I know it's been awhile but I made oven-dried tomatoes!

One of the simplest, andbest recipes I have come up with is my sun-dried tomato recipe. They take forever, but are totally worth the wait, and I recommend making them the day before you need them so you have plenty of time to get them to the desired dryness. I don't dry mine out all the way because I usually use mine for sauce, but you can always go further, there really are NO rules, always remember :)Anyway, the first step is finding some ripe, juicy tomatoes, preferably romas. You can always use cherry tomatoes, but they are impossible to peel after they are done and you will end up with skins in whatever you decide to make. I pick romas because I think they are the best, and are the perfect shape to cut each one into quarters which help with keeping the shape consistent as well. These will be roasted for hours and it helps for them to be the same size so you don't get dried tomatoes next to juicy ones.

I always add garlic but there is no need to cut it up, just throw it in your bowl whole but crush it a little with your knife. The basil, on the other hand, I run my knife through a couple

times to help release the flavor. I also like to add the whole, thick stems because they are easy to pick out, and save the leaves for something else later. The stems are good for this because they have a lot of flavor in them that is usually wasted.

Next, you need to make a marinade for your cut tomatoes. I usually make a simple dressing with balsamic and red wine vinegar, (you can use one or the other if you don't have both), vegetable oil, salt and pepper, and maybe some honey depending on my mood - maybe some Italian seasonings. Depending on what the purpose of your tomatoes you can always do different seasonings.
Let the tomato wedges marinate for an hour at room temperature

until the vinegar starts to break the tomatoes down a little. Strain off the liquid and distribute the tomatoes and garlic evenly on a sheet pan, making sure not to have puddles of liquid anywhere. The liquid will burn and become this weird sticky black stuff that is really hard to remove from your sheet pan, and could end up ruining your tomatoes. Make sure all the tomatoes are positioned with the insides facing up, this helps keep them from sticking as well.

Set the oven for 200 degrees Farenheit and throw the tomatoes in - then wing it from there! Depending on what you are making them for depends on how far you want to take them. You can dry them out most all the way at this low setting but check frequently as the time gets longer, it would be horrible if you did all that work and in the last 30 minutes they burnt up.

No matter how long you bake them, make sure that if you want to remove the skins to do it around 1 and 1/2 hours and they will easily peeled off, as pictured above. If yo

u wait too long they won't come off.

I usually bake mine for 3-4 hours, which yields a still-wet tomato, but they are withered and still somewhat dried up. I like them because I can still cut them up and make a sauce and they aren't like the dried ones from the store that remind me of raisins.

Also, these are incredibly versatile, so change it up a bit after you try it a couple times. Tomatoes are in all kinds of recipes so think about making a batch of these and replacing your high sodium can of diced tomatoes. Even the reduced sodium ones have too much sodium!

As always, happy cooking and please let me know what you think of this recipe - although it's not really a traditional "recipe", I guess it's a "dish description" :). Anyway, LET ME KNOW HOW YOU LIKE IT!

Is turkey the new beef?

I decided to try and be healthy tonight for dinner, so I went for a menu that would have less starch than usual. I chose to use turkey because it is leaner than beef and is supposed to be healthier for the heart, and it's been good in everything I tried before. Is turkey the new beef?I decided to try that theory out for myself.

I added salt, and this garlic-pepper grinder I got from Dillon's because I figured the turkey - like everything else - would need some seasoning. I decided to make burgers because I had some asparagus I needed to use up and it was a beautiful night for grilling. I marinated the asparagus in balsamic vinegar, vegetable oil, and salt and pepper - simple but delicious. If you do't have balsamic, red wine vinegar is also really good, as well as apple cider vinegar, I like to try all sorts of vinegars, and most usually work.

Because I am trying to eat healthy and eat less starch in my diet, I opted for two vegetables. The second veg was corn on the cob, which I could have grilled as well, but figured it might be a little much for one meal, and decided to boil it in salty water instead. After that, all I did was rub butter and pepper on it, which is just how I love it.

When grilling asparagus you don't want to overdo it, or you will end up with blackened mush. Grill just until they are a little browned and tender, but not black, that is too far. If you marinate the asparagus for a long time, it will break down quicker, so I recommend only marinating them for 20 minutes or less before you grill them, this helps with the grilling as well. If you know how you plan on cooking the asparagus when you buy them, try to find the fattest ones you can, they grill the best. You can get the small ones, but beware, they grill quickly and get crunchy fast too, so throw them on at the last minute. You want to do them towards the end anyway because they cook pretty quickly even when they are thick.

