Craving some Vietnamese food!!!!

When Tyler and I were first married, our first duty station together was Guam. We LOVED it. The beaches, the culture, the beauty-most of all, the FOOD. Our love for ethnic food was filled to the brim. Asian restaurants everywhere you turned-Thai, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and our favorite: VIETNAMESE. Our favorite place was right off the highway, and they were open 24 hours a day. Whenever we ate there (which was on a weekly basis at the very least) we ordered smorgasbord style, and felt that we had to be rolled out afterward. Among our regular steaming bowls of pho tai and their wonderful version of giant lumpia's served with romaine leaves and vermicelli rice noodles, we ordered big helpings of their beef salad. It was the most delicious, tender, slices of thick sirloin steak, charred perfectly and served over a bed of romaine, rice, cabbage and cucumbers. They served a wonderful light dressing to top it off, with some added cilantro and scallions. It was comforting, and hit the spot perfectly. Tonight, my husband and I craved that yummy salad, so I did my best to try to mimic the taste we remembered. The end result? SUCCESS!!! Our hearty meal was just what we remembered. I took measurements this time, so the next time we ache for this flavor, I know just how to make it!

Make a nice big bed of salad, made up of:

Romaine Leaves
Shredded Cabbage
Bean Sprouts
Sliced Scallions
Cilantro
Chopped Green Onions
Shredded/Julienne Carrots
Chopped Cucumbers

Meanwhile, salt and pepper some nice big sirlion steaks. I added some crushed red pepper and some garlic powder to ours as well.

For the dressing:

3 TBSP Fish Sauce
3 TBSP Water
3 TBSP Sugar
Juice of 2 Limes
Nice big spoonful of Sambal Oleek (more or less depending on your preference)
Splash of rice vinegar
Few drops of Sesame Oil

Assembly:

Top the bed of lettuce with about a cup of steamed white rice. Slice the steak and place over the rice. Drizzle the dressing over all of it and sprinkle some chopped peanuts and extra cilantro over. I added extra Sriracha to mine for some extra spice-it was delicious! You could very easily omit the rice for an extra healthy version of this filling meal, it's a meal all in itself which is an added plus :)

I think I may have been German in a past life!

The amount of cabbage I consume on a regular basis is not normal. Any kinds, red cabbage, savoy, bok, chinese, white, you name it, I love it! Steamed, sauteed, baked, raw, I almost think I am nuts-I actually crave this stuff! Well, tonight I was starving while deciding what to feed the family. I couldn't decide between stuffed cabbage rolls, and shepherd's pie. Well, after going back and forth-I thought, "shoot, I am going to make both!" I am focusing this entry on the cabbage rolls, they are what we ate tonight, the pie is in the fridge all ready for another meal. I have to say, I am so full, but my tummy is oh-so-happy! I ended up omitting rice and serving these over mashed potatoes instead. They turned out so delicious! Exactly the taste I was craving. The cabbage leaves were just the right tenderness, with the center of the rolls being melt in your mouth juicy, moist, and extremely flavorful. I will have to make them again soon!

Preheat over to 375 degrees. This recipe takes a couple hours from start to finish so make sure you have plenty of time.
Start with prepping your cabbage leaves. Make sure the head of the cabbage is nice and large, you want large enough leaves that they will wrap up the whole way. Get some water to a boil on the stove. Core the cabbage, and carefully pull away the leaves-coring it first will help with this process. I learned the hard way. If you try just pulling away the leaves, the closer you get to the core, the harder it is and the leaves tend to tear. If the veins of the cabbage are thick, fillet them thin as you can. Dunk the leaves into the boiling water and boil until they are pliable enough to work with.
In a separate bowl, mix a pound of ground sirloin, a chopped onion, some minced garlic (couple cloves), Worcestershire (about a TBSP or so) salt and pepper, and I threw in a mix of spices I have all pre-mixed in a bottle (it consists of onion and garlic powder, thyme, oregano, paprika, chili powder, basil) and some pre-mixed au jus I keep on hand to use instead of beef broth (makes for a stronger flavor for things, and I prefer this). Mix it all up really well and get ready to roll!
Take a cabbage leaf and a heaping spoonful of the meat mix. Wrap it up like you would an eggroll, sealing the edges and ending with a mini burrito looking thing. If a few of the leaves are too small, leaving them open isn't a big deal. Set aside in whatever casserole dish you are baking them in. Now, you have another option here as well, which I didn't do tonight because I didn't have enough time. Instead of just placing in the casserole dish, you can melt some butter in a dutch oven or oven proof sauce pan and brown each sides of each roll. It tastes wonderful either way. I go ahead and do this when I have time, but tonight it was already getting late and these take another hour and a half to bake.
On the stove, start making your tomato topping. Saute a chopped onion, some minced garlic, and cook until soft. Add a can of diced tomatoes, some oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Take a half cup more of the au jus and mix in a TBSP of corn starch. Stir into the tomato mix and let thicken. Pour this mix over the cabbage rolls and pop into the oven. Bake an hour, to hour and a half. Ground meat needs to come to a 160 temp before it's done. I served these over mashed potatoes and it was delicious! If you want this to be a one dish meal, add some cooked rice into the meat mixture before rolling and they can be a meal all in itself. This is what my finished product looked like, so delicious!


