Recipe Chaos

*sigh* That's what I live in.

Aside from my cookbooks, the recipes I've printed out or been given over the years are all stuffed into a recipe box. I've been telling myself for years that I'm going to organize my recipes into a three-ring binder, categorize them, and make a professional-looking cookbook for myself. I would ideally like to have a picture of each recipe on the page, make sure each recipe fits onto one page, and use page protectors to make those inevitable smears, smudges, and stains disappear.

I can never begin the process, however, because I'm waiting to be inspired by a kitchen theme (do I want it to be "cute-sy," rather formal and elegant, French-like?). So I don't start because I don't want to decide halfway through it that I want to change the theme.

Maybe sharing this with you will inspire me to "just do it" like the Nike commercial. I am thinking deep red and greens, "Frenchie", with some floral something. Maybe I'll start today by coming up with the cookbook cover in Photoshop. It'll have to be cute-sy because I can't draw to save my life. I'll just have to stick with their shapes. Maybe I'll do that.

I'll probably discover some recipe gems that have been hidden in the chaos of my recipe box for several years, untouched because I couldn't get to them. It'll be fun to resurrect old recipes. :)

And then maybe I'll share my fabulous design (tongue-in-cheek!) when I come up with it. I really want it to make me smile when I look at it--you know, for those days when I'm soooooo not motivated to be in the kitchen preparing the 3,456,978th meal for our family. ;)

Eggs, Cheese, Sausage, Tomato = Yummy Breakfast

I found this recipe years ago while browsing the web for a breakfast casserole-type dish. I found it on bbonline. I absolutely loved it the first time I made it, and it is always a hit when I make it. It's called Sherri's Frittata. The link to all their recipes is to the right (click on innkeeper's recipes).
The 13 x 9 size is too big for my family of four, so I just half the recipe and use an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.

I also brown some Jimmy Dean sausage and add that to the mix. I just thought it would give it extra flavor.

In case you don't want to click on the link above to get the recipe, here it is.


Sherri's Frittata


12 eggs

2 c low fat cottage cheese

1 c Swiss cheese, shredded

1/4 c feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 t. salt

2 or 3 large tomatoes, sliced

3/4 c Parmesan cheese, grated
5 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 13" x 9" baking dish. Whisk together eggs, cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, feta cheese, salt, and garlic. Pour into prepared baking dish. Slice tomatoes and lay on top of egg mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until mixture is set.

Makes 10 large servings.

If you want to add sausage, I just brown 1 package (I think it's 1 pound) of Jimmy Dean sausage (you know, the same way you would brown ground beef--I just break it into bite-sized pieces, brown it, and add it to the egg mixture before adding the sliced tomatoes and Parmesan.

This recipe is very versatile. For example, I rarely have cottage cheese on hand. This morning I happened to have cream cheese, so I just substituted cream cheese for cottage cheese. I'm in no way insinuating that cream cheese is any kind of substitute for cottage cheese (in fact, I highly doubt it), but in this recipe it works. I didn't have feta cheese, so we'll just do without it this time. I accidentally added the Parmesan (actually, it's Romano cheese) with the egg mixture. It's all good.

I like to serve it with fresh fruit (this morning we have fresh sliced strawberries and Ranier cherries. If it's a brunch, you can serve it with your favorite muffins, fruit juice--for an extra special brunch you could even serve it with sparkling cider, mimosa, or any of the many fancy breakfast drinks that I don't even know exist. A fancy salad might be nice as well. And if you have meat-loving young males in your house that scowl upon seeing the casserole and ask (in a grouchy voice), "What?! Why couldn't you just make sausage for me?"--you might want to break out the extra sausage and make a few sausage patties. :) Sage advice from a woman who's been in that position. What is it with men and their meat?! :)

AWESOME FREE Shopping App

As I previously posted, I've been looking for a good free phone app for grocery shopping. I downloaded an app, but wasn't completely satisfied with it. Then, while talking to my sister, she told me about her grocery app & even though I just downloaded it today, I'm loving it.

