Cookbook Cuisine

Spaghetti with Tomato-Artichoke Sauce

2011-03-23T15:16:00.008-05:00

The nice folks at Red Gold Tomatoes sent me a delicious sample kit that included several cans of tomatoes, a cookbook, Heartwarming Recipes for the Busy Cook, a tote bag, a fridge magnet, and a Red Gold tomato truck model.

Looking over their website I found so many delicious recipes and decided to make Spaghetti with Tomato-Artichoke Sauce. (BTW, the food pic is theirs, not mine.)

Check out their website... there are lots of delicious recipes and
they have an interactive recipe finder.

New Foodie Blog

2010-07-21T16:53:00.005-05:00

Just created a new foodie blog, Chili... A Bowl of Red for the cookbook I'm writing. Pub Date: May 2011.

Come on over and visit. There will be lots of chili recipes and
a monthly chili cook-off.

Backyard Barbecues

2009-11-09T14:38:00.013-06:00

I know this post is way late; it was supposed to be up after Labor Day, but better late than never... and it's always time for a BBQ no matter what time of year it is.

First things first... the winner of my now-out-of-print-BBQ-cookbook-that-I'm-bringing-back-into-print is Culinography for her Avocado Burgers. Burgers are my absolute favorite BBQ food. These look sooo good, I wish it was summertime right now and I could fire up my grill.

Summer will be here before you know it and your best friend at a backyard barbecue is my newly-revised-almost-published Best of the Barbecues.

It offers everything you need from drinks to desserts and everything in between, all designed to make your BBQ the best! Pub date is April 2010... just in time for backyard barbecue season.

Keep Those Grills Going

2009-07-08T18:15:00.010-05:00

In my previous post, I invited all foodies to a BBQ, thinking that lots of you would be grilling over the Fourth of July, and I was planning to do a round-up on Friday.

I thought it would be more fun to have the BBQ all summer long since people cook out during the warm weather. So I'm extending my online BBQ to last all summer and will post a round-up of all the recipes, along with delicious pictures, after Labor Day Weekend.

Whenever you barbecue, just come on over and leave a link to your post in the comments so I'll be sure to collect your post. Include the badge in your post and invite all your foodie friends to come to the BBQ. Keep on grilling!!

You're All Invited to a BBQ

2009-06-24T11:33:00.015-05:00

Since summer is here, I thought it would be really fun to invite everyone to a BBQ, especially since the Fourth of July is right around the corner and lots of people will be grilling. I love to cook and eat outdoors. There's something about the smell of food cooking on the grill that's so inviting and enticing.

I wrote a BBQ cookbook, Best of the Barbecues, a way long time ago filled with 369 recipes for everything from drinks to desserts and everything in between that you could possibly ever
want to eat, drink, and enjoy at your outdoor barbecue.

The recipes include all kinds of dips
and finger foods, a bit of the bubbly, milkshakes, bean salads, potato salads, macaroni salads, lots of veggies, both grilled and on the side, burgers... of course!, chicken, beef, fish, and steak, breads and buns because you need something to put your burger or hot dog in, delicious desserts like key lime pie, dirt cake, hot fudge sundaes, fruity things, and sauces, rubs, and marinades.

The book has been out of print for a while; I'm planning to bring it back into print. I have a few copies left and I'd like to give one to you. All you have to do is come to my BBQ and bring food to share. You can bring whatever you want--drinks, salads, veggies, meat, desserts--as long as it ties in with a BBQ and you can bring more
than one dish. BTW, I'm also planning to update the book before
I republish it, so your recipe(s) will be included.

Since a lot of people will be grilling over the holiday weekend, and won't have pics or a post on their blog yet, here's how you can win: Blog about the BBQ and invite all your readers to come to the BBQ. Include the badge and a link to this post. Leave a comment with a link to your post. After you grill, post your BBQ pics and recipes on your blog, then leave another comment with the link to your BBQ post. I can collect the pics and recipes from your blog. Or if you
have a BBQ recipe in your archives, just do a quick, short current post with your pic, the badge, and a link to this post. I'll post the round-up on July 10th and pick the winner at random.

You're all invited to my BBQ. Let's get grilling.

Less is More

2009-06-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

Less is more... more Foods an d Flavors
of San Antonio. I've been thinking about quitting Cookbook Cuisine for a while because I've been posting less here and more at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio since my new cookbook was published. I wanted to let you know so you wouldn't think I disappeared. It's been fun blogging here and I've made lots of wonderful foodie friends. I hope you'll come over and visit me at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.

Potato Salad and a Picnic

2009-06-18T17:16:00.023-05:00

What's more perfect for a picnic than potato salad? Louise, at Months of Edible Celebrations, is having an online alphabet picnic and is inviting everyone to bring a dish corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. The letter of the dish you bring depends on when you go over to her blog and sign up for the picnic.

I happened to get the letter D so I searched my blog for a D recipe that would be appropriate to bring to a picnic and I also wracked my brains to think of a recipe that would begin with D. The only post I could find with a D were my dogs, where I introduced you to my furry friends, so I've renamed my Perfect Potato Salad to Dill Potato Salad since there's dill in it. I suppose I could bring my dogs to the picnic, but you're supposed to bring food.

I "borrowed" this picture from Taste, because I didn't have a camera when I first blogged about my potato salad, and I wanted to get this post up to let everyone know about the Picnic, but the recipe is all mine and I've been making this Dill Potato Salad for a very long time.

2 pounds red potatoes, skin on
4 - 6, maybe 7 or 8 slices turkey bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
1/4 - 1/3 cup very finely-diced yellow onion
1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. or more dry mustard (my secret ingredient)
1/4 - 1/2 cup light mayonnaise, more or less depending on how much is needed to make a moist potato salad
Couple shakes of dill weed
Salt and black pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the whole potatoes, bring to a boil again, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Set aside--usually putting the colander in the sink is the best place--and let cool at room temperature. They'll still be a little warm when you cut them.

While the potatoes are cooling, cook the bacon, dice the onion, and chop the green bell pepper. It's understood that you'll drain the bacon on paper towels, but just thought I'd mention it here.

When the potatoes are cool, slice them, one at a time, on a cutting board with a wet knife; makes it easier and you'll probably have to keep wetting the knife with water because those silly little potatoes can get so sticky about it.

After slicing, cut the slices into cute little (or large) cubes and put them in a large plastic bowl, preferably Tupperware which has a tight-fitting lid so you can carry your potato salad to the barbecue or picnic or wherever it is you're taking it. But don't put the lid on it yet. And here's a secret for cubing already-cooked potatoes. Put the one-potato-at-a-time slices on top of one another and cut through the long way and then the short way.

Put the onions and green bell peppers that you've diced and chopped so nicely into the bowl and admire how pretty and colorful your potato salad looks. Think nice thoughts about everyone enjoying it at the barbecue. Mix the onions and bell pepper in just a wee little bit, so they can get friendly with the potatoes.

If you've already crumbled your crisp-cooked bacon, you'll be missing out on the fun part: Crumbling it into the bowl with your hands. You can make much better crumbles this way and if you're starting to get hungry thinking that the potato salad is going to be so good, you can lick your fingers. Most people prefer to simply wash their hands, but I used to make this potato salad with my kids when they were little and this was one of the fun parts of cooking together. They always called dibs on crumbling the bacon and I had to wait until they grew up and moved out on their own before I got to crumble the bacon again.

Now that you've buddied up the bacon with the potatoes, onions, and green bell pepper, shake in some dry mustard. (If you've never heard of dry mustard before, it's like a spice and is sold in the spice section in a cute little yellow can.) Just a tad because too much and it will tend to overpower the potatoes. It tends to get a bit sharp and tangy after it's been sitting for awhile. But you might like your mustard this way and it's all a matter of taste anyway. The taste will grow of its own accord after you refrigerate the potato salad for an hour or two, so you can always add more later if you want to.

Gently massage your not-yet-finished potato salad with a wooden spoon, just to make sure the mustard and the bacon and the green bell peppers and the onions all get to be good friends.

Then introduce the mayonnaise, but not all at once. Mayonnaise has a tendency to be shy because it has to dress the somewhat naked potato salad. Stir some in, see what happens, take a taste, then stir a little more in, take a taste, repeat, then stand back to admire how well everyone is getting along. But don't take too many tastes; you won't have anything left to bring to the barbecue. This has happened to me a few times.

You're not done yet. You still have to put the finishing touches on, to finesse your potato salad to perfection. When your potato salad is well-moistened and mixed, shake in some dill, stir it around a bit, and then add salt and black pepper to taste. Take a few more tastes, just to be sure it's absolutely perfect and because you're hungry. Put the lid on it (if it's Tupperware, you can burp it), stick it in the fridge and let it chill out for awhile.

I'm going to a picnic and I'm bringing Dill Potato Salad.

Good Greens, Good Gravy... BSI

2009-06-16T16:46:00.020-05:00

Greens are really good for you. Greens that also have gravy (made from a wine sauce) poured over them are even better. One of my favorite foodie friends, Heather, at Girli Chef, is hosting this week's Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) and she chose Greens as the secret ingredient. She won last week's BSI with her Watermelon Margaritas. The assignment--should you chose to accept it--is to make a recipe featuring greens. She then gets to choose which recipe she likes best and the winner receives a gift, plus he or she gets to chose the next BSI and host the next round-up. Check out her post for all the details.

Spinach is my favorite go-to greens because, not only is it really, really healthy, it's also delicious in so many recipes. A while back, I made Sauteed Chicken and Baby Bella Mushrooms Served Over Garlic Spinach. It was absolutely delicious and it's definitely a keeper. It's one of my favorite recipes; I've made it many times. And judging from my stats, several thousand people have searched for it and ended up on my blog, so it must be good. I'm re-posting it here as
my greens entry for BSI.

1/3 cup plus 1 T. all-purpose flour, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning (available at Sam's Club or substitute 1/2 T. garlic powder and 1/2 T. dried oregano)
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise in half (they're much easier to slice if they're partially frozen)
1 T. vegetable oil
3 T. butter, divided
1 (16 oz.) container sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10 oz.) bag fresh baby spinach
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Put 1/3 cup flour on a dinner plate. Add the salt, pepper, and Garlic & Herb Seasoning. Stir to mix with a fork. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture.

Heat a deep, 12-inch chef's saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and 1 T. of the butter. When the mixture bubbles, add the chicken and saute on both sides until nicely browned. Remove to a plate and set aside.

Add 1 T. butter to the pan. When it sizzles, add the mushrooms, let them brown on one side, then turn them over and let them brown on the second side. Remove and set aside on the same plate with the chicken.

If necessary, add just a little bit more butter to the pan. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, or until limp and just starting to brown.

Add the garlic and saute for one minute with the onions.

Add the spinach, stirring to mix it with the onions and garlic, and let it cook down. Remove to a separate plate and set aside. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Add the remaining 1 T. butter to the pan. When it bubbles, add the remaining 1 T. flour and stir constantly for about 30 seconds to make a roux. Stir in the chicken broth and the wine. Let cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Add a squeeze of lemon juice and stir to mix. Return the chicken
and mushrooms, with any accumulated juices, to the pan and heat through.

Serve the chicken and mushrooms over a bed of spinach. (If the spinach has gone cold, just zap it in the microwave for about a minute.) Drizzle the wine sauce over.

Enjoy!

Amazing Pot Roast

2009-06-12T19:50:00.016-05:00

About two months ago, Sara, at Amazing Taste, sent me samples of their nine seasoning packets: Beef, Pork, Poultry, Seafood, Steak House, Burgers, Fajitas, Chili, and Malibu. I used the seasoning for beef since I was planning to make a pot roast. According to the directions on the packet, the seasoning can be used either
as a dry rub or a marinade.

1 (0.75 oz.) packet Amazing Taste seasoning for beef
1 - 2 T. vegetable oil
2 pound eye of round roast, visible fat removed
3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
4 carrots, cut on an angle
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
Salt, coarsely ground black pepper, dried minced garlic, and dried oregano, to taste
1 (0.87 oz.) package brown gravy mix
1-1/4 cups water, divided
1 (14.5 oz.) can Italian diced tomatoes
6 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

Add the oil to a deep, 12-inch, chef's saute pan and heat over high heat. Rub the seasoning over the meat, prick it with a fork, then put it in the hot pan to sear. When the bottom is seared, turn it over and sear the other side. When that's seared, sear both the sides. (I used tongs to hold the meat upright while the sides seared.) Remove to a plate and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the celery, carrots, onions, and green bell pepper to the pan. Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, dried minced garlic, and oregano. Let cook for about 5 minutes, then stir and let cook again for 5 more minutes or so. (Not much stirring involved and no need to add any oil; the veggies release their juices when sprinkled with salt so there's just the right amount of moisture to begin softening the veggies. Plus they pick up the flavor of the seared meat.)

Make a well in the middle of the pan (move the veggies to the side) and return the roast to the center of the pan, along with any accumulated juices.

Pour the gravy mix into a 2-cup measuring cup. Add one cup water, then stir with a fork to get out the lumps. Pour this over the meat and veggies, letting some run under the meat, then add the diced tomatoes, along with 1/4 cup water. (I put the water in the can of diced tomatoes and swirled it around to pick up all the remaining tomato bits and juices from the can.) Stir.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and let
cook for 2 hours or so, stirring the veggies and turning the meat occasionally.

About 20 minutes before the roast is done, cook the potatoes in salted boiling water in a separate saucepan.

Remove the meat from the pan and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve the veggies and potatoes on the side, topped with gravy. I also sauteed some baby bella mushrooms to go with my dinner. This pot roast was AMAZING!!

Visit the Amazing Taste website to find out more about their seasonings, to locate a store near you that carries the packets, and for lots
of delicious recipes.

Foodie Giveaway is having an Amazing Taste giveaway this week until Thursday, June 18th. Go on over and enter for your chance to win.

Cookbook Giveaway... Foods and Flavors of San Antonio

2009-04-08T10:42:00.017-05:00

Would you like to win a copy of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio? This month, four Fiesta Foodies are hosting a cookbook giveaway on their blogs during the month of April to continue with the Fiesta of Foods and Flavors, the birthday party to celebrate the publication of my new cookbook. They're each offering you multiple chances to win. Please go and visit their blogs to win Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.

Reeni, Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice already hosted Week One and made a really delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup from a recipe in my cookbook.

Meg, Megan's Munchies, is offering seven chances to win with
a week of Tex-Mex fun from April 8th through the 14th.

Tiersa, Che f Bliss, will be hosting the cookbook giveaway on April 15th through the 21st.

Teresa, Mexican American Border Cooking, wraps up the month-
long giveaway on April 22nd through the 28th.

Want another chance to win a copy of my cookbook?

The prize for the best enchiladas in The Whole Enchilada Throwdown is
a copy of my cookbook. Creatively define the term the whole enchilada and what it means, make your best enchiladas and post them on your blog by April 17th. The round-up will be posted at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio on April 18th.

Good luck, everyone. With so many chances to win my cookbook, I hope you're the one who wins! And please come on over to my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog because we're still having a party this month with something new every day, plus you have lots of chances to win a Fiesta T-Shirt.

Kitchen Gadgets

2009-04-06T11:45:00.006-05:00

Woo Hoo!! I feel very blissful! A little late and way overdue, but nevertheless--I Won a Foodie Giveaway!!

A while back, like six or seven weeks ago, I won some really cool kitchen gadgets on a giveaway that Chef Bliss offered on her 100th post. It's taken me this long to blog about it because I was so busy promoting my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, with a month-long Fiesta of Foods and Flavors on my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog. How many times can I say foods and flavors in the same sentence without repeating myself or without being irritating?

I love all these kitchen gadgets and The Original Dutch Caramel Wafers were awesome! Thanks so much, Chef Bliss! If you haven't been to her blog, be sure to go over to see what she's got cooking. She's got the secret ingredient to cooking and life: She's blissful!

Second Sunday San Antonio

2009-04-02T20:52:00.006-05:00

There's a new foodie blog event at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.

Second Sunday San Antonio. We all cook the same recipe from my new cookbook, then compare notes and see what everyone's dish looks like. This month we're making Mexican Pork Chops (click the link for all the details and the recipe).

