Well anybody who checks this but doesn't talk to me regularily might have noticed that I've been absent for a bit. Now, I was definitely putting off putting up my recipe for BBQ spaghetti and avoiding the awful vietnamese meatballs that didn't turn out (I think I'll just spare you guys those), but the truth it, last sunday I had what was later identified as a gallbladder attack.
I got horrible stomach pains and threw up all night, went to the doctor on monday, was told to schedule an ultrasound because it might've been something to do with my gallbladder based on my neverending pain and tenderness. I had to suffer through all of monday and tuesday but had it on wednesday. The results were: lots of gallstones and they recommended I go to the ER right away.
Some friends and people I knew online warned me against going to the ER for expenses and the like and suggested I get a referral and I hate costing Sean money so I was prepared to try and tough it out. Thursday morning, Sean called the doctor and asked how long it might take to get it done that way. Apparently anywhere from a week to two weeks. And also that I was infected. And had to go to the ER now.
So we went. And I got in by midmorning. And they gave me delightful pain meds. I had blood work and cat scans and my surgery was scheduled for thursday night. But things got busy and it got moved to friday morning. Then it was over. The punctured 3 little slits in my torso and blew me full of air to get the cameras and tools in. Which meant for the new few days I had massive gas bubbly pains and had to walk around and get them all out burping as much as possible, which was very uncomfortable with cuts in me, but I managed to get it all out.
Anyway apparently my gallbladder was so full of stones that it was beginning to rot and turn green and die. It was so close to bursting it wasn't even funny. We were lucky we got in when we did, if it had burst I would have been in much much worse shape. I was lucky.
I got out on Sunday finally and I've been recovering at home. Still lots of pain and all my muscles in the center of my torso ache when I move or sit or stand or sneeze or laugh or cough or anything, and it's agony. Or stretch. I can't lay on my back so I've been sleeping on our recliner. I dislike sleeping in my living room. It sucks out here. But I'm healing.
So cooking blog will be on hold for another week or two while I get myself back to normal. Also, since my gallbladder is gone, and thus my body will have trouble digesting fat (look up the gallbladder), my diet may change. I don't know how my body will react to the change, it's different for everyone. Some people can't even have dairy anymore because of the fat. Some people can have whatever and not have it bug them. Except insane amounts of grease. I'm told it "goes right through you" and you have to go to the bathroom. Explosively. I guess I'll be experimenting with foods for awhile.
Thanks for being patient. I miss my blog and cooking. Leaving Sean in my kitchen is terrifying. I love the man but he is beyond culinarily inept. <3
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Joe's Special
I don't eat enough eggs. I firmly believe this. However it's hard for me to just cook up and egg and eat it by itself. And as much as I love breakfast for dinner, I don't usually have all the things on hand.
So when I found this recipe, I thought it looked pretty darn good. Eggs, meat, spinach? Yes please.
You'll need 6 eggs, olive oil and a little butter, salt, pepper, dried basil, tabasco sauce, half a pound of ground beef/chicken, salt and pepper, and fresh or frozen spinach. I opted for frozen because it's a million times cheaper for the same amount of spinach. I also included some green pepper, green onion and garlic, because I had them in my fridge.
Dice it all up nice and small.
Crack your eggs into a bowl. Look at that one yolk, it's half the size of the others! It's kind of hard to see in the picture.
Add all your seasonings to your eggs and mix up.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a skillet over mediumish heat.
Cook your veggies around until softened, about 4 minutes.
Then add your meat and cook until evenly browned.
Now, add your spinach. If using fresh, put the lid on and cook for 3-4 minutes to wilt it all down. If using thawed frozen spinach, cook for about a minute or so with the lid on to take the raw edge off.
Stir it all together.
And dump your eggs on in.
Stir it around until the eggs are cooked how you like them. Try not to overcook them.
And there you have it, a Joe's Special. Whoever Joe is.
Joe's Special (original recipe from here)
Warm the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the onion and sauté until soft but not beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the ground beef or chicken and continue cooking until uniformly brown, breaking the meat into small pieces as it cooks. Cover with the spinach, place a lid over the mixture, and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the spinach wilts. (If using frozen spinach, cook, covered, for 1 minute, just to take off its raw edge.)
Stir the spinach into the meat, cooking briefly to eliminate excess liquid if the mixture seems watery. Pour the egg mixture over all, stirring with a spatula from the bottom until the eggs begin to set. Remove from the heat and stir a few more times, as the eggs cook through from the residual heat. Serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
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It was tasty. The basil mixed with the meat kind of made it have a sausage quality. It tasted like it had been made with sausage. Sean really liked it too.
Good stuff. Thanks, Joe, whoever you are.
So when I found this recipe, I thought it looked pretty darn good. Eggs, meat, spinach? Yes please.
You'll need 6 eggs, olive oil and a little butter, salt, pepper, dried basil, tabasco sauce, half a pound of ground beef/chicken, salt and pepper, and fresh or frozen spinach. I opted for frozen because it's a million times cheaper for the same amount of spinach. I also included some green pepper, green onion and garlic, because I had them in my fridge.
Dice it all up nice and small.
Crack your eggs into a bowl. Look at that one yolk, it's half the size of the others! It's kind of hard to see in the picture.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a skillet over mediumish heat.
