Dear Giada,

Stop making everything look so easy! Please keep in mind those in your audience that are trying things for the first time. When you say on Food Network online that a gnocchi recipe is intermediate, that doesn’t deter me enough. You need to label it as “expert” for me to think it is beyond the scope of my talents.

Your recipe didn’t stop me from buying three potatoes, piercing the potatoes all over with a fork, microwaving them for 12 minutes (turning halfway through,) removing the skin (and almost burning my hands in the process), mashing the potatoes with salt and pepper, throwing three tablespoons of egg in along with ¼ cup of flour and sifting the flour over the potato (through a colander since I do not have a sifter) and then kneading the potato. It also didn’t stop me from dividing the dough into four equal pieces, rolling each piece between my palms and then rolling it on a plastic mat until it is one long 20-inch “rope.” It really didn’t discourage me from cutting the dough into one-inch pieces, rolling each over a fork to form grooves and then cooking it in a large pot of boiling water until it rises to the surface (about one minute) and cooking another four minutes. At this point, I am discouraged from trying again because it feels and looks like I just made mush.

I thought if I let the gnocchi sit for a while it would harden. So I proceeded to make a Knorr four-cheese sauce mix (just 180 calories and 7.5 grams of fat for the whole package) which you needed to stir with 1.5 cups of milk (I use skim of course) constantly until boiling, and then occasionally stir as I let it simmer for five minutes. You, Giada, suggested that I make the gnocchi with a Butter Thyme Sauce, but that didn’t sound appetizing to me so I improvised. The sauce, thank god, saved this dish, which tasted a bit like what I imagine potatoes au gratin should taste like.

And Giada, since I was frustrated that my almost two-hour effort did not come out perfectly, I googled gnocchi recipes to find out what I may do the next time to make my gnocchi more like yours. One suggestion that I will take is using a mashed potato mix instead of using potatoes from scratch. Of course, that’s if I ever feel up to the task of trying to be like you again (without the great cleavage!)

Your friend,

Allison

Almost Homemade Chicken Soup

Beth and I were both feeling crappy, joking that we had the Swine Flu. I really do not like store made chicken soup, I just can’t stand hot celery for some reason. So I threw together a hot soup meal with a few simple ingredients, some of which were left over from my attempt at Rachael’s slurpy noodle bowls (another “make your own takeout” meal). The ingredients:
1. About two cups chicken broth
2. A splash of chicken stock
3. Olive oil misto spray or Pam
4. 1 pound of chicken thighs
5. Pasta, about a cup of macaroni and a cup of vermicelli (I didn’t have that much vermicelli left so you could use whatever type of pasta you like)
6. I’d say you could add vegetables to this too, such as mushrooms, carrots and celery (if you like it)
7. Salt, pepper and garlic (optional, I stay away from spicy things when I’m sick)

Spray a 10-inch nonstick pan with olive oil or Pam. You can use a little chicken broth to cook the chicken in too. Cook chicken thighs on top of the stove until cooked through, probably about 20-25 minutes, until no longer pink. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is at least 185 degress. Once the thighs are done, you can even cut them with a knife or with scissors (seems to be easier to cube these with scissors). I also cut the fat away after the chicken was cooked, and that’s definitely easier to do than cutting fat off raw chicken. While the chicken is cooking, you can boil water and cook the pasta too. Drain the pasta. Mix pasta, chicken and broth in a pot and simmer over low heat until boiling. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and garlic.

I think this came out pretty good, and tasted a lot like Campbell’s. This leads me to the conclusion that despite the claims on soup cans and microwavable soup bowls that they are using white meat chicken, they are actually using chicken thighs. If you prefer white meat, you can substitute the thighs with chicken breasts.

Have you tried a recipe? Do you have a recipe suggestion? Please let us know!

Don’t Try This at Home…

Several years back, way before I became interested in cooking, I was invited over to my friends Betsy and Dustin’s for homemade pizza. I was very impressed by this, they even made the dough from scratch! So I decided if they could do it, I can too. Boy, was I wrong. Beth and I both tried to make the dough, mixing yeast with warm water (why does yeast smell like baby formula?) letting it sit, kneading and finally getting annoyed that it wasn’t coming out right. If you are bored at the gym, try kneading dough as a workout. That’ll definitely make you sweat. I can’t really describe what the dough tasted like, but like a handful of other homemade conconctions we’ve tried, it wasn’t worth the effort.

