Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

Happy spring everybody! I've officially started spring quarter and Santa Cruz is just lovely this week. Before I left for spring break it was rainy, windy, and grey. But this week has been absolutely perfect! Just the right amount of sun, a light breeze.... *sigh* And most importantly, that makes it dress season! I love wearing summer dresses, and I finally have the chance to wear them every. single. day.
I've also started my last three classes of junior year. It's weird to think that I'll be a senior next year! This quarter I'm taking a history class and two lit classes. The history class is definitely my favorite; it's called "The Italian Renaissance" sooooo....it's awesome. The lit classes are alright, so far I'm not super excited about the topics, but it is only the first week.
The other exciting thing about this quarter is that I can finally start looking for a place to live next year! Aileen and I have been talking about moving for so long and it's great to be able to go look at houses and picture ourselves living there. We started planning for next year in January. That's how much we want out of these dorms. When we get especially frustrated with the dining hall or our neighbors or the general atmosphere of the dorm, we sit around our room looking at for-rent listings and Ikea catalogs. I know, it's kind of sad. But it's the little glimmer of hope that lets us stay in the dorms without feeling too claustrophobic and generally annoyed.
So that's what my spring is going to look like. I'm very excited!
And now, onto the food! Since last time I gave you a (delicously, sinfully, fabulously) unhealthy cake, this time I'm going to give you all a healthy dinner recipe. I actually didn't think I would like this recipe very much; I don't really like vegetables at all, so a vegetarian meal makes me suspicious. But, I was very happy with this dinner. It was satisfying and light at the same time. Also, it was super delicious. I even ate the spinach!

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers
Adapted from La Kocinera
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 red onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped carrots
7 bell peppers, 1 cored/chopped/seeded, the other six hollowed
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 lb baby spinach
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and cooked according to package directions
pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

heat the oil in a skillet then add the onions and garlic. Let cook until soft, then add the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for about 5 minutes, until they start to become soft. Then add the carrots and chopped peppers. Let cook a few minutes, then add parsley and baby spinach. Let the veggies cook until the spinach is wilted. I like to cook spinach by gently tossing it with a wooden spoon until it starts to wilt. Otherwise the bottom leaves will wilt fast, while the leaves on top don't cook at all. After spinach is wilted, add the cinnamon, cumin, cayenne, and cooked quinoa. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then set aside to let cool.
While the veggies are cooling, prep the other 6 peppers. First core the peppers. The best way to do this is to make a horizontal slice around the top of the pepper, keeping the core intact. Then simply pull the top off and use your fingers to scrape out any leftover seeds. Cut off the core from the top of the bell pepper and save the tops.
Grease a baking dish and set the hollow bell peppers inside. Fill each bell pepper evenly with the quinoa-veggie mixture. Place the bell pepper tops on top, cover with foil and place in 350F oven for 1 hour.

Even if you don't like veggies, I think you would like this dish. One thing that I'm going to try next time is cutting the mushrooms up even smaller. I find that the texture of the mushrooms weird, so if I cut them up small I can enjoy their flavor without the texture. I will probably also add things like zucchini as well! yum!

XOXO
Natalie

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I think I'm in love...with a cake. This cake is the most beautiful fantastic cake I've ever experienced. I had never made a banana cake before and I also had never made a frosting with a sour cream base, but I am definitely making this again. Soon.

I actually made this cake for my brother when we got home for spring break. I told him I would make him a cake because he's awesome, but really I just needed an excuse to make a cake. Also, this is what happens when my brother and I hang out in the kitchen together: Chess and baking.

This cake was kind of random and had issues. I didn't have enough bananas and I didn't have the right cake pans. (Um, yeah, why do we own a spring form pan without a base?) So I improvised! I ended up sending stephen out for more bananas and I made it into a sheet cake. The recipe I posted here is my adapted version, which turned out to be AMAZING. Sorry if the cooking times are a bit off; because I changed it into a sheet cake cooking times and temp had to be altered. Imagine a super moist banana bread with frosting. yumyumyum.

Banana Cake

Adapted from Edible Moments

1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 1/8 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Adapted from Allrecipes

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 cup confectioners sugar

To start the cake smoosh the bananas in a small bowl. That's right. Smoosh them. That is the technical term. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a larger bowl cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and delicious. (Side note: is there a more delicious combination than butter and sugar? I think not.) Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Then alternatly add the flour and buttermilk to the egg/butter combination. Stir in the banana mixture.

Grease a 9x13 inch pan and pour in batter. You could use a normal round cake pan and make a layered cake, but the sheet cake method worked well for this cake. Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes. Again, I altered the cooking time, so keep an eye on it. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, put it in the freezer for 45 minutes. Apparently, this makes the cake moister. Although, I don't know the science behind this, it sounds pretty legitimate.

