Re-inventing

Lately I have been trying to make more things from scratch as opposed to buying ready made products. I like the idea of knowing exactly what is ending up in my stomach.

This recipe takes part of that, and part of a ready made product. Basically, I had some spiced up chicken burgers and I wanted to use them before they went bad.

I didn't want to make burgers though, so I thought a chili was needed.






I browned up the meat and added good stuff. It turned out pretty good. Not too bad for re-inventing.

One cookie for you, 11 for me :D

The next thing I wanted to tackle was making cookies from scratch. I wanted toffee to be a part of them.

I decided on chocolate, coconut and toffee cookies. I wanted to use part brown sugar instead of pure granulated white sugar, and it was a great idea.

I started with toasting the coconut:



Here are the other ingredients:





These cookies were just sweet enough, and the texture was perfect. I am no longer scared of making cookies that do not come in a tube.





1/2 cup of both white and brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup heath bar bits

Cook on 350 for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy

PIZZA!!!

Since I am trying to cook more and buy less ready made foods, I tried to make a healthy pizza.

I started out with a pasta sauce packed with extra vitamins and some of the usual pizza spices and paired that with mushrooms, olives, turkey pepperoni and cheese.



There's not much to tell about the process, you bake the dough for a few minutes, slather the goods on and bake longer.

What I can say is this was one great pizza!!

Before the oven:



After:

Lemonade

I have always loved lemons, even as a child. My mom would give me slices as a young girl and I would eat them, and of course display the usual funny face.

I can also remember spending summers picking large lemons from my Aunt's lemon tree, cutting them in half and eating them with salt. Delicious!

Anyway, I decided to make lemonade!!

I found a good deal on some organic lemons and and a new product I have been hearing a lot about, agave nectar.



Agave is a bit like honey, but a little less sweet and not as thick.

I dug out this old juicer that my Mom had from what seems to be sometime in the 70's, and started juicing.


A bagful of lemons later, some sweetener and I was in business. It was perfectly tart and sweet.


Doesn't that look refreshing???


2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
7 TB of agave nectar
8 cups water

I'm back!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I have posted.

I can come up with all the reasons, but they are not necessary, here I am now. I have added all of the things I have been cooking. So, if you want to catch up, read below :)

Last weekend I did my normal grocery shopping at Trader Joes and was left without fennel when I finished my shopping.

I remembered that I could stop by the fruit/veggie stand on the way home. I am so lucky that I have a farm I can partake in just a few miles from home.

I get very excited when I go to the farm. I never know what exciting fresh finds they will have. Unfortunately when I arrived they were out of fennel. I asked one of the very nice women that worked there, and she just asked me ""would you like to go out in the field to pick it??""

Now, I have wanted to spend a day in the fields picking whatever goodies I want, but I just haven't made the time to do it. This day I got to go out and pick my own fennel!

It was windy, and I almost fell a few times walking along it, but it was so much fun! In the end I picked 2 beautiful bulbs. Here is a little picture I took:



Also while I was there I picked up some fresh Rosemary. That night I made Rosemary chicken and potatoes. I threw in some mushrooms to bake as well. Very delicious!



I really want to go back soon and get more. I'm really excited about the fruit.

Norwegian Meat Balls

My brother, sister-in-law and nephew came for a visit yesterday, and we had the best time.

I wanted to make something for dinner, and my brother suggested Norwegian Meat Balls.

Our family is from Norway, and my brother is very much into our history. It was no surprise that he suggested this.

I did some research online, and found a recipe that sounded delicious. Now, this is not the most healthy recipe, but we were with family, so it was warranted.

The combination of ground pork and beef was essential, as were the spices. The gravy that it made with the cream was delicious over mashed potatoes! Norwegians know how to eat!
The starting line-up:

Here's my sister in law browning up the meat balls:


End result paired with asparagus. We LOVE asparagus around here:

I started eating before I remembered to take a picture :D

If you want to try something different, try this out!

http://www.food.com/recipe/norwegian-meat-balls-344359

Fun with leftovers

I had a roast, and I didn't know what to do with it. I decided to throw it in the Crockpot with the stems of a bunch of cilantro, a sliced up onion, some garlic and chili powder. I let it cook all day.

When I got home I had tender meat to make tacos. I added the meat to salsa I made out of the cilantro leaves, some tomatoes and lemon juice. I also topped it off with some spiced up sour cream. Pretty tasty for last minute thinking!


Now, I know this post's title is "fun with leftovers", and those are not. I had some meat left over so I wanted to make something the next night.

Instead of making the tacos all over again, I wanted to do something a bit different. I had some yummy butter lettuce so I used that as the base. I added the meat, a couple slices of fresh fennel, some asparagus I grilled up and cheese. It really was a good idea. I also paired it with some pink lemonade I made and put it in this awesome cup my husband got from his sister.


