Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 297
Tuesday, January 08, 2013, 09:34 AM
I made the pretty standard roasted cabbage(half a head). I did a few things slightly differently. First, when I quartered the head to slice on the mandoline, I made sure the "pointy" side of the quartered cabbage was hitting the blade first. This made it slice better and more fully. Also, while I sliced into a bowl to break it up and distribute, I didn't add any oil until I used the pam on it on the tray. Both worked well.
I also made sloppy joes. I used half a poblano instead of a bell pepper. I also added some balsamic vinegar and a tiny bit of Dave's Insanity hot sauce. I tried a different method to brown the onions based on this The Kitchn post where you do brown them dry first. I did that then added water and pam but it left a lot of residue on the pan. I think that caused the meat to burn more while simmering. I do not know for sure. I'll try it again but be more careful.
Also, I couldn't find Arnold's sandwich thins, so I used whole wheat english muffins. They have130 calories each vs 100 for the sandwich thins so there isn't much of a difference, but I liked them a lot for this. They were more bready and thicker. I would definitely use them again on sloppy joes
Oh, I also had a small spinach salad. Just spinach and (FF) dressing, nothing else, rather boring
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2961, 2013-01-08_093403
Monday, January 07, 2013, 10:13 AM
There wasn't much to this meal. I tried to make butternut squash fries. I used the mandoline to slide them and then I baked them for about 30-40 minutes at 425. I do not know if I should have gone longer, or if the pans were too crowded, but they were pretty mushy. I had seasoned them with cayenne, hot (not smoked) paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
I also had a leftover moussaka from the other day. Not much to say here except I used the sensor frozen dinner setting on my microwave which did a great job! It was uniformly hot.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2958, 2013-01-07_101317
Friday, January 04, 2013, 08:20 AM
Meredith and I made this at her place. We made patatas bravas. We used the regular recipe for the sauce. Or at least we used it to inspire what we made. We didn't have anything but smoked paprika. Both hot and sweet but only smoked. We also used a bit (or too much really) of cayenne. We wanted to rush the potatoes a bit so we microwaved them for 5 minutes first the roasted them for about 25.
One different thing we did was to use paprika and other sauce-related seasonings on the potatoes. I do not know what difference it made, but the entire meal was extremely good. A tad spicy but very good. The potatoes were a mix of different kinds, including purple.
We also made a Mahi Mahi thing that came frozen and pre marinated. It was coconut and something but I do not recall what. We cooked it in the pan since we were using the oven already for the potatoes.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2951, 2013-01-04_082029
Tuesday, January 01, 2013, 11:35 AM
My mom made banana bread from the recipe below. I do not know what it is based on, but it includes her changes and comments. (Interestingly, it calls for baking soda, not powder, but the results seem right)
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf
This is mixed completely by hand.
Heat oven to 325°F (or 350 on convection).
Grease & flour a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan (or use baking spray).
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Mix in the oil, bananas, and eggs.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 60-80minutes.
Cool the loaf pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely, right side up.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2942, 2013-01-01_113530
Monday, December 31, 2012, 11:35 AM
We did make your own pizza but we basically assembled our own pizza more than make it. We purchased dough, sauce and all the stuff. We bought a thing of dough to make one large and it came as 1 lbs 12 oz. we split it into three and made smaller pizzas. This was a nice size but we could have tried to stretch it thinner since it rose a lot in the oven.
I liked how thin the sauce was. Again, we didn't make it but I have a better idea of what I want my sauce to be like. I have seen recipes for uncooked pizza sauce that is based on just crushed tomatoes. I'll look into it.
In no specific order, the toppings we had were
The pizzas: Meredith's (top), Justin's (middle right). Mom's (bottom)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2940, 2012-12-31_113503
Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 10:09 PM
I made carrot cake pancakes from the usual recipe. This time, I actually used walnuts which I had skipped in the past. I do not know what caused it, but it was super thick. Even before the carrots. With the carrots, it was still pretty dense. I tried to let it cook for a long time to make sure it was cooked through. Still, it ended up being a bit raw inside
I also made bacon in the oven. I used the "trick" where you use a cooling rack in the pan so that the bacon grease falls off while it is cooking. There was extra bacon so I cooked that in a pan as well but without the rack. Both came out very flat and well cooked, but the one without the rack was actually better. I guess because it kept frying in its own oil as opposed to it dripping down. I'll keep that in mind for next time and probably skip the rack.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2932, 2012-12-26_220928
Tuesday, December 25, 2012, 10:08 PM
My mom was visiting and we decided to cook. We started with french onion soup. We used the cast iron dutch oven and really, really caramelized the onions. I do not know what else we did differently, but it was probably the best french onion soup I have done before. About half and half chicken and beef base (maybe 6-8 cups) and a cup of white wine. We put slices of bread in and melted the provolone in the broiler.
The moussaka was the standard. It took a long time to cook down, but I am not sure it was more or less than the usual. I think I overcooked the béchamel since it was too thick. Based on my mom's comments, I should try to see if there are alternative more flavorful, yet healthy, ways to do the béchamel. It isn't a crucial part of the recipe, but I want it to be better.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2930, 2012-12-25_220844
Saturday, December 22, 2012, 10:16 PM
I made some strange type of pasta with garlic and peppers. I used a lot of garlic (with this tip), and I sautéd onions and poblano peppers. I added the pasta and a small can of chicken. It was okay. Despite a huge amount of garlic and even using oil with it, yet it was still not very garlicky I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
I also made the roasted cauliflower from here. It was very good, but I think I let it go a bit too long. I had to not eat a bunch of the little bits, but that is not a big deal. I'll definitely do it again, but I'll cook it less.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2926, 2012-12-22_221644