To make the frosting melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave. I've found the best way to do this is to microwave it for 30 seconds, stir, another 30 seconds, and stir again. You shouldn't need more than a minute, stirring helps it all melt together. Let it cool a bit then stir in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Slowly stir in the sugar; you might not need it all, just stir in enough for your preferred sweetness level.

When the cake is cool, spread the frosting on top of the cake evenly and decorate.

I decorated it with chocolate shavings. The process of creating these chocolate shavings was surprisingly messy....AAHHHH! I'm bleeding chocolate!

Just kidding! So that's how to make the most delicious cake ever. Enjoy!

XOXO

Natalie

FINALS!

Hello everybody! Just wanted to let you know that it might be a while until I post another recipe. It's finals week for me and I've decided that if I want to get these finals papers done the only solution is to cut off all communication with the outside world. I have locked myself in my room (figuratively, not literally because that would be a fire hazard) and I've filled my shelves with finals food. Finals food being gushers, popcorn, soup, and chips. I've got a test on Thursday (on 120 pages of reading that I haven't done yet), a group presentation on Wednesday, and 3 final papers totaling 23 pages of brilliant writing due by next Monday. This is going to be the BEST WEEK EVER. (That was my sarcasm voice)

So I'll see you all next Tuesday after I've finished my finals and start heading home for spring break. Next week's recipe is going to be awesome! Hint: it involves fish. omnomnom.

XOXO

Natalie

Latkes!

Last weekend I went home to clean out my room so my parents could remodel the upstairs. I was not particularly excited about the idea of cleaning my room, not because I hate cleaning, but because I knew there was probably a giant hairy spider lying in wait for me.

Just sitting....waiting....ready to pounce from behind my collection of stuffed animals...

Ugh, the thought gives me chills. But luckily, there were no spiders to be found! And I was extremely successful in cleaning my room! I essentially threw out 80% of my stuff and reduced everything that mattered to me to about 5-6 boxes. I had so much junk, like I don't even know how I accumulated that much stuff. In the past when I tried to clean my room, I never wanted to throw anything away. But this time, I kept only the things I really needed and, you know what? It felt awesome! I feel like I get to start all over with my stuff, because the next place this stuff is going is into my very own apartment. That idea just blows my mind. That now, I have stuff that belongs to ME and will go in MY HOUSE. Not just my bedroom, but my very own place! That's just nuts you guys.

And now, in honor of my ability to get rid of a bunch of crap, here's a random recipe I have in my "to post" folder!

Latkes

Adapted from Allrecipes

2 cups potatoes, peeled and shredded

1 Tbsp grated onion

3 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp all purpose flour (more if they aren't holding together)

1 1/2 tsp salt

oil for frying

Now, I don't know about all of you, but the idea of a potato pancake makes me drool. Potatoes are delicious. Pancakes are awesome. Therefor potato pancakes must be deliciously awesome! And these potato pancakes really are. They're really easy to put together, basically just throw it all in a bowl and mix. But one of the important things to remember is that the potatoes need to be really dry. After you shred the potatoes, put them in ice water so they don't turn brown. Then right before mixing them in, drain them and try and squeeze as much moisture out as possible. Cheesecloth is good for this, but if you don't have any, paper towels work too. After mixing the potatoes, onion, eggs, and flour together, heat a bit of oil in a skillet. You don't need too much oil, just enough to fry them in. Drop the batter into the skillet in spoonfuls, flattening them out quickly. Let them fry 1-2 minutes per side until lightly browned. Let drain on paper towel then serve with sour cream or applesauce and a salad on the side!

XOXO

Natalie

Perfect brownies are the key to my success...

Last week I gave you guys a hint to what I would be making over the weekend. Here's the hint:

It's not quite a brownie, but it's not quite a cake either.

Now what I actually made was Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. Can you say sweet delicious sugar high? Cause after eating a couple of those, I sure can! I made these as a valentines day gift for Dan. And since Valentines Day is over, I guess I can tell you all what I did for it. I had these super secret plans and I gave Dan hints the week before about what his gift might involve. The best one was "You can touch it, but it can't be wrapped." That

really confused the heck out of him. What I actually did was I got a box of those cheesy valentine cards and hid them around his room in places he would slowly find them. In fact, he hasn't found them all yet! (mwahahaha brilliant plan worked out). Then, while he was in class I made him these red velvet cheesecake brownies. And they turned out to be AWESOME. I mean, how can you go wrong with cake and cheesecake mixed together? I actually didn't have all the necessary ingredients so I improvised a bit. I noted on the recipe what I used instead.

Moral of the story: I heart Valentines Day

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Adapted from Baking Bites

1/2 cup butter

2 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used 2 oz semi sweet chocolate chips)

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract (I had no vanilla, so I omitted this altogether)

2 tsp red food coloring

2/3 cup gf all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

8 oz cream cheese, room temp

1/3 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar because I didn't have vanilla extract)

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a brownie pan. Or grease your Perfect Brownie Pan Set!