What's the app? Out of Milk. Pretty creative title, huh?

What I love about it?

• it's FREE!



• you can scan items and the program can read the barcode and enter the item intothe grocery list instead of typing each item in manually (although it doesn't work for off-brands).


• according to my sister (but I haven't tried it myself), you can sync it and send it to someone or share it with them--so you could make the list, "share it" with your spouse, and they can do the shopping. Cool, huh? Apparently, as I was reading the webpage, these features are on the Pro version, which costs about $5 (one-time fee).

I'll tell you more when I get more familiar with it, but so far it looks like a keeper.
Here's the webpage where you can get more information about the app or download it. This is the download page for Droids.
If I have any readers, I would love to hear what are your favorite shopping apps.

Menu Planning

Do you regularly plan menus? Or do you prefer to just wing it? I must say I wish I were the type of person who could just open the fridge, look at the "cast of characters" and figure out which ones will make a great combination for a delicious, healthy meal.

BUT, I'm waaaaay too much of a control freak for that. I go through seasons where I completely let menu planning fall to the wayside and live in the constant chaos of daily grocery store trips and wasted money until I can stand it no longer--then, and only then, does my frustration of wasted time and money override my laziness and I begin a season of menu planning ... until the drive for order, organization, and frugality lessens and laziness drives me to "just this week" forego the menu planning. However, even as I am telling myself it's only for one week, there's a small, naggy voice in my head reminding me that the past several times I've used the "just this week" excuse, that was the beginning of the end of menu planning for a few months.

This week I could take the chaos and frustration no longer. I sat down and wrote a menu for the week. Here is what we are eating for breakfast and dinner this week (if you can read my chicken scratching!). I don't plan lunch because we eat leftovers or something simple like sandwiches, quesadillas, etc.

I love this menu planner. I usually type it on the computer and print it out, but when I saw this menu "pad" in my son's fundraiser from school, I was excited and intrigued--I love the idea that the menu and grocery list are attached, but detachable. Sometimes I go to the store, look at an item on the grocery list and ask myself, "WHY am I buying this?" And I'm very tempted to skip that item because it must be a mistake. Then later in the week, I'm confidently preparing a meal (very proud of myself that I haven't had to go to the grocery store in a few days), only to realize that that bizarre grocery-list item was a critical ingredient in a meal I'm in the middle of preparing. This way, when I'm confused in the store I can just look at the menu and go, "Oh yeah, that's why I need this product." When I'm done grocery shopping, I throw away the grocery list and post the menu on the fridge so I don't have to hear anyone asking, "What's for breakfast?"/"What's for dinner?" Then I don't have to listen to them whine when I tell them what we're eating.

However, I have very recently started using a phone app for my grocery list. It's really cool. I'll post more about that another time. So the grocery-list side of the menu stays blank. I'm thinking I should use it to post notes on the fridge about changes in our schedule, love notes to the kids, etc. You know, "Waste not, want not." Yes, I was raised by a mom who grew up during the depression.

Tour of my kitchen ;)

Just because I'm always curious (no, I wouldn't prefer the term "nosy"), I thought I'd humor your curiosity and show you my humble kitchen. Well, maybe not too humble--it was waaaaay more humble before we remodeled it a few years ago. Truth be told, I love my little kitchen, and still find myself in awe over it on a very regular basis several years after the remodel.

Here's my kitchen. It's very tiny (well, maybe not so tiny compared to Manhattan standards)--10 ft x 9 ft.

That's it. This is where the culinary magic happens. Yes, that was totally tongue-in-cheek. I could very easily have said "This is where the culinary foibles happen." This kitchen, if it could talk, would confirm that both take place on a fairly regular basis here. ;) My children would also readily testify to the veracity of that statement. Gotta love children. They do keep you honest.

Well, as much as I hate to be a party pooper, it's time to shut this party down and get some shut-eye.