Several foodies have already made this and everyone has said it's absolutely delicious. I can vouch for that; it's my favorite recipe in my cookbook.

We'd love to have you cook along with us. The round-up will be posted on April 12th, which is the Second Sunday of this month.
Hope you'll participate!

A Baby Blog Has Been Born

2009-03-30T19:18:00.022-05:00

As if I don't have enough on my plate already, I created a new baby blog yesterday, Recipe for a Cookbook, because I shut down the website by the same name. I think blogs are so much better than websites anyway. Websites are static; the information just sits there and you never know who comes by. Blogs offer more interaction and you can have conversations, well, sort of, in the comments. Besides that, Google doesn't like websites but they totally love blogs.

A big part of the reason I created the new blog is because I've received a lot of emails from people who are writing cookbooks,
all kinds of cookbooks, and I want my new blog to address all
kinds of information that will be helpful to cookbook writers.

Please come over and visit my baby blog, Recipe for a Cookbook. Right now there's not much on there, just five posts, mostly about the book by the same name, but the sidebar is pretty full. I'll be blogging once
or twice a week over there, feeding the baby to help it grow, so if you have any cookbook questions, let me know.

I'd love it if you'd follow the new blog. It's so encouraging to think there are people who actually read your blog. And who knows, since you're a foodie, you may get the urge one day to write a cookbook and you'll know just where to look for information on how to do that.

Going Green

2009-03-29T11:11:00.012-05:00

I hope all of you switched off your lights last night to vote for Earth and enjoyed being in the dark for an hour. This was
a very powerful way to let our voices be heard, to let the powers-that-be know that millions of us are concerned about global warming and to inspire them to take action on a global scale for all of us, and most especially, for the Earth.

The winner of the green tote and my book, Happy Ways to Heal
the Earth, is Chef Bliss. I looked through all the comments on my previous post about Going Green and thought she was doing the most, in many ways, to honor the Earth. We can all do so many things every day; it doesn't have to be something big; the small things we do every day matter the most. With conscious thought
and care, we can all help to heal the Earth.

Chicken Chile Verde and Going Green for the Earth

2009-03-15T17:05:00.038-05:00

I've been going green for many, many years and food falls into the green category. I've been on a green chile kick lately and have been cooking green. Before I show you my green chili for the once-a-month Chili Cook-Off Challenge, I want to let you know about a wonderful Earth Hour event that's happening on March 28th to honor and help heal the Earth. At 8:30 PM, millions of people, everywhere around the world, are turning off their lights, and their computer, TV, etc., for one hour to bring attention to the global warming crisis our Earth is facing. You can be part of this by simply flipping a switch. You can vote for a healthy Earth.

Now, how about some green food? I know it doesn't look green, but
I made Chicken Chile Verde and used salsa verde which is green.

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 (14 oz.) can Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce with Roasted Garlic (or use any salsa verde)
1 (15.5 oz.) can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
White corn tortilla chips, toasted
1 cup shredded Mexican-Blend cheese
1 ripe tomato, chopped

Spray a deep, 12-inch chef's saute pan with nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat.

Add the chicken, onion, and green bell pepper. Saute until the chicken is browned and the veggies are limp.

Add the enchilada sauce and beans; stir to mix. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

While this is cooking, put the tortilla chips on a cookie sheet and place them in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Spoon the chili into individual serving bowls. Top with cheese and chopped tomatoes. Tuck the tortilla chips in around the bowl.

Ten years ago I wrote a book, Happy Ways to Heal the Earth, listing many simple, everyday ways that people could help to heal and honor our Earth. You can read more about the book here, including a Carry Canvas chapter. One of the small yet very significant ways that we, as foodies, can help, is to bring our groceries home in re-usable bags.

To honor the Earth, and to help one more person honor the Earth, I'm giving away a
copy of my book and this re-usable tote bag from Whole Foods to one person who leaves a comment sharing one way that he or she helps to heal and honor the Earth. I'll announce the winner on March 28th, at 9:30 PM, after I turn my lights back on.

Carrying your groceries in a re-usable bag is one way you can help to heal and honor the Earth. There are hundreds of other ways you can help. Do one thing every day, in whatever way you can, that's green to help keep our Earth green. And turn your lights off for one hour
on March 28th at 8:30 PM to vote for Earth.

Why Are You Here When You Could Be at a Party????

2009-03-03T13:13:00.026-06:00

There's not much happening here at Cookbook Cuisine this month, other than rescuing Moe from a third-floor balcony, because I'm partying at my Fiesta of Foods and Flavors foodie blog event celebrating the birth of my cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio , and doing NaBloPoMo this month for my party.

What's NaBloPoMo? It's National Blog Posting Month, where you blog every day. At the end
of the month, you get a really cute award to
put on your blog, and you also get to take a well-deserved rest from blogging every day.

Back to the party. Foodies from all over the blogosphere are sharing their Tex-Mex food. If you have a recipe on your blog that you'd like to share at the party with lots of Fiesta Foodies, please send me an email with a link to your recipe. There are birthday presents for you at my party: A copy of my new cookbook, a San Antonio T-Shirt, and San Antonio refrigerator magnets. All you have to do is come to the party and have fun at my Fiesta.

You're all invited to the party! Come on over
to my San Antonio blog and party with us!

Because I'm going to be partying all month, this means that all the cookbook writers
in my Cookbook Class have the month off for a Spring Party Break. It doesn't mean you have a break from writing your cookbook; it's only a break from class. So keep on cooking, ladies!

When the party is over, I'll be back to share more cookbook cuisine food with you. I'll also tell you about all the cute, wonderful, amazing, and edible kitchen gadgets that I won from Chef Bliss and I'll be sharing the Sisterhood Award she re-awarded me with. It's Taco Tuesday today and she made tacos and fresh flour tortillas and guacamole for the party and they're really, really good! She's at the party, blissfully sharing tacos with everyone. So come on over and have some!

See you at the party!

Cat's Tales...True Stories of Some Silly Kitties

2009-03-01T15:40:00.016-06:00

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, posted some adorable pictures of her cat, Moon, so I thought I'd show you my babies and tell you a silly kitty story. Here's Tasha and Tawni.
They're sisters and I'm sure they're Irish because they were born
on St. Patrick's Day seven years ago. Here they are, cat-napping
on my bed.

You've already met my newest kitty, Skinny, aka the newest foodie blogger. She was a stray, living under my car in the parking lot. The first time I saw her, she was just skin and bones, meowing piteously as I took my dogs out for a walk. It just about broke my heart; so of course I had to feed her. She wouldn't let me come near her, so I sat on the steps and watched her eat, talking to her. I fed her every day, twice a day, spending hours at a time talking to her, for two weeks before she finally adopted me.

Sundays are supposed to be somewhat of a lazy day, just laying around the house, watching TV, relaxing, or writing your foodie blog. Not today. One of my friends came by because she noticed a stray cat was stuck on a third-floor balcony of an empty apartment. Silly little kitty had climbed up a tree to get there and couldn't get down.

We stood there, trying to figure out what to do and how to get him down, then she called a friend who has a ladder. Long story short,
he never showed up. Must not be a kitty lover or else he wanted a lazy Sunday. We called maintenance but their answering service isn't answering. So we called Wildlife Animal Rescue and they can't come out because they don't have a ladder.

So I called my daughter, who is a firefighter, to ask if the fire department would come out to rescue the cat. They do it all the time in movies, but not in San Antonio. And she doesn't know anyone who has a ladder, either. In the meantime, we've got a crowd gathered around outside trying to figure out how to rescue this silly little kitty. We're pretty sure it's a he, and we've named him Moe.

NEWS UPDATE: Moe just jumped from the third-floor balcony, OMG, went sailing through the air (who knew cats could fly?), landed on his feet, and gave everyone a quizzical look, wondering why we were all
so worried about him all day. Men! They act so helpless when they're perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. I'm SO glad I have girl kitties. Being the kind-hearted souls that we are, we gave him some fresh water and cat food, and we're now pampering him, telling him what a brave kitty he is to jump.

This is a true story. It really happened. Names have not been changed to protect the innocent.

The Cookbook Winner is...

2009-02-28T10:32:00.018-06:00

Melissa, of Alosha's Kitchen, is the winner of a copy of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio. Comment #3 on this post was picked by random.org. Congratulations, Melissa! Please send me your snail mail address so I can send it to you. I know you love Tex-Mex food (the chili you made last week was awesome)
so I hope you'll enjoy my cookbook.

The birthday party for my new cookbook starts tomorrow at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio. We have lots of great Tex-Mex food to share, so come on over to the Fiesta!

Are You Ready to Party?

2009-02-27T10:06:00.020-06:00

March 1st is the official pub date for my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, and I'm having a month-long blog party, a Fie sta of Foods and Flavors
to celebrate the birth. I'll be starting the party off with margaritas and a birthday cake. Every day will feature lots of Tex-Mex food; some from my new cookbook and some from fiesta foodies who are already coming to the party and bringing food to share.

I'm not supposed to mention this until after the event is over (shhh--don't tell my publisher; they want me to focus exclusively on the birth of my new cookbook), but I just can't keep a secret. Never could. (This used to drive my daughters crazy. I'd buy them presents for their birthday, then I was so excited about the present, thinking about how much they'd like it, that I'd either tell them what it was or give it to them before their birthday.) The original Tex-Mex recipes that foodies are bringing to the party are being compiled into a new cookbook. Since food is for sharing, this new cookbook is going to be a fundraiser for the San Antonio Food Bank. As many of you know, I'm very outspoken about the hunger crisis and this is my small way of helping feed hungry people in my own community. Foodies have generously submitted over 100 recipes so far for the party, and the cookbook, but I'm about 200 recipes short of a cookbook.

If you'd like to share your Tex-Mex food for the party, and your original recipes for the fundraising cookbook, please send me an email at gloriachadwick@gmail.com with the link to your recipe. It doesn't have to be a new post; it just has to be Tex-Mex. A photo
of each dish will be featured, round-up style, along with your name and links to your blog and your recipe. You can submit as many recipes as you'd like.

Even though the party hasn't started, and the cookbook isn't officially published yet, it's available in bookstores and at Amazon. Since you know that I give presents early, I'm giving away two copies of my cookbook this month, one here at Cookbook Cuisine and the other at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio (with six chances to win). Winners will be picked tomorrow on each blog so you still have a chance to win.

Leave me a comment either on this post, or on one or both of the above-linked posts. For today only, you have three chances; one for each comment on each post. Oh, heck, it's a birthday: Here's another chance. Blog about the Fiesta birthday party for my cookbook, then leave another comment with the link to your post. Next month, you have a new chance to win my cookbook, along with a San Antonio T-shirt and refrigerator magnets.

You're all invited to the birthday party for my new cookbook. Come on over to Foods and Flavors of San Antonio on March 1st, and every day in March, and let's party!

Awards, Awards, Awards

2009-02-25T12:28:00.048-06:00

I love getting awards and I've received three really wonderful awards recently. They mean a lot to me because it's like a validation that people are actually reading my foodie blog (woohoo!) and maybe they even like the recipes or my food philosophy. I'm a bit late in posting some of these (bad blogger) so now I'm playing catch-up.

Karen, of Domestic Muse, awarded me the Sisterhood Award. Her blog is new; she just started blogging a few months ago, but she can really cook and posts step-by-step photos. Be sure to visit her blog and welcome her into the foodie community.

The rules for all the awards are basically the same, but I don't like rules. I think they're made to be broken, plus rules are a lot like recipes. You see a recipe you like and lots of ideas rush into your mind about how you can change it to make it even better or to suit your tastes. I like to put some extra meaning--other than or along with the original meaning--into the awards. For the record, here are the rules:

Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 10 people whose blogs you enjoy.
Link to your nominees within your post.
Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person who has nominated you for the award.

With the rules in mind, the Sisterhood award goes to all the cookbook writers in my Cookbook Class because we're like sisters; we're all in this together--we're the sisterhood of the cookbook writers. (And if you ladies are wondering why the teacher has been absent from class, it's because I'm really busy promoting my new cookbook--something you'll all be doing when you publish yours.)

Tiersa, Chef Bliss
Joan, Foodalogue
Arlene, The Food of Love
Reeni, Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice
Karen, (right back at ya!), Domestic Muse
Kim, Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet
Deeba, Passionate About Baking
Ning, Heart and Hearth
Liliana, My Cookbook Addiction

Liliana, of My Cookbook Addiction, also a cookbook writer and a member of Cookbook Class, gave me the Blogging With a Purpose award last month. This award is supposed to be passed along to bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

I'd like to pass this award along to all the foodies who are helping me promote my cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, through the blog tour sponsored by my publisher, Pelican Publishing, and to the foodies who are bringing food to share at my Fiesta of Foods and Flavors blog event to celebrate the birth of my new cookbook. To me, they're blogging with a purpose and the purpose is Tex-Mex Food! I like their attitude and I have a lot of gratitude.

Natasha, 5 Star Foodie
Aggie, Aggie's Kitchen
Melissa, Alosha's Kitchen
Chef E, Behind the Wheel Chef
Hornsfan, Bytes From Texas
Tiersa, Chef Bliss
Reeni, Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice
Liliana, Cookbook Addiction
Giz, Equal Opportunity Kitchen
Pam, For the Love of Cooking
Karen, Karen Cooks
Meg, Megan's Munchies
Teresa, Mexican American Border Cooking and Mexican Chocolate Lore and More
Donna, My Tasty Treasures
Deeba, Passionate About Baking
Meg, Puget Sound Cookery
Rachel, The Crispy Cook
Dee, Texas to Mexico

Kendra, of Homegrown Housewife, gave me the Lemonade Stand Award earlier this month. She received the award for being a domestic genius. This award is supposed to be passed along to foodies whose blogs are refreshing, like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day. I'd like
to pass along this refreshing award to...

Kendra, Homegrown Housewife. Even though she gave it to me, I'm also giving it to her because when life hands her lemons, she makes Lemon Pound Cake, and this philosophy is so refreshing.

Megan, Megan's Cookin ', because she made Kalua Pork the other day. She actually caught the wild pig herself, dug an Imu Pit, and hot lava roasted a feast for her friends and family.

Karen, Karen Cooks, because she defined the true meaning of celibacy and Gold Medal Flour.

Karen, Domestic Muse, because she had an Apple Pancake Smackdown with Paula Deen and Emeril, and she won!

Thanks so much for the awards, Karen, Liliana, and Kendra.

Chef Bear's Chicken Parmesan

2009-02-23T14:28:00.012-06:00

Chef Bear and I had a wonderful visit and she taught me a thing
or two about cooking. As I mentioned in a previous post, she's a wonderful cook and decided to make Chicken Parmesan while she was here. It was truly delicious and she showed me the secret to cooking with a jarred sauce to make it taste like you made it from scratch and simmered it on the stove all day. BTW, she doesn't measure ingredients; she just tosses in whatever amount she thinks the recipe will like. So I watched her carefully and guesstimated the amounts. Here's her recipe:

1 medium onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 - 3/4 T. dried oregano, plus more for later
1/2 - 3/4 T. dried basil, plus more for later
1 T. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine (okay, I'll admit that we polished off the rest of the bottle while we watched the recipe cook)
1 (26 oz.) jar Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce
1/2 cup or so of Italian style bread crumbs
1/3 cup, or more, Parmesan cheese
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, pounded thin
1 cup, or more, shredded Mozzarella cheese

Spray a 12-inch chef's saute skillet with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium heat.

Add the onions and sprinkle them with salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, and 1/2 T. Tone's seasoning. Saute for a few minutes until
the onion goes limp and starts to brown.

Add the garlic and saute for one minute.

Pour in the wine, stir to mix with the onions, bring to a boil and let boil for a minute or two, or until there is no more liquid. (I know this seems like a total waste of good wine but it flavors the onions and sets the foundation for a layered sauce. At least that's what Chef Bear told me.)

Add the sauce and stir to mix with the wine-flavored onions. Sprinkle in the remaining 1/2 T. Tone's seasoning and stir. Bring to a low boil and let reduce for 15 minutes. (This thickens the sauce and develops the flavor even more. Another tip from Chef Bear. I told you she knows what she's doing in the kitchen.)