So last week we decided to try pizza again with my brand new pizza stone, a birthday present from my favorite cousin. We had made this in Florida a few times and it came out great. All we did was buy the pizza dough and place homemade sauce, part skim mozzarella cheese, olives and mushrooms on it. You do need to roll the dough with a rolling pin, and place both flour and corn meal on the stone so the dough doesn’t stick. If you like a thinner crust pizza, try cutting the dough in half and making two pizzas, one at a time, instead of one large one.

We also tried the Pillsbury Pizza Crust, which comes in a rolled tin just like the Pillsbury biscuits. It makes more of a square Sicilian crust but it is easier since you can just press the dough into a greased cookie sheet. It was like having pizza made on Pillsbury rolls and was very tasty.

Helpful hints: Do not try to use low fat cheese for this, it doesn’t come out right. Also make sure you use dough from a really good pizza place. We tried the dough from AJ’s in Forest Hills, and the dough was definitely sub-par to Big Louie’s in Hollywood, Fla.

You can place any of your favorites on the crust with sauce, such as chicken or shrimp.

Mock Shepherd's Pie

Beth’s been staying with me for a few weeks, which is fun since I have someone to cook for and eat with. I like to plan meals a few days in advance because I hate to go to the supermarket every day. It also stresses me out to think about what to have for dinner every night. I am especially diligent about this since I recently started working again (YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!) and I DEFINITELY do not want to shop, cook and do dishes every single night.

One day I should just tape record the conversations we have about meals and post it as an audio file. They tend to go something like this:

“Do you want omelettes or turkey burgers?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Ok I’m in the mood for Mexican, how about tacos?”

“Sure.”

“I saw a good recipe Rachel Ray was making that involved chicken and broccoli. Wanna try it?”

“I don’t care.”

I think you get the idea. I can never decide what I want and like to keep my options open. And Beth just agrees with everything I say.

So the other night I had some chopped turkey meat that had to be cooked before it expired. Beth’s default dinner with chopped turkey is ususally turkey burgers— but that always sounds boring to me. One of my favorite things, especially when it is colder out is gravy. It reminds me of cold days in elementary school. Whenever we’d open a can of gravy in Florida I’d always pronounce “It smells like winter.”

That’s because one of my mother’s default quick dinners was ground meat in gravy over pasta (sorry, Italian girls, I know you think this is gross). This is a good, easy hot meal that can feed a lot of people. This time, Beth cooked and we decided to make it over mashed potatoes. I keep calling this a mock shephard’s pie, but it is very simple. It only requires four ingredients:

1. About a pound of chopped turkey breast (make sure it is ground turkey breast. Regular ground turkey is full of fat.)
2. 1-2 cans of Campbell’s mushroom gravy
3. Mashed potatoes
4. Extra mushrooms (I like extra mushrooms in mushroom gravy)

Brown the meat. Add the gravy and any vegetables. Simmer for a few minutes. Make the mashed potatoes. Place meat on top of potatoes.

Serve!

This goes well with Pillsbury rolls or Italian bread. For some reason, this tastes good. But not as good as I remember from my childhood.

The First Taste Test

Since I have put baking from scratch on the back burner for a while, I decided to start testing different dessert mixes and make them low-fat/low calorie and then create a list of which brands taste the best. My first test was Pillsbury Devil’s Food Cake Mix. My reason for picking the Pillsbury mix first, you ask? It was buy one get one free at Publix! I got a reduced sugar yellow cake mix for free, but I won’t make it until I have tested more brands first.

The ingredients needed to make the cake the regular way are:

-3 eggs

-1 1/4 cups of water

-1/2 cup of oil

What I used to make it low-fat:

-6 egg whites and 1 egg

-1 1/4 cups of water

-1/4 cup of applesauce and 1/4 oil

Made the regular way, it is 250 calories per serving and about 7 grams of fat. The way I made it, using the ingredients above, it is 204 calories per serving and about 3 grams of fat. That’s a difference of 46 calories and 4 grams of fat per serving.

How did it taste? The cake itself was pretty good, it was a little dry at first, but the next day it tasted even better. It was light and fluffy. I also put Pillsbury chocolate frosting on top for added flavor, which has about 120 calories per serving. If you are really looking to cut calories the frosting isn’t necessary, but I have also used Jell-o pudding (pre-made cups or the mix) and that has no fat and 100 calories total and tastes just as good.

