69 posts tagged Shesalty

I’ve been feeling a little bit like I’m in a cooking rut. First, I Brian moved out—a huge source of my inspiration (Love you, Bri!). Then, I was without a refrigerator for about a month. Then for about a month I had no pots or pans. With my busy schedule I was practically living on granola bars and sandwiches. 

Now, I have all the things I need! But I needed a little inspiration back. When I saw a couple of black bananas in my fruit bowl, I decided to go back to my roots. Baking.

Before I came to culinary school I thought I wanted to be a baker. I spent several months teaching myself to bake before my dad suggested the idea of switching to a culinary degree. I was an awesome baker though! I would bake all day back home. 

I feel like part of my talent may have come from my grandmother—Mamaw. She was a champion baker. She died from cancer when I was young, but to this day we still have her white KitchenAid mixer.

Last week I decided to get a KitchenAid of my own. I was browsing them, deciding on features and colors before I realized that I wanted hers. A white, standard KitchenAid mixer. Today I felt my Mamaw baking with me in my kitchen. Everything went perfectly as planned. Her spirit gave me the inspiration I asked for. Miss you Mamaw! Love you. Think about you every day! Keep your spirit with me always. 

Spiced Dark Chocolate Banana Bread (yield: 3 baby loaf pans or 1 loaf pan)

Dries:

• 1 3/4c all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/2t salt
• 1t ground cinnamon
• 1/4t ground clove
• 1/4t ground nutmeg
• 1t baking powder
• 1/4c chopped walnuts
• 1/4c chopped dark chocolate

Wets:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/3c buttermilk
• 1/2c vegetable oil
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 1t vanilla extract
• 1c mashed overripe bananas

Recipe:

1. Preheat your oven to 325F. Fifteen minutes into baking I turned mine down to 300F (my oven is sensitive so pay attention to yours, too!)
2. Sift together the dries (notice I put the brown sugar in the ‘wets’ because you can’t sift it so just add it with the wets!). Some ingredients (like the kosher salt) may not go through so just add it!
3. In your KitchenAid (or by hand), beat the eggs. Do this first because you never know when egg shell bits will fall in. Then add the other wet ingredients, including the brown sugar but NOT the mashed banana (make sure to shake the buttermilk carton first before measuring).
4. Chop the walnuts and chocolate if you didn’t buy chopped. I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate. What a heavenly chocolate it is. I recommend it highly! Also I didn’t use the full 1/4c. I added until I saw fit and then ate the rest. 
5. Mash your bananas before you measure them. Measure 1c then add to the batter. Mix well. 
6. Please! DOUBLE CHECK that you included every ingredient. Also—taste the batter! Sometimes you can tell when something is wrong, but it’s also good to see if you like it. I nommed on batter until the bowl was clean. It was just TOO good. 
7. Spray your pans! Nothing is worse than a stuck baked good. So disappointing! 
8. Mine baked for about 45mins, but like I said before it all depends on your oven! A helpful tip—rotate the pan/pans for even cooking. Towards the end check FREQUENTLY so you don’t burn it.The bread is ready when a toothpick comes out clean. Let the bread cool on a wire rack for 15mins, remove from the pan, then cool completely.
9. This bread is great with a little spread of butter. Mmm.
10. Eat entire loaf. No sharing. :D

I hope you enjoy! 

Rachel

We hello good friends from Tumblr! It’s a gorgeous day and I’m feeling ridiculously good today. I apologize for my lack of posts (really, I do) but I have ZERO pots and pans at the moment and am very limited on equipment. This Monday, however, it’s pan shopping time. Also, I want to go to the cheese store, die, and go to heaven afterwards.

I do have a grill pan though! And after class yesterday I was ravenously craving grilled asparagus. I wanted to make something with the produce I already have at my house and this is what I came up with. As you probably can tell, I love a good salad. To me it’s a perfect lunch because it’s light and very refreshing (I do love myself a good sirloin burger though—don’t worry!). 

Within this post is also a tutorial on how to make ‘grapefruit supreme’. What’s a supreme? Good question. It is when you use a knife to segment a citrus fruit, removing the skin, pith (the white spongey part), membrane, and seeds. This leaves you with these gorgeous, plump citrus segments just bursting with the pure flavor of the fruit. 

I hope you enjoy!

Please! Wash your greens! All your produce! Even wash your grapefruit because your knife will be touching every part of it. 