While the sauce is reducing and creating a wonderful aroma in your home, pour yourself and your cooking companion another glass of wine. Sip and savor, then preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the sauce occasionally.

Put your wine glass down and spread the bread crumbs on a dinner plate. Sprinkle on some black pepper, dried oregano, basil, and Tone's seasoning. Add the Parmesan cheese and mix everything together.

Dredge the chicken in the seasoned bread crumb-Parmesan mixture.

Spread some of the sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9 glass baking dish.

Put the coated chicken on top of the sauce and spoon the remaining sauce over.

Sprinkle liberally with Mozzarella cheese and shake on some more oregano. (Chef Bear loves oregano as much as I do.) If there is
any seasoned-bread-crumb-Parmesan mixture left after dredging, sprinkle that on the top, too, then put the chicken in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

While it's cooking, have another glass of wine and enjoy some foodie conversation with your new chef friend.

Chef Bear served this with a baked potato and steamed broccoli.
It was the best Chicken Parmesan I've ever had.

Thanks, Chef Bear, for cooking for me and for your wonderful foodie visit.

Freebie Friday -- Cupcakes, Coffee, and Cookbooks

2009-02-20T12:00:00.024-06:00

There are some really cool freebies flying around the blogosphere
so I thought I'd share a few with you. If you like cupcakes, coffee,
and cookbooks, you're gonna like these freebies.

Do you like cupcakes? Love them? Chef Bliss is creating lots of good karma by telling all of us about a cupcake giveaway.

How about coffee? Who doesn't love coffee? Meg, at Megan's Munchies, shared a Starbucks giveaway--a sample of their new instant coffee. The only thing is they're out of freebies now (they went fast; must have something to do with caffeine) but you can sign up for a special offer which will be a surprise.

Now, for the very best freebie (in my opinion),
I'm giving away two copies of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, this month. One here on Cookbook Cuisine, the other on my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog to get my cookbook's birthday party started.

Next month, I'll also be giving away a copy of my new cookbook to a Fiesta Foodie (you have to bring Tex-Mex food to the party to share with everyone) and other San Antonio-type stuff at my Fiesta of Foods and Flavors event.

Hey, what are you hanging around here for? Go and check out the links for cupcakes, coffee, and cookbooks.

And if you're looking for a Mexican Restaurant, check out this link.

Who Wants Birthday Cake?

2009-02-18T16:42:00.015-06:00

We interrupt Chef Bear's travels around the foodie blogosphere to bring you this special announcement. (Chef Bear says she doesn't mind sharing the spotlight since she's related to the really cute chocoholic bear, both designed by Teresa.)

Chef Bliss is having a birthday! Since she hasn't had chocolate cake in four years, she was wanting chocolate cake and made herself one. (What a great present to give yourself: Chocolate Cake!) Despite the chocolate not cooperating with her (my food does that, too,
but it's usually the veggies), the birthday girl got her birthday wish:
A chocolate cake -- oh, yeah!

And I have a little birthday present for her from one chocoholic to another...

Happy Birthday, Chef Bliss!

Chef Bear

2009-02-18T13:49:00.017-06:00

One of my favorite foodie friends, Teresa, of Mexican American Border Cooking and Mexican Chocolate Lore and More, sent me Chef Bear, along with her journal in which she's recording her travels, and a trunk full of goodies from El Paso. I LOVE Chef Bear; she's so adorable and is one of the best cooks I've ever eaten dinner with, but more on that later. Her mama, Teresa, crocheted her with love and is sending her around the foodie blogosphere so she can sample all kinds of cuisines and visit with other foodies.

Here are the goodies Chef Bear brought with her:

A postcard from El Paso, along with a really nice note;
A T-shirt that says: Someone in El Paso who loves me sent me this T-shirt. (Aww, thanks, Teresa, I love you, too.)
A big kitchen towel or a small tablecloth (depends on how you look at it) with a matching potholder;
A cinnamon-flavored lollipop that has El Paso on it, which my granddaughter totally enjoyed;
Chocolate, but not just any chocolate: This is Abuelita Mexican Chocolate. Need I say more?;
A Cookin' with Tequila From Southwest to Margaritaville Cookbook. In addition to mucho good tequila drinks, there are recipes. I've got my eye on the Chili Con Carne Con Tequila for next month's chili cook-off, but the Burrito With a Kick looks good and so does the Baked Sunrise Chicken. The cookbook comes with a warning from the author: I don't suggest doing Tequila shots while cooking for obvious reasons. 1 Tequila, 2 Tequila, 3 Tequila, FLOOR;
A shot glass, for drinking the Tequila; and
A lottery card game. I played this with my grandsons over the weekend and we had a blast with it, playing for pennies.

Chef Bear and I had a wonderful visit together, talking about foodie things while she looked through my cookbooks deciding what meal she wanted to make. But now it's time for her to move on. I've written something in her journal and sent her on her way to another foodie, along with her journal and her trunk filled with goodies from San Antonio. Who knows where she'll travel next? One day you may find her waiting for you in your mailbox.

She's quite the chef; she can really cook. She decided she wanted
to make Chicken Parmesan and I have to tell you, it was the best chicken parmesan I've ever had. We'll be sharing her recipe in the next post.

Strut Your Spuds

2009-02-15T12:45:00.013-06:00

I found a new foodie event! Well, it's not new, but it's new to me. Potato Ho-Down is the brain-child of Cathy of Noble Pig and Krysta of Evil Chef Mom. They've invited all of us potato ho's to participate. Make your potatoes -- mash them, fry them, scallop them, bake them, soup them, stew them, whatever your little potato-lovin' heart desires and send your spuds in for the round-up. This month's ho-down is hosted by Cathy at Noble Pig
on February 18th.

This is a wonderful opportunity to strut your spuds. But first, you have to have a personal potato ho name. Not just any name will do. Your potato ho name (I didn't make this up; they did) consists of your first pet's name and your middle name. The recipe you submit is your personal ho name plus the name of your recipe. Now, don't laugh folks, but my potato ho name is Morpy Margaret.

Without further ado, I offer
you the very humble--yet highly underrated and often ignored or overlooked as ordinary--mashed potatoes, dressed up and ready
to go to town in the form of my Morpy Margaret Chunky Cheddar-Garlic Smashed Potatoes.

The potatoes told me they were a little scared to strut their spuds
all over town by themselves, because they weren't sure anyone would pay them the proper attention, and they also said they were lonely on the plate all by themselves, so I shared my Baby Bella Mushrooms and Sauteed Spinach to keep them company.

6 red potatoes, scrubbed (leave the skin on) and cut into chunks (butter reds are the best)
1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 T. dried minced garlic
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Heat a large saucepan filled halfway with water over high heat. When the water boils, add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until they are soft. Drain in a colander and return to the pan. Add the Cheddar cheese, garlic, sour cream, butter, and milk. Smash the potatoes to a coarse consistency. Chunks are good here. Take a taste, then season to your liking with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with chopped parsley.

100th Post, a Foodie Blog Party, and a Cookbook Giveaway

2009-02-13T13:07:00.047-06:00

YAY!! This is my 100th post. Woohoo!! When I started this blog, I had no idea what I was doing, but thought it would be fun. In the past eight months, I've made a lot of wonderful foodie friends.
I love you all! And I love your food, too! In the beginning, I thought I would focus this blog on how to write and publish a cookbook based on my book, Recipe for a Coo kbook. Then I realized that since this is supposed to be a foodie blog, it would probably be
a good idea to offer some food -- duh!

I didn't have a camera to take pictures of food and didn't have the foggiest idea how to upload pictures from a camera to the computer. I had to ask my daughter how this worked. LOL. So then I bought a camera and got the hang of it, but definitely need to improve my food photography skills. Maybe by the time I reach my 200th post,
I can offer you better pictures.

Before moving forward, I thought it might be nice to look back and show you my two most popular food posts: Sauteed Chicke n and Baby B ella Mushrooms Served Over Garlic Spinach is the favorite so far. Coming in a close second is my Hoppin' John Kickin' Chili that
I welcomed in the New Year with.

And now on to the Foodie Blog Party: As many of you know, my cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, was just published on Monday. Woohoo!!!!! I'm having
a party, A Fiesta of Foods and Flavors, to celebrate the birth of my new cookbook. This month-long blog party in March at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio will feature Tex-Mex recipes from foodies and from my new cookbook. You're all invited to the party!

I'm getting the party started early by giving away a copy of my cookbook this month on my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog. During the Fiesta foodie event in March for my official book launch, there will also be presents: My cookbook (of course!), San Antonio T-shirts and refrigerator magnets. Click on the Fiesta link for details.

To celebrate my 100th post, I'm also giving
away a copy of Foods and Flavors of San Antonio on this blog. Leave me a comment and you have a chance to win my new cookbook! A winner will be drawn at random on February 28th.

Because this blog wouldn't be what it is today without all my foodie friends, I've created an award for all of you. Some of you are foodie friends I've known for a while, some of you are new foodie friends, and some of you are a foodie friend I haven't met yet. Most awards come with rules; this one has no rules because friendship has no rules. Feel free to post this foodie friends award on your sidebar, then share it with all your foodie friends. I'd like to give this award to my foodie friends that I already know and love:

Teresa, Mexican American Border Cooking and Mexican Chocolate Lore and More
Reeni, Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice
Tiersa, Chef Bliss
Meg, Megan's Munchies
Joan, Foodalogue
Chef E, Behind the Wheel Chef
Pam, For the Love of Cooking
Meg, Puget Sound Cookery
Deeba, Passionate About Baking
Ruth, Presto Pasta Nights
Liliana, My Cookbook Addiction
Cathy, Noble Pig
Claire, Culinary Colorado
Arlene, The Food of Love
Natashya, Living in the Kitchen With Puppies
Hornsfan, Bytes From Texas
Melissa, Alosha's Kitchen
Megan, Megan's Cookin'
Kendra, Homegrown Housewife
Aggie, Aggie's Kitchen
Natasha, Five Star Foodie
Karen, Karen Cooks

Thank you, all my foodie friends. Thanks for visiting both this
blog and my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog, and leaving comments, and for your foodie blogs that I love to visit. You're
all wonderful!!!

You're All Invited to a Birthday Party!

2009-02-06T13:25:00.019-06:00

It's almost time for the birth of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, so I'm planning a big birthday party--A Fiesta of Foods and Flavors--
for the whole month of March and you're
all invited!

In San Antonio, a fiesta is a party but not just any party--it's a huge celebration, so I'm turning the publication of my cookbook into a fiesta! I'll be sharing lots of food and giving away presents!

Come on over to my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog and
see what it's all about. Bring your Tex-Mex recipes and let's fiesta. I'm getting the party started early and giving away a copy of my
new cookbook this month.

Sauteed Spinach

2009-02-04T16:04:00.014-06:00

I love spinach, but it hasn't always been this way. (Does this sound familiar?) I grew up being literally force-fed canned spinach. It was slimy and very gross and tasted awful, but my parents assured me I would grow up to be healthy and strong like Popeye. They would sit
at the dinner table and sing me the stupid Popeye jingle until I ate
all my spinach. Becoming like Popeye wasn't my life's dream; I liked Wimpy so much better because he loves hamburgers, but I gagged down the spinach because I wanted to be healthy and because I
wasn't allowed to leave the table until I ate it all.

Many, many, many years later I discovered fresh baby spinach.
OMG. I LOVE it! Besides being one of the top ten healthiest foods, it's delicious! I enjoy it in salads, chopped over a taco, scattered over a bowl of chili or enchiladas, mixed in with lasagna or tossed over a pizza (you get the picture), and I really enjoy it sauteed with onion, garlic, and bacon--spinach heaven! While I usually serve this as a side dish, I occasionally eat the whole batch and call it dinner.

6 slices turkey bacon, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10 oz.) bag fresh baby spinach
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a 12-inch, deep chef's saute pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and onion and saute until the bacon is almost crisp and the onions are limp and just starting to turn brown.

Add the garlic and saute for one minute.

Add the spinach (you may have to do this in batches), stir and cover the pan until the spinach wilts. Stir, take a taste, and season to your liking with salt and pepper.

Eat your spinach! It will make you healthy and strong! Don't make me come over to your house and sing you the Popeye jingle!

Quickie Chunky Chili

2009-02-03T11:24:00.006-06:00

I was in the mood last week for a nice, hot, spicy, steaming bowl of chili. And I was hungry cause it was past my dinnertime, so I threw together a Quickie Chunky Chili that only took 15 minutes to cook from start to finish. And it was good, too. Nice, quick, easy, simple. My kind of recipe. I was even able to catch the steam in the picture.

1 pound lean ground beef
Various amounts of chili powder; I use a lot
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (15.5 oz.) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Cook the ground beef in a 12-inch chef's saute pan over medium-high heat, leaving large chunks of beef. Sprinkle the meat liberally with chili powder as it is browning.

Add the tomato sauce and a little bit of water (about 1/4 cup; rinse the can with water to get the remaining tomato sauce in the can). Sprinkle on more chili powder. Stir.

Add the beans. Sprinkle on more chili powder. Stir.

Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir and serve.

I'm entering this chili in my once-a-month Chili Cook-Off Challenge at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio. If you have an original chili recipe, please enter it in the cook-off. There are prizes for the best chili and all the recipes will go into a new cookbook I'm writing.

Sunday Shorts

2009-02-01T10:48:00.032-06:00

Sunday Shorts is going to be short this week...

My favorite foodie friend and a really sweet person, Teresa, of Mexican American Border Cooking and Mexican Chocolate Lo re and More, sent me Chef Bear, who will be traveling around the foodie blogosphere with her journal and a trunk filled with goodies. More on Chef Bear later...

It's a new month and a new Chili Cook-Off at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.

Meg, at Megan's Munchies, is sharing her seven awards and offering a surprise foodie giveaway.

Kendra, of Homegrown Housewife, has a wonderful philosophy: When life gives you lemons, make lemon pound cake.

Sauteed Chicken and Baby Bella Mushrooms Served Over Garlic Spinach

2009-01-27T17:58:00.025-06:00

I found a recipe for Pan Sauteed Chicken and Mushrooms with Garlic Spinach at one of Ruth's Bookmarked Recipe Round-Ups. It looked so good that I just had to make it. This was one of the best dinners I've ever had and you can bet I'll make this again. It's a keeper.

It was bookmarked by I'm Running to Eat, who bookmarked it from Dinners for a Year and Beyond. If you want to bookmark it and make it, let me know how it turns out. I guarantee you're gonna love it!

I've made some changes to the recipe and rewritten the directions. To read the recipe as it was originally written, visit one or both of the above blogs.

1/3 cup plus 1 T. all-purpose flour, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning (available at Sam's Club or substitute 1/2 T. garlic powder and 1/2 T. dried oregano)
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise in half (they're much easier to slice if they're partially frozen)
1 T. vegetable oil
3 T. butter, divided
1 (16 oz.) container sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10 oz.) bag fresh baby spinach
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Sunday Shorts

2009-01-25T12:17:00.043-06:00

Here's the second installment of Sunday Shorts which features bitty pieces of news from my meanderings around the foodie blogosphere and sometimes offers tidbits a little closer to home.

A great big Happy Birthday to Hannah, my granddaughter who turned 3 yesterday. We had
her party at Chuck-E-Cheese, celebrating with pizza and cupcakes, fun and games, and lots of Dora presents. Chuck-E himself (a great big, tall, fat rat) was there, visiting all the birthday kids; when he came over to Hannah, he scared the holy be-heck out of her and she burst into tears and ran screaming for her mom. Bad Chuck-E!

Reeni, of Cinnamo n, Spice, and Everything Nice, is in love.

Cynthia, of Tastes Like Home, has recently published My Caribbean Cookbook: Tastes Like Home, and will be writing a guest post here next month.

Teresa, of Mexican-American B order Cooking, celebrated Chinese New Year, Southwestern style.

The Crunchy Chicken is challenging all of us to reduce the food we waste in her Food Waste Reduction Challenge for February.

Need a hug? Chef Bliss offered everyone big virtual hugs on National Hugging Day. Just in case you missed it, I'm offering this Hug Coupon, which is good every day of the year, to anyone who needs a hug, whenever they need a hug.

