Sep 12 2010

Crazy Hat Party

We headed to the bay area on Saturday for a Crazy Hat Party. Our friends Paul and Tom were hosting and I knew I needed to create the perfect hat. Since I’ve been obsessed with all things “Food” lately – I came up with a food concept and spent last weekend searching for supplies.

The first stop was Chinese food for lunch. Our goal was to score some “to go” containers. I barely ate any of my chicken salad, so I asked for a “to go” box and our server brought us one of those clam shell styrofoam compartment boxes. I saw shelves of the cardboard wire closure boxes in the hallway next to the bathroom. I grabbed my purse and planned on “borrowing” a few. All of the containers were sealed in plastic sleeves – foiled again. We got our food and had lots left. This time I asked for the smaller cardboard “to go” boxes and our server delivered two to the table. SCORE! I scooped our food into the styrofoam one with the salad, filled one with the least messy food – fried wonton and then slipped the unused one into the bag.

My next stop was Smart and Final for chopsticks. I didn’t like the ones they had, but picked up some Pancit Kanton, Phillippine-Style Noodles for a whopping $1.89.

I then went to an Asian Market and picked up some cool chopsticks (5 packs for 75 cents each) and fortune cookies – a bag with over 50 for $3.00. The Chinese gardening hat was found at the Halloween Spirit Store for $7.99 – this was before I went to the Asian Market – could have picked one up there for $1.99 – ugh. Too bad the Halloween store doesn’t do returns.

The hot glue gun process began. Spacing the chopsticks was a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully Dan helped with the engineering.

Dan also helped cut a circle in the container to glue it to the hat. Then I got my Pancit Kanton (noodles) loaded on top of tissue paper that I stuffed into the “to go” container. Hot glue-gunned noodles, yummy!

Dan modeled my hat after finishing it last weekend. It came out really cool and I was excited to wear it to the party.

The hat in action… Dan’s hat was a military themed hat. We both got lots of compliments on our masterpieces.

Love the army guy up on the turret. Green men were on one side, tan men on the other. He used a roll of camo tape to cover a germen helmet from the Halloween Spirit Store. Our friend Deede went to Toys R Us and Joanne’s with us to grab up all the other supplies.

It was a blast looking at the other party hats. I tried to get photos of each one, but balancing my enormous hat, a glass of wine and the camera proved to be a little challenging.

Matching lamp shade hats, a drum cover with ribbons and Tom’s hat – covered in every plastic figurine you could think of. It was awesome!

Foodies/besties for life. I LOVED Paul’s french fry hat. He used 3 bags of fast food style frozen french fries. He had to let them dry out for 3-4 days after cooking  – they were too greasy to glue – yum! He also had to add the tie, because the construction paper red ring made the hat too small for his head.  If the fries weren’t stale and covered in glue, I totally would have grabbed one off his head – they looked that good!

Loved the Pantone/paint chip and the walking foliage with butterflies hats.

La la la-la la la,  Sing a happy song – the Smurf hat rocked!

A top hat/flower-pot making homemade ice cream. Yum!

Taking over the ice cream cranking. This hat had lots of photos and other vacation/travel memorabilia.

Leigh and Paul showing off their creations. The dove and flower hat was made out of a “Frosty the Snowman” head she cut open. She found the snowman head and the flowers at Michael’s. Very crafty! She also makes jewelry, so her necklace matched the flowers on her hat. Very chic.

Hah! Hah! Panties, lumpy legs and dangle feet – what more could you ask for?

FOOD! Yes food…there was amazing food. Paul and Tom hosted a taco cart. Didn’t get a photo of the actual cooks or cooking station, but the tacos were killer. Steak, chicken or potato – I actually had one of each. The couple that did the cooking came all the way from Modesto, CA. They had beans and rice as sides and onion, cilantro, radishes and two different salsa toppings for fixings. Party food perfection.

The dessert table had platters of cookies and the wonderful homemade vanilla custard ice cream – with all kinds of fun toppings.

Ummmm… Yummy ice cream.

Is that a giraffe in my ice cream? Why yes it is! Truth be told – I actually ate my dessert first. The taco line was so long, my table got up and hit the dessert table first… breaking all the rules.

I had a blast catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, hearing everyone’s hat decor stories and just chilling with good, good people. I wish I had taken even more photos. I missed capturing so many of the really great hats.

Today will be spent cleaning house, doing laundry, grocery shopping and Foodiddy recipe planning for the upcoming week. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends as much as I did.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1165

Sep 10 2010

Two-Color Ziti Fake-Bake

The September Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine had a 30-minute meal recipe for Two-Color Ziti Fake-Bake. It looked like something that both Dan and I would like and I thought it would be perfect to portion out and freeze for future lunches/dinners. I also loved that it used kale – since I seem to be on a kale kick.

My end result looked nothing like the magazine photo, but I’m o.k. with that. The reason being – mine looked way better, hah!

The Ingredients:

3/4 Pound Ziti Pasta
3.5 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 Cloves Garlic – grated or finely chopped
1 Bunch Kale – the recipe suggested Tuscan or dinosaur – I got organic dinosaur – taken off stems and thinly sliced
Freshly Grated Nutmeg – to taste
1 Cup Fresh Ricotta
1/4 Cup Grated Onion – I chopped mine
One 28 Ounce Can of Italian Tomatoes in Puree – I just used Hunt’s Puree
A Few Fresh Basil Leaves
8 oz. Thinly Sliced Fresh Mozzarella
Freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese – I probably used 1/2 Cup or more

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt and add the ziti pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain, reserving about 3/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. I just set my aside in a measuring cup.

