Sweeter than Sugar

Hey I almost forgot! I started a cooking blog a little while ago that anyone can follow. I usually post easy recipes. So far there are more chicken recipes, such as Winger's sticky fingers, chicken and spinach stromboli, and sweet and sour chicken, but I will be posting a whole bunch of things that I try out and love. There are also a few breakfast foods and baked goods posted right now. I will post more recipes with different meats, vegetables, and fruit. There will be salads, soups, other dishes and extras, including my mom's steak marinade that I use. It's a work in progress, but feel free to check it out!

 Sweeter than Sugar
http://sweeterthansugarkitchen.blogspot.com/

This is Halloween

part 2 of the post:

For the most part, it was a great Halloween! I loved walking around campus while seeing the different costumes. There was a dementor with 3 guys standing on top of each other with a large black cloak covering them. There was a  shark with a guy's legs dancing out of his jaw (one person was standing upside down with his legs out inside the costume to look like he was being eaten. There was a 'sexy saxophone player' that ran around shirtless playing the saxophone. Oh my Halloween is just so great! haha

Tonight we had our ward trunk-or-treat. I was dressed as a nerd on Saturday but I had to wash my costume from the dance that night, so I went with being a cowgirl tonight instead :) I loved getting candy and we all enjoyed hot chocolate, but here is a story, which I will skim through because it was so embarrassing and humiliating, but it happens....
So once upon a time Rachel Marie decided to try making chili. Even though she cooks often, she thought she would give this a shot. Since the crock pot was not cooking fast enough, she put it in a large pan and turned up the heat before heading off to the trunk or treat (very very very stupid idea). She lost track of time until she decided to go turn down the heat (finally) when she ran into her roommate who said something along the lines of "you almost set the house on fire, and the smoke alarm almost went off"as Rachel ran into the room and yes it smelled awful. She about broke down when a calm, reassuring voice came in her head, "Rachel, I know you have been stressed. It's ok. The Lord knows how you feel and you don't need to prove him as much because he knows how you feel and that you are trying your hardest." I then realized how stressed I had been after not doing well on tests, complications with peers, along with taking Tobi for a couple of weeks to keep away the deadly common cf bacteria pseudomonas that I've been fighting off. I'll be honest that it has been stressful with hour long treatments twice a day, cleaning pieces once a day, and usually carrying 2 gallons of water from the creamery to wash the pieces with because of our hard water, along with the awful taste (sort of like rubbing alcohol) and my voice being very hoarse and not sounding the same. I have especially been paranoid lately because a few days ago I heard of a local 20 year old Cyster who passed away about a week ago. I remember thinking how incredible she is for all that she has done and for her passion of dance and following her ambitions despite CF. I felt more than honored when I saw her at a state drill team competition. My determination to survive has become even stronger since I heard of her passing, but I am having to trust the Lord in everything and remember his promise that if I try my hardest to follow every medical directive then my life will be extended.
Anyways, the point is, this horrible experience was an eye opener at the same time. I know with a sure knowledge now that our Savior does know how we feel and wants to help us. He cares for us and is concerned with how we are. He knows us so much better than we know ourselves and wants to help. Tobi will not be for much longer and it's really not that big of a deal, since a lot of CF patients take it. In fact I am so grateful for it because it really has extended the expected lifespans for cfers. It amazes me what technology is doing and it doesn't stop getting better! :) So yes it was a stupid story to talk about, you know, a girl who almost set the apartment on fire because of chili because she didn't realize how stressed she was, and how it was an eye opener. Luckily I can now look at my pan and laugh while saying "Wow that looks awful!" but otherwise...
Happy Halloweeeeen! I hope you all had a great one :)

MJ at trunk or treat-NBD :)

cowgirls

love these girls

Rod and I

Love me a little bit of gourmet cooking

I meant to post this a while ago but couldn't find the time. For anyone who likes to cook, there are a few awesome recipes I discovered over the past few weeks (all thanks to my fav cooking blog/cookbook Our Best Bites. I decided to be a little daring and try a tortellini bake, grilled pizza, and chicken cordon bleu. And they were delicious!

