Contest - Concluded! And the winner is...

Out of our 43 entrants (oh my stars and garters!) by 2pm today, I have used random.org to generate me a number between 1 and 43.

It gave me the number: 27

When I counted down from the first entry to the 27th entry this was what was there:

As someone else has mentioned, I also don't read many books that fall into the popcorn category. The only one on my bookshelf at current that qualifies is Brothers and Sisters by Bebe Moore Campbell. I had to read it for a class - I remember having no problem picking it up to read so it must have been more enjoyable than ones average school assigned text, but I barely recall what it was really about. Popcorn. (Marvelous book ratings, there, btw.)

Kat

glenin at gmail

Therefore we have our winner!  Yay!  Congratulations to Kat whom I will email and alert to her prizes and also send over an email to the lovely Ms. Carey to let her know the results of the contest.  Thank you to everyone who entered and hopefully you all might stick around for a bit and see a little of the blog aside from the contest.

Experiments in the Kitchen - Party Food!

It all started last Wednesday at about 4 in the morning. We were standing outside the Waffle House (which is where a group of my friends and I go after dancing at a local club) and one of our friends said "We should have a coloring party tomorrow!"

Some plans for this were bandied about, people offering to bring this or that. At that time of the morning, it sounded like an awesome idea! The next afternoon, however, it was realized that the timing was just too short. Thus the party was postponed until Saturday.

One of my friends, at whose house we were having this shindig, asked me for advice on what to do about food. I helpfully offered some suggestions. I was probably a bit more helpful than was practical. She replied back "So... Chips and salsa?" I smiled and offered to whip somethings together, secretly jumping for joy at an excuse to really cut loose in the kitchen.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Turkey Chili / Cornbread and Gluten / Strawberry Shortcake

Back to your regularly scheduled blog (yay!). Wait... this blog isn't regular, nor scheduled... hrm. Well, anyway, to the point: back to experimenting! Yay!

As I type to you I am conducting an experiment in my kitchen. It is sizzling away on my stove. This experiment is chili! Wait, that's not the exciting part! The exciting part is that I'm taking my beloved chili recipe and allowing my boyfriend to make a modification to it. Anyone who knows me realizes this is a huge step for me. I mean, I really really don't like to give any kind of control in my life to anyone (can we say OCD much?) (also, shhhh! I'm talking about life not... oh, nevermind) so the very fact that I was willing to try his suggestion is a big step forward for me.

Well, at least a medium step forward since I'm already worried that said experiment is going to fail and the meat isn't even done browning yet. Wait, what's that? Didn't I tell you what the experiment was? Oh, I only said chili. Well then, I shall tell you! I am substituting the regular ground beef for... wait for it... ground turkey! (Queue dramatic music here) What do you mean that's not exciting? Well it is to me, so shhh!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Fudge

Originally, I was going to make a batch of truffles for Con, but as I'm leaving tomorrow morning I opted instead to go ahead and make fudge (which is significantly quicker). The husband has offered for me to take some of the truffles I made for him so we'll see if that's what I end up doing in addition to the fudge.
This batch of fudge I wanted to do something off the wall. I kicked around the idea of making mint fudge again (which would not be baby-poop green like the last batch - an unfortunate color for edibles, regardless of how good they taste - since I now had colorless mint flavoring) or of making cherry but nothing really struck me. Just before I made the batch I thought I might add banana to it - bananas and chocolate go really well together as I know from my truffle endeavors.

So, as I'm heating the butter, sugar and evaporated milk over the stove and I reach up to get the 99 bananas to add flavor to the mix I look up and see the Kahlua bottle. Eureka! I shall make mudslide fudge! I added a generous amount of Kahlua to the pot and proceeded with the directions for making fudge.
The fudge is now in a dish cooling. Both my husband and I have tasted the uncooled chocolate from the spoon and it is tasty, with just a hint of coffee to it. It's not as strong as I could have hoped, but seems to have added a certain depth to the fudge. We'll have to see how it comes out after it has cooled and hardened!

Update: Fudge was taken to con and consumed - everyone who had some said it was very tasty. I think the Kahlua flavor didn't come through quite as strongly as I had wanted it to, but it was still really good. The votes are in: this experiment was a Success!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Tomato Cream Pasta Sauce

I am a blog failure. I haven't updated in a long time due to working on actually getting settled here in Ohio - not that I haven't been doing quite a few things in the kitchen and in sewing but I just haven't had the time to blog them. Expect a few back posts to follow this one.

Tonight is not so much an experiment as a revision of a previous recipe with a few tweaks. I am making spaghetti in a tomato-cream sauce this evening. The tweaks come in to the sauce and the ingredients I used in it.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto Success!