As is the tradition, Sunday Shorts ends with a delicious chocolate cake. Deeba, of Passionate About Baking, has created a beautiful, absolutely delicious Coffee Mocha Gateau for all of us to enjoy.

Sharing Your Food... Or NOT!

2009-01-22T11:07:00.010-06:00

Sharing your food and your words on your foodie blog is a wonderful thing, but someone stealing your food and your words is definitely not an okay thing.

Ready for a rant? Well, ready or not... here goes:

As foodies, we love our food and we lovingly share it. We take the time and put a lot of energy and effort into making wonderful meals, letting our food get cold so we can get a perfect picture, then invite readers into our home--our blog--offer them a delicious meal and enjoy a conversation, in the form of comments, with them. Then a day or so later, or maybe a week or a month later, we're visiting another blog and there we see it! Our food, our words--stolen right off our pages with no link and no credit.

I've had content ripped off from this blog and some of my other blogs, as well as having complete books ripped off and offered as downloads. My words that I so lovingly created and put my whole heart and soul into, and devoted a lot of time and thought to, are stolen, with no credit and no rightful payment. Words that I chose
to share to maybe brighten someone's day, to offer them a way to meditate with coffee, to share my knowledge, to share information about writing a cookbook, were taken from me, ripped right from
my soul. It's like someone breaking into your home and stealing your most prized possessions--possessions you would have willingly shared with them if only they had asked.

As I was browsing the blogosphere this morning, cup of coffee in hand, I came across a post that someone had STOLEN from my Zen Coffee blog. And this isn't the first time someone has stolen content from that blog or my Magical Mind blog without my permission and with no credit given; they posted it as their own.

That's STEALING! That's like the guest you invited into your home and shared your food with, has lobbed off with all your food when you went into the kitchen to get them more food. I HATE this! It makes me feel upset, angry, mad, hurt, and totally pissed! It makes me not want to share my food anymore or to write posts on my other blogs.

I know that plagiarism happens all the time, to everyone sooner
or later--and I've blogged about it at my Writer's Workshop--but
it's happened to me one too many times, even with my copyright notice on my sidebar. When it happens to you--and it will, sooner
or later--there are a few things you can do about it. WordPress has an informative article about Content Theft: What To Do. CopyScape is a wonderful resource to find out who is stealing your content and has an article about Responding to Plagiarism.

Maybe I'm overreacting to the theft of my content, but I think not. It's happened one time too many. I've had my fill of it and I don't
feel like sharing anymore--on any of my blogs. But then again, I may change my mind. I'm really, really upset and angry, and mostly hurt. And when I get hurt, I get crabby, moody, and withdraw. It's in my nature; I was born under the sign of Cancer--the crab--it's kind of scary that I'm so true to what this sign represents.

Okay, rant over. I'd just like to add that I've really enjoyed making some fine foodie friends.

Want Some Chili to Warm You Up?

2009-01-21T09:32:00.009-06:00

The round-up for January's Chili Cook-Off Challenge offers you seven delicious bowls of chili that are guaranteed to warm you from the inside out and ward off the winter chill. Come on over, have a taste, then cast your vote for your favorite chili.

It's Just Soup

2009-01-19T17:38:00.017-06:00

A few posts back, I asked you to guess what's cooking by looking at a picture of something steamy on the stove. I'll bet some of you even lost sleep over it, wondering what it was. Almost everyone guessed chili because everyone knows I like chili and the picture did look like it might become chili because of the red kidney beans. Appearances can be deceiving and you all know my ingredients can sometimes be sneaky. It's just soup, folks.

I put my favorite pan on the stove, looked in the fridge and freezer to see what was there, opened the pantry door to see what would catch my eye and jump out at me from the shelves, and it all ended up being just soup.

There's really no recipe; just some fresh ingredients, some leftover ones, a few potatoes, some seasoning, and of course, those sneaky beans. But it isn't all their fault. Sausage had a lot to do with it and some veggies that were planning to become science projects in a few days decided to jump into the pan--with the exception of one lone carrot that was trying to escape. One of the nicest things about soup is that it's very open and accepting of almost any ingredient you want to put into it and it doesn't care if you measure anything. Just toss it all in and call it soup. Works for me and I think the soup was happy, too, because it got to fulfill its mission in life which is to be warm, nourishing, and soul-satisfying.

Since this is a foodie blog, I should probably give you the recipe for Sausage Soup. By the way, this is NOT the way to write a recipe, just in case you're in my cookbook class. It's called the "paragraph format" and it hasn't been used since the olden days in cookbooks because home cooks (your mothers and grandmothers) rebelled because the recipe was confusing to follow.

Depending on how many people you're planning to feed or how much leftover soup you want, prep a few skinless Cheddarwurst sausage links by cutting them into cute angles. Make some room on the cutting board and slice some carrots into pennies. Chop up the same amount of celery. Thickly slice a yellow crookneck squash and then cut the slices into quarters. (This is beginning to sound like a money soup--first pennies, then quarters.)

Peel a medium-sized onion, cut it in half, and run that baby under cold water so you don't cry. Lay the first half flat side down and slice width-wise from the top down in concentric circles, keeping all the slices together. Then slice it length-wise from one end to the other. If you're crying at this point, you're doing it all wrong. Turn it halfway around (still in one piece) and finish slicing by cutting it length-wise again from the other side. No tears and you have a perfectly-chopped half onion. Do it all over again with the other half.

Take 2 or 3 cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you want your soup) and mince them very fine. Just push them to the side and let them sit there for a while. They don't mind; they're used to waiting until the last minute before the one cup or more of chicken broth and a 14 oz. can of Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes hit the pan.

If you want to be wonderfully efficient and have everything ready
to go into the soup at the same time, scrub 3 or 4 red-skinned potatoes, cut them in half, and then into obtuse angles. And now, here come the beans! Drain and rinse a 15.5 oz. can of red kidney beans. (I rinse mine in a colander under cold running water.) Set the potatoes and beans aside.

You know how much I love nonstick cooking spray as opposed to sauteing stuff in olive oil or butter because it works just as well and saves you hundreds of unnecessary calories plus the cost of the olive oil (and eevo is expensive). Spray your pan with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray and heat it up over medium-high heat. When it's beginning to smoke just a little bit, add the sausage, carrots, celery, squash, and onions. Stir them all together while the sausage browns a bit and the veggies go limp. When you think they're done, add the garlic and let them all get to know each other for about a minute and a half.

Pour in the chicken broth and the diced tomatoes. Stir to get everyone all acquainted. Add whatever seasonings you want in any amount that you want. I added Mexican oregano, freshly ground black pepper, Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning (I have a humongous jar I bought at Sam's and have to find creative ways to use it), along with some crushed red pepper, chili powder, cumin, and fajita seasoning. (I live in San Antonio and these seasonings are actually required in all soups. If you don't put them in, the Tex-Mex police come knocking
at your door and throw jalapeno peppers at you when you open the door.) Bring to a boil, stirring once or twice, then reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for about a half hour until the potatoes are done, stirring occasionally.

And that's it--it's just soup. If you want, you can dress it up with a sprig of parsley.

Sunday Shorts

2009-01-18T11:01:00.056-06:00

I'm adding a new ingredient to this blog: Sunday Shorts will feature tasty tidbits
from around the foodie blogosphere.

Cathy, of Wives With Knives, broke her ankle. Let's all send her healing wishes so her ankle is all better in time for her trip to Paris. (As they say in the news biz: If it bleeds, it leads.)

Reeni, of Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, is very nice and is sharing two of her blog awards with everyone.

Foods and Flavors of San Antonio is going on a blog tour in February and March, sponsored by Pelican Publishing and hosted by lots of wonderful foodies.

Cathy, of The Noble Pig, hosts a monthly Potato Ho-Down. Get in touch with your inner ho and
strut your spuds.

Gaynol, of Self-Rising Flour, is urging all of us to Share Our Strength and participate in Operation: No Kid Hungry to feed hungry children.

Only two more days to enter your best original chili recipe in the Chili Cook-Off Challenge. The round-up will be posted on 1/21.

Wrapping up Sunday Shorts with
a sweet note, Meg, at Megan's Munchies, has awarded her weekly Holy Yum Award to HoneyB for her Rich Mocha Cake. Chocolate and Kahlua are sooo good together, but of course that is my own personal opinion.

What's Cooking?

2009-01-14T13:50:00.004-06:00

Can you guess what this steamy food will eventually become?

Notice the little carrot trying to run away. I wonder why one of my ingredients always try to escape.

Chicken Cacciatore

2009-01-12T12:01:00.022-06:00

I love Italian food. I love pasta. I made Chicken Cacciatore last week and served it over whole-grain penne.

As you'll notice, one of the ingredients is trying to secretly escape
the plate. Didn't see this little flavor trying to flee when I took the picture. I think he/she is trying to escape because he/she wants to stand on his/her own. Silly little ingredient. Doesn't he/she know that being part of a delicious dish means you get together with all the other ingredients?

I'm short on time today so I'll post the recipe later. I'm sending my Chicken Cacciatore over to Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth at Once Upon
a Feast.

Another Update Before We Return You to the Regularly-Scheduled Programming on This Blog...

2009-01-11T11:42:00.057-06:00

I'm still playing catch-up, so here are a few more news items before
I get back to blogging on topic:

Fo ods and Flavors of San Antonio: There are lots of things happening over on my new foodie blog. In addition to my Chili Cook-Off Challenge, I'm tweaking my sidebar to include all the big, bold flavors of San Antonio which will feature fun and festive events such as Fiesta and Rodeo, as well as showing you the highlights of our city such as the River Walk and the Alamo. (This is still a work-in-progress.)

My new cookbook will be published in March and both my publisher and I are already setting up lots of promotional events including booksignings, radio interviews, and a blog tour. We're still looking for foodies who would like to either review the cookbook on their blog or participate in the blog tour. The response has been great so far and I would like to thank everyone who has offered to help. You guys are wonderful! I love you!

Chili Cook-Off Ch allenge: An on-going, once-a-month event where you can enter your best original chili recipe and win several prizes: A copy of my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio cookbook, a chile pepper refrigerator magnet, and this hot badge for your sidebar. In addition, your recipe will be included in a new cookbook I'm writing. Post your chili recipe on your blog between the 1st and the 20th of each month with a link to the event. The round-up is posted on the 21st and everyone can vote for their favorite chili to determine the winner. There's still time to enter this month, so come on over and sign-u p.

Another event at Foods and Flavors of San Antonio is A Fiesta of Foods and Flavors in March to celebrate the publication of my new cookbook. It's going to be a month-long fiesta of fun, flavor, and food, and you're all invited. Get your Tex-Mex recipes ready and come to the party.

As if I don't have enough on my plate already, I'm in the process of rewriting and bringing my first cookbook, Really Good Recipes, back into print. I sometimes bite off more than I can chew, so we'll see how this goes. I'm also thinking about resurrecting my Really Good Recipes blog that I started a while back for this purpose.

And... this is just a thought for the moment, but it's good to put your thoughts on paper to help them manifest (or in this case, out into the blogosphere)... I might, just might, just maybe also bring my second cookbook, Food Feasts, back into print. I'm thinking about changing the title to Foodie Feasts and will be opening up this cookbook to all of you foodies who would like to have one or more of your recipes published. More on this later if and when the time comes.

I'm getting close to my 100th post. When I arrive, there's going to be a giveaway. You can probably guess what it's going to be, but I'll give you a big clue...

If you've got some extra time, maybe you'd like
to visit some of my other blogs (which I've been largely ignoring but have recently begun turning my attention to): Magical Mind offers you a way to put more light
and happiness in your life. Zen Coffee offers you a way to mindfully meditate on your coffee. Writer's Workshop offers you the inside track on writing a book and getting it published. Chadwick Pages offers you a look into some of my New Age books.

I'm heading off to Monster Jam with my daughter and my grandsons. It should be a lot of fun, mostly for the boys, and we're going out to dinner after the show, which will be fun for me and my daughter. The boys will be hungry, too, after a day of watching big-wheelie trucks run all over each other and then walking around the grounds and getting up close and personal with the trucks.

Preview of Coming Attractions and Playing Catch-Up

2009-01-09T15:09:00.050-06:00

You may have noticed that I haven't posted all week. That's because, just like everyone else, I'm really busy. I'm still too busy to blog, but
I did want to give you a preview of coming attractions that I will give full details on in future posts. (This sentence is contradictory because first I tell you that I'm too busy to blog and now here I am, blogging!)

Update on my Cookbook Class: For the orientation, I asked everyone what the most important ingredient is that goes into a cookbook. The answer is PASSION. Three people got it right. You've got to put your whole heart and soul into it. You have to totally love your cookbook if you want it to love you back. Chef Bliss was the first one to answer and she won a copy of The Path to Publishing Your Book. The prize was going to be a copy of Recipe for a Cookbook, but she already won that in the Gift for a Foodie post. The next two class sessions will be Bite Your Cookbook and What's Wrong With This Recipe?

Speaking of Chef Bliss -- don't you just love the way I segue into paragraphs? It's somewhat of a talent (?) -- she's created a great award to share the foodie love. And she's letting you "steal" it and give it to any blogger you want as a way to thank them for creating delicious food. Now what foodie blogger wouldn't love that? Plus, she's sharing her award-winning Pea Soup. Chef Bliss is one of my newest foodie friends and I just love her. Visiting her blog brings you a sense of -- oh, I don't know -- bliss, perhaps? Or maybe you feel her happiness because she's following her bliss.

Tyler, what can I say? I've missed the last few Tyler Florence Fridays and was planning to participate today -- I made his Spaghetti and Meatballs last night on the recommendation of Natashya -- but other things came up and got in the way. I'll blog about this next Friday, but be warned: There's a recipe-writing rant involved, which some
of you may find amusing if only for the fact that Tyler is doing his best to make us fat.

I'm sure you've heard the adage, "All work and no play makes John
a very dull boy." Let me rephrase that: All work and no play makes Gloria very crabby! I've been working way too hard and not playing, so today I'm taking a doggy day. I do them once a month and today
is the day. My two little babies, Jodi and Moki, are in for a real treat! Well, not according to them, but I think it's fun. They get brushed. They get their nails clipped. They get a bath. And then they get a bone. They get bones more than once a month, but this is their special treat after their doggy day ordeal.

Tonight, I get to play one of
my favorite roles: Grandma! My grandsons are coming over for
a sleep-over -- a pajama party. We're going to watch movies, eat popcorn, play, laugh, and have lots of fun -- and they'll be waking up to a chocolate chip pancake breakfast.

That's all for now folks. I'm off to torture, I mean treat, my dogs to
a special day.

Baby Bella Mushrooms

2009-01-04T12:26:00.013-06:00

I love mushrooms, but it hasn't always been this way. For the longest time, I totally hated them and there was nothing on heaven or earth that would move me to put them in my mouth. Until one day, a very good friend invited me over for a barbecue. He was grilling steaks and had made garlic-butter button mushrooms to put on top of them. Since he was such a dear friend, and begged me to try them, after many, many protests: But, Bill, they're so gross!; Are you sure they aren't poisonous?; I won't die from eating them, will I?; There's no way in hell I'm eating them; Where did you find them?; These aren't "magic" mushrooms, are they?; I don't want to eat them, they look slimy; etc., so on and so forth, I thought it only polite to take a teeny, tiny bite just to humor him (and so he'd quit bugging me
to eat the mushrooms).

It was love at first bite -- not him -- the mushrooms. It's a good
thing I was his only guest because I ate almost all of them, with the exception of what he'd already put on his plate (and I did try to take them, surreptitiously, with my fork when he went inside to get me more wine). Poor guy; he didn't realize I could be such a pig, but he forgave me.

Since that time, I can't get enough mushrooms--any kind of mushrooms. I put them in many of my recipes, eat them on their own, and also serve them as an accompaniment (think main part of the meal; big portions) with meat or chicken, or anything else. So, without further ado, here are my favorite mushrooms: Baby Bellas.

The recipe is really easy: Just melt some real butter (4 to 5 tablespoons, maybe more) in a saucepan--or a wok--over medium-high to high heat. Add the mushrooms (I used a 16 oz. container of baby bella mushrooms; grown locally here in Texas,
but any kind of mushrooms will do) and saute until they turn nice
and brown. Add about 5 cloves (more or less to suit your taste) of finely-minced garlic and saute for another minute or two. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley to serve. I've also been known to throw some dried oregano and freshly ground black pepper into the mix.