Yeah that's right. As seen on TV people. Jealous?

Anyway, then mix together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and food coloring. 2 tsp is an estimate; start with 1 1/2 and then see if you want it to be a brighter red. Then mix in the flour and salt and combine until there are no lumps of flour. Pour the cake batter into the brownie pan (or the Perfect Brownie Pan Set) and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Try and get this as smooth as possible as well. As I noted above, I used vanilla sugar because I failed to buy vanilla extract at the store.And it actually worked really well! Note to self: use vanilla sugar in everything.

Drop the cheesecake batter onto the cake batter in dollops, then swirl together with a butter knife. I swirled mine a little too much and the cake and cheesecake formed together into one entity. Which was delicious, so whateva! Bake for 30-40 min or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool before slicing. Or let cool before pulling the top off of the precut brownies! Thanks Perfect Brownie Pan Set!

Oh also, one last thing! The College Housewife is now on Twitter! Follow me here

XOXO

Natalie

Daring Cooks: Soba Noodles and Tempura

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com

Happy Valentines Day everybody! I love Valentines Day, although I didn't used to. High school made me a bitter bitter girl, but now that I'm out of there, I've learned to love Feb 14th. I also love any chance I have to sneak around and plan super secret awesome surprises. I came up with some prettttttty awesome stuff today for Dan, but you all will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is on the off chance that he checks out this post.

But! That is not what I'm here to talk about today. Today I want to tell you about Daring Cooks! I haven't been able to complete a Daring Cooks challenge for a long time because I'm using a community kitchen. This makes challenging recipes even more challenging due to limited refrigerator space and limited access to a stove/oven. But I was able to complete this months challenge...well sort of.This month's challenge was a cold soba noodle salad and tempura. Today I'll talk mostly about the noodle salad because I didn't try making the Tempura gluten free. I'm going to try that next weekend, so next week I'll put up a post about making gluten free tempura in more detail.

Now here's the thing about this noodle salad. I couldn't find ANY of the ingredients. Which is weird, since I live in Santa Cruz and I would expect there to be a lot of resources available to me as far as food selection. These were the three hardest things to find

1. Soba noodles. How is this so difficult to get?! Soba noodles are buckwheat noodles, meaning that they are naturally gluten free. Well guess what? Apparently noodle companies decided to do away with tradition and bring in the wheat flour. Every soba noodle I found was made with majority wheat flour. Not ok noodle guys. Not ok.

2. Katsuobushi Dashi. Now I looked it up and this is a sauce made of seaweed and bonito flakes. I couldn't find it anywhere! I went to three stores! I even went to New Leaf! (which is like whole foods, but smaller) I told the guy at the register that I couldn't find it and he said that they could put in a special order, but I didn't have that kind of time/money.

3. Mirin. Ok, this was actually not that hard to find. It's just that I'm 20 and can't legally buy it yet.

So I encountered a lot of difficulties with this challenge. What I ended up doing was basically improvising my own cold noodle salad. Here's my recipe:

Natalie's Asian Noodle Salad

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp ground ginger

3 green onions, sliced

1/2 lb quinoa pasta (preferably you should use buckwheat noodles, but I thought quinoa was an ok replacement)

Combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic and ginger in a bowl and let sit while making the noodles. Cook pasta according to package directions, then drain and run under cold water until noodles are cool. Sprinkle green onions over pasta. Serve by dipping noodles in sauce, or pour some sauce onto noodles. Make sure it's served cold, it's sooooo delicious cold. I was actually kind of wary with this recipe; I wasn't sure that it was going to work out with that much soy sauce.But oh my gosh. I love soy sauce on pasta and now there's no going back. This is my new go-to quick meal.

Try it out on a hot day sometime!

XOXO

Natalie

Life Changes FTW

Oh hello everybody!

I have had a horrible horrible day. But that's alright! Because something awesome made my day so much better.

But first: the backstory.

A couple days ago, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep when I had a scary thought. I'm graduating in a year. Oh dear god! That's like nothing. Two and a half years have gone by in a snap and I only have one year left?! That is not ok. And then panic set in. Here was my sleepy, disoriented, and terrified train of thought:

But if I'm going to graduate, I'm going to have to get a job.

But if I'm going to get a job, I have to have experience..

I...I don't have any experience...

OH NO!

After a little bit of panicking, I fell into a deep and troubled sleep. Not really, I slept fine, I just enjoy using phrases like deep and troubled sleep. Makes me feel like I'm getting my moneys worth with a literature degree. Anyway, so after my pleasant and relaxing sleep, I tried to ignore the little sense of dread in the back of my head saying: "I don't want to grow up! I want to be in college forever!"

