Steak (Recipe 45)

I love to try new foods. I love to expand my tastebuds horizons and go out on a limb to try crazy things (like cow tongue... or squirrel... or caterpillars). But no matter how many new foods I try there has always been one food that I am not crazy about. This one food usually has many people raving over it, but alas, I have never been a huge fan. That food is steak.

After our dinner of pork chops it came up that I am not a huge fan of steak. I love the flavour, but I usually can't chew the meat. Micah and Davey said that they would cook up the best steak I'd ever eaten and turn my dislike into a huge like. Well, how could I resist someone offering to buy food.

They came over the following weekend and Micah and I seasoned up the steak (hence why I'm counting it as a new recipe). I rubbed some Olive Oil on it and spread on some steak seasoning. I rubbed it in so that the steak had plenty of flavour.

Davey lit one of the many grills that we have in the park across from us and cooked the steaks to perfection.

They were phenomenal. I have never enjoy steak so much. The meat was tender and full of flavour. And I had to admit after the first bite, that I now enjoy steak. It really is amazing.

Crepes (Recipe 44)

Sonya spent a few weeks house sitting for professors at Covenant. The house was very quaint and clean. It was filled with big windows, plants, and books. And the couple also gave her free access to all their food.

Damarise and I went to visit Sonya one Saturday afternoon and after talking about food for sometime decided to whip up some crepes for dinner.

I love crepes. They are thin and delectable. Anything tastes good on them – from the sweet to the savory. There are endless possibilities for what to put on a crepe.

That being said, here is the recipe:

• 1 Cup Flour 
• 1 Teaspoon White Sugar 
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt 
• 3 Eggs 
•  2 Cups Milk 
•  2 Tablespoons Butter, melted

Mix it up. Pour a little bit onto a skillet. Cook until it bubbles, flip, and cook the other side until done. 

Serve with anything. We found some cheeses of all different types in the fridge. Yum! I love cheese. I had one crepe with a fancy cheese and blueberries. It was amazing. I had another one with Nutella and banana slices. We were all content with happy stomachs after the meals was done. 

Pork Chop Meal (Recipes 40, 41, 42, & 43)

I've gone and done it. I knew it would happen eventually, and it has happened several times, but there are always leftovers to make up for it. But not this time.

I forgot to take pictures of the meal.

Words can only go so far, and pictures complement the words in a complete way. And this time, there are no images to complement. And there are no leftovers to make up for it.

Oops.

I'll try and make this a quick post because who wants to read a lot with no pictures.

I decided to try a new meat and when I was shopping at Aldi the Pork Chops almost jumped out at me. Growing up I remember having Pork Chops quite often. No offense to Mom, but I remember them always being a little dry. We had them with applesauce and I would always smother mine in Apple Sauce in the hopes that it would give it some juice.

So, when I decided to attempt Pork Chops I wanted them to be moist and flavourful. I found a recipe that required three ingredients and I was sold.

The recipe:

• Pork Chops
• 2 Cans Cream of Chicken 
• 2 Cans Water
• 2 Packets Italian Dressing Mix (or Ranch)

Mix it up in the crock pot and cook for 4-6 hours and vwala. Easiest meal, perfectly tender. 

The next new dish was the Apple Sauce. Damarise actually put most of it together (which I am SO thankful for!) 

The Recipe:

• Apples
• Water
• Sugar
• Lemon Juice
• Cinnamon

Boil the chopped and peeled apples until soft. Blend together to get the apple sauce texture. Flavour to your heart's content and serve. 

I served the pork chops with sides of green beans (just from a can, nothing special) and hassle back potatoes. 

The Recipe:

• Potatoes
• Cheese
• Italian Seasoning
• Butter
• Sour Cream

Slice the potatoes down multiple times without cutting through. In each slice stick some butter. Then sprinkle seasonings and cheese over it. Cook at 400ºF for 20-30 minutes. For the last 5 minutes put a dollup of sour cream on top and let it bake into the potato.

The last new recipe was a roll recipe. 

The Recipe: 

• 1 cup Milk 
• 1/2 cup Water 
• 1/4 cup Butter 
• 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 cups Flour 
• 2 1/4 teaspoons Yeast 
• 2 tablespoons white Sugar 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 Egg

Mix together the warm milk, sugar, and yeast to proof. After proofing mix together with the other ingredients. Knead well. Let rest in a greased bowl for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes roll three little balls and stick them in a muffin tin. This makes them look pretty and they are easy to pull apart. 

Bake at 400ºF for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

The eaters for this meal were Micah, Matt, Caroline, Faith, Aaron, Davey, and Damarise. Seeing as I have no leftovers to take pictures of, I'd say it was a hit. It was fun having everyone over and fellowshipping together around food. 

