Has Kevin Been in the Kitchen????

The answer is....
Yes and No!

I've been in the kitchen cooking but I have a new schedule I am trying to get used to. So while I've been cooking...I haven't really been doing anything interesting.

Most of you know what has happened to me. Having been unemployed for 15 months was tough. But doing this blog helped me think about other things than not being able to contribute money to the family income.

Then in March I got a job with a major beverage company who have a call center here in town. I didn't like it as the pay wasn't very good and the hours were terrible. I had to cook dinner in the morning and didn't feel I could be creative or even somewhat experimental in the morning as what I made had to be reheated as if it were leftovers. It cramped my style.

Then 6 weeks into that job I got a call from a company for a job I had applied to 10 months prior. It is in the field for which I have over 20 years experience and the pay and hours were much more to my liking. So I am trying to settle into a new schedule.

What's great about it is that I can actually start cooking like I used to and hopefully I can be a little more creative with what I make. One little caveat though...my son is being more careful about what he is eating (low fat, low calorie) since he is trying to lose weight and get into better shape (Keep it up son!) and then my daughter is expecting our 2nd grandchild and her food tastes have been changed (for now).

Anyway, enough about me (the reason I haven't been active in doing this blog) and on to something better....food.

My family and I love Chinese food. Recently we went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Fortunately (or unfortunately) it is more than 35 miles away from where we live. So it was a really nice treat. One of the appetizers we got were for lettuce wraps. So I tried to duplicate it. I think it turned out pretty good. Here is a picture of it.

I made a side of shrimp fried rice (well the rice isn't really fried, but it still tastes great). Nothing too special there. Here are the recipes.

Well. hopefully now that things are a little more settled in life I'll be in the kitchen more and back to my somewhat foodie life. And, I hope to get back into the swing of being on my blog.

In the meantime, try this recipe and leave me a comment if and when you do. Tell your friends about this blog, share your recipes with me. Follow me and like me on Facebook.

I'll be in the kitchen again soon!

A taste of Italy

I've never been to Italy. I would love to go there some time to see all they typical touristy places. But mostly I would love to go to get a taste of real authentic and homemade Italian food.

I know that there are some pretty good Italian restaurants here in the good ole US of A, but just like any food unless you get to the actual source, it is not quite the same. We have friends in Chicago and Anna is from Sicily. We have tasted some of her food and Oh my goodness! What a difference.

Anyway, here is a recipe that I adapted from a lighter recipe from a weight loss site. It is called Italian Sausage and Pepper Rigatoni. Here is what it looks like:

The WW recipe called for Turkey Italian Sausage, reduced fat Parmesan Cheese and Skim Milk. However, I prefer the regular sausage, cheese and milk. But if you want to have a lower fat meal, go ahead and substitute the other ingredients. Here is the recipe:

I will also tell you this makes a large portion of food. You can easily get 8 to 10 portions out of it. It reheats well for leftovers. I made this for some friends of ours who were missionaries in Italy and they said that it was something they would've eaten in Italy. So that made me feel pretty good that I had made something that was in the right direction.

So give it a try and let me know what you think about it. Also, I know I keep saying this, but send me your favorite recipes and why you like them and how they are important to your family. I want this blog to be a place where we all can share our favorite meals and the recipes to make them.

Please post comments and also follow me on Facebook. Subscribe to me and get e-mails when I post a new recipe.

Enjoy!

Until my next post, I'll be in the kitchen.

Chicken Love

So here's another chicken recipe that I think you'll all enjoy. I called it Spiced Honey Mustard Chicken. It is a twist on the classic Honey Mustard Chicken. This recipe incorporates a couple of spices you might not think would go together, but they do and they do so quite well.  What are those two mystery spices? Curry Powder and Ground Coriander. Here is a photo of my last batch made.

