Coming Back

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted!! I have been very busy with sports and school but now im on my off season and I'm very excited to get back to cooking!

Braised Brisket with Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, and Chocolate Mousse

Hello there, sorry it has been awhile since I have posted,like I have and will say, I'm only a teenager, but alas, we meet again! This Sunday was Mothers Day so I hope you all wished your mothers a good day and didn't have to be reminded (cough cough). For the festivities I decided to cook my mom a meal for her special day, but of course I chose, since it had to be one of my D.S recipes and it would be much easier for me to find a recipe for her then to show her how to work the D.S., although I love her dearly, technology seems to be her weakness! With those matters behind, I settled on a braised brisket with homemade mashed potatoes and asparagus, and for desert, chocolate mousse. As usual, I started off my cooking adventure for the week at the grocery store to acquire the ingredients necessary, like the brisket,asparagus,potatoes, etc... all was fine until I made my way to the produce section and low and behold there was no asparagus to be found! With much regret, I had to settle on frozen asparagus. Now, the cooking of the meal was much easier then the previous dishes I have cooked. I think what made it seem easier was that I took breaks and spaced out the dishes and didn't do everything at once, future advice for myself. The brisket had to be pre-cook/browned then cooked for 3 hours in the oven in a dutch oven with onions, chicken broth,beef broth, whole bay leaves( to be removed later, thyme, white wine ( supposed to be red), and flour. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were prepared in the original way except the asparagus was broiled and then topped with fresh lemon juice to add some extra flavor to the plain veggietable. The chocolate mousse was deffintly the hardest to cook because you had to be delicate with the whipped egg whites and whipping cream while "folding" them into the melted chocolate and egg yolk mixture, my advice would be to use semisweet chocolate to make the mousse a little sweeter. As a result of my tedious work was a happy mother on mothers day and full stomachs for the whole family. The brisket was the hit of the night making it my best dish to date! The rest of the meal was spectacular but I would deffinitly use fresh asparagus because the frozen tends to be limp and not crisp. This meal was deffinitly my favorite. That is it for now! Tune in next week to see what I cook next. Wish me luck on my cooking adventure
Chef Elena.
Hunger is the best sauce in the world.
Cervantes

Slow Cooker Chicken with Herbs and Cream and Lemon bars ect...Aftermath

Its Two days after cooking slow cooker chicken with roasted potatoes and lemon bars and my family is craving for more! The chicken in the slow cooker was cooked to perfection, to the point that it was falling apart. The onion and mushroom pre-sauce permeated into the chicken awesomely and the after-sauce of whipping cream and tarragon was the perfect compliment to the strong flavors of the onion and various herbs. All in all the chicken was another hit but it was again, very time consuming, taking 4 hours to cook and 1 hour to prepare! The roasted potatoes were decent but the next time I cook them I would use yellow potatoes and peal the skin. Roasting regular whole potatoes makes the skin tough and hard to chew and therefore not too appetizing. The Creamy italian dressing was excellent from what my parents tell me since I'm not a salad eater but they said it could use a little less oil. LEMON BARS, the hit of the night. Thankfully I made extra, because everyone wanted seconds and thirds! Even though the lemon was strong, the sweet crust neutralized the bitterness of the lemon. I will deffinitly be making lemon bars and slow cooker chicken again! That's it for now! Come back next week to see what recipe Im going to tackle next! Wish me luck on my cooking adventure!

Chef Elena

Non-cooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.
Julia Child

Slow Cooker Chicken with Herbs and Cream with Roasted Potatoes ect...

I'm back!!! I know it has been almost a week since I have posted on here but I have been busy with lacrosse and school work, it's Sunday though and that means I am completely free! Today I am planning on cooking a slow cooker chicken with herbs and cream, roasted potatoes,lemon bars,and a homemade creamy Italian salad dressing. It is going to be a long day of preparation considering the many things I want to cook! I hope my dreams are not too big and I can get everything done in a reasonable time for dinner. My mom is on her way home from O.U. for mom's weekend (my two sisters are up there) , so I'm on my own for all the preparation and grocery shopping. That's it for now, I'll be posting tomorrow to let you know how the dinner went! Wish me luck on my cooking adventure!
Chef Elena
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright

The Aftermath

So it's the day after my first day in the kitchen and, drum roll please, it was a giant success! Last night was a quiet night because what used to be filled with conversation was now filled with the sounds of forks scraping plates, and "yum's". The grilled mozzarella sandwiches and strawberry shortcakes, although time consuming, really hit the spot. While creating my "little masterpieces", as my mom would say, I learned how to roast peppers, which was a lot easier then I thought it would be. The tapande, which is an olive based sauce that goes on the sandwich for flavor, was a little difficult, due to the many ingredients needed, but what is an adventure without a little bit of a challenge! In the end, what could have been an average grilled cheese sandwhich and store bought shortcake was given a twist by creating it myself. The tapande gave the classical grilled cheese an almost "Panera" taste and the homemade shortcake got rid of that old spoungy cake! As for tonight my dinner consisted of the faithful Chipotle because I was busy with Lacrosse and therefore unable to cook anything. I have big plans for future dinners but at the moment I'm pretty busy, so I will try my best to squeeze in a meal or two during the week ( I hope I can make more). That is it for now! Wish me luck on my kitchen adventure!
Chef Elena

First day in the kitchen

I recently received the "America's Test Kitchen, Let's Get Cooking" D.S. game for my birthday and after watching the new movie"Julie and Julia" I became inspired to start my own little cooking adventure. Although I am much younger then "Julie" and far less busy I still would like to create my own challenge and further my interest in cooking. I have always enjoyed cooking and I believe this is a good way to enjoy it even more. My mom "Carol" will be helping me along the way with various recipes and of course financial support ( I am only 16). For my "cooking challenge" I would like to "cook my way through" the "America's Test Kitchen, Let's Get Cooking" D.S. game. There are 300 recipes and I hope to get through all of them. During this experience I hope to open my taste buds to a variety of new flavors and try new things like seafood(ugh).My deadline is nonexistent at the moment because I ,unlike Julie, am doing this as more as a hobby.
It is my first day in the kitchen and I could not be happier. I was able to search around my game today and see what recipes I would like to start out with. After an hour of searching I settled on a recipe for a "grilled mozzarella and red pepper sandwich" and "strawberry shortcake". I will have to go to the grocery store to get most of the ingredients, like capers, fresh thyme and parsley for the sandwiches. Tonight will be interesting and I hope all goes well on my own little Adventure through a virtual Cook Book. Wish me luck!
Chef Elena