Roasted Garlic

I keep hearing about roasting a whole garlic bulb. When I googled it, I was directed to this blog. See for yourself how weird it is.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001712roasted_garlic.php

My initial reaction was vomit in my mouth. I love garlic; we easily go through a bulb a week. But I'm not sure I love garlic enough to roast it and then eat it. But, I'm starting to see the upside or doing this. Here is my list of what I think I could do with it.

Garlic butter spread
Spread on toast with cheese
On cooked veggies
With pasta and bland sauce
Dipping sauce (with olive oil and oregano)
Chip dip (with sour cream)

That's all I have so far, but I think it may be worth trying. I will let you know when I do. Also, let me know if you can think of better uses for it. I feel like mine wouldn't do it justice.

For the Covenanters

For all you who are part of the Covenant Church, you should go to Midwinter. I hope eventually you get the chance to be a part of this week long North Park class reunion. Todd and I have met so many new people and seen so many old friends. It is nice to know that you can go to a congregation of all Covenant Pastors and see people you know the entire time. It really is a big family. The speakers were fantastic, especially John and Nancy Ortberg and the seminars at Midwinter and Connection (the youth pastor part) were amazing. I hope that you can get a change to go sometime in your life (even if just to the evening sessions) you take that opportunity. It gives you a real appreciation for the denomination and for what God is doing.

And I know this is not a part of me becoming a married woman, but it's all I have been doing all week. I miss cooking.

Lessons From My Mom

Never, ever go to bed with a messy kitchen. Wednesday nights are hard for dinner for Todd and me. We get home around 4:00 and have to be back at church at 5:30. The problem is, we always leave a mess in the kitchen from our lunches. So, whoever is cooking dinner cleans up the lunch mess, cooks dinner, and then cleans up the dinner mess.

Side note: this is Todd's choice. I would love to both clean up each mess, but he likes to do it all by himself when he cooks so then when I cook he doesn't have to help. But, I want to help when he cooks, so I get the tiny shaft. It's only a little shaft because it's not horrible, but I still don't like it.

So, I clean up, cook yummy 4 step chicken with onions, and then...left the clean up. We had to get going to church for youth group. So we're at church until 9:30 and then we went out for a little snack after. By the time we got home at 11:00, I was so tired and didn't clean up the kitchen. So, I had to get up at 8:15 (I usually can sleep until 9:00, jealous?) and clean up the kitchen before taking a shower. Had I not gotten to pull a prank on Todd 30 minutes later, I would still be cranky about my messy kitchen. So mom, you were always right. Always clean your kitchen before you go to bed.

Was woken up...

...with an elbow to the eye this morning. Sometimes being married is not that much fun (but I still love him).

Chicken and Gravy Sandwiches

We moved to this fantastic apartment when we came to Mankato. Never did we think that we would live in a place so nice, especially when we thought we would be in Chicago this year. We know that when we move back to Chicago next year, will be moving a step down in niceness, but not price (unfortunately). But one thing that this building lacks is a good washer and dryer. So every other Monday, I make my way to the laundromat just three blocks away.

You might be thinking "That's horrible. You can't do laundry in your own building?" I actually like it more than walking up and down three flights of stairs in the cold twice that I had to do last year. But another surprise of going is the laundromat has cable, which means the Food Network! So I took the opportunity to watch Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals. And I found Todd's homemade birthday dinner. Yes, it was his birthday on Friday.

Ingredients
2 to 3 lemons, juiced (enough to yield 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
Half a palmful finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 large or 3 to 4 small cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 pieces boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 loaf crusty French bread or 2 batardes (shorter, slightly wider baguettes)
Directions
Heat the oven to low heat.

In a bowl, add the lemon juice, sugar or honey, parsley, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. Stir to combine. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the dressing, turn to coat and let marinate for 15 minutes.

Heat a large skillet, broiler, grill or grill pan. Shake off excess marinade and cook the chicken for 6 minutes on each side. Remove to a cutting board, let rest for a few minutes and slice on an angle.

While the chicken marinades and cooks, add the butter to a sauce pot over medium heat. When the butter melts, stir in the flour, cook 1 minute, then whisk in the stock. Cook until thickened to a light gravy, about 5 to 6 minutes. Season with black pepper, remove from the heat and stir in the Dijon.

While the chicken cooks, crisp the bread in the warm oven.

Cut the bread into 4 portions and split or halve. Use tongs to dip the sliced chicken in the gravy and fill the rolls. Arrange on a serving platter and serve.

I tried to make it from memory and did pretty well. I forgot the chicken stock for the gravy, so it was more like a sauce. Also, we just served it as chicken. Forget the sandwiches. We made a bit of mashed potatoes and got out some baby carrots to go with it and we had a nice meal. The chicken turned out great; the gravy will be better next time.

To go with the new title of the blog, I will also let you know about my attempt to make our apartment more homey. We took down our Christmas tree (finally) and now the wall with the big windows looks so sad, and white. So, when mom and dad come this weekend for the MSU vs UMD hockey game, mom is going to help me find some curtains to hang. I hope we find something. Also, I'm trying to get Todd to make some crappy shelves to put on this other big, blank wall. We have lots of knick-knacks, picture frames, and more books that could use some shelf space. So this is our

I Found Them

Here is the actual recipe for the potato things. I was way off. This is what ours looked like without the vegetables. We were bad that night. Also, I forgot to dredge the chicken. But, it was good just the way we made it.

Ingredients

• Vegetable spray
• 2 large russet potatoes, roughly peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 8 muffin tins with vegetable spray. Layer potato slices, cheese, and onions into each muffin cup. Season with salt and pepper and top each gratin with 1 or 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, removing the foil halfway through cooking time. Invert gratins onto plate and serve.

I Did It!

I think I may have had my first cooking experience. All I do is follow a recipe and that is not that difficult. But I think last night could have fallen under the category of thinking up a yummy food and then making it with almost no direction at all!

While in Colorado, I was watching an old episode of "The Next Food Network Star". This show finds a new host of their own Food Network show. It was the winner reveal, so we got to see the pilot episodes of the two finalists. I was glad I caught it because I had wanted to see Melissa's dinner again (I saw it this summer). She made her four step chicken which I then attempted last night. You fry the chicken and then saute some red onions. When they are soft, add chicken stock to make a sauce and pour it and the onions on top of the chicken. It was pretty good. The wonderfulness of this recipe is that you can substitute for any meat, veggie, and liquid. It's a good quick meal.

Where the actual cooking experience comes in was with Melissa's potato poppers. She gives a quick explanation of potatoes in a muffin tin with cheese. So I decided to try it out. Here is what I did.

Grease up a muffin tin pan

Peel and clean a potato

Cut off one end and then slice some thin circles for the bottom of your tins

Cut it in half length wise so when you cut, you get half circles

Cut this slices of potato so it can wrap around a muffin tin

Get a good layer around each tin

Put in the oven at 375 for about ten minutes

Put mozz and cheddar cheese on top and put back in oven

Take them out when potatoes are crispy around edges and cheese is cooked

They turned out okay. I would put some pepper or garlic on them next time. And I totally guessed on the timing and heat of the oven. So try at your own risk, or try to find one on the internet. I'm sure it's out there. But I was quite excited to share my first cooking experience with you.