The Novelty of the Pressure Cooker Hasn't Worn Off

I'm still happily using the pressure cooker -- three times this past week! Once was to cook beans for taco soup that I finished on the stove top. I'm getting better at making sure they're completely cooked.

I also made Instant Pot Salsa Chicken, which is exactly the sort of thing I was dreaming of when we ordered our pressure cooker. Put in boneless skinless chicken breast with a jar of salsa, then cook and shred it and make tacos. The whole family liked it and it's quick and cheap, the kind of thing I can make in a hurry if we've spent the whole day out running around.

Thursday night, we had The Easiest Instant Pot Crack Chicken.  (Why do so many of these recipes have "crack" in the name? The boys are giving me all kinds of grief over the recipe names and I'm apparently not creative enough to re-name them on the fly) It came out well, but the family had varying opinions over whether or not it was too hot. I fell into the "not hot at all" category, which meant it definitely wasn't.

Cheesecake is still on the list of things I want to try, but the family keeps eating my graham crackers and I wound up using the cream cheese for the crack chicken because the crackers were already gone. Next time, I'm buying crumbs from the bulk section.

Still Learning to Use My Pressure Cooker

Since my last post, I've used the pressure cooker to make kidney beans, French dip sandwiches, banana French toast, unstuffed cabbage rolls, and chicken wings. Five recipes in twelve days isn't bad at all! And while I'm searching Pinterest to find out what I want to make, I'm finding things to do on the stove top or in the crock pot. (Yes, I know that the multi cooker also works as a slow cooker, but that afternoon it was easier to just stick with what I knew how to do.)

One lesson I'm learning from all of this is that I need to have a backup plan and be ready to try again. The beans were just on the edge of undercooked. If I'd brought the pot back up to pressure and cooked them just a little bit longer, dinner would have been better. Also, until I learn what I'm doing, I need to use it on nights that dinner can be a bit late. Hubby wound up eating a last minute sandwich while I added time to the chicken wings. He did get some before leaving for work that night, but I cut it way too close on that one.

Now that I've found it, I'm planning on following this step by step list from hip pressure cooking. I won't try all of the recipes, but at least I can read about the techniques and learn which buttons to push. I've got the "cook on high pressure" thing down, but there are other features to learn.

It really surprises me how angry many women in the online forums are at these machines. It's not the Instant Pot's fault that someone didn't like her spaghetti and had to order pizza. I'm wondering how bad the results had to be that it truly wasn't edible -- as awful at cooking as I sometimes am, we've almost never had a night that we couldn't/wouldn't eat dinner. There have been plenty of nights that dinner kind of sucked, but that's life.

Not Quite an Instant Pot, but Close Enough

I've been wanting an Instant Pot. A few years back, I mentioned it to my husband and he reminded me that we already have several pressure cookers I don't use. Those are his toys, not mine.

 Something must have changed, because for Christmas he ordered me a Zavor LUX LCD multi-cooker. Its not an Instant Pot, but his research convinced him that it was a better option. I don't know why. I just want to be able to dry beans and make a roast in a hurry and make a cheesecake. This will do all of that, plus a bunch of other things, so I'm happy.

In the week since Fedex  abandoned the box on my doorstep, I've used it to cook a batch of rice and to cook dry beans that I then used in taco soup. Next on my list of things to try are baked apples and French dip sandwiches.  I used the Kohl's Cash that we got when we purchased the cooker to buy a bundt pan and a spring form cake pan, which increases my options even more.

The only thing I don't love is that I can't find an online forum  or any videos about this particular multi-cooker. I want someone to hold my hand and show me which buttons to push. Do any of you have a Zavor brand multi-cooker? Or, regardless of what brand you own, do you have a recipe or technique I should try? 

{I've Been Cooking} Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings

I've been having fun with my vintage recipe card library...so much fun I wound up buying two more sets from different decades and companies.

One of the recipes that we all liked was the Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings. I made my modified version for the third time Sunday night

Instead of the broiler-fryer chicken that the card calls for, I buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco. It's less expensive that way and means I don't have to deal with cutting up a raw chicken. Remove all of the meat from the bones and cut it into bite size pieces. Place in frying pan and sprinkle with reasonable amounts of black pepper and garlic salt, and a lot of paprika. (Paprika is my favorite spice and I probably use too much -- you can adjust yours accordingly. The original recipe calls for one teaspoon.) Stir together the spices and chicken and cook over medium heat until heated through.

