Where Have You Been or Kitchen Remodels Make For Bad Bloggers

Since just before Thanksgiving, when I wanted to do a huge food and cooking post I have been without a kitchen, quite literally. I have been making do with an electric skillet, a dual burner hot plate, and a crock pot for almost two months. Crazy? Absolutely. So now that I’ve made that explanation, let’s get with the content.

What Have I Been Cooking?

Ok, so just prior to the destruction of the kitchen I used my Nanny’s cherry chip cake recipe, which I am not including here because I’m not actually going to talk about it in detail, to bake my mother a birthday cake. I put too much pudding in the batter, making it too moist and it fell apart. It still tasted delicious, but I was so disappointed by the fact that it was a crumbly mess that did not look pretty, even with my soft pink icing. Food failure!

At Thanksgiving, I attempted to make two pies, both of which lead me to the conclusion that I will not be buy Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (the kind you roll and put in a pan) ever again. They tasted strange, like they had some kind of chemical taste, which is not something I look for in a pie crust. I tried working with an entirely different pecan pie recipe, and it was too syrupy sweet for my taste. I guess I will just stick to my Grandmama’s tried and true Southern Pecan Pie recipe. I also tried to make my Nanny’s No Fail Chocolate Pie, which I can normally make without problems; lesson learned, do not use a brand of cocoa powder you are not familiar with. Neither pie was spectacular, and I was very disappointed.

Where am I with the Remodel?

Good news, as evidenced by the pictures below (I apologize for the poor quality but there are no lights in the kitchen at the moment), we are rocketing right along now. Walls and ceiling have been painted, cabinets and counters have been placed and are almost set, oven has been mounted, sink has been placed, and the refrigerator is where it belongs. We ran into quite a lot of problems along the way, and entire walls have to be replaced; it turned into a nightmare.

    

   

Here’s hoping that we finish the kitchen today, as we have planned. However, I do not hold out a great deal of hope, all things considered.

Cute Food, Does It Exist?

Brief Remodel Update: The cabinets have been moved from the storage building to the house, and they have taken over our living room. We began moving things around upstairs, to make some room for storage, and the sink should arrive soon. My father will be drawing out the rewiring plan and plumbing plan before he goes to the races. (I should make racecar cookies, those would be killer.) In the next week the kitchen will be taken apart, meaning here in the Kitchen, there may not be a lot of cooking posts with pictures because everything will need to be grilled. No stove at all for us for at least a week.

I have a friend who doesn’t believe that food can be cute because food is just food, we will call her “P”. I respectfully disagree, and I show her cute food all the time in an effort to prove her wrong. P still insists that even the most adorable cookies, cakes, and candies are not cute. Even food with carefully crafted animals is not cute. We are forced to conclude that P has a heart of stone. So this post is dedicated to her.

My first introduction to “cute food” came at snack time when I was perhaps five or six, or at least that is what I recall, and I must admit, it wasn't very cute. But in all honesty, I despised celery and raisins, and I wasn’t a peanut butter fan even then; so the idea of those things combined did bias me. The adults had made these celery bugs, and I was disgusted. I may have been the only one in my class not pleased with the sticks of celery filled with peanut butter, with raisins stuck on for eyes and regular pretzels for wings and pretzel sticks for legs. They even forced us to create one, in hopes that we’d be terribly excited by our fun and healthy snacks. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with these things, and to this day I still believe that they were not cute. But this does not deter me from believing that food can be cute.

I believe that food is a visual experience, and I have always had a passion for cute and pretty food. I like nice presentations and decorations. Cute food is my guilty pleasure, and you can often find me browsing sites like tastespotting, cooing over adorably shaped and decorated desserts. To be honest, other than some really fabulous lip cookies decorated in nonpareils and red sugar,  and some adorable girl and boy shaped cookies, I’ve never had the opportunity to make really cute food. I cannot wait to create some. Royal icing, fun equipment, pretty decorations, and lots of experimenting here I come. I’m so looking forward to it. That is after the kitchen is finished and I have some money in the bank again. But I digress, lets talk about the point of this entry, which is the question I posed in the title.