Post from the past

Pesto, Take Two!

I have once again attempted to make homemade pesto. This time, I managed to find really fresh basil (and the Kroger, go figure). I also had a bit of red wine vinegar to add to it.

I made the pesto in the blender with two of the blister packs of basil, a goodly amount of olive oil, some Parmesan cheese, a splash of red wine vinegar and a clove of diced garlic. I blended it together until it was an even consistency throughout and was liquidy enough to be a sauce. I then poured it over some tortellini and tossed them together.

It was delicious! The pesto was everything I could have hoped. Fresh ingredients was the key, I think, as well as that bit of vinegar to really bring the flavors together in what I think of as pesto. Super tasty and I will be sure to make it again. This was a Success!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Butterscotch Honor Cake

Post from the past!

Today is my husband's birthday. In addition to a handful of practical presents, the girls and I all decided that what he really needed for his birthday was a cake! How could we have a birthday with no cake?!?
Husband had the car today, so that meant that I could only bake with what ingredients I had in the house. Normally this wouldn't be a terribly difficult task - I keep my pantry and cupboards pretty well stocked - but (as I discovered) apparently while moving I had decided to get rid of a couple staples (read: vanilla, baking soda, baking powder) that would make most cakes impossible with the ingredients in the house. We also didn't have any frosting nor any powdered sugar for me to make some. Dilemma!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Beef Stew / Biscuits / Salad / Strawberry and Raspberry Shortcake

Tonight, for the first time since we moved in, we had people over! Yay! So, of course, me being the crazy person I was, I was determined that the dinner be as awesome as I could manage.

I started with stew - which is a staple of mine. I make my stew with the following:

• 1 Can Beef Broth
• 1 Can Golden Mushroom (Campbell's)
• 1 sm pkg Baby Carrots
• Approx. 4 Stalks of Celery (sliced small)
• 3 lg (or 6 sm) Red Potatoes (sliced into bite-sized chunks)
• Approx. 2# Beef Stew Meat
• 1 pkg (or equiv) Instant Mashed Potatoes

Experiment in Life - Moving to Ohio

This week's experiment? Driving cross-country with two young children! Sounds kinda crazy, huh? We are actually currently on day 3 (everyone is still asleep - I, for some reason, woke up at 6:30am). Day one saw us driving from the North Bay area of California down to San Luis Obispo, CA. We got a hotel there, saw some friends, did some rather necessary shopping for things (books on cd, drinks for the car, etc) and then headed out at around 1:00 pm. This set us back a bit - we were actually suppose to drive down to SLO, visit, and then head on to Bakersfield with the intention of making Flagstaff, AZ on day 2. But, que sera sera, we are taking this trip as it comes. Day 2 saw us make it to Kingman, AZ - which is where I blog to you from now. We got a hotel at about 9 at night and thank goodness we did! I don't think the kids could have survived in the car another minute at that point!

For the most part, the kids have been well behaved. We got an in-the-car dvd player with a split screen so they can watch movies. Our eldest just had her birthday (as previously blogged about) and we bought her a Leapster handheld game thing and her Grandmother got her an mp3 player. They also have lap trays and coloring things and soe stuffed animals to keep them company. We have a cd player and got them some books on cd as well. So, you know, we have a large pool of items back there to keep them from going stir crazy.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto Parmesan Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Experiment for today is Pesto-Parmesan Stuffed Chicken Breasts. I blended some Pesto from Costco, a bit of Kraft Parmesan Cheese and some garlic salt in a bowl. I then took the chicken breasts (with skin and bones - I wanted skin but no bones, but have yet to find it) and defrosted them.

I was a bit miffed to find that what I thought were 4 chicken breast halves were actually 6 - a bit much for our family, even with my Mother staying with us - but decided to just go with it. I laid each chicken breast down on a cookie sheet and carefully pulled up on the skins until they separated from the meat below. I then stuffed the pesto-parmesan mixture into the pocket created. Turns out I had just exactly the right amount to do 6 breasts - yay! I also smeared some of the mixture on the bits of chicken where there was no skin.

After that was accomplished, I cut a sliver of butter for each breast, laying them gently on top of the skin. I stuck my awesome in-the-oven-but-outside-reading digital meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the biggest breast, popped them in the oven at 375F and that was that. They should be out of the oven in a little while (I'm guessing about 45 minutes or so). At that time I'll update to say how things turned out.

Update: Sorry for the delay in the update (see crazy life mentioned in previous blog for excuse)! The chicken turned out wonderfully moist and delicious. The skin was crispy, the pesto-parmesan became slightly crunchy and the flavor it added to the chicken was sublime. I will definitely be trying this again! This experiment was a Success!