Fall Soups and Slow-Cooker Love

My brand new, super awesome slow cooker was broken in last week with a few soups to celebrate the fall season.  We got the slow cooker as a wedding gift and I've been DYING to use it!  It was way too hot this summer to make any of my favorite soups or stews, so it's just been sitting in our cabinet, weeping silently, feeling neglected, waiting for me to use it.  Yes, my slow cooker is SO amazing that it has feelings...

This slow cooker is seriously the most amazing thing ever!  It's 6 quarts, and programmable so when I have a recipe that says cook on high 4-5 hours, it will turn to warm after the time is up!  Now I don't have to worry about a recipe not cooking completely if it set it on low for 8-9 hours instead, or about getting home in time before the meal is over-done.  It has a thermometer probe for meats and will turn off when the meat hits a certain temperature.  And it even has a clip-on lid so I can take it to dinner parties or Wine & Dine.  

I'm a huge fan of the slow-cooker.  Which is why I bought Tamara and Rian a slow cooker as a wedding gift.  She is equally in love with hers, and we swap recipes every now and then.  

Over the last week, I've made three different soups with our new slow-cooker and couldn't be happier with how well it works!  The first, and the favorite is Taco Soup.  I got it from one of Bryann's co-workers who copied it out of her Crockpot recipes book.  I think the link above is the recipe I use, but I'm not looking at my recipe right now and I'm too lazy to get out of my blanket and go check.  Yes, it's a lot of canned food, but it's soooooo easy, and the only prep it requires is browning the meat with the chopped onions.  I usually do this the night before and refrigerate until the next morning.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll cook several packs of ground beef (bought in bulk at Costco) with chopped onions, and freeze flat in ziplock bags until I need them.  My mom taught me that little trick!  

On Saturday, I made my slightly tweaked, and more stew-like version of this Vegetable Beef Soup.  I chop up a boat load of celery, bell pepper, onions, carrots, and potatoes instead of a bag of frozen vegetables - though I'd use frozen if I were in a pinch.  I usually make a tomato sauce from tomato paste just because I use tomato paste for more dishes and always have it on hand.  Lastly, I use 2 cups of beef or vegetable broth instead of water.  It is always amazing, and it's one of my most favorite winter soups.  

This morning I made Corn Chowder from this tried-and-true recipe.  For the frozen hash-browns, I use Potatoes O'brien that we stock up with at Grocery Outlet.  This time around, I used red pepper-spinach chicken sausage in place of cubed ham.  Next time I'm going to put in some Italian style ground turkey sausage.  

Tomorrow I'm going to make slow-cooked pot roast and it will be amazing!  I'll post the results later.  

Salmon with Red Pepper Pesto

My adventure in cooking continues with this October's issue of CL.  I tried this Salmon with Red Pepper Pesto right away, and was pretty pleased.  Except for the fact that I still can't cook meat... (I'm starting to think this might be a real genetic disorder or something.)  The recipe says to use a grill pan and to cook the salmon for 4 minutes on each side.  But I bought salmon with the skin on one side and Bryann said only to grill it on the side with the skin.

Let me back up.  This may not be so much the fault of my genetics, but Bryann's faulty listening skills.  We had just gotten home from work and I was getting things ready for dinner.  Bryann was sitting at the table playing a game on his phone and I tried to engage him to ask his advice for how to cook the fish.  I asked if he'd prefer to grill it on the BBQ or on the stove.  He said he didn't care.  I asked whether I should grill it in a pan or use the grill pan.  He said it wouldn't matter, he didn't care.  It wasn't until after I'd put the salmon on that he started to care.  Why did I use the grill pan?  Why didn't I use a regular pan?  I reminded him about 3 minutes ago when I asked him what pan I should be using and he said he didn't care...

So Bryann took over cooking the salmon.  He made a little tin foil tent in order to keep the moisture in and stood next to the stove monitoring the salmon for about 20 minutes.  Oh well... It was still delicious!  The pesto was very tasty also, though Bryann didn't like the almonds in it.  (I can't win!)  It took a long time to make the pesto because my food processor is really an extra bit on my blender.  I kept having to pause, push the mixture back down, pulse a few more times, push the mixture back down, and pulse some more.  It took more time to get it all smooth than I really have patience for.