Enjoy-I know we did! Tyler is in a food coma already :)

Welcome to my kitchen :)

Whoa, okay I am taking a quick step back here. To those that are curious, here are the reasons behind this whole blog thing :)
On more than one occasion, I have been asked by someone for the recipe for a certain dish I have assembled. By the time I get around to finding a pen and paper, and figure out the measurements of everything (I hate measuring anything, thus the reason I hate baking) I never get the actual recipe to that person. If you are included in this, I am sorry.
Many of those that experiment with food, knows that sometimes you forget everything you put in a recipe. Most of the time I find that I am just grabbing all these different ingredients. Much love to my husband who willingly cleans up after dinner, especially when practically both my spice cabinets, numerous utensils, ingredients, etc, are covering the counters, sink and occupy the stove. So, finally! A single place I can record everything.
Also, some of my friends have told me that they want to eat healthier, but don't know how to cook, much less from scratch, and want the food to still taste good. Coming from a family of 9, there was no way we could eat all that expensive and unhealthy processed and frozen food, much less go out to eat 7 days a week! So, watching and learning from my Mom, cooking is the one of her many traits I was blessed to learn from her. I love that those who eat the food I cook, benefit from the fact that everything is from scratch, so they know exactly what they are eating.
I found that a lot of people don't eat certain things at home, just because they don't know how to make it! I find that silly. I have one of the weirdest eating habits known to man, and one of them is: "if I am craving something, I want it, and I am going to eat it!" :)
I hope this will be a place of sharing for everyone! I love feedback, and even more-those who can share their recipes as well! Inspiration for a dish has to start somewhere, right? Come cook with me! :)

Pollo Speziato alla Cacciatora! (Spicy Chicken Cacciatore)

Yesterday my family and I went to the big Caserta market. My poor son practically melted under the hot sun, but we picked out some fresh vegetables, amongst them some beautiful Roma tomatoes. The day before, I had brought home a whole chicken with intentions of roasting it, but as life changes plans, there it sat in my refrigerator since there was no room for it in our tiny European freezer. Dinner time was looming near, and my family started the whole, "I'm hungry, what's for dinner?" routine. I didn't know what to do. Irritated by the fact it was too late to do a roast chicken, and partially by my son digging through all of the snacks, I was tempted to order out! Instead, I kicked my son out of the kitchen and grabbed my boning knife. Add some fresh chopped up tomatoes, a bottle of white wine and some capers later, we had dinner. Here is the recipe. I don't do exact measurements, but I am sure I can bring some up if someone needs them. Crank up some good tunes, pour yourself a glass of wine and get ready to get cookin'!

I used a whole chicken that I cut into 8 pieces (save the carcass for some homemade chicken stock later!) but you can use any type of chicken you would like. Suggestion-2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts.
In a bowl, get a couple cups of flour and mix it up with some salt and pepper, and if you want, whatever other spices and herbs you might like.
Heat a skillet up with a couple tablespoons of oil. Grab a pair of tongs and dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mix and brown in the pan. Just brown on each side, it will cook the rest of the way later. Place on plate and set aside.
Ditch the tongs and grab yourself a wooden spoon. I like to use a wooden spoon as much as possible, it helps "feel" the food better than metal when it cooks. That's just my opinion anyway. Add an onion and a few cloves of minced garlic (more or less to your taste) into the same pan. I prefer my onions julienne, but you can chop them if you prefer. Saute', then add a bell pepper (red or green, last night I did red because that is what I had on hand) and continue to cook. Add about a cup of dry white wine, and simmer until liquid is reduced to about half. Then add 2 cans of tomatoes with juice (you can use fresh, just add some tomato paste/sauce with some water), a cup of chicken stock with some added bouillon for richer flavor. Add some capers (I put about a 1/4 cup) oregano, garlic powder, salt and (generous) pepper to taste, a nice rounded spoonful of crushed red pepper, thyme, basil and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, add the browned chicken to the pan. Cook for about 30 minutes, occasionally spooning the mix around the chicken pieces. For even better flavor, simmer an additional 30 minutes on low. Serve over some hot pasta or rice.

This recipe is easily a slow cooker recipe for all those busy nights everyone has. Usually I take pictures of dishes I make, but last night this dish was eaten before that happened! This isn't one of the healthiest dishes I make, so to cut some of the sodium out, I like to omit salt and resort to using more spices and herbs (fresh is the best, especially to enhance flavor) and that helps with cutting down on sodium. Using low sodium stocks/broths, and removing the skin from chicken is also a few tricks I use. You can add some sliced mushrooms, my son doesn't like them so last night I didn't add any, but they are delicious in there as well! Enjoy!