Final Verdict.

We decided to go with Table for Two as the new blog name. We will see if that sticks. Who knows.

By the way, we are cooking as much as we can on our new grill. Tonight I made grilled New York Strips with baked potatoes and grilled asparagus and canned corn. I made caramelized onions for Pretty Awesome Boyfriend and sauteed mushrooms for myself.

Things to note:
Steaks don't need a ton of help.
A little salt, pepper, granulated garlic and thyme (yes, thyme) will make an amazing steak.

Grilled asparagus is the most amazing thing on the face of the planet. Brush the prepared asparagus with olive oil. Put on the top rack of your grill and cook for maybe 5 minutes. You can turn them once, halfway through...but its asparagus and it will roll itself back over. Annoying, I know.
When it's done cooking, sprinkle it with a little bit of salt and pepper and you're done.

This is really my favorite way to eat asparagus.

Happy cooking, y'all!


Amy & PAB (pretty awesome boyfriend)

New year, new name?

Since I no longer have a need to make one serving of food, should I rename the blog something two 'oriented'? In June 2013, I moved in with my pretty awesome boyfriend and now I cook for two. What do you think? New name?

Dinner for Two?
Table for Two?
I'm open to ideas.

We have spent some time making a list of all of the things I have made for pretty awesome boyfriend and it's quite long. A two-serving blog could be good.

Happy cooking, y'all!

amy

Creamy Tomato Pasta

I confess. I am OBSESSED with Pinterest. OBSESSED.

There. It's out there. Judge away.

In the mean time, I'll tell you about a recipe that is kind of inspired by a recipe I saw on pinterest. I made a creamy tomato and sausage sauce to pour over pasta and holy rusted collander, IT WAS GOOD!

Please, try it and share with a friend...its delicious and very easy.

Here's what you need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely diced onions
pinch of red chili flakes
1 mild Italian sausage link, uncased
1 can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons fresh pecorino romano

1/2 cup pasta, cooked

1. In a large fry pan, heat oil. Add garlic, onion, chili flakes and Italian sausage. Cook until sausage is lightly browned.
2. Add half can of diced tomatoes and simmer over low heat.
3. In a small chopper or food processor, combine remaining tomatoes and cream and puree until tomatoes are mostly smooth. Add to tomato and sausage mixture and mix thoroughly. Add cheese and mix again.

Pour over cooked pasta and toss together, then top with a little more cheese if you're feeling crazy. Ha!

This really was good! If you REALLY know me, you'll know that as a child I hated spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. I don't know why. I just know that on spaghetti night, I had buttered noodles. For me to provide you with not one, but TWO spaghetti sauce recipes is quite a milestone. They have to be good if I'm eating them and sharing them with you. Try them. Picky kids and friends should like both recipes.


Happy cooking, yall!

Amy

Oh man. SO GOOD.

So I was in the mood to find something different to cook tonight...and that means I wandered around the grocery store like a weirdo. I did know I wanted to make potatoes gratin (by the way, cheese is not cheap), but I didn't know what to put with it. Well, after some wandering, I found some very inexpensive Delmonico cut steaks that looked promising. The Delmonico steak cut is basically a rib-eye steak, but is a cut made famous by the New York steakhouse Delmonico's Restaurant. I bought it on a whim and googled...so that's all I know! Ha!

The potatoes gratin I have been thinking about since I went to Vic & Anthony's with my parents back in March. I've never been a fan, but the waiter talked me into getting them. He did NOT steer me wrong. They were amazing...obviously if I've wanted to try making them since MARCH!

Ok, y'all, here goes nothing! You're in for a real treat tonight!

Delmonico Rib-eye

2 tbsp unsalted butter
salt and pepper for taste
1 steak

1. Crack pepper and salt over one side of steak and pat seasonings in gently. Turn steak over and repeat. Set steak aside.
2. In small fry pan, melt butter. When the butter is sizzling hot, put the steak in the pan and let it cook on each side for about 3 minutes before turning. Try to only turn it once so it cooks nice and evenly.
3. After you flip the steak over, keep spooning the hot butter over the exposed side of the steak to keep cooking and seal in the flavor.
4. Let the steak rest about 1 minute before serving.


