Vicky Learns to Cook

I have no time to be writing this. But I have to share this really quick. I made dinner in a very short time ( who has time to time it, really?). We had flat iron steak, and pesto asparagus pasta. You see I had left over spaghetti noodles from making Spaghetti Bolognese a couple days ago, and I wanted to get in a veggie. So I did this: Throw the flat iron steak into a pan of olive oil, sear. Next grab a bowl, plop the spaghetti in it, microwave 2 mins. Then cut the back end off the asparagus, toss it into the compost bowl ( we have  bin but you need to collect it somewhere). Cut up the asparagus on the bias because I'm fancy. In a pot, add butter and olive oil. Put the asparagus in the pot and add a tablespoon of pesto. Stir frequently. Flip the steak, cover, and turn down the heat. Add the pasta to the asparagus when it's done and toss. I added more pesto here, maybe half Tbsp. Top with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and toss again. Take the steak out of the ...

This morning I had a pared down version of a really fabulous lunch that I ate in Houston. The meal was Eggs Benedict but it also had fried oysters. I love fried oysters. They have this sweet crunch from the fried breading, and then you get this briny taste afterwards. So so good. Now pair this with poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, and an English muffin. There was what I assume was meant to be Canadian bacon but came off as a super thin pork chop, so I skipped that part. (Dude it was grey. Let the Michiganders & Canadians show you how Canadian bacon is done) You can see why this meal would be really tasty, however, I'm not interested in buying a bigger size pants, so I pared it down: I still poached two eggs But in a frying pan next to it, I put a large oyster in with some oil and butter and added chopped red pepper (this provides the sweet taste I'm looking for without the fat from the sauce and the fried breading). It's different than the meal back in Houston...

Have you ever started a project and got about half way through and started thinking: what was I even doing here? The more I thought about the last post, the more I realized: I just taught you how to take a chemically laden box of cake mix and condense it by not adding the water to make brownies. Genius. I feel bad. The original intent for this blog was to help you understand how to eat well in order to avoid cancer -- at least the part where it is possible to prevent it. And yet I took the easy road and then blogged it. Great idea, use one thing for another in a pinch, but not the boxed stuff. So then what do I do about it? I am hereby redeeming myself by offering a cake mix and a brownie mix made from scratch.  You can make them ahead for when you need cake or brownies and it will cost less this way. Plus you don't have the chemicals and since they are dry mixes you dont have to worry about spoilage. (This is why nuts are part of the wet ingredients; they go rancid ...

You are craving brownies but alas, there is no mix and it's dark out! You don't really want to go to the store, and you have cake mix. Is there such a thing as conversion from cake mix to brownie? Why yes, Virginia, there is a brownie in your future! Today's recipe came from Betty Crocker, (yep she stops by now and then to get a recipe... ha!) But I can't find the recipe now that I closed the link. Getting old sucks. So I can tell you what I did. I put a cake mix in the bowl, two eggs, and 1/3 cup oil. I put foil and sprayed it with oil in a 9x9 pan, dotted with toffee peanuts and baked for 30 mins. By morning it should come out easy and cut up easily by lifting the foil and peeling it off. Then you cut it and put it back into the (amazing!) clean pan! I also have some peanut butter frosting I'm thinking about using. You can do this with any cake mix. For example: Here is a picture of a german chocolate cake mix turned brownies. Yum! Try i...

If' you're a foodie/amateur chef/obsessed with cooking like me, you feel bad when you can't contribute to the meal when at a guests house. But one of the things you can do, is shop once you're at your destination, and make this crazy good dip for chips. People will thank you. So first you need to find a grocery store nearby, and pick up the following: 2 blocks of cream cheese 1 jar of prepared horseradish <-- note: this is not horseradish mayo, or horseradish root. What's been done here to "prepare" it, is the horseradish root was ground with some vinegar. This can, I hear, send you and your family & friends out of the room it's so caustic to the eyes and lungs. Do it outside if you are starting from scratch. Especially if you bought the horseradish at the farmer's market. Potent stuff! Salt Pepper a SMALL amount of milk <-- Those individual milks you buy for when you want milk but no one else does. Do NOT substitute chocolate mi...