I was fairly successful until today, when I went to the history department's career information meeting. Basically, a bunch of alumnus came to meet us history students and tell us how they got into their chosen field. It was informative, but it really only told me that most people end up in their careers by chance, not careful planning. And that's just not how I work. I enjoy lists, planning, timelines and such. But! One of these alumni told me about a teaching internship that she found to be a wonderful experience. It's called Breakthrough Collaborative. The way it works is that they select high school and college students to teach classes of middle schoolers over the summer. But it's not just being a teacher's aide of assistant, they are actual teachers. Like running the school, planning classes, and just generally being awesome.

So my horribly, no good, very bad day was made all better because this is what I want to do with my life! This program sounds amazing, and I am soooo excited to try and participate! Their selection is kind of limited, but hopefully I'll stand out.

I don't have any fun food to go with this fun and inspiring day for me. BUT I have big plans for this weekend, get ready for a delicious dessert post next week. Here's a hint:

It's not quite a brownie, but it's not quite a cake either.

XOXO

Natalie

Chicken Marsala And Some Impromptu Advertising

Hey everybody! Sorry I've been MIA for the last two weeks, I've been really busy and I had a serious case of writers block. Seriously, I've been trying to write a post for the last week and just failed completely. While I was considering what to do about this case of writers block, I created this video! It's an impromptu ad for The College housewife. Send it around, tell your friends! For some reason, blogger won't let me put up a video, so here's the link until I get the video working.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Ejhs4I90w&hl=en_GB&fs=1

You may have noticed that this video connects to The College Housewife Youtube page. That's right people. This blog now has a video channel. Which means that I finally have a way of putting up videos for you all! Check it out!

And now for food! This is something I made over winter break and it was a rousing success. This recipe for Chicken Marsala had been in my "try this stuff" folder for a really long time and I finally decided to make it for my family. Everybody loved it! The only thing I would do differently is to perhaps add more wine and butter to create a richer sauce. I was serving 7 people, and there wasn't quite enough sauce to go around. I also added a sliced onion because it seemed wrong to not have caramelized onions involved. So, if your in the mood for some fancy Italian food, try this out.

Chicken Marsala

Adapted from The Comfort of Cooking

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2-1 cup flour

salt and pepper

4 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 onion, sliced

2 cups white mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp tomato paste

1 1/2 cups marsala wine

Juice of 1 lemon

4 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 lb pasta, cooked and drained according to directions

Prepare chicken breasts by patting dry and dredging in flour, salt, and pepper. In a hot skillet, add about 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil and fry dredged chicken until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate and put in a warm oven.

In the same pan, fry the bacon (or pancetta if you're feeling fancy) until brown and crisp. Transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate, then cook the onions in the bacon grease. If there's a lot of grease left over and it makes you uncomfortable to eat that much delicious fatty goodness, go ahead and take some out. Cook the onions until soft, then add the mushrooms. The mushrooms should cook until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. At this point, the onions will also start to caramelize. Add garlic, tomato paste, and cooked bacon and stir for one minute.

Then turn off the heat. I repeat. Turn. Off. The. Heat. I will not be responsible for singed eyebrows. Once the pan is off the heat, add the wine. Then turn the heat on high and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the delicious brown bits off of it. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes until reduced by half. Then add the lemon juice and stir. Whisk in the butter 1 Tbsp at a time until the sauce is thickened. Serve mushrooms over pasta, then add a chicken cutlet and chopped parsley. Make sure to get plenty of sauce on there!

XOXO

Natalie

Really Google? Really?

Sorry it's been so long since my last post everybody. I got back to school about a week ago and I've been crazy busy trying to figure out my class schedule and starting the ridiculous amount of homework the professors assigned for the first week. I'm taking three upper-division history classes, which means that I am now really involved in the history major. I'm taking Early Modern English History (basically a history of the Tudors), Modern World History, and Asian American History. So for the next ten weeks reading will be my life. I seriously cannot believe the amount of reading that I have to do! The thought of managing all this reading was stressing me out, so I decided to go check out my blog and see what else I could do with the new design. (Speaking of, what do you guys think of it?) So, as I was roaming around the blogspot design page, I noticed a button I had never seen before: Stats. I was intrigued. What sort of statistics would blogspot be tracking besides page views? Well, let me tell you. A lot of amazing and hilarious stuff.

For example: I apparently have an international readership! Check this out! People in Pakistan, India, The Netherlands, and Russia are reading my stuff!

But the highlight of my day came from a gem of a section regarding search keywords. Apparently I come up in a number of searches, some more logical than others. Here's the first search box:

Ok, not so bad, that makes sense. Looking for apple pie and sopaipillas, which are super delicious. Not sure why someone searched "s not much for celebrating," but hey, whatever. But then I saw this window...

PERFECT BUTTS?! Who the heck searched that and found my blog? I mean, I'm flattered that I came up in that search, but really? Of course, now that I've written "perfect butts" in all caps, I suppose that my blog will now turn up in that search more often.

Also, I love that "smashing housewife" linked up to my blog. Yes, I am quite smashing. And all my readers are having a smashing good time, thank you.

