Going Green: Holiday Card 2010

Every year my mother composes a beautiful, informative holiday card.  This year, I opened MY big mouth and offered to help her make an e-card to save the trees.  I forgot that I have NO experience with making slide shows - let alone movies!  I think I'm going to stick with learning to cook because there is no way I could tell you how I arrived at this final product...

Please press play to enjoy the movie.  To view it larger, press the button with the arrows in the lower right hand corner. 

Mamma's Turkey Chili

It's the middle of November and it's still 70 degrees out - where is fall?  The leaves are changing color and falling to the ground, but the air is still so warm. I need to move back east STAT!

Boyfriend loves football - I guess most men do, but his Sundays consist of sitting on our couch watching every single game on television.  Me being the girl I am, cannot stand to watch football ALL day, so I have vowed to cook something on Sundays to take up some time and keep me entertained while the boy is glued to the television.

This Sunday boyfriend put in a request for chili.  I reminded him that it's still sunny and 70 degrees outside, but he insisted it was time for chili and rice (one of his favorite meals).   Boyfriend and I both love the mother goose's chili, so I did my due diligence and emailed Mother Goose for her recipe:

Ingredients
2 pounds ground turkey 
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 large garlic glove, minced
1/3 cup chili powder 
3 cans red kidney beans 
3 14-oz. can tomatoes
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 


Method
1. On saucepan over high heat, cook ground turkey, green pepper, onion, and garlic, stirring frequently, until all pan juices evaporate and beef is well browned (about 15 minutes). 
2. Stir in chili powder; cook 1 minute.  Drain liquid from kidney beans into meat mixture; reserve beans. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, tomato paste, water, salt, sugar, and bay leaf; over high heat, heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in reserved kidney beans. Cover and simmer 15 minutes longer to blend flavors. Discard bay leaf
4. Serve with brown rice & cheese

Browning beef with pepper, onion, and garlic

Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, tomato paste, water, salt, sugar, and bay leaf

Kidney beans reserved for later

The whole mixture before boiling

Adding the kidney beans 

 Boyfriend has a very specific way of putting the chili in the bowl....
* Not sure why these pictures turned out so yellow though. ugh

First comes the brown rice 

Then the cheese 

And then finally add the chili on top

Mix it all up and ENJOY!! 

Boyfriend attempted to make this recipe one time when we lived in Boston, but he somehow switched the chili pepper and cayenne pepper.  Yep, he added 1/3 cup cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon chili powder... To say that chili was spicy is an understatement!!!  We added a bunch of sugar to the chili because it's supposed to balance out the spicy, but it was still pretty hot.  Luckily one of our friends really likes spicy food, so he had enough dinner to last him a week.

This batch had the right amount of ingredients added and it was scrumptious, even if it does still feel like spring! I'm just happy to have something to keep me busy while football Sunday continues. Until next week...

Fresh in The City

A few weekends ago, I had an out of town guest visit me & San Francisco for the FIRST time.  No pressure to show her a good time....  So we took the ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco. 

The picture above was not changed in any way... this is REALLY what Alcatraz looked like from the ferry!

When we got to the ferry building, we went to the extravagant farmer's market.  First Stop: bakery 

Check out the colors of these veggies - amazing!

some organic dried fruit

I tasted these pears... they were delicious!

This picture actually got taken by accident, but didn't it turn out cool?

weighing the fruit 

Sometimes you feel like a nut... 

I just love the way these squash look

I actually really hate the way this lettuce tastes, but it looks cool 

Ready for fall 

More baked goods - I just cannot resist

These sandwiches caught my eye - my favorite!  lox & cream cheese

Boyfriend's favorite: artichoke & brussel sprouts

Who knew this is actually how brussel sprouts grow?  so cool

More pumpkins

Ginger settles your stomach :)  YUMM

The pretty Ferry Building.  but check out how grey that sky is!

Edible Flowers

Can you tell it's fall yet?

I call these edible weeds...

For some reason, I love taking pictures of pomegranates.

yummy looking persimmons 

my favorite smell - lavender 

Circled back to buy a lox & cream cheese sandwich.  SO DELICIOUS!!!

Lox, cream cheese, onion, capers, & heirloom tomato on a slice of sourdough - DELICIOUS 

We ventured into the ferry building and visited Blue Bottle Coffee.  As you can see, each cup is prepared individually so it takes a while, but it is SO worth it!!!!!!

The one in the middle is mine.

After all the tasting at the farmer's market and the delicious sandwich, it was time to move our butts up to Union Square to do some shopping before taking the ferry back to Marin.  

Just another wonderful fall day shopping & eating around the city with good friends.  What else could a girl ask for?

Lasagna

My favorite lasagna comes from New Hampshire.  It's made in a cozy kitchen in New London by an amazing lady.  

The cold weather has spurred an early craving for her delicious, cheesy lasagna.  Due to the fact that I now live on the "wrong" coast, I had to try my skills to re-create boyfriend's mother's specialty.  For the purpose of this blog, lets call the lasagna master "D".  

Now, I can make pasta and sauce NO problem, in fact, I think I could even call it my specialty.  So I figured lasagna would be no problem. Right? Wrong!!  I e-mailed D for her recipe.  She sent back  instructions  like I knew what I was doing... Also WRONG!  In fact, because the e-mail didn't say so, I didn't know I needed to cook the noodles before I layered and baked them.  After a little insight from boyfriend, I headed out to the grocery to pick up the necessary supplies.  

My mom made home-made sauce with tomatoes from dad's garden (not something readily available in NH).  I defrosted the sauce and browned turkey.  I combined the meat into the sauce to make an easy meat sauce. Check!

D's e mail said to mix the ricotta cheese with an egg.  I was a little put off by this, so I looked it up.  Turns out everyone mixes an egg with ricotta cheese to make it easier to spread.... okkkk. 

I bought fresh mozzarella and sliced it up.  

I then put down the first layer of tomato sauce

Step #2: the noodles 

I stuck a dollop of ricotta cheese on each side of the noodles  

  

and added a bit of sauce to spread the ricotta cheese out evenly.  

Then, as if laying bricks, I filled in the cracks with mozzarella.

I repeated the layering process until I reached the top of the pan and then added the remaining mozzarella to the top. 

I put the lasagna in the oven to bake for about an hour.

Boyfriend came home from basketball a VERY hungry boy.  He was so anxious to try the lasagna, he refused to let it finish baking, and removed it from the oven after about 45 minutes.  Since everything was cooked before it went into the oven, I didn't see any food safety issues with taking it out early.  

I personally like my lasagna a little crunchier on top and at the edges.  Since this one didn't get to bake the full time, it was a  waterier and more runny that I would have liked.  

As you can see in the picture above, the whole thing was kind of watery.  I'm unsure if it's because of the short baking time or because I used home-made sauce from fresh tomatoes.  I will have to try again the next time I want lasagna.  OR I will hop on an airplane to New Hampshire and have the REAL thing with some REALLY great company!  


Boyfriend and I have to plan our trip back east soon... I definitely cannot make it through winter without lasagna!