As I said earlier, I think food is not only an experience of taste and scent; it is also a visual experience. Colors, textures, shapes, all of this is important and adds to the quality of the food experience. Maybe that seems crazy, but personally, I am slightly repelled by ugly food, unless it smells delicious. I am drawn to lovely golden brown pie crusts with small leaves and designs and cakes with smooth frosting and delicately piped trim. I am a sucker for shaped cookies with smooth royal icing and neatly piped designs. Macarons, not to be confused with macaroons, are probably the prettiest and cutest simple cookies I’ve ever seen come out of a kitchen. They are something that I have been dying to try. In fact, it was that very cookie that sparked the cute food debate in a conversation. P declared that macarons looked nasty after seeing a picture of them in bright colors, and we began to argue because most of us were talking about how pretty and adorable they were.

So what makes food cute? Is it the size?  The shape? The color? I think it’s a combination of all of that, really. I think small cookies with pretty colors are adorable, like macarons, and I think cookies with fun shapes and decorations and designs are fabulous too. If I wasn’t terribly lazy, I would go an find the cutest foods I’ve seen lately, but that is a big job. I’m just too tired to deal with that. Over all, I think I need to apologize for the lousiness of this post. It lack wittiness, humor, or anything of any interest. So, I’m sorry. I will do better next time.

What do you think dear readers? Can cute food exist? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

This is Halloween (Just a Picture Post About Pumpkins)

So as per usual, we carved pumpkins tonight, though instead of my father doing them, it was my brother and I. Here is a picture post detailing the carving. I feel slightly guilty, since this post is not food related, but I wanted to show off my pumpkins.

 

 

  

 

The pumpkin that looks like it wants to eat you is my brother’s work, the slightly tipsy wobbly creation is mine. I decided to give him a bad eye.

Let’s Spice Things Up: Grilled Chicken Stuffed With Jalapeños

Before I begin, I’d like to point out that I am sorry for the lousy photos from last post, the lighting in my kitchen is terrible due to faulty wiring shorting out a light. This will be remedied in the remodel, and I am looking forward to it. Also, after speaking to a friend about my potato issue last night, she reminded me that sometimes the potatoes can be too starchy, leading to them not taking flavor. I rinse my potatoes to prevent this, but I didn’t do a very good job of it because I was in a hurry. She suggested that I rub the cut ends together and rinse off what builds up to reduce the starchiness. Helpful tidbit really! I plan to try that next time.

Brief remodel update: The new sink arrived this morning, and it is beautiful. However, it was wrong. We ordered a 31” black, cast iron, single basin sink with four holes for the faucet; we got a 31” black, cast iron, single basin sink with three holes. This is problematic, especially since we paid $500 for it. So my father called Home Depot and reordered the sink, the correct one this time, and we are taking the incorrect sink back to the store this afternoon.

Tonight for supper I am cooking grilled chicken stuffed with cheddar, jalapeño peppers, and onions, corn (out of a bag), pinto beans, and cornbread. None of this requires a real recipe, but it does require a taste for spicy food.

My mother loves pinto beans and cornbread, and she does the the inevitable thing that I find disgusting, which is to mash her beans in her cornbread and use extra bean juice. But I digress. When I do pinto beans, I begin the night before by soaking them; I pour the beans into the pot I will use to parboil them the next morning and remove any beans that look bad. The next morning I drain and rinse the beans, removing any bad ones that I may have missed the night before, and then I fill the pot with water and boil the beans for at least an hour with one or two chicken bouillon cubes. While they are boiling I try to skim off any of the residue that may build up on the top. I then drain them again and rinse them to remove any of what I like to call the “bean scum”. Since I have a gas stove and I normally cook my beans all day, for maximum flavor, I put the beans in a crock pot, cover them with water and cook them on low. For flavor I add half a white onion, two dried cayenne peppers because my family likes things spicy, and a spoonful of bacon grease. If I can find decent salt pork that has a good flavor I add that too. But lately I have yet to find any; the best way to determine whether salt pork is flavorful is to fry a piece and taste it. I suppose I should’ve warned you that I am Southern, and we Southerner do not waste things. When I fry bacon, I reserve some of the grease to be used later. I know it sounds disgusting, but it really is helpful.  The only problem with this cooking method is that the juice does not thicken well; to thicken the juice, I often pour the beans into a pot on the stove and bring them to a rolling boil.