Trim the ends of the asparagus. They are somewhat woody and not fun to eat. You can do this with a knife, or you can do it the more classic way. Hold the spear with one hand on either tip and bend the spear down on both sides. The woody spear end should snap off, then you can trim the ragged edge (this will give you a higher yield). 

My chef at Ninety Acres taught me a wonderful tip as to how to supreme citrus. Use a filet knife (yes, like a fish filet knife). The blade of a filet knife is flexible. Grapefruit is a round fruit. See the connection yet? Imagine using a chef’s knife to do this task. You will not only waste the fruit but you will have ugly pieces that are uneven in size and have flat, uneven edges. The first step would be to cut the ends off, giving you a flat surface to work on.

Using the tip of the filet knife, carefully slice the skin and pith from the fruit. Try to start your knife as close to the pith as possible. This gives you that plump segment. Don’t worry if there is a little pith left (like mine does above). You can go back again and carefully remove those.

Then, remove the segments by slicing between the membranes. Again, try to slice as close to the membrane as possible, then ease the segment out of the fruit. While you do this, hold the fruit over the bowl because juice will drip out and we are going to use it to make our vinaigrette!

After you remove all of the segments you will be left with all of the unusable part of the fruit. Kidding! Squeeze all of the grapefruit juice into a bowl. Remove any seeds or membrane from the juice. Discard the grapefruit.

Now you have these perfectly plump, juicy grapefruit segments that will look perfect on your plate. You can use this technique with any citrus! 

The dressing is very simple to make as well. I used about 1.5T of the grapefruit juice and 2T of grapeseed oil. Slowly drizzle the oil into the juice while whisking to emulsify. Add honey to taste and a small pinch of salt. That’s it! If you think it needs more juice then go ahead and add it!

I grilled the chicken and asparagus in my handy-dandy grill pan (we can’t own a grill at this apartment complex) and then assembled my salad. 

One tip I find is handy is don’t just put all of your ingredients in a bowl and mix. I find that it makes a salad just ugly! Instead, toss the greens with your vinaigrette, plate, then add all of your ingredients on top (asparagus, chicken, segments, pecans, dried cherries, and asiago cheese). This makes a beautiful salad and won’t mess with the integrity of your ingredients.

My asparagus craving was completely satisfied with this salad. It had incredible flavor and I was able to utilize ingredients that were lying around the kitchen. See how beautiful and organized it looks? Just enough of every ingredient, not swamped in dressing, and those BEAUTIFUL citrus segments!

MMM.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Tonight my guy is taking me to a Jazz Club and we are going to have an amazing night!! 

Shesalty OUT!

Here’s a recipe for quick and easy pancakes that will make you stomp your stupid box of Bisquick right into your kitchen floor. 

Although, if you like bland, cardboard tasting pancakes, be my guest. 

If you’re ready to upgrade to crispy, buttery, fluffy pancakes full of life and wonder, read on. You deserve it. 

Crispy Buttermilk Pancakes (yield: 5 portions)

• 2c flour
• 2T sugar
• 4t baking powder
• 1t baking soda
• 1t salt
• 4T melted butter (plus more on the griddle)
• 2c buttermilk
• 1.5t vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

• Maple syrup (pure maple is the best!)

These might make a good Easter brunch next week!

Enjoy!

Rachel

p.s. I have a refrigerator again so I’ll be cooking!

As most of you know, I am heartsick that my culinary BFF is gone. So one night I made this dish off of his blog (a blog that you should check out if you haven’t—www.brianthony.tumblr.com). You can find the recipe for this there! 

What you are drooling over know is a Pan-Fried Parmesan Chicken Cutlet with Arugula Salad, 2-Hour Slow Roasted Tomatoes, White Beans, and Garlic Toasted Bread. It was out of this world!

I am going to one of the best new restaurants in Minneapolis tomorrow.

Piccolo!

I. Can’t. WAIT!!!

Have a great day! Eat well. :D

Rachel

Last night I made one of the greatest salads I have ever had. 

All with random ingredients in the house. Lot’s complementing flavors, nice and light, and healthy, too! 

If I can make this in 20 minutes so can you. Just follow this guide! 

Make sure to wash your greens! Even if they are pre-washed. 

Now, the most intimidating component—the beets. Roasting beets is easy! Smaller ones are easier. Just wrap in foil and roast at 400F until a knife slips out with ease. 

I actually found some cooked beets that weren’t in a can! They were in the produce section and sealed in an air-tight package. 

I cut the beets and soaked them in 4T balsamic vinegar while I made everything else. By doing this you add a little acidity to the beets (VERY delicious), and eventually I added 1T of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Once you add the oil, just give it a brief whisk with the beets and now you have a delicious balsamic-beet dressing. 

