Danger! Garlic Overload.

So my husband goes out of town a few times a month for work and when he goes out I like to experiment with food. So the other night I decided to try to make some garlic salad dressing because I had some that was really good at a party I went to. I think I may have slightly overdone it with the garlic but it was still pretty good. Tangy. Maybe a little too tangy. But still. Tangy. So if you are brave and if you are home alone you might want to try this. You will probably smell like garlic for hours though so seriously wait until your husband, boyfriend, roommate or special friend goes out of town. If you live alone, you are good to go. Garlic is good for you, right?

Super Garlicky Salad Dressing (makes about 4 servings)

1 clove garlic

1 squirt mustard

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

a little salt

Wisk it all together and toss with your favorite Salad ingredients.

I also decided that for some reason radishes would be amazing in a salad. They were ok. I think I like them better when they are sliced super thin. The mushrooms and peas were good on the salad though. Frozen peas are my friend. I like to add them into all sorts of stuff. Regular Salad, Pasta Salad, Curry Dishes, Pastas, etc.

So do you like to get crazy when your roommate/boyfriend/husband is out of town?

What do you do?

How do you feel about garlic? Radishes?

Valentine's Day Dinner Part 2....Where's the Beef? and of course Dessert

When I initially told my husband that I was going to attempt a gourmet Valentine's Dinner I asked him for some suggestions. He basically just responded by saying, "Steak." I guess that's what all the fellows like. But there are lots of steak options out there so my search began. My Dad (who is also a fellow) claims that Costco has the best NY strips steaks out there. So I requested that he pick up some for me on his next trip (as I do not have a Costco membership). So he did. And these steaks were huge. And quite nice looking. I have learned that my husband likes a pretty simple steak. Something where the flavor of the steak shines through. Not too much marinating or sauces or what not. So I decided to grill them and then make a compound butter to top them with. I found this awesome butter recipe by Emeril.

How I Grilled My Gigantor Valentine's Steaks
1-I sat the steaks out to get to room temperature. The cooking shows always say to do that.
2-I put a bunch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on each side and pressed the salt and pepper into the meat.

3-I preheated my grill pan to the highest heat.
4-Then I grilled them. For about 9 minutes. I seared both sides for a few seconds and then kept cooking it on one side at high heat for about 4 minutes. Then I flipped it and lowered the heat to about medium for the rest of the time. They actually turned out pretty well. I usually over or under cook steaks but these were medium to medium rare. Pink in the middle. Crispy on the outside. (They may look a little black but I think that's just the crust b/c they tasted good and not burned) Add some compound butter to the top and you are good to go.

These were the best steaks I have ever made. Normally I leave steak grilling to someone else. But I really pulled through this time.

I always like to have something green on my plate to make it look pretty so I stole 8 asparaguses (probably not how you pluralize that) from my mom and roasted them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And then my mom told me that a lovely roasted tomato always makes a nice looking plate. So I stole two of those and put some Italian Seasoning and Parmesan cheese on them and roasted them for like 10 minutes. All in all a lovely looking plate.

Now on to Dessert......

My husband is not super interested in chocolate. I mean he likes it and all but it's not his fave. But you know what is one of his favorite foods? Bread. All kinds. Any kinds. So then all the sudden it hit me. I have to make him BREAD PUDDING for dessert. It's perfect. It's not chocolate and it's made of his favorite food and it's a dessert. I found a million recipes and wanted to do something crazy and complex with a nice sauce but instead I went for the easiest, yet highest rated one I could find on All Recipes.com. I added a mix of dried berries instead of just raisons but I followed the rest of the recipe. My Husband ate 4 of the six servings. So I guess he liked that too. So, Overall.....Worth it.

And seriously, I'm still pretty tired from making all this. Last night for dinner we had frozen pizza.

Valentine's Day Dinner-Part One....Potatoes and Tarts

Since this was my first Valentine's Day ever as a Wife I decided to up my housewifeyness and try to make a gourmet meal for my husband. I spent like 2 weeks looking up recipes for this and I have to say in the end, it really paid off. This might be one of the best meals I have ever made.

Since this meal was super extensive I'm just going to discuss the appetizer and first side dish today. I sort of made up the appetizer. It was based on something that I saw on http://www.foodgawker.com/ (an awesome website if you like looking at delicious foods). I call it mushroom tarts.

Mushroom Tarts (makes 6 tarts)
6-7 cremini mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped shallots or onions
1 tablespoon butter
garlic salt
2 tablespoons blue cheese
1 sheet of puff pastry

Basically I just thawed the puff pastry and then used the top of a wine glass to cut it into 6 circles. Then I cooked the mushrooms and shallots in butter and added some garlic salt and then melted the blue cheese in at the end. I put a spoonful of this mixture on top of each puff pastry ring and baked it for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I thought these were a little bit rich but my husband ate 4 of them. So you can maybe cut the cheese or butter down a little bit.


