New blog address

www.chefandrew1986.blogspot.com

I will be blogging at the above address from here on out.  Got a new e-mail address and couldn't add it to this blog, so I created a new one.  It still has all my posts on there.  Wouldn't want to lose them all.  I will probably be deleting this blog before too long, so go bookmark the other address, or whatever you do to remember the link.  I was sort of wanting a shorter link anyway.  This one was too long.

Chicken Pot Pie

We had a whole chicken ready to cook, so I baked it today and used it to make pot pie.  I used a recipe that Mom usually uses, and it gets really good.  Cut up carrots, celery, and potatoes.  Cooked them and mixed in milk, the cooked chicken, and green beans, since we didn't have any frozen peas.  I made some sort of biscuit mixture and poured it over the top, and baked it for about half an hour.

I also made a Pineapple Carrot Jello Salad.  I was looking though one of Mom's old cookbooks and saw it.  She said her mom used to make it back in the day.  I vaguely remember having it a long time ago.

The pot pie turned out runny.  It was good, had a really good flavor, but was runny.  I think I know what happened.  I didn't thicken the milk and flour mixture before putting it in the baking dish.  Bummer.  It was still good though.  Just sort of like pot pie soup.  Next time it will be better.

The jello salad was good.  It was a bit runny too because I didn't make it ahead of time enough so it didn't get time to set up fully in the mold.  Oh well, next time it will be better too.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Pineapple Carrot Jello Salad with Cottage Cheese in the center

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Beef Stew

Mom had two steaks thawing in the fridge, so I used them tonight to make Beef Stew.  Love me some beef stew.  It calls for lots of carrots, celery, tomato juice, and chopped beef.  The thickening is a bit different than others.  It calls for quick-cooking tapioca instead of cornstarch or flour.  Made some mashed potatoes to put the stew over top of.  It was good.  However, after making it tonight, I think I have to change the recipe a little bit.  It was sort of too thick and burned the pot.  I had to add water to make it thinner, and it still burned the pot.  So now I will cook the veg and meat in the tomato juice until it is ready, then add the tapioca to thicken it.  That way the tapioca doesn't thicken it right away and make me burn the pot.  That would be a good thing.

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Carrot Cake

I made carrot cake yesterday at work.  Used the tried and true recipe that I got from Grandma Schrock.  I believe it is the same recipe that she used when they had a bakery back in the day.  It makes for very good cake.  The cream cheese icing makes the cake delightful.  We didn't have any cream cheese at work, so I improvised and used Mascarpone cheese.  Chopped some walnuts in the food processor and made a Mascarpone/Walnut icing.  Used a real vanilla bean and not that cheap vanilla extract.  That made it wonderful.  I could almost just eat the icing until I got sick.  I think I like this version of the icing better than the original cream cheese version.  It seems lighter.  Not all that heavy cream cheese in it.  I tasted a bit of the cake tonight.  It turned out great.  The cake is moist like it should be.  The icing makes it just delightful.  Hey, I have an idea.  You go get some.  Black Bear Bistro & Cellar. 32/34 Main Street, Warrenton, VA 20186.

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Oven-roasted Chicken Fingers

I worked today so I didn't feel like making a big dinner when I got home.  Mom talked about making chicken fingers, so I made them, and cooked up some rice.  Cut chicken breasts in strips and tossed them in oil with seasoned breadcrumbs.  What all did I put in the breadcrumbs?  Umm, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, thyme, and basil.  I think that was it.  Cooked plain old white rice with butter, salt, and pepper.  It was quick to make.  It was good.  Ate the chicken fingers with my homemade barbecue sauce.  Mom made a salad.  Jolynn helped.  Austin made tea.

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Pizza

We have a tradition in the Schrock household to have pizza every Saturday evening.  I had the day off so I made it again.  Made a Hawaiian again, like last week, but this time I used better ham and added onion along with the pineapple.  Made a Supreme with mushrooms, banana peppers, onion, sausage, and pepperoni.  Used a combo of cheeses for both of them, white cheddar, yellow cheddar, and mozzarella.  They were good.  The Hawaiian was especially good because of the good ham I used.