Try this out if you are looking for a great meal to make with an inexpensive cut of meat. The Crockpot really makes the meat tender, and the flavor came out very good.

Veigel's Kaiserhoff

While visiting my parents in MN for my birthday, we all went to this cute little German town called New Ulm.

While there, we ate at this very delicious restaurant called Veigel's Kaiserhoff. I will admit, I haven't had a lot of authentic German food in my life, so I really didn't know what to expect.

My mom was raving about their ribs and their "Ray's salad". Believing my Mom, I tried the dish. It was DELICIOUS! The sauce they use was just amazing.

Days after that I couldn't stop thinking about the delicious food we had. Unfortunately I didn't buy any of the bottled sauce they served :(

Being the most wonderful Mother, she found some a couple months later in a local store and sent me some.



I bought my first rack of pork ribs and the ingredients to make the salad, and made it one night. Of course it wasn't as wonderfully good as at the restaurant, but it was still delicious. The picture doesn't do it very much justice, honestly, but here you go!



There isn't much of a recipe. Make the ribs as the package asks, basting with this BBQ goodness and enjoy. For the salad, it's simple iceberg lettuce, croutons and the dressing. That's all you need!

I still have about a half a bottle left, and you can't have any!! ;)

http://www.kaiserhoff.org/ (They don't ship it, I asked) :(

Mama's Spaghetti

My mom was a working mom, so she didn't have all the time to cook elaborate homemade meals every night of the week. However, on the weekends we always knew she would make something special.

There are several meals that I remember fondly that she made, and one of them was spaghetti. Now, spaghetti doesn't seem too exciting, but she made some special changes to hers that made it stand out.

She always made her sauce from scratch, and a couple of added ingredients are BBQ sauce and ketchup. This may seem strange to some, or maybe it's more common that I think, but it makes a great sauce. I also add an extra can of stewed tomatoes in myself :)

I made this delicious dish a few weeks ago, and instead of spaghetti noodles, I used a ziti type noodle. I know, this will make it un-spaghetti, but it's still the same to me!


Look at the steaming pot of goodness. I added Italian sausage, black olives and mushrooms. Really, a treat!

When I eat spaghetti, I have to have fresh French bread. I was lucky enough to get to the store right as they had put it out. I made up a little garlic butter and it was delicious. My complete plate:



Looks good, huh? It was!!!

Try it out one day if you want a slight spin on your normal pasta sauce.

1 package spaghetti sauce mix
1¾ cups water
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
About 2 tablespoons of regular BBQ sauce. Eyeball it! Same with the ketchup.
Sausage, mushrooms, olives, stewed tomatoes. Your choice!

Brown meat if using.
Stir sauce mix, water and tomato paste in medium saucepan until well blended. Add anything else you want to.
Bring to boil; cover. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over pasta.

Greens

I am obsessed with salad. Not just any salad, but in the past few years it has been all about spinach salad.

I don't like romaine or iceberg, give me some iron and I'm good to go.

Recently though, I have been learning about ways to make my salads unique. I have learned about some not as popular greens that I am very excited about.

Instead of rambling on and on about greens, I'll just lay them out for you, one by one:

Butter lettuce: Now I will admit, I have known about butter lettuce for some time, but not to the extent as I do now. This green is so delicious, my mouth waters just thinking about it. I have also found that it holds up much longer than other greens.

Fennel: I think that this is the green I am most excited about. Unlike most people, I LOVE black licorice (hence my love for Jager, but that's another post...) Fennel has a licorice flavor that I am very excited about. I can't wait to chop this into a salad with Butter lettuce and dig in!

Today I went to Vons. I had a long shopping list, and was very excited (I love to grocery shop, more than clothes. Sometimes I worry about myself.) I looked and looked for the Fennel. Finally I asked one of the associates and they said they carried it but couldn't find it. To make a long story short, he found it, found me and we both learned that it was also called Anise. I didn't know! Anyway, we found it, and I bought it! I'm so excited to use this veggie!!

Chard: This is described as having a spinach like flavor. I LOVE spinach, so I am excited to try this green out.

Collard Greens: We all have heard of these in Southern cooking, but I have not personally cooked with them. They are in the same family as cabbage and Kale, 2 of which I am not opposed to, but collards tend to be more rough. With watching more of the show staring the Neelys, I should check these out.

Kale: After bringing up Collard Greens, it's important to talk about Kale. Kale just has a bunch of vitamins and nutrients, so it's going to go high up on my list of greens to try. I'm excited.

Greens will be the future, and I'm happy with it!!! Bring on the greens!

