The Kamikaze Cook #33 Balsamic Chicken and Noodles

I stole an idea from Giada! She had made a steak sandwich using balsamic vinegar as a marinade in one of her episodes and I took it and made it my own. Duh. I've tried the following marinade on steak, but tonight I used it on chicken- yum! I wanted an Italian feel so I used the same ingredients as I use for bruschetta.

In a container with a lid, pour some oil (olive or canola), balsamic vinegar, garlic (fresh or not), sea salt and basil. Mix. Add chicken and flip to make sure it's been fully covered. Cover and marinate in fridge for 30 to 60 minutes.

In a different container, pour in uncooked egg noodles. Add balsamic vinegar to about 1/4 up the container. Then add filtered water to cover noodles. Cover and keep on counter.

When you're ready to cook, pour noodles, liquid and all, into pot and add enough water to cover noodles well. Add dash of sea salt. Heat on high. Stir first minute or so to keep from sticking. Cook until tender.

Heat skillet to med/high then spray with non-stick spray. When pan is ready, add chicken, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes (or until plump and white looking). Turn over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

I found that the noodles had a nice, subtle hint of balsamic vinegar by doing this. I also think I might try a white sauce with vinegar in it too.

The Kamikaze Cook- Lessons, Notes & Flops

When good chocolate goes bad, it's a terrible waste. This photo is of my first ever attempt at making Lava Cake. So, what went wrong? It may be that you can't use oil instead of butter or that you can't use powdered chocolate instead of block. Either way, it went WRONG!

But let's not dwell. I shall perservere and get the correct ingredients to make it again. Next time it will be awesome!

The Kamikaze Cook #32 Rockin' Sandwich!

Hopefully, most of you have heard of Clearman's North Woods Inn Restaurant. If you haven't, you've GOT to go, if for no other reason, for the cheese bread and marinated cabbage. www.clearmansrestaurants.com/northwoods

I have great news too- they sell their cheese spread at some grocery stores and you can easily make your own marinated cabbage at home. (see entry #27)

What I recently discovered is that you can make grilled cheese sandwiches with this spread! I haven't perfected it yet- the cheese still sticks to the pan even when I use a non-stick spray, but the results are awesome.

Sourdough bread
Cheese spread
Ham (or your favorite lunch meat)

You can actually make this in the broiler too. It's been too hot for me to try this but it seems even easier than the pan fried way. Note: lightly toast the bread BEFORE you apply the spread (in the broiler) for, say, 30 seconds or until a bit crisp. Apply spread then toast again for 40 seconds or until golden brown.

Once the sandwich is complete, make a simple salad of greens, marinated cabbage and blue or 1,000 Island dressing. Love it!

The Kamikaze Cook #31 "Fondue"

This is the recipe I mentioned in my earlier post on Kolach. My Mom's dad used to make this recipe when she was little and we've always made it in our immediate family too. Don't know if he made it up but it's too good not to pass along.

Eggs
Velveta or American cheese
Worcestershire Sauce

Heat skillet, grease with either spray or butter. Whisk eggs in bowl, put in pan and add cheese on top and stir quickly. Then add sauce until eggs turn a bit brown. Serve warm. My mouth's watering.

The Kamikaze Cook #30 Kolach

Kolach is a recipe that has been handed down through our family for at least two generations. If I had to categorize it, it would fall under "pastries". It's a yeast dough "roll" with a nut based filling. Whether or not we discovered it, I don't know, but we always had it on Christmas morning (along with another family recipe from the Mom's side) and so when I eat it I think of Christmas which in turn makes me happy. So, eating Kolach makes me happy. See how simple this is?

Here is the original recipe. As you can see, it's not the quantity of ingredients that inhibiting, it's amount of work this recipe takes which has kept me from making it more often over the years. It's also messy as hell to make. But....I just figured out a couple of short cuts and so I'm passing them on to you, along with my, of course, altered version of this recipe which cuts out the butter and sugar.

Original Kolach Recipe:

Dough-
Combine 3 pcks yeast, 3cups scalded milk, 3/4c sugar, 3t salt and 3 eggs.
Add 3/4c melted shortening, 10 1/2 c flour. Let rise 1 1/4 hrs. Knead. Let rise again 45 min.

Filling-
2lbs GROUND walnuts
2c sugar
dash salt
1/4lb shortening (butter)
1/2 t cinnamon
milk to make smooth

Create 2 to 4 dough balls. Roll out first ball into circle 1/4 inch thick, using flour to keep it from sticking; about the size of a medium pizza. Smooth some filling onto dough to edges, then roll up starting at side closest to you. Place seam side down on greased cookie sheet. Repeat. Bake at 350 for 30-50 minutes or until golden brown. Do not overbake. Slice into 1" think pieces and serve warm.

Ok, so that one is WAY time consuming and I only made it that way twice. We acutally had to grind the walnuts in a meat grinder I think. Took forever! This next version is SO much easier.

New Version Kolach Recipe:

Dough- Go to your local supermarket freezer section and buy frozen bread/roll dough. Let rise as per package instructions.

Filling-
In your food processor, grind walnuts until smooth. Then add vanilla, honey, touch of olive oil, dash of sea salt, cinnamon. Pulse processor to mix thoroughly. You will probably have to push mixture down from sides. Add little bit of milk at a time to make smooth. Smell or taste to check if you want more cinnamon or vanilla. Store in fridge until ready to use.

Once dough is ready, roll out on board with flour. Make SMALL balls (about the size of a baseball) so you can bake them faster. 350 for 12-17 minutes. Follow above instructions and watch to make sure they don't overcook. Better to under time them at first until you decide on the perfect timing. You can bake several rolls at the same time.

Now, see? That is so much easier and my recipe takes out some of the fat and sugar so it's a bit healthier! Ok, not much, but some....

The Kamikaze Cook #29 Cheesecake

I was craving cheesecake but all the no-bake recipes I looked up included sour cream, sweetened condensed milk and/or whipped topping; I had none of these, so I decided to just use what I had. Turned out pretty well.

In food processor, whip cream cheese, lemon juice, honey (and cocoa powder if you want chocolate flavor). Put on top of the following "crust".

(This crust is another variation of the vegan/raw chocolate dessert from a previous entry, thought it isn't specifically raw using the last ingredient)

In food processor, grind raw walnuts until very small pieces. Add cocoa (baking cocoa) and blend. Add a few soaked raisins at a time until mixture is just starting to stick together. Add about a tablespoon of chocolate chips and blend until smooth.

Flatten mixture to desired thickness and spoon cheesecake mixture on top. Refrigerate until nice and cold.

The Kamikaze Cook #28- Rosemary, Garlic Rolls

Years ago, I used to buy the "rise and bake" bread from the frozen section of my local grocery store and since I was craving bread, as I so often do, I decided to get some again.

I let the dough rise until it doubled in size, then I smeared it with roasted garlic*, olive oil and rosemary and baked it until golden brown. This recipe reminds me of the bread my co-workers and I used to get from a local pizza place. Who says Heaven is far away???

*Roasted garlic-
Take a head of garlic, chop off the top so you can see all the cloves. Put on foil, drizzle with olive oil and some sea salt. Wrap foil up and roast at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes (or until tender). Vwalla!