The Ever Evolving Chaos

There are times in our lives when too many events, conditions and/or circumstances seem to be happening at the same time. There is a chaos in your life that once it hits, it hits hard. Once it gets there, it sticks. All of a sudden, what seemed to be tolerable in nature starts to grow into something greater. Something deeper. Before you know it, this monster is so big it is not only feeding on your own serenity but on that of the persons around you. As if that wasn’t enough, the chaos now evolves into something completely out of your control. You start to disappear within it. Almost none of yourself remains. You get lost. But then you see a spark of light. There is something out there reminding you that this is not it. You start to realize that you are still in control. You have the power to change the situation. The monster starts to diminish. You start seeing clearly again. You break through. Yes, you are back!

After a long hiatus I am back to blogging again. I am surprised to find I missed it more than I thought I would. Thanks to those who asked about me during this blogging break. I was very busy with my photography class and its million assignments! You can check out some of my photos on my photography blog. It is still under construction, though. Now it is time to blog again. Yes, I am back!

I made an adaptation of Giada De Laurentiis's Asparagus Lasagna. Everyone at my house loved it! I changed a couple of things shown in parenthesis below. Next time I make it I think I'll reduce the amount of sun dried tomatoes. Other than that, it was perfect!


Giada’s Asparagus Lasagna


Ingredients

* 9 lasagna sheets, fresh or dried (I used dried)
* 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
* 2 (8.5-ounce) jars sun-dried tomatoes, drained
* 1 1/2 packed cups fresh basil leaves
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus 3/4 cup
* 1/4 pound pancetta, diced (I used bacon)
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 4 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
* 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese (I used reduced-fat ricotta and added 1 cup reduced fat milk to make it creamier since I read some reviews complaining the final result was too dry)
* 1 teaspoon salt (I salted to taste, since I added the milk to the ricotta)
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 2 cups shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
* 2 tablespoons butter (I omitted this)

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta or 2 to 3 minutes for fresh pasta. Drain pasta.

In a food processor combine the sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Pulse until the mixture is combined. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Set aside.

In a large skillet brown the pancetta until crisp. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion, and garlic and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the ricotta, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 9 by 13-inch baking dish sprinkle some of the sun-dried tomato mixture on the bottom of the casserole dish. Place some lasagna sheets, then half asparagus mixture. Next sprinkle some mozzarella cheese and some of the remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan. Continue for 1 more layer. Top with lasagna sheets, some sun-dried tomato mixture, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Dot the top with butter. Bake until the ingredients are warm and the cheese is melted, about 25 minutes. (I baked the lasagna covered in foil for 25 min and then uncovered for an extra 5 minutes)

Pizza Science

Did you ever think studying certain subjects was pointless? After all, they were going to be absolutely useless for you in the future, right? Like Science and Math, maybe? Well, you are in for a big surprise! Turns out they are not as useless as we thought.
As I got serious about making my own pizza, I started investigating recipes, ingredients, and dough and baking techniques. As I went deeper into the matter it surprised me to see the many variations that exist to make what I thought was just a simple homemade pizza. Not simple at all! I soon discovered how serious pizza making is and, to my amazement, I found it to be a science itself. You can see it for yourselves here. Yes, a forum dedicated in its entirety to this science. Any type, any style is covered. Any question, any doubt is answered. Any technique, any method is discussed. But wait, are you still thinking Math is in fact useless for you now? Not with all the calculations you'll be doing to create your own perfect pizza dough! So enjoy the adding and subtracting and have fun in studying this culinary science.