Hawaiian

Supreme

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Banana Pudding

I've been wanting to make Banana Pudding for a while now.  Every time I saw bananas in the house, I would say, "Hey, I'm gonna make Banana Pudding."  But then when I actually got around to making it, the bananas were gone.  So today I saw that we had bananas, and I made the pudding right away.  Made a basic cooked vanilla pudding, let it cool, then layered it with graham cracker crumbs, sliced banana, and cool whip.  Yes, the traditional way to make this pudding is to use vanilla wafers, but I didn't have them, and I wanted to see how it would turn out with graham cracker crumbs.  It was marvelous.  I might go eat some more right now.

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Baked Fish and Chips

Corned Beef and Cabbage is the traditional St. Patrick's Day fare.  Unfortunately, we did not have any brisket, so I couldn't make it.  Maybe I could have used another roast, but it was getting kinda late when I thought about that so I didn't have time to make it.  So instead I made Fish and Chips for dinner tonight.  Hand cut some fries.  Tossed them in oil and some seasonings, and baked them.  Baked the Tilapia with a seasoned flour breading.  Mom made cole slaw.  I made cocktail sauce for the fish.  It was good.  It tasted better than it looks.  Would have looked better if it would have been fried.  I don't have a deep fat fryer in the house, so I baked it.

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Bourbon Bacon Brownies

The other day I decided to do something different at work... make a bacon dessert.  We never had a bacon dessert before.  So I looked online for some recipes.  Seems like the most popular bacon dessert recipe is bacon brownies.  After a few more minutes of searching I found an interesting recipe for Bourbon Bacon Brownies.  It looked too good to pass up.  I copied down the recipe.  Was going to make it Friday evening at work, but we were rather busy, so I didn't get to it.  I made it Saturday afternoon then.  They are pretty much like regular brownies, except for the added bacon.  So it's like a salty and sweet.  Right after I baked them I got an order for them because one of the bartenders wanted one, and then some customers overheard and ordered one.  They said it was quite good.  Cool, because that was the first time I ever made something like that.  Now I wonder if there are other kinds of meat desserts?

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Pizza

I made pizza for dinner tonight.  Made it from scratch all by my lonesome.  Dough and everything.  Maybe I am starting to be better at baking because it turned out quite good.  I made the dough from scratch and then made a Hawaiian with ham, sausage, and pineapple.  I was going to make a Supreme or something for the second pizza but we didn't have any onion or bell pepper.  So I used sausage, pepperoni, and broccoli.  I used two cheeses for both of them, mozzarella and cheddar.  It was a success.

Ready for the oven.

Ready for my mouth.

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Restaurant review: El Rey Tolteca - Manassas, VA

My cousin has been wanting to take Austin and I out to eat for a while now.  He owed us one, or so he said.  So we went to El Rey Tolteca.  I haven't been there in a long time.  The rage lately is upscale Mexican cuisine.  This place isn't really upscale, but the food is great.  Much good.  They serve you chips and fresh salsa when you first sit down.  I ordered the Chile Verde, sliced beef with chile verde sauce, refried beans, and rice with two flour tortillas.  Yum!  I was full to order dessert or I would have gotten flan.  I make flan, and one day I will get authentic Mexican flan.  I want to see how it compares to mine.
As is my policy, I did not take any pictures.  I will instead direct you to their website, http://www.elreytolteca.com.

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Lasagna with a Twist

I love lasagna.  Lasagna and cooked puddings, two things I love the most.  Speaking of pudding, I should make banana pudding.  We have fresh bananas now.  Anyway, about lasagna.  Yesterday I was browsing MasterCook for lasagna recipes.  I came upon Lasagna with a Twist.  It is pretty much the same as regular lasagna, but instead of lasagna noodles you use twist pasta.  I used cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  I also made an Italian salad and baked some garlic bread that we had.  The lasagna turned out pretty good.  It is almost like pizza casserole though.  Pizza casserol just has pepperoni and maybe some mushrooms added.  Next time I will just make pizza casserole.  It's almost the same thing and just as good, if not better.  The salad was good.  Janina makes it sometimes too, so that is where I got the idea.  Chopped lettuce, grated carrot, pepperoni, sprinkled with Parmesan and Mozzarella.  It's good.

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Pimiento Mac and Cheese

The other day I got my Bon Appetit magazine in the mail.  The cover recipe is Pimiento Macaroni & Cheese.  It looked so good I had to make it.  It is your basic baked mac and cheese with a breadcrumb topping, but the cheese sauce is inspired by pimento cheese.  I used cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, and banana peppers for the sauce.  It turned out quite lovely.  This recipe is a keeper.  I also make some coleslaw and steamed broccoli.

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