Anyway, this little stats button made my day, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks for searching such weird things and contributing to my posts viewed count. :)

XOXO

Natalie

New Years Resolutions

You know what I love? Snow. No, I love Winter in general. Right now I'm at Kirkwood in Lake Tahoe, looking out the window watching the snow fall. It's really beautiful and I think it's a great way to spend my last week of winter break. Overall, this winter break has been a wonderfully relaxing time for me. The last few weeks of fall quarter were really difficult, especially since I spend the majority of the time in bed willing myself to recover from pneumonia. (Thankfully I got over it just fine, but I think that has more to do with the wonderful magic of antibiotics than will power) I've spent a lot of time over break just sitting on the couch reading and I have loved every minute of it. Seriously, what could be better than curling up under a blanket with a good book? Cliche, I know, but it really is awesome. So now, with less than a week until classes start again, I am contemplating how to manage the next quarter so that it doesn't end quite as dramatically as the last one. The goal is to make it through the quarter without getting sick or stressed out to the point of madness. I've got some ideas on how to make that happen, and hopefully I can stick to it! So here's some of my new years resolutions:

1. More exercise! Exercise is great for de-stressing and staying healthy, so I'm really going to focus on this one most of all. Dan and I will be participating in a fitness program that challenges us to complete a certain number of hours of physical activity every week. The prize is a free t-shirt! I know, it's sad that I'm motivated by a free t-shirt, but hey, I love free.

2. More cooking! Cooking, as you may have guessed, is a really great way for me to chillllll out. Being in the kitchen is soothing and calming and I am going to make every effort to cook as often as possible. (And hopefully be coming up with some delicious healthy recipes)

3. Less worry! I am a worrier. I think it runs in my family. I create endless lists and worry how I will get everything done, I worry that the I will fail a paper I spent days writing, I worry that I will somehow trip and fall while running to catch a bus and embarrass myself completely, etc etc. So I am going to try and stop worrying. Well not entirely, that would be ridiculous. But at least when I catch myself worrying, I will try and get over it and move on without it dragging me down.

4. Balancing time management! I'm not gonna lie, I have awesome time management skills. My calender is perfectly organized and color coordinated, my homework gets charted out on a daily basis, and I'm never late. But sometimes, I think it's too much. This goes right back to the worrying thing. I think I just need to chill out and get over it all! Being organized is great, but hey, I don't need to be organized allllll the time!

So those are my new years resolutions. And I'm stickin' to them!

And as a final note, here are some awesome pictures from Kirkwood. Happy New Years everybody!

Chana Masala

Confession time. I have an addiction. A relatively healthy addiction, but an addiction nonetheless. I am completely obsessed with Indian food. I've probably mentioned this before, but I seriously cannot get enough! I didn't used to like Indian food. In fact, I was a little bit scared of it because I didn't really like spicy food. But ever since going to Sitar (the best Indian restaurant in Santa Cruz, nay, the world) I've fallen in love. And the fact that Sitar is right on the bus route is not helping the situation. I probably go there way too much, but it's so freaking delicious! Of course, this sudden discovery of a whole new world of food has prompted me to make Indian food at home as well. My all time favorite dish has to be Aloo Tikka Masala, but this recipe I'm giving you today is a close second. Chana Masala is a simple tomato based chickpea curry and it is SO AMAZING. I'm sorry, you all probably read that as shouting. I'm just very enthusiastic when it comes to Indian food.

Last week, I offered to make dinner for my little brother and gave him options like pasta, mac and cheese, sandwiches, and Indian food--surprisingly he chose Indian food! *sniff* I'm so proud! He has learned well. I made him Chana Masala, which we both thoroughly enjoyed and, in my opinion, tasted even better the next day for lunch.

Chana Masala

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

vegetable oil

2 med onions, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 Tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garam masala

2 cups tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 tomato and a can of tomato sauce)

2/3 cup water

2 15 oz cans of chickpeas, drained

salt

1 lemon, juiced

Heat the oil in a large pan, then cook the onion, garlic, and ginger until browned. Then add all of the spices. I know it's a really long list of spices, but trust me, it's delicious. Cook the onion mixture and spices for a few minutes then add the tomatoes. I only had one tomato so I supplemented with a can of tomato sauce. I also wanted to make sure that this ended up having extra liquid, because I prefer my curries to have lots of sauce. But that's just a personal preference thing. So if you are in a similar fix and don't have enough tomatoes, you could also add a can of whole tomatoes chopped finely. When you add the tomatoes, scrape the bottom of the pan to get any delicious brown bits that may be stuck. Then add the water and chickpeas and let cook for at least ten minutes. I let it cook a little bit longer so that the flavors would meld together more. After it has cooked, add the salt and lemon juice. Stir and serve! Delicious!