Turkey burgers are different from ground beef, mostly because you want to make sure it is grilled thoroughly - it is poultry, which carries salmonella. Also because it is ground it poses more of a threat because if the meat had bacteria on the outside of it, by grinding it, that incorporated the salmonella throughout the meat. This all may sound scary, but you must be aware of this if cooking poultry of any sort, because a high percentage of poultry has been found to carry salmonella. Don't freak out, by applying heat and cooking any poultry

to at least 165 degrees Farenheit it kills all chances of you eating it - which means you want to make sure you cook your burgers all the way through, unlike ground beef which most people like cooked medium. I like to used my cooking thermometer and instead of cooking the burger all the way to 165 on the grill, pull it off a couple degrees early and let it sit for 5 minutes before eating it. That way you will get a nice juicy burger, and not a dry, mealy one, then you will be more likely to LOVE your turkey burger.

About the corn, I just boiled it, that is it. I never check it, I just boil it until I think it has been long enough and I pull it out, butter it up, season it and eat it. Now don't just let it boil the night away, it will be mushy, so watch it!

The meal was good, and because I added an extra vegetable and cooked them each differently, I didn't miss the starch at all. I added mild cheddar cheese, lettuce,

tomato and 1000 Island dressing to my burger - which ended up going real well with the garlic-pepper seasoning.

After trying turkey many ways, I was not surprised it made an awesome burger, with less fat and a lot of flavor. I recommend trying it yourself, and if you are scared of the burgers, start out slow with something like chili or spaghetti. I give turkey two ladles up or whatever you would say as a chef! Let me know what you think about turkey, and I can do more blogs about it - or even give me suggestions about what you want me to cook next! Thanks and happy cooking :)

German Fest!!

Tonight I was invited to the Germanfest at Sacred Heart, a Catholic Church in Oakland. It's held every year this time of year, and this - for some odd reason - was the first year I went.

I was very pleased with my experience and plan on returning, and actually I

might go back tomorrow to buy some more krautstreudels - what I always called bierocks. They are baked dough stuffed with sauerkraut (which they make themselves) and ground meat, probably and usually beef. Some people use ketchup but not me, I thought they were good enough without it. Also, sometimes you see them with cheese, but not here, and I don't think they needed that either.

More selections included German potato salad, which is served hot, cole slaw, noodles and sage balls - which is my friend's favorite. The line was kind of long, but not too bad and the food is worth the wait.

Not only was the food pretty amazing, so was the jewelry booth, another one of my favorite things. I got all kinds of cool jewelry for cheap, I mean like a quarter for a pair of beautiful earrings, or seventy five cents for an extra long necklace with pretty shells on it. I love jewelry, especially if it is pretty and cheap! I ended up spending $2 on three necklaces and two pairs of earrings - one for my momma.

Before I left, the Topeka High Drum line came and played, and did a great job as usual. They always do well and captivate the audience, whoever they are. I think it's awesome they travel around town and play for people, and I think it's free. My cousin actually had them play at her wedding, and her brother and sister are both members of the drum line. It's entertaining and it's a great way to help a local school band get practice at what they love to do.

T Germanfest they also have a bunch of different events lined up throughout the weekend, ranging from an oral auction, bingo, and a live polka band called the Skimpy Dozen Polka Band.

There was also a children's ride which was a lawn mower with little carts attached in a sort of train, and somebody drives them around for awhile. On Sunday they have more things for the kids and even adults who like games, including a duck pond, pop toss (whatever that is), basketball throw, car smash and many other games. Face painting, tattoos and more, just go check it out. You can look up additional events and games at the Sacred Heart website, www.sacredheartstjosephcatholic.org/Germanfest.html.

I am looking forward to going back tomorrow, and the years to come - you should check it out and let me know what you think!

Project Tiramisu

Today was Project: Tiramisu and boy was it a project - hence the name. This is a pretty hard dessert to make alone, I recommend making it a two person project :)

For some reason the first 3 grocery stores I went to did not carry, or was out of mascarpone cheese, which is an Italian style cream cheese. It's a must have for tiramisu so that is why I went to the extent I did today, and boy was it worth it.

When making tiramisu, you must realize there are quite a few components and you have to make them all and cool them before you can even assemble the cake. The five main components of my tiramisu consist of the ladyfingers, coffee dessert syrup, mascarpone cheese filling, cocoa, and I always add coffee liqueur to give it a little kick. Then, even after putting it together, it still isn't ready because you have to let it chill for awhile to bring it all together. My point is, it's a process and

takes a few hours, so don't look forward to tiramisu anytime soon.

First what I did was make the lady finger sponge, as it's called in my recipe book, which is pretty complicated to make. If

you only have one mixer, it gets kind of redundant having to clean it constantly to stick it into a different mixture. If you have a hand mixer it isn't a big deal, but if all you have is a stand mixer, that can be a hassle - I am lucky and I have both, but I cook a lot and realize not everybody does.