I'm submitting my Baby Bella recipe to Weekend Wokking, a once-a-month event featuring a secret ingredient, created by Wandering Chopsticks and hosted this month by Palachinka. As you've probably already guessed, the secret ingredient for December was MUSHROOMS. I think you're supposed to make an actual meal, using mushrooms as part of the dish, but I obviously didn't do that because these Baby Bellas are so good on their own.

Meet the Newest Foodie Blogger

2009-01-03T15:55:00.017-06:00

As foodie bloggers, you know how many times we wish we could reach into the computer and grab the food and taste it because it looks so delicious. Well, there's a new foodie blogger who is determined to do just that! Meet Skinny...

Yumm! This looks really good!

If you're wondering what she's craving, she's going after a red chile pepper jumping across the screen. A true Tex-Mex cat. Sorry about the messy desk; it's usually worse!

I want it! I want a taste!

Hmm, there has to be a way to do this!
The food is there; why can't I eat it?

Maybe I should start a foodie blog.

Oh, no! Where did it go? I want my food!
It was here a minute ago...

Whew! It's back.
I was really worried there for a minute!
I'd better grab it quick before it's gone!

Alright, this isn't funny any more!

I'm getting a little upset... totally bummed.
Why, why, why can't I have the food?

I'm outta' here!

Happy New Year

2008-12-29T18:29:00.015-06:00

Hope everyone has a really wonderful Happy New Year.

I was just wondering, do any of you foodies make New Year's resolutions for your blogs? I made a few for mine. When I first began this blog, I thought it would be mostly about how to write a cookbook and get it published, with a few really good recipes thrown in from time to time and an occasional cookbook review. Then I started visiting a lot of foodie blogs and decided to post more recipes.

I've strayed from my original purpose and plan to get my blog back
on track in the new year. I'll still be posting recipes, but I'll also be taking you on a journey of writing and publishing a cookbook. Don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet, but there's a cookbook in the making that you all can be part of; I'll give you details on another post. I'll also be featuring a few guest bloggers who have written
and published cookbooks and they'll be telling you their story.

Speaking of cookbook reviews, would any of you like to review my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, on your blog? The book will be published in March. If you're willing to review the cookbook on your foodie blog, make a recipe from it and blog about it, my publisher would like to send you an
advance copy of the cookbook. Please
visit Foods and Flavors of San Antonio
for more information.

So, I'm really curious. Did you make New Year's resolutions for your foodie blog?

Gifts and Awards

2008-12-27T08:00:00.008-06:00

Hope everyone had a really wonderful Christmas, but it's not over yet. I have a few more gifts to give and would like to share some awards.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on A Gift for a Foodie about the cookbook they'd love to write. They all sound like terrific ideas. The winner of Recipe for a Cookbook is Tiersa at Chef Bliss. She loves to cook and is following her bliss in the kitchen, cooking and creating new recipes. She plans on writing a healthy comfort food cookbook. Check out her blog and be sure
to look at the picture of her dog, Koda. She looks just like my dog, Moki.

Everyone (at least everyone I know, including me) can use a little--or a lot--more Coffee, Coffee, Coffee plus a whole lot of calm in their life. Now I'm not saying that Teresa at Mexican-American Border Cooking could use some calm; she seems pretty laid back but I know she loves coffee and
is the winner of Zen Coffee: A Guide to Mindful Meditation, my new book which offers a way to look at coffee and meditating a bit differently than you might have thought of it before.

Ladies, please send me an email at gloriachadwick@gmail.com with your address so I can send these gifts to you.

Now, on to the awards: Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More, gave me the Friendship Award. I really value this award because it came from my favorite foodie friend.

I'd like to pass it along to a few new friends and some that I've known for a while:

Deeba, at Passionate About Baking because she combines coffee and chocolate into many of the wonderful cakes she makes and besides that, she's a really nice person.

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice because she writes nice, thoughtful comments on almost every post here and besides that, she also comments on my new blog, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.

Arlene, at The Food of Love, because how can you not like someone who gags on her mother's meatloaf? LOL. This is my kind of friend and besides that, she loves to play with words.

Sanghi, at Sanghi's Food Delights, because the first time I visited her blog, she already had me on her blogroll and besides that, she is so appreciative of her friends.

Last, but definitely not least, Aggie, at Aggie's Kitchen, because she posts the kind of recipes that I love to cook. (I've already made two of her recipes and they were both delicious.)

I especially love this Inspiration Award because it's a happy face coffee.

I'd like to pass this award on to Natashya at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. She inspires me because she can really cook and all her food looks really good! She's a dedicated foodie who cooks and blogs every day. I really admire that. Besides that, she has two adorable dogs. I have two dogs and they are always in the kitchen trying to cook with me--well, actually, they're just there for the food that falls on the floor!

Have a happy day and for those of you that are still snowed in, stay warm!

Happy Holidays

2008-12-22T15:03:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Menu for Hope

2008-12-20T10:39:00.026-06:00

Menu for Hope is a huge fundraiser to help feed hungry children by raffling off lots of fabulous prizes for $10.00. If you're wondering how you can help, please visit Chez Pim for a complete description. Some of the prizes include coffee for a year (my favorite), a trip to Napa Valley, a judge's seat at a chili cook-off, cookbooks, culinary classes, kitchenware, chocolate, and so much more. My humble contribution is two of my books.

UE 36: Recipe for a Cookbook: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your Cookbook.

UE 37: Foods and Flavors
of San Antonio, my new cookbook which will be published in March, 2009.

To see the complete list of all the prizes and how to bid on them, visit Chez Pim. A lot of hungry children will thank you.

A Gift for a Foodie

2008-12-12T11:24:00.025-06:00

Want to give the foodie in your life the perfect Christmas present?
Or maybe you're the foodie in your life and you want to give yourself the perfect present? It's my feeling that all you foodies with your great blogs showcasing your recipes would love to have the recipe
for a cookbook--a how-to on writing, publishing, and promoting
your cookbook.

Just so happens I've written a book about this and I'd like to give you a copy. Please leave me a comment telling me about the cookbook you'd love to write. I'll pick a random winner on Christmas Eve. For an extra chance to win, place the book cover on your sidebar with a link to this post. Then leave me another comment with the link to your blog.

If you're ready to get cooking on your cookbook, and you can't wait to win the book and you want it right now, it's available at Amazon. There's still time to order it and have it under your tree on Christmas.

Want to have a look inside before you buy? Please visit Recipe for a Cookbook to read lots more about it, including an overview and the table of contents.

Last Chance for Chocolate

2008-12-10T11:29:00.020-06:00

Marye, over at Baking Delights, is offering you lots of chances this week to win the Hershey's Chocolate Basket. Filled with lots of chocolate goodies, this
is guaranteed to bring out the chocoholic in you. This is the last week of her giveaway, but not to worry: She has another chocolate giveaway in the works.

In the spirit of giving, since it is Christmas-time, I'm giving Marye (who I know is a chocoholic; you can tell by reading her blog) the I'm a Chocoholic award given
to me by Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More a few months ago. (I know I've given this award before and I'm not sure if you're allowed to--or supposed to--give it again after you've posted about it the first time--but, hey, it's Christmas and I feel like giving Marye a chocolate gift. (And no, I'm not trying to earn brownie points to win the chocolate gift basket--the winner is chosen by a random generator.)

Speaking of chocolate and brownies, how does a Creme de Menthe Brownie sound to you? It sounds delicious to me and is my pick this week for the Hershey's holiday recipe.

35 HERSHEY'S BLISS Creme de Menthe Milk Chocolates, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Remove wrappers from chocolates. Cutting from corner to corner, cut each chocolate into 4 triangles; set aside.

2. Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cocoa; stir to blend. Remove from heat. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Stir together the flour, salt and baking soda; stir into chocolate mixture. Spread in prepared pan.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the brownie starts to pull from edges of pan and is set. Cool 25 minutes; sprinkle chopped candies over surface. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares or triangles. About 36 brownies.

Applesauce Raisin Cake

2008-12-08T20:19:00.012-06:00

With all the holiday cooking and baking--all those cookies and cakes and pies--there's a whole heck of a lot of refined sugar flying around. Too much sugar is not a good thing for anyone. The holidays can be especially difficult for people with diabetes because of all the sugar temptations, but there are lots of recipes you can make and eat that won't raise your blood sugar through the roof. I like to eat healthy and I had a taste for applesauce raisin cake so I looked around the web for a low-sugar alternative. I found a recipe for Raisin Cake at Dlife--a really wonderful website with tons of recipes to help you eat healthier. (I've rewritten parts of the recipe to make it clearer.)

1 cup seedless raisins (I used 3 of the red (1-1/2 oz.) Sun-Maid Raisins boxes; this equals one cup)
2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup granulated Splenda
3 egg whites
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups white all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. low sodium baking powder
1-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Cover the raisins with water and let stand for 5 minutes. (I heated 2 cups of water to boiling in a small saucepan, then I took the pan off the heat and added the raisins. After 5 minutes, I drained them in a colander.) (This will plump up the raisins.)

Drains raisins well and mix with Splenda, egg whites, oil, vanilla, and applesauce at medium speed to blend. (I didn't mix the raisins with the ingredients shown in this paragraph because I wanted them whole and kept intact.)

Mix the remaining dry ingredients together and stir into the raisin mixture. (I folded in my plumped-up raisins to the batter.)

Spread the batter in the prepared baking dish. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, remove from oven and let cool before serving.

I added a dusting of confectioners' sugar and enjoyed my Applesauce Raisin Cake, warm from the oven, with a cup of coffee.

Makes 20 servings. Nutritional information per serving: Calories--132; Total Carbs--18.3g; Dietary Fiber--1g; Sugars--7.1g; Total Fat--5.7g.

I'm submitting this to the Monthly Mingle: Low-Sugar Sweet Treats hosted by Meeta at The Daily Tiffin and to Ruth at Bookmarked Recipes.

Christmas Chicken Chili

2008-12-06T09:00:00.004-06:00

To get into the holiday spirit,
I decided to come up with a Christmas chili and decorate
it with red and green for a Christmas Chicken Chili.

This is the perfect time of year (or any other time) for chili; it warms your soul as well as your stomach. And if you put enough chiles into it, it will warm you all over. I marinated my chicken before cooking it to give it an added dimension of flavor--and because I'm so used to marinating chicken for fajitas.

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 T. dried minced garlic
1 T. chili powder
1 T. fajita seasoning
1 T. cumin
1 T. freshly ground black pepper
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 tomatillos, coarsely chopped
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 (4 oz.) can fire-roasted green chiles
1 (15.5 oz.) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15.8 oz.) can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chili powder (add more or less to suit your taste)
3 T. cumin (add more or less to suit your taste)
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
Sliced green onions for garnish
Mexican Blend cheese (also called Fiesta cheese)

Place the chopped chicken in a gallon-size Zip-lock plastic bag. Add the vegetable oil, dried minced garlic, chili powder, fajita seasoning, cumin, and black pepper. Seal the bag, letting most of the air out and then mush the chicken around in the oil and spices so all the pieces are covered. Marinate in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

When you're ready to start making your chili, heat a 12-inch, deep, chef's saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and brown it on the first side. (No need to add oil to the pan; the oil you marinated it in works just fine.)

Add the onions and tomatillos. Continue browning the chicken while the veggies get limp.

When the chicken is a nice, brown color and the veggies have softened, add the green onions and garlic to the pan. Saute for a minute or two, just until the fragrance of the garlic is released.

Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, green chiles, red kidney beans, and the great northern beans. Season with the chili powder and cumin, then give it a good stir.

Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce the heat, cover, and let the chili simmer for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Add the corn, give it a stir, then cover the pan and let the chili cook for 10 more minutes.

I adorned my red-and-green Christmas Chili with sliced green onions and Mexican Blend cheese.

I like quesadillas with my chili, so I warmed up a corn tortilla in a dry, 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When it browned on the first side, I flipped it over and added the cheese. When the second side browned, I folded it in half, removed it to a plate and cut it into quarters.

If you have a favorite, original chili recipe, please come over to my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog and enter it in this month's Chili Cook-Off Challenge. There are prizes for the best chili.

Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

2008-12-05T08:00:00.029-06:00

Since my last disaster with two of Tyler Florence's recipes, I wasn't real keen on continuing to participate in Tyler Florence Fridays, but since I was planning to make Stuffed Mediterranean Chicken this week--I had all the ingredients on hand--I decided to veer from my planned dinner and try his recipe for Mediterranean Pasta in Minutes. (My changes are in blue.)

3 T. olive oil (I used the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes; it added a lot of flavor)
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced diagonally
1 small onion, slivered (I added it halfway through browning the chicken)
1 (8-1/2 oz.) jar sun-dried tomatoes, julienned (1 cup)
2 T. garlic, minced
1 pound fresh angel hair pasta (I used whole grain thin spaghetti)
1/4 cup fresh basil (I had to substitute 2 T. dried basil because my fresh basil had turned brown and wilted; it was not a pretty sight)
1 (8-1/2 oz.) can artichoke hearts in water, quartered and drained (1 cup)
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted (1/4 pound) (I used chopped black olives)
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup heavy cream (I used half-and-half)
2 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste (I omitted the salt and used freshly ground black pepper which I sprinkled on the chicken while I was browning it)

Boil water for pasta in a pasta pot, fitted with a strainer. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Brown chicken strips until no longer pink -- about 3 minutes each side. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic to skillet. Saute for 2 minutes. In the meantime, add the fresh pasta to boiling water, cook until al dente, about 5 minutes.

Now add the basil, artichoke hearts, olives and feta cheese to the skillet. Saute 1 minute then stir in the cream. Strain the pasta and transfer to a large pasta bowl. Add the chicken saute to the pasta and toss. Season with oregano, salt and pepper before serving.

This was absolutely delicious (the picture doesn't do it justice). It came together quickly and easily, and was a wonderful weeknight dinner. Tyler, you've redeemed yourself. I'll definitely make this again.

I'm also submitting this to two foodie blog events: Ruth at Bookmarked Recipes, who
hosts a weekly round-up of recipes which
are bookmarked and made from cookbooks, magazines, TV shows, foodie blogs, and other online sources.

And to Presto Pasta Nights, created by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast, a weekly round-up of pasta recipes which is being hosted this week by Marye at Baking Delights.

Tis the Season for Giving

2008-12-04T08:51:00.018-06:00

Christmas is the season for giving lots of wonderful presents, love, and joy. When my daughters were little and we didn't have much money, we'd make each other "love presents" for Christmas. These love presents consisted of notes we'd write to one another, offering something we could give during the year.

My daughters would write me notes like, "I promise to give you a
big hug when you're sad," or "I promise to clean my room when you ask," stuff like that. And they made me amazing things out of paper. Jennifer made me a beautiful house out of notebook paper and tape. She even made a paper garden with flowers to go in front of the house, complete with a little paper hose to water the garden. Jaime drew me a picture of herself, surrounded by red paper hearts which said "I Love You" and a colored frame.

It doesn't have to cost anything to give a present that gives all year round. This is why they're called love presents--because they come from the heart and show that you care. There is a present you can give every single day that is filled with love and joy both for yourself and for the person who receives it. It won't cost you anything but a few seconds of your time every day.

Here's a love present you can give to someone you've never met that will put the spirit of Christmas into their heart all year long. Put this badge from The Hunger Site on your blog where you and visitors to your blog can click it every day. Every click helps to feed a hungry person.

Mucho Meatloaf

2008-12-02T14:00:00.023-06:00

I was in the mood for meatloaf the other night. I was really hungry and felt like experimenting so I threw together a bunch of ingredients and made a big meatloaf; hence the title "Mucho Meatloaf" because there was a lot of good stuff in there and there was a lot of meatloaf to go around. While the meatloaf was cooking, I also made a lot of Cheddar-Garlic Smashed Potatoes to go with it. I love making big meals because they make lots of leftovers. A meatloaf sandwich the next day, served on whole wheat bread with Dijon mustard, is just about the best lunch in the whole world.