And I promise, next time there will be pictures! This post is so lifeless without any. 

An Asian Meal of Sorts (Recipes 36, 37, 38, & 39)

It began on a weekend to St. Louis.

Correction, it began long before that. It began at the beginning of the summer when someone on Pinterest pinned a picture of a California Sushi Roll. The beauty in the deep, rich forest green of the seaweed fading into the blinding white of the rice, with the pop of colour in the oranges, lime greens, yellows, and pinks of the food in the middle, oh, it was enough to make me want to frame it. Except, I didn't really want that hanging on my wall. I really just wanted to see it in person. This took place in the early days of my "I wanna make 50 new recipes this Summer" spree. I went down to Walmart and bought sushi and chopsticks. And they sat in the cupboard for days. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into a month. And before I knew it they seaweed and chopsticks were just features in the cupboard. Not something to be eaten, but something seen every day, and yet forgotten.

Until the weekend in St. Louis. It was the weekend we went to Kevin and Virginia's wedding. (My old RA married another RA, precious!). It was during that weekend that Sonya's family graciously welcomed us into their home for the night. Sometimes, I am blown away by people's hospitality to complete strangers. The Spence family not only gave up their beds for us, but also fed us the most delectable foods you could imagine after a road trip. We showed up at their house and were greeted with the smell of something delicious cooking (and many warm hugs!). The smell was a tasty chicken dish and homemade cinnamon rolls for dessert. Oh! It was too amazing.

The chicken was an Asian chicken dish and it was so good that I wanted to try it. When I thought of what sides I would serve with the chicken I thought about the seaweed sitting forlorn in the corner of the cupboard and decided to just whip up an Asian type meal. Complete with fortune cookies at the end.

I made the fortune cookies first. In making them I found out that our oven had decided to stop working. Lovely. Fortunately, I have very generous friends who let me use their oven. Fortune cookies, unfortunately, are not easy to make. My cookies turned out like Unfortunate Globs. Here is the recipe... though I would recommend a different strategy.

Recipe:

• 1 Egg White 
• 1/8 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract 
• 1 Pinch Salt 
• 1/4 Cup Flour 
• 1/4 Cup White Sugar

Whip it together. Pour a little (enough for two at a time to cook) onto a well greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes at 400ºF. When they come out lay your fortune in the middle and bend into shape. This is easier said than done. I watched several YouTube videos on it... and well, you can see how mine turned out. (I would call this recipe quite the flop...)

The next part of the meal to prepare was the chicken. This recipe is so simple. I got home from work at 5:30 and had it ready by 6:00 (thanks to help too!). 

The Recipe:

• 1 pound chicken breast, skinned, boned, cut into 1”cubes 
• 1 Egg, beaten 
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch 
• 1/4 cup Flour 
•  2 Cups Oil for deep-frying 

Sauce:

• 1/4 Cup Ketchup 
• 1 Teaspoon Tabasco   
• 2 Tablespoon Sugar 
• 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock 
• 1 Teaspoon Cornstarch 

Combine chicken, egg, salt, and cornstarch. Mix well with hand. Coat chicken evenly with flour. Discard leftover flour. Set aside. In a small bowl, blend sauce ingredients. Heat oil to 400 degrees in wok. Deep-fry chicken a few pieces at a time until golden brown and crispy, about 2 minutes. Drain through strainer.

Combine ingredients for sauce in a sauce pan and pour on chicken (I doubled it).

This chicken turned out moist and flavourful.

The cabbage mix was a side dish that I made up and threw together as a side for the chicken.

The Recipe:

• 1/2 of a Cabbage (grated)
• 1 Onion diced
• 3 Carrots (grated)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

After the chicken was done cooking I used a little bit of the leftover oil and fried the cabbage and veggies in it. Add salt and pepper to taste and vwala, an easy, but good side dish. 

Last, but not least, the Sushi. Alas, I didn't feel gutsy enough to experiment with raw fish, so we kept it at fishless sushi. Maybe that's not a thing, but we made it one. Sonya cut up cucumbers, carrots, and avocados in perfectly thin slices. Next we lay out the seaweed sheet, piled on some sticky rice, and layered it with veggies before rolling it up in a perfect cylinder. 

The seaweed broke, and it didn't look perfect, but it tasted good. And sometimes the taste makes up for the poor visual display. 

I also served this meal with a quick and easy fruit salad thanks to a made a recipe from Dona Rosa in Mozambique. She always made it best, but I'm trying to get it the same. It's just papaya, bananas, lemon juice and sugar. It complimented the meal well. 