Now, you can’t have pintos without cornbread, and cornbread the way my family does it is very simple. First, you will need an iron skillet, properly seasoned with oil. An iron skillet can be seasoned by heating oil in the skillet so that it absorbs it into the metal; this takes time, and it is not a pleasant experience. But a well seasoned skillet is well worth it. Pour enough oil in the bottom of your skillet to cover it; too much and it will cover your batter, too little and your bread will not be crisp on the bottom. Remember, You can always add more oil and heat it; it will be difficult to take oil out. Now, heat the oil and the skillet to 375 degrees; this can be accomplished in one step by letting the skillet heat as the oven heats. For the bread you will need milk, one egg, and self-rising cornmeal mix. I simply add blend together the ingredients until I get the right consistency, keeping in mind the size of my skillet. The thicker your batter, the dryer your cornbread will be. Once again, bear in mind it is easier to add than it is to subtract; also bear in mind that if you have to blend in more meal or more milk its going to increase the amount of batter fairly significantly. Once blended well, I pour it into the hot oil and bake until done. The bread is done when a toothpick can be inserted into the thickest part of the bread and come out clean. The bottom will be crisp and brown, and you can flip the bread from the skillet onto a plate and cut.

Finally we have the chicken, which was not as difficult as one would imagine. First I chopped up one whole white onion and sliced three medium jalapeños; using my quick chop, I diced them very small and mixed them in a bowl. I then sliced four boneless chicken breasts with a sharp filet knife, opening them up so I could fill them. The chicken was marinated in Allegro Hot & Spicy marinade for three days, which gave it a slightly darker color in places and added to the spice. I put two spoons full of the onions and peppers into each chicken breast and topped it with shredded cheese. I used Kraft Mexican Four Cheese Blend.
       
       

Once each was filled, I rolled them tightly and wrapped them in slices of bacon, which acted as a sort of bandage holding the chicken together. While the chicken was convinced that I was helping it by bandaging it with bacon, I skewered them with bamboo skewers and grilled them.

                           

Once they were done, I slid them from their skewers and served them. The cheese and vegetables acted as a sort of glue holding the chicken in shape. These, combined with the spicy pinto beans, were enough to require a glass of milk to cool the mouth. They turned out delicious, even if getting a final shot of the filling was difficult and none of them came out well.

             

Recipe (not really a recipe) for the Pinto Beans: Sassy Southerner Style:

One bag of pinto beans
Two chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 White Onion
Two dried Cayenne Peppers (whole)
One spoonful bacon grease
Garlic powder, onion powder, and other seasonings to taste

• Soak beans over night
  
• Rinse beans and parboil for at least one hour with bouillon
  
• Rinse beans and transfer to pot
  
• Add onions, peppers, and grease, season to taste and cook until done.

A Simple Recipe for Cornbread:

One egg Self-rising cornmeal mix Milk Vegetable/Canola Oil or Olive Oil or Shortening (enough to cover the bottom of the iron skillet)

• Heat oil in seasoned iron skillet to 375 degrees
  
• Blend ingredients until desired consistency is reached, adding meal and milk as needed
  
• Pour batter into skillet
  
• Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean

The Renegade Kitchen’s Jalapeño Stuffed Grilled Chicken:

Four medium sized boneless chicken breasts (marinated if you wish) Three medium jalapeño peppers (sliced) 1 White Onion (sliced) Shredded cheddar cheese 6-8 slices of bacon Four to five bamboo skewers

• Finely dice peppers and onions, then mix together
  
• Slice chicken along the side of the breast, laying them open flat. Do not slice completely through.
  
• Fill chicken with desired amount of peppers and onions, then top with cheese
  
• Fold the chicken over so that the filling is covered, then wrap each breast with two slices of bacon, making sure it is wrapped tight to hold the meat closed.
  