I prepped the kale while the pasta cooked.

I took it off the stems, thinly sliced it and gave it a second rinse. Apparently “Organic” means straight out of the ground – this bunch had tons of soil between the leaves.

I sautéed the kale with 1.5 tablespoons olive oil and garlic. I stirred until the kale became wilted and then added the freshly ground nutmeg, salt and pepper and then transferred to a plate.

I measured out the ricotta into a casserole dish and placed it under the broiler.

You want to make sure the oven rack is in the upper third of the oven.

I used the same sauté pan from the kale for the next step. Heat the remaining olive oil and onion, 2 cloves of garlic and basil over medium heat. The recipe then tells you to use a blender or food processor to puree the tomatoes. I just bought pureed tomatoes, so I opened the can and added the puree to the onion, garlic and basil. I then added salt and pepper to taste. I lowered the heat and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

The next step was to build the casserole dish.

I added the pasta, reserved cooking water and the kale on top of the golden browned ricotta.

I then added all of the sauce to the pasta and then topped with freshly shredded Parmesan and the sliced fresh mozzarella. The recipe wanted me to only use 2/3 of the sauce and use the rest at the table. Nope – I just added it all and I’m glad I did – the extra sauce was the perfect amount. It also suggested a thin layer of Parm, I used a thick layer and I didn’t have giant spaces between my fresh mozzarella – I set each piece next to each other. Probably why mine didn’t look like the magazine photo after cooking. I placed the dish under the broiler for about 8-10 minutes until the cheese was golden and bubbling.

The recipe says it serves 4 – I think it was more like 6-8.

Dan and I both gobbled it up and had plenty of containers for the freezer for future meals. Even though there are a lot of photographs, the prep time was really easy. I love that the only oven time was under the broiler – normally ziti bake takes at least an hour in the oven. Pre-cooking the pasta was a great idea. That Rachael Ray – always thinking of time savers for busy cooks. Love that! This would be an easy mid-week meal. I served it with a warm rustic bread and it was delicious!

Have a great weekend everyone! We’ll be heading to the Bay Area for a crazy hat party on Saturday – I hope to have lots of photos from that.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1149

Sep 09 2010

Corn Chowder

So I take it you guys aren’t big fans of eggplant pasta, LOL. No worries, today’s recipe is much more sinful.

Yesterday’s weather made me crave soup. The wind, the overcast skies – I knew I wanted to make soup after work. You see, living in Sacramento, CA with hotter temps has made us all think 70 degrees is freezing. Break out the hoodies, blankets and Uggs. No seriously, I’m not kidding.

I had remembered seeing corn for super cheap at the store and corn chowder is one of my favorite soups – so I sat in the parking lot of the grocery store and surfed the Internet on my iPhone to come up with a recipe. I ended up combining several recipes to make my own.

The Ingredients:

6 Ears of Corn – I used 3 sweet white and 3 yellow – it was just over 3 cups.
8 Ounces of Bacon – Cut into strips
1 Large Sweet White Onion
1 Large Leek – sliced into moon shapes – slit down center and chop
1 Pound Yukon Gold Potatoes – 3 medium = 1 pound
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
2 Tablespoons Fresh Thyme
2 Teaspoons Ground Cumin
4 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Teaspoons Cornstarch – dissolved into 2 tablespoons water
Salt and Ground Pepper – to taste

Bacon, bacon, bacon… I love me some bacon. I used a dutch oven and set the stove to a medium heat and added the chopped bacon. Once it rendered a few tablespoons of fat, I increased the heat to high and cooked the bacon until crisp and golden brown. I then poured off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat, leaving the bacon in the pot.

I prepped my onion, leek and thyme and measured out the ground cumin and butter.

Adding butter to bacon fat felt so wrong, but so right at the same time. The smells coming from this pot were heavenly. I Sautéed the ingredients, stirring occasionally until the onion and leeks were soft.

I then added the corn, potatoes…

and chicken stock to the pot. I brought things to a boil and cooked for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes were soft. I used a potato masher to mash some of the corn and potatoes in the pot. I reduced the heat to medium.

I added the corn starch and water mixture and waited for the soup to thicken a bit. The mashing really helped to thicken it as well. I let the soup simmer for about 5 more minutes – stirring it throughout. I then pulled it off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes.

I added the super sinful heavy whipping cream and continued to give the chowder a good stir. I did try the soup before adding the chowder and it was really good. You could omit that step if you are really watching calories. Me, not so much. I wanted mine super creamy and rich. I added salt and pepper to taste.

Outdoor photo with what natural light was left…

Indoor photo just before diving in. I seriously had to refrain from eating 2-3 bowls of this chowder. I stopped after one and have been thinking about it ever since. Sort of like the scalloped tomato dish. I have bowls stacked in my fridge ready to go for lunches.

I found so many corn chowder recipes the included bell pepper, cheese and many other interesting ingredients. I am happy that I omitted some things and added others. 2 thumbs up – I will for sure be making this soup many more times.

Dan came through the front door and thought we were having taco night because of the smells. Taco night is his favorite, guess that will need to happen soon.

So are you a fan of corn chowder? How about clam chowder?

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1134