Simple Curry Soup

This one was requested by my host parents last night and paired fabulously tonight with the leftover salad from last night. Anyway before making the soup I googled half a dozen recipes and most of them seemed a bit ridiculous, so I combined the two that looked the best and simplified the process a bit to create a rich, healthy, flavorful soup that will come together in about half an hours time and only uses one pot (why do so many recipes out there require you make such a mess?  So unnecessary…)

Simple Curry Soup

Ingredients:

• 4dl/2cups chicken or vegetable broth/water and bouillon cube
• 1 standard size (14ish oz) can of coconut milk
• 1 heaping tbsp of Thai curry paste (I prefer red.  Use your favorite.  Also, use more for a hotter dish)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce, soy sauce, and/or sugar (use one, use two, use all.  It’s all good.)
• A handful of fresh coriander leaves/cilantro
• Half a lime (for juice)
• 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
• Vegetables (I used 2 garlic cloves, 1 zucchini, 2 carrots, 1 red onion, and 1 large red pepper.)
• Feel free to add meat.  I didn’t but any kind, particularly fish or chicken (imo) would be fine.
• A couple tbsps olive oil

Cook:

1. Chop all veggies.
2. In a large pot pour enough olive oil in to sautee all the veggies and the curry paste.  If using meat, cook that too.
3. Add broth, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and lime juice.  Stir until flavors blend (10 minutes or so.)
4. Stir in coriander right before serving.

Thats it.  Super easy, filling, and so warm on a freezing cold night like tonight is.  MMm.

-Ariel

Easy Gravy and Giblet Gravy

Gravy is actually really easy to make.  For some reason I imagined more work being necessary, but when I made it Sunday it turned out to be the simplest thing.  Once the turkey is done, just add some chicken stock to the drippings in the pan s to deglaze it, scrape any bits that need to be scraped, and add flour to thicken.  If you want a giblet gravy, just cook the giblets first (bring water to a boil in a saucepan, then lower heat to simmer giblets excluding the liver- should be refrigerated- for about 45 minutes, then add the liver and cook another 15-30 minutes ) drain, chop, and mix it with the drippings, chicken stock, and flour in a saucepan and then serve.  Done!

-Ariel

Easy Bread Stuffing

Here’s an easy recipe for stuffing on Thanksgivings day:

Stuffing:

Ingredients:

• One loaf of cheap white bread
• Chicken stock/ water and bouillon cubes
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 onions
• 1 egg
• Salt, pepper, and any other seasonings wanted
• a couple tsp butter

Cook:

1. Grease a large pan and preheat oven to 170’C/350’F.
2. Chop the celery and onions, and crumble the bread.
3. Mix everything together with just enough chicken stock to moisten but not soak the bread.
4. Add to pan.  Top with a couple tsp of butter and bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes.

Simple and delicious.  My grandmother makes a similar recipe only subbing the bread for a box of saltines and uses 4 sautéed onions.  That’s also good.  =]

-Ariel

Easy Chicken/Steak Marinade

I’m not sick anymore!  Woo!  I wasn’t going to have anything to post tonight since I made my moms Pumpkin Black Bean Soup for dinner, but then I remembered that last week (before I caught the flu from the kids) I made chicken with this marinade that everyone loved and I never got around to posting it.  Anyway it’s really simple and yummy, and good for frying or baking chicken or steak (I have used it to fry chicken and eat over rice with veggies, and on steak making kabobs.)

Easy Chicken or Steak Marinade:

1. One part vinegar
2. Two parts soy sauce
3. Chopped onion, garlic, and chili pepper
4. Salt, pepper, and coriander or other seasonings to taste

Just mix together and let the meat soak in it for about half an hour before cooking.  =]

-Ariel

Grandma’s Cranberry Glop (recipes from my moms cookbook)

Since I haven’t been cooking much this week thanks to this stupid virus, my mom has emailed me another guest post for the blog.  =]

-Ariel

Grandma’s Cranberry Glop

Let me start by saying I have no idea why my mom’s cranberry dish is called glop, other than the ingredients are all glopped together.  However, it’s been a part of our Thanksgiving tradition all of Ariel’s and my life and we all love it.  I am offering two versions one nonvegetarian and one vegetarian.  You might wonder how any cranberry dish would fit into the non veg category, it’s due to gelatin.  Many don’t realize this but gelatin is made from animal tissue.  If you interested in more  gelatin info click here. I would also love to see what recipes you and your loved ones share on the holidays.  Please feel free to share them with us!

