in the kitchen

At approximately 3.5 weeks pregnant I suddenly felt pregnant. I woke up nauseous and spent the day with a very unsettled stomach. This feeling continued for about four weeks. I have been very lucky to have the nausea fade quite a lot. During those four weeks of pregnancy I had a hard time finding anything that sounded good to eat. Something would look good one minute and then the next minute make me want to puke.

Luckily I am now approaching my favorite phase of pregnancy. Where almost all food looks amazing! In the past week I have been very excited about Beef Snow Peas from my favorite Chinese place, Turkey Tom from Jimmy John’s, Hot Beef Sandwich from our local restaurant and last night I enjoyed a chocolate shake from Dairy Queen. You’ll notice that these foods are all restaurant foods which is another phenomenon of pregnancy.  For someone who very rarely eats out, I could usually go weeks or months without restaurant food. Not so much right now…it sounds like the most delicious food in the world.

So I have to admit this part is fun! I’ve been working on my grocery list tonight and had to laugh at how overwhelmed I was becoming. I just want to make so much different food. I’ve been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution so I’m getting a lot of recipes from his website. I’m also going to give green smoothies another try. In the coming weeks I will be trying to post some new food that we’re trying.  Hopefully it won’t just be from a restaurant…

When I saw this post on Not Martha I instantly thought, “I have to make those”. Forget the fact that I was already planning to make five different kinds of cookies. Forget the fact that I have never made any type of gingerbread cookies before. Forget the fact that I have to have my house clean by Tuesday night.

I spent the evening working on these little things. I was not careful at all when I cut out the pieces so my houses are slightly crooked. However, I think they are darn cute. Since this was the first time making them I just wanted to see if they would work. Next time I will put more energy into them and make them line up better.

Months before Jasper was born I read a blog posting about making your own baby food. I thought, “I could totally do that”. And just like that I decided that I would not be buying little jars of baby food.

We started with cereal because that’s what most babies start with. Throw some old fashioned Quaker oats in the blender and grind away. Then you just cook a quarter cup of ground oats with a cup of water for 8 minutes or so. Next we tried bananas. No work for these. I threw them in the blender and made them as smooth as I could. Avocados were next on the list. Also no work required for these… I just mashed them up and thinned it out with some water.

Now we get to the fun stuff. I bought a bunch of fresh green beans so I steamed them to make them nice and mushy. I put them in my blender with a little of the reserve water. Mmm… green bean smoothie. Then we made sweet potatoes. I bought three large sweet potatoes and boiled them to make them nice and soft. I cut them all up and put them in the blender. That made three ice cube trays of baby food!

Last night I made pears and squash. These are all foods that are considered stage one foods. Smooth texture, easy for babies to eat. I steamed the pears and baked the squash.

I am so glad Josh convinced me to register for a nice blender when we got married. It has really come in handy now! The key to making baby food is just make the food soft and the blending it up.

When the baby food is done, you pour it into an ice cube tray. Tap the tray on the counter to smooth them out. Stick it in the freezer for an hour or until the food is hard. Toss them all into a ziploc! Each cube is about an ounce of baby food and it thaws in an hour or so.

Really easy to do and so much fun. I love making baby food! Plus I really like knowing exactly what my kid is eating. I’m already looking forward to the next foods “we” get to try.

If you are from this area there is a myth that you have to be a member of a certain church to make this recipe. Kuchen is very popular at this church’s potlucks. I have been wanting to make it myself since I had it at a baby shower years ago.

There are about a billion variations of the recipe out there but I finally just chose one and made it yesterday. Delicious! The recipe called for raspberries but I used blackberries instead. Such an easy thing to make… There is a crumbly bottom and then a custard, creamy top. I will definitely be trying this one again with different fruit.

In other semi-related news…with all the baking I’ve been doing I realized I’m lacking in baking pans. I need another loaf pan, another square 8″ pan and a new jelly roll pan. Better start saving for a trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Yesterday I made a pecan pie for Josh. It was kind of funny because I had never in my life had pecan pie or even really looked at one. I really had no idea of the consistency. I did a little online research, found a good recipe and tried my hand at a pecan pie. Josh gave it a thumbs up and my mom (the best baker I know) said it was wonderful.

I love being at home and baking. Hmm…now what to make?

I made you mini cupcakes last night. Here you go…

I’m not a big fan of kitchen tools that are unitaskers, that do only one thing. You could end up with ten different gadgets sitting on your counter for something you do only once a month. That said, I knew that I had to get the Poachpod.

