Tag Archives: eating

Happy grocery shopper

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Grocery Savings

So, I cut coupons. I shop the sales. I subscribe to Grocery Game.com (thank you, Heather). You feel like you beat the system somehow.  Here’s a post from last year. (For my family, who might be reading, just click on the underlined word “here’s”.)

Today, not only did I beat my record, I had the strangest encounter at the grocery store that I frequently visit. The cashier seemed really irritated with all my coupons; she is also not the cashier I regularly “visit”. I like that I have a “favorite” cashier, and certain check-out lines we like to go to. Maybe she was having a bad day, but here I was, just looking to pay for my goods and there she was telling me (with an angry European accent), “You have too many coupons…” Then she continues to say something to the affect that I’m practically paying nothing… and sounding mad?! That’s right, lady! And I’m proud of it. Hey, mind your business, scan them in and get me out of here. Why are you getting upset with my shopping habits?

Sometimes, during the car ride home, I’ll calculate in my head how much I saved, but I waited until I could sit with a calculator this time. Retail cost: $112. I paid about $62 and some change. 43% savings, hooray! I had $23 in cut coupons, and another $26 in “store savings” like those preferred card deals, buy 1/get 1, and non-advertised price drops. I only wish I had my coupon organizer with me, because I would’ve bought more… lots of non-advertised deals/price drops/clearance deals for the next week.

Anyhow, things I got for free: 2 boxes of Wheat Thins-Artisan, 24 oz. Hunt’s ketchup, Wholly Salsa, 1 lb. Italian Sausage, bag of Tostito scoops, Breyer’s Ice Cream, Soft Scrub liquid cleaner

Cha Chiang Mein

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Julie at the cooktop

My mouth was watering after watching a segment on Martha Stewart’s Noodle Show.  There was this little Chinese lady standing over the cooktop with a big wok and speaking in broken English.  “We make, uh, dish, Cha Chiang Mein, uh, like, uh Chinese spaghetti.”  Awesome!  Note: We really like this dish at Yu’s Mandarin in Schaumburg.  However, the dish on television was more like home-style cooking.  Yu’s Mandarin has a sauce that’s as dark as mahogany and as thick as molasses. We’d probably be afraid of how much soy sauce is actually in it.

So, I looked up the recipe on Martha Stewart and tweaked it to how we would make it, with what we have.

Cha Chianh Mein ingredientsChinese cooking wine

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped fine
  • 3 cloves garlic (I’d use more next time), minced
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 lb. spaghetti

Sauce

  • 1-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. black bean sauce (found in Asian stores or aisle)
  • 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce (not the same as plum sauce)
  • 2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine (white wine)
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 tsp. sugar

Cook spaghetti according to directions.

Prepped onions and garlic

While pasta is cooking:  Prep your garlic and onion.  Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl or mixing cup.  Should be about 1/2 cup of liquid.  Heat up the vegetable oil in your wok or pan over med-high heat.  Add garlic and onions, saute until they become slightly translucent.  Add sauce mixture and stir until heated – a few minutes.  Add ground pork and break it up as it cooks.  Continue stirring/breaking up meat until water/liquid has evaporated.  Meat should look dark/seasoned.  This will be about 10-15 min.

Cooking Cha Chiang MeinAdding pork

Finishing the Cha Chiang MeinCha Chiang Fan instead

Serve meat mixture over spaghetti, but in my case, I had white rice available.  So now it’s Cha Chiang Fan instead of Mein.

Chocolate Croissants at home

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We like shopping at Trader Joe’s and after my husband’s cousin told us about this, we had to buy it! These 4 little croissants are packed up in a box and frozen. You take them home and let them proof overnight. These puff balls were 1/3 the size you see here. Seriously.

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Here’s what they looked like after baking. You can’t see it, but there was a river of butter winding its way off the pan. That’s a hint to how they tasted.

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The downside is, there’s so much fat in these little babies that we probably won’t buy them too often. They were almost too rich, but they’re sooooo tasty. Maybe if we have guests…

Another Cajun Cooking Session: Red Beans and Rice

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If I haven’t made it known by now, I love cajun and creole cuisine. I’ve been trying out gumbo recipes, and red beans and rice recipes. My husband makes a really nice jambalaya, non-tomato based (creole). Ah, comfort food.  So far, here is the recipe for red beans and rice that has worked out the best for us.  It’s similar to Tom Fitzmorris’s recipe in his cookbook.

