Stuffed Swiss Chard Leaves

I love stuffed grape leaves.  Nobody else in this family likes them, though.  We had Swiss chard in the garden that needed to be used.  Mom said she saw a recipe for Stuffed Swiss Chard Leaves.  I had to make it.

For the stuffing I used a large onion, a bell pepper, mushrooms, and chopped walnuts.

Diced the onion and sauteed it.

Added the diced bell pepper and sauteed it some more.

Then added the mushrooms, walnuts, and a cup of rice and took it off the heat.

Yep, it looks weird. No worries. It will turn out good.

I cut the hard stem out of the chard,

and boiled them in water for several minutes to wilt them just a bit.

Then I took some of the stuffing and rolled it up in the leaves.

It's like a big, fat cigar.

Actually I just did this one and them Mom finished blanching the leaves and stuffing them because I had to go to work.  When it was time to cook them she poured pizza sauce over them and baked them.  Ate it over rice.  I had some when I got home.  Much good.  Even Janina, who hates the stuffed grape leaves that I made before, said she likes them.  Goodie!

Nom.

Currently Listening

The Mongoose Chases Victory
by Aembience

Chicken Noodle Soup

The main thing for dinner tonight was going to be sweet potato fries.  I love sweet potatoes fries, if they are done right that is.  There was some chicken to do something with, so I made chicken noodle soup.  Soup and sweet potatoes fries; I might not be able to get away with that pairing at work, but this is not work.  This is Can You Smell What The Schock Is Cookin'?  I do what I want here.

First I cut the potatoes into big strips and soaked them in water a couple hours remove the starch.  Hmm, do sweet potatoes have that much starch though?  I mean, they aren't like regular potatoes.  Whenever I soak regular potatoes in water you can see the starch sitting on the bottom after a while.  Not so much with sweet potatoes.  Anyway, pictures.

Then I drained the potatoes, and sprinkled them with oil, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, and cayenne pepper.  Laid them out on trays and put the in the oven at 400° while I got the soup working.

Now I mentioned that I like sweet potatoes if they are done the right way.  This is the right way.  I don't like those french fry cut deep fried sweet potatoes.  They just fry up to a crisp and stick in your teeth.  Baking thick cut sweet potato fries leaves them softer and they don't gum up in your mouth and stick to your teeth.

For the soup I cut carrots,

diced chicken breasts,

and put it in a pot with chicken stock, corn cob stock, salt, pepper, and thyme.

Cooked that until the chicken was done and the carrots were cooked a bit then added fusilli pasta

and canned corn (not pictures).

The finished product.

Nom nom nom.

Currently Listening

Major/Minor
by Thrice

Habanero Hot Sauce

A couple weeks ago I made habanero hot sauce.  Straight up habaneros.  No other pepper.  I wanted it to be as spicy as possible because Dad always says that the hot sauce I make isn't spicy enough.  So that was my challenge...make hot sauce spicy enough to make Dad stop saying that he can use it like ketchup.

I used two pounds of habaneros, a quart of tomato juice, one large onion, and a few cloves of elephant garlic.

First I diced the onion and garlic and sauteed it.

While that was sauteing I got the habaneros ready.  Using those gloves from the above picture I took the stem off and cut the habaneros in half.  I included the seeds, membranes, and everything.  Didn't want to take any of that out and lose some potential spiciness.  Gloves, very important.  Didn't want to burn the flesh off my fingers.

Then I combined the habaneros and the sauteed veg in the blender and blended it up really good using the tomato juice.

Then I put it all in a pot and brought it to a boil.

Evil.  It's a pot of pure evil.

I let it simmer a fer minutes then added some vinegar.  While it was still boiling hot I poured it into jars to seal.

After about a week I tasted some.  It is good.  Very good, but super duper spicy!!!  I have accomplished my mission, though.  Dad say's it burns.  It burns him good. :-)

Currently Listening

The Prophecy
by Sovereign Strength

Tacos

Today is National Taco day, so I made tacos for dinner tonight.  First I made rice.  Now, I will show you the way to make perfect rice.  Read and learn, kids.

Take some butter and melt it in the pan.  Take the rice and saute it in the butter for a few minutes.  Don't really brown it.  You just want all the grains of rice to be coated with the butter so that they will not stick together.  About three minutes usually does the trick.

Pour the water in.  The ratio of rice to water is usually one cup of rice to one and one half cups of water.  Read the label on the rice.  It will say if that ratio differs for the type of rice you are using.  Add salt and pepper.

Bring the rice to a boil while stirring occasionally.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot.  Do not lift the lid for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, take the rice off the heat, give it a good fluff, and there you go.  Perfect rice.

For the taco filling I went the vegetarian route.  Onion, garlic, mushrooms, corn, black beans, and great white beans.

Diced the onion and garlic.  Sauteed it for a few minutes then added the diced bell pepper and sauteed it all a few more minutes.

Added the chopped mushrooms

and then the corn and beans.

I also made spicy mayo for a topping if people wanted it.  Mayonnaise, hot sauce, and paprika.

Chopped lettuce and diced tomatoes were served on the side.  It was basically like assemble you own tacos.  I used the little corn flour tortillas for the shells.  So they were like soft shell tacos.  Quite good.

Currently Listening

 Holding Onto Hope
by Holding Onto Hope

My first non-food related blog

*Bear with me in this one. It's important.*

I'm a rave kid. I listen to electronic house music all the time, go to rave parties/clubs every weekend, do drugs, and get messed up because that's what rave kids do.

I'm an indie kid. I listen to indie music all the time, shun mainstream music, shun mainstream anything at that, because that's what indie kids do.

I'm a hipster. I listen to only "hip" indie music, subscribe to Paste magazine, wear vintage clothing, grow my own produce, do home canning, and drink PBR, because that's what hipsters do.

I'm a preppy kid. I wear flannel and buttons down shirts with the sleeves rolled up, argyle sweater, cargo pants, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Pac Sun, etc... pink for boys, and play preppy sports like tennis, golf, rowing, cricket, sailing, etc... because that's what preppy kids do.

I'm a metal kid. I only listen to metal music, get lots of tattoos, wear tank shirts, gauge my ears, and do crazy things in the pit at shows, because that's what metal kids do.

I'm a straight edge kid. I abstain from all drugs and tobacco, get straight edge tattoos (mainly X's), and generally listen to punk/hardcore music, because that's what straight edge kids do.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. All the kids these days are so concerned with fitting into one scene that they have forgotten who they are. They are so focused on doing what their scene "requires" them to do that they are hardly human anymore. They are like robots. This is not right.  This is not how we were meant to live. We were created to glorify God. All this talk of subcultures and fitting into your scene does not glorify God. It's all focused on us, how we are supposed to look, what music we are supposed to listen to, what kids we should hate because they aren't part of our scene. This needs to change.  We need to come back to God. We've strayed away for far too long.

Now you may say, "Well, Andrew, all these things in and of themselves aren't bad.  Are you saying we shouldn't have any scenes?"  No, that's not what I'm saying.  Most of this stuff in and of itself is not bad, except the rave kid doing drugs all the time and getting messed up.  I'm not going to bash you because you're indie, preppy, rave, whatever it may be.  I want to bring light to just how stupid it is to do stuff just because it's what the scene requires of you.  Don't do what everybody else is doing.  What if they are all wrong?  Be yourself.  Be who you want to be.  Most importantly, be who God wants you to be.