Steve's Notebook Blog

babyworld is an excellent baby resource based in the UK.  I tried out several of the pregnancy recipes on the site and they are great even if you’re not cooking for a pregnant wife!  Here are some dishes that made it to the dinner table this week:

Cherry Tomato-Topped Chicken

I couldn’t believe how beautifully this dish came out.  It’s very easy to make and looks nice when you plate it.  I rate this recipe 9/10.

Fennel and Almond Soup

Not much color, but tastes good!  I’ll rate it 8/10.

Fish Brochette with Coconut Dressing and Apricot and Ginger Risotto

I didn’t care for either recipe here.  The fish brochette has nice flavor, but it seemed like too much trouble skewering everything and grilling it when a quick stir-fry with the marinade would have been sufficient.  3/10 for the fish brochette.

The risotto tasted okay, but it’s a stretch to call it risotto.  Risotto is supposed to have a starchy rice and parmesan cheese.  This recipe calls for neither.  5/10, and don’t call it risotto.

Oozing Chocolate Lava Cake

Okay, this one is not from babyworld, but pregnant women get strange cravings sometimes…

We didn’t have any ramekins, so it doesn’t look pretty.  It did however taste like chocolatey heaven.  8/10

Another meal derived from Low-Fat, Low Cholesterol Cooking, by Christine France.

Bombay Spiced Potatoes

Ingredients

• 4 large potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 tablespoons  vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground double mustard
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 lemon
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

Directions

1. Boil a pot of salted water, then add potatoes and simmer for 4 minutes until tender.  Drain.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan and add garlic and spices.  Fry the spices in oil for about 2 minutes.
3. Add potatoes and stir-fry over medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. Season and sprinkle with lemon juice.  Garnish with cilantro and lemon wedges.
5. For the side vegetables, I cooked frozen beans and tossed the cooked beans with a sauce made of creme fraise, fresh chives, salt, and butter.

Serves 4

Steve’s Rating: 8/10 – It’s a tasty and filling vegetarian meal

Another meal derived from Low-Fat, Low Cholesterol Cooking, by Christine France.  This one was specifically selected to use what’s left of the AeroGarden.

Spaghetti with Herb Sauce

Ingredients

1. 2 cups chopped fresh basil and parsley
2. 4 garlic cloves
3. 5 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
4. 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5. 12 ounces dried spaghetti
6. 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
7. salt and black pepper

Directions

1. If your pine nuts aren’t already toasted, put them in the oven under the broiler for a minute or two until golden.
2. Place garlic and half the toasted pine nuts into a food processor.  Place most of the herbs into the processor, but reserve a few for garnish.  Start processing and add oil while the blade is running.  This will make the pesto sauce.
3. Cook the spaghetti in salted water according to package directions and then drain.
4. Mix the pesto herb sauce in with the spaghetti.  Sprinkle reserved pine nuts and herbs as garnish.

Serves 4

Steve’s Rating: 9/10 – This was delicious.  I think I’ll make it again.

Recently, I’ve been preparing meals using Low-Fat, Low Cholesterol Cooking, by Christine France.  Earlier this week I made the “Special Fish Pie” on page 98 of the book and it turned out beautifully.

Special Fish Pie

Ingredients

1. 1 pound haddock fillet, skinned
2. 2 tbsp corn starch
3. 1 of 8.5 ounce can of corn, drained
4. 1 bag of frozen peas
5. 0.66 cups skim milk
6. 0.66 cups fromage blanc
7. 3 ounces bread crumbs
8. 0.5 cup grated reduced fat Cheddar cheese
9. salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven 375°F.  If the haddock has skin, an easy way to remove it is to place it in a hot pan skin-side-down for a few seconds, then take it out and peel the skin off.  Chop up the haddock into bite-size pieces and toss in corn starch.
2. Place fish, corn, and peas into a casserole dish.  Mix together milk, fromage blanc, salt, and pepper in a bowl, then pour the mixture into the dish with the fish.
3. Sprinkle and bread crumbs evenly on top of the mixture.  Bake 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, cook the rest of the peas to go on the side.

Serves 4

Steve’s Rating: 6/10 – it came out nicely and tasted good, but The Wife doesn’t like fromage blanc

What better way to enjoy the book Three Cups of Tea than to cook up a big pot of Balti Gosht?