This is one of those go to recipes when you want a flavorful chicken recipe. I've never tried to use the glaze when grilling outside. My guess is that it would be great. So once I get a chance to go out back and grill some chicken, I will give it a try. In the meantime, I'll keep using it in the oven. Here is the recipe:

I also usually pair it up with another family favorite, Elizabeth Randolph's Potato Casserole. She was my best friend's mom when I was a teenager and she made it quite a bit for our church's pot luck dinners (I love church pot lucks by the way...) It is sort of a baked potato in casserole form. When it comes out of the oven and you dig in with a serving spoon...I love to see the steam rise off of it. You can't see the steam in this pic though....  :-(

I actually love to add extra Green Onions. I've never made it with Bacon in it, but I bet it would be delicious too. It could then be called a Loaded Baked Potato Casserole. Oh...I guess I just gave you an idea to "create" your own recipe. If you try it, let me know....just make sure you give me credit! Here's the recipe:

So, if you're looking for something else to do with chicken give this a try. The chicken does take an hour to bake so it can't be a last minute throw it together meal.

Let me know if and when you try these recipes. Follow me on Facebook, subscribe to my blog, leave comments and tell your friends.

Until next time, I'll be in the kitchen (after I get some groceries first...)

Are you kidding me?

Brown Butter Brown Sugar cookies....that is all....'nuf said

Ok...I guess I'll say a little more....

I first had these about 13 years ago at a friends house. The other night Sharon said she wanted something with a cup of tea and guess what came to mind? Yup, you guessed it...Brown Butter Brown Sugar cookies. Why? Why after 13 years did you have to rear your ugly but oh so yummy BBBS head?

So I succumbed to the temptation and made a batch. Should I have fallen to this delectable taunter of taste? No...I am weak when it comes to them.

Once you taste these cookies you too will be a big fan. Here's the recipe if you dare try them.

So I am giving you fair warning. These are highly addictive. If you choose to accept this mission...after you make a batch, burn the recipe (no don't do that I don't want to be blamed for your kitchen fire).
Just put the recipe at the back of your recipe box or file or wherever it is you keep them. And don't go back and look for it. Don't answer their taunt when they whisper your name the next time you want to make some cookies. They will call out to you. Resist...stand strong my friends.

And above all, DON'T BLAME ME!

Until next time, I'll be in the kitchen (trying to resist making these cookies again for another 13 years!)

My first post featuring Kevin's Famous Chili and Basic Cornbread

Awww snap! I just entered the blogosphere and this is awesome. Look at me I'm swimming. Weeeee! Now I'm doing somersaults. Ewww...I'm getting a little nauseous. This weightless thing is a little freaky. Oops, my laptop is floating away. I'd better get it. Let me get my helmet back on.
There that's better. Oxygen deprivation isn't to be played with. I'm feeling more normal now.


That was corny I know.


So, a blog about food. I'm told that doing a food blog is a fairly new concept and that there may only be a handful of them out there, so I'm glad I'm on the ground floor of this whole food blogging thing. Maybe I can help start a new trend.


First, let me introduce myself to you. Hi, I'm Kevin and I eat food. You can find out a little more about me in the aptly titled section "About Me". Its right over there. Betcha didn't figure that one out...


So you may ask "Why a food Blog?" That is a very good question. I'm glad you asked. Here are my top 5 reasons for doing a blog about food:


1) I eat food.
2) Some of my friends have blogs and so I thought to myself, if they can do it then it should be easy-peasy for me.
3) No one else is doing the food blog thing.
4) I eat food.
5) I like to cook.
6) I'm bored


OK, top 6 reasons.


So there ya go.


By the way, before I venture too much farther into this post, let me first give a huge shout out to, a big thank you to, tons of hugs and kisses to and all the other mushy stuff I can think of giving to my daughter Erin. She is the one who inspired me to start this blog in the first place. She is a blogger herself. She is a writer extraordinaire and has her own blog. I know I mentioned it in the "About Me" section, but it is a little buried in there, so here is her site: www.fiercebeagle.com . I highly recommend reading it. It is superb. And to top it all off, she spent a lot of time helping me design the web page (OK...truth be told...I just came up with the title of the blog, she did all the design work. She doesn't get her artsy fartsy gene from me. Can I say artsy fartsy on a blog?)


