Three Minute Gourmet

Do "gourmet" recipes scare the beejebus out of you?

Unwilling to spend a ton of money on all the kitchen gadgets that you need to do all the fancy-pants stuff?

Only have a few precious minutes to get something on the table?

Is your comfort level of cooking pretty much pressing buttons?

You'll love Blender Hollandaise.

Cut up a stick of butter.  Put that in a microwaveable container.  I like my glass measuring cup.  Nuke that for 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, separate 3 eggs and dump the yolks in your blender.  I also like to add a blob of dijon mustard.  A few drops of fresh lemon juice is nice, too.

Stir your butter, then nuke for another 30 seconds.

Take the butter out of the microwave.  Take that little middle insert thingy off the top of the blender, and then start the blender on high.  SLOWLY pour the melted butter through the hole in the top of the blender while you let the blender run.

In 60 seconds or less, you'll have Hollandaise that is far better than you'll ever find at a buffet or most restaurants. 

I love the "light hollandaise" I usually make (it's a lightened version, uses flour to thicken the sauce with a LOT less butter) but sometimes it's just a pain to think about making it.  Never the case with blender hollandaise.  Easy and very hard to mess up.

Crazy old Southern recipes that actually work

Peach Cobbler.

It's one of those recipes that you look at and wonder how in the world it work (and how someone came up with the instructions) - but it works.  And it is super easy and so tasty.

I had some peaches to use up... I actually found a nearby farmer's market over the weekend that was semi-decent, and I bought some peaches.  I had to use them up.  What better way than some peach cobbler??

You start your oven.  You throw a stick of butter in a pan and toss that in the oven so the buter can melt.

 Meanwhile, you cook some sliced peaches (I don't bother to peel) with some sugar and water....

 Then it is batter mixing time.  And it is an odd batter.

Flour....

Add milk and mix....

Take the pan out of the oven and the craziness begins.....

Pour the batter OVER the butter...

Pour the peaches OVER the batter....

And then you just look at it for a minute and go "WTF have I just done?  This is never going to work."

But... it does...

The batter bubbles up thru and around the peaches, and it's just wonderful.

Add some vanilla ice cream and let the happiness begin.

Uninspired

Hey.

Yeah... it's been pretty quiet around here.  I have been in a cooking rut.

Lots of the "same ole, same ole" recipes being done.  Partly because regular work has been swamped and a couple of projects for my old old company popped up after we got back from Vegas and I've been busy (but busy is good), but I really haven't seen anything in WEEKS that has had me going "wow, I need to try that!".


For example... the recent cover recipe from one of the food mags I get.. Cooking Light.

Really?

I mean.... REALLY?

This used to be a pretty good magazine with some actual innovative recipes.  Now, we get shredded store-bought chicken piled on to store-bought tostadas.  Thank GOD they finally managed to work out the instructions on how to do THAT.  Because I just wouldn't have been able to figure that out without their help.

I love cookbooks, I love recipes.  I am totally in love with all the recent America's Test Kitchen "extra" issue-thingies I've been finding at the store that are nice compilations of recipes (usually mostly of recipes I've already tried).  Magazines have been a big FAIL lately.  And the last cookbook I bought, I just haven't gotten that into.

Hopefully I'll break outta the funk soon.  Hang in there, folks.

A Blessedly Uneventful Vegas Trip

So... the last Vegas trip.

Trip to the airport was pretty standard... bumpy flight, though.  Oh, and I've totally given up on the United "snack box" options they sell on the planes.  They keep slightly changing them around and taking away the good stuff.

The ride from the airport to the Flamingo... our cab driver was a HOOT.  It was non-stop, old-time jokes the entire way (some more than insulting, but hey, oldies are goodies sometimes). The man was tipped generously for the entertainment.  We checked the bags and then headed over to the new Hash House A GoGo at the Imperial Palace.

The wait wasn't too terrible (but the whole weekend was pretty dead).  I pretty much knew I had to try the chicken & waffles, and the hubby ordered their basic breakfast combo that included a pancake.

And what a pancake!

My chicken and waffles was equally stunning....