This morning I took a shot at making my own pizza dough and baking a pizza from scratch.  Although I found hand-tossing pizza dough to be harder than it looks, I did manage to successfully stuff the crust with mozzarella, which is something you can’t do with pre-made store-bought pizza crusts.

I topped the pizza with chorizo, tomato slices, and fresh basil leaves.

Coincidentally, Lifehacker just posted some articles on baking your own pizza from scratch.

The AeroGarden is in full bloom!  It’s a really awesome gadget to have in the kitchen, especially if you cook a lot and like using herbs.

I learn a lot about cooking through reading recipes and trying them out.  However, there are a lot of things you can’t learn from recipe books.  These are the things that grandmom knows from experience, but few people ever bother to write them down.

I found a whole load of household and cooking tips from TipNut.  Read through these lists and gain the Wisdom of the Grandmoms!

25 Vintage Food Prep Tips

20 Cleaning Tips and Work Savers

45 Cooking and Baking Tips

35 Kitchen Tips

25 Household Tips

28 Household Tips

32 Household Tips

25 Cooking and Baking Tips

26 Cooking and Baking Tips

26 Kitchen Tips

Boneless Rib-Eye Steaks with Killa’ Chimichurri and Mushrooms with Spicy Cajun and Wilted Spinach

adapted from Rachael Ray 365

ingredients:

• 2 of 12 ounce boneless rib-eye steaks
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• McCormick’s seasoning salt
• sea salt
• pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 handful parsley
• 1 garlic clove
• half of a red onion
• 1 tsp dried lemon peel
• lemon
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 10-oz bag of spinach
• chili powder
• cajun seasoning
• 12 ounces of baby portobello mushrooms
• 2 slices crusty bread
• Worcestershire sauce

directions:

1. Arrange steaks in a broiler pan. Drizzle both sides with olive oil. Season with seasoning salt, sea salt, and pepper. Preheat the broiler on high.
2. Finely chop the parsley, half of the (half) onion, and garlic and place in a mixing bowl.  Stir in the dried herbs and dried lemon peel.  Combine mixture with red wine vinegar, a splash of water, and a splash of olive oil.
3. Wash the spinach.
4. Heat a large skillet medium high.  Add a table spoon of olive oil.  Saute the mushrooms and the sliced other half of the (half) onion for about 10 minutes.  Add cajun seasoning halfway through.
5. Broil steaks 6 inches from broiler for 6 minutes on each side.  Let the steaks rest about 10 minutes.
6. Coarsley chop the spinach and add to the skillet in bunches.  Season with salt and pepper, then remove from heat.
7. Toast the bread.
8. Place toasted bread on plates and place whole steak on top.  Add some Worcestershire sauce and chimichurri to the top of each steak.  Serve with the mushrooms and spinach, lemon to garnish.

2 Servings

Steve’s Rating:  8/10

I just received my Weber Q 300 propane gas grill over the weekend… and have used it to cook every dinner since.  I chose this grill because it was one of the best-selling and highest rated grills on Amazon.com.  I was not disappointed.

So far I’ve grills steaks, chicken, asparagus, veggie sausages, mushrooms, broccoli, onions, bell peppers, tofu… this grill does it all.  It even looks cooler than my neighbors’ grills

The Weber website has a large recipe section that I can’t wait to try.  Even if your grill isn’t from Weber, you can still use those recipes.

Yahoo! launched a pretty good cooking website fairly recently called Yahoo! Food. I haven’t tried any of the recipes from there yet, but it there is a lot of stuff from some of the most famous celebrity chefs in America. Yahoo! users can review and rate recipes, so you can try only the good ones.

I own a number of cookbooks. Here’s a list of the cookbooks I use:

• New Dieter’s Cookbook: Eat Well, Feel Great, Lose Weight (Better Homes & Gardens)
• Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook)
• Low-Fat Low-Cholesterol Cooking (Practical Handbooks)
• Cooking in Style the Costco Way

Other than these, I also have the recipe booklet from a Cuisinart DLC-10S Pro Classic 7 Cup Food Processor and about 6 Chinese cooking books, written in Chinese. Then of course, the Internet and Yahoo! Food are a great source of information and recipes.