Movie Wednesday: Push

Megan's turn again for movie night, and she chose 'Push'...

"The film centers on a group of people born with various superhuman abilities who band together in order to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in hopes of creating an army of super soldiers."

Yup. That's about it...

It takes place in Hong Kong, which meant chinese food again, which meant that this time Sam and I were going to attempt a couple recipes out of a really really old cookbook that belonged to my grandpa.

Handle with Care

Signed by the Author

No recipes, since it was all out of a book... but here's some lovely pictures!

Almond Guy Ding. A chicken chop suey with fried almonds.

Chicken chow mein

-Jess

Lazy, hot, monday Taco Burgers.

Still feeling too hot and lazy to cook for the most part, but we deliberated and decided to construct taco burgers. It didn't require an oven or the stove top, so it didn't heat up the Kitchen of Despair too much.

Taco Burgers - Easy

What We Used
(burger)

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 egg
• cumin
• coriander
• onion powder
• paprika
• basil
• chili powder
• breadcrumbs for consistancy

(toppings)

• Iceburg Lettuce
• 1 Tomato
• 1/4 onion
• 1 orange pepper
• 2 med avacados
• 3 cloves garlic
• Tortilla chips
• cheddar cheese (grated)
• sour cream

There was really no measurement for the spices in the burger... we just put them in until it smelled right. We mixed all of the burger ingredients together then formed the mix into patties. The mix turned a beautiful red color due to the chili powder and the paprika! Very lovely.

For the toppings, Sam made a pico de gallo out of the tomato, onion and pepper (she chopped these three ingredients into small pieces and mixed them together.)

Meanwhile, G (Sam's bro) made guacamole by smashing the avocados, the garlic, and some of the pilfered pico de gallo together.

The burgers were constructed with the shredded iceburg lettuce, burger patty (grilled on Sam's indoor grill) the grated cheese, guac (or just the pico de gallo if they didn't like avacado) tortilla chips and sour cream on homemade hamburger buns that Sam tried her hand at making.


These were seriously some of the best burgers I have EVER had the pleasure of eating! YUM!

-Sam and Jesso

Wednesday Movie Night and secret recipes!

No recipes tonight unfortunately, though I thought I would come and mention the interesting food we're going to be having tonight. Since we're watching Repo the Genetic Opera, we opted to do 'body part' food.

A blurb about the movie:

"The movie is set in the year 2056; 26 years after an epidemic of organ failures devastated the planet. Out of the tragedy, the biotech company GeneCo, run by Rotti Largo, emerged to provide organ transplants to the needy populace on a financial plan, making it affordable to anyone who needed one. Through his efforts, Rotti also got approval to create the Repo Men, assassins dispatched to deal with customers who default on their payments and made his company become a megacorporation, having influence from politics to fashion."

We're having ribs, a secret recipe from Jess' family that cannot be posted up here, but rest assured they tie for the best damn ribs I've ever had!!

There'll be spinach dip dyed red to mimic brains served in a loaf with a face, 'stomachs' which are actually just more of the infamous pizza bites and possibly other goodies to be had!

See you soon with more recipes and adventures from the Kitchen of Despair.

-Sam

Life and more Pizza Bites

Late update is late. It's been busy and hectic and stressful the last couple of days, there has been much A&W consumed and not a whole lot of cooking going on. We apologize...

Since Doctor Who isn't having new episodes until Christmas, we've decided to start watching Life, the newest in shows along the lines of Planet Earth and the like. We made pizza bites again, but this time with different fillings.

There's a pizza place that does amazing vegetarian pizzas, so we used the same vegetables and spices that they did in an attempt to mimic their deliciousness. We also decided to try bacon cheeseburger pizza bites!!

Hopefully this week will bring more delicious posts for you guys to try. Thanks for tuning in!

-Sam and Jesso

Beach Day, 40 degrees and grilled Souvlaki

After a wonderful day in the sun at the lake, I got the idea to do some sort of souvlaki for dinner since we have plenty of pork tenderloins still and some leftover ingrediants from movie night I've been itching to use.

Pork Souvlaki in Orange Yoghurt Sauce - Easy

What We Used:

• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• pinch of white pepper
• pinch of rosemary
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 orange, zested and juiced
• a dash of Worchestershire Sauce
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 2 cloves elephant garlic
• 1 red pepper
• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 onion
• 1 pork tenderloin, cut into medium sized cubes

I prepped the sauce first since I needed to put the pork into it right away. I put the yoghurt, spices, oil, Worchestershire sauce and the orange juice and zest into a bowl, mixing it all together and letting it sit while I cubed the pork. I then dredged the pork in the sauce. YUM. It makes such a lovely sound.