I actually threw the blackberries into the dressing too with the beets. By the time I ate the salad the blackberries were a little mushy—but in a really pleasant way. I think I’ll do that again next time. BUT WASH THEM FIRST. : ) 

The pomegranate seeds were in the fridge from the last dish I made. You can buy pomegranate seeds OR you can teach yourself an easy way to seed a pomegranate.

How to get the seeds out of a pomegranate—fill a mixing bowl with water. Wash the outside of the pomegranate (so you don’t contaminate the water). Chop the pomegranate into chunks and put them in the bowl. With your hands in the water, peel the segments open and ease the seeds out. The seeds will sink to the bottom and the pulp will float to the top. Simple! No salad is complete without a crunch. I love croutons don’t get me wrong! But the seeds were the perfect addition to this salad.

Get your grill hot. Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper. Grill until heavenly charred and cooked through. Rest 5 minutes before slicing! 

While the chicken is resting, give your dressing another quick whisk. Add the greens to the dressing bowl and toss. Plate. Top with chicken, goat cheese crumbles, and if you’re like me you’ll add some fresh ground pepper.

Then very simply—DEVOUR!

-Rachel

ramake89@aol.com

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Rachel

I love a nice crunchy, gooey, bacon-y sandwich. :D

Rachel 

A lot of you guys asked for my mother’s Spanish Chicken recipe, so I asked if she would be willing to share and she said ‘of course’! Here’s the recipe in her exact words. Enjoy! 

SPANISH CHICKEN

4 cups cooked chicken - cut bite size
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 large chopped onion
1 sm can Pickled Jalapeno Peppers + Juice (to your taste)
1 can evaporated milk 

1 dozen soft corn tortillas
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Flour tortillas (OPTIONAL)


Fold the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl.

Spray a deep oval casserole dish with cooking spray, then I start out with the thinnest layer of chicken mixture that I can and smear it on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of corn tortillas, then a layer of cheese. Top that with another layer of chicken mixture, corn tortillas, and cheese, and finish with the chicken mixture.

Bake at 375 for 55 minutes, then top with more cheese and bake it until it’s bubbly, another 10 minutes. 

Good as a main dish or rolled burrito style in flour tortillas!

<3 Rachel and Susie

Happy Holidays to all!!! I hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful break. It’s very busy over at my house. We have my mom, dad, three sisters, brother, brother-in-law, two nieces and two nephews at the house. Tomorrow night I am cooking an incredible Italian Christmas dinner!

Here’s a sneak peek at the menu: 

• Caprese Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes
• Antipasti Plate - Prosciutto, Salami, Parmigiano Reggiano, Sicilian Olives, Braised Artichokes, Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Herb-Roasted Mushrooms.
• Garlic Soaked Baguette
• My Incredible Meat Sauce with Fettucini. I simmer the meat sauce all day long. My Mom requests it every time I’m home! 

Tonight I am doing a little prep work. I started with roasting the red peppers. I used an open flame to char every side of the pepper, then transferred them to a bowl and covered them with plastic wrap for a half hour. The plastic traps the steam, which helps the peppers cook completely and will help loosen the skin from the pepper. Meanwhile I made a garlic olive oil to store the peppers in. I slowly simmered 15 smashed garlic cloves in olive oil until the garlic began to caramelize. I let it cool while the peppers were cooling. Then I removed the skins from the peppers, sliced them, and combined them with the oil. Pretty easy and fun little snack! They are pretty orgasmic—like candy. Try it out sometime! Great in salads, on sandwiches, pizza, pasta, or on their own! Here’s a couple pictures!

Soon I will be making big, soft, chewy gingerbread cookies with my nieces and nephews. But for now I am off to enjoy my mom’s pork roast with gravy! 

Merry Christmas to those celebrating!! 

Happy Holidays to everyone! Be safe but have fun!

Rachel

Today on December 21st, 2011, I graduated from the GREATEST culinary school in the world! It’s hard to believe that only two years ago I came to school nervous, intimidated, and extremely unexperienced. I pushed and pushed and pushed myself to the greatest limit so I can be where I am now. I feel like I have grown into a person with confidence, intuition, and knowledge that I never even knew I could achieve. If it weren’t for pure passion, I would have never made it in this school. I feel lucky that I found it as young as I did, and will cherish every skill and technique that I have learned. Times were hard every once and awhile, but I owe my education to The Culinary Institute of America and the incredible chefs that I met along the way. I should also thank you, my readers, for all of the e-mails telling me to keep pushing for my goals and reaching my dreams. Now that I have graduated I have so many new goals to achieve. I can finally live my dream. I’m totally ready to start. 