So you have to separate the egg whites from the yolks, and add sugar to each, and whip them separately.

Whip the yolks until they are thick and light (in the first picture to the left) , and the whites to stiff, wet peaks (in the second picture to the left). When you are done doing that, you fold some sifted flour into the two mixtures, without over-mixing, and only until just incorporated. I like to fold the egg whites into the flour, a third at a time, and I alternate that with a third of the yolk mixture. (The third picture is of the final mixture - it will look textured and airy, but that is what you want)

Make sure to have a piping bag ready ahead of time, with a medium sized round tip so you can just pour it right into the bag and pipe it asap. Another thing to have ready before making your ladyfinger mixture, is a parchment lined sheet pan. Parchment is not the same as wax paper, and I find wax paper makes your food smell and taste like candles, so look for parchment, it's much better. Bake at 375 F for ten minutes, only lightly browning them. If you end up with brown edges, like I did, just tear those off and don't use them. (the fourth picture on the left is the baked, finished product.)

While those are baking and cooling, I made my simple syrup, and brewed my coffee. Simple syrup is exactly what it sounds like, syrup which is simple to make. It's equal parts by weight of sugar and water, which is slowly brought

to a boil until the sugar is completely dissolved. All I need for the tiramisu was 8 ounces so I used 4 ounces of each. Then all you do is let the syrup cool then add a pint of strongly brewed coffee - which I brewed twice as strong as I drink it.

The last component of this cake is the mascarpone filling, which is also my favorite part. First I get the whipped cream out of the way, which is easy, put the heavy whipping cream in the bowl and beat until it's soft peaks, and I find even going to stiff peaks is fine as well. That is the easy part. Next, you take your 2 egg yolks and beat them until they are fluffy and thick, this takes a minute and you can work on your sugar syrup. You add 6 ounces of water, 4 ounces of sugar and 2 ounces of corn syrup to a small pot an bring to a boil, you want to cook it for awhile until it comes to 240 degrees. I don't even have a thermometer that goes that hot, so I just let it boil for awhile and keep going until it's really thick. I must have let it go long enough because my mascarpone cream

filling came out great! When the sugar is boiling away and the yolks are nice and fluffy, you slowly stream the sugar into the yolks while the mixer is still going. A stand mixer is best for this part, but a hand mixer works fine as well. This sugar mixture is hot and could possible cook your egg

yolks, so just make sure you slowly drizzle it in, and stop half-way through and scrape the bottom of the bowl. Keep doing this until the mixture is complete, and beat them until they are cooled down. I like to make a little Ziploc baggie of ice and hold it against the bowl so it cools quicker, but you don't have to be impatient like me. Then add your pound of mascarpone cheese and mix it together until thoroughly combined. Lastly you bring back the whipped cream from earlier and fold it, a third at a time, into the egg yolk mixture. (The fifth picture to the left shows the creamy mascarpone filling.) That's it, and everything is ready for you to now layer it together! See I told you it was big project, and a

lot of you are thinking, "Wow that is a lot to do, and I don't know if I can do all that" ... That is why I say have a friend or two help you, it could be a lot of fun that way!

So on to the layering. You start with the ladyfingers, and layer those on the bottom the best you can, leaving few gaps as possible. (The picture to the left shows some of the layers done, as you can see you can kind of bend the ladyfingers.) Depending on how many layers you are making in your cake, determines the amound of coffee syrup you use next. I had three layers of each, so I used a third of my coffee syrup - it seems like a lot, but the ladyfingers will soak it all up, have no fear. On top of that

goes the marscapone cheese filling, and on top of that goes the ladyfingers soaked in coffee syrup, and so on. Like I said, I like to add a little coffee liqueur to my tiramisu, which is totally optional. All I add is about 4 ounces to the whole thing which is about 25 servings. I equally divide it among the 3 layers as well.

The cake is topped off with sifted cocoa powder, giving it a classic look. As I said before, it is not ready now, or at least if you eat it now, it will be soft and I promise it will be better if you wait. Chill it overnight for best results, but 2-3 hours is plenty.

For more information on the recipes please let me know - I didn't want to post them all on here because I figure you can look one up, or just ask me, but

would ultimately clutter my blog :)

Fajita night

Another cold day, and another night of cooking inside, I decided to make fajitas.

Ryan and I like to buy in bulk and freeze food - meat especially. Recently we bought a bunch of chicken thighs and separated them out into little bags to thaw out as we needed them. I got one out for my fajitas, because I think thighs work best - as opposed to breast meat which most people go to first. Also, because produce has been so ridiculously priced recently, I decided to go with a bag of frozen peppers and onions. I happened to have a green pepper lying around, as well as some onions, so I added those in there to bulk it up a bit.

