instead of mushrooms, and used the George Foreman to cook the chicken (duh).

Peeling the potatoes is the most labor intensive part of this soup.

Also, for your information, this soup requires you to make a "slurry", which is basically mixing flour or cornstarch with a little bit of water and setting it aside before you add it into your soup/sauce.

It doesn't look very interesting.

But, the soup does!  It tastes just like pot pie filling!  Thanks to skinnytaste.com for this one.

Seventeen Thousand Ingredient Saturday

Ok, I may have exaggerated a little... but, what's new?

Saturday evening was bringing company to the Itty Bitty Kitchen, I know the mind reels at the thought of more than two people in this small space, and the Flemings needed something to make.

My lovely husband has visited Thailand, and while were in Napa we were served a most delicious Thai meal (thanks again Karen!), so Matthew decided with our excess time on Saturday, we would recreate a Thai feast!

Our Ambitious Thai Menu

Chips with Nam Chim
Som Thom (Green Papaya Salad)
Red Curry
Sticky Rice with coconut and mango

As has become tradition I lined up all my ingredients, and took a deep breath. No, the Orange Crush soda was not one of the ingredients.

I started in on the Nam Chim. Nam Chim is like a sweet/sour/spicy dipping sauce. I improvised a bit.

Nam Chim

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/8 t salt
1-2 Thai chilis or serrano peppers if you can't find those
2 cloves garlic, peeled

I pulsed all the ingredients in the magic bullet, because, hey, why not? Don't pulse too long, so you still have chunks of garlic and peppers.

I then transferred these to a saucepan and brought to a boil, and then simmered for awhile. The sauce was a bit thin so one website suggested adding a tablespoon of cornstarch. So I did. It was good.

The Som Thom required a trip to an Asian market, which really should have been documented, but I forgot. Som Thom is a salad with unripe papaya as the base, because unripe papaya has basically no taste.

1 Green Papaya, shredded
1 Thai chili
2 Cloves garlic, pressed
2 tbsp brown sugar
Lemon juice
Salt to taste
Tomatoes
Blanched green beans

Here is what a green papaya looks like.

After cutting it, we peeled it, and grated it through the food processor. The Thai then pound the papaya on top of the dressing to get the juice out. Karen gaves a tip to use the kitchenaid. So, we did. Put all the dressing ingredients in the bowl of the mixer, and add the papaya, mix with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes. I then threw in the green beans and tossed.

The Red Curry "the main dish", was actually the simplest.

2 cans lite coconut milk
1 tbsp (or more) Red Curry paste
4 potatoes, cubed
3 zucchini, sliced
Green beans

Throw the potatoes in with some oil, and the curry paste, have your husband open the coconut milk, and then add it in. Wait for the potatoes to cook almost all the way through, and then add in the zucchini and green beans. You can add in some ginger and lime juice if you'd like. Up the curry paste if you want more heat. Serve with white rice.

My photo documentation ends here. Things got a little crazy (and crowded) in the Itty Bitty Kitchen.

Sticky rice was our dessert, and also required a special trip to the Asian market. I was apparently pretty excited about it.

Matthew was in charge of the preparation of the rice, so I'm not sure how he did it. But it did involve the steamer basket on our rice cooker, and a coffee filter. I'm sketchy on the details. The sauce was simple.

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup sugar

Heat, mix with rice, top with mango, eat, and then explode from the amount of rice in your stomach.

Thanks Rachel, Steve, Steph, and Andrew for eating our Thai feast, and for experiencing our tiny kitchen and living to tell the tale. It was a blast!

Also if anyone is interested in having some sticky rice, we still have about 70 pounds (an exaggeration) to go through, come on over!

Wrap it Up Wednesday

I've often said that I should make a list of foods I had never eaten before I met my husband.

If memory serves me correctly I think #1 on the list would be salmon.

Yes, I know I had a limited palette.

Long story short, now I love salmon.  One of my new Kindle cookbooks (Headline:  Itty Bitty Kitchen goes high-tech) had a recipe for foil wrapped salmon, done in 20 minutes.  So I improvised.