Fridge Inspiration

Last week Ashley and I ventured into the dark, scary recesses of our fridge and cleaned it out (actually she cleaned out the fridge--which was no small task, trust me!). Here's a pic of her handiwork:

Neat, huh?

My favorite part of the task? While cleaning out the forgotten science experiments, she looks at me with an expression of disgust and says, "We need to do this more often." I thought, "Go for it--anytime!" It is amazing how liberating it is to open the fridge and freezer and see everything neatly organized. That one change has perked me up so much. I would desperately love to be one of those people that enjoys organizing and keeping everything tidy, but I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I will always look at those people with envy, but never know what that life is like ;)

While cleaning out the freezer and sorting through all the "oh, I forgot about this" meat products (I'm sure I'm the only one to have those moments!), an idea occurred to me. I decided to challenge myself: I am on a "Have It? Feel Free to Use It" Challenge. The parameters? I can only use what I have on hand for all meals as much as possible. That means that with some recipes I'll have to improvise. Obviously that doesn't include staples that need to be replenished on a regular basis: flour, sugar, eggs, milk, etc. I've been on this challenge for a week now and I haven't had to buy meat for a week. Yay for me! Well, that's not exactly true--I did buy breakfast sausage today for breakfast tomorrow. BUT, other than that, I haven't bought meat and I have not bought very many side items either. I'm so excited! I'm going to see how much money I can save this way. The Challenge has been made much easier because we have corn, carrots lemons, and oranges in our backyard. So I've been able to get a few "free" side dishes on our menu as well. It is quite challenging, but I'm constantly looking at our leftovers and trying to figure out ways to "re-invent" them.

I am hoping (and I think it's working) that this concept of "use what you have" (which is probably normal for most people) is going to revolutionize meal planning and really amp up the creativity factor for my cooking. It's going to stretch me in ways I've never thought about before.

For example, I made a menu this morning (I'll share it later this week), and while I was in the kitchen I opened the fridge, checked the blueberries and realized they were not going to wait patiently for Saturday (when I had planned to use them for breakfast), so I decided to alter my plans and make blueberry muffins this morning or I'd have to throw the blueberries away and waste money.

Here's a pic of the muffins. They were seriously among the best muffins I've ever eaten. This recipe is fantastic. I found them on the blog "Your Homebased Mom." Here's the link for the muffins. And they look pretty, too. My picture does not do them justice. Trust me. Her pics on her page look MUCH nicer.

Tomorrow, breakfast is homemade Sausage McMuffins (minus the egg--too lazy) and hot chocolate. I have to fill their tummies full because we're going to be at Disneyland all day with my sister and her family, and we're not paying their prices for food. We're packing drinks, lunch and snacks (I look forward to the backpack getting lighter as the day progresses! "You said that you're thirsty? Sure, I can get you another juice. No problem" *wink, wink*).

Why a Kitchen Blog?

A lot of reasons. First and foremost, I have learned so much from the online world, that I want to give back; and since I get A LOT of compliments on my cooking, I thought I would be able to contribute small amounts of wisdom here and there. ;) Let's hope so!

My vision for this blog is to share my everyday kitchen stuff that we all go through--the exciting successes, disappointing failures and frustrations, shortcuts, tips. techniques, tools, organization (although I'll be the first to admit that's not my strength at all!), and projects I take on related to the kitchen.

Where did I learn to cook? My mom is Italian, and as you probably know, it is a REQUIREMENT that all Italian women cook well, so she passed that on to her kids. My mom was my first teacher. Then I also have to give credit to the Food Network. I mean, who needs culinary school when you have amazing chefs sharing their secrets on a regular basis?! I learned so much from Emeril, Rachael Ray, Giada, Paula and Barefoot Contessa. I have to say that's when I began to "get cooking" beyond the basics of simply following a recipe and tweaking it here and there to suit my family's taste. What the Food Network chefs did for me is open my mind to the creative possibilities of cooking and encourage me to risk improvising.

So this will be my place to record all things kitchen-related, and hopefully someone out there will benefit :)

I'm excited to start this journey. Ta ta (until tomorrow!)