Which, I guess, means that I'm still looking for my go-to salmon recipe.  For the summer season, I think the peach salsa wins out.  But for when peaches aren't in season, I'd love to find a recipe I can make all year round.

Kristi Meets Wilderness

Consider yourselves blessed that I managed to get this up less than a week after I got back!  It usually takes a few weeks after I've collected several trips worth of photos to get anything posted.  

The Mt. Rainier Wilderness backpacking trip was amazing.  AND I survived 4 days of backpacking that I did not adequately train for.  The first day was about 7 or 8 miles of steep downhill, which RUINED my quads.  So much so that I could hardly sit down that night and could barely walk the next day... ooops!  

View of Mt. Rainier on the drive to our starting point 

 The view before we started our 7 mile descent

 The gang hiking down on the first day

 White River

 

 Crossing one of many many log bridges 

 The best suspension bridge EVER!  Crossing at dusk to get to our campsite before it got completely dark.

We had a fairly large backpacking group and the national forest requires you to get permits and plan out your campsites before you set off, so we had to break into two groups of four.  Originally Lucas and I were grouped with Nate and Kimber, which worked out well the first night.  Our site was the first one and we managed to reach it just as it got dark, while the other group had another mile of uphill to climb before they reached theirs.  They told us the next morning that they'd gotten in so late and were so tired that they set up camp on the trail and went to bed without dinner.  

On the morning of the second day, I knew I was in trouble when I had to lean on my tent to stand up... Which didn't go so well and kind of collapsed under my weight.  My unseasoned hiking legs had to take many breaks throughout the day, which was full of hills and valleys, and I had to stop at the other groups campsite.  Travis and Katee were kind enough to switch groups with Lucas and me, so we set up camp with Jeff and Amber while Nate and Kimber continued on to their campsite... another 4 miles away...  

 Coming over the suspension bridge on the morning of the second day

 Amazing views of Mt. Rainier with members of my new group 

 Hiking along the Wonderland Trail on Day 2

 Blue Lumiens in front of Mt. Rainier

On day three, I was still sore, but feeling a million times better than the previous day.  Jeff, Amber, Lucas and I hiked another 4 miles to the next campsite where we arrived around 1:30 and settled in early.  We passed the afternoon playing cards, and lounging by one of the many streams.  Sadly, our group ran out of toilet paper and we had to resort to using my face wipes....   We were also sadly low on hot cocoa and completely without bug spray...  Lucas and Jeff enjoyed a bottle of whiskey to drown their sorrows, Lucas spilled dinner everywhere, and we called it an early night.

 Crossing another of the many log bridges

 Pumping water by our campsite 

 Soaking my poor exhausted feet in the ice cold stream

On the last day, we left camp early, around 8:30, to meet up with the other group three miles down the trail, and hike the rest of the way to the cars, another five miles downhill.  Along the way, we had some more amazing views of Mt. Rainier and got an awesome group photo at the top of the pass.  

Back at the cars, the boys who had raced ahead had lunch ready for us to make and eat while we waited for them to fetch the car we'd left at the starting point.  Nate had gotten a flat tire on the very first day on our way to the starting point during his boyish detour onto some rugged rocks with this truck.  So he spent an extra hour changing his tire when they got to Mowich Lake.  All said, Lucas, Kimber, Katee and I spent nearly five hours entertaining ourselves playing cards.  

This was year two of a four year trip to hike all of the Wonderland Trail.  I didn't get to hike it last year because I was at Bryann's Nationals Softball Tournament.  But I plan on going for the next two year to finish out the trail.  Perhaps I'll train a little more next summer so that my legs won't be dead 1/4th of the way into the trip with no easy way out.  

Three Recipes, One Day

Friday was a very ambitious day as far as cooking is concerned.  With school starting soon, and a dinner party coming up, I was dying to try out a few recipes while I still had so much time on my hands.

I started out making a Mediterranean Couscous Salad   which included chickpeas, tomatoes, green onions, and feta.  It tasted entirely Mediterranean from the red wine vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil tossed in at the end.  After a few bites of that, I fancied myself a very good cook indeed.  Even though it was super simple to make, I never would have come up with it on my own, or would have risked trying it if not for previous successes with CL recipes.  It will go on my list of school lunch staples.