So I figured it would be easier to post the first two step by step recipe links because they of course could explain it much better than I could because they were their recipes, but I will post the pics of how they turned out when I made them (but for some reason I didn't take a pic of chicken cordon bleu, but it was still a keeper. It looked and tasted fantastic!). And I typed the recipe for the chicken cordon bleu because it's not on their website.


http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/tortellini-spinach-bake-in-creamy-lemon/

For the tortellini, when the author said that you don't have to put as much lemon if you aren't such a big fan of it, you can listen to her. I personally like lemon but my mom wasn't too fond of the extra lemon taste.) but it was surprisingly not too hard to make.

Now, you may think, "Grilled pizzas? Huh? That sounds...interesting?" But oh. my. they. are. now. one. of. my. favorite. foods. Please give them a try. I actually used a different dough recipe (please make it from scratch it makes them even better) than what was on the website, but I did use their homemade sauce and their tutorial on how to grill a pizza. (And I used one of those handy lean mean grilling machines)

So here is the dough recipe I used:

1 cup warm water
2 tsp. yeast
1/3 cup oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour

Stir water, yeast, oil, and sugar together. Let rest 5 minutes. Stir in salt and flour. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 minutes. Take a lightly floured rolling pin and roll them out. *On the blog it talks about how the pizzas don't have to be perfectly round. They were just fine. Roll them out to keep a little bit of thickness and about 9 inches in diameter

Now for the sauce, I used the basic marinara one from our best bites. I didn't have tomato paste, so I just used sauce and simmered it for a few minutes. It was still a little watery of a sauce but still had a great taste.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/06/pizza-sauce/

Here is how you actually cook the pizza:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/06/tutorial-bbq-grilled-pizza/

You pretty much just take the dough and lightly spread olive oil on both sides with a pastry brush and let it cook on the grill. After the grill lines begin to appear on the dough and it seems likes it's cooked alright, you quickly add the toppings and put the grill top down. It takes about 5-10 minutes to cook. You will start to see the grill marks on the pizza. You would think the cheese would stick to the grill (at least the lean mean) but it scraped off well with a rubber spatula. And for toppings I used ham and pinapple, and not everyone likes pineapple on pizza but it sure tastes great grilled!

Finally, here is the chicken cordon bleu. I don't think I will make it that often because even though it's not that hard, it gets really messy and is a little tricky (like when you have to hammer the meat and roll the chicken in the batter). But trust me it is still great even when the unfinished food looks messy.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (use frozen, but defrost it first)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella, provolone, or swiss cheese
6-12 slices thinly sliced ham (ok, when I made this all we had were thicker ham slices. It was the main reason why it was more difficult for me to make because I had to shred the ham and so just use the normal deli ham)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs (i used crushed corn flakes and it was still great. You can also use crushed rice krispies)
1/2 cup freshly shreaded parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place a chicken breast on a cutting board and place your non-dominant hand on top of it. Using a sharp knife, cut each breast completely in half horizontally. Place each piece between two pieces of plastic wrap and, using a meat mallet, pound until each piece is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

3. Combine seasonings and sprinkle evenly over one side of each chicken piece. Divide shredded cheese among all pieces, layering on top of the spices. On top of each cheese, layer 1-2 pieces of ham (remember to use deli-style). Roll each chicken piece up and secure with toothpics. (When I made it, it didn't look perfect at this point. So unless you are entertaining, don't worry about it looking perfect because it will still turn out well).

4. Place flour in a shallow bowl, eggs in another bowl, and both panko bread crumbs (or cereal crumbs) and parmesean cheese in a third, and stir the cheese and crumbs to combine.

5. (Here is the messy part) Working with one piece of chicken at a time, dredge in flour, rolling the chicken around to cover the whole piece, then in eggs, and finaly in bread crumb mixture. Use your fingers to press bread crumb mixture in on all sides of chicken.

6. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle melted butter evenly over chicken. Bake for about 25-35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 164 degrees F.