Stir in one family size can cream of condensed chicken soup and one can of milk. Cover and simmer until about thirty minutes before dinner time. I'm a big fan of recipes that let me do most of the work earlier in the afternoon and let it simmer for an hour or hour and a half.

For the dumplings, combine two cups Bisquick and 2/3 cups milk. Place spoonfuls of dough onto the simmering chicken mixture. Simmer uncovered for ten minutes, then replace lid and simmer for another ten minutes.

Full disclosure here -- I don't know the difference between Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings and Chicken and Dumplings and I'm not sure I'm excited enough to care. This third time, I added canned green beans, corn, and carrots. Is that allowed?

I Think I Know What to Make For Dinner

A few weeks ago, the boys and I were at the thrift shop and I was irresistibly drawn to this plastic box of recipe cards. It's the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (published in 1971) and I am smitten. 

I've been in a complete and total rut when it comes to dinner ideas. Years and years ago, my husband suggested opening the cookbook at random and picking a recipe to make for dinner. Now that I've reminded him of that and started actually doing it, he might be regretting the idea.

Instead of choosing at random, which would not end well, I went through the box and picked half a dozen things that looked like they had potential.

So far, we've had Salmon Noodles Romanoff, which were mediocre at best, Chicken Fricassee With Dumplings, which was pretty darn good with the substitution of a Costco rotisserie chicken, and Oven Porcupines, which kind of bewildered my husband and sons. I got some validation at an estate sale a few days later when Hubby opened and old cookbook and the first recipe he turned to was for Oven Porcupines. They're a legitimate thing!

The Toasty Cheese Bake was awful. Imagine French toast with hamburger and cheddar cheese layered in. Its a bit worse than it sounds. My oldest son has a plan for making it into something tasty. I'll let you know if that works out.

For five bucks, this thing was a great investment. I saw an identical one at a garage sale last weekend for a dollar, but I'm not beating myself up over that. I also saw just the cards in a bag at Goodwill for the same amount I paid. Despite the prices I just saw on Etsy and Amazon,  these are out there and they're inexpensive.

I love that there's no coconut oil, or kale, or quinoa... These meals call for stuff I've got in my kitchen and the ones I've chosen so far have been surprisingly inexpensive to make.

And I love that this thing was doing Pinteret before Pinterest was a thing. Look....there's knitting in this one!

At that estate sale I posted about a couple of days ago, I found a different boxed set of cards, The McCalls Great American Recipe Card Collection, and a huge armload of recipe books and I think I pulled a muscle hauling them down the street to the car.

My future looks like it's going to be filled with fun dinner time experiments. If you had one of these sets, are there any recommendations of  things to try or avoid?

How do You Make Your Coffee?

The folks at Ultimate Kitchen sent me a French press coffee maker.

We have a traditional electric coffee maker, but I'm not a fan of the thing. It takes up counter space and is hard to keep clean and, since we don't use it on a regular basis, I think I spend more time cleaning the thing than actually using it. Compared to that, the French press is so much easier! My husband has one he keeps in his locker at work. Our oldest son got one for Christmas. And now we've got one in the kitchen that everyone can use.

I'm not a big coffee drinker. Until our Hawaii trip earlier this summer, I wouldn't have described myself as a coffee drinker at all, but the coffee plantation tour ended with samples of all of their flavored coffees. I didn't know it came in banana nut.  That could motivate me to learn how to make my own coffee.

For now, Teenage Son is the one who makes most of the coffee at our house, so he helped me put together a quick video showing how the French press works.




How do you brew your coffee?

My 70 Year Old Muffin Tin and Brand New Cupcake Liners

I'm curious. For those of you who are into vintage goodies, is it a habit you developed as an adult or something you grew up with? I've been surrounded with so much vintage for so long that I don't even notice it sometimes.

This started out as an excuse to use my Dollar Tree cupcake papers. Or to make some muffins for my kids...but I really think I was more excited about the pretty butterflies. 

I pulled out the muffin tin from the cupboard and got intrigued by the "muffinaire" imprint, so I googled. Until I saw the Etsy listings, I hadn't noticed that mine was made by United Aircraft Products. If the internet is to believed, this dates from the 1940s.