After that, I prepped the vegetables. I sliced the garlic and the pepper into thick slices, cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and then into half moons, and cut the onion into quarters, pulling it into petals.

After everything was ready, we broke out the skewers! You can layer them however you want, add whatever other vegetables you'd like or take things out if you don't like them. We ALMOST had exactly enough stuff for each skewer, but we still ended up with one that was only meat, onions and garlic.



We used our grill, but you can also use a barbecue to cook them, or broil them in the oven until the meat is cooked all the way through and browned however much you'd like.

We paired these with Crash Hot Potatoes, which are such a hit, I think they've become a staple in our house.

-Sam

Wednesday Movie Night!

Tonight's choice was made by Jess!! It's a hilarious comedy called 'Stiff Upper Lips' and it spawned the dinner theme of "English tea party."

Or something of the sort. There's a TON of food coming our way tonight, and we're contributing several items ourselves! Bread Pudding compliments of my little brother G, curry, lavender sugar cookies and cucumber sandwiches.

Here's a blurb about the movie:

"Emily is now 22 and ripe for marriage. Her idiotic brother Edward decides, in cahoots with Aunt Agnes, to pair her off with his upper-class twit friend Cedric Trilling. Emily has already had and refused a proposal of marriage from the local vicar Mr. Tweeb on the eminently sensible grounds that his eyebrows were too bushy! An accident at the family lake brings Emily very closely into contact with the naked, handsome, muscular, lower-class peasant George and she is instantly attracted to his ripping unmentionables! Seeing the undesirability of the match Aunt Agnes takes the family first to Italy and then to India to try to separate the lusty, ill-matched couple but George accompanies them as a servant. Will lust prevail or will Emily be forced into a loveless marriage with the extremely dull and boring Cedric?"

It's been a busy day already in the Kitchen of Despair!!

Lavender Sugar Cookies - Easy

What We Used:

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• lavender sugar* for garnish

I sifted together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set it aside. Then I creamed the butter together with the sugar, added the egg and vanilla and beat it till it was all incorporated.

I gradually added the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon instead of using the mixer, and eventually I just mixed it by hand since the dough is heavy and a little dry. I then shaped the dough into balls using one teaspoon of dough for each. I dipped the top of each ball into the lavender sugar before putting them onto the cookie sheet. We baked them at 375 for 8-10 minutes, or until they turned golden brown, then let them sit for a bit on the pan before moving them to the cooling rack!

Verdict?

Gaaaaah, it smells so good in here. These cookies are DELICIOUS!! Even the ones I overcooked. I'd definitely use this recipe again! Not too sweet and deliciously buttery.


*Lavender sugar is really very easy to make. You take blossoms from a lavender plant and put them into a sealed container with 1 cup of sugar. Keep it in a cool, dark place and use whenever you feel the need for something sweet and fragrant in your cooking!


Meanwhile, I trimmed the crusts off of slices of homemade bread to get the right shape for the cucumber sandwiches, and my brother used the scraps to make bread pudding!


G's Bread Pudding

What We Used:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups milk
• 1 1/2 loaf of bread

G mulched the bread in the food processor, whipped the eggs with the sugar and added the spices and vanilla. He then added the milk into the eggs and mixed everything together, adding the bread in and beginning to soak it. He moved the mix into a Pyrex loaf pan, letting it sit for half an hour. Then we heated the oven to 375 and popped the bread pudding in. It was cooked until a knife stuck into the center came out clean.

Verdict?

Sweet and spicy and very tasty! Too bad I was too full to eat more than a few bites.


The chicken curry was lifted from this recipe here, so no reprinting. The bread is the same recipe posted in an earlier post here on the blog.

-Sam and Jess

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Tonight I decided to make one of my favorite comfort foods. It's quick, cheap, easy and always always tastes delicious. And apparently, I make it better than my mom does.

Tuna Noodle Casserole - Easy

What We Used:

• 2 cans tuna
• 1 package egg noodles
• 2 tins mushroom soup
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 cups cheese

Put a pot of water on with oil and salt for the noodles. Cut the garlic into small bits and add it to the water. While the noodles are cooking, you can prepare everything else!

Open the tins of tuna and put them in a bowl, liquid inside included if it's tuna in water. It makes it taste better. Open your tins of soup and put them into the bowl. Mix the tuna and the soup together, then slice your onion up however large you'd like and add that in as well. Grate your cheese and stir into the soup mix. By now, your noodles should be finished.