Potatoes Gratin

3 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces (3/4 lb)
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
ground nutmeg (a solid pinch...about 1/8 tsp)
1/3 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
1/3 cup Jarlsberg cheese, shredded
1/3 cup Gouda cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400.

1. Put potato pieces in large sauce pan and cover with cream. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg and mix. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Stir regularly so the cream doesn't scorch.
2. After potatoes have boiled in the cream for about 2 minutes, pour mixture into a small glass casserole dish.
3. Toss all 3 cheeses together and top the potato mixture with the cheese. Spread evenly over the potatoes.
4. Bake 35 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is nice and brown on top.

Ok, cheese, when melted at 400 degrees, turns into lava. Be very careful because you will not enjoy the potatoes as much if you have burnt your lips off. Also, the recipe above should make enough for at least 2 people...at least.

I really hope you like the potatoes. I now have a new side dish that I'll be making as often as I can afford Gruyere cheese. Because that shit is expensive.

Happy cooking, y'all!


Amy

A Cookie, for Goodness Sake.

Sometimes, you really just need a cookie. I had a very busy week and since I found myself with some downtime (bordering on boredom), I decided to break out a cookbook and make a snack. If you remember, I mentioned a book a while back called Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. Ruhlman’s book is full of basic ratios for cooking baked goods like breads, batter based foods, cookies and the like. Its subtitle is “The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking” and I think it sticks to that. There is nothing overly complicated about his approach or the recipes shared; instead, we are given simple fundamental ratios to build on.

Now, back to my snack…I wanted a cookie. Or three. I took his recipe for a basic sugar cookie and halved it and added my own topping. Remember, since I used the weights of the ingredients, the listed measurements are approximate. Here is the recipe, halved.

Simple Sugar Cookies

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

4 ounces of sugar (about ½ cup)

1 ounce of egg (1 egg’s contents weigh about 2 oz. I beat the egg in a small bowl and added to my ingredients until the scale went up one full ounce.)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt (I used Kosher salt…not sure if that’s standard, but it worked well for me!)

6 ounces all-purpose flour (about ¾ cup)

½ teaspoon baking powder

Topping:

2 tbsp powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

11. Blend butter, sugar, egg and vanilla together very well.

22.   Add remaining ingredients and slowly combine. You don’t want flour everywhere!! It will not look like there      is enough liquid for the amount of flour, but, keep mixing. It’ll be fine.

33.  Chill dough in the fridge, covered in plastic wrap, until the dough is chilled through-about 15-20 minutes.

44. Roll into ping pong sized balls and bake for about 12 minutes on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

55. Combine powdered sugar and cinnamon in small bowl and dust over cookies.

If you want, the dough can be rolled out and you can cut shapes out of it, but they taste perfectly fine topped with the powdered sugar. The dough is light and they are soft on the inside and just barely crunchy on the outside-more firm than crunchy actually. Do try these, you’ll thank me!

A little embarrassed...

I really am trying to keep the blog going, I promise! It's currently a few days before my school's marching band contest and we are busy ALL THE TIME! But, I will admit, I love my job - even on the difficult days.Despite my hectic work schedule, I have 2 recipes for you :) Hope y'all enjoy!


Garlic Citrus Chicken

1 chicken thigh with skin and bones
salt and pepper
1 large clove of garlic, chopped
1/2 Valencia Orange
1/2 lemon
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs honey
dried parsley

Preheat oven to 350

1. Dry chicken thigh with a paper towel. Place in baking dish and add a little bit of salt and pepper.
2. In a small bowl, combine the chopped garlic, the juice from the orange half and a slight squeeze of the lemon, the olive oil honey and parsley. Whisk together well.
3. Coat the chicken in the honey-citrus mixture and pour all of the liquid in the pan with the chicken. Every 7 minutes, baste the thigh with the pan drippings/sauce. Bake for 25+ minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

I put this with the chicken and herb bouillon rice and it went really well together. I tried a variation of this a few months ago, but it didn't turn out NEARLY as good as this chicken did. Try it when you get a chance!