I never was a big fan of eggs until my dad introduced me to the poached egg. For years I’ve been trying to master the technique of poaching an egg. Although my dad has a system and it usually works, you don’t always get a consistent result. I’ve tried everything to get the egg to stay together. Cracking it right into the water, cracking the egg onto a saucer first and slowly lowering that in… Sometimes things worked, sometimes not so much…

I was so anxious to try the poachpod and it worked wonderfully! The best poached eggs I’ve ever made, every time. (Even my dad would have to be impressed by those.)

I have intended to organize my recipes for years. It absolutely drives me crazy that I have had to copy my mom’s pie crust recipe three times because I can never find it when I need it. I also don’t ever remember if a recipe I am looking for is on my computer or in a random binder.

I am a recipe junkie. I am constantly emailing myself some recipe I saved off the Internet. Sometimes I save it in my email, sometimes I print them, and sometimes I save them on my computer. If it has been printed out, it could be in one of many places: the kitchen pantry with the food magazines, tucked inside a random cookbook, inside a binder that contains recipes or folded up in an old recipe box I have. For someone who lives by the mantra “A place for everything and everything in its place”, this is completely frustrating.

I have analyzed the many different ways of organizing recipes. There’s Tastebook.com which seems pretty slick but not “expandable”. I am constantly adding recipes so I need something not so permanent. I really like the Russell + Hazel Binder set, although I am not hundred percent sold on the binder thing. I have also considered a software program or just making a folder on my computer to sort and organize all of my recipes.

Last year I did start slightly organizing my recipes in a Word document. The problem with that is that every time I went to bake I needed to print a copy out or run back and forth from the kitchen to the bedroom. I finally realized that I really love when I can bake or cook from actual recipe cards. There’s just something about it.

So that’s when I decided that I needed a cute recipe card holder. I’ve been hunting the Martha Stewart recipe box but my local Macy’s never seems to have it in stock. I also need to put all of my recipes on the same size cards. The thought of handwriting each one makes me ill. I’m such a perfectionist that I would probably end up starting over each time I messed up or if my handwriting wasn’t very neat. Solution: Just run the cards through my printer, of course! I’m going to set up an Indesign file that will be the correct sizing and then I’ll have to just type up the recipes.

I’m such a nerd but I’m totally excited to get my recipes all in one place and all matching!

Since the day I moved into my apartment, one thing that I hated most was my oven. It was probably over 30 years old and rather disgusting. The hardest part was that nothing cooked right. Even when making pizza, we had to rotate it halfway through because the back cooked faster than the front. Occasionally the kitchen would smell like gas because one of the pilot lights would go out. Although I informed my landlord of this over a year ago, nothing was done.

And then the most wonderful thing happened…my oven broke. Last Tuesday night I went to make some blueberry muffins. I put them in the oven and came back twenty minutes later. They looked exactly like they did when I put them in. Batter. When I opened the oven door I could feel that it was trying to heat up but obviously not doing a very good job at it.

Josh immediately called the landlord and said we needed a new oven. Much to my surprise, they showed up with one on Saturday morning. The new oven isn’t anything special. It doesn’t even have a light on the inside. BUT…it bakes things correctly!! I tried blueberry muffins again on Saturday night and it was like magic. Not only did they actually bake, they puffed up on top like they’re supposed to. That had never happened when I made them at the apartment.

Josh and I danced around the kitchen we were so happy. Now I am so excited to bake again. It’s been three years since I’ve really wanted to bake. The frustration of the old oven just made baking, even cooking supper not very enjoyable. This makes my crappy apartment just a little more bearable.

Today on zee show vee vill be cooking Cheekin Noodeal Soupe. Zis is eh vury easy ricipee an taste zeelicious. Okay, sorry…that’s enough of that.

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
2 cups cooked chicken breast, pulled into small pieces
3 cans (49 oz each) chicken broth
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups sliced carrots
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups uncooked wide egg noodles

In a large pot, combine chicken broth, onion, celery and carrots. Bring to boil. Stir in uncooked noodles, chicken, parsley flakes and pepper. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until noodles and veggies are tender, stirring occasionally.

I love to use my Santoku knife to cut the veggies. It makes me feel like a real chef.

Bebo always goes crazy for chicken. I seriously thought he was going to try to jump up on the counter to get some.

Once the noodles and chicken are added, the whole apartment starts to smell delicious.

Enjoy the final product! Perfect for a chilly day.