Yes, it is still Lent, if you're wondering. My mind seems to have wandered off of late. Here I am thinking how did another 4 days pass? What did I even bake, if anything? Did I even cook from scratch at all this week? If you're the parent of a soon-to-be middle-schooler, you know you have to contend with: 1. Let's go to the Middle school and see the open house with 4 other elementary schools on a weeknight. 2. Let's do projects where mom has to print off 6 pictures of Katherine Johnson and look up facts on the internet. 3. Let's help with homework every single night for at least an hour if not two because said 5th grader cannot possibly concentrate. I mean the tv is on. The computer is just over there. Oh look, I have a dog. I need to contemplate and spell and learn the root latin word of each spelling word. . But I digress. So what did I bake, you are probably wondering (dreading to hear)? Cookie brownies. I kid you not: I made 6 batches of them in two ...

Chocolate is my addiction, I must admit. Especially when it's warm. I think about it, dream about it, bake it, make candy with it, eat it after lunch or dinner nearly every day. So when i think about birthday cakes or even the charity I bake for, I'm always looking to make chocolate-something. Or when its Saturday and I have some time on my hands. I think about it then too. :) This week, I had been cruising around the internet, and my sister in law mentioned that it was time for Chocolate muffins. I agreed. I felt tired and turned off the computer. Then, my mind started ticking away. I had recipes, lots of them. I would bet among all those recipes I had a recipe for Chocolate muffins. Hmm. I really wanted some warm chocolate. So I opened up my computer again and got out my recipes. Ooh this one sounded good. They had chocolate chips even! The mix was pretty simple and it turned out much more chocolately than I expected. (That's a word, right?) It was the pe...

I'm itching to bake but have literally no ingredients in my fridge that don't need to be thrown out. The eggs are okay but not much else. :( We like so many other Michiganders (Michiganians?) lost power for about 24 hours. So many more are without power for much longer and it's been so cold. So once again I am bloggless. I will shop tomorrow and I will cook. Mark my words (knocks on wood) And I will blog! Vicky aka The clumsy chef

You may be wondering where I've been for the last two days. As you may recall, I trained from 2006 to 2011 in Karate-do. I got my black belt and immediately spent the next 6 years teaching others. I still do that and I still leave the dojo smiling. But now I am training again. Taking two classes I had on my Bucket List: Tai Chi and Iaido. Tai Chi helps me slow down, breathe, relax. Its' that slow dance like movement, very fluid. Iaido is ... well it's learning to use a Katana sword. But you start out with a wooden one. It's pretty physically challenging and mentally challenging. I can barely move, I'm so sore, especially my wrists and hands. I can't stop smiling. This doesn't mean I am not cooking, it means I've not been blogging about it on those days. I'm just too tired and sore to type! But I have no doubts I have made the right decision and am enjoying the learning process. I'm once again a white belt. I once again have an empty c...

Day 5: March 6th, Monday Mustn't give up now, time to march forth! Meals: Breakfast: Quiche. So good. Lunch: 4 stuffed grape leaves and yogurt. Grapes. Dinner: Pork chops, stuffing, mac and cheese, and asparagus. For breakfast tomorrow: Forget granola, I'm making Strawberry Rhubarb Oatmeal Bars Exercise: Weights again. Pumped up. Today's' recipe: Strawberry Rhubarb Oatmeal Bars https://www.letsdishrecipes.com/2015/06/strawberry-rhubarb-oatmeal-bars.html If I mess THIS one up, well there's no way you can call me a baker. It was So so easy. You just put the fruit, sugar, and corn starch in a pot and heat it up. And then add oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl with some butter. Mix it up and put almost all of it into the baking dish, spread the filling on, and add the last bunch of oat mix. bake. Please let this taste good. I think it must be a sin to waste rhubarb and strawberries. 35 minutes and cooling l...

