*SAD (Single Awareness Day) Dinner*

First, sorry about my lack of posts. It has been a busy couple of weeks...actually, month. Going to San Fransisco, work, school, cooking, and other things coming up I couldn't dedicate my time that this blogs deserve. I actually started this post (and another post about San Fransisco, but more on that soon) several times, but either got interrupted or lack of dedication. But have no fear, yours truly is back, and this time, with a vengeance.

So as all you lucky couples know, this past weekend was Valentine's Day. What my friend and I decided to do was to cook dinner for ourselves to celebrate our "choice" to not have a date. If I keep saying that then I might actually believe it :P

So anywho, our dinner date soon turned into a threesome, which quickly turned into a quintet when her parents

also decided to join us. I didn't mind and thought more the merrier. This way I get to cook for even more people and show off my bad@$ culinary skillz.

The menu that we decided with was Chicken Linguini w/ Alfredo sauce, Polenta w/ Marinara and Mozzarella, garlic and Parmesan bread, some steamed veggies and some wine. For dessert we had a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and angel food cake as dippables. All-in-all a pretty "romantic" dinner for five.

I was responsible for the pasta and dessert, one of which I have made many times and one that I did some research to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. I'll let you decide which dish is which.

This is what the finished result looked like. I was very happy with the dinner. Hopefully, everyone else thought the same. What really caught me was the fondue. That turned out nomnomnommy!

It was basically like making a chocolate ganache. We used Hershey's chocolate bar, 2 milk and 1 dark. *Note-for any fondue do not use a chocolate with more than 68% cocoa* We set up a double boiler system. That's basically two pots, one on top of the other. In the bottom pan you want to have some water boiling and in the top pot (preferably a glass bowl) you want to cut up your chocolate and let the steam from the water melt it. In another pot you want to scald some heavy cream. Scalding is cooking liquid *almost* to the boiling point. Pour the heavy cream into the chocolate and mix away. Drop in 1-2 tablespoons of cold butter to give it a shine. You can also add in other flavors such as vanilla, some liqueur, or even hazelnut. The possibilities really are endless. As for dips, we used these three...

You could use whatever your heart desired to dunk into this chocolate goodness: marshmallows, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, oreos, brownies, cake, etc...

Melting Pot, eat your heart out!

*Breakfast, Risotto, & Calzones, Oh My...*

This update is purely about recipes. These recipes are dishes that I saw on Food Network (Giada and Robin Miller) and copied out of memory. Yup, strictly memory, no recipe following. Woot! But first...



I. Love. Breakfast. Byaawww!!!


Ok now on to the recipes...



Mushroom Risotto

5 cups chicken broth
handful of mushrooms (i used the cheapy pre-sliced packaged ones)
3 T butter
1/2 a shallot/or onion
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c white wine
1 cup rice
1/2 cup Asiago cheese (grated)
1/2 cup Romano cheese (grated)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
parsley
salt/pepper

Simmer mushrooms with chicken broth. Do not over boil. About 20-30 minutes

Meanwhile, melt butter and saute shallot/onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir around to coat. Add wine and keep stirring. With a slotted ladle scoop out mushrooms and let excess liquid out. Add to rice mixture. When wine is almost all absorbed by rice add in chicken broth one ladle amount at a time. **You need to be constantly stirring and mixing the rice mixture with the liquid or else it will burn** Keep adding broth to rice every 5 minutes until gone. When mixture is bubbly and creamy (about 30 minutes) and rice is soft add in cheese. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle parsley. Word!



Chicken Alfredo Calzone

refrigerated pizza dough
EVOO
salt/pepper
chicken breast pieces, cubed
cumin
shallot
Alfredo Sauce
Parmesan cheese
parsley
garlic
Italian seasoning


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I used the packet mix Alfredo Sauce mixture...soooo good NOM! So follow that for Alfredo sauce. I also used the Pillsbury pizza dough. Unroll that and flatten out. Drizzle EVOO, salt and pepper over.

