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...