I like to cook everyday kind of family meals--nothing fancy or pretentious for me--just good, homey, comfort food. If I were to invite you over for dinner, I'd probably make you meatloaf. I love meatloaf. It's a wonderful comfort food and it has my favorite ingredient: hamburger. I have two favorite meatloaf recipes--which I'll share in another post or two--but I like to change things around once in a while just to keep life interesting. Meatloaf recipes are so versatile. You can put just about anything you want in a meatloaf and you don't have to worry about whether it will turn out okay because it always does.

Mucho Meatloaf

1 small onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1 stalk celery, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 (8 oz.) container button mushrooms, chopped
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 medium egg
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 heaping T. Dijon mustard
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 T. dried oregano
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce, divided
2 T. Worcestershire sauce, divided
2 T. tomato paste
3 T. ketchup
3 strips turkey bacon, cut in half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 12-inch skillet with butter flavored nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat.

When the pan is hot, add the onion, red bell pepper, carrot, and celery. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are limp.

Add the garlic and mushrooms. Saute for one more minute. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to let the veggies cool a bit before you mix them in with the meat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Dijon mustard, parsley, oregano, 2/3 of the tomato sauce, 1 T. Worcestershire, tomato paste, and ketchup. Add the reserved veggies. Mix really well. There's no getting around it; you have to get your hands into the mix.

Plop the mixture into a 9 x 5 glass baking dish. Smooth out the top
a bit. Place the slices of turkey bacon evenly over the top, put the meatloaf into the oven and let it cook for 30 minutes to crisp the bacon.

While the meatloaf is cooking, mix the remaining 1/3 of the tomato sauce and the remaining 1 T. of Worcestershire together in a small bowl. Take the meatloaf out of the oven and spread the tomato sauce mixture on top. Return to the oven and cook for 30 to 45 more minutes.

When you take the meatloaf out of the oven--when it's finished cooking--let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. This will actually make the meatloaf warmer than when you first took it out of the oven and it also makes slicing the meatloaf into uniform pieces easier that won't fall apart.

Cheddar-Garlic Smashed Potatoes

6 red potatoes, scrubbed (leave the skin on) and cut into chunks (butter reds are the best)
1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 T. dried minced garlic
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a large saucepan filled halfway with water over high heat. When the water boils, add the potatoes and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are soft. Drain in a colander and return to the pan. Add the Cheddar cheese, garlic, sour cream, butter, and milk. Smash the potatoes to a coarse consistency. Chunks are good here. Take a taste, then season to your liking with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

To make my meatloaf meal complete, I also served green beans topped with shredded Cheddar cheese.

It was a mucho good dinner! And I have lots of leftovers!

Chocolate and More Coffee

2008-12-01T12:24:00.020-06:00

Marye at Baking Delights is again offering you a chance -- five chances -- to win the Hershey's Chocolate Gift Basket this week. Go on over to her blog and leave your comments.

One of the chances to win is by going to Hershey's Kitchens and choosing your favorite recipe. The first thing that caught my eye was the Cocoa Café Olé since I just blogged about Coffee, Coffee, Coffee. Chocolate and coffee is such a beautiful combination.

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 tablespoons powdered instant coffee
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups milk

Combine sugar, cocoa, instant coffee and cinnamon in large saucepan. Gradually stir in milk; heat stirring occasionally, to serving temperature. Pour into mug or cup. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

The only thing I'd add to the directions is to tell you to simmer your drink. If you boil it, the coffee will taste bitter. This is a quick and easy way to make a Mexican Mocha and is also a way to achieve instant Zen.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

2008-11-29T18:05:00.017-06:00

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the holiday crunch is probably beginning to set in. You know what I'm talking about: Rushing around buying presents, slaving (or not) over a hot stove creating delicious meals, planning Christmas dinner, decorating your house for Christmas--the whole holiday crunch. This time of year, while wonderful and beautiful, filled with lights and love, peace on earth, and all that other good stuff, can also make you crazy, trying to find a minute or two for yourself to just relax. I have the antidote for you: Coffee.

Yes, you heard me right. I said coffee. You might think I'm crazy for suggesting that coffee can calm your nerves and bring you peace of mind, but hear me out. There IS a way that coffee can do that. You just have to look at coffee differently--from a Zen frame of mind. But first, I want to show you some new coffees I found: instant coffees--really, really good coffees you can make in a minute in the microwave, about how long it would take you to mindfully meditate to achieve peace of mind by drinking a cup of coffee.

Instant coffee equals instant Zen: a profound sense of calm and peacefulness. By simply allowing yourself to make a hot cup of coffee and stirring in a few spoonfuls of instant coffee, you can create a peaceful frame of mind as you sip your coffee. Which brings me to the "how-to" or the recipe for a peaceful frame of mind: Zen Coffee.

Zen Coffee: A Guide to Mindful Meditation is my newest book that was published last month. Inside are all the secrets to tuning into your inner self to find your peaceful essence, and ways to bring your peaceful inner nature into all your experiences. (Besides that, there are lots of recipes for coffee drinks--not the instant kind; the kind you'd find at a coffee house.)

If you'd like to read more about the book and how coffee puts the caffeine calm of Zen into your life, please visit my Zen Coffee blog. If you'd like to see what's inside the book and read a chapter, please visit the book page on Mystical Mindscapes. If you don't need to read about the book because you KNOW that coffee is what you need to find peace in your life, it's available at Amazon.

While this post is obviously a HUGE plug for my new book, and I do want to mention that it will make a wonderful Christmas present for anyone who's a coffee drinker who also wants a whole lot of calm in their life, it's also a Christmas present for you. I'm giving away a copy of Zen Coffee. Just leave me a comment by December 10th, saying how you think coffee can bring you calm.

Talking Turkey

2008-11-26T07:00:00.001-06:00

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Too Busy to Blog

2008-11-21T08:34:00.006-06:00

Just got the final edits from my publisher yesterday for Foods and Flavors of San Antonio. They're only giving me ten days
to go through the cookbook and make
sure it's perfect so I won't be posting
for a while. Just wanted to let you guys
know so you wouldn't think I disappeared
into the blogosphere. :)

What Are You Thankful For?

2008-11-18T13:59:00.030-06:00

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to say what we are thankful
for while sitting at the table eating our delicious Thanksgiving feast. There are 1 billion people who can't enjoy a fabulous meal and say what they are thankful for because they are literally starving. 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Nick, aka The Peanut Butter Boy decided to do something about this to help feed the hungry.

For every comment you leave on his post, he will donate a nickel to The Hunger Site. You can also help by visiting The Hunger Site and clicking. It costs you nothing and by simply clicking once a day, every day, you are giving the equivalent of 1.1 cups of food to starving people. There are other foodies who are helping to feed the hungry and to raise awareness. There is a Feeding the Hungry lens on Squidoo and Life by Chocolate is also donating a nickel for every comment.

What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for my family--my daughters and my grandchildren. I'm also very, very thankful that we are able
to buy food. There was a time when my children were just babies (Jennifer was 2 years old and Jaime was 6 months old), and we were homeless and had no food. We were fortunate to find a community outreach program that provided shelter for us and gave us food from the food bank to tide us over until I got back on my feet. It was an experience I will never forget.

I'm joining with Nick's efforts and the other wonderful bloggers who are taking action to help feed the hungry. For every comment on this post, I will also donate a nickel to The Hunger Site and I will click to give free food every day to help provide food for starving people. (I've added the button to my sidebar.) I know a nickel doesn't sound like much, but those nickels really add up. Please join me. Together, we can help prevent 24,000 deaths every day from hunger and we can help the 1 billion people who are hungry or malnourished to be thankful for the food that we can help to put on their table.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

2008-11-18T08:00:00.011-06:00

While browsing the foodie blogosphere, I found this recipe for Baked Chicken Parmesan at Aggie's Kitchen. Not being a stranger to this recipe, I was intrigued because she used pine nuts as part of the coating. I'd never done this before, so of course I had to try it. I did change the recipe a bit, adding a "secret" ingredient and some fresh Mozzarella cheese. I copied her recipe exactly as she wrote it. My changes are in blue.

1.5 lbs. chicken breasts, pounded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (I omitted the salt.)
1/2 - 3/4 cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 tsp. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning
small palm full of garlic powder (After I started making the recipe, I realized I was out of garlic powder, so I substituted 1-1/2 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning--see my previous post.)
1 or 2 cans of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes (depending on how saucy you want your chicken) (I used 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano.)
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 T. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used 1/2 cup)
shredded part skim Mozzarella cheese (I used 1/3 cup plus 1/3 cup fresh Mozzarella, cut into small cubes from a Mozzarella ball.)
drizzle of olive oil (I used olive oil flavored nonstick cooking spray.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take chicken and place between saran wrap and pound into thin cutlets, about 1/4-1/2" thick. Season both sides of chicken with
salt and pepper and set aside.

In a baking dish (I used a dinner-size plate), mix together bread crumbs, 2 tsp. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning, chopped pine nuts, garlic powder (I used 1-1/2 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning) and salt and pepper. Press chicken cutlets into bread crumb mixture until coated.

Drizzle olive oil (nonstick cooking spray) onto baking sheet. Place coated chicken cutlets onto baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil
(I spritzed mine with the nonstick spray) before placing in oven.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Top with diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and bake for another 5-8 minutes
or until cheese is bubbly and golden. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. I added additional fresh mozzarella and placed the baking sheet under the broiler for 3 - 4 minutes to brown the cheese. I garnished the dish with a sprig of fresh parsley.

While the chicken was baking, I sprayed a medium-size saucepan with olive oil flavored nonstick cooking spray, then heated it over medium-high heat. When the pan was hot, I added the onions and sauteed them for 3 - 4 minutes until they were limp and starting to brown. Then I added the garlic and sauteed it with the onions for
one more minute. I added the tomatoes and the 1-1/2 T. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning, stirred, and brought the mixture to a
boil. Then I reduced the heat, covered the pan, and let it simmer until the chicken was ready to come out of the oven.

I served my Baked Chicken Parmesan with a baked potato and steamed broccoli. Yumm! Dinner was delicious.

A Culinary Quest

2008-11-17T16:06:00.017-06:00

A few weeks ago I went on a culinary quest to
find a secret ingredient. I knew what it was--that was the easy part. Buying it proved to be a bit difficult. I've never used Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning before, in fact, never heard of it until last month when I was cooking dinner for my cousin in Florida.

His daughter, Kim, and I went into the kitchen to see what we could throw together for dinner and we came up with a delicious dinner created from scratch with what we could find in the pantry and the fridge--Kielbasa sausage, cut at an angle, one yellow crookneck squash, sliced and quartered, one onion, chopped, 2 stalks celery, chopped, 2 carrots, sliced into pennies (which I steamed in a bowl with a little water in the microwave to soften before adding to the skillet because carrots take so long to cook), 2 cloves garlic, chopped, salt and pepper to taste, 1 head of broccoli--chopped some of the stems and added them to the saute, then steamed the florets. We boiled some multi-colored rotini noodes al dente and put warmed-up Classico alfredo sauce on top of everything.

I asked for oregano (which I put in everything) and my cousin,
Art, who can't cook to save his soul, sauntered into the kitchen
and offered us this seasoning, saying that he put it in everything.
So we tossed it into the mix and it was really good. (Sorry about
the blurry picture. I'm still learning how to use my new camera.)

Back to the culinary quest: After searching here at home for it in three grocery stores, I sent Art an email asking where he bought it. Turns out it's only available in Sam's Club. Not a problem. We have a bunch of them here in San Antonio. So I called the closest one to see if it was in stock since I was a little tired of running around looking for it. Yes! They had it on their shelf. Only problem was the person who answered the phone said it would cost me $40.00 to get in the door so I could buy it. She said I wouldn't be allowed in the store unless I bought a membership to Sam's Club which is where the $40.00 comes in.

As much as I wanted it, I was NOT going to pay $40.00 just for the privilege of walking in the door. Not being one to be easily deterred from my culinary quest, I did what any foodie would do: I politely asked to talk to the manager. I explained very nicely that I just had to have this seasoning for a recipe and he replied that I was more than welcome to come over and buy it. Apparently, Sam's Club will offer you a one-day guest pass but you have to jump through hoops for it.

After jumping through the aforementioned hoops, I achieved my goal: I bought the seasoning mix and now have a great big jar of it
to use in lots of recipes. While I was there, I also bought a huge jar of Garlic & Herb Seasoning, which actually saved a recipe from being rather tasteless because I didn't have any garlic powder and used this instead. I'm mentioning my culinary quest here because I'll be posting a recipe tomorrow for Baked Chicken Parmesan and these seasonings are the "secret" ingredients.

Much More Than Toast

2008-11-15T08:38:00.005-06:00

I've been thinking about buying a toaster oven because first, they're so cute and second, because I have a gas stove and when I cook anything in the oven, it really heats up the house -- much more so than an electric one.

I was pricing them yesterday and looking at the features. Some have a convection option and others will let you broil. Do any of you have a toaster oven? Do you like it? Hate it? I'm wondering if it cooks just as well as a regular oven. If you have a toaster oven, what do you cook in it and are you happy with the results? And what product would you recommend?

Bad Bad Brussels

2008-11-14T00:16:00.008-06:00

For the first round-up of Tyler Florence Fridays, I decided to do something easy since I'd only heard about the event the day before. I looked through some of his recipes at Food Network and chose Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts because I really love Brussels sprouts. Since I usually boil these babies with some Cheddarwurst sausage, the idea of braising them with bacon appealed to me. Thinking about what to serve with them, I decided to make oven-roasted potatoes and, lo and behold, Tyler has a recipe for them: Crunchy Roasted Rosemary Potatoes. To make the meal complete, I decided to make a chopped beefsteak--a fancy term for a hamburger. If you've been reading my blog, you know that I love hamburgers and I make the best beefsteak for miles around.

Not being one to follow a recipe to the letter, of course I had to make changes. I can never resist playing with a recipe to suit my tastes. I only made a few changes to the Brussels sprouts recipe, but I did a complete overhaul on the oven-roasted potatoes. I've marked my changes in blue.

Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts

1-1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, washed and cut in half (I'm assuming he means fresh; I used frozen and thawed them before cooking.)
4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) bacon, cut into small squares. (I used turkey bacon.)
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed, plus 2 cloves, roughly chopped
4 sprigs thyme, plus 2 sprigs thyme, leaves only, chopped (I used dried thyme.)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt (I used regular table salt.)
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used Italian-seasoned bread crumbs; I had some leftover from the Baked Chicken Parmesan I made earlier in the week.)
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only, chopped (I used dried rosemary.)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take a large pan and set over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until fat renders 2 to 3 minutes. Add the smashed garlic clove, thyme sprigs and Brussels sprouts and cook gently until slightly caramelized. Add stock and reduce heat to a simmer. Season with salt and a little pepper, cover and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Remove lid and add a splash of vinegar and reduce until syrupy, 2 to 3 minutes.

After Brussels sprouts are done cooking, put them in oven safe dish. In sheet tray and toss bread crumbs with rosemary, thyme leaves and chopped garlic, then drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture and Parmigiano over Brussels sprouts and bake in a hot oven until golden and crispy.

Okay, did the way the recipe was written (I copied it word-for-word) make sense to you? Not to me. Tyler can really cook but whoever wrote this recipe is in serious need of grammatical and recipe-writing help. For example, in the first paragraph, you're supposed to 'take a large pan and set over medium-high heat.' What size is a large pan?
I have a turkey roaster which is a large pan. Should I use that? I have
a large Dutch oven. Should I use that? I have a large skillet. Should
I use that? By now I'm getting aggravated reading the recipe and cooking is supposed to be something I enjoy, something that relaxes me. I read through the ingredients again that are going to go into this 'large pan' and decide to use my deep, 12-inch chef's saute pan. Why couldn't the recipe-writer say this in the first place? And wouldn't it be better to heat the pan rather than set it over the heat? Grrr!

Oh, and another thing: The recipe lists Brussels sprouts as the first ingredient, but the first ingredient used in the directions is bacon. This is just wrong. The ingredient list should be written in the order that the ingredients are used in the recipe. There's another error in the way the ingredients are listed: The bread crumbs are used before the Parmigiano-Reggiano, but they're not listed that way. Thyme is used twice in this recipe but only shown once--without the word 'divided.' So just reading the recipe, you'd throw in the thyme along with the smashed garlic to the bacon along with the Brussels sprouts. Then you get to the end of the recipe and discover you're supposed to put some thyme in along with the rosemary.