I don't know if this belonged to one or the other of my grandmas, or if I picked up up at an estate sale for a quarter. I don't know how long it's been in my kitchen cupboard, but it's been long enough that I don't remember when it came into my life. If I did get it from one of the grandmas or at an estate sale, I obviously wasn't reading the logos.

This Stand Mixer, or the Other One?

Somehow, I'd manged to live my entire life without ever using a stand mixer (or an electric hand mixer, for that matter.)  Something about them is intimidating, so I stick to the wooden spoon and the whisk and if I'm really feeling motivated I might pull out Hubby's fancy Bosch.  Please don't ask me to explain why the Bosch is okay and a stand mixer isn't. I have no idea.

I've gotten along just fine, but now I've got two vintage Sunbeam mixers in my kitchen and I've got to give one of them up to my daughter, just as soon as I decide which one I like best.

That means using them. Both of them.

This looks like the older of the two and, given the choice, I'll usually pick the older one just because it's older.

I wound up using this one to make Strawberry Jello Poke Cake, mostly because it was the first thing I found on my Pinterest board that called for a mixer. I had to figure out the hard way which beater went on which side and what that lever on the back of the base is for, but I made a cake!  It wasn't photogenic, but the boys scarfed it down.

This post is linked to Share Your Cup. 

{I've Been Reading} The Haven's Kitchen Cooking School

The cover copy of The Haven'ts Kitchen Cooking School  by Alison Cayne made it sound like exactly the book I need in my kitchen. It does provide the sort of information I was hoping for, but there's also a strong emphasis on buying food that's organic and locally sourced and humanely raised. The photography is fantastic, with both mouthwatering shots of the prepared recipes and practical step by step. photos of the different techniques.  This may not be the perfect book to fit my needs,  but I learned a lot from it.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publishers. All opinions are my own.  

{I've Been Cooking} Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken

Forgive the picture. I'm obviously not a food blogger and haven't figured out how to get a good shot without steaming up my camera lens. 

I do cook most nights. It's the only way to get the hungry family fed. But lately I've been trying some of those yummy things I've saved on Pinterest. 

Like Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken: 

This was actually as easy to make as the website promised, and it turned out, and it tasted good. I'll be making it again and seeing what variations I can find.

I sort of kind of almost made Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies...by crushing the pretzels I'd bought and mixing them in with a package of Betty Crocker salted caramel cookie mix. It worked! And it was tasty enough that I plan on trying the real thing sometime soon.

The Bubble Up Enchilada Bake wasn't a hit at my house. It was quick and easy and I thought it tasted just fine, but the men folk disagreed. Have I mentioned that they're picky?

How about you? Have you made anything new lately? Got any suggestions for a pack of hungry boys?

The Pho Cookbook

Pho is one of the things my husband discovered and introduced me to. We've had it at four or five different restaurants and made our own from scratch. After the experience of making it -- not to mention how quickly the family ate up our hours of hard work and how there were absolutely no leftovers -- I'd pretty much decided that it was easier to just go out to eat.

The Pho Cookbook by Andrea Nguyen has me rethinking that. This book is filled with so much detail that it's a bit overwhelming, but if I take it one recipe at a time I can probably pull at least some of this off. The author includes recipes for a wide range of techniques -- everything from a quick pho that uses store bought broth, to speeding things up with a pressure cooker, to more traditional methods of making pho. She suggests different brands of the ingredients tells you where to look for them, and gives some options for substitutions if you don't have access to specialty stores.

I'm excited about this book! It doesn't hurt that when she recommended using muslin to strain the broth she said to use the kind that's "suitable for lining quilts." I'm taking that as a good sign.

Disclosure - The publisher sent me an advance review copy. 

Accidentally Cooking from Scratch

The last time I made Swedish Meatballs, the seasoning packet had a problem which left the sauce and meatball seasonings all mixed up. I know, you're supposed to cut them open carefully. This wasn't one of the nights I'd been in a hurry and forgotten. (One the times that I have forgotten, it's easy enough to keep one portion of the pouch pinched shut while you pour out the contents of the other side.)

Dinner was in an hour. I can't tell you how much I hate it when I've got dinner planned and the ingredients, stuff that's fresh from the store and shouldn't have any problems, won't cooperate. I wound up searching for Swedish Meatball recipes and adapting this one to use what I had on hand.

It turned out okay. So okay that when I made Swedish Meatballs again this week I didn't bother to buy the spice packet. That's a couple of dollars that I can spend on something else.