My favorite dough recipe is from Dave in Canada, or as you will find him in the forum, Canadave. He authorized me to blog about his recipe and he is the one to thank for this masterpiece! You can find the recipe here. Every step is very well explained. He also talks about the sauce, cheese and toppings. Try to read as much of the thread or the forum if you'd like to learn more. I used the forum's Lehmann calculator to make Dave's recipe equivalent to 3 13-inch dough balls with a thickness factor of 11. The amounts I used to accomplish this are as follow (please note I rounded up the decimals since my scale is not that precise and still got excellent results):

Flour (100%): 721 g (I used King Arthur Bread Flour)
Water (64%): 462 g
Instant Dry Yeast (0.78%): 5 g (I used Bread Machine Yeast)
Salt : (1.31%): 9 g (I used fine sea salt)
Oil (4.63%): 33 g (I used extra virgin olive oil)
Sugar (1.32%): 9 g

You can adjust the ingredients in the calculator according to their percentage to make a different amount/size of dough balls. Enjoy!

An Icy Situation

There was an ice storm last night in North Texas and as this was the culprit for many school closings and a chaotic morning commute, it certainly did not keep me from playing around with my camera outside in the cold. It's amazing how your feelings stop while you are concentrated taking photographs, or as I call it, while you are "in the zone". My photography professor is absolutely right! All of your senses shot down and you become "present". Too bad I did not feel the cold while being "in the zone" as I got a cold burn in my hands and had to spend the rest of the day applying moisturizer to stop the burning sensation. Gloves? What are those? I know... those of us living in Texas tend to forget the basics of dealing with the cold!

Is Today Monday?

Oh, how I love those lazy weekend mornings! Not only you are able to break away from routine but you can do all the things you constantly dream about during the week. Like not having to get up early, get the kids ready for school and run at full throttle multitasking, sometimes even more than what you thought was your multitasking capacity. We keep wishing it would be Saturday... or Sunday... even Friday would be good! After constantly thinking you are about to go mad as you experience your weekly chaotic routine, you suddenly begin to feel different. Happier. Expectant. Even your body feels lighter. Yes, finally it is Friday. Just one more day. The wait pays-off and now you are experiencing those two wonderful days in which everything happens at a much slower RPM. It's blissful. Pure joy. You can't believe you are actually doing all those things earlier in the week you were only dreaming about. Then, suddenly, you wake up. You feel like your mind is having a hard time catching up with your body as you start running full throttle again. Yes, it is Monday. So, in an effort to help you make this week's waiting less painful, I'm giving you something to look forward to this weekend. These Savory Egg and Mushroom Breakfast Crepes will certainly make all the waiting pay-off. Hang in there!



Savory Egg and Mushroom Breakfast Crepes

Crepe Batter

1 1/3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 tbs chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together.

Heat a lightly oiled non-stick pan over medium heat. (I used a 12 inch pan to make about 7, 9-10 inch crepes)

Pour the batter onto the pan (about 1/3 cup) and tilt the pan in a circular motion to distribute the batter so it covers the surface of the pan.

Cook until bottom of crepe is lightly brown (about 1-2 minutes). Turn and cook other side.

Sauce

1 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
2 tbs onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil

In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil (about 1 tbs). Add mushrooms and onion and sauté until cooked. Reduce heat to low and add evaporated milk. Bring to a simmer. Let simmer for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat and add parmesan cheese.

Filling

7 eggs (I used 1 egg per crepe)
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk eggs together and season with salt and pepper. Cook as you normally cook scrambled eggs.

Crepe Assembly

Fill each crepe with some of the scrambled eggs and pour some sauce over each crepe. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Delicious!!!

Nutritious Snack-Size Muffins

As we get deeper into the New Year, it's easy to forget recently made resolutions. As a matter of fact, we should make the "don't forget my resolutions" resolution the most important of all. We should not only remember them but actually stick to them so they don't make it into our list next year! That's right, we should be able to finally kiss them good-bye! I always notice that one of the most popular resolution categories, even for myself, is fitness/health related. Whether we are trying to lose weight, get in shape or start a new exercise routine, the New Year brings us that hope and willpower to program our minds to accomplish what for some reason we keep postponing. Maybe it's the Holiday overeating what makes us look forward to resolutions. What would be the point of allowing ourselves to eat guiltless if we couldn't be able to make something up to make us feel better about it? So, in my attempt of crossing out line 1 off my list, I made these nutritious oatmeal whole wheat muffins. Something to snack on and satisfy my sweet cravings. Did I mention they're healthy, too? This is an adaptation of the recipe on Just Eat Food. They turned out very moist and not too sweet as stated by Emily. However, for some reason, the muffins came out flatter than I expected (I filled the muffin cups 3/4 full). This only made them better since I ended up with perfect snack-size muffins for me not to overindulge. The key is to make sure you only have one at a time... or two... or three maybe.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Craisin Muffins