Yesterday night, I stopped to drop off a few papers to my boss at home and ended up staying to watch "The F Word" with Gordon Ramsay. That show is AWESOME! They served meat to vegetarians and helped them decide that maybe meat wasn't so bad after all. Very cool! Anyways, one of the things the boss and I discussed was this Caesar dressing he and his wife loved. I tried it...and bought some when I went to the grocery store later. My first thought when I tried it was, "wow, this would go really well with new potatoes!!" It did. I tried that tonight.

2 medium New or Red Potatoes, cubed
1 sauce pan of water, salted
1 small wedge of sweet onion (maybe 1/8 of an onion, max!)
A couple table spoons of Cardini's Caesar dressing....THIS MAKES THE DISH. DO NOT SUB!!

1. Clean and cube the potatoes.
2. Boil in salted water until slightly tender. The fork should go in without the potato turning to mush.
3. Drain potatoes and pour dressing over potato pieces, then toss to coat. Once they are coated, you can eat them warm or chill in the fridge for a little bit.

I chilled my potatoes in the fridge for a little bit and I felt the need to add more dressing because, I guess they absorbed some of the moisture. This should be kind of dressing-heavy since it's a form of potato salad, but you don't want to over do it, either. I really wanted to add dill to this, but didn't have any after all.

Hope you all are cooking a ton. I'll try and keep things going on here. It should be much easier when marching season is done....hopefully. Band Directing is a busy job!


Happy Cooking y'all!


Amy

You missed me, didn't you? Don't worry, friends, I missed you, too!

So much has changed, but somehow, it has all been manageable and I haven't even had a mental breakdown...but I think I've been too busy for that! I've moved and settled in, started a new job and learned MOST of the kids names (there are a ton of them and it's a great problem to have!), I have traveled, loved, lost and gained. My days are filled to the max and my nights remind me why Dr. Scholl's has not gone out of business. Life is normal. Life is.

Tonight, I spent some time unwinding and walking around the grocery store isles. I have always loved trips to the grocery store. As a kid, Sunday evenings were one of my favorites because I got to go to the grocery store with my dad. I felt important; my brother didn't get to go. It was just us! Now, I still enjoy a stroll through the produce and canned goods. Dinner tonight came from the inspiration of the isles. I thought I would try my hand at a simple ragu/spaghetti sauce, without resorting to the jars. I did use canned tomatoes...but really, it's a work night. Don't judge!

Here y'all go!
Spaghetti Sauce a la Amy
2 1/2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic
3 healthy sized mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
salt and pepper for taste
2 Italian sausage links**
2 cans Italian seasoned chopped tomatoes

1. Heat olive oil in a large saute/fry pan at about a medium heat. When the oil is hot, add onions and garlic and salt and pepper. Cook till onions begin to change color.
2. Add the mushrooms and toss with the onion/garlic.
3. Cut open the sausage links and empty the sausage into the pan. Cook till it's no longer pink, stirring to keep the onions, garlic and mushrooms from burning. Let the sausage crumble and break into smaller pieces if need be as it cooks.
4. Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir everything together. Let some of the water cook out of the tomatoes and simmer for about 15 minutes so the flavors can mix.

Serve over pasta of your choice.
**My grocery store only had the uncooked links. Some stores will have packages of ground Italian sausage available. Use what you have available...that's the beauty of the sauce.

Hope y'all enjoy and I promise I'll keep a blog or two coming your way, even though I'm working like crazy.

Happy cooking, y'all!

Amy

Let me tell you...

If you need kitchen gadgets, find a Ross store or other discount store that has a good kitchen section and go there regularly! I've been wanting to get a scale and a stainless steel saute pan and I finally did. I got the scale for $15 and the pan for $20. The scales I've seen run around $25 and the pan....well, you can buy a set of some pans for the cost of this nice calphalon pan. I got a heck of a deal either way and did some actual deglazing...which you don't really do with non-stick pans...because nothing sticks...that's the whole point.


Have you guys ever seen "the best thing I ever ate" on foodnetwork? LOVE that show. I watched it the other night with some friends and someone raved about macaroni and cheese found at some restaurant. I made a variation of it and it was amazing. I say variation because I just did it my way...but used the same ingredients they did. Because that's how I roll. Either way, it was delicious. The big difference between the blue box and this deliciousness was (1) the crispy bacon pieces (2) the delicious gruyere cheese used. It's not your typical cheddar and it is wonderful.

