Pakistani Kima

I'm not really sure how to describe this delicious recipe. It's sort of a very flavorful hamburger curry-like dish. And it's goooood!!!!! It's just the sort of unique, distinctive flavor that appeals to me.

Pakistani Kima
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped onion, or 2 tbsp. dry minced onion
1 tbsp. curry powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Dash each pepper, cinnamon, and ginger
(can also add tumeric, but I didn't have any)
1 (14 oz) can chopped tomatoes, undrained
2 cups potatoes, diced
2 cups frozen peas or green beans
Water

Brown ground beef in large skillet with garlic and onion. When meat is browned, stir in curry powder, salt, seasonings, tomatoes, potatoes, and peas. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes, adding a small amount of water if necessary.

Serve with rice.


Makes 6 servings
200 calories per serving (not including rice)

Surprise Tuna Salad on Gannat (French Cheese Bread)

I started making this bread this afternoon, just for the sake of baking something. I had been looking through old posts on our family blog, and came across one where I said how excited I was to have purchased a bread machine recipe book at a yard sale. I was like, "Huh? I don't remember that!" I had to go check my cookbooks, and sure enough, there it was. So I flipped through and found this yummy looking recipe for Gannat, or French Cheese Bread. We had all the ingredients, so I started it up.

Later this evening, Jeff took the kids to the library so I could have some "me time." As he was leaving, I said I'd try to figure something out for dinner, and he suggested "something with tuna." We have a huge pile of tuna in the pantry, and try to prepare meals with it frequently. I immediately thought of making a tuna salad to go on the fresh loaf of bread.


I came across this great recipe at allrecipes.com. I changed it around a bit, as I am prone to do, based on the ingredients I had and what I was in the mood for. And here's what I came up with.

Surprise Tuna Salad
1 (6 oz) can tuna, drained and flaked
1/2 medium apple, peeled and chopped (I used red delicious)
1/4 cup raisins (the recipe calls for golden, but I used regular)
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. Italian dressing
1 1/2 tsp. sweet relish
3 slices bread
6 slices mozzarella cheese

Combine first six ingredients. Chill until serving. Spread 1/3 of mixture on each slice of bread; top each with 2 slices cheese.


Gannat (French Cheese Bread)
3 tbsp. water
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, cut up, softened
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar (I realized later that I forgot the sugar. It still worked fine)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar or Swiss cheese
2 tsp. active dry yeast

Measuring carefully, place all ingredients in bread machine pan in order specified by owner's manual.

Here you have two options:
1. Program basic or white cycle and desired crust setting; press start. When bread is baked, remove from pan; cool on wire rack.
OR
2. Program dough setting; press start. When dough is completed remove from pan and let rest covered for five minutes (if your machine does not have a dough setting, remove after first rise). Shape into round loaf and place in greased 8-inch pan. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

Flavored Fudge

On a whim I checked the list of national food holidays, and found out that today is National Fudge Day. Well, I gotta celebrate that one! So I broke out a couple bags of baking morsels and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Yum!


Basic Fudge
16 oz. (3 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Melt together chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat, or on the top of a double boiler. When chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Spread in a greased 8-inch baking dish and chill for 2 hours. Cut into squares.

Flavored Fudge
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
8 oz. flavored baking morsels (peanut butter, mint, butterscotch, etc. Today I chose to use cherry-flavored)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

Same directions as the basic.

I actually lined my pan with plastic wrap. Then all I had to do to get the fudge out was invert the pan and remove the wrap. It worked really well, and made for some fun designs on the bottom (which ended up being the top) of the fudge.

Celebrating 100 Posts and Father's Day

This is my 100th post. Hooray. Just thought I'd mention it.

Since my gift for Jeff for Father's Day was a new charcoal grill, we figured it would be appropriate to celebrate the day with some grilled burgers. I thawed out some ground turkey, wedged up some potatoes, baked up a loaf of focaccia, and we created a great meal together!


Onion-Swiss Turkey Burgers
1 pound ground turkey
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 tsp. soy sauce
2-3 tbsp. water
Dash pepper
Sliced Swiss cheese

Combine all ingredients except cheese. Shape into patties (four to six, depending on how big you want 'em. We did six). Set aside in refrigerator.

Heat grill to high heat. Grease cooking grid. Place patties on grill and cook 10 minutes. Turn patties over and place one slice Swiss over each patty. Cook ten more minutes or until cooked through. Serve on buns with favorite burger condiments.


Yeastless Focaccia Bread (I know I just posted this, but I'll post it again for kicks and giggles.)
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Stir together water, flour, baking powder, and salt until it forms a ball of dough.

Plop dough into greased baking pan. Using oiled fingers, spread dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Dough will be sticky and elastic. It does not have to be perfectly even, but make sure there are no holes. Rub the top and sides of dough with olive oil.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until just golden.

To serve with burgers, cut into squares. Slice squares horizontally.

This bread seriously rocks. It is awesome. It took me exactly five minutes to measure the ingredients, stir it into a dough, plop it in the pan, and spread it out. Plus 25 minutes to bake, and you've got yourself a 30 minute little loaf of bread. Sweet!


Baked French Fries (Does that make them French Bakes?)
3 small baking potatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 450. Grease baking dish.

Cut potatoes into thick wedges. Toss potato wedges with oil and seasonings. Arrange in single layer in greased baking dish.

Bake 30-45 minutes, turning halfway through. The thinner your wedges, the shorter the cooking time, and if they're pretty thin you might also want to lower the temperature a bit too.

Here's our new little grill, cooking its inaugural batch of burgers. It did a great job. I think this was the start of a beautiful thing.

Kitchen Klutzes of America, Unite!