Next, I made a Roasted Banana Pudding for Wine & Dine on Saturday.  It was mentioned in the magazine that it is better the next day when the cookies have softened and soaked up all of the flavors.  This recipe I was especially nervous about.  I've never made a custard before, and I really wasn't sure how I'd like the banana part of the banana pudding.  But the pictures in CL looked amazing, and I love banana bread so I went for it!  Plus, Wine & Dine provided me with an audience to test it out on.

From what I understand, the secret to making it "light" is roasting the bananas which makes them sweeter so in turn you can reduce the amount of sugar you add to the recipe.  Plus using 2% milk instead of whipping cream, and using fat-free CoolWhip instead of regular.  The result was amazing beyond expectation.  I waited a few hours before I took my first nervous bite, then exclaimed to Bryann, "Ohmygod you HAVE to try this!" His bite was just as nervous as mine, but he loved it.  The entire desert didn't make it all the way to Wine & Dine...  We may have eaten a third of it after dinner that night!

Which brings me to dinner.  I made Spanish Pork with Apple-Citrus Salsa for Bryann, John, and myself.  I had Bryann do some grocery shopping for me on his way home from work so I could make dinner.  I asked for green apples thinking he'd bring a couple home.  He brought a full 10-lb. bag...  Now I'm going to have to make apple pie in order to use them all!

The pork and apple salsa was pretty good.  John liked it a little better than I do because he's a green apple fanatic.  But the apple paired really well with the pork, so I've been inspired to try thet apple stuffed pork recipe I found.  When I served dinner, I made a nice presentation of a slice of pork covered in the apple salsa that ran across the plate, but when Bryann received his dinner he said "This is it?  Where's the potatoes? Where's the rice? What about bread?"  He's not quite used to low-carb dinners with sensible portions, but he's getting better about recognizing when he's full and not just eating food because it's in front of him.  He ate his dinner, made yum sounds while eating, and even left a few bites on his plate (which John gobbled up immediately.)

Then we dug into the banana pudding... we couldn't help ourselves!!  It got good reviews from my friends at Wine & Dine, too. I'm looking forward to another occasion/excuse to make it already!

To the Gym!!

Bryann and I have started going to the gym again.  When I say "again," I mean that this is probably the seventeenth time we've resolved to work out regularly.  For the past two years that we've been living together, Bryann has complained about his weight, and I've complained about my lack of energy.  We get all motivated to get fit and start working out, and we do a pretty good job for about a week or two.  Then laziness gets the better of us.  We find excuses to not go for a run or head to the gym after work.  Our lives get busy during the week, or we're too tired after work.  And we slide back into our routine of TV and dinners on the couch.

The other night I asked Bryann what he needed from me to stay motivated and to keep heading to the gym regularly.  He told me he needed a buddy system, and that it would help if I would just come to the gym with him.  Ugh.....  The gym...  I don't really care for the gym.  I've never had any formal weight training, so I'm pretty lost when it comes to lifting.  That, and I'm a wuss and don't appreciate the uncomfortable burn in my muscles it requires to make weight lifting worthwhile.  But I can get on the stair climber or the elliptical, put in my ear phones, and zone out for half an hour.

So we've recommitted ourselves to going to the gym.  This time we've broken it down into baby goals. Goal #1 - work out three times a week.  So far, so good.  Goal #2 - stick to working out for longer than two weeks. (haha)

I have other motivations for working out right now.  Next weekend, I'll be heading up to Rainier with the gang for a 4-day backpacking trip, and I don't want to embarrass myself.  I'm a pretty good little hiker though.  I've gone on backpacking trips with Nate before, worried that I was completely out of shape, but still managing to do 15 mile hikes fairly easily.  I just don't want to be at the back of the group the entire time, gasping for air, begging for rest breaks.

So the stair climber is my new best friend for the next week.  After the trip, we'll see.  School will have started, and we've planned to head to the gym right after work.  Hopefully this time, we'll motivate each other a little better and the new routine will stick.

