little miss galettey mcfancybritches

good morning, campers! 'tis tuesday (already?! where does the time go?) and it's a fantastically stormy day here in tallanasty. the air is a weird pink colour almost as if a hurricane was on its way (though, when that happens the air is a weird green colour; but i'm pretending a little today). stormy days are always my favourite. don't get me wrong, a sunny day is great. but nothing but sunny days all the time is the epitome of boring in my book. i would be miserable in southern california. all that bloody sunshine and cloudless skies?! ick. grody. give me a good stormy breeze, and a nice old fashioned thunderstorm. mississippi is the same way (except he loves san fran). methinks we have a future on the new england coast, or seattle, or london. mehopes anyway.well, i'm here to post my galette recipe challenge. it was delicious! well, it still is. it made a huge dessert (especially for just two people who don't eat much dessert) to tackle. regardless, it was incredibly delicious. tart and cinnamony with a buttery flakey crust. wowza. i would love to make it with berries for the holidays. yum!

okay so here's how it all went down (and excuse that there are not any "prep" pictures; my cameraman was unavailable for the prep time photography).

steps 1 & 2: get two 9" refrigerated pie crusts (from the biscuit section of the grocery store) and stack them on top of one another on a floured surface. roll them out until it makes about a 16" circle. then move it to parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread apricot preserves in the center of the circle leaving a good 2.5" border. the recipe called for 2" border but it did not seem like enough upon execution.
steps 3 & 4 & 5: cut up three apples (i chose jazz apples because they are tart and i really don't like super sweet apples), and three pears (i chose green bartletts, but i think the red ones would be delicious too). then splash lemon juice across the fruit and sprinkle in several pinches of all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, and cinnamon. i get a little heavy-handed with cinnamon because it smells sooooo amazing. mix it all up and plop it on top of the apricot preserves. then pull the 2.5" border around the fruit, making kind of a bread bowl, if you will. leaving the inside open, then brush one egg around the pastry so it gets all brown and crispy when it cooks.

steps 6 & 7: sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top then bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 55 minutes. while that is baking, put several big spoonfuls of apricot preserves in a sauce pot with a little bit of water and several spoonfuls of sugar. note: i don't like to be all measurey, sorry. let that simmer down into a glaze of sorts. after the galette bakes, pull it out of the oven and brush on the apricot mixture. let everything cool then ta da!! dive in! i highly recommend using a pizza cutter to divvy it up. it's just easier. try it, it honestly is so easy and looks so nice when it's done (that it seems waaaay more gourmet fancy pants than it really is!). try it for the holidays, it is super delicious and quite impressive.

later lovies!

~lu

thursday night recipe recap

happy monday friends! things are good at the nest. we had a long weekend of celebrating mississippi's birthday; therefore i am a little behind in posting my culinary experiments. thursday night's dinner was a major major success. it originated from real simple (which has been the trend last week), but i tweaked it to give it some kick. as per usual i added a ton of ginger and several dashes of cayenne. so i made chicken tortellini soup and here's how it went:

steps 1 & 2: sliced green onions and shiitake mushrooms in 6 cups of chicken broth. i added salt & pepper and grated ginger and cayenne.

steps 3 & 4: i cut up three chicken cutlets into cutes and boiled them in salted water for a few minutes and also cut up five small organic (and peeled) carrots and boiled them in water with more grated ginger.

steps 5 & 6: i added packaged cheese tortellini and tore the leaves off of some of the remaining stalks (heads?) of romaine. let it all bubble and swirl around together and prepare to be dazzled!

financial breakdown to come!

adieu for now, friends!

~lu

a new recipe, a new challenge

good morning, kiddos! happy wednesday! i started a new project this week in which i cook a new recipe every night. it makes me feel like less of a putz that i don't have a jobby job yet. well, i added a challenge to this project, considering the money is rather tight in the ortolano household. so, my challenge is to make a recipe i find online (or in one of the cookbooks from my obscenely large cookbook collection) for ten dollars or less. i'm also trying to use up as many ingredients from my own pantry as possible. so, here was what i made yesterday (once again from realsimple.com):

ginger chicken meatballs with edamame on rice

steps 1 & 2: mix shallots and grated ginger in with ground chicken with salt and pepper, then form meatballs. cook meatballs in olive oil until cooked all the way through. it takes a little while.

steps 3 & 4: cook rice in a separate pot while you sautee edamame (and snow peas, says the recipe, but i forgot about them completely and you know what? they weren't missed). i sauteed the beans in a little bit of chicken broth and soy sauce, and sprinkled brown sugar on them as they browned a little.

then you are done! ta da! gingery chicken meatballs and edamame on top of rice with brown sugar-sweetened soy sauce. delicious!

this got a high rating from mississippi. i concur entirely (though the soy sauce and brown sugar make it a little rich) because the ginger in the meatball has a fantastic bite. really fresh and yummy. try it out. it's really quite easy and filling.

as for the financial total:

soy sauce: i used remaining packets i had saved from a few chinese takeout nights over the past few weeks and bought an extra small bottle just in case that wasn't enough. but if you don't have any of those left over (though i think there are some in every american silverware drawer i've ever seen), then it costs around $1.39.

ground chicken: $3.29 (thankfully, because it was the least expensive option in my grocery store's poultry aisle).

green onions: $0.40 (for one bunch and there is quite a bit left over).

ginger root: for a small container of ginger root to be used in several more recipes to come! $1.99

brown sugar: i already had some in stock but if you don't, it ranges around $1.49

instant rice: i like to use brown but they cost pretty much the same. the brown added a nice nuttiness that i think added to the recipe more than plain white rice would have. $1.49

so if you have to buy everything it ends up being $10.05; but if you happen to have some of this on hand, then even better. i got out of the store for around $7.07! try it out friends!

adieu for now,

lu

testing recipe!

so i tested a new recipe from realsimple.com, and it teased me with its potential deliciousness the entire hour i was planning to concoct and create this. it was hearty and tasty, however a little bland; and given a few tweaks to the recipe (which i will test again at a later date) it could be unbelievable. anyway, i consider it a successful first go-round. here is the cheese ravioli and chicken sausage marinara cassoroley thing.

steps 1&2: cheese ravioli boiled and drained, chicken sausage sauteed in olive oil. (i added garlic and a ton of salt and pepper).

steps 3 & 4: toss the ravioli and sausage in marinara sauce and add grated mozzarella. bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

ta da! add a lot of seasonings and maybe cook the sausage in the marinara sauce (for a good long while) to give it more flavour. also, maybe add enough thick sauce to make it like a lasagna. then perhaps we will achieve culinary perfection!