I decided to make Spanish rice for the first time - I knew it couldn't be that difficult, and it wasn't. All I did was finely chop some onion and a little of that same green pepper from earlier, with a little garlic, cumin and chili powder. Then I added in the rice and sauteed it until it was a little cooked, then I poured in a mixture of chicken stock and canned diced tomatoes.

After that, I just simmer the rice, covered, until tender. You can used fresh tomatoes, but as I said earlier, produce is outrageous right now, so I try to go canned and frozen as often as possible without compromising quality. As I let the rice simmer I worked on the fajitas.

The fajitas are easy, and if you don't have all the spices you can buy the packet

of fajita seasoning and it works well too. I like to marinate my chicken before I

cook it, then add more seasoning while cooking it. After the chicken gets nice and cooked, but not too brown, I add the peppers, onions, more canned diced tomatoes, chicken stock and more seasoning. Simmer that until the liquid is thick and almost all gone, and the peppers are cooked and not crunchy. By the time they are done, the rice is finished as well.

I always serve my fajitas with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and fresh iceberg lettuce. Sometimes I make guacamole but not tonight.

If you aren't a fan of chicken you can always use steak, or shrimp, or any kind of meat really. If you don't have the time or patience to make the rice, Rice a Roni has some good Mexican and Spanish rice boxes that you add the canned tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes - which are good, but full of sodium.

So for the first time making the rice, I have to say it was pretty bomb, and a little spicy. The fajitas were cooked just right and they get better every time I make them, as they will for you!

Oh yeah, the pork chops!

So, I totally must have made an awesome dinner the other night because only after we had all devoured our food did I remember I wanted to take a picture for all of you to see what I had concocted. So much for that! I guess now I will just have to tell you about it.

I didn't end up stuffing them like I originally planned, because if I did that I wanted to grill them. The day was rainy and windy and un-grill-friendly, so I decided to warm the house with the oven. I decided to take a recipe I learned in school and twist it into something that was my own, and that is exactly what I did.

While at Dillon's on 21st street here in Topeka, I picked up some Humboldt Fog - a blue-veined goat's cheese that

is from California. This particular Dillon's has an extensive selection of cheeses, and will also let you try them before you buy them. I also picked up some pancetta which is like bacon, just cured differently, and rolled up instead of in strips. Usually it is sliced very thin ad you can

see the peppercorns embedded in the meat - very good.

I took the pancetta and wrapped my 1-inch thick pork chops in it - and seared them, then baked them until they were finished. Before I put them in the oven I topped them with my Humboldt Fog which I had worked into some panko crumbs, to kind of make a melty crust.

For my other sides I made corn on the cob, which I wanted to also grill but decided to boil them in some lightly salted and buttered water. For my starch, I roasted some red new potatoes which I tossed in my fresh purple basil, olive oil, salt and pepper and dried thyme, with just a splash of red wine vinegar. I marinated the potatoes for about and hour before I roasted th

em, but you don't have to do that if you don't have time.

The best part of the meal was the balsamic vinegar that I reduced to a syrup and drizzle

d over the pork chops. All I did was buy some semi-expensive aged balsamic vinegar and reduce it until it was syrupy but not real thick either. When doing this, one does not want to boil the vinegar, but simmer it, just remember small bubbles. This stuff is addicting and I was dipping my potatoes in it, which was scrumptious.

This meal is totally doable by anyone, and doesn't really take that long. A lot of it you can do before hand and then throw it in the oven and boil some corn, or even steam som

e

vegetables.

This meal was apparently so good I was too busy trying to eat it, I forgot to take any pictures, but I did take some before I made it to show you the products I used so you can buy them yourself.

Please try this recipe and let me know what you think!

Next week I am going to try some new recipes with grilling burgers, so stay tuned!

Summer Plans

So instead of writing food reviews for the review, this summer I thought I would try to keep a blog - hoping there would people actually reading it. Before when I tried writing a blog, nobody really read it and I thought, what's the point? But now that I have had a little experience writing in a real publication, I think it is time to venture out on my own.

So this summer the them is going to be grilling, drinking and summer fun. I have many plans for the next couple months, and I also plan on eating out at various restaurants around Topeka and Lawrence. I plan on taking pictures of the food, maybe of me and whoever I am with, and critiques on whatever I do - even my own cooking.

For tomorrow, I am planning some kind of stuffed pork chops. My sister brought me a fresh basil plant and I plan on utilizing that in this dish, as well as some Humboldt Phog cheese - which is a bleu-veined goat cheese that is to die for, and definitely my favorite of all time. I have a couple corn on the cob in the fridge and might grill those as well, and I haven't decided on the starch yet.

So I just wanted to let whoever out there reading know that this is a new blog, I am starting it today, but there won't be any cool content until tomorrow night. Until then - Trish