1 ½ cup water
1 ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
6 tbs butter
1 tbs canola oil
2 eggs, well beaten
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 325°. Boil water. Turn off heat and add oats. Stir in and melt butter and let cool. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Bake in greased muffin tin for 20 minutes at 325°.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie Bread

Baking is always a part of my weekly routine. Having two boys that lately devour instead of eat, I need to keep coming up with ways of satisfying such big appetites. Also, I'd rather give them food made from scratch with quality ingredients than processed, full-of-preservatives snacks. With nutrition in mind, I'm always thinking of ways to incorporate healthy ingredients to whatever it is I'm baking that week. It is always fun to put on your creative hat and play around with the ingredients you have in hand to come up with a much healthier version of an already good recipe. This is exactly what I did this week. I had 3 very ripe bananas on my countertop so the choice of banana bread was obvious. Now for the creative part, what could be added to it to make it at least a tad healthier? I immediately thought of the strawberries inside my freezer. Hmmm, bananas and strawberries... what else is in my fridge? And then I saw it... a small cup of vanilla yogurt. Perfect! This is how this Strawberry Banana Smoothie Bread was born! The end result? A delicious and super moist loaf of heaven.

For this recipe I followed my favorite banana bread recipe which I found on Kitchen Confit a while back. It is perfect without the tweaks I did to it so give it a try whenever you want to stick with the traditional banana bread recipe.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen strawberries (thawed), pureed

2 eggs beaten

1 t vanilla

2 cups flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan. (I just spray mine with Pam)

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Add in the bananas, strawberries, eggs and vanilla. Add in the flour mixture. Add in the yogurt.

Pour mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let rest in the pan for 15 minutes. Then remove from pan and let fully cool on a rack.

Celebrate 2009 with Margarita Cupcakes!

Happy 2009! ¡Feliz 2009!

2008 was a very peculiar year for my family. The world, as we knew it, completely changed. I still remember the day when A (my husband) called me to tell me we had to sell our house in a hurry because the company he worked at was bought. What?!?! Move again? And in a hurry? Just so you know, we have moved 6 times in the last 5 years. Crazy, I know! With moving not being a part of my 2008 new year's resolution I knew it was going to be an interesting year. As much as I would love to say we are finally settled down and everything is running as smoothly as possible, there still are a few things that need to fall into place. Hopefully, 2009 will be the year in which all of the pieces finally come together to make a wonderful puzzle! With that being said, we could not pass the opportunity to celebrate the upcoming year with friends. I made margarita cupcakes which I found on this blog. This is an awesome blog with lots of cupcake recipes I cannot wait to try! I made half the recipe without the tequila so the kids could enjoy them, too. I also did not use the vegan ingredients the recipe calls for but used regular 1% milk and butter instead. These cupcakes are delicious and you will surely impress everyone once you make them!



Margarita Cupcakes

1/4 cup lime juice
1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)
1 cup soy milk, plain or vanilla (I used regular 1% milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp tequila (omit it for non-alcoholic cupcakes)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 350F. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners. In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil, tequila, vanilla and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to lime mixture and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Tequila Lime Frosting

1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated shortening, softened (I used butter)
1 tbsp soy milk (I used regular 1% milk)
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tequila (omit it for non-alcoholic cupcakes) 2+ cups confectioners’ sugar
coarse sugar and salt for “rims”

Cream together non-hydrogenated shortening, soy milk, lime juice, tequila, and 2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Add in more sugar as needed to make frosting stiff, but spreadable. Spread on cupcakes and roll the edges in a small amount of coarse sugar and salt (poured into a small bowl, so it’s easy to direct it).