Aisle Twelve

In my promise to bake more to perfect my baking skills (or to hone the lack thereof), I have taken to baking citrus cookies.  The first recipe came in my January Everyday Food magazine for Lemon Icebox Cookies.  I made these probably a month ago, they lasted a couple of days and I have to admit, every night I go into the kitchen wanting something...and it's those cookies.  Tonight, Joe was gone which means I don't have to make dinner.  But I still wanted to do something in the kitchen, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to bake. Of course the first thing that came to mind was those lemon cookies.  Problem was, I had an overabundance of limes.  I considered using the same recipe and substituting lime for the lemon, but visions of powdered sugar lime meltaways danced in my head so I hopped on the trusty laptop and found a Martha Stewart recipe for Lime Meltaways.  My inadaptness at baking really shined through tonight.  I di...

I'm not sure why but football season totally passed me by this year.  I used to be a die hard football fan.  I still am but I have to say when your team rarely wins, it's hard to keep up.  Still, it used to be that I could sit down and watch any game and be perfectly entertained.  I'm sure that's still true but I wouldn't know.  I hardly have watched an entire game this year.  We had a lot of weddings in the beginning of football season, then came the busy holiday season and before I know it, here we are at superbowl already.  It came upon me so fast that I barely had time to figure out what I was going to make for a superbowl party we went to.  Luckily, this guacamole is a quick, no cook recipe that whips up in snap and with the right shapped platter and some sour cream piping, its perfect for a Superbowl party...and quite the show stopper. Guacamole 2 ripe avocados 1/2 cup red onion (mince) 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chop 1 tablesp...

It's been six days and I still have a cold.  I have to admit that I've never been one who likes chicken noodle soup.  The too salty, greasy broth and bits of floaty chicken chunks makes me actually even a little more sick.  But I need something to break up this congestion, so this seemed like a good time to try Barefoot Contessa's Italian Wedding Soup recipe.  This was SOOOO much better than chicken noodle soup; canned or homemade.  This recipe made so much soup, that I was able to have three more servings that I put in individual freezer bags so the next time I feel a little under the weather, homemade soup is just a few minutes away! For the meatballs: 3/4 pound ground chicken 3/4 pound chicken sausage, casings removed 2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves) 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra 3 tablespoons milk 1 extra large egg, lightly beaten kosher salt and ground black peppe...

Every once in a while it happens.  You have a kitchen catstrophe; an overall bad day. It all started when I used a useless kitchen utensil (you guessed it, cookie sheet) to roast brussel sprouts and instantly (less than five minutes, I swear) they burn to the bottom of the well-oiled cookie sheet.  If that weren't bad enough, the perfectly seared pork chops I put in the oven somehow, even though I followed a recipe, were leathery enough to put shoe strings on and lace up.  (The one bright spot was the homemade pork gravy I made with the drippings.)  Joe, the good hearted soul that he is, ate all the leathery scraps on his plate and mine. Sometimes a girl just knows when to pour herself a glass of pinot grigio and warm up the left over couscous from the other night...only to then sit down and spill it all over herself and the couch.  As I sat there, wine in hand, inhaling the burned brussel sprout smell that overwhelmed my hous...

I have a confession to make, I am not a great baker.  I know there are a lot of people that say that cooking is so much easier than baking because cooking is forgiving, it's not a science.  While that may be true, I don't want to be one of those people who shy away from baking simply because it's not easy.  And the only way to improve on something you are not that great at is to try, try again.  So that is what I'm doing.  I'll keep baking until I'm not so clumsy, not so messy and confident that I am not completely wasting my time and ingredients. There is one baking recipe, however, that I haven't been able to mess up, that is chocolate chip biscotti.  I got this recipe from my aunt at my bridal shower and it has been one of my favorites.  I haven't messed up this recipe, even on cookie sheets which I maintain are are probably the two most worthless pieces of kitchen equipment in my kitchen (what did I do before my Pampered Chef pizza stone?  T...

The Homebrew Process - Fighting Brewers Brewery This post is for all who have asked me what these boys are up to when they brew their beer.  (This post was written by Joe.  I haven't the slightest idea of what half of this means.) Step 1: Heat up water in hot liquor tank (turkey fryer). While its heating, take the yeast out of the fridge and put in your pocket to warm the yeast up. Check the temperature. You want it to be approximate 170 degrees, sufficent so that when you combine it with your grain the resulting temperature is approximately 152 degrees. You usually want to use 1.15-1.25 gallons of water per pound of grain. There are calculators on the internet which will give you the exact temperature needed for your mash. You want to take approximately 1 gallon to 1 1/2 gallons of water from the hot liquor tank and put it in the mash tun (cooler) to bring the walls of the cooler up to the temperature so that when you add your grain and water it doesn't drop the te...

Brussels - April 13 - 18 Monday, April 13 After what seemed like the worst train ride in the world, we made it to Belgium, finall y! The actual trip was only an hour and a half, and the train ride itself was quite pleasant, but Gare Du Norde the Paris train station, was anything but pleasant. Being in the confusing and dirty train station was the last thing I needed. Somehow, after hours of waiting at the dirty station and the actual travel, we made it to our very nice hotel in Brussels. We took much needed showers and dressed and headed out into Brussels to begin the second leg of our trip. Before I begin plotting out our trip, I will need to explain our main purpose for going to Brussels. First Joe brews his own beer and Belgium is well known as having the best breweries in all the world. Secondly, one of our favorite shows is Three Sheets. Its host, Zane, is a comedian and his job is to tour the world and learn the local drinking customs in different countries. (How is he so ...