Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

This summer I have had the chance to try my hand at barbecuing (usually Bryan's domain). Most recently I grilled up some teriyaki chicken skewers with pineapple. Here they are all lined up on the grill:


I love the little blackened bits!


Bryan and Dioji kill time before dinner:

The lunch I packed for the next day. Yum!

Happy Bento!

Colorful Lunch

After the last extremely bland-looking bento, I knew I had to kick it up a notch or two. So I stepped out into the garden and came back with some color:

Salad contains:

• romain lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumber & celery (from the grocery store)
• borage flowers and leaves & tomatoes (from the garden)
• sprouts (grown on my counter-top)
  

Up close you can see how fuzzy the borage leaves are:

I wasn't impressed with the texture. And though I've heard the flavor described as akin to cucumber... I couldn't distinguish it.

Here is the rest of my lunch, in bento form:

Grapes fill the top tier, and my own concoction of tomato-basil-garlic-chicken-pasta fills the bottom.

Happy Bento!

Friday's Bento

Where are the veggies? Where is the fruit? I need more color!

Embarrassingly simple bento contains:

• White steamed rice
• Chicken tender with mesquite seasoning
• mini banana muffin
  

Don't worry, I made it to the grocery store yesterday afternoon - so more colorful bentos are on the way. In any case...

Happy Bento!

Volunteers

I promised earlier to show you some pictures of other plants that have grown themselves in my garden this summer.


I am ecstatic about the number of tomatoes I am getting without doing anything aside from watering!

But will they ever turn red? I'm waiting...

Happy Gardening!

Garden-fresh Bento

Here is my bento from today:

Contents:

• turkey sandwich w/ tomatoes from my garden
• more garden-fresh tomato slices
• mini banana muffin

Here is the section of my garden that yielded today's tomatoes. The plants in back were given to me by my dad, and the little starts in front were planted (very late in the season) by yours truly.

Happy Bento!

Back to School Bento

Yesterday was my first day back to work. And so I started the new school year right by making bento lunches for my husband and I. Here is Bryan's:

It contains:

• ham sandwich
• grapes
• two crescent rolls
  
• two homemade chocolate chip cookies
  

Just for fun, I foraged in the garden to find something fresh for my bento lunch. Here it is:

Can you find the home-grown radish in the following bento?

My lunch contains:

• PB&J sandwich
• grapes
• trail mix (left over from a hike with my dad)
  
• very small radish
• junior mints (a treat from my mom-in-law)

Happy bento!

Homemade Frosting

Remember this?


If you are thinking your cake looks a bit forlorn, like the one above, you probably haven't frosted it yet. Let's get to it.

Gather up:

• powdered sugar
• butter or margarine
• some milk-like liquid
• vanilla extract
• food coloring (optional)

Start with the wet ingredients. Don't use very much to start. You can always use more, but never less (and it doesn't take much)!


Add some powdered sugar. Use your hand mixer to mix it up until it looks spreadable but not too runny. This isn't rocket science. Don't stress exact amounts.

If you want your cake to look extra fun, add lots of crazy food coloring like I did:


Spread on your cake. Display...

...and then consume.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake

About a week ago, for a friend of mine's birthday, I made my first from-scratch cake. It actually happened quite by accident. I was walking through the kitchen, a few things fell into a bowl, and out of the oven popped a cake! (Okay - it wasn't that much of an accident. What really happened was...)

Bryan went into the kitchen to bake a cake. There was no box of cake mix to be found.

"Look again!" I insisted, standing on tip-toe.

"I can actually see above this shelf." said my 6"1' husband, "We don't have any."

"Oh."

The wheels of my brain are turning furiously. With his right foot in a cast, Bryan can't drive right now, and I loathe going to the store. I was also remembering that during my last 27 fling boogie when I dove into my recipe stash, I had kept a recipe for chocolate cake because I really wanted to try it. Well, what was I waiting for? Here was my chance to avoid the store and make a cake I could be proud of!

"I can make one."

"Oh, you mean from scratch?" he looked surprised.

"Yeah. If I can bake bread, I'm sure I can make a cake." Now he looked cautious. That settled it, stubbornness set in as if he had just said "No, I don't think you can make a cake" and I was now determined to do this.

(My husband was really trying to be a nice guy - I'd like to point out. He knows that I take it pretty hard when things go wrong in the kitchen - and we had four guests coming over for dinner that night. The same six of us who endured the bean fiasco, incidentally.)

So I headed for the cupboard and fished out the recipe a co-worker had given me nearly a year ago. (By the way, thanks Heather!)

Heather's Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup Dutch processed cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups HOT water

Let's get started!

In a mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugar.

Add the eggs,

one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.  Stir in vanilla.