Birthday/Touchdown Treats

Yesterday was my husband's birthday as well, as we all know, Superbowl 5800, or something.

I wanted to make some tasty treats for the events. I decided on spicy baked chicken and spicy deviled eggs (do you see a theme here?) I promise, I'll try to deviate from the spice... someday :D

Before I tell you about the tasty recipes, I have to introduce you to my new obsession:

If you have not met this beauty, it's Frank's Red Hot sauce, and it's AWESOME!

I like spicy stuff, I will admit, and it's my husband's fault. I have tried all types of spice, but now I know that Cayenne is the winner. I seriously want to put this on EVERYTHING!

With that being said, this delicious find was the centerpiece to my chicken. Vons was completely out of wings (really, the day OF Superbowl??) so I opted for legs. I baked these for what seemed like forever, as they smelled like heaven, and finally they were done. They were juicy and delicious. I will admit though, next time I will add more Frank's :D

The Pièce de résistance:


Doesn't that look tasty? I thought so. If you want juicy and spicy/sweet chicken, try this tasty dish.

Moving on to more protein. I haven't had a lot of eggs lately, especially some delicious deviled ones, so I decided to make some for the party. I couldn't imagine making some everyday ordinary eggs, so I spiced them up, and can I say they were super delicious?!?!?!?! Don't take my word for it, listen to these testimonials:

...well, I guess I don't have written testimonials, but I promise you there were some. Take a look at the small image of deliciousness and decide for yourself:

Yum, right? I don't have the best picture, but you get the idea!

In the end all was a success. The cheese team won (I love cheese) and the day was a success.

:)

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/sweet-and-spicy-chicken-wings/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/sunnys-deviled-eggs-recipe/index.html

Birthday Jambalaya

I wanted to make a special dinner for my husband for his birthday, and he LOVES spicy food. I hadn't attempted a Jambalaya yet, so I thought what better time like the present.

I wanted this to be the best of the best, no shortcuts! I looked at a lot of recipes, and most of them called for a simple store bought chicken broth.

Just then I came across something I thought was very interesting. Instead of just using the shrimp in the recipe, take off the shells and use them to make a shrimp broth. I hunted all over the seafood section of Vons for shrimp without their shells, and had to settle on frozen shrimp. All the fresh shrimp had NO shells!?!?!?!?!

Nonetheless, I got my shrimp, I got my Cajun sausage and all the veggies.

This was surprisingly a pretty quick dish to make. The stock only took about 20 minutes and the rest was done within the hour.

Of course, I had to have a little snacking treat while cooking, and here you have it:



When I was at the store I saw (and smelled) the fresh baked French bread. I am a sucker for this, so I grabbed some. I also made a quick honey butter to spread all over it! I washed it down with a white chocolate covered cherry martini! (or 2, or 3...)

Anyway, back to the delicious dish that was being born in my dutch oven. The house smelled so good, and I couldn't wait to have a bite of my first ever Jambalaya!!

Ready???????


Do you see the steam??? ahhhhhhh

Seriously, how good does that look????? Doesn't that make you want to go to your store, search for shrimp and make this RIGHT NOW!??? I don't blame you if it does.

This recipe claims it yields 6-8 servings, but I swear my dutch oven was full of this good stuff. We will be enjoying (and sharing) this stuff for days. As a matter of fact, my husband asked for this just moments ago for his birthday brunch :)

In the end the meal was a hit, and I will certainly make it again!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/gulf-shrimp-jambalaya-recipe/index.html

Retro Cooking

So, I was at the $5 bookstore here in Simi today and found this little gem:



The first thing I thought was "neat", then I said to myself "this is going to be full of fattening food and not one vegetarian recipe!"

I was right, but it's still an awesome book. It has pages dedicated just to casseroles (mostly tuna), mac n cheeses and dumplings (to name a few.)

Also, after talking to an older volunteer at work, I come to find out that veal and lamb were much cheaper in the 1950's, and there are more recipes featuring these than you would think.

I am going to try out some of the more interesting recipes, and of course talk about them here. I just have to let my arteries rest in between :P

More to come...

Popcorn fun

Today I did something I have wanted to do for a long time. I made popcorn on my stove top.

I don't know why I didn't do this years ago, it was so fun. The glass lid to my dutch oven made it even more fun to watch pop.

I seasoned my bits of corn with cinnamon, sugar, butter and cayenne pepper. This was seriously the most delicious popcorn I have ever had, and I'm not normally a fan of air popped corn.

Take a look at this beauty:

Holy Chili!

I am going to admit something to everyone right now...I am in love with my slow cooker. I can't begin to tell you all the successful recipes I have conquered (and one failure) with this little gem.