After the food, we headed back to the Flamingo and gambled a bit, and then waited for check-in.  After the last trip where we were trapped in our room for two days expelling all food from our bodies, we apparently lost our Platinum status so we had to stand in line with the rest of the schmucks for check in.  And for some reason, the lines were LONG every time we went past, so we had to wait it out.

The was one clerk that was training someone new, and the hubby spent the time in line going "Please, not the one training the new girl...." so of course, we got that clerk.  Who explained the process to the new girl and although the hubby had a twenty very visibly in hand, the clerk didn't even ask us about any type of upgrade to the room (usually they ask if you want strip side for blah blah more a night) and just handed us keys.  Um, Flamingo... are we on your shit list??

Went to find the room... 27th floor, facing the pool area.  Oh well.  With the shape that horrible Donnie & Marie clingly thing on the front of the hotel is in, those windows are probably dirty as heck.

Hung out in the room for a little, and then decided to go check out City Center and get some Pinks for dinner.

City Center was a "meh" for me.  It really is like they had whoever did the decor in the place watch Oceans 13 and said "Make it look like THAT".  Checked out the menu for the Todd English PUB place... mildly interesting.  Although the hubby was deeply offended at the idea of cheese on a grilled bologna sandwich.

Dinner at Pinks... we got what we got last time... a Strip Dog for the man (two dogs, chili, guac, cheese and other fixings) and a Showgirl Dog for me (saurkraut, tomatoes, bacon and sour cream on a single dog) and tried their onion rings....

At least this time I got smart and used the little tray the hot dog is in to try and eat.... I just kinda shoved the dog over the edge to take a bite rather than pick up the hotdog.  Worked okay.  The hubby resorted to a knife & fork about halfway thru his dog.  And the onion rings were darned good.

Gambling at the Flamingo was actually good to me on Thursday... playing video poker, the machines seemed to be very kind with 4 and 5 of a kinds on Dueces Wild, and even a few Royal flushes with deuces.  For the first time EVER at the Flamingo, the machines were playing like the WinPoker software I've used to learn how I should be playing.  It was kinda nice.

On Friday, we decided to head over to the sports book at the Palazzo in an attempt to try and catch the Sox/Cubs game after we had no success trying to find a channel that had the Blackhawks victory celebration that was happening in Chicago (I swear... it wasn't on our TV even though an old lady from Minnesota who was also staying at the Flamingo was telling us about it later that day).  The whole town was pretty World Cup mad, but before we left the hotel room I even said "It's only ONE game on at a time... they can't have EVERY screen on the World Cup."

Oh yeah.  Yes they can.

We did find one team that had some of the baseball pre-game, but we couldn't find a single person working there who would either stop as they passed us or would come over when we tried to gesture to them to figure out if we could just have a seat or what... sorry, Emeril... we wanted to eat there but we don't like places where you have to try that hard to spend your money.  We left.

Walked around the Fashion Show mall for a little, and at the sports store we actually caught the guy unpacking the world champs Blackhawks shirts... the hubby bought one.

Head back to the shops at Ceasars and went to the little La Cantina or whatever it is Mexican place, and settled for watching the World Cup while I checked for Sox updates on my phone.  We got the "salsa flight" and the hubby had their tacos al pastor (VERY good) and I had a tequila grilled chicken salad (also very yummy).

Oh yeah... the picture of my salad was one that was lost because the SD card on my phone freaked out.  Thanks to the lovely Art Plus Digital Photo Recovery tool I was able to get most of them back.  Yay!

After that, we headed back to the room to watch the end of the Sox/Cubs game.  I was quite amused when the ad on the thing behind the banner rolled to "Visit Las Vegas".  I am easily amused.

After that, some more gambling before we figured out we were "mildly hungry".  We toyed with the idea of going back to the Todd English place, but neither of us wanted to walk that far.  So, we decided to try the new Burger Joint at the Flamingo.  Same place as the last tapas place and I think an old Italian place... right near the enterance to the Wildlife habitat.

We split an order of potato skins (tres good) and their slider trio.

(Slider Trip picture half deleted by my phone... grrrr....)