Here's how I did it...made mac n' cheese you weirdo...

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
flour...i think i used a couple tablespoons (should be equal weight parts to the butter!)
1 cup milk
salt, pepper and nutmeg, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each
1 cup gruyere cheese, shredded
2 thick slices of bacon, chopped and fried crisp and drained on a paper towel
1 1/2 cup cooked macaroni noodles

Oven-set to broil half way through...so you don't cook while you cook.

1. Over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and mix to create a roux. Let the flour dissolve some....
2. Add milk and mix together with roux. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg and stir together.
3. Slowly add the cheese, mixing constantly so that the cheese melts. Add the bacon pieces and keep stirring. You can turn the oven on now...
4. When the cheese is nice and thick and saucy, add the macaroni noodles. Toss together and pour into an oven safe dish. Top with extra grated cheese and place under the broiler for a few minutes. You just want it to get kind of crunchy and yummy.

Obviously you want to cool this down before you eat it....because coming out from under the broiler this will be SIZZLING!

Ok, go check out your Ross store. And keep an eye out for a grill pan for me.

Happy Cooking y'all!

Amy

French Onion Soup-Again.

Now, don't get your shorts in a bunch. I know you're thinking, "how many variations on french onion soup are there?" But, I read an article on seriouseats.com that a friend recommended and the article suggested cooking the onions in a little bit of caramelized sugar to make them a little more sweet. Makes sense, right? Ok, it does sound a little weird, but go with me on this...


Here's the dish.

1 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp unsalted butter
half yellow onion, use the northern hemisphere and cut along the longitude lines....make sense?
salt and pepper
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup cubed french bread
1/3 cup-ish shredded gouda

1. In a skillet, pour sugar and cook over medium heat. Be patient. The sugar needs to heat up, turn a little bit brown and then it'll get to it's melting point. When it starts melting, stir it just a little to pick up the stray sugar granules. You'll notice the sugar starting to brown some. When it has turned honey colored, you're good!
2. Add the olive oil to the pan and let it heat up. NO, the sugar and oil will not mix. You should stir them some so they don't burn, but don't expect them to blend.
3. After the oil heats up (about 3 minutes or so) add the butter. Things will mix together a bit better now. AND THEY SHOULD SMELL AMAZING! Stir everything together and as the butter melts, add the onions.
4. Toss the onions to coat in the heavenly mixture and then add salt and pepper (just a little bit for flavor. Cook the onions until they are tender.
5. Add the broth and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Pour soup mixture into oven safe bowl, top with bread cubes and top with shredded gouda. Cook under the broiler for about 7 minutes or until the cheese melts. (Gouda melts really well so keep an eye on it so the cheese doesn't burn!!)


I can honestly tell you that this was the first time I have ever successfully caramelized sugar. Seriously. It takes patience and I think I usually give up before I get the sugar hot enough. The sugar makes a huge difference when it comes to the onions though!! If you're just going to caramelize onions for something else, add a little bit of sugar. It's worth it! Also, check out seriouseats.com they've got a lot of awesome stuff on there!!!


Happy Cooking, y'all!!

Amy

No....

I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. I'll be going to my kitchen early this week! I still haven't bought a cooking scale or a new skillet, but I hope to soon. Don't give up on me, I'm hanging on for dear life over here.

Happy cooking, y'all!

amy

One day in the kitchen

This is basically all I've got for a few more days...hopefully days. I didn't want to buy a bunch of groceries since I would only be here for a little bit of time, so I pulled out some steaks from the freezer and bought an onion and some mushrooms. Risotto and steak for dinner. DELICIOUS!

Remember the Date Balsam Creme Vinegar and the Lemon Infused Olive Oil from a few posts back? I marinated the filet mignon (yes, filet mignon) in the vinegar and olive oil most of the day today and it made the meat extra amazing. I don't have a grill or anything so I just seared it and then baked it at 450 for about 10 minutes. I like my steak medium-rare to medium and they turned out perfect. I really recommend experimenting with new flavors of vinegar and oils. I think I need to do more sampling at the Oil and Vinegar store. You should, too.

Also, I put up my little sign that says "dare to cook". It is in a temporary location since my life is in temporary mode. I am so ready to get back into a routine and have some kind of long term plan for a while.

