the ultimate food for comfort

I've been down in the dumps lately. Way down. And although, I'm still not feeling all that, this has made me feel a little better, if only for a split second. Why, with all the butter, cheese, white bread, and milk, how could it not? This is Martha's mac-n-cheese stolen from this wonderful website. This is the second time I've made it, only the first time it was better because my croutons were smaller, which, in 6 months (because that's how long it'll take to work off the calories), I will make that way.

I guess my trip home to Hawaii has made me even more homesick to go back. This, in turn, has strengthened my desire to win the lottery, so I can breathe in the salty air from the porch of my imaginary beach front cottage. Working at my job with all its crazy management issues has not helped any. I need another vacay, a forever long trip to the spa, where I can receive lomi lomi massages everyday and pay someone to remove my blackheads (again, another reason to win the lottery).

Instead, I'm off to wal-mart to buy hangers and bleach. Maybe, I need another smidgen of that mac-n-cheese.

THE hulagirl meatloaf

I've had many meatloaf disasters. I don't know why. Meatloaf in a pan, free form meatloaf, ground sirloin meatloaf, I've even tried turkey meatloaf, all of them disappointing. I've been on an Alton Brown kick lately and we've had this recipe, once already this month, and I've got another one in the oven as I type. Forewarning, a good size food processor helps, which, I don't happen to have, so I've had to grind up my stuff in batches. Yes, it's good enough for me not to even have to dig down deep and find the patience for that. Oh, and this makes a lot of meatloaf. It could feed a couple for a week, I bet they would make awesome sandwiches.

Filipinos have a version of meatloaf called embutido which I love and my mom used to make. They roll theirs up like cookie logs, wrap them up in foil, and steam them (I think). Some of the things they mix up in their embutido are raisins and whole hard boiled eggs. When sliced, it makes for a succulent presentation.

I added a few things to Mr. Brown's recipe. The first time, I added just a bit too many croutons so I had to add an extra egg. This time, I didn't have enough meat, and dumped in the croutons before even thinking about it, so I had to do the same thing. I also added a pan of hot water while I baked the bad boy, so it wouldn't dry out too bad. I omitted the cumin in my half of the ketchup sauce, just because, well I think it kind of smells like B.O. but, the hubby, loved the cumin.

This happens to be a free form meatloaf, you can use a loaf pan if you like. I wasn't too concerned with the cracks, because it is just that good.

been away for awhile...

...from blogging, from life. My work schedule + my road to hypothyroidism = no energy. I would never wish ablation therapy on anyone. The day I get off of a night shift, I sleep, wake up and eat, sleep. I've got a stretch of days off lined up so I've got some energy. I've been keeping the house clean, I've even been cooking, I just haven't had the will to write about it.

Since memorial day weekend, our grocery store has been in the dumps. I was aching to make hot milk cake with strawberries but gone are the wonderful, quadruple size containers full of strawberries. In the last two containers I picked up, every single strawberry was good. This recession/depression/whatever we're going through has seemingly depleted our produce supply at the store. I'm going to try tomorrow, I think Tuesdays are shipment days at our store.

I'd like to share the secret of the best rib eye ever. Alton Brown and his recipe, right here. I will never ever enjoy a steak on the grill as much as I enjoy this. Tonight we had it with pan sauteed spinach and buttermilk mashed potatoes. Using the same pan I cooked the steaks in, no cleaning involved, I added just a wee bit olive oil, browned some garlic, then a whole bunch of organic baby spinach. A whole bunch. I tossed with salt and pepper to finish. Very simple. Very yummy. I didn't have room for the mashed potatoes, and I usually eat those first. Below, a shot of my husband's plate. He refuses to use our white plates because they aren't round.

Roasted Chicken Breast with Broccoli Casserole

I've been going through a lazy blog spell. It must be the nice weather (I swear we have had one of the longest winters ever), or I may still be recovering from working because I'm getting that old. In college, this was a go to meal for my boyfriend (now husband) and I as it would feed us for a couple of days. I would season chicken breasts (preferably bone in skin on, but we couldn't find any this week) with s&p, paprika, cayenne, pan sear and finish roasting them in the oven. Then, I'd serve it with our most favorite casserole dish, broccoli casserole. Yum. I'm sure you can google it and find plenty of recipes, I happen to not measure, but I'll give you a general idea of what I toss in:

• -Frozen broccoli florets
• -1-2 cooked, shredded chicken breasts
• -1 can cream of mushroom soup
• -a few squirts of mayonaise, hmm, maybe 1/4 cup?
• -one lemon squeezed, add zest if you're feeling zesty
• salt & pepper, to taste

Mix this all together, butter a casserole dish, and place mixture in dish. For topping:

• shredded cheddar cheese
• Fried onions from a can

Bake for covered, 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Remove cover for the last 15 minutes of cooking to get a nice crust. Enjoy.