Good service, food was decent enough, and they currently have a special for a $2 burger and fries after midnight (which would be AWESOME if you were looking for something to soak up some booze).  We'll visit that place again.  Even if they can no longer afford the hostesses with the fake boobs that were always outside the tapas place.

More night time gambling... again, was doing not horribly at the video poker machines.  We did eventually retire to the outside bar to people watch and have some cheap beers ($2 drafts).

And we even got to see a couple of cops in ACTION!

Saturday we did the usual room service breakfast thing....

.... and then more gambling.  On Saturday the video poker machines turned on me... no longer reliable for a bit of play off $20... they started sucking in my money like I was paying the air conditioning bill.

For dinner... it was off to our "romantic" dinner spot.... Fatburger.  Hey, we had it after we got married, and we never made it there on our last trip, so we were overdue.

I got a medium burger, the hubby got a large, and we split some chili cheese fries...

Always good.

After that, it was back to the hotel to do the prelim packup before heading back down to the casino for the last round of gambling.

And lord... did the poker machines NOT like me at that point.  And it doesn't help that the video poker area on a Saturday is always overrun by people waiting for seats in the poker room that just sit at a machine and put in $20 when they want a drink.

So.. I headed over to the slots near the Total Rewards desk, and tried out the space Monopoly game.

And promptly got two bonuses in a row and was up to $100.  Awesome!  And man, the bonus stuff was fun.

After that, I sat at one of the video poker machines in the area, and found it to be MUCH kinder (even though the payouts were worse).  Sat and played until the hubby came to fetch me.  And then I made him have a go at the Monopoly machine and he also came out a winner.

Packed up, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and headed back to the airport.

Oh, at the airport I did pick up a chicken wrap from Burke In The Box to eat on the plane... not horrible, but not enough chicken for my tastes.  And although it was $9, that is what they charge for the food on planes now.

Flight back was uneventful.

All considered... a good trip.  Not the most profitable (we did leave money there, but we didn't come back broke) and not the fanciest... but having an uneventful trip was still kinda nice.

Happy... Day after Memorial Day???

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend... it was exciting around here - I actually got a new cell phone!  Yay!

I've badly needed one for about the last six months since my phone (a flip phone) started placing random calls while it was CLOSED and it was just unable to hold a charge for more than 24 hours.  Not very helpful features.

And I'm trying really hard to ignore the fact that my brother-in-law called the model of phone the "old people phone" when we were looking at phones.  Hey... I like big buttons.  Sue me.

The weekend was filled with pizza, burgers and sausages.  Oh, and plenty of playing with my phone, since there is so much more to play with.  I can't wait until later this week when my MicroSD card and data cable for the phone arrive.   I'm such a tenchno geek.

Today it was back to the real world, which meant a release deadline at work (when isn't there one?) and cooking dinner.

And since my ulta-lazy-try-to-ease-back-in-non-sloth-mode plan was chicken sandwiches for dinner... I was unhappy to find out the hubby had a chicken sandwich for lunch. 

Bring on a recipe I was planning on trying later in the week... Sweet & Sour Pork with Pineapple.

















You slice a pork tenderloin in 1/4 inch slices, cook for a minute and a half per side. 

I had some leftover cooked onions and peppers from brats on the grill yesterday, so I used those.  The original recipe calls for red pepper.  That would be nice too.

The key is the sauce... closest to take-out I've ever had.

6 T rice vinegar
6 T pineapple juice (use the reserved liquid from a can of pineapple chunks)
6 T sugar
3 T ketchup
3 T soy sauce
1 T cornstarch
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T grated fresh ginger (I used grated whole dried ginger since I forgot to buy ginger at the store)

Put the pork in the pan, dump in the sauce, cook until thick.

Delish.

Even if the hubby - who ALWAYS orders the battered version of sweet & sour pork - turns up his nose and goes "ewww" just because it looks like stir fry.

Helllloooooo... internet!

Well, crap. It's been quiet around here, hasn't it??

Blame it on all the TV season finales, a buttload of work to do at work, an overheating laptop and a broken cooling fan (not the same as the fan IN the laptop, it's an external thing), trying to get workouts in, and life in general.  Oh, and having one too many brewskies on Saturday night and catching the little tribute to Ronnie James Dio that they did on VH1 Classic and crying my eyes out for about fifteen minutes.