It took me forever to decide on a side dish. I went back and forth several times but ultimately decided it should be potato related since I was making a beef main course. I found this Rachael Ray recipe but decided to alter it a bit because I didn't want to have to buy all these fresh herbs.
So instead of calling them Rachael Ray's Autumn Potato Gratin , I will call them J-M's Winter Love Potatoes.

J-M's Winter Love Potatoes (makes about 4 servings)
2 pounds of baby white potatoes and a couple small red potatoes (or probably any potatoes)
1 cup of heavy cream plus another 1/2 cup of cream
1/4 stick of butter
1 clove of garlic minced
A few shakes of Italian Seasoning (the kind that has like oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, etc in it)
Salt and Pepper
Grated Parmesan Cheese (about a 1/2 cup)

1-Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and cut the potatoes. Make them into bite sized to a couple bite sized pieces (see pics). Boil some water and partially cook the potatoes for about 5 minutes.
2-Heat 1 cup of cream and the butter in a pan. Add a couple of sprinkles of Italian Seasoning and the garlic and a little salt and pepper. I then added a palm full of grated Parmesan cheese to this. Heat this for about 5 minutes.
3-Place potatoes in the bottom of a small baking pan and put a little salt and pepper on them.
4-Pour cream mixture over potatoes. If the cream mixture doesn't cover about up to 75% of the potatoes then add a little more cream until it reaches up higher. Then sprinkle the top with more Parmesan cheese.
5-Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until potatoes start to brown and bubble. This is going to be super hott, so let it rest a little before eating. Also as it rests the cream sauce gets thicker.

Warning-This dish is not healthy. Hello. You are cooking butter in to cream. But it tastes very delicious.

I loved how the potatoes turned out. They were bubbly and brown and awesome looking. There were only a few minor mishaps during this part of cooking like when the strings on my apron fell in the toilet and when I accidentally left the stove on after cooking the mushroom mixture and only realized it after I picked up a dish that was sitting on the stove and realized it was super hot. Major burn crisis averted though.

Did anyone else make Valentine's Dinner or do something super awesome?

Email From My Mom aka How to Roast Brussels Sprouts and a Bonus Recipe (family secret)....

Email exchange between my mom and I this week....

me-
please send me detailed instructions on how to make the brussels sprouts your made at christmas.thanx.

mom-
Look for fresh-looking b.s. Cut off the ends and pull off any yucky looking leaves so that you are left with a gorgeous, green sprout. Wash that off, then cut the sprouts in half. Season with a fine-quality olive oil, salt and pepper. I like to use sea salt or Kosher (the same) and cracked pepper. I especially like the Monini Fruttato O.O., but it is expensive-only buy when on sale. This week, the Colavita Fruttato(which I have never before seen in Fruttato) is an extraordinary buy at HT. $6 off the regular price. Keeping my fingers crossed that it is as good as Monini. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 min.-whenever you think they are browning a bit and done. I also add a little Balsamic or lemon juice or both during the cooking process. These are tasty morsels and packed with nutrional goodness. Love,Mom

mom again-
P.S. that little browning brings out the nutty flavor and goodness of the sprout.

OK, so lets roast some brussels sprouts. Oh and what's up with them being called BrusselS sprouts? I did not know about that S on the end until a couple of months ago. Too many s's if you ask me.

Fun Facts about BrusselS Sprouts stolen from wikipedia-Brussels sprouts belong to the same family that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi: they are cruciferous. They contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre. Moreover, they are believed to protect against colon cancer, due to their containing sinigrin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout

So I essentially just followed her instructions above........

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Bag of fresh Brussels Sprouts from Harris Teeter
Sea Salt
Pepper (I wanted the kind you grind but we were out of it so I just used regular pepper)
Olive Oil (my good kind from Italy, thanks Mandy!-she hates being called that by the way)
Balsamic Vinegar

So I pretty much did what she said. I cut the ends off and halved all the brussels sprouts, then washed them. Then I lined a pizza pan (I'm not sure why I used that) with foil and put the sprouts, 1 tablespoon oil, a handful of salt and some pepper on it and mixed it around with my hands. Then I baked them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees. At the halfway point I drizzled some Balsamic Vinegar over them.

The Brussels sprouts browned nicely and tasted good. I think they might not even have needed balsamic. But I like it. Some of the leaves fell off and got crispy. Those were actually quite tasty. So overall I enjoyed these and my husband gave them a "mmmmmmmm Brussels sprouts" as soon as he was finished downing them.

And now for a bonus recipe. I made baby hamburgers to go with the sprouts. When I was little and my dad would go out of town, I would always request baby hamburgers from my mom. For some reason I guess he did not find them appealling. For years I thought they were a complex hamburger recipe served in a delicate tomato sauce. Then one day when I was older I asked for the recipe. Only 2 ingredients. Hamburger meat and a can of tomato soup. Make mini hamburger patties. Then cook them in a skillet over the stove and once they are cooked, add a can of tomato soup. Simmer for a few minutes and you're done. Delish and a great compliment to roasted brussels sprouts.