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chili & cornbread

When I think of chili, I dream of Zippy's (the diner on every corner in Hawaii) meat chili over sticky rice. I was introduced to Zippy's chili after my mom would buy buckets of them for school fundraisers. I thought it was fine time, since my hubby had been asking me to, to make my own kind of chili. After searching long and wide, reading plenty of reviews, I decided on this recipe. Initially, I questioned the use of 1/4 cup chili powder and tomato juice, but, was very pleased, with the addition of a can of zesty diced tomatoes. The spices make this recipe. I decided to pair the chili with some cornbread and I found this recipe for La Beth's Vanilla Cornbread via the foodnetwork.com. My husband has some snotty feelings towards cornbread. To quote him, "just make enough for yourself, because I won't be eating any of that dry stuff." This stuff uses a whole tablespoon of vanilla so, once I got it in the oven and it started smelling all vanilla-ey, he asked if he could have a bite. And, just after one bite, he became a snotty cornbread convert, "I only like this kind of cornbread." Now, I don't know if it's because I used a dark pan (note to self: invest in an 8x8, light pan) but, the cornbread tested done about 20 minutes in, half the time, suggested in the recipe.

I used the whole chili recipe, but it makes a ton, and I mean a ton of chili. This would be great for tailgating. I was afraid my six quart cast iron pot would over flow (thank goodness it didn't). I'm excited for fall and football season, we will definitely be having people over for this one.

puppy love & penne

This is probably my favorite pasta salad ever and I can pack it for hubby's lunch for a few days. Red Meat, carbs, AND cheese, a hungry girl's heaven. Add a glass of wine and it's a hungry buzzed girl's heaven. This recipe is adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' Penne With Beef & Arugula. I didn't use a ny strip as the recipe stated, I gave my hubby our list this week and he came home with a bottom round steak (it must have been on sale or something). Instead of herbes de provence, I seasoned with a spare coat of olive oil, rubbed a clove of garlic, s&p, and some fresh thyme. He also came home with organic extra virgin olive oil and I thought it tasted much fruitier for some reason. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's different. This time, I also added parmesan cheese shavings, though I think it is better without. We've been into whole wheat pasta for awhile now, so that's what we used here. Arugula is a staple in our fridge, nice and peppery and a great alternative to spinach; for both we usually use the baby organic variety. To the right, a close up.

I took a picture of my puppies while they were waking up from a nap and I thought they were just really cute (I'm way more than just a little biased). The brown little sweet looking thing but really is a little bratty miss priss, is Ella. The laid back likes to get into dirt (she happens to be white with spots) and gets two baths a week is Reagan, yes, we try to scrub her nose twice a week too. They need to go to obedience school, but discipline seems to be something that's a problem between my husband and I, which totally negates the idea of obedience school. I hope we learn in the future or we will NOT be having the four kids I dream of. 'Till next time. I've got some yeast stored in my pantry, a rarity around here maybe cinnamon bread or garlic knots?




Ella girl


Reagan bear

On top of spaghetti...

This past weekend we delivered 8-9 babies in 24 hours. Usually on the weekends we get lucky if we deliver 2 or 3. Of those 8-9 babies, we shipped 2 of them to tertiary care facilities and kept 2 or 3 in the nursery for additional observation. This meal had just enough carbs to give me energy for the week's chores, and then some.

I would have a picture of this meal for you, except that I can't find my camera charger, despite hubby and I's wild search. Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs, for dessert I made a bittersweet chocolate souffle. It was my first time ever making a souffle and I have to say that except for the 15 dishes I used, it wasn't as difficult of a feat as I imagined. Folding the egg whites in though, were a bitch, maybe I whipped them too hard? My camera battery charger is always in one place and now we can't find it. We have searched all the closets, the garage, I have even looked in all bathrooms, and still, no charger. Hubby did take a few pictures with his cellphone, which he hasn't emailed yet, oh well. I'm going to Staples today to buy a universal charger; fingers crossed. If I do find one (score! to the right, cold spaghetti & meatballs), I'll post a picture of the leftovers.