In the second paragraph, you're supposed to put the Brussels sprouts in an oven safe dish, which by the way is supposed to be hyphenated, like this: oven-safe. And what size oven-safe dish are you supposed to use? I chose my 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish. Then 'in sheet tray and toss' ... would read much better as: In a sheet tray, toss the bread crumbs ... Sorry to be critical, but poorly-written recipes are
a HUGE pet peeve of mine. And how many of us have sheet trays? I used a 9-inch pie pan to toss my crumbs. When I read a recipe, I'd like the directions to be clear and make sense. I don't like to have to read through the directions several times because they're confusing. Now, on to the potatoes.

Crunchy Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

3 large Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed clean, cut in 1/2 (I used russets.)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary (I used dried rosemary.)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (I used regular table salt.)
Sprinkle or two of dried minced garlic (I added this because I love garlic and thought this would complement the garlic in the Brussels sprouts.)
1/2 onion, finely chopped (I added this because I thought onions would add a nice flavor.)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the potatoes and put on a baking sheet. Roughly tear the rosemary and scatter it over the potatoes; season them with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Toss the potatoes well to mix all the flavors and put them in the oven. Remove them after 30 minutes and toss them again. Continue to roast them until they are browned and cooked through. Serve immediately.

I have to gripe about the way the potato recipe was written: In the ingredient list, you're supposed to cut the potatoes in half. Do you
cut them lengthwise or sideways? Then in the directions, you're told
to slice the potatoes you've already cut in half. The prep for the potatoes would make more sense if you were told in the ingredient list to slice the potatoes. And how thick or thin are you supposed to slice them? I quartered mine, then cut them into medium-size chunks.

Since the potatoes were going to take longer to cook, and at a higher temperature, I got them cooking before I began making the Brussels sprouts. I thought my timing would be nearly perfect on this but the potatoes didn't want to brown. It took an hour, not 30 minutes, like the recipe said, and they still didn't get nice and brown, even though I tossed them again, like the recipe said to do. The recipe also promised 'crunchy' which never happened.

The extra half hour they took turned out to be okay, only because I got distracted by my dog hassling the holy heck out of one of my cats and I had to create peace between them. Besides that, the Brussels sprouts were only supposed to simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, covered, but the broth wasn't reducing. So I uncovered the pan. By the time I was ready to put the Brussels sprouts in the oven, I shuffled the potatoes around and finished them in the reduced heat.

After I put the Brussels sprouts in the oven, I made my beefsteak, I mean my hamburger. I shaped an oblong patty (96% lean) and seared it on both sides in an 8-inch nonstick skillet which I preheated over high heat. I like a nice char on the outside, plus this leaves flavorful browning in the pan. After my burger was finished, I put about 1-1/2 tablespoons of water in the hot skillet to deglaze it and made a nice, rich, syrupy coating which I poured on my hamburger.

Dinner was... well, besides being kind of brown and unattractive, it was a total disaster. The only saving grace was my hamburger, which turned out beautifully. After the first bite of the Brussels sprouts and potatoes, I did something that I haven't done in 40 years of cooking. I threw the food away. It was really that awful.

Top Chef Tonight

2008-11-12T05:00:00.006-06:00

I'm so excited. I can hardly wait. Top Chef airs tonight on Bravo TV
at 9:00 PM central time. Check out Blogging Top Chef for a preview
of the first show and a colorful commentary by Chef Biatch.

After the show, visit the Washingtonian for a live chat with Spike, previous Top Chef contender, as he dishes on the new chefs.

Fun With Food

2008-11-11T10:42:00.022-06:00

Do you play with your food? I'm not talking about when you were
a little kid and playing with food was more fun than eating it.
I'm talking about playing with your food to make it beautiful and appealing. I was browsing the foodie blogosphere last week and was completely blown away by the two following posts. These ladies have taken playing with their food to a whole new level--a totally awesome art form. Check them out:

Nazarina at Giddy Gastronome plays with salad.
That palm tree is made from a carrot and a green bell pepper.

Prudence at the Glass Slipper Cakery gets to have her cake
and eat it, too. That's a real cake, folks--completely edible!

Chipotle-Mole Chili

2008-11-08T08:00:00.029-06:00

Have I mentioned before that I love chili? And that I'm always playing around with it? Chili is such a versatile recipe; you can pretty much make a different dish each time; that's what I've done with my Chipotle-Mole Chili for the Chili Cook-Off Challenge. This is my best chili so far, but then I say that every time I make chili. It just keeps getting better and better.

1 pound lean stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 slices turkey bacon, coarsely chopped (The turkey bacon doesn't render much fat; it just adds a nice hint of smokiness which complements the chipotle and works well with the cinnamon and chocolate.)
3 T. Mexene chili powder or more to taste, divided (This is the first time I've used this; I read that most of the winning recipes at the Terlingua chili cook-off use this.)
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 - 2 T. Mexican oregano, divided
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
Pinch or two of salt
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
1 T. ground dry roasted peanuts (I had a small bag that Southwest Airlines gave me on my trip to Florida so I took a meat mallet and pounded the holy heck out of them; there were still a few small chunks left.)
1 tsp. fajita seasoning
1 (14.5 oz.) can chipotle petite diced tomatoes, with juice (If this isn't available where you live; substitute 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes and 1 chipotle pepper, finely chopped, from a 7 oz. can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce--also add some of the sauce.)
1 T. cumin powder
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, with juice
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 T. tomato paste
Water, if you want to
2 (15.5 oz.) cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I drain and rinse mine in a colander.)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 square Mexican chocolate, very finely chopped
Green onions, chopped
Sour cream (I use fat free because it tastes just as good and isn't as fattening.)
Mexican blend cheese (This is a shredded mix of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla, and Asadero cheeses. It's also called Fiesta cheese.)

Before we get to the directions, let me say that I don't really measure anything so the amounts in the ingredient list are approximate to the best of my ability to calculate them by sight. I toss in a little of this, more of that, add a few pinches of something else, then put in some dashes of whatever I think will go well in the recipe just for good measure. I cooked this in my all-time favorite pan: my 12-inch, deep chef saute pan, which I got on sale for $20.00.

Heat the pan over medium-high heat. Rinse the stew beef cubes
in cold water, then toss them into the pan. You should hear a nice sizzle. (The water will evaporate quickly and the beef will brown in
its own juices and make a nice, rich glaze. You also save calories because you're not using butter or oil to brown the meat.) Sprinkle some chili powder on the meat.

After a minute or so of letting your meat brown, give it a stir, then add the chopped bacon. Add a little bit more chili powder. Grate some fresh black pepper over it. Stir it again, then season with some of the oregano. (Turkey bacon doesn't take very long to cook; it will be nice and crisp by the time the stew beef cubes are browned.) Stir when the meat and bacon looks like it wants to be stirred or if your smoke detector goes off, whichever happens first.

When the meat and bacon are nicely browned, remove them and set them aside in a bowl, which will collect the flavorful juices that you'll be adding back to the chili.

Add the chopped onions and green bell pepper to the pan. Sprinkle with just a little salt to help the onions release their liquid. Saute until they get limp. (It's okay; you're not hurting them; this is what they're supposed to do.) Give them a little oregano and some freshly ground black pepper and they'll be just fine.

After they begin to soften, add the garlic. (If you add the garlic too soon, it will burn and taste bitter, so better later than sooner.)

When the garlic begins to turn a really pretty shade of beige-to-
brown, add the ground beef and stir it into the vegetable mixture. Now, for some serious fun and this is what chili is all about! Sprinkle as much of the chili powder as you want on the meat. This helps to season the meat and adds another layer of flavor to the chili. Stir it in, then sprinkle the ground beef with some oregano and black pepper.

When the ground beef has been stirred, add the peanuts and stir again.

When the ground beef is browned and the veggies are limp and your kitchen is starting to smell wonderful, return the stew beef cubes, with the accumulated juices, to the pan. Give them all a nice stir together and turn up the heat. Sprinkle on some fajita seasoning, just to get the meat and veggies in the mood to start making chili.

When everything starts sizzling together, pour in the chipotle flavored tomatoes. (This won't dampen their spirits; it just makes them happier because now you've added a little more zip to them.) Stir.

Add the cumin powder and dry mustard. Stir again. If you feel like it, at this time, you may also give them some more chili powder.

Add the petite diced tomatoes. Stir. Season with more chili powder, black pepper, and oregano.

Add the tomato sauce and the tomato paste. Stir. You know the drill by now--season with more chili powder, black pepper, and oregano. At this time you can add some water if you want to, depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce.

Now your chili is really starting to get happy and probably a bit bubbly, but also a little greedy: It wants more, more, more! So give your chili what it wants.

Add the beans. (I know that being a Texan, beans are a big no-no, but I'm from Chicago, so that's my excuse. Besides, I really like beans and they're very good for you.) Stir the beans into everything else that's cooking. By now, your chili is really starting to like you.

And for the final touch of sweetness, just to let your chili know that you love it already, add the cinnamon and chocolate. Stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and let your chili do its own thing.

Let it cook about four hours, stirring occasionally and taking taste tests. Don't worry if at first (after your chili has been cooking ten minutes or so and you just can't resist taking a taste) your chili tastes a little sweet. The flavors will all cook together, the spices
will kick in, and produce the best bowl of red you've ever eaten.

A note about taste testing your chili: When my daughters were young and we made chili, we'd always have to take a taste test to be sure
it was seasoned properly, then we'd add more spices, take another taste, add more ingredients, etc. By the time dinner was served--if there was any chili left to serve--we weren't hungry anymore because we'd totally pigged out on the chili tastings.

After it's been cooking about three hours (and probably after many more taste tests), now is the time to adjust the seasonings to suit your taste because the flavors are more fully developed. My chef instructor in culinary school offered me these words of wisdom: You can always put more seasonings in, but you can never take them out. I ended up adding more chili powder, fajita seasoning, cumin, and black pepper. It also needed a little more garlic, so I added a sprinkle or two of dried minced garlic.

I know you're hungry and you're ready to eat NOW, but let it cook for at least one more hour. It's worth the wait.

Spoon your chili into a bowl and top with chopped green onions, Mexican cheese, and sour cream--or whatever you want. Serve with cheese quesadillas or tortilla chips.

I'd love to see your chili recipes. Come on over to my new blog to sign up for the once-a-month chili cook-off. The cook-off rules are easy and there are prizes for the winner: A copy of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, and
a chile pepper refrigerator magnet. Plus, you'll get this really hot badge to put on your blog.

A Random Meme

2008-11-07T12:59:00.013-06:00

Camille, at Croque-Camille, has tagged me with a Six-Random-Things-About-Me meme. I thought about listing six silly things that would probably be meaningless and hopefully humorous, but decided that I would really open up and share six things about me that show you a look into who I am. But before I do that, here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So here are six things you may or may not want to know about me.

1. My favorite color is purple. I really, really love purple. My bedroom is purple and I drove a purple car for ten years. My granddaughter calls me the "Purple Grandma."

2. I was a hippie back in the 60s. Peace.

3. My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz.

4. I won the San Diego Spelling Bee when I was in fifth grade. (I was a writer and a wordie even back then!)

5. My little brother was adopted from Korea. He passed away on Monday. My trip to Florida last month was to visit him--to say goodbye and to let him know that I love him. I will be forever thankful that we got to spend that time together. Family is so very important and it's really important to let the people you love know that you love them. Love is the only thing you get to take with you.

6. I believe in reincarnation--I've written several books about it--so
I know I'll get to be with my brother again.

And now I get to tag six people to find out six random things about them:

1. Teresa, at Mexican American Border Cooking.
2. Meg, at Megan's Munchies.
3. Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice.
4. Joan, at Foodalogue.
5. Arlene, at The Food of Love .
6. Megan, at Megan's Cookin.

If you weren't tagged, feel free to share six random things about yourself, either in the comments or on your blog. I love getting to know foodies. :)

Is My Blog Burning?

2008-11-05T08:27:00.017-06:00

Is your foodie blog hot? Burning? Do you have a cooking challenge or event you want the foodie blogosphere to know about? I posted about my Chili Cook-Off Challenge a few days ago that I'm hosting at my new blog, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, and was hoping to get lots of foodies to sign up for the challenge. So far only three have signed up. I started a new thread at The Leftover Queen forum and have had a lot of views, but no more takers.

Yesterday, Joan at Foodalogue posted her entry for the chili cook-off
and blogged about it, then sent me an email and we talked about how
to promote the event. BTW, go and check out her gorgeous picture.
She suggested that I announce the cook-off on Is My Blog Burning.
I'd never heard of this site so I checked it out. It's a cool site--hot, actually--where you can announce and promote your food events. You can also post foodie links and foodie stories, and participate in the forums.

Go and check out the site; it's worth looking into, then please visit Foods and Flavors of San Antonio and sign up for the Chili Cook-Off Challenge.

Top Chef, Season 5, Premiers November 12th

2008-11-04T08:27:00.010-06:00

I totally love Top Chef. I'm glued to the TV, just waiting to see what happens and what the chefs come up with. On the first show, I always try to guess who will be Top Chef. But this time, I thought it would be fun to guess before the show starts. Check out their bios and a brief video at the Bravo TV site, then leave a comment saying who you think will win. I've got my money on Hosea, though Richard looks to be a close contender. Here's another site--Blogging Top Chef--where you can find out more about the chefs. The first show of Season Five airs next Wednesday, November 12th.

Did I Mention I'm Having a Chili Cook-Off?

2008-11-01T12:43:00.009-05:00

Please come over to Foods and Flavors of San Antonio to sign up for the November Chili Cook-Off Challenge.

Spilling the Beans

2008-10-31T02:57:00.017-05:00

A few posts back I mentioned that something was cooking and asked you to guess what it was. Well, you all guessed it was a chili cook-off. You're right; this is a Texas-sized chili cook-off challenge.

Since I've just launched my San Antonio blog and San Antonio is the birthplace of chili, and chili is the official state dish of Texas, and my next cookbook is going to be a chili cookbook, I'm having a chili cook-off challenge at my new Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog. Come on over and see what's cooking!

Foods and Flavors of San Antonio

2008-10-29T13:48:00.016-05:00

I'm soooo excited! My publisher just sent me the cover for my
new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, which will be published next March. I LOVE THE COVER!!! :)

The cookbook is priced at $19.95 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon for $13.57. Click the following link. Foods and Flavors of San Antonio
To celebrate, I'm launching my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog today. Please come over and visit! There's going to be lots of great Tex-Mex food, plus a tour of all the flavorful fiestas San Antonio has to offer. First up on the menu is the best guacamole you've ever eaten (I'll post the recipe tomorrow) and there's also going to be a chili cook-off.

Sunday Surprise

2008-10-26T13:43:00.005-05:00

Something new is cooking and it's a surprise!

I'll give you three hints:

1. It involves a cooking challenge.

2. It involves something Texas is famous for.

3. It may or may not involve beans.

Want to take a guess? I'll be revealing the secret in a week or so.

Feast or Famine?

2008-10-24T15:05:00.024-05:00

Camille, at Croque-Camille, tagged me a few days ago with the following scenario: You are stranded on a desert island for an indefinite amount of time. You can bring along five food items and are allowed one sentence to justify your decision. It is an island, so assume plentiful fish, coconuts, and sea salt. Storage is not an issue, as you also have a large solar powered refrigerator. Play along, tag who you want, and link back!

Camille tagged me because I posed a similar question on A Matter of Taste a while back. Her tag offers more than one food choice, but there is no magic food machine. Only problem I have with being stranded on this particular desert island that is abounding with fish, coconuts, and sea salt is that I don't like fish, coconuts, or salt.

Since I'm a writer first (a wordie?) before I'm a foodie, I thought Camille may have made a typo and meant to say "deserted" island instead of "desert" island. So I did a little wiki and found out the words are basically interchangeable. Yea! I love when I learn new things about words.