Drain the noodles, then mix the soup and tuna mix into the pasta, putting it all into a casserole dish. Heat your oven to 375 and pop the casserole in. At this point in time, you can heat it until it's crispy or until it's gooey or until it's just warm all the way through, however you'd like.



I also added a few vegetables for substance. You can add them in, whichever veggies you think might go nicely, like red pepper or broccoli or tomatoes. Once it's finished, pull it out of the oven and enjoy!

~Sam

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Roasted Vegetable sauce

Today we took on something rather adventurous... Gnocchi!! This is a pasta alternative made with potatoes or other root type vegetables that is usually boiled and tossed with sauce or flavored butter.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi - Intermediate and time consuming

What We Used:

• 1 butternut squash, steamed and peeled
• 2-4 cups flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• onion powder
• 2 eggs

We cut and gutted the squash, then quartered it (it was pretty small) and tossed it in our lovely steamer. Once it was done cooking, it was set aside to cool. I got my brother to peel it for me while I was busy with the sauce, then he mashed the squash and set it to cool a little further. We mixed in two eggs, the spices, then started adding flour until we had dough the same consistancy as pasta dough.

After that, I cut the dough into small pieces and we rolled them into roundish shapes and squished them with a floured fork. This part is actually best done with a pot of boiling water on hand to put them in right away. *sigh* Unfortunately, I didn't think of that at the time and some of the gnocchi ended up sticking together in a glob.

We added the gnocchi to boiling water and waited for them to float to the surface, indicating they were done. Then they were scooped out and set aside. I oiled them a bit in preparation of baking them and to keep them from sticking together.

I baked the gnocchi at 375 until they were crisp and golden in color on either side, then served them with meatballs and the sauce.

Roasted Vegetable Sauce - Easy

What We Used:

• 1 orange pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove elephant garlic ( or about 6 cloves of regular, my current garlic is on steroids )
• 4 tomatoes
• corriandar
• basil
• oregano
• onion powder
• oil

To start with, I gutted the peppers and cut them into quarters, laying them in a baking dish and sprinkling them with oil. I cut an onion into quarters, removed the skin and pulled the whole petals off. I halved the tomatoes, cutting a shallow X into the bottom half to make sure the skin peeled back properly.

I put the garlic in the middle of another baking dish, put the tomatoes around it then tossed the onions in. Both dishes went into the oven at 350 degrees until the tomatoes were soft, the garlic was tender and the onions were crisp around the edges. The peppers took a little longer. I pulled them out when the skins were beginning to turn black and set both pans on the stove to cool.

Once they were cool enough to handle, I pulled the skins off the peppers and tomatoes, cut everything into large chunks and tossed it into a pot along with the spices. It simmered until the meatballs and the gnocchi were finished baking.

Verdict?



VERY good! The sauce complimented the slightly sweet gnocchi perfectly! And my curry meatballs were great with the whole dish. This is something I'd definitely do again!


~Sam

Crash Hot Potatoes and Beer Battered Cod!

Sam here with an update! We haven't been doing many posts lately, shame on us, and there have been many cheeseburgers consumed in the past few days. Boo!

But tonight, I stepped up and made what will hopefully be a delicious meal.



Crash Hot Potatoes (Sam Style) - easy

What We Used:

• 1 small bag young red potatoes, skin on
• coarse salt
• roasted peppers and garlic ( premade spice in a bottle )
• grapeseed oil

Boil the potatoes till they're tender but not too mushy. Oil a pan generously once they're finished and break out the potato masher!

Put the potatoes on the pan one at a time and mush them down, but don't mush too much, you're just trying to flatten them a bit. Once you're done pressing them, grab your salt and whatever spices you wish to use and sprinkle on top of the potatoes.

Finish with more oil and bake them in the oven at 400 until they're golden and crispy.

Beer Battered Cod - Intermediate (for deep frying action)

What We Used

• 1 package of cod
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup of Guinness ( you can use whatever type of beer you'd like, this is what we had )
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper
• 1 egg

Put the flour, spices and egg in a bowl and mix together a bit. Add in the Guinness until you've got the right consistancy. I cut the bits of cod we had in half since they were REALLY long.

Heat oil in a pan ( We used the Mok Wok ) and then dip pieces of cod in the batter and pop them into the hot oil until they're crispy and golden! Voila!

Verdict?
Holy shit oh my god.

And while we're at it, here's some long belated images...

Sweet and Spicy Corn Chowder

The Amazing Pizza Bites!

-Sam