XOXO

Natalie

Daring Cooks: Poached Eggs

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

Guess who lost track of the days! This post was supposed to be put up two days ago, but silly me, it slipped my mind. Things have been crazy around here and I've been super-duper busy. But that's no excuse! Here's this month's Daring Cooks challenge! This month's challengewas to perfect a poached egg and include it in a dish. I've made poached eggs before, specifically for eggs benedict, so I wanted to do something new with a poached egg. I was curious what a poached egg would taste like on pasta, so I did a little research and decided to make a sort of non-traditional pasta carbonara featuring a poached egg as the topper. I LOVE poached eggs on pasta. I don't think that I can have pasta carbonara any other way now. I've been spoiled by the delicious runny yolk and there's no turning back.

This dish is very rich--this is like your weekly value of carbs, cheese, and butter in one meal. With that in mind, feel free to tone down the butter or cheese, but I believe that if you're going to eat carbonara, you might as well go all out.

Poached Egg Carbonara

adapted from epicurious

6-8 slices of bacon cut into small pieces

1 lb spaghetti

2 Tbsp butter

pepper

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

chopped parsley

poached egg

The first step in making carbonara is to fry up the bacon. I know that bacon is bad for you. I know that it's just chock full of unhealthy fats, but bacon needs love too. Fry and rejoice.

While the bacon is cooking, get the pasta water boiling. Add the pasta and keep an eye on it until it's done. When the bacon is done cooking, remove the bacon from the pan and pour out most, but not all, of the grease. Add the butter to the grease and let it blend together in a delicious marriage of flavor. When the pasta is ready, remove about 2 cups of the pasta water, then drain the rest. Put the pasta directly into the pan and add a healthy dose of pepper. Then add the cheese and a bit of the pasta water. Add more water as necessary to form a smooth sauce and prevent the pasta from sticking together. Heat for 2-3 minutes, then add the bacon and sprinkle parsley on top.

Now here's the most important part: poaching an egg. It's actually pretty easy to poach an egg, but it takes a bit of practice if you've never done it before. First get some water boiling and add a couple teaspoons of vinegar to the water. When the water is at a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer. Crack an egg into a small bowl or ramekin, you don't want to crack the eggs directly into the water or chaos will ensue. Stir the simmering water gently to create a little whirlpool. Carefully drop the egg into the spinning water and let it sit for a bit. After it's calmed down and stopped spinning, you can gently use a spoon to unstick it from the bottom. I prefer to make poached eggs in a nonstick pan because it makes this one step easier. It generally takes about 3-4 minutes to cook a poached egg depending on how runny you want it. If you want the yolk fairly solid, it will need to cook for a while longer. When the egg is cooked to your liking, carefully remove it with a slotted spoon. Don't worry if the egg isn't perfect or if the edges are a bit ragged. If it really bothers you, you can cut off the messy edges and make it a perfect circle.

After you've got your eggs all poached up, put one on top of each bowl. This made about 4 servings, so you will most likely need 4 eggs. I like my poached eggs very runny, but my parents like them a little more solid. Cook the eggs to your liking, but I strongly recommend making them runny. The yolk spreading through all the pasta was amazing! It adds so much flavor to the already delicious pasta. Look at that yolk! It's just melting all over the pasta!

Enjoy!

XOXO

Natalie

Fried Chicken

So I've finished my finals and now I'm back home safe and sound. And for the record, I kicked my finals' butts! I realize that finals technically don't have butts, but I kicked their metaphorical butts. Of course, I won't get my grades for another couple weeks, but I'm fairly positive that I did well. Mission accomplished.

I'm home now, and loving it. Today I made cookies for my little brother and his friends, did some christmas shopping while the mall is still relatively empty, and just generally chilled out. It was wonderful. And I'm looking forward to another three weeks of the same! I've already started cooking and baking like a mad woman and I don't expect that to slow down anytime soon. Having been denied the ability to create and invent in a proper kitchen for a whole quarter has pushed me over the edge. I think I'm going to end up making my brother be a guinea pig for a lot of culinary experiments over break, but I'm sure he won't mind. He loves giving me brutally honest opinions and then eating himself sick.

Anyway! I promised to give you all my recipe for fried chicken that I invented last week! Now don't get in a fuss, I know I promised it sooner, but come on I had finals. (Aunt Kate...I'm looking at you. :)

Fried Chicken--Pinto style

3-4 Chicken breasts, cut into strips

Gluten free bread crumbs

Corn Chex cereal

2 eggs

Italian seasoning

Salt

Oil for frying

This is the same basic breading that we used on the mozzarella sticks. Same idea, same method, just with chicken. We cut the chicken into pretty thin strips and after frying, ended up cutting those strips in half so that there would be enough for a lot of people. Aileen decided that it was basically popcorn chicken and next time we make it, we're going to try cubing the chicken to see what happens.