Next up: Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookies. Stay tuned…

Make Your Own Take-Out

I love chinese food. My earliest childhood memories consist of Chinese take-out on Sunday nights and watching “All in the Family” (we called it “Archie” in my house). My father would go to his menus that were organized like napkins in a napkin holder, hand it to us and demand that we each choose our dinner. We eat so much Chinese food that if you name a member of my family I can tell you exactly what they will order now and what they ordered then. I can even tell you what Beth, Uncle Mark and cousin Eric will order after making them eat a bit more Chinese food than they would’ve had I not visited.

However, as I get older I tend to go for healthier Chinese options. For example, chicken and broccoli without oil and brown rice has replaced a lo mein combination (why do people need lo mein and fried rice?); Moo shoo chicken with the sauce on the side has replaced chow fun…you get the idea. Chinese take out is a good cheap option when I don’t want to cook. But I still like to try what Rachel Ray deems “make your own take out.” So the other day I saw a “Simply Asia” flavor packet for General Tso’s chicken. You just add the seasoning with a little soy sauce and sugar and shake the chicken in the handy plastic bag they include in the package. Then, you punch some holes in the top of the bag and stick it in the microwave for nine-13 minutes.

The directions say to use about a pound of chicken breasts, but instead I used boneless chicken thighs. Also, I only used half the marinade because I do not like things very saucy (I’m a big sauce on the side person, so I figured if the chicken required more sauce I’d just add it after). I also made this with some chicken-flavored cous cous. If you are trying to cut calories, cous cous is a good side dish. A cup and a half of cous cous is only 180 calories and three points on the old Weight Watchers system.

It was pretty tasty. Especially on a Friday night after my first week back at work!

I can’t decide what the best thing was about this dish: the fact that it was only $6 to make for two people or that there was only one pot to clean up.

Don’t Be Chicken, Try Something New!

One day I was telling one of my Italian friends about my family’s chicken burger recipe (ketchup and kosher duck sauce, “Saucy Susan.”) She told me that it sounded interesting, and then also added that she has heard of other kosher recipes that use ingredients that she doesn't place together in the same dish. Of particular note was a chicken recipe that included cranberry sauce, Lipton onion soup mix and Catalina dressing. That sounded good. I knew that my family’s brisket recipe included cranberry sauce and onion soup mix, so how much worse could anything taste with some Catalina dressing?

So after hearing about this recipe for several years, I finally got around to trying it. Twice.

It only has a few ingredients:

Chicken drumsticks and boneless thighs. I bought a package of each and asked the butcher to remove the skin.
Two cans of Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce.
Lipton onion soup mix.
Kraft Fat Free Catalina dressing. I think the original recipe calls for full fat dressing, but I don’t like to add unnecessary calories.

Round 1
I placed the chicken pieces in a baking dish and covered it with two cans of cranberry sauce. Then, I added the onion soup mix. It started to smell very oniony, so I only used half the package. I also only used half the bottle of Catalina dressing. I baked the chicken at 375-400 degrees for about an hour (use a meat thermometer; I just bought the cool meat thermometer where you insert the thermometer in the meat while cooking it and it beeps when the meat is done. It attaches to a device that you leave outside the oven. Yes, it is $20 but I’ve invested more than that in crappy meat thermometers that do not last too long. Also if you have a Bed Bath and Beyond coupon it is definitely worth it). Turn the pieces over about 30 minutes through--use tongs!

I liked the sauce, but the chicken was a bit tough. I had also marinated the chicken in the ingredients overnight before cooking. I knew I could do better, so I tried again.

Round 2
This time, I only used one can of cranberry sauce, and the rest of the Lipton soup mix and dressing. I also left the skin on. I baked it at about 375 for an hour, but it wasn’t getting done, so I turned the oven up to 425 for the last 15-20 minutes. The sauce was a lot more oniony, so if you are going to try this and you are not the biggest onion fan (I’m not), you might want to try it with only a quarter of the Lipton package. However, I would suggest definitely leaving the skin on to cook the chicken and then taking it off before you eat it. If you like the skin and think I’m crazy, let me tell you this: chicken without the skin has about one-two grams of fat, and chicken with the skin has about 15-22 grams PER PIECE.

Let me give a shout out to Brigitte, who shared this recipe with me from her mother-in-law, Joan. Thanks everyone!