Dish-of-the-Day: Blackened Tilapia Baja Tacos

Tamara and Rian came over the other night for a double date night that we had to schedule a month in advance.  I know, I know... too many friends, too many things to do, and my diamond shoes are too tight!  But seriously... we have to schedule time to see our friends weeks in advance during the summer because we're all so busy!  Our summer weekends filled up before summer even started.

Anyway......

 Bryann has been begging for fish tacos ever since I made the sauteed tilapia tacos with grilled bell peppers and onions a few weeks ago.  Initially, I wanted to just BBQ the hamburgers and chicken sausages we had on hand, but I got my September issue of CL that afternoon and couldn't resist trying out a new recipe.  I made Blackened Tilapia Baja Tacos and they were a huge hit!  I made the spice mixture and onion cream ahead of time and put the cream in the fridge until we were ready to eat.  I omitted the jalapenos since spicy foods make my mouth want to fall off my face, and used some flour tortillas we had on hand instead of corn.  Bryann and Rian took to the BBQ with the fish and spices, while Tamara and I opened a bottle of Tres Pinos Cuvee - means Three Pines, not Three Pinots like I'd originally guessed, and is a delicious white table wine from Trader Joe's.

Everyone gushed over how delicious the tacos were, what an extraordinary onion cream sauce it was, how the fresh avocado and lime squeeze really made the taco amazing, and what an awesome cook I am!  And even though Bryann doesn't really like sour cream or raw onion, he tried it anyway.  Not surprisingly, he didn't really like the onion cream, but he loved the fish.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished product... this shot came from the website.  

They all knew it was a recipe from CL, and I reiterated that fact as I was being complimented.  But as Tamara is the most considerate and complimentary person I know, she pointed out that I found the recipe and I prepared everything perfectly, and I went to the trouble to get fresh fish, herbs, and veggies, and squeeze fresh lime juice, so I should get credit!

I suppose that's true.  I am now a true believer in the power of fresh herbs and veggies.  I always squeeze fresh lime juice or lemon juice, and chop up fresh herbs when it's called for.  I've even begun to regularly purchase the items I know I'll need most often.

Red onions, avocados, and lime

Now I always have fresh basil and cilantro on hand

I'm starting to feel more confident in my cooking abilities.  I'm really excited about this month's CL issue, and I'm looking forward to branching out and trying new flavors.  I will keep Bryann at the BBQ, but I'm happy doing all of the slicing, dicing, mixing, and cooking in the kitchen.

Dish-of-the-Day: Grilled Chicken with Pineapple, Corn, and Bell Pepper Relish

While I was home today, wasting away my time on the internet and chatting with Bryann while he was at work, he asked me what was for dinner.  Oh yeah!  I'm supposed to be learning to cook!

The last few weeks have been filled with Softball tournaments, trips out of town, and dates with friends, so the cooking project has been put on the back burner.  We've been subsisting on nothing but fast food and frozen pizzas.  But two weeks and 5 lbs later, I've decided it's time to get back to my normal pants size and get this household back into some healthy-eating habits.

I opened up my CL magazine and rifled through to a few recipes I'd dogeared.  To Bryann, I suggested BBQ chicken with a relish from my magazine.  "Relish.....?" he says.  "Like the pickle grossness?" (that's a direct quote from our chat, btw.)

"No," I say, "like corn and bell pepper relish."

"Yummy!"  He was probably sold at the mention of corn.

Since this requires some grilling, I mixed up the seasonings (cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper) and left Bryann in charge of the barbecue while I chopped the veggies and made the relish (pineapple, red onion, corn, red bell pepper, cider vinegar, and basil.)  This recipe is SUPER easy and is very forgiving.  Instead of cutting up fresh pineapple, I used a can of crushed pineapple I'd found in the depths of our pantry, frozen corn instead of cutting it fresh from the ear, and dried basil instead of fresh. You get the picture...

The result was a party in my mouth.  I was nervous about Bryann's reaction, so I piled the salsa on his chicken before he could be nit-picky about it.  Bryann gobbled it up and didn't even ask where the rice or potatoes were.  I'm looking forward to making it again with fresh basil - my new favorite seasoning.  I never would have guessed that garlic and cumin went so well with pineapple.  But I guess that's why I'm learning to cook.  So I learn these things.  And so I can be more creative on my own with whatever we have on hand.