Cook your veggies around until softened, about 4 minutes.
Then add your meat and cook until evenly browned.
Now, add your spinach. If using fresh, put the lid on and cook for 3-4 minutes to wilt it all down. If using thawed frozen spinach, cook for about a minute or so with the lid on to take the raw edge off.
Stir it all together.
And dump your eggs on in.
Stir it around until the eggs are cooked how you like them. Try not to overcook them.
And there you have it, a Joe's Special. Whoever Joe is.
Joe's Special (original recipe from here)
- 6 large eggs
- Splash or two of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil or oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- About 1/2 pound lean freshly ground beef or ground dark chicken
- 3/4 to 1 pound fresh spinach or one 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
Warm the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the onion and sauté until soft but not beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the ground beef or chicken and continue cooking until uniformly brown, breaking the meat into small pieces as it cooks. Cover with the spinach, place a lid over the mixture, and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the spinach wilts. (If using frozen spinach, cook, covered, for 1 minute, just to take off its raw edge.)
Stir the spinach into the meat, cooking briefly to eliminate excess liquid if the mixture seems watery. Pour the egg mixture over all, stirring with a spatula from the bottom until the eggs begin to set. Remove from the heat and stir a few more times, as the eggs cook through from the residual heat. Serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
------------------------
It was tasty. The basil mixed with the meat kind of made it have a sausage quality. It tasted like it had been made with sausage. Sean really liked it too.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Perfect Potstickers
More wontons! I was excited to try this recipe because even though the ingredients are definitely non-traditional, they sounded like they would taste really good.
And they did.
Time for good stuff. Ground turkey, egg, green onions, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, ketchup, yellow mustard, worcestershire sauce, and red pepper. Sounds kind of like a sloppy joe, doesn't it? Regardless, let us press on.
Oh and I tossed in 2 cloves of garlic. Look how purple it is!
Throw it all in a bowl.
And mix it all up. Yum. Boy did it smell good. It taunted me the entire time I was filling them.
Then fill them just like I showed you here, and then cook them. I boiled mine for about 4 minutes each, and the rest I put in the freezer.
Yum.
They were so good. I liked the filling a lot more than the last one. The other one was good but it needed dipping sauce. These ones had so much flavor in them, they didn't need anything.
Here's the recipe, with instructions for pan steaming them.
Perfect Potstickers (original recipe by Alton Brown)
Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.
To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.
Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove wontons to a heatproof platter and place in the warm oven. Clean the pan in between batches by pouring in water and allowing the pan to deglaze. Repeat until all the wontons are cooked. Serve immediately.
(Or just boil in gently boiling water for 4ish minutes and drain)
------------------------------------------
Eat. Eat them, my children. Love them.
Oh and by the way. I steamed some and fried them last night. And they were great.
Oh and by the way, if you have something called a Brown Bag Deli near you, you should definitely try it out. I can't speak for other places, but the one that's right next to Sean's work is great.
They bake their bread everyday, and are only open for lunch hours. I always get jalapeno cheddar bread, with brown sugar ham, honey mustard, pepper jack cheese, lettuce and cucumbers.
Soooooooooooo goooooooooooood. One of my favorite sandwiches ever.
Oh and also, these chips are pretty good.
I got them from Target, and they're baked. Nice and crispy, with a nice sweet but salty flavor from the balsamic.
Also sorry, I didn't mean to drop some product placements or anything. This blog is about food and what I'm eating and making, so I just thought I'd share! :3
And they did.
Time for good stuff. Ground turkey, egg, green onions, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, ketchup, yellow mustard, worcestershire sauce, and red pepper. Sounds kind of like a sloppy joe, doesn't it? Regardless, let us press on.
Oh and I tossed in 2 cloves of garlic. Look how purple it is!
Throw it all in a bowl.
And mix it all up. Yum. Boy did it smell good. It taunted me the entire time I was filling them.
Then fill them just like I showed you here, and then cook them. I boiled mine for about 4 minutes each, and the rest I put in the freezer.
Yum.
They were so good. I liked the filling a lot more than the last one. The other one was good but it needed dipping sauce. These ones had so much flavor in them, they didn't need anything.
Here's the recipe, with instructions for pan steaming them.
Perfect Potstickers (original recipe by Alton Brown)
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons ketchup
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
- Water, for sealing wontons
- 3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 1/3 cups chicken stock, divided
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.
To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.
Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove wontons to a heatproof platter and place in the warm oven. Clean the pan in between batches by pouring in water and allowing the pan to deglaze. Repeat until all the wontons are cooked. Serve immediately.
(Or just boil in gently boiling water for 4ish minutes and drain)
------------------------------------------
Eat. Eat them, my children. Love them.
Oh and by the way. I steamed some and fried them last night. And they were great.
Oh and by the way, if you have something called a Brown Bag Deli near you, you should definitely try it out. I can't speak for other places, but the one that's right next to Sean's work is great.
They bake their bread everyday, and are only open for lunch hours. I always get jalapeno cheddar bread, with brown sugar ham, honey mustard, pepper jack cheese, lettuce and cucumbers.
Oh and also, these chips are pretty good.
Also sorry, I didn't mean to drop some product placements or anything. This blog is about food and what I'm eating and making, so I just thought I'd share! :3
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