One of my favorite things to make in the crock pot is chili. There's nothing easier than throwing some ground turkey, beans, tomatoes and spices in, going to work and having a delicious meal when I return home.

I made chili tonight, but this chili wasn't something I was used to. I have never made chili without beans, but tonight I did, and there were confused moments. Chili with no beans???

The only change I made was the chile I used. The recipe called for a jalapeño, but all I had was a Serrano. This made for some SPICY chili. My husband loved it!

In addition, you can't have chili without cornbread. Cornbread was made, and it too was delicious. With the addition of green olives, cheese and buttermilk; it's not your normal bread.

All in all the dinner was a success, see:



http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/no-bean-beef-chili-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/scallion-and-mozzarella-cornbread-recipe/index.html

The art of baking

Ah, baking. This was my worst fear. I can remember being younger and trying to make cookies from scratch. For some reason they were always too dense. This made me as scared to bake as looking to the sky and seeing a flying bomb!

Just recently I decided to try again. My first attempt would be peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

I know what you are thinking... isn't PB&J reserved for 10 year old lunch boxes? I thought the same thing, but NO, these were just too delicious.

I mixed together the dry ingredients. I mixed together the wet ingredients. I mixed the two together and prayed.

At first the batter looked a bit dense, which in turn brought fear into my heart. Would this be another cookie nightmare??

I braved through my fear and popped them in the oven. What emerged not only were fluffy delicious cupcakes, but my faith in baking as well.

These were cooled, filled with strawberry jelly goodness and topped with the tastiest frosting I have ever had. This would be the peanut butter and cream cheese frosting I slopped on top of these babies.

In the end I had made something that tasted like a PB&J on crack (the good kind!)

Enjoy!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/peanut-butter-and-jelly-cupcakes-recipe/index.html

What's in a name

With any new blog written by someone who is convinced that she has some form of OCD, I have read through my first posts already.

With this, I have realized that I did not explain why I chose "Juju Food" as the title of my blog.

Juju is a nickname that my husband and I have for each other. Back story goes a little something like this:
We used to watch Grey's Anatomy together (I believe the first season), and if you watch the show, you might remember the episode where one of the doctors gives everyone hot chocolate in the form of good luck (or juju.) For some reason I turned to my husband and said "I'm going to call you juju from now on" and it stuck.

Now, I really don't know why I decided this, but it has stuck ever since. It's funny how one word can be such a strong presence in a relationship, but it is, and we like it! :)

My journey thus far

I thought the best thing to do would be to start off with the recipes I have enjoyed in the past few months.

I started with cooking. I was afraid for a long time to bake, so I figured cooking was a good way to start.

Let's travel back to Christmas 2010. I didn't want to make the traditional Christmas meal, and so I opted to create a "Mexican Feast."

I started out with Pozole. I used Marcela Valladolid's recipe from the show Mexican Made Easy. This was not only the first time I have made Pozole, but the first time I have eaten it (that I can remember.)

The Pozole was surprisingly easy to make, and it was a hit!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/beef-pozole-recipe/index.html

With the Pozole I wanted to be brave and make Chilies Rellanos. This too, was from Marcela's show. I thought, "who doesn't like something filled with cheese!?"

Marcela made it look so easy, but in reality, it's not very easy to stuff a chile with cheese, secure it shut and fry it. In the end they came out good, but were not so easy on the eyes. Definitely learned for the future.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/stuffed-poblano-chiles-chiles-rellenos-recipe/index.html

For dessert I strayed from the Mexican theme and made Chocolate Cheesecake Candy Cane Bars. These were seriously delicious, and I got to try out my newly acquired food processor.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chocolate-cheesecake-candy-cane-bars-recipe2/index.html

This is also a recipe that I tried and was very pleased with:

Skirt Steak with Ancho-Onion Steak Sauce
This recipe let me break in my new stove top grill. Delicious!! I also grilled a couple portobello mushrooms and asparagus on the side.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/skirt-steak-with-ancho-onion-steak-sauce-recipe/index.html

That's what I have attempted so far, more to come!

Introduction

Well, my written journey starts here. I guess I should take a moment to tell you about myself, and why I choose to blog.

I'm just a girl who has too many hobbies and gets obsessed with new things all of the time. Currently, this obsession has been cooking and baking.

It all started when I wanted to cook more healthy for my husband. I started watching more of the Food Network and realized that it isn't so hard to make things that don't start with a box.

In the past few months I have made a few things that I would make again. This blog is being created in order to save the good recipes, chronicle my journey and maybe teach something to someone that may actually be reading this. :)

I figured that since I post on my Facebook about the new things I have tried, and I always get questions, this would be a good place to have those answers.

Let the journey begin...