Serves 4-6. Cook time: 3 hours

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1 lb. dried red beans

**Rinse, sort through beans. Soak beans overnight in cold water. Drain in the morning and add new water. Drain when you’re ready to cook.**

1 lb. bacon (used smoked rib bacon from a local deli), cut into small pieces

6 cloves of garlic, minced (practically 1/2 a med-lg. garlic head)

3 ribs of celery, chopped

1 small-medium pepper (red, yellow, green – your choice), chopped

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. dried savory

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp. Frank’s hot sauce

1 or 2 small smoked pork hocks

Optional: smoked sausage (kielbasa)

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Fry the bacon in a large pot or Dutch oven (I love our red Le Creuset, except I didn’t use it here) until crisp. Save for later. In the rendered fat, saute garlic, celery, pepper, and onion until it begins to caramelize. Add the drained red beans and 12 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. Add savory, pepper, bay leaf and hot sauce. Add smoked pork hocks. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours, stir occasionally.

Cooking down the liquid

After 2 hours, ladle out some beans and mash them up, then return the beans to the pot. Stir around, and I let the beans cook for one more hour. If you want the dish to be more creamy, spoon out more. Add more water if the beans get too thick. Salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the red beans over cooked white rice (not sticky Asian rice, but firm “piece-y” long grain). Garnish with the crisp bacon and a little parsley if you have some. We like to also serve smoked sausage along with the red beans and rice.

Lunch for Tomorrow

Filipino Food websites

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It’s interesting, of all cuisines in Asia, I think the cuisine of my peeps, Filipino, might be one of the more unknown. It’s definitely not publicized much. I mean, you don’t see many Filipino chefs with cookbooks in the United States, do you? Maybe not so much in Chicago. (Yet another possibility to go public with my family cookbook idea. But that’s for another time.) There aren’t Filipino dishes featured on Food Network. No Iron Chef Filipino.

Some people immerse themselves in their heritage by studying artwork, architecture (which I love), cultural history. I’m enamored with this idea of researching the history of Filipino FOOD. I only know that there is a lot of Chinese and Spanish influence in the dishes. I’m curious, too, being a foodie, why are the dishes cooked the way that they are (more technique of cooking like braising when I might roast), use of spices (or lack of), but that’s going pretty deep into food theory, I think. I’m not sure I could name five quintessential Filipino dishes. There are so many islands, local flavors… but then, I wonder, why it isn’t as defined as oh, the Chinese? There’s Szechuan, Hunan, Fujian, Cantonese, Mandarin… they are very defined. So what is Filipino cuisine? I’m on an adventure to find out…

Here are some websites I’ve found in the last few days. I’ll be reading more I’m sure. When? In between diaper changes and preparing meals.

http://www.filipino-food-lovers.com

http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net

http://overseaspinoycooking.blogspot.com

http://www.pinoylifestyles.com

Update: pics of my chicken afritada… the kids ate it up.

Chicken AfritadaPlated Chicken Afritada

Candied Orange and Lemon Peels…mmmm

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Over the weekend, a friend brought over the most beautiful lemons from her parents’ lemon tree. Note, we’re in Illinois. Her parents’ tree is in Arizona. She was sharing because her folks had a bumper crop this spring. My friend was greeted by 3 dozen lemons… what to do, but share! She mentioned juicing the lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays. Then she mentioned saving the peels to candy them. Aha! Lemon, citrus, orange, citrus… helloooo?! I thought it’d be delicious, AND I was planning on making some candied orange peel this week. I’m experimenting with frozen peels; thawing them first and then continuing with the typical recipe.

Just type “candied orange peel” in your favorite search engine and there are tons! They’re all basically the same. Mine isn’t that different.

  • Peels from 4 – 6 oranges (this time around, I also had 2 lemons): The peels were in sliced sections and the pith (white) was already trimmed. You want very little pith, but I still leave a but. I sliced these into 1/4″ strips. The lemon peels were smaller.

Using a 3-1/2 qt. pot, I filled it with about 4 cups of water. This should be enough to cover the peels. Heat until boiling, then add the peels. Blanch the peels for about 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat, drain/remove the peels (I just used a slotted spoon not a colander), discard water and repeat. You will blanch the peels 3 or 4 times. This is to soften the peels, but more importantly, to remove the bitterness. It sort of cooks out, cooks down any pith, too.

After 1st blanch

After 1st blanch

  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • Extra granulated sugar in a separate container for dipping

In your clean, empty pot, combine the water and sugar. Heat until you get a rolling boil. You can use a candy thermometer, and heat until 210 degrees. Add peels, boil for a couple minutes, and then lower heat to a simmer. Continue to simmer peels for 45-60 minutes, or until peels are translucent. (I’ve read recipes where they only simmer for 30 min.)

Remove peels after they are to your liking and dry on a cooling rack. While still warm, dip the peels in sugar and lay out on the racks to dry. I like to leave them out overnight. The next day you can take the dry candied peels and dip or drizzle with chocolate!

Don’t discard the simple syrup that is in your pot. Keep in the refrigerator and use for iced tea! Delicious!

(Note: The fresher the fruit, the softer the peel. I like thicker skin, but just make sure to blanch less if the peel is really young.)

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