• Once the chicken believes it is safe, stab it with skewers Secure the chicken with skewers; you should be able to use two skewers to hold to breasts. Be sure to insert the skewer through the bacon and in such a way as to hold the chicken together.
  
• Grill chicken until the meat is firm, the juices run clear, and the meat is white. Turn the meat frequently to prevent burning and ensure even cooking.
  

Beef Pot Roast (Or, temperamental crock pots need therapy)

Tonight’s dinner was a beef pot roast with petite red potatoes, sautéed onions, and baby portabella mushrooms; it was cooked with Campbell’s French Onion soup and an au jus gravy made from a McCormick package.  I am sad to say that my first real cooking post is also the first post to receive a “failure” tag.  I cannot decide whether it was the cut of meat, which did not take flavor even though it marinated for 48 hours, or the crock pot, which is temperamental and unreliable even though it cost $40 and is supposed to be awesome, or the red potatoes, which were particularly potent. I was terribly excited about this adventure, but it seems that it was a let down. However, I will write about this anyway.

We marinated a five pound beef roast in Hot & Spicy Marinade from Allegro, which I happen to like a great deal even though it has a fairly high salt level, and it was seared in an iron skillet for maybe three minutes per side. I’m not sure of the actual time because my father did the meat and the au jus (which came from a bagged mix). Prior to the searing and au jus, I sliced petite red potatoes and boiled them with two beef bouillon cubes to begin their cooking process and eliminate some of the very strong potato flavor and smell.
                      
While those were boiling and my father was searing meat, I sliced baby portabella mushrooms and half a white onion. White onions are a hotter than yellow, which are really sweet, and I personally think they have a nicer flavor. I sliced the mushrooms first and then onion, so what you see on the cutting board is mushroom in the onion pictures. 
        
        
The onions were sautéed in butter with some garlic and other spices, while the mushrooms and potatoes went straight into the crock pot on top of the beef. This was followed by the French onion soup, sautéed onions, and au jus. I stirred all that together and let it simmer until the meat was cooked and the potatoes were tender.
        
In the end, however, the potatoes were still far too strong and the meat had no flavor. It was like eating paper, but at least it wasn’t tough. Such a disappointment. And I really was hoping to report on a successful cooking adventure for my first cooking post. Next time will be better.

Testing Out Live Writer

I am sitting here eating Cheetos and drinking sweet tea, contemplating the dinner plan for tonight. There may not be pictures, but I can at least promise that we will have our first actual cooking related post tonight. While I'm sitting here thinking about things, I figured I would give the Windows Live Writer a try and talk about pros and cons of the actual program. Then I will talk about some goals and plans for the blog, since I hate to start a pattern of blogging off topic. On the topic of the actual blog, I am still working on customizing it, adding gadgets, putting the CC License up, creating a grab button that you will find in the right side bar. So you may notice it changing frequently until I get settled. I do apologize to the Firefox users who visit, because for some reason, probably due to the theme I have to use, some of my headers like the date and the gadget titles have blurs around them like ink that has gotten wet. I haven’t figured out how to fix that yet. According to the site where I got the background, I should be using minima or photowindow, but with the old minima theme I lose customization, and it appears that when you use the other themes (include photowindow) you are putting the theme on top of the background and it looks horrible. I will say that I am not a fan of the limited themes and what not in the design tab.

Moving on, let’s talk about Live Writer, which basically allows you to type up blog entries and publish them to your blog without going to blogger. I’ve been told that it has tons of features and plugins, but I have not tried them yet. You can get here for free. Hopefully I will be able to use these features as I continue on my mission. So lets talk pros and cons so far:

Pros

Spell check is automatic so there is no need to click the button each time.

Familiar work space if you are used to using Microsoft Word 2007

Your posts will look exactly as they will when published

If you have multiple blogs, like I do, you can write posts for both in the same program, simply switching between them with a click.

Useful plugins that allow you to edit photos

Word counter, for those of us curious as to just how much we write.

Edit, preview, and source tabs allow for easy editing.