Combine dry ingredients;

add alternatively to the creamed mixture with the hot water.

I must add, at this point, that your batter is likely to look much runnier than this, because I got so caught up in taking blog pictures that I accidentally left out almost half of the water the recipe called for.  Oops!

Pour into three greased and floured 9-inch round baking pans (or one 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan)

(I only have two round pans, so I also made a batch of mini cup cakes.  They were super cute.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes

before removing from pan to cool completely.

After cakes are completely cool,

frost with desired frosting.  She suggests caramel frosting.  

Stay tuned to see what frosting I made instead... as well as the finished cake!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

This post goes out to all of my readers who are new to the kitchen.  Sometimes, you just need an easy, no fuss something to serve to your man (or eat yourself!).  So I submit to you...

The humble grilled cheese. Not a food that I consume (being allergic to milk) but, none-the-less, one of my husband's favorites. If you are fortunate enough to be able to eat them... they are a wonderful comfort food. And they are SO easy to make!

Take two slices of bread...

and spread them with butter.

Get the butter all the way up by the crust, so it won't burn.

Slice some cheese.  My husband actually likes Velveeta best for these sandwiches, but Tillamook is also good.

Place the bread, butter side down on a non-stick skillet.  (No need to spray it, by the way -- that is what the butter is for.)

Now place the cheese on the bread so that it covers the whole area.

Set the second piece of bread on top of the cheese, you guessed it, butter side up.

Let it sizzle for a bit, on medium heat - and then flip it over.

The second side will brown much faster, so check it often if you need to.

Ta da!

Enjoy!

Gardening

This beautiful bloom brought to you by the Borage in my garden that has generously self-sown from last year.

Stay tuned for more pictures of other wonderful garden "volunteers."

7% Vegetarian

I have always proudly declared myself to be a carnivore.  On our first date, I suggested Bryan take me to a BBQ place.  I figured, if the date was a flop - at least I would get to eat good meat!

So (with all this emphasis on tasty animal flesh) it should really not come as much of a surprise that I have not tried a huge number of veggies.  In fact, according to the Vegetarian's Hundred posted recently by Breadchick, I am only 7% vegetarian.  *wink*

Go check out the list of vegetarian "must tries" and see how many of them you've had.

Enjoy!

• P.S.  If you are missing seeing bento pictures like the one above, head on over to Not Exactly Bento and vote on her recent bento contest.  There are 60 entries to sink your teeth into!

Garlic Basil Chicken

Here is a great recipe that my friend Jen shared with me (I think it originated in a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker recipe book).  Sorry there are no pictures of this dish.  I was completely overwrought at the time due to the bean incident.

Ingredients:

• 8 large chicken thighs and drumsticks (about 2 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium bulb garlic, separated into cloves and peeled (about 15 cloves)
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, basil and olive oil, undrained
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• Basil pesto, if desired

1.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.  Cook chicken in oil until brown on all sides; drain.

2.  Place chicken and garlic in slow cooker.  Pour tomatoes and broth over chicken.

3.  Cover and cook on low heat for 7 to 8 hours, or until chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

4.  Remove chicken from slow cooker; keep warm.  Skim fat from surface of juices in slow cooker.  Stir in beans; cover and cook on low about 15 minutes until heated through.  Serve chicken with beans and pesto.  

Makes about 4 servings.

This recipe is really tasty!  I make the meal [that is, brown the meat and assemble the ingredients... see comments below] the evening before, put the crock pot in the fridge, and then all I have to do on the day of is pull the crock pot out of the fridge and turn it on.  EASY!

Enjoy!

A Word About Beans

This is the first time I ever used dried beans in a recipe. I put them to soak, and was so proud of myself, I took a picture for the blog.

After all, using dried beans is more cost efficient and healthier for you (because of the lower sodium content - or so I'm told).

However, there is something I was about to learn about beans.  The ones that come in the can are pre-cooked!  Ack!  Who knew?  So when I substituted my frugal home-soaked beans in the recipe, throwing them in for the last 15 minutes... that was not nearly enough time for them to cook!  (Experienced cooks everywhere are having a good laugh at my expense, I'm sure.)

Serving dinner for six that night, I served up the chicken and confessed, "I'm a little concerned about the beans." lol

I ended up grabbing some canned beans from a cupboard, rinsing them quickly, putting them in a bowl with the slow cooker juices, and zapping them in the microwave for 5 minutes, while my guests talked politely amongst themselves (all the while sitting at the table with empty plates!)

But now I know.  After all, I've only been plaguing the kitchen for about three years now (Bryan and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary last month) so I haven't had nearly enough time to make all the mistakes yet.  ;0)

In any case, stay tuned for the delicious Garlic Basil Chicken slow cooker recipe.  Using uncooked beans is purely optional.