(Long story somewhat shorter.... my friend knew the guys in one of his opening bands when he was swinging thru Chicago many years ago, and I basically got recruited to hang out with them all for the day since I had a car and one of the guys in the band wanted to go visit his grandparent's graves, which were in the city.  While soundchecks were going on, Ronnie noticed us lingering around and called us over to talk to him, and the man was a true gentleman in the way you don't see anymore.  Talking to the chicks hanging with his opening band very respectfully - we ended up chatting about religion and school - I was still in college at the time - and the man could not have been nicer or more well spoken.  Why is it always the good ones that go too early?  The world is a sadder place without him in it)
Oh, and the past few days it's been in my head to get this over-ten-year-old-piece-of-technology working again.....

That, my friends, is the Sharp Mobilon Tripad Handheld PC.  I bought it back in 199-mumblemumble and it just never got used like I intended.  All I remember is that I had busted the screen on my laptop (actually... my dad did... he stepped on it... in his defense I probably shouldn't have had it on the floor of my bedroom...) and this was a cheap replacement as basically a word processor.

It's spent many a year shoved in my closet.  And it's been too long.

When I first saw the iPad... my first thought was "Hey.... I had one of those back in '99!   And it was better.. it had a keyboard!" 

I still love the design of it.. you can flip it to be a tablet or it kinda has it's own stand and keyboard for real typing.  It's got an expansion slot that I never used for anything.  I found out I can probably get a version of Mobipocket to work on it.  Mobipocket AND a basic Word?  Sign me up.  That's mostly what I need anyway.

So... on to the cooking...

Tonight was Chiles Rellenos Casserole.  A million versions of it are out there, this one was pretty basic.  Now, the hubby and I love chiles rellenos.  I've made them quite a few times.  But it is a pain in the BLEEP with all the roasting and stuffing and coating and cooking, and it never turns out quite right.  I thought the casserole form might be a smidge easier.

Pretty basic... I went with some shimp...

Load on the roasted chiles and cheese....

Over the top of it all goes an egg/flour mixture....

And halfway thru baking, I topped it with some canned chopped tomatoes....

And... done!

I do not know why, but I kinda thought it would be cheesy goodness on the bottom and eggy/bready topping on top, when it actually was more eggy thru the whole thing.  Still tasty though.  Yummy on it's own, equally tasty when slapped on a tortilla.

I liked it.

The hubby was grumbly because he's been eating Mexican food off the lunch truck that swings by his work all week (hey... did someone hold a gun to your head to make you eat burritos all week???  I don't think so).

Welcome back, internet!!!!

Cable & internet out one night.

Cable modem dies another night.

(Why, oh why, did the networking equipment company I worked for not do any cable modems??  I have routers and switches and modems and gateways and probably an ADSL product or two laying around, but I'm screwed when it comes to the cable modems)

And of course, you can just go pick up a cable modem at one of their stores.... which all close at 6pm.

Not very useful.  And even more useful when you've got two people who are getting slammed at work and are lucky to even leave the office by 6pm.

But... today the hubby escaped work early and picked up a new modem.  When I first got home I was really more interested in looking at the casing and trying to figure out if I could decide which vendor it really comes from (bit-o-truth for you out there... no matter what the name on your wireless router, there are really only about 3 or 4 places in China that come up with the basic designs, and then they're slightly re-worked by the company whose name appears on the outside) than listening to the hubby.  Who'd been trying to get the modem working for an hour before he called customer service.... which had him on hold for 45 minutes.

While he fumed and waited... I hopped on one of the unsecured wireless connections around here and did a quick search for the program that wouldn't download (I could go on about DNS servers... but I know I'd bore you).  Then plugged - with a wire - the laptop into the router that is connected - with a wire - to the modem.

Poof.

We has internet.

I do not know WHY... STILL... the first thing they do not tell you to do in instructions or while you're waiting on the customer service line, is to set up a blasted wire connection.  I know, life is fun without wires.  But sometimes, when you want something to work, you need a bleedin' wire.

Grumble.