The eaters for this meal were the lovely Megan, Faith, Sonya, Matt, Jimmy, and Damarise. They were generous in not making fun of my sad fortune cookies. And had several helpings of the chicken (which is always a nice sign). I would definitely make the chicken again as well as the cabbage side. It was a fun night and a good filling meal. 

Slacking Off

It's happened again. I cook, cook, cook, and then leave this blog be for weeks on end. But, as with last time this happened,  I have a good excuse. Actually, I'm going to use the same excuse I used last time.

We moved.

Except it really is true. Damarise and I have settled into our 17th home (yes, we counted). And hopefully this one will be a bit more permanent. Hopefully a year if not more. It is a lovely home and we are excited to see what adventures will take place in this new home.

In the meantime, I have 15 more recipes to complete my goal. Here we go.

Carrot Cupcakes (Recipe 35)

Thursday I got to go into work at noon instead of 10am. That meant I had the whole morning ahead of me to do whatever I wanted. I woke up and wanted to make. I knew I had at least 6 over ripe bananas that would be begging to be made into some banana chocolate chip muffins. So, I moseyed into the kitchen, settled down with a bowl of cereal, a hot cup of coffee, and some Psalms to start my morning. 

After feeling refreshed and ready to start the day, I looked up on top of our pantry to find the bananas. Only, there were no bananas to be found. Damarise, bless her heart, had thrown them away the day before because they were attracting fruit flies, and she had every right to! However, I was in a baking mood, but didn't know what to make. 

I opened up the fridge and saw an enormous bag of carrots. And I knew exactly what I wanted to make. Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. Mmm. 

The Recipe: 

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder 
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda 
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon 
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt 
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Allspice 
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 Cup Sugar 
• 2/3 Cup Brown Sugar 
• 1/4 Cup Milk
• 1 1/2 Cups peeled, shredded Carrots 

Mix it all together. Pour into greased and floured muffin tins. Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes. 

When cooled, pull out of the tin, and ice. I whipped together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and some vanilla, and sprinkled the top with carrot shavings. It satisfied my baking crave, and left me with a delicious treat (that almost feels healthy too...).

Fajitas, Swirl Veggies, and Family! (Recipes 33 and 34)

This past week was a fun one and a full one. Our humble abode for the summer was filled to the max with Damarise's and my family coming for a visit. It was fun to have all seven of us under one roof again. I knew that while they were visiting I wanted to make a new recipe for them to try and have all our friends over so that our family could meet the friends we talk so highly about and vise versa.

However, as Wednesday dawned and the heat was exhausting (our air conditioning is still broken), I was clueless as to what I was going to make. I scoured Pintrest's food section hoping something would pop out at me. But alas, nothing did. And then, Wednesday morning, as I was waking up it hit me that I had plenty of chicken breasts in the freezers and too many tortillas not to make something Mexican. I've never made Chicken Fajitas and it seemed like an easy meal to prepare, plus a meal that would feed lots of people.

It did both.

The chicken was simple to prepare.

The Recipe:

• 12 Chicken Breasts
• 2 Green Peppers sliced
• 2 Red Peppers sliced
• 2 Onions sliced
• Pepper
• Salt
• Chili Powder
• Paprika
• Garlic Powder
• Fajita seasoning
• Water

Slice the chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Then slice up the veggies as well. Throw everything into a crockpot and fill half way with water. Cook on low for 5-7 hours. When the chicken is cooked, drain the water and add in the package of Fajita seasoning as well as other spices to taste. 

While that was cooking, I was trying to come up with a fresh summery side dish. I came across a picture of a cucumber, strawberry swirl dish that was beautiful to look at. I had a lot of cucumbers and strawberries and put them to use.

The Recipe:

• 3 Cucumbers sliced
• 1 Pint of Strawberries sliced
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• A pinch of Rosemary

Slice and arrange in a swirl and then drizzle the dressing over the swirl. Mmm. 

The meal was simple, easy, and fed a dozen people. I made some mango salsa to go on top of the fajitas. It was colourful and tasted good. 

The eaters for this meal are fabulous! All of my family (Dad, Mom, Damarise, Sarah, Ian, and Andrew), Jimmy, Matt, Faith, Janessa, and Sonya. It was such a joy to be able to have all of the family meet my friends who have been family to me. Before Dad prayed for the meal, he told our friends how thankful they are for each one of them and how much it means to them that Damarise and I have them in our lives and what a blessing they are to us. And how true he is.

My friends thank me a lot for having them over to eat, but I can't show my appreciation for them enough. Food is only a little way to say thank you to them for all they have done for me. They have blessed both Damarise and me in tremendous ways. They listen to us, encourage us, pray with and for us, laugh with us, cry with us, are abundantly generous with their possessions, and time, and continue to care for us no matter what. I am truly blessed and thank God for these friends.