Back to being stranded on this desert island: I don't want to be
alone on this desert island (which means uninhabited or sparsely populated), and because I really enjoy cooking for people and sharing my food, I'm hoping all the foodies I tag with this are willing to share the food they bring and we can all have a foodie feast. Camille is bringing onions, cream, bacon, potatoes, and mustard seeds. Here's my list:

1. Coffee. Gotta have coffee; that's all there is to it; no further explanation is needed.

2. Hamburger. As long as my magic food machine is there and provides me with a hamburger on a sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, and mayo every day for lunch, I'll be happy.

3. Broccoli. I just can't help myself. I totally love broccoli.

4. Tomatoes. I love tomatoes; I can make Spatini spaghetti sauce with them; someone else has to bring the pasta; I know this is a really long and very ungrammatical sentence punctuated with semi-colons, but we're only allowed one sentence to describe why
we'd bring this particular item.

5. Kahlua. I suppose I could learn to love coconut milk, or borrow some of Camille's cream, so I could make my King Alphonse and drink myself into oblivion if no one wants to share their food with me, and besides that, a King Alphonse is really, really good!

I'm tagging the following foodies:

Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More and Mexican American Border Cooking, because I'm counting on her to bring chocolate and her magic food machine makes burritos any way she wants them. I'm hoping she'll share.

Meg, at Megan's Munchies. I know, for an almost fact, that she'll bring oatmeal and pumpkin.

Deb, at Kahakai Kitchen, because she already lives on an island, though it's very inhabited, and she knows a lot more about island living than I do.

Megan, at Megans Cookin, because I'm hoping she'll bring her Country Bob's sauce and make meatloaf.

Elle, at Elle's New England Kitchen, because I'm pretty sure she'll make muffins for us almost every day.

Joan, at Foodalogue, because I'm betting she'll bring eggs and make us all breakfast.

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, because, more than likely, she'll bring some cinnamon, spice, and everything nice.

You've all been tagged! Let the feast begin! If you weren't tagged, you're still invited to play as long as you bring food to the table. :)

This Blog is Rated "E" for Excellent

2008-10-23T11:45:00.027-05:00

My best foodie friend, Teresa, from Mexican American Border Cooking awarded me the This Blog is Rated E for Excellent Award. Thanks, sweetie! It means a lot to me that people like my blog. Teresa's blog is really excellent. She makes great Tex-Mex food and serves it with style and flair.

The rules for this award are a little blurry. But then most excellent recipes are created without exactly following the recipe. That's what makes excellent recipes--tweaking them to suit your taste. Some foodies award it to three deserving bloggers, others award it to ten. You have to link to the person giving you the award and also post it on your sidebar, choose the excellent blogs you enjoy and give them the award. In the tradition of passing along this award to other well-deserving bloggers, I'm awarding this to the following foodies:

Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More, because she creates absolutely delicious chocolate food treats. I especially love her Chocolate Marble Pound Cake. It's totally excellent! This is Teresa's newest foodie blog and if you're a chocoholic, you'll love this blog.

Meg, at Megan's Munchies, because she totally loves pumpkin and
can find hundreds of ways to incorporate pumpkin into almost every recipe, even her coffee. Besides that, she's a really nice person and an excellent foodie blogger.

Joan, at Foodalogue, because she makes the best breakfast in the world and because she was the first person to follow my blog. Besides that, she makes really excellent food and doesn't mind doing all the dishes.

Claire, at Culinary Colorado, because she writes excellent posts about local restaurants and the foodie scene, as well as documenting her travels and offering occasional recipes. Besides that, she's an ASJA colleague and comments on some of my other blogs.

Camille, at Croque-Camille, because she's an excellent French cook and she loves Paris. Besides that, she just tagged me with a deserted island scenario, which I'll be tagging you guys with tomorrow.

Megan, at Megan's Cookin, because she makes excellent meatloaf; the best comfort food in the world. Besides that, she adopted a baby blogger and I think that's a way cool thing to do.

Elle, at Elle's New England Kitchen, because she makes the most excellent Chai Blueberry Muffins I've ever tasted. Besides that, she offers a Hard Working Food Blogger Award to every foodie.

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, because she makes excellent pizza with a perfect crust. Besides that, she won a copy of my book -- Recipe for a Cookbook -- and is writing a cookbook.

In the spirit of sharing with the foodie community, which is very welcoming and warm, I'm also awarding this to all the excellent foodie blogs that I haven't discovered yet. Anyone who takes the time and love to share their recipes deserves to be rated E for excellent. So, to all you excellent foodie bloggers out there, feel free to claim your award here and leave me a comment so I can go and visit your blog. :)

Meet My Furry Friends

2008-10-22T17:46:00.013-05:00

I realize this is a foodie blog and you were probably expecting pictures of food, but I bought a camera today. I promise I'll post pictures of food, but first I have to learn how to use the camera (it's like rocket science or brain surgery, neither one of which I'm good at) and edit the pictures.

I was playing around with the camera and my dogs were really curious and agreed to pose for pictures. The look on Moki's face is priceless. It's like she's asking me what the heck I'm doing and is wondering how she can get this new toy so she can chew it up for dinner. Not happening, little doggy. And Jodi is so cute, with such a happy smile. So here are my two little babies -- Moki and Jodi. Feel free to ooh and aah about how adorable they are while I try to get the hang of my new camera in time to take pictures of the dinner I'm cooking.

Mystery Food Revealed

2008-10-22T08:54:00.018-05:00

Meg from Megan's Munchies and Joan from Foodalogue both guessed that the mystery food in my previous post was star fruit. You guys are so smart! Star fruit grows on trees and these little babies are very expensive -- about $3.00 each. The taste is a mixture between an apple and a tangerine, and they look really pretty when cut and served on a plate.

BTW, if you're hungry, Joan is serving breakfast at her blog. And Meg is giving away JamFrakas bars.

Mystery Food ... What is it?

2008-10-21T23:58:00.007-05:00

I was in Florida last week and was introduced to a food I'd never seen or heard of before. I love when this happens! Maybe you already know what these are. If not, want to venture a guess? I was going to tell you what they are but thought it would be more fun to turn this into
a challenge. So -- what is this mystery food?

A Great Big Chocolate Kiss

2008-10-18T12:55:00.011-05:00

Today is Teresa's birthday so I'm sending her a great big happy birthday chocolate kiss. Teresa is my favorite foodie friend and a confirmed chocoholic as evidenced by her wonderful Mexican Chocolate Lore and More blog. She also creates fantastic Mexican meals at her Mexican American Border Cooking blog. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Out to Lunch ...

2008-10-07T10:42:00.008-05:00

Well, not really out to lunch, but I'll be gone for the next week or so.
I'm flying down to Florida to visit my brother. I won't have access to a computer (I won't know what to do with myself) so I won't be posting.
Just wanted to let you guys know.

It's going to be a family reunion of sorts. My sister is flying in from Maryland and we'll be staying with my cousin. He can't cook to save his soul, so he's really looking forward to my visit. He's already emailed a list of dinners he'd like me to cook for him. We're talking big meals here with plenty of leftovers so he can stock up on some good home cooking. He's planning to take me to the grocery store as soon as my plane lands. So I'll be making a lot of family dinners and when I come home, I'll share the recipes with you.

Win a Pizza Cookbook

2008-09-30T08:13:00.015-05:00

Want to win a cookbook? Jayne at the Barefoot Kitchen Witch is giving away a copy of the California Pizza Kitchen Family cookbook. Go over and leave a comment, saying what you absolutely love or hate on your pizza. Be sure to browse her foodie blog while you're there. It's a good read.

Free Foodie Stuff

2008-09-27T09:02:00.028-05:00

Want to win free foodie stuff? Check out this offer from Chronicle Books. All you have to do is leave a comment, telling them what your favorite fall dish is. They're offering a nice package of:

Pretty Pantry Gifts

A Recipe & Wrapping Kit for Delicious Jams, Sauces, and Pickles

Grill Every Day

125 Fast-Track Recipes for Weeknights at the Grill

Puff -- 50 Flaky, Crunchy, Delicious Appetizers, Entrees, and Desserts Made with Puff Pastry along with some Dufour frozen puff pastry

A Chronicle Books tote bag to carry your cookbooks and groceries.

This offer ends October 1st, so go on over and let them know what your favorite fall dish is.

Fish 'n Chips Friday

2008-09-26T15:13:00.001-05:00

Adopt a Blogger

2008-09-24T19:49:00.015-05:00

I would so love to adopt a "baby" blogger -- another foodie who is new to blogging. It would be so much fun. I discovered this at Megan's Cooking when she adopted a blogger. I clicked over to Dine and Dish, the "adoption agency" to sign up and be put on the waiting list to adopt a foodie. This is such a cool thing and another way to promote the wonderful foodie family that we are all a part of on the web.

Featured Foodie: Mexican Chocolate Lore and More

2008-09-22T00:21:00.026-05:00

I'm so happy that my featured foodie this week is Teresa, from Mexican Chocolate Lore and More. I know it seems like "Teresa" week over here, but she gave me two awards this past week and I had to blog about them, plus it was her turn to be featured. In addition to being a fabulous cook, she's also written two cookbooks. Aprovecho: A Mexican-American Border Cookbook, is filled with wonderful Mexican recipes and her self-published ebook, Mi Chita's Mexican Chocolate Recipes, is filled with delectable desserts as well as some chocolate coffee drinks.

Here's what she has to say about being a foodie: My joy of cooking stems from watching and learning all my Mom and Grandmother
(Mi Chita) had to offer. They were phenomenal. All Corderos, my brothers, my children, my nephews and nieces are exceptional cooks. It's quite funny to see everyone trying to outdo the other.

Her favorite recipe is her Chocolate Tres Leches Cake. I'll let her explain it to you. Tres Leches Cake, or 3 Milk Cake, is a popular dessert offered in Mexico. With the growing population of Hispanics in North America, this delicious cake is now offered in ever growing numbers of restaurants across the United States as well. The three types of milk that are poured over the warm cake are: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk or cream. Of course no one said I couldn’t make it in chocolate, did they? So, here is my version of a Chocolate Tres Leches Cake, just for you. Enjoy.

For the Cake:

6 eggs, separated
2 cups light brown sugar
2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
3 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cups milk
2-teaspoons vanilla

For the Tres Leches Sauce:

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 ½ disks Mexican Chocolate, melted (these can be melted in microwave oven for about 1 ½ minutes or over a double boiler)

Combine sauce ingredients and blend well.

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly grease and dust with cocoa powder, 2 (9 inch) cake pans.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine milk and vanilla.
Beat 6 egg whites until stiff. Reduce speed and gradually add brown sugar to beaten egg whites. After sugar dissolves, add yolks. Beat for 3 minutes.
On medium low speed, alternate flour and milk mixture to eggs until blended. Pour equally into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.
While still warm, poke holes into cake layers with a wooden skewer. Pour sauce over both layers and allow to cool in refrigerator.

Ganache:

¾ cups whipping cream
1 1/3 cups chopped Mexican Chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat cream in small heavy saucepan over medium heat. Place chopped chocolate in medium size bowl. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir with wooden spoon until melted. Add vanilla. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate in refrigerator for 1 hour. Also place beaters in refrigerator to chill. Remove from fridge and whip on high for 2 to 3 minutes until it reaches spreading consistency.
Carefully remove first cake layer from pan and place on cake plate or board. Spread ½ cup ganache on top. Place second layer over the first and completely frost cake with remaining ganache. Garnish if you like with edible flowers or chocolate covered strawberries or, as in my case, Amaretto Cherries. These are cherries that have soaked in Amaretto in the fridge for a couple of hours, drained and allow to dry naturally. Use your imagination to decorate this cake in any way you and your family would like. Enjoy.

Be sure to visit Teresa's chocolate blog and say hi.

I'm a Chocoholic

2008-09-21T16:44:00.025-05:00

Okay, I admit it. I'm a chocoholic. Now you know. I totally, totally love chocolate. I mean, who doesn't love chocolate? My foodie friend, Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More awarded me this super cute little chocolate guy. Teresa really knows her chocolate and her blog is delicious. Go on over for a bite, but try not to drool all over your computer screen at the pictures. Don't worry; she's posted the recipes so you can make them at home.

In the tradition that she started by awarding this to all the people who have left comments on her blog, I'm following in her footsteps and leaving little chocolate footprints all over the blogosphere by passing this award to all the really sweet people who have visited
my blog and left comments.

Of course, it goes back to Teresa at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More because she always comes over here and says hi and leaves really nice comments.

Meg at Megan's Munchies because she's really sweet and she lives in Texas and she weathered Ike and she's always cooking something.

Joan at Foodalogue because she was the first foodie to follow me and besides that, she can make cauliflower taste good.

Patsy at Family, Friends and Food because she is into family, friends, and food--what else is there?

Camille at Croque Camille because she likes eggplant pizza.

Meryl at Inspired Bites because her bites are so inspiring.

Kat at A Good Appetite because she posts something new and delicious almost every day.

Melissa at Alosha's Kitchen because all she wanted to do was make potato salad and all hell broke loose.

Foodycat at Foodycat because she likes food and she likes cats.

Arlene at The Food of Love because she's already a chocoholic and makes uncommonly good brownies.

Reeni at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice because that's what little girls are made of and she's writing a cookbook.

Joan at Squidoo because she writes family cookbooks and shows other people how to capture their family and food memories.

And last, because you always have room for more sweetness, Terri
at Merrily Musing Mom because she is adopting a little girl, Sophia, from China and is writing a fundraising cookbook to help bring her daughter home. Let's all contribute some recipes!

Thanks to all of you who have read my blog and left comments. Spread some chocolate love around and be sure to visit Teresa's chocolate blog.

Somebody Loves Me!

2008-09-17T18:19:00.002-05:00

I feel so special. My favorite foodie friend, Teresa, at Mexican American Border Cooking has presented me with the 'I love you this much' award. I love the love that is spread through the foodie community--everyone cooking up wonderful dishes, sharing their recipes, taking beautiful pictures of their food, and being supportive of other foodie bloggers.

I love Teresa's blog because she cooks Mexican food (my favorite) and she always prepares a beautiful, delicious feast. Her food arrangements and photography is very colorful, filled with the vibrancy of her culture and heritage. She welcomes you into the warmth of her home through her blog; you can feel it in her words and through her pictures. The Mexican Word of the Day she adds
at the end of most of her posts are hilarious!

So, in keeping with the tradition, I'm sharing the love and giving it right back to Teresa at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More, her second blog which features--you guessed it!--chocolate. But mostly I'm giving it to Teresa because she is one of the sweetest and nicest people I've ever met. Even though I haven't actually *met* her, when I'm reading her blog or trading emails, I always feel as if we're sitting in the kitchen together talking like old friends, sharing a cup of coffee.
I love you right back, Teresa!

I'm Being Followed

2008-09-16T23:04:00.015-05:00

I knew nothing about this until I went to my blogger dashboard
to write a new post and discovered that Joan at Foodalogue was following my blog. I had to read the help section to find out what following was all about. This is totally cool. You add a widget to
your sidebar and everyone can see who is following your blog.

I added it, so please click on it and follow me. Where this will lead you, I haven't a clue, but I kind of like being followed even if I'm not sure sometimes where I'm going. And I'm a pretty good trail-blazer, so who knows what culinary adventures I'll trip into. But if I get lost along the way, don't blame me if you choose to follow. :)

A Matter of Taste

2008-09-09T17:58:00.016-05:00

We all have such a wonderful array of food to choose from. We never have to eat the same thing twice but I'm wondering: What if you were stranded on a deserted island, with a magic food machine that could make only one food? What food would you choose?

I must confess to a love of hamburgers. Not too glamorous or gourmet, I know, but I totally love hamburgers. Char-broiled, medium well, served on a sesame-seed bun with shredded lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. I could say that I like cheeseburgers with mushrooms and onions sauteed in garlic, then I could have some variety, but that would be cheating.

Imagine that you're stranded on a beautiful island with your magic food machine. What food would you choose and why would that be your choice? Between meals, would you dream about all the delicious food you couldn't have--imagining it so vividly in your mind that you can almost taste it?

BTW, there's a really good reason for this silly question and it has to do with cookbooks and writing recipes, as well as sharing food on your blog. So please humor me in my little research and answer the question.