Grandma’s Cranberry Glop

• 1 box red gelatin (cranberry or other flavor is fine)
• ½ cup hot water ½ cup cold water
• 2 cans whole cranberries drained well
• 1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple drained well
• Crushed walnuts, the recipe doesn’t say an amount I’m guessing about ½ cup but use more or less to suit your personal preference
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Pour hot water onto gelatin stir until dissolved, then mix in cold water
2. Refrigerate until it starts to thicken, watch this carefully!
3. Once about ½ way thickened mix well with cranberries, pineapple, nuts and lemon juice
4. Refrigerate a few hours longer the gelatin will continue to thicken

This is best made early in the morning or the night before.

The vegetarian version is very much the same.

• 2 cans of whole cranberries, drain excess liquid but not all the liquid!
• 1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple drained well
• Chopped walnuts, again use an amount to suit your tastes
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Just toss all the ingredients together and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

-Lin

Salad Dressing

Here’s a quick recipe to mix up for a homemade salad dressing.

Ingredients:

• 2 parts olive oil
• 1 part vinegar (whatever kind you like.  Add more oil if you want a milder taste)
• Mayonnaise (add by the tbsp, enough to give it a cloudy but not creamy texture, or to taste.)
• Salt, pepper, basil, oregano, powdered onion, powdered garlic, and other favorite seasonings, to taste.

Cook:

1. Mix together.
2. Serve.

It’s quite simple and a very versatile recipe- goes well on pretty much any salad.

-Ariel

Simple Chocolate Cake

I have not converted this recipe to US measurements, but a deciliter is about half a cup, so I would use that as a general basis.  I used deciliters for the entire recipe.  I made three small cakes with the batter (so my HM could take one with her to Berlin, and the kids possibly to bring another to their grandparents house.)  Overall this was very easy, quick to make, and all the ingredients are things we generally tend to have on hand anyway.  The batter was a bit runny but it rose quickly in the oven and came out perfectly (pics below.)

Simple Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 slightly overflowing dl cocoa
• 2 dl flour
• 2.5 dl sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• salt (a pinch or so)
• 1.5 dl milk
• 0.5 dl oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.25 dl hot water
• chocolate chips (a handful or so)

Cook:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C/350’F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.  In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients together, then add to the dry ingredients.  Toss in the chocolate chips.
3. Pour into a papered or greased pan and bake for 25+ minutes (more time for larger pans, possibly less for cupcakes.)  Let cool in pan.

To top it off I glazed the cakes with a frosting-glaze made of a tbsp butter, 2 tbsp milk, 5 tbsp powdered sugar, and 1 tbsp flour (to make it thicker without adding more sugar.  I’m working with diets here.)  Anyway I mixed the glaze and brushed it on the cakes, then added shaved chocolate for a decorative touch.  It came out very moist and delicious.

 

-Ariel

New Category and Other Stuffs

I started this blog post about fourteen cups of coffee ago and while this page has been blank I have: made a fort with the kids, played Wii with the kids, made lunch, prepared dinner for the road (driving to Copenhagen tonight,) played outside with the kids,  washed/folded/sorted laundry while the kids drew, and more or less watch the house be destroyed by the tornado that is ‘play time’ then cleaned it up again.  We are leaving to drive down to Copenhagen in one hour and I haven’t packed yet.  Because I won’t really be posting this weekend (except for Feminist Friday Quick Clicks which is scheduled to post as usual) I wanted to get one in today.  Only I don’t really have anything cooking or crocheting related to blog about*.  Lo and behold, new category: Book.  Because it rhymes.  But I’m not changing the title of the blog because Book, Cook, & Hook just sounds ridiculous.  Anyway I’m thinking of starting up a book club or something to go in it.  Who knows.

