No stove? No problem.

Who needs a stove? I don't. When I decided I wanted tacos, I made tacos. Forget the stove top skillet. I have an electric griddle, and that is all I need.

The griddle actually worked reallly well to brown the meat. There is a well at the bottom that has a hole right in the center, so I was able to just tip the griddle, and all the fat went down to the well, in the little hole, and into the box underneath.


The I started wondering what I should do about the step where I add the seasonings and water to the pan? Then the lightbulb went off in my head and I decided that I should put the meat, seasonings, and water in a bowl with the water and microwave it. Let me just tell you it didn't work. So I just gave up and poured it back on the griddle. Luckily the griddle was still pretty hot so the water just cooked off pretty fast.

But regardless of the different cooking method, my tacos turned out fine. But then, how can you mess up tacos?
I don't use the little packets of seasonings, but rather the recipe Taco Seasoning I from allrecipes.com, minus the paprika and salt. I use half the amounts for a half pound of turkey.

Ugghhh...

So Friday morning I decide I am going to make french toast with cherry sauce. I put the cherries in a saucepan with a little water and wait for them to heat up while I gather everything else I need. A few minutes later I realize they pretty much still look the same (they were frozen, by the way) so give them a few more minutes. About ten minutes after I turned on the burner, I realize the cherries are not warm. At all. In fact, my burner is now ice cold from the cherries. We tried the fuses. Nothing. Everything else is still working. The next day my uncle came to check it out, and it seems the wall outlet the stove is plugged into isn't getting all the power it needs. So until we get an electrician out here, it is no stove/oven for me.

But for some strange reason it isn't bothering me. My mother, on the other hand, is worried to death that we're going to starve or something. Believe me, that isn't going to happen. I'm actually looking at it as a little adventure to see what all I can make on my array of small applinces.

So, what about the french toast you ask? I just baked my french toast in the toaster oven. Then came lunch later that day. But my plans for lunch were not hindered, as Rachael Ray's Rosemary Corn Cakes with Prosciutto and Chicken Sausages with Hot and Sweet Peppers do not require a stove. I simply used my toaster oven to cook the sausage (I use hot italian turkey sausage), which took about 15 minutes for two. And I used my electric griddle to cook the corn cakes and peppers (I just use green bell peppers by the way). The only problem I have with this recipe is that if you add all the milk, the batter is really runny. I would cut it back some, if not all, of it. I've actuallr forgotten the milk before when making it and it was fine.

Tag you're it!

I've been tagged by Carrie, check out her blog! This means I share eight fun facts about myself and then tag eight other bloggers.

Let's see...

1. I cheered from 8th-12th grade and was extremely, annoyingly peppy. My friends even named a move after me to pick on my overzealousness - "The Marishannon." It was requested quite often...

2. I can only drink ice cold water, anything else makes me want to hurl (just what you want to hear on a food blog huh).

3. My favorite color is pink but my favorite color to wear is blue.

4. I used to have a cat named Tiger (but I renamed it Simba after I saw the Lion King but denied the reason why when my sister accused me of copying the movie). I would put the cat in a high chair, feed it out of a baby spoon, ride it around in a stroller, and swing with it in my shirt pocket. It did all these things and more willingly. I miss my kitty...

5. I disliked Justin until about 3 years ago. Why you ask? Because in elementary and middle school there was a program called ACCENT for the "smart" kids and we were the only two kids from our grade in it (well in 3rd and 4th grade anyway). And I wanted to be the only one. He used to tell me he only got in by one point to make me feel better. But yes...I held a grudge since I was about 8 years old :)

6. I am scared of large dogs...and medium sized dogs...and yappy dogs...and strange dogs...and most dogs (except for my sister's overgrown 90 lb boxer/great dane)

7. I sleep with the light on most of the time when I am by myself - I am a big scaredy cat.

8. I am going to New York in January. It will be my first time on an airplane. I am not scared by the actual flight - I am scared by the thought of finding the right terminal, getting there on time, having what I need, and losing my luggage. Actually, I am not scared of losing my luggage. Just finding it.

So those are the "fun facts" I could think of. I am tagging:
1. Sarah
2.Jen
3. Jen
4. Erika
5.Brooke
6. Julia
7. bakingblonde
8. Linda

It tastes better than it looks...

I swear! The "it" I'm referring to is black bean smash. I first made this Rachael Ray recipe a few months ago, and we loved it so much I make it all the time. I also make it because it is simple. And I love simple things. How I make it is really just based on her recipe. Below is how I make it.