7. Cool for 10 minutes, remove toothpics, and enjoy! :)

Nicknames and Such

Day 20: Nicknames: Hmm I really don't have that many nicknames. The one I hear most is Rach, which I like because it's simple. But my mom has one called doodle bug because I would always be drawing as a kid. Texas was also one of my nicknames for a while. I'm occassionally called Miss Rachel and often Rachael Ray, especially when people read my name wrong, and then they get excited because they think they get to meet her.  Too bad for them. But speaking of Rachael Ray, which makes me think of cooking...

A couple of weeks ago my mom came home with this cookbook, and I was stoked out of my mind because I had been going waiting months for it to come out after always going on their blog for recipes. I feel pathetic because it's for mormon moms that are crazy about cooking and I'm only in high school...

But it's available in many bookstores and has had commercials for it, been featured in magazines, and much more. It's such a good book because every recipe is delicious and not too hard to make. It's just too good! :)

A few discoveries

Here are a few things I have recently discovered, listened to, seen, tasted, and fallen in love with.
-The local band Allred. They are on Itunes and just recently came out with a new cd. They are so talented I literally had goosebumps running down my arms!
-the movie Letters to Juliet. It's so cute and clean :) . I actually saw it a couple of months ago, but it just came out on DVD and Blu Ray last week :)
-Recipes: Cinnamon Chips with fruit salsa. It is sooo easy to make and helped add a twist to my school lunch I brought. http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/04/sweet-fruit-salsa-with-cinnamon-chips.html and http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/04/baked-cinnamon-chips.html . I also discovered crepes are easy to make and delicious :)  (But on this recipe, I put it at a low temperature instead and cooked the crepes longer. And when they say use the rubber spatula, they mean it because they are easier to flip). http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/06/tutorial-crepes-famous-smith-family.html

I fell in Love

Yes, it is true. I have fallen in love. I saw this recipe on a blog (http://www.bakerella.com/pillow-cookies/), and it sounded interesting, so I had to try it out! I made it and found I was in heaven. I like to call them brookies, because you make a brownie inside of a chocolate chip cookie. I made a few changes to the recipe from the scource I had found it at, but here it is:



Brookies:
1 package brownie mix
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

My own honey pecan mixture to add:
1/3 cup pecans, completely crushed (you can do this by pouring the pecans into a freezer ziplock, and then using a rolling pin to crush the pecans). Once rolled it should be powdery. Then add a tablespoon of melted butter with a couple of drops of honey, and mix the mixture together.
Make brownies according to package and let cool. Cut about ten 1 inch squares. Enjoy the remaining brownies. (I used a pan about 8 X 8)

For the chocolate chip cookie dough, beat butter with a mixer until creamy.
Add brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and stir together with a wire whisk. Add flour to butter mixture and beat until combined. Then beat in the pecan mixture for a more buttery, sweet taste. Stir in mini chips. Let dough chill covered in the refrigerator for at least an hour.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use a measuring cup to scoop batter by the 1/2 cup. Since it’s chilled, you may need to pack it with a spoon. Then use the spoon to remove the dough from the cup and place it on parchment paper. Work quickly so the dough remains chilled or either prepare one cookie at a time so the rest of the dough remains cold.

After the dough is on the parchment paper, make an indention and place a 1 inch square brownie in the center. Press the brownie down gently and work the remaining dough around the brownie. You can use your hands to shape the dough into a ball.

During this step, I found it easier to use a piece of parchment paper as a work surface since the dough can get sticky and then I used another piece of parchment paper for the baking sheet. If your dough gets too soft, you can chill the rolled dough balls for a few minutes right before baking.

Prepare six cookies at a time using a large baking sheet (15 X 20) and bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes. (If you wish, you can cook longer, but I have found it better if you leave them out once they are a bit doughy because they harden up.) Return the remaining dough to the refrigerator until time to bake the second batch.

Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes about ten cookies using a little less than a 1/2 cup of dough for each cookie.

If your cookies start to get too brown before they are done baking, you can place a sheet of aluminum foil over top for the last few minutes.

All credits except for the pecan mixture go to http://www.bakerella.com/pillow-cookies/ since I pulled it directly from the site and Southern Living 2009