Day 4: March 4th, Friday Mustn't give up now, time to march forth! Meals: Breakfast: Syrian bread and jam. Needed to go back in the oven, got stale. Mrph. :( Lunch: Two attempts at cheesey grits. Neither very good. Dinner: Grandma Brown's Spanish Rice. It's more of a chili almost. Its very good. But secret, sorry. For breakfast tomorrow: Try #3 for Granola bars. Exercise: Mall walking and Karate. Both very fun, of course! Today's' recipe: Cake-like Granola Bars http://allrecipes.com/recipe/245914/baked-oatmeal-breakfast-bars/ Gonna try this again, real time. Bear with me. ... I looked at the picture a few times because it had fruit in it. Yet the recipe doesn't call for fruit. I re-read. This recipe is a base for bars, meaning you decide what to add to it. Oh cool! Okay... Well I'd been gnawing on some dried apricots while watching the British Baking Show, so I decided rather than eat them all, I'd put some into the bars. You ad...

Day 3: March 3rd, Friday Meals: Breakfast: Homemade Granola - the last of it. boo. Lunch: Chicken and artichoke, lentils and rice. Dinner: Stuffed Grape leaves, Leban, Lentils and Rice, Syrian Bread Exercise: Weights today. I was the only one in the gym for a while! Today's' recipe: Syrian Bread Today I practiced the Lebanese dinner I want to teach. It took a while, and I'm not sure about the bread since it takes even longer than the grape leaves - and that takes 1 1/2 hours! Needless to say, I have a few details to work out. But, its so good it needs to be part of it.  For a half recipe: Oven is set to 500 F. See rack configuration:  The lower rack is close to the bottom and the higher rack is close to the top, dont use the middle section.  You start out with 3 cups of flour, 1 cup warm water, 1 packet yeast, couple pinches of sugar, and about a tablespoon of salt, and a tablespoon of oil. I'm not big on waiting, so I cheated the r...

Day 2: March 2nd, Thursday  Meals: Breakfast: Homemade Granola (I have to perfect this recipe. So far it gets soggy though, have to work on this one. ) Lunch: Since the workplace is in a town hit with bad water, and I remembered that on my way out of the subdivision, I stopped at Tim Horton's and got a raisin bagel with cream cheese. So that was lunch. Dinner:  Teriyaki pork and Rice.  Exercise: Funeral day.  And super cold out. So I'm taking a day off.  Today's' recipe:  Teriyaki Pork I'm starving so pretty much anything is going to smell good, but Man! I have to tell you, this marinade is AMAZING! Soy sauce, sherry (I substituted white wine), brown sugar, rice vinegar, oil, garlic, and ginger. I forgot the red pepper flake. OOps. Total yum. Meanwhile I started water for Jasmine rice. I haven't broken out the rice cooker yet, so I got some Jasmine in bags by Minute Rice, goes faster. It's a weekday after all. The "go to" cooking me...

My pledge is to blog for 40 days straight, each day giving a tip about healthy eating, cancer prevention, or to show you a new recipe I've tried (from scratch!) or maybe all of that.  I am going to eat healthy meals (no fried food, no cream sauces, no processed meats, eat more plants) do an activity every day and thus lower my weight.  Can I do it?  I hope so. Cancer prevention is my mission after all.  Day 1: March 1st, Wednesday (Ash Wednesday to be exact)   Meals: Breakfast: 1 egg with roasted red pepper. Lunch: I had lemon cream sauce on my leftover spaghetti for lunch and that's not on the plan, but I did have an apple. That counts for something, right? Right? Dinner:  Red snapper (from the fish market) with dill and lemon, lentils and rice, and green beans and grapes after dinner instead of dessert. Exercise: I walked the dog after work, not terribly long, but I got up and moved, so it's not bad. I'll need to do a longer one tomorrow si...