Cons

It picks up the theme, but not the background images you may have added, meaning that you may have to work in the source tab instead of edit to see your posts

Too many functions and plugins may be a distraction.

Sometimes the program is slow to change tabs.

Now that I have rambled on about my publishing software and the like I guess I should talk about some of my plans for the blog, specifically how I hope to go about all this insanity. The grandiose explanation, which I may put in a side bar, is that I intend to prove that there are still people out there who enjoy the experience of food both making it and eating it. The simpler explanation is that I want to talk about cooking, baking, and eating.  I figure that this will be best explained in bullet points really, since there is a lot to lay out.

Detailed posts about cooking and baking, complete with recipes and pictures whenever possible

• Clever remarks, helpful hints, and useful, interesting information are also a part of this plan

Clever, insightful posts about food in general, cooking, baking, and eating.

• In general I’d like to be able to talk about the experience that is food.

Tag posts so that they can easily be used to find a meal or specific ingredient.

• There will be a page that explains all tags

Have this blog be both entertaining and useful, complete with my own snarky incites and “the more you know” posts that help out

Ok, I think I have rambled quite enough. Tonight there will be a food post with some pictures of the beef roast that is now simmering in the crockpot in the kitchen. There will be few pictures than I’d like because my father took over the searing of the beef and in general was in the way.

Reflections on the Significance of Food

First official post with legitimate content! Exciting!

OK, tonight was a "store-bought" night, meaning that I didn't really make anything from scratch, unless you count frying the chicken. I did fried chicken (breaded with seasoned cornmeal), Kraft home style macaroni (the kind in the bag with bread crumbs), and fried okra out of a bag. I didn't take pictures of the meal or the messy kitchen because it was really nothing special. OK, moving on!

This will be a Food For Thought post, meaning that I will post some kind of reflection on cooking or food. Tonight's thought: The Significance of Food.

Most of us take food for granted, unless we are craving something or worrying about our weight. But food is a lot more than something we put in our mouths to satisfy our cravings and our hunger. Something as small as a bowl of rice can be the difference between life and death for someone; now, this is slightly exaggerated, but the point remains. I find it sad that in the United States, we have people dying to be thin and starving themselves, while in some countries mothers feed their children dirt in hopes that some nutrients will help them survive. Our parents used to say "there are starving kids in Africa who would love to have your dinner, so clean your plate." And as kids, we'd roll our eyes and wonder who would want whatever vegetable we didn't like, be it peas or carrots or something other food. But its true. There are starving people all over the world who would love to have your food, including this country. We take for granted the fact that we are a wealthy nation; we assume that because we are a wealthy nation all our citizens are able to feed themselves. But that isn't the case. We have people who can barely afford a loaf of bread. There are families going hungry, and a lot of the time that doesn't even register. I rarely waste food, mainly because I was raised not to, and knowing that there are people who are starving to death makes me think about what I am eating, how much I am eating, and how much I throw away. It also gives me pause when I go to a restaurant and my meal is expensive or I get lousy fast food on the way to a meeting or class. I think that it should make everyone think. Food is a basic necessity that many of us take for granted.

What's the Idea Here?

J. R. R Tolkien said "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." He meant that if we were like hobbits of Middle Earth, the world would be happier; he was right. Food is an experience, and if you have a healthy relationship with that experience, you will much happier. I know a lot of people who have unhealthy relationships with food, and I am one of them. I'm working on that though. My name is Nic, and this is The Sassy Southerner's Kitchen , a blog about cooking, baking, tasting, and experiencing food. So what will you find here?

I plan to write about my baking and cooking projects, with pictures and recipes when possible; I also plan to write about great food I find at restaurants and the like, and if I can get pictures I will. The other thing I want to write about is food in general. I'd like to write about insights I have into the idea of eating and taste and relationships with food. I will not write about my personal life, but if you want to know more about Nic the Law Student, you can visit my personal blog.

Right now my projects in the kitchen may be limited due to the fact that I am living at the 'rents' house at the moment, and they are about to start the remodel that will make a mess of the house. However, I wanted to get this party started since Halloween is this weekend, it's fall (which is, of course, baking season), and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.