First make the dredge; smash the Corn Chex cereal to pieces and combine it with the bread crumbs. I used about a 2:1 ratio, 2 cups bread crumbs to 1 cup cereal. Add a good amount of italian seasoning and salt and set aside. Beat the two eggs in another bowl. Dredge the chicken in the eggs, shake off the excess, and roll in the bread crumb mixture. You might need to pat the crumbs onto the chicken to get it to stay. Try experimenting with cereal size, sometimes smashing the cereal to crumbs helps it to stick to the chicken better.

Heat the oil in a large pan until it is screaming hot. I don't have a thermometer, but the way I test out how hot the oil is is to put a bit of water on my finger and flick it into the oil. When the water bounces around and snaps a lot, then the oil is ready. Put the chicken into the oil and cook for about a minute. Flip the chicken over and cook for another minute. Depending on how thick the chicken strips are you may need to cook it longer. We cut them in half, which was helpful because we could see if they were done all the way through and adjust cooking times appropriately. Again, play around, you also want to make sure that you aren't burning the crust.

Once all the chicken is cooked, it's time to dig in and eat some tasty, tasty chicken!

XOXO

Natalie

I'm back!

I'm so happy right now! And I want the world to know it! The kitchen problem isn't fully resolved yet, but it's close enough that I got to make two meals in it this weekend. Progress!

The first meal we made was spaghetti and meatballs. You've all seen that one on here before, but if you haven't tried it out yet....please. Go make some spaghetti and meatballs. You won't regret it. We changed it up a little bit this time by attempting to make mozzarella stuffed meatballs. They turned out alright, but I don't think that we used enough cheese. They were good, but there wasn't that element of cheese-splosion that I was going for.

But tonight...oh man....tonight was amazing. In the words of my little brother: dude. so epic.

Now I know that this might upset a few people, but I'm going to admit something shameful. before tonight, I had never had a mozzarella stick. I know! A horrific truth. Tonight, I got to experience mozzarella sticks for the first time and baby, there's no going back now. I may be forced to eat mozzarella sticks every day for the rest of my life. Ok thats an exaggeration. But at least once a week.

We also made fried chicken strips and I'm fairly positive that I've invented the most amazing fried chicken recipe of all time. Hint: it includes cereal.

Today I'm going to share with you the mozzarella stick recipe just because they are my newest obsession, but the fried chicken recipe will be coming up soon!

Mozzarella Sticks

String cheese

Gluten free bread crumbs (I used Hol Grain brown rice bread crumbs)

Corn Chex cereal

2 eggs

italian seasoning

salt

Oil for frying

You may notice that there are no measurements in this recipe. That's because this is a free for all mozzarella stick making extravaganza. Don't measure! Go wild!

First cut the string cheese sticks in half so that you have two 2" sticks. Crush up a few handfuls of the Chez cereal into small pieces. They don't need to be superfine, just small enough that they'll stick to the cheese without falling right off. In a large pan or plate combine the bread crumbs and the cereal. I did about a 2:1 ratio, 1 cup of bread crumbs to 1/2 cup of crushed cereal. But this is a no measuring extravaganza, so feel free to alter that ratio as you see fit. To the bread crumbs add a good dose of italian seasoning and a pinch of salt. We used Pappy spice because Pappy spice is amazing, but italian seasoning is a great substitute. In a small bowl beat the two eggs into submission. Now for the dredging! Dip the cheese sticks in the egg, shake off the excess, and roll it in the bread crumb mixture. You might need to pat the crumbs onto the cheese to get it to stay, but it'll stick on there. Make sure you cover the ends too or else the cheese will just melt all over the place. After the cheese has been dredged put them on a foil lined cookie sheet. Once all the cheese is done, put the whole cookie sheet in the freezer for at least ten minutes.

While the cheese is freezing, heat up some oil in a pan. I would say about a half an inch of oil will work. When the oil is screaming hot, and I mean hot, you can start frying. Try frying just one first to make sure you know what you're doing. Using tongs, put the cheese sticks in the oil and fry for about thirty seconds, spinning it around constantly. You want to get the outside golden and crispy before the cheese starts melting all over the place. It shouldn't take more than thirty seconds to get them all crispy and delicious. I also wouldn't recomend frying more than three at once because they need to be constantly moving. When they're done cooking, put them on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Then dig in! But be careful, there's lava hot melty cheese in there.

This is the only picture I got of the mozzarella sticks, sorry it's really bad quality, but I was too busy focused on the plat of deliciousness in front of me to worry about pictures.

Ah it's good to be back :)

XOXO

Natalie

Sad day.

It's a sad day today for The College Housewife. I'm sorry to say that this may be my last post for a while. I will be putting up a Daring Cooks post this weekend, but that may be the last. That kitchen that I've been hoping for has been taken away from me. It's a very long story, but the bottom line is that the housing office here doesn't believe that I need it so that I can eat gluten free food and I have to prove my allergies. Once I have proved them, I will be given a key to use on the weekends to make small meals for myself and no one else.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

I know I haven't been posting very much lately, but this blog is still very important to me. It makes me sad that I might not be able to keep the blog going just because some bureaucrats decided that I can't have the kitchen they guaranteed me. I don't know if anyone even reads this blog anymore because I've been posting so rarely, but I'm still sad. I appreciate the support that you, my awesome readers, have shown me and I promise that I'll be back as soon as I can.