Thank you, every one of you (by the way ‘you’ are now over 20,000 dedicated followers) for standing by the side of a stranger, listening to my rants (or advice!), and commenting the way you do. All I want is to cook amazing food for others, teach other people how to cook, and stay at the level of happiness that I am right now. 

If you think that this journey is over, it’s not! I am ready to cook my soul into oblivion. Stick around! Also, please send your food questions to me! I still answer as many as I can!

Love,

Shesalty a.k.a. Rachel

This whole last month has been the end of my teachings at The Culinary Institute of America. I graduate on December 21st, and after that I get to spend a week with my family in Minnesota. I wasn’t going to decorate my apartment, since I was going to be leaving before Christmas. But I really just couldn’t help myself. I love the scent of pine needles. I love candy dishes around the house. I love seeing lights at night. I really wanted the spirit this year.

Last year I was on my externship in New Jersey. I spent Christmas alone. Completely alone. And though it was a bummer, I still made myself Christmas. So I decided that since my roommate has graduated and left for now, I might as well make it happen!

So, welcome to my apartment. A.k.a. My Baby Christmas Wonderland…

Yep!—My tree is almost as funky cool as me. Gingerbread cookie post soon (also, Chicken Marsala that I actually messed up?!)!!!! I hope you can handle it. 

Rachel

A lot of you ask me why I came to the CIA. Where does my passion come from? How do I know so much now? As I end my first journey at the CIA (btw thanks for following!), I thought that I should tell you all my story. I know this is kind of lengthy, but a fun story nonetheless! 

In just three weeks I will get my first diploma from the Culinary Institute of America. Some of you have been following me since the very beginning. What a mess I was, right? I decided to go to the CIA with no prior cooking experience and thought I could handle it. At first I felt very discouraged. Everyone was faster than me, better than me, and smarter than me. 

When I came here, I didn’t even know IF cooking was right for me. As a lot of you know, I come from Minnesota. I am currently 22 years old and I went to the University of Minnesota - Mankato right after high school for one year because I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. In every single class—even art class (!) I had no motivation at all. I flunked out. Towards the end of my year there I was feeling really stressed and worried about my future. I had many passions, but nothing that clicked with me. 

During that time I started having dreams…about food! I started seeing myself in my own kitchen cooking. Sometimes I would dream up recipes, too. I would wake up in the middle of the night and write them down. Several times I actually got myself up, even at 3am just to go to the 24-hour grocery store to test my recipe or cook whatever I was dreaming about. After about a month of that I started reading a lot of books about food and started teaching myself to cook every day. Then I started looking at culinary schools and had a friend who went to the CIA and recommended it to me. So I came here and…everything just worked. The motivation that I was looking for in college was instant at the CIA. And my dedication has always stuck with me. My passion has only grown, even with all the hard work and crappy days I had here and there. I strive to become the absolute best I can.

And you’re probably wondering how this is all connected to a bowl of soup. 

My very first Chef at the CIA was Chef Corky Clark in Fish & Seafood Identification and Fabrication. I remember one day specifically when he said,

“You can’t cook unless you can make a perfect soup.”

Soup was one of the first things we learned how to make in Skills One. I remember that my lentil soup could have been seasoned more, and my cream of broccoli soup could have been silkier. Skills class is the very backbone of my education. My only experience beforehand was in a pizza shop back home. 

So I thought about that quote the other day and thought about how absolutely little I knew then compared to what I know now. That’s when I decided that I needed to make a perfect soup. 

Without a recipe. Without a plan. Just me, some basic skills, some basic knowledge, and a little soul. 

I picked up about two and a half pounds of plum tomatoes. Roasting seemed like the best option. It infused the flavor of the herbs perfectly. I just halved the tomatoes, seeded them, drizzled them with olive oil, a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, and chopped basil and thyme. I roasted them at 450F until they looked like this—

Beautiful, aromatic, and caramelized. Cooked completely through with the skins barely holding on.

I took skin off the tomatoes and added them to a pot of onions.