Some things taste better when I use the packet (white chicken chili comes to mind, along with tacos), but just because I can make it from scratch doesn't mean I want to. I didn't think I wanted to with the meatballs and sauce, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Everybody Loves Ramen

We really like ramen noodles at our house. For Christmas a couple of years back, I visited three different Oriental markets and bought every brand I thought Teenage Daughter hadn't tried yet. I didn't realize that there are sites which rate the different brands, so I just picked the ones with intriguring labels. It was a combination Christmas present/new round in the ongoing game of Be Brave.

There's almost always ramen in my kitchen, except for the day I got my hands on a review copy of Everybody Loves Ramen by Eric Hites.  That was a shame, since some of these recipes look like they'd be fun to try. And I've got the ginger and soy sauce and veggies -- everything except for ramen packets!

The stories and fun facts promised by the cover are cute, but you're not going to really learn anything about ramen from this book, just get ideas for ways to prepare it. Some of the recipes are spectacularly strange. Like the one that calls for five packs of orange Pez. Or the one that has you mix cooked ramen with a can of chili. We'll be skipping those, but I definitely got some good ideas for future lunches.

Disclaimer -- The publisher provided me with a review copy.

Meet Old Blue

When Hubby and I first got married twenty-five years ago, he had a set of blue kitchen utensils. There was a can opener and a set of measuring cups and probably a few other pieces. Over the years, they've all been replaced.

Old Blue is still with us. It didn't get a name until recently, but it's starting to have sentimental value. This is the spatula we always reach for. Those melted spots -- they're mostly my fault. I've replaced it more than once, but they don't seem to make this style of spatula anymore and I haven't been able to find a new version that I can stand. Whenever we're at estate sales and I find a nylon one in good shape and for a decent price, I bring it home. But when I need to cook something, this is the one I use.

At this point, it's got so much sentimental value that I'm on the edge of retiring it for safekeeping. Because if something happens to Old Blue, I'll be sad.

Do you cling to silly things that are way past their prime? Or is it just me?

Universal Food Chopper No. 2

What can you tell me about meat grinders? I'm trying to figure out if we have all of the pieces of this one....

This was in a box in the shop and we don't know if it came from my paternal grandmother's estate or Hubby's mother....or Grandma's antique mall. We also don't know if it has all of its parts. Hubby and I both think there should be some kind of bell around the blades, but none of the similar grinders we're finding on etsy or ebay do. There's a thread where some sort of attachment would go.

Is there supposed to be more to this? If I had any idea what was were missing or what it would look like, I could check the rest of the boxes in case more parts are hiding.

Hey There, Dumpling!

Years and years ago, Hubby and I used to make egg rolls. I'd found a yummy filling recipe that I made and he did the actual cooking because deep oil frying intimidated me. I'd forgotten all about those until I received this book for review.




Hey There, Dumpling!: 100 Recipes for Dumplings, Buns, Noodles, and Other Asian Treats by Kenny Lao has me wanting to head straight to the grocery store for wrappers and pork and cilantro. (We've got most of the other ingredients I'd want in the cupboards already.) But today is the first day in weeks that I don't have to leave the house for something or other, so I'm just staying put and making plans.

Everyone in our big family loves dumplings and buns and potstickers and these recipes are written to make fifty of  them. The idea is that you'll be having a dumpling party or freezing some for quick weeknight dinners, but I figure that for us a batch will make a meal and, if we're lucky, some for breakfast the next morning.

I like that the author doesn't assume that you know what you're doing. He provides tips for fixing problems like cracked wrappers and oozing filling and diagrams for the different folding techniques. In addition to all of the dumplings and buns, there are dipping sauces and side dishes and desserts.

Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an electronic ARC. I'll be buying a copy of the book.

Our Year Without a Microwave

I didn't write down the date that our microwave died, but it was more than a year ago. For a girl who grew up in the era of "you can cook absolutely ANYTHING in a microwave," I'm surprised that I lasted this long without one. I knew I could do it, but I didn't realize how painless it would be. 

At this point, Teenage Daughter is the only one complaining. She wants to use recipes from Pinterest and make chocolate cakes in coffee mugs.  I don't blame her. I was almost tempted to spent ten bucks on a replacement when we saw this one at the ReStore a couple of weeks ago, just to see if she'd use it. According to the tag, it heats the food really fast and the timer doesn't work. But I'm afraid that it might make the boys sprout extra heads or tails or something.  