Black Bean Smash

• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 large or 1 small white onion, chopped
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp evoo
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• pinch of kosher salt
• chicken broth (optional)

Heat evoo in pan over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent. Add garlic and cook a minute more.

Add half can of black beans to the pan, combine with onions and garlic, and smash with back of fork or potato masher.

Add rest of beans, along with seasonings. Mix well and heat. This last time I made them I kept adding a chicken broth a little at a time (tbsp or so) so they wouldn't dry out as I finished dinner. I liked the end result.



I served the black beans with Cilantro Turkey Burgers from Cooking Light. Yes I served the burgers with the black beans, not the other way around, because I am in love with black beans and they are the best part to me. I love how these burgers taste and they are very juicy. I make them just like the recipe, only I don't serve them with the ketchup; Justin doesn't want to try it. We just melt monterey jack cheese over it and serve it on nicely toasted buns.

I also made roasted red potatoes to go with the burgers. Just chop the potatoes into chuncks, toss with evoo and some sort of seasoning, and roast at 400 for 20-30 minutes. This time I sprinkled them with cumin and chili powder.

leftovers anyone?

Perhaps I don't fill my shells as much as most people, or perhaps I just made a lot of filling, but either way, I had filling leftover from stuffed shells that I neede d to use up. So of course, I headed over to the What's Cooking board and asked them. Having no idea what to do with it (and having no shells left), a nestie by the name of branny suggested I make a quiche out of it. Brilliant. Of course, quiche is one of those things that I have never had before and so I didn't even know if I liked it, but I figured why not.

I had about 1 1/2 cups of filling left, so I mixed it with 4 eggs. I then poured that into a pie shell (Pillsbury - I needed a quick weeknight meal) and sprinkled with red pepper flakes, a little salt and pepper, and a little bit of parm cheese. I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes. I don't know if you're "supposed" to do that with the edge of the crust, but I didn't like having a bunch of bare crust sticking up at the top so I turned it over.

So this was good, but not great. It was too eggy and dense to me. Perhaps I should have added a little milk? But it was a great use of leftovers and I would probably do it again if I had leftover filling. It was also much better the next day after it had sat in the fridge all night.

Stuffed Shells

The last time I made chicken stuffed shells I just wasn't too impressed with it. Justin really liked it, but to me it was just dry and plain tasting. But I decided I wanted stuffed shells again, so last week I whipped some up with my new favorite vegetable - spinach (this was why Justin said "no more spinach"). All measurements are definitely approximate :)

Spinach & Chicken Stuffed Shells

• 15 jumbo shells, cooked according to directions and drained
• 2 chicken breasts (mine were about 4-5 oz each) boiled and shredded
• 7 1/2 oz ricotta cheese
• 4 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• couple shakes of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups marinara sauce (that's about what I had left, you can use more if you have it)
  

Heat oven to 400 and spray baking dish with cooking spray.

Mix together all ingredients from shredded chicken to salt and pepper.

Spread 1/2 cup sauce on bottom of baking dish.

Fill cooked shells with chicken mixture and place filled side up in baking dish. Pour rest of sauce over shells. Sprinkle extra cheese on if desired.

Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes, removing foil last 5 minutes.

P.S. I really liked the flavor these had and will keep making them this way.
P.P.S. The original recipe I used for stuffed shells can be found on Amber's blog; that recipe is how I learned how to make stuffed shells.

Baked french toast???

I've been wanting to make bread pudding for a few months now. Not that I had any idea what it tasted like or if I would even like it. I tried to find a recipe, but I couldn't find anything that appealed to me. So I hopped on The Nest and asked the girls on the What's Cooking? board if anyone had a recipe. Carrie from Carrie's Cooking Adventure came to my rescue with a link to the bread pudding she had made.

The only changes I made was use wheat bread (that makes it healthy, right?), only 3 eggs, and I ommited 1/4 cup of sugar. My vanilla sauce was very runny, but I wasn't sure if that was how it was supposed to be or not. I poured sauce over the pudding but ended up pouring some of it out because it was drowning the bread. But it still imparted the flavor.

I liked this recipe. When I was mixing everything together I realized that this was kinda like baked french toast, so I figured I had to like it. I don't know how "authentic" this recipe was, but it was a great start for someone who has ever even tasted bread pudding (and also for someone who didn't have a lot of ingredients in the house). I also love how puffy it was when I took it out of the oven. It looked so yummy. The only change I would make to this recipe is to omit the raisins, which are optional anyway, because I just didn't like how they tasted burnt after being baked on top of the bread. And this is coming from someone who loves raisins.