* Starred because I actually now do have something cooking related to discuss (and am too lazy to start a new blog post to do it in.  Check out this fantastic tip my host mom gave me for packing quesadillas (haha, I win.  nom nom) so that we can eat them on the road: put them in coffee filters.  Thats it.  Brilliant though, imo.

-Ariel

Yummy Fried Chicken

Last nights dinner was one of those scrambled-together meals.  Leftover string bean salad (think potato or macaroni salad, only with green beans,) colorful vegetable pasta (because the little one has asked for pasta,) and a couple chicken breasts that were about to expire.  Mm, scrounging for food.

Anyway, I cooked the pasta and fried up the chicken real quick and dinner was done in 15-20 minutes!

Yummy Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Bran flakes cereal (or corn flakes, whatever.  I used bran because that’s what we have and I think it brought a bit extra flavor that corn flakes wouldn’t have)
• Flour (1:2   flour:bran flakes)
• 1 egg
• Milk (about the same amount as the egg, maybe a drop less)
• Oil to fry the chicken in (enough to coat the pan, then a bit more)
• Seasonings (salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, whatever.)

Cook:

1. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces (I do this only because it fries faster this way, imo.)  In one bowl mix the egg and milk together.  In a separate bowl crush the bran flakes and mix in flour and seasonings.  Coat pan for frying and pre-heat at a medium-high temperature.
2. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then coat in bran flake mixture.  Fry.

Thats it!  Yummy and fast.  I’d have posted pics but my camera battery is apparently dead, and there aren’t any leftovers for when it’s done recharging- even after we were full everyone kept picking for any spare bran flakes that fell off!

Nom nom nom,

-Ariel

Simple Fingerless Mittens and Hat

As the weather has been colder and colder here in Denmark (especially in the mornings when I bike the 6yr old to kindergarten!) I’ve found myself increasingly thinking about mittens.  Fingerless are best, because childcare often leaves one needing full use of their hands.  The internet failed me on this account (mostly because I’m too lazy to search for longer than twenty minutes for a pattern.)  The first pair I made were far too small, and many of the others looked fancier or more complicated than I generally prefer.  So I made my own pattern.  Then I made a hat to go with it.  A scarf may be on its way…

These patterns were made using a size K hook with 3 skeins of worsted weight wool.

Fingerless Mittens

• Holding all three strands of yarn together, chain 25
• Row 1:  In the 4^th chain from hook, dc 22.  The chain counts as 1^st dc. (23)
• Row 2-10: Ch 2, dc 22, ch counts as 1st dc. (23)
• Row 11: Ch 2, dc 7, hdc 1, sc 1, slip to end.
• Sew ends leaving room for thumb (I sew directly on my hand because I’d rather make sure my fingers are covered as I like than count stitches and have it fit poorly, but if you’re a counter, from wrist to fingers I sewed 15 stitches, skipped 4, then sewed the rest.  Though I actually leave the very last stitch unsown, creating a slight dip that allows for slightly better flexibility, imo.)

(Make two, unless you are differently handed.)

Hat

• Holding all three strands of yarn together, chain 2
• Rnd1: In 2^nd ch from hook, dc 6
• Rnd 2: In spiral rounds throughout, dc 2 in ea st (12)
• Rnd 3: dc 2 in ea st (24)
• Rnd 4: dc 2 in ea st (48)
• Rnd 5-15: dc around (48)
• Sew ends in.

Please note that I made these patterns specifically to fit me and are NOT one size fits all.  For larger hands increase the mittens pattern by adding an extra round(s) in the middle.  For larger heads, increase the fifth round by stitches that are common denominators of 48 (ie: for 54 stitches around instead of 48, dc 6, then dc 2 in next st, rpt.)  Also, the top of the hat is not a completely flat spiral, it will ruffle a bit.  This is not a problem once it is on your head, as yarn stretches and the hat (and gloves, for that matter) should fit snugly.

I’m thinking I might have enough yarn left over to make a matching scarf as well.  For this I am just going to chain to the desired length, then dc enough rows to get to a desired width.  Simple, right?

-Ariel