Foil Wrapped Salmon

1 4 oz salmon filet
1/2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1/2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
Pineapple chunks
Red Pepper flakes

Easiest way to prepare salmon ever.  But, I haven't prepared it any other way, so I'm not sure.  Pour the sauces on a pieces of tin foil, roll the salmon around in it, top with pineapple and red pepper flakes.  Wrap it up like a present, and bake at 375 for 20 minutes, and not 1 minute longer.

When you're 20 minutes is up, and after you've resisted eating some of you Christmas candy (spoiled, remember?), unwrap the salmon.  Don't get your face too close.  That steam is hot.

Serve with roasted broccoli, which I'm sure you don't need another link to.  Ignore your husband's comments about "you and your nutty broccoli".  Enjoy.

Tomorrow night is my favorite night of the year: Middle School Choir Concert Night.  The World's Smallest Kitchen shall return for the weekend!

Maybe this time Monday

Yes I made risotto.  Again.  Come on folks, I've got to get it right!  Plus, I read an online article about how using a cast iron skillet is the way Italians make risotto.  I have no idea if this is true.  But, I had to show off.

That's right.  My (I guess you could call it ours) very own cast iron skillet (special thanks to my awesome father-in-law).  It matches our tea kettle, which if you know me, you know makes me happy.  I like matching.  And order.

I was inspired by a new cookbook to embrace squash.  So...

Butternut Squash Risotto with Kale

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 cup arborio rice
4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
Sage to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Salt
Pepper


After peeling and cubing the squash (steam it first, it helps), I wasn't going to repeat my mistakes.  So, I threw the squash in a pot with the stock to keep it warm.

I put the oil in my/our skillet, and sautéed the garlic.  Side note:  I was able to slice the garlic without touching it, thanks to this garlic slicer from Santa, who I also think is my mom.  Sorry believers.

I added in the rice to toast, and let the wine cook off.  I added in a ladle full of stock and squash.  Wash. Rinse Repeat.  4 hours and a lot of sweat later, I added the kale and spices.  Success!  Not as mushy as last time, but, decidedly orange.

Stocked Up Sunday (or, another Pork Post)

Yes blog-readers, I have returned to The World's Smallest Kitchen.  And, with a bang I might add.

Matthew and I returned to St. Paul yesterday after a whirlwind holiday break full of (but not limited to):  some scary blizzard drives, a Minnesota Christmas, matching pajamas, a plane ride with wifi, delicious restaurants in the Napa Valley, and lots of great (albeit rainy) visits in California.

One of the benefits of having a hilarious blog is that people know what to get you for Christmas.  Our cupboards and shelves are now FULL of kitchen gadgets and cookbooks all too awesome to mention in one blog.  So, I won't.   I plan on sprinkling them about casually.  So, for today I leave with a recipe for pork tenderloin from an issue of Clean Eating which I received in one of my 4 (!) Christmas Stockings.  See: Spoiled.

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Glaze

1 lb Pork Tenderloin, fat removed and patted dry
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup pomegranate juice (the most expensive thing on our grocery list, but pretty worth it)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
Garlic powder to taste

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees, and lined up my spices so I could give myself a little pep talk, or wait for Matthew to return from Target with the missing paprika.

I rubbed the spices on the pork (eww, raw meat),  and browned it in the oil on all sides.  I plopped it in a baking dish and set the timer for 20 minutes.

After draining the fat from the pork pan, I brought the pomegranate juice to a boil in the same pan.  I let it boil until it had reduced by about half.  I took it off the heat and said "for 7 bucks, this glaze better be good".  I added in the vinegar, salt, and a little garlic powder.

I pulled the pork out of the oven and tented it under some foil.  At least I think I tented it, because I'm not really sure what "tenting it" means.  I let the pork rest and set the table.

Disclaimer:  While the pork may look bloody and rare, it is actually the color of the pomegranate glaze, which was not glaz-y enough in my opinion, which gives the pork the appearance that it may walk off the plate at any moment.

While I fretted about my ceremonial return to the kitchen, Matthew said it was "off the chain", which is a phrase I sincerely hope he never uses again.

Beware blog-readers, our fridge is just as stocked with awesome and random things as our cupboards are.  Many meals are in our future.