Oh yeah, I have a cooking blog.

After a year it is almost done!!!

Cookbook Update

I also want to apologize for not posting anything new in months. Money and time have been tight since moving to Charleston so I don't really have much to share. I have made a couple new things that I'll try and get up relatively soon.

The Pampered Chef

This is a shameless plug. In order to help ends meet while I am in school I have signed up to be an independent consultant for The Pampered Chef. Please keep me in mind for all your kitchen instrument needs and check out my personal website to browse the catalog and pick up any goodies that might catch your eye. I'm also available for cooking shows and catalog shows.
http://new.pamperedchef.com/pws/krispyjones

--Dare to Cook--

Beef Stew with Fennel and Shallots

Beef Stew with Fennel and Shallots

I personally love this stew. It was my first (and so far only) exposure to fennel and the only thing I will willing put mushrooms in.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 lb boneless lean beef stew meat, trimmed of visible fat and cut into 1.5 inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
½ fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced vertically
3 large shallots, chopped
1.5 teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
2 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
3 cups vegetable stock or broth
½ cup red wine (optional)
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
4 large red-skinned or white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
18 small boiling onions, about 10 oz, halved crosswise
3 Portobello mushrooms cut into 1 inch chunks
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

Directions:

Place the flour on a plate. Dredge the beef cubes in the flour. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the beef and cook, turning as needed, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the fennel and shallots to the pan over medium heat and sauté until softened and lightly golden, 7-8 minutes. Add ½ teaspoon of the salt, ¼ teaspoon of the pepper, the thyme sprigs, and the bay leaf, and sauté for 1 minute. Return the beef to the pan and add the vegetable stock and the wine, if using. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer gently until the meat is tender, 40-45 minutes.

Add the carrots, potatoes, onions, and mushrooms. (The liquid will not cover the vegetables completely, but more liquid will accumulate as the mushrooms soften.) Simmer gently until the vegetable are tender, about 30 minutes longer. Discard the thyme springs and bay leaf. Stir in the parsley and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1.2 teaspoon pepper.

Ladle into warmed individual bowls and serve immediately.

For what it is worth this recipe comes from The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook so they provide some helpful information that I would like to share with you.
This stew has three servings of veggies, one carb serving, and one protein serving.
There are 318 calories, 1,331 kilojoules, 21g protein, 36g carbs, 11g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 6g monounsaturated fat, 47mg cholesterol, 677mg sodium, 6g fiber.
There, now you know more than you ever wanted to know about this beef stew.

Giant Fennel

More ingredients.

Lots of prep work.

Lots.

I failed at getting a final picture but here it is about half done.

---Dare to Cook---

The Battle of the Bread Machine (Not everything I do turns out well.)

So I bought a bread machine so I could make bread for sandwiches. However, when your bread turns out like this...

Oh I look like a hot mess!!

Um yeah...

...it is hard to make anything with it. Let's hope that the next batch is more usable.

---Dare to Cook---

Spit in the Eye

When you make a "spit in the eye" one of three things came happen.

The yolk can break in the pan...

The yolk can break when you move it to the plate...

OR it can actually turn out well!

Making a spit in the eye, bird in a basket, or whatever else name you have heard is essentially just like making a fried egg. You want to butter the pan and let it heat up slightly. While the pan heats you can make your cut out in the bread. The bread goes in the pan first and then you crack the egg right into the cut out. I like to put the "doughnut hole" piece of the bread in the pan to toast up too. I personally cover my skillet with a lid to let the top of the egg steam so that I can reduce the risk of yolk destruction but as you can see from the pictures that doesn't always help.

Just be patient. If you can fry and egg then the spit in the eye should be almost as easy. And don't worry, you're not going to get it perfect every time but when you do it's a pretty great feeling to deliver to the table.

---Dare to Cook---

Dreamy Orange Creamy Pops

Dreamy Orange Creamy Pops

I will have to admit. Mine didn’t turn out exactly as anticipated. A few things led to this. The first being my apparent inability to read “vanilla yogurt” because I saw “vanilla ice cream.” The second is that I don’t have anything that can really crush ice too well; this lead to me leaving out a lot of ice and thus ending up with a really strong orange flavored pop. They still weren’t bad but I’ll have to wait until I can get a better blender before attempting again.

Ingredients:

2 cups ice
1.5 cups vanilla yogurt
¾ cup frozen orange juice concentrate
½ cup milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Pop molds with lids

Directions:

Combine ice, yogurt, orange juice concentrate, milk, and vanilla in blender or food processors; blend until smooth.

Pour mixture into molds. Cover with lids, Freeze 6 hours or until firm.

To remove pops from molds place bottoms of pops under warm running water until loosened press firmly on bottoms to release. (Do not twist or pull lids.)

Yum.

---Dare to Cook---

Looking for Ideas

So in an effort to make this blog better I would like your feedback on a couple ideas I had. I know I have a few other aspects of this page that are still listed as "under construction" and trust me I have not forgotten about them! And I will complete them someday. As for the main blog page I have twoish ideas that I want some opinions on.

The first is guest blogger posts. I know I'm not the only one out there cooking in order to feed myself/my household. Would anyone like to be a guest blogger? You'd need to share the recipe, at least one picture (preferably of the final product), and a little narrative on what you did, maybe what you'd do differently next time, that kind of thing. You might even like to give a brief introduction of yourself the first time you submit something. If you are interested send me an email at kjfoodphotos@gmail.com.

The next idea is kind of an idea and a half. It started with the idea that I would do a post about the farm where I like to get my eggs but then it transformed into the idea to do posts that are more ABOUT food than strict recipes. The goal here being to get into a routine of posting something worth wild at least once a week. I have a couple fun books on dish origins and different cheeses. Like most people I do tend to fall into a pretty steady habit of a few "go to" recipes even though I try to do different things, sometimes those old favorites win out. So this type of post would help to provide some more variety as well as more information about food in general.

Again I would love your thoughts and feedback on these ideas and if you have ideas of what you'd like to see please let me know! You can either comment here or send me a message at kjfoodphotos@gmail.com

Thanks!



---Dare to Cook---