I could go out and buy a new microwave, but I'm not excited enough about the idea to actually do it.

Breakfast Pizza

When I was growing up, my mom made Breakfast Pizza. It was a special-occasion thing, usually while we were camping or on the boat. There were always plenty of leftovers and it tasted even better straight from the fridge.

I've been meaning to make it for my own kids, but never quite got around to it. Then Hubby made lasagna from scratch last week and we had plenty of leftover cheese. I Googled and found plenty of breakfast pizzas, but nothing like the kind Mom used to make. So I improvised from memory.

We've got a big family and I wanted leftovers for midnight snacking, so I used our biggest lasagna pan. If you want a smaller batch, just use a smaller baking dish and adjust the amounts.

Unroll two tubes of crescent rolls and press them into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with a drained can of sliced olives, a drained can of sliced mushrooms, and sliced little smokies, Cover with a mix of shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese.

In a separate bowl mix seven or eight eggs and a dash of milk with salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the cheese, making sure that it soaks into all of the gaps and open spots. Bake at 375 degrees until the eggs are cooked. Mine took about 45 minutes.

For faking it from memory, I think I came pretty close to the original.

Carving Pumpkin Cookies

Once upon a time, I could make chocolate cookies and barely check the recipe on the bag of the bag to make sure I mad my measurements right. Having kids seems to have eliminated that ability. Either they sucked the remembered recipes from my brain, or going so long without doing it made me forget.

Now days, fresh baked cookies are a once-in-a-blue-moon thing that require special circumstances. Like these cookie cutters that I found on the clearance shelf at a big box store last November.

Teenage Daughter was looking for marked down T-shirts and the boys were trying to talk me into anything with blood or teeth when I saw these. If it's not clear from the picture, that's a pumpkin with different mouths and eyes and noses.

There was no UPC code, no label, no trace of what it was or might have cost. I was debating how much time I could spend in line at customer service trying to buy them when there was no way to tell what they actually were....the woman at the checkout line scanned one of the boys cookies-in-a-spooky-tin an extra time and said that was good enough.

I need a different sugar cookie recipe next time, one that won't make the faces spread and the eyes and mouths close into winks and smirks. And I need to make a much bigger batch because the boys saw what I was doing and wanted to cut their own faces. (That sounds a bit wrong when I re-read it....they wanted to design their own faces....on the pumpkins. That's better!)

I'm also thinking these would make good quilting templates for something like my Pumpkin Carving quilt. I did  some Googling and it looks like these are the Nordic Ware Jack-O-Lantern Cookie Cutter Set.

Living Without a Microwave

My parents owned an appliance store and I grew up in the era of "You can cook ANYTHING in your microwave!"

Our household been living without one since mid-April. It wasn't a deliberate choice -- the thing stopped working and, after spending a day or two stressing over how I'd manage to get it replaced, the kids and I quickly started to figure out how to do everything without it.

Guess what -- it was easy. Way easier than I would have thought it would be. Other than reheating leftover Chinese food for six people. I haven't figured that one out yet...or maybe we need to eat more yummy takeout so I can get more practice. I also don't like that heating leftovers in the oven heats up the house. That's probably my biggest complaint at this point. Once the weather cools down, that'll be less of a problem.

I'm sure we'll replace the microwave at some point, probably sooner rather than later, but I'm not in a big hurry. (It's not like the oven element that burnt out last week. That sent me into a panicked meltdown as I tried to figure out how to cook for a family of six with three burners, a crock pot, and a rice cooker.)

But for now, I can do without it. I just won't be able to use that melt and pour soap I've got in my craft stash, or try any of those cute cake-in-a-mug recipes I've stumbled across on Pinterest.

I love this woman's post about her kitchen. Go read it -- it'll make you love your kitchen, too.  The same day I found that post, I found another one by a woman who didn't think she could survive until she saved up for a new dishwasher.  I live in a house that's almost a hundred years old and has never had one.  Or a garbage disposal. I've got to admit that if I could add anything to my kitchen (except for that replacement oven element), I'd go for the garbage disposal. I hate picking out itty bitty pieces of ceral that have clogged the drain.

Now, if the sewing machine breaks, that is getting fixed as soon as humanly possible. Kitchen appliances are a completely different priority list.