But the main reason I want to do this blog is to share recipes. I think we all love to eat something and say "That was delicious! Can I get that recipe?". I am guessing that many of your favorite recipes (like mine) came from some other amazing home cook. And then over time, we make little adjustments to them here and there and pretty soon, we have our own recipes. I bet you a ton of cabbage (the veggie kind, not the money kind) that is how most recipes have come to being over the course of time.


So I want all my friends and family to start sending me your favorite recipes to share with everyone. This could be a good place to preserve those family recipes from the past that have just been written on a piece of paper or card that is now covered with food and barely legible.


So just a few rules to put in place before we get this thing really rolling.


1) No foul language. However, fowl language is not only appropriate but highly encouraged.
2) No critical remarks about food styles, techniques or tastes. This is not Iron Chef, Top Chef or Chopped. We are all just home cooks who want to share our family's and friend's recipes. Nothing more and nothing less.
3) I know the photos are not professionally done. Even though I love photography as a hobby, I still have things to learn about aspects of photography I know nothing about. Food photography is one of them. So the pics are what they are. I will take tips and help, so don't expect highly stylized and professionally shot photos (unless you want to come here and do it for me for free). I don't have the gear or money to do much more than what I do already.
4) If you send me a recipe to share with everyone, tell us all a little bit about it. Why it is important to you, what it means to your family, who made it and when. I know I would love to hear those stories.


So since this is the Thanksgiving season, here's my first recipe. Chili and Cornbread...what says Thanksgiving more I ask?

I believe this recipe started out as something my mom made (not entirely sure). But over the years I have made little subtle changes to it and have the recipe now to where I like it. It has always been a hit at church potluck’s or for other gatherings (Super Bowl Sunday, etc).

For me, chili is one of those foods that is comforting and good any time of the year. I made it a lot in the long winter months when we lived in Chicago. But sometimes I just get a hankering for it and whip up a batch.

Unfortunately, this recipe doesn’t call for much spice as most of my family have what I like to call “Gringo Mouth” (gringo as defined by dictionary.com means a foreigner, especially of American or British descent…hence the gringo mouths in my family). As well as that, anything too spicy and my wife will get glossitis (also known as geographic tongue). I’m quite disappointed with her condition as I was hoping to see a map of Ireland appear on her tongue when she eats spicy food. But to date, nary a round-about has yet to appear (read my About Me to see who I married). So, if you want/like your chili hot (which I do), you will either have to add some cayenne or chipotle powders or replace the Poblano peppers with Jalapeno or Serrano peppers. For the truly adventurous add Habanero peppers (you’ve been warned!). Or add your favorite hot sauce after dishing it out (or if you’re truly insane, add everything listed above).

Click on the pic below to get a larger view of it and click on the recipe cards below to view and print them if you wish (they can be printed on 4" X 6" card stock).

 

 

So what goes better with Chili than Cornbread? Ummm, nothing that I know of. So here is my recipe for Basic Cornbread. My family like to eat plain cornbread occasionally. But they prefer cornbread with a little sumpin' sumpin' in them. So at the bottom of the recipe card, you'll find some additions to the basic recipe. I have some additions for Honey Cornbread (the darker cornbread) and Jalapeno Cornbread.

Click on the pic below to get a larger view of it and click on the recipe cards below to view and print them if you wish (they can be printed on 4" X 6" card stock).

 

So, here it is folks. My very first (and hopefully not last) food blog post. Let me know what you think. Try the food out and give me your feedback om it. Share your favorite recipes with me and the story behind it and I will share it with everyone else who reads this blog.

Most of all, enjoy the food. I look forward to hearing from you.

Until then, I'll be in the kitchen.