Brussel Sprout Slaw

This dish is out of the Cooking Light magazine I bought the other day. Couldn't be easier or more delicious. And no mayo so its good for you!  Sprouts, apple, craisins, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Done.

There is maple glazed chicken cooking right now too, but this looked so good I couldn't wait to try it. :)

Footnote...the maple glazed chicken was pretty good too.  

You know what's a b*tch?

Cooking for one.  I don't know how.  I've never been one, really.  Yes, I have the kids, but rarely do they eat anything out of the ordinary that I might cook.  Yes, I can cook extra and eat it for meals during the week, but usually what I do is cook it, realize it tastes fantastic and eat too much.  Especially with dessert. 

Tonight I am trying something new.  I cooked individual apple crisps in little ramekins...  I did make 2, but even if I eat them both, its better than eating a whole pan, right?

Baby steps.

no cooking today

the only thing I had all the ingredients for were cookies.  cookies aren't a challenge AND I am back to the gym tomorrow and trying to eat much better so cookies would sort of defeat the purpose.  I've already made chili to eat as lunches this week so....I am going to do some research and planning and get back to cooking next week.

Peace out.
Oh and wish me luck getting back in the gym habit.  I have totally fallen off the wagon, and I need to get back in the game.  Not getting any younger, you know.  Although, I'm not getting any older either.  I decided.  I'm just going to stay right where I am.  :)

I am daydreaming right now

Truth be told, I am sitting in a very quiet building waiting for a work function to start in an hour, and I am looking out the window and it looks very much like fall outside.  It IS very much fall outside.  I am sitting here with my calendar in front of me trying to plan out the next few months of my life and I am daydreaming about free time.  Its such a luxury, isn't it?  I am also thinking about a conversation I had with a good friend of mine the other day about someone he knows that is a pastry chef.  The road not travelled for me...mainly because it didn't ever occur to me at college age that I might want a career like that.  He was talking about the commercial kitchen she bakes in and I was practically drooling.  So what's the lesson here?  Carve out more free time to bake?  Return to school to become a pastry chef?  There is a little voice in my head sometimes that says "own a bakery". 

I think I am going to make red velvet cake this weekend.  Probably the one from the Paula Deen cookbook I have.  Maybe I will make several things this weekend.  I love to bake when it gets cold.  And its starting to...

PS.  Here's the view I'm looking out at...

Just so you don't think I have been slacking

With this cooking/baking at least once a week thing, I haven't.  I didn't take pictures, but last weekend I decided to make soup.  So I made a really basic chicken soup and added some orzo pasta.  It was fine.  But then I heard someone talking about chili at work the next day and decided I wanted some chili...but I already had all the soup. So...I made the chili and added some of the soup to it. Highly unorthodox, I know.  But it was good. 

Pear and Apple Tart

I've made this recipe twice now.  Its a Martha Stewart recipe, and to be honest, I didn't follow it to the letter.  I have no idea how she could have used all the fruit that the recipe called for.  So I used what fit.  Its such a simple recipe and so good that I think pecans and phillo dough are going to be things that I keep on hand so I can make it whenever I want. 

Here's the first time I made it...you layer the dough 4 or 5 times with an entire stick of butter (yowza) and spices and pecans.  And breadcrumbs, actually.  Maybe that's just to hold everything together.  It was SO good. 

I made it again yesterday on request from Uncle A.  I thought about how much butter a whole stick is for not that much resulting food, so I decided to make it with the fat free butter spray to see how it would turn out. I think it was just as good.  I mean, obviously butter adds something, right?  And on special occasions, I would go butter all the way...but on a random Saturday night?  Butter spray worked just fine.  In fact, I wonder if Uncle A even noticed.  Here's the pics...even looks the same.

I highly recommend.  Two thumbs up.  And I am certain I could get recommendations if you wanted them.  PS.  Its also really good the next day for breakfast.  Ask me how I know. :)

Mac and Cheese...

All the apple treats were not my recipe attempt this week.  That was necessity, so as all the lovely apples wouldn't go to waste.  I decided on an entree for this week's attempt.  I am a firm believer that everyone should have a couple of dishes in their back pocket (not literally, of course) that they can whip up whenever necessary.  I am also a believer that at least one of those dishes should be of the comfort food variety.  I have a pretty good mac and cheese recipe that I use (thank you Auntie JoJo and Pearl Bailey) but its always good to branch out, right?   

The Moosewood Restaurant cookbook series has always been one that I have struggled to get totally on board with because they are vegetarian.  And I am not, and I won't eat things like tofu, or pretend that giant mushrooms can take the place of meat.  Just can't do it.  But Ami had this book hanging around, so I decided to take a look through.  Lo and behold, there will be several recipes made from this cookbook, and the first one is...mac and cheese.

The upside to the Moosewood series is that they tend to be healthier recipes, and I was interested in testing out a healthy mac and cheese.  I mean...its got cheese in it, right?  You use cottage cheese and lowfat milk to make the white sauce (I used the Fiber One cottage cheese, thereby making it even healthier).  Blend it up with pepper and nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice in a pinch!), dump it in a pan with uncooked macaroni, real cheese (even the Moosewood folks said that you could use low fat or fat free cheese, but that it was disgusting...), some breadcrumbs and parm on the top and...

Right into the oven until its bubbly and browned and then...holy cow!  It looks great, right? 

Here were the observations from the table.  The nutmeg/pumpkin pie spice is different.  Not bad, but different.  It wasn't as salty as regular mac and cheese can be.  I assume that is because you use less actual cheese and build your white sauce with healthier alternatives.  It wasn't soupy as mac and cheese can be, but that could also be because I added extra pasta.  AND if you make a double batch, its plenty to feed a few people and have 5 or 6 servings left over for meals for the week. 

I liked it.  I am not sure if I will use the nutmeg again, and I might add a little salt, but I am sold on the white sauce portion of the recipe.  Good work Moosewood.  :)