For the Spaghetti & Meatballs, I saw Ina Garten making her version on Food Network the other day, but I did not have fresh bread crumbs, nor could I find parsley (I don't like parsley anyway), curly or flat leaf. Usually, my grocery store has bunches and bunches. Also, I was too lazy to go to the meat market just to get a 1/2 pound of veal (though I bet that would be yummy). So this is my take on it. I must say it makes for a good Sunday evening meal.

For the meatballs:
1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb ground pork
1 cup of panko
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (can't spell, don't have the parmeg...reg..package in front of me)

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 dashes each of dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary (or your favorite herbs)
1 large egg
3/4 cup warm tap water
salt and pepper, season liberally

Mix all of the ingredients together with your hands. Roll them into 2" meatballs. Saute them in the same large pot you're going to use to make the sauce with some oil on medium heat in some batches. Don't worry about cooking it all the way, it will finish in the sauce. Drain on paper towels. Another option if you don't want to fry the meatballs, is to bake them in the oven on sheet pans.

For the sauce:
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 (28 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes
2 tbls sugar (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
fresh basil, chiffonade
spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente

fresh grated parmesan cheese

Saute the onions until translucent, add garlic. Add crushed tomatoes and sugar, stir, then add in the meatballs, salt & pepper. Let simmer for 25-30 minutes. Add basil and noodles, get some tongs out and mix very well. Serve and garnish with some parmesan cheese. Yum.

For dessert, I used the Bitter Chocolate Souffle recipe from epicurious.com. I have decided I must have gotten to the grocery store the day before a shipment because I also could not find haagen dazs nor Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. I just picked up kona coffee ice cream instead. It was a chocoholics dream, which my husband just happens to be. He had been complaining that I was making too many fruity desserts, so this was for him. It was very rich and I could only eat half of mine.

In eco news, I no longer have an excuse to use plastic bags. After seeing these on Food Maven , I ordered these and got them yesterday. I must say they are awesome, I'm afraid I won't be able to figure out how to fold them back (because that's the kind of airhead I can be), so I'm practicing. I'm keeping these in my unusually large purse. I really want the retro kitchen pouch for my car, but I'll have to wait for my summer bonus. I'm so longing to move to a place with a swap meet or farmer's market so I can stroll, shop, and plop them in these.

i have been missing dinnertime for two nights now...

When I work nights, I sometimes go sleepless on my first day off to do my grocery shopping or to watch the Today show (with the occasional mimosa or two or four). This week has been extremely rough because I got off of Monday ran errands and fell asleep at one o'clock in the afternoon and woke up at 9 o'clock at night. My body has adapted to this schedule for the last few days now waking up only to see my husband soundly in bed. I'm working this whole weekend so to cover part of his meals while I'm at work and to make up for not being able to spend time with him, I made his favorite: meat & potatoes. This version happens to be Thyme Crusted Bottom Roast & Roasted Potatoes with Greens. I have to apologize for these pictures, I need to work later on tonight so I didn't have time to wait for daylight in order to take these pictures. The nasty fluorescent lights in my home made for yucky photographs. The bottom roast was on sale so I picked it up.

The night before, I coated the roast in some olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, some minced garlic, and a hefty sprinkling of thyme (hubby's second favorite herb to cayenne). We have roasts probably once a month and this is my usual method of marinating. When it came time to cook, I set it in the oven at 325 degrees F, stuck the handy dandy meat thermometer that plugs into my oven and set the internal temperature to beep at 160 degrees F. While it was cooking, the drippings made a wonderful au jus and my husband was surprised at how tender it was.

I decided to make these potatoes to use the left over baby spinach in the fridge. I generally followed the recipe except I used olive oil instead of butter, and, I used Italian seasoning except for rosemary (though I've used fresh rosemary on these before). I usually don't have sea salt on hand and find that kosher works just fine. In the end, I tossed the potatoes with a grating of Parmesan cheese. We make these potatoes so much that I don't really even need to look at the recipe anymore. They are really good with company and an awesome alternative to mashed potatoes. They are especially good with garlic prime rib. Fresh spinach always wilts down to nothing so use plenty of it! I'm sure you could use any potato here and now that I think about it, I might try it with Yukon gold or fingerling potatoes next time. Here's another shot of the potatoes amongst my dinner mess.