I sweated them until translucent and added the roasted tomatoes. I let that cook down for a few minutes before putting everything in a blender and blended until absolutely smooth—like silk (unlike my rookie attempt at cream of broccoli). Then I added some chicken broth and salt to taste. Everything was perfect, the tomato flavor was there, I added a little tomato paste for color, the seasoning was there, I added a little more basil, but it needed something else. Everything was right there, but it needed a little…life. After a brief ponder I spotted a lemon in our fruit basket and Ah-ha! It needed acid. So I squeezed a whole lemon’s worth in and there it was. A symphony of flavor. A harmony of herbs. Crescendo!!! That single balancing note—the tomatoes—the smell of roasted tomatoes brings me back to childhood, it reminds me of my mother, of comfort, of peace and contentedness. I couldn’t wait to enjoy. 

At first I was going to make grilled cheese with it. But then, I remembered—this was supposed to be a PERFECT SOUP. A grilled cheese would almost make that the star, but it wasn’t. I still made my roommate Brian (www.brianthony.tumblr.com) one because he loves them. But for me I made some cast iron toasted rye bread with a little sprinkle of salt. 

And this is the result. As we were eating we sat mostly in silence at first. Then Brian told me that it was absolutely amazing and I felt accomplished…maybe even serene.

We spent the rest of the meal marveling over this basic soup and how something can be so simple, yet I worked so hard to get there.

Again, I can’t thank you guys (my readers) enough for sticking with me these past 2 years. Can you believe it? I will have 20,000 followers before I graduate. And I’m graduating as a whole new person. An adult, a hard worker, a passionate person, and a girl that can make herself a beautiful soup—even when she is sick as a dog (I am by the way!) I really appreciate that so many of you message me with questions and comments. It’s an amazing thing to hear that I’ve inspired so many people about cooking. Keep those questions coming! I am loving it.

Also, I still have food dreams almost every night. Sometimes I wake up in the morning thinking I just spent 12 hours in the kitchen!

I hope you enjoyed my story! Three weeks until graduation!

Sincerely,

Rachel

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been a little MIA, so I hope this post leaves you drooling. Take a look at my family’s Thanksgiving! Such an amazing meal!!!

I brined the turkey with broth, tons of herbs, black peppercorn, salt, and celery seed. To me, celery seed is a MUST for turkey brining. Such aroma!

This is my family’s secret stuffing recipe. My Grandfather made the best, but it’s still very good.

Before I put the turkey in the oven I put sage leaves under the skin, then rubbed it with olive oil (I tried using butter one year, but butter has a low smoking point, so you might burn the skin way before the turkey is done), and sprinkled salt and pepper.

Tying the bird was a bit of a challenge because the neck piece was missing, but I made my own way and it kind of worked out for the better!

Beets—so underrated. I decided to make a simple beet salad for the family. They loved it!

Orange zest give the beets a little tang. For the dressing I used dry white wine, white wine vinegar, bay leaf, sugar, and salt. I reduced it down and added some sliced shallot (which are dyed red from the beets). 

I wanted so badly to make my cheddar chive biscuits for the family but they didn’t turn out. However we did find out why, the baking powder was expired. I was a little heartbroken. : ( 

I made my famous creamed mushrooms. I could literally eat these every day of my life. I used cremini, portobello, and shiitake. I added a lot of fresh parsley, chives, and some thyme as well.

My sister Kendall made her favorite dish—sweet potato casserole. I never was much of a sweet potato fan up until the last 2 years, but this casserole is ridiculously good. It’s buttery and sweet and there’s a salty crust on top. Mmm.

My mom’s oven had a handy thermometer that stays in the oven and reads the temperature constantly. I think I’m in love with it. 

Buttered soft rolls are a must for me. I’m too obsessed with bread and butter. I could easily eat it every day. Good thing we had these since the biscuits were trash!

My mom is always in charge of the pies. She always makes pecan and pumpkin. I forgot to get a picture of the pumpkin but it was beautiful! And delicious.

My turkey turned out exactly how I wanted. It was so juicy flavorful. The skin was completely crisp and the sage of course was perfect. I paired the meal with a white wine which I loved (a little too much)!

The final plate—really wish I could have a plate right now. So hungry! All in all I can say that I had a perfect Thanksgiving, which made up for last year when I spent it alone. Being able to go home and see my family is what I’m most thankful for. I am happy to be where I am in my life and am so grateful to have those around me.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving Everyone!! 

Rachel

Hey everyone! I know it’s been a bit since I’ve posted (sorry!), but I have been SO SO busy at school. Graduation is coming up and now I’m in the restaurants on campus. Besides class I am mainly doing homework and sleeping. I did however make some pretty delicious butternut squash soup with bacon, thyme, and sour cream. I also enjoyed some local white wine with it—a wine I’ve fallen head over heels for. Take a look! 

Rachel