Today being National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day, I decided to do something simple. Yet special. So for each meal of the day, I prepared something that's simple enough for a klutz to prepare, but special enough for a holiday.

Breakfast:
Crepes

Crepes are one of those kinda fancy things that look fun, taste great, and are fairly simple to make. The only drawback is that you cook them one at a time, so they are a bit time-consuming. But totally worth it!

Crepes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 tbsp. melted butter or margarine
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Lightly butter a 6- to 8-inch skillet and heat over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into skillet and immediately rotate skillet until the batter is a thin, even film over the bottom. Cook until the batter is no longer shiny and the bottom is lightly browned. Do not flip. Remove the crepe with a spatula or by inverting the pan over a plate. Repeat with remaining batter. This recipe makes about 15-18 crepes, depending on the amount of batter you use for each crepe. Serve with pudding, fruit, powdered sugar, pie filling, and/or jam. I chose pistachio pudding and bananas. Crepes can also be used as a main dish with meat and/or vegetable fillings.

Prepare filling before making the crepes. That way you can serve and eat them as they come off the pan. They're better fresh.

Note: This recipe is not entirely klutz proof - you need to keep an eye on it. I forgot about the last crepe and left it on for too long:

Lunch:
Rotini Bolognese

I chose this for the fancy name. Now, this is definitely not a traditional bolognese sauce. I looked up bolognese sauce just before writing up this post, and it is an Italian meat-based, slightly tomato-y sauce usually served over spaghetti. This recipe, originally titled "Bolognese on a Budget" has no meat. It features lentils, canned tomatoes, and onions. That being said, I still liked this sauce. I've never had real bolognese sauce anyway, so I don't think it really matters either way.

Rotini Bolognese
1 cup lentils
1 3/4 cups water
2 (14.4 oz) cans diced tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 cubes bouillon (I used 1 chicken and 1 beef)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked rotini (or pasta of your choice)

Rinse lentils under cold running water and drain. Place the water and lentils in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until lentils just begin to soften, about 20 minutes. Stir the tomatoes and onions into the lentils; bring to a gentle simmer. Crumble the bouillon cubes into the lentil mixture and stir until it's dissolved. Simmer for about 15 minutes more, stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

Dinner:
Cheese Fondue

This was my favorite meal today. I've never made fondue, but hey, there's a first time for everything. I had fun with this meal - it was really easy, and tasted fantastic!

Cheddar-Swiss Fondue
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup beef or chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. ground dry mustard
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Extra flour
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

In a medium saucepan over low heat, mix together milk, broth, Worcestershire sauce, ground dry mustard, garlic and flour. Heat until almost boiling. Toss extra flour with cheese, just enough to coat the cheese (only about 1-2 tbsp, add it slowly. This wasn't in the original recipe, but helps to improve the texture of the fondue). Gradually stir cheese into milk/broth mixture. Continue heating until all the cheese has melted. Transfer to fondue dish (or crock pot) to keep fondue warm and cheese melted. Serve with stuff like vegetables, bread cubes, or meat.


I thought that this fondue would be fantastic with bread cubes. The only problem was that we had no bread in the house. We don't buy bread anymore, and I just didn't have any made. Well, I searched online for a quick bread recipe that was fast, simple, and not sweet or crumbly. After looking over several recipes, I found one for yeastless focaccia, and decided I had a winner. I skipped all the herbs on top because it was to be used for dipping. When I made it, I fell absolutely in love - this was the easiest, quickest bread recipe I've ever made! (though it wasn't exactly the prettiest...)


Yeastless Focaccia
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Stir together water, flour, baking powder, and salt until it forms a ball of dough.

Plop dough into greased baking pan. Using oiled fingers, spread dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Dough will be sticky and elastic. It does not have to be perfectly even, but make sure there are no holes. Rub the top and sides of dough with olive oil.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until just golden.

Let cool slightly, the cut into cubes to serve with the fondue.


To make this into a more traditional focaccia loaf, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, garlic salt and basil before baking. After it's baked for 20 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle with Parmesan, then return to oven for final 5 minutes.

All in all, we've had a great day, eating great foods that were easy and fun to make. Happy Kitchen Klutzes of America Day!

Happy National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

I was SOOO planning on making a delicious batch of peanut butter cookies today in honor of this national holiday. But I got sick. And I didn't make any cookies. But to honor the day, here is a link to the recipe I was going to use to make cookies today. Enjoy!

**Update: I made the cookies a few days later. Here's some pics:




These were pretty good, but I think I prefer the peanut butter cookies I posted a few days before, since they have fewer ingredients and a stronger peanut butter flavor.

Potato Tomato Pot

I have this really old cookbook (from 1973) called The Potato Lover's Diet Cookbook, filled with low-calorie foods made with potatoes. It's one of those little books I love to turn to when I need something low on calories, but high on flavor. And high on potatoes.

Tonight's meal choice from this fun little book is a combination of some yummy vegetables, a little seasoning, and a little oil. It's more of a side dish than a main dish, but that never stops me from serving it front and center like I did tonight.


Potato Tomato Pot
2-3 medium potatoes, cut up
1 medium tomato, cut up (I didn't have fresh tomato, so I drained and rinsed a can of diced tomatoes and used that instead. Worked great!)
1 medium or 1/2 large onion, sliced
3/4 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tbsp. olive oil

In a bowl, toss all ingredients together. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray, spread vegetable mixture into pan. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 30 minutes more or until potatoes are tender.

Makes 4 servings (side dish size)
About 100 calories per serving

This dish was pretty well-received tonight. Here is what was left by the time I finished eating.


Shortly after this picture was taken, the pan was completely emptied.