Happy cooking, Y'all!

Amy

Saturday.

I will be cooking SOMETHING Saturday. I'm not sure what, yet, but I will be cooking Saturday. Be prepared.

I feel like...

there should be a countdown to the day that I get back to my kitchen....but I'm not exactly sure when that will be. For that matter, I'm not sure how long I'll be there. Eeek. I could really use some time spent over a pan of risotto, babying it until it's perfect.

Food talk

I talked food with a friend last night and I've decided several things:

1. I want to cook lamb.
2. I want to find a good Indian place around me....where ever it is that I end up living.
3. I would like to buy 3 new pans: A stainless frying pan, a grilling pan and a dutch oven.
4. I really like seriouseats.com
5. I want to cook again asap.


That is all. Happy Cooking, y'all!

amy

Dare to Cook.

Give me about 2 weeks and I'll be back in the kitchen. I have 2 new products I want to try...

1. Lemon Olive Oil
2. Date Balsam Creme Vinegar

They taste delicious together and separate. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. to marinade some chicken or even some beef tenderloin in this.

The store I got them at is really cool...and I told myself I wouldn't buy anything...but I did. For about $25 I got 100ml of the vinegar and 200ml of the oil. You buy the bottles, too, but you can bring them back to be refilled after you use the product up (and wash the bottles....like they want your greasy ol' bottles...) The back wall of the store has about 20-30 different glass containers filled with oil and vinegar varieties. If you have a chance, and you're in the woodlands, find them in the mall. Totally worth the stop!


Also, my momma bought me a cute sign for the kitchen that says "Dare to Cook". I'd say that's the unofficial motto of my kitchen....my unofficial motto of life might now be "Not Afraid".


On a side note, I was asked a very interesting question in an interview the other day. I'll pose it to you guys now and post my answer later. Leave me a comment with your answer!!

If you could be any product in a grocery store, what would you be and why?



Think about it! Happy cooking, y'all!

Amy

For your reading enjoyment...

This article was on the yahoo homepage this morning. Its interesting and somewhat relates to the ratios book since they first point that is discussed is the purchasing of a scale. Check it out here and let me know what you think!

I know I'm guilty of over mixing (Number 4) but I think that will be fixed as soon as I get back to my kitchen! I don't know where I got the idea that I needed to cream the butter and the sugar together....maybe I made that up? Who knows! Enjoy the article!


Hope you're all cooking delicious things! Happy cooking, y'all!


Amy

28 on the 28th

Today is my 28th birthday. Someone asked me if I feel older, and I actually kind of do. Weird, huh? I can't wait to get back to my apartment and cook something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by the Tres Gourmandes....Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Berthold. Kind of excited! I'll try to portion one or two down and share them here! Volume I and II were birthday presents. Very excited!

Hope all is well in your kitchens, friends! Happy cooking, y'all!

Amy

In case you were wondering...

I miss cooking and my blog a lot.

That is all.



amy

About a book...

It seems like all I've done for the last year is read and cook. (I'm really ok with that.) I found a book about cooking this weekend and it's really a great kitchen tool. The book, Cooking By Ratios has tons of recipes and explains how to fundamentally cook based on weight ratios. So, I think this will be my next cooking direction, trying to portion out 1 servings worth of food based on ratios.

This is what I mean....the ideal ratio for basic cookie dough would be 1:2:3. 1 part sugar to 2 parts fat to 3 parts flour. So lets say 1 part of anything equals 2 ounces. The dough recipe would be 2 ounces sugar, 4 ounces of butter and 6 ounces of flour. From that point, you add whatever flavoring you would want the cookies to have. Since they ounces are WEIGHT ounces and not LIQUID, I need to acquire a kitchen scale before I get started on this little adventure. Maybe I'll get that in a few weeks when I go home to start packing up.

Happy cooking, y'all!

Amy

Someday...

I'll post a new recipe again. Don't give up hope, I'm still here! I will be away from my kitchen for a few weeks, but I WILL be back to cooking and blogging soon! I'm working with the SHSU Summer Music Camps for the next few weeks and there are no kitchens in the dorms (for good reason!). Soon, dear friends, I'll be back with some exciting (hopefully) new (definitely) recipes. If I think of anything profound, I will be SURE to let you know!