Heat a pan to medium-high heat and cook the chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Slice a shallot and add to chicken.

When sauce is done smother over the pizza dough and sprinkle chopped up garlic around pizza. Distribute chicken and shallots around one half of the pizza. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese modestly over pizza. Fold over half of the pizza and pinch the sides close with fingers or with fork. Drizzle top with evoo to brown it and sprinkle parsley and Italian Seasoning. Cut three slits on top to let steam out and to prevent it from blowing up in the oven. Bake for 9-13 minutes, until brown.


NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM to all you readers out there. Enjoy!

*Hits & Misses*

For every Carrie Clarkson or Kelly Underwood...there's a William Hung...or Rueben Studdard (I'm obvi watching American Idol right now)

For every multi platinum album....there's a one-hit wonder (eeehhhhh MACARENA)

For every Sue Sylvester...there's a Will Schuester (sorry, I can't stand him)

For every Sixth Sense, there was an Unbreakable (...and The Signs, and Lady in the Water, and The Village, and The Happening)

Basically, for every good dish...





Bananas that I caramelized (cooked with butter, milk, sugar, and brown sugar) and added it to my ice cream sundae...NOMs all the way!



















There's a...not so good dish...















That's supposed to be coconut...and yes, its burnt. I wanted to extract the flavor by toasting it. I checked on it at 8 minutes and 2 minutes later it looked like this. Lesson learned.











Good dish...


Frozen fries from the freezer section that I drizzled EVOO, salt, pepper, and paprika over and melted cheese. Then poured some mushroom gravy for some extremely delicious gravy cheesy fries.

The burger on the left has shredded cheddar cheese on it and I cooked it with some of the gravy I made. The burger on the left also has shredded cheese and I was feeling adventurous and decided to slather on some homemade pesto sauce. I'll let you decide which burger was the hit and which burger was the miss. Hint: pesto sauce and shredded cheddar cheese DO NOT go good together.




Here's a good dish/bad dish that came all rolled up in one...

This is my famous mac & cheese that came out creamy, cheesy and oh so nommy. I decided to add in a little something-something and added in some portuguese sausage (homemade sausage from Hawaii) for spice. At first the sausage added in a little smokey sweetness, but as I ate more, it somehow turned a little too sweet and almost ruined the amazing mac & cheese. Let me repeat..the mac & cheese was bomb.com...the mac & cheese with sausage was just a BOMB!



Cooking is all about new adventures and new tastes. Of course you are going to stumble along the way. Vegetables will be burnt, meat will be under-seasoned, and salads will be over-tossed. If you cook the same thing every night in the exact same way, it is going to start to taste bland and boring. I am anything but bland and boring.

Here is a recipe that I envisioned on a whim...it was also on my list of dishes I wanted to create. It was a homerun if I do say so myself...

Shrimp & Chicken Pesto Pizza



chicken
salt
Olive Oil
pepper
cumin
shrimp
garlic
parsely
basil
shallots
mozzarella cheese (shredded)
pizza dough
pesto sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. I used the store bought pizza dough and baked it per those instructions. Roll out pizza dough on baking sheet and sprinkle salt and pepper over.


Pesto Sauce:
2-3 cloves roasted garlic
1/4 c pine nuts
1 - 1.5 c basil
1/4 c parmesean cheese
EVOO
salt & pepper

In a food processor or blender, grind garlic and pine nuts together. Add basil and incorporate well. Add parmesean cheese. While processor still on pour in EVOO until sauce is liquidy and the consistency that you want. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread over pizza dough.

Chop up shallots, garlic, parsley, basil and set on side.

Add olive oil into pan and add cut up shallots. Saute.

Cut up chicken into small pieces. Drizzle pan with olive oil and add chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Cook shrimp for 1-2 minutes. Spread shallots, garlic, chicken, and shrimp around pizza. Sprinkle cheese around pizza. Cook in oven following pizza dough instructions, usually 8-10 minutes. Take pizza out and chiffonade basil and spread around pizza. ENJOY!


Happy Cooking!