I felt like rice tonight. It's terrible that I just wanted rice, but there you go. But I didn't want just white rice. Nothing wrong with white rice, it's one of my favorite things, but I wanted something a little more complex.
So I searched the fridge. We had some sliced baby bellas and some yellow onion chopped. So I sautéed those in butter with some dried chives, salt and butter. I wanted to get more of the mushroom liquor so I added the salt to the mushrooms as they were sautéing. When the veggies were soft enough, I added 2 cups of rice and toasted it a little. I then added 4 cups chicken broth and put a lid on it. I lowered the heat to medium low and let it simmer away until all the liquid was gone and the rice is absorbed.
Served with parmesan sprinkled over the top? Delicious!
Friday, March 7, 2014
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Hello
My name is Cat, short for Catherine, and I love food. I know there are hundreds of blogs out there about food. This is simply my little corner of it. I'm not making any assumptions that this blog will change the world. I simply want to share my views on food and life.
I live in Southern California and I work for the County of Los Angeles as support staff. I cook for my family practically every night, mainly because I want to be able to enjoy what I eat. I live with my mother and my step-father and as much as I love them, seasoning is not their best buddy on a regular basis. When I moved back from college, I took over cooking because I was tired of our steaks being so bland even A1 wouldn't help.
I learned to cook from my mother, my aunt and my Grandmother. There are vague memories of watching my dad make corned beef hash when he was visiting for Christmas when I was 10, but most of my memories are from my mother's family. I started out with scrambled eggs at a very young age and moved on from there. Now, at work I'm known for my "Bomb Enchiladas" and at home I'm known for my adventurous side. Well, as adventurous as a good meat and potatoes woman can be.
I love food, and frankly I can honestly say that lately it doesn't love me. I used to be able to eat and not have any problems but now I have to watch the spice, the grease, the acid and the quantity. It sucks. Gone are the days where I would poor my salsa into my guacamole at a Mexican restaurant. Instead of half a bottle of hot sauce on a drop of ketchup for my onion rings, I'm eating one onion ring without the ketchup and hot sauce.
But there are times and there are dishes that I throw out all thought of taking it easy and I just enjoy. For example, tonight I made crock pot beef noodles. Of all things, it's the one thing that has me getting that third helping and the recipe is so damn easy.
Now, the history of this is that my aunt made it first. I fell in love with her beef noodles and I would beg to take her leftovers when she made it. It was a treat. Then, one day I decided I was going to make it and I asked her for the recipe. You could have blown me over when she told me how it was made. Now my aunt does things differently than I do. She browns the meat in a cast iron skillet with salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder. Then she puts it in the crock pot with the french onion soup and the cream of mushroom soup. Nine and a half hours later, she adds a pound of cooked egg noodles and mushrooms that were sauteed in the cast iron skillet fond from the meat. It's delicious and my mouth waters every time.
But I'm lazy. Today I just threw the meat in the crock pot and tossed it with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder in the pot. I added the cans of soup and put it on low for eight hours. I added the noodles and left it at that. It's still delish, but this way I don't mess up the cast iron skillet and I have on less dish to wash. And considering my culinary disaster last week when I tried making homemade refried beans, this was a success. Three helpings and my mouth is saying go for a fourth when my stomach is saying why did I even have seconds?
The noodles are creamy and onion-y with bits of beef that cling to the noodles. The beef is tender and almost like a stroganoff, but without the booze and the sour cream. Not that I have anything against booze and sour cream. I love booze and sour cream, but making stroganoff from scratch is not conducive to a relaxing weekend for me. And with having to watch Kodak, the four year old cat my Dad left me who really likes my mother more than me, relaxing is what I want. As it is, she's sulking because my mother and step-father are in Florida for the weekend.
So, since I've rambled enough for today, I'm going to sign off. I'll drink my diet cherry Dr. pepper, contemplate a cookie and watch a lot of bad TV. Good Night.
I live in Southern California and I work for the County of Los Angeles as support staff. I cook for my family practically every night, mainly because I want to be able to enjoy what I eat. I live with my mother and my step-father and as much as I love them, seasoning is not their best buddy on a regular basis. When I moved back from college, I took over cooking because I was tired of our steaks being so bland even A1 wouldn't help.
I learned to cook from my mother, my aunt and my Grandmother. There are vague memories of watching my dad make corned beef hash when he was visiting for Christmas when I was 10, but most of my memories are from my mother's family. I started out with scrambled eggs at a very young age and moved on from there. Now, at work I'm known for my "Bomb Enchiladas" and at home I'm known for my adventurous side. Well, as adventurous as a good meat and potatoes woman can be.
I love food, and frankly I can honestly say that lately it doesn't love me. I used to be able to eat and not have any problems but now I have to watch the spice, the grease, the acid and the quantity. It sucks. Gone are the days where I would poor my salsa into my guacamole at a Mexican restaurant. Instead of half a bottle of hot sauce on a drop of ketchup for my onion rings, I'm eating one onion ring without the ketchup and hot sauce.
But there are times and there are dishes that I throw out all thought of taking it easy and I just enjoy. For example, tonight I made crock pot beef noodles. Of all things, it's the one thing that has me getting that third helping and the recipe is so damn easy.
Now, the history of this is that my aunt made it first. I fell in love with her beef noodles and I would beg to take her leftovers when she made it. It was a treat. Then, one day I decided I was going to make it and I asked her for the recipe. You could have blown me over when she told me how it was made. Now my aunt does things differently than I do. She browns the meat in a cast iron skillet with salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder. Then she puts it in the crock pot with the french onion soup and the cream of mushroom soup. Nine and a half hours later, she adds a pound of cooked egg noodles and mushrooms that were sauteed in the cast iron skillet fond from the meat. It's delicious and my mouth waters every time.
But I'm lazy. Today I just threw the meat in the crock pot and tossed it with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder in the pot. I added the cans of soup and put it on low for eight hours. I added the noodles and left it at that. It's still delish, but this way I don't mess up the cast iron skillet and I have on less dish to wash. And considering my culinary disaster last week when I tried making homemade refried beans, this was a success. Three helpings and my mouth is saying go for a fourth when my stomach is saying why did I even have seconds?
The noodles are creamy and onion-y with bits of beef that cling to the noodles. The beef is tender and almost like a stroganoff, but without the booze and the sour cream. Not that I have anything against booze and sour cream. I love booze and sour cream, but making stroganoff from scratch is not conducive to a relaxing weekend for me. And with having to watch Kodak, the four year old cat my Dad left me who really likes my mother more than me, relaxing is what I want. As it is, she's sulking because my mother and step-father are in Florida for the weekend.
So, since I've rambled enough for today, I'm going to sign off. I'll drink my diet cherry Dr. pepper, contemplate a cookie and watch a lot of bad TV. Good Night.
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