So goodbye for now readers, I'll be back when I can get a kitchen.

Kitchen update!

So I'm avoiding homework. Anybody ever read Lolita? What the heck is up with that book?! I am not enjoying it. I am now writing this fabulous post because I really really really don't want to read about a creepy pedophile. I've only got to read like 25 more pages, but I just can't bring myself to do it. To all my readers out there: Do you like Lolita? Or have you ever read Lolita?

Oh! The kitchen might be ready to use soon! We snuck into the kitchen to check it out last night. The clock on the oven is turned on and the light inside works! The stickers and stuff are still on it, so I didn't want to turn the actual burners but still: most likely functional! So hopefully I will get to put up a real post soon, instead of all these recipes I had stocked up. Aileen and I have already decided what we're gonna eat first: spaghetti and meatballs. Hopefully there won't be a bazillion people trying to use the kitchen or else we may never get to have it!I only have one more recipe saved up! So I'm not going to post a recipe today on the off chance that the kitchen suddenly breaks and I don't get to cook for another three weeks. Sorry! But here's a picture of a freaky mutant strawberry to look at:

How does this happen???

XOXO

Natalie

Chicken Tikka Masala

There is a simple reason for why I haven't posted this recipe. That reason is: bunk beds. You may be saying to yourself: But Natalie, a bunk bed is an inanimate object that is not sentient or conscious and cannot possibly want to harm you. Well if you were thinking that, you would be wrong. Bunk beds are evil. They are too high and the ladders are inconvenient. In the event of an earthquake, I would not be able to climb under the bed and save myself because I would be 5 feet off the ground holding onto the water pipes for dear life. My bunk bed didn't even come with a railing! Luckily, some of my floormates had an extra railing. Thank god my boyfriend is in the engineering school and knows how to fix anything with duct tape. So right now, my safety is assured only by a duct-tape railing. I fear for my life on a daily basis.

"What if the duct tape won't hold?"

"Oh my gosh, I'm so tired I can't see, I hope I don't fall off this ladder."

"Why can't I feel a ladder under my feet? Oh, that's right. It's on the other side of the bed."

If I had a nickel for the number of times I have rolled onto the rail in my sleep I would have...well, probably about a dollar fifty. But still- if that railing wasn't there, I would be dead or in a coma right now.

The point is, bunk beds are horrible things that prevented me from writing this post. I climb into bed about to write this awesome post about Indian food...and I am so far away from my recipe book. Of course I can't get down because I know that I will eventually fall off the ladder and I'm not going to push my luck by climbing up and down all willy-nilly and with complete disregard for statistical probability. So then I sigh and say: well, this will have to wait until next time I get off this bed. Then I get off the bed in the morning exhausted and not seeing straight and forget to grab my recipe book.

Luckily, I have a paper to write tonight, so there is no need to climb onto the bunk bed quite yet. So, I am sitting at my desk where my recipe book happens to be. And here you go! Chicken Tikka Masala!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Adapted from Pioneer Woman Cooks

3-4 chicken breasts

ground coriander and cumin, to taste

1/2 cup plain yogurt

6 Tbsp butter

1 whole onion, chopped

4 clives garlic, minced

1 2" piece fresh ginger, grated/minced

2 1/2 Tbsp garam masala

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 Tbsp sugar

3/4-1 cup heavy cream

2 cups basmati rice

turmeric

frozen peas

cilantro

Season the chicken breasts with salt, coriander, and cumin on both sides, then coat the chicken breasts in yogurt. Set the chicken on a metal cooling rack over a foil lined baking sheet. Put the sheet pan under the broiler and cook the chicken 5-10 min per side. I ended up cooking it a bit over 10 minutes because the chicken pieces were pretty thick. Make sure that the chicken is completely cooked through, it won't be cooking much longer after this.

In a large pan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, then cook the onions until they are tender. Add the garlic and ginger and let cook for a minute. Add the garam masala and the tomatoes, stir, then add the sugar. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes, then stir in the heavy cream. The original recipe called for 2 cups of cream, which seemed like way too much. 1 cup was plenty and I think if I had added anymore, it would have really messed up the consistency of the sauce. Chop up the chicken breasts and add to the sauce. When the chicken is warmed through, stir in some chopped cilantro.

While you are doing all this, have some rice going in the rice cooker. I made the rice that PW recommend, and it went really well with the chicken. Basically, throw the rice and water into the rice cooker, add 4 Tbsp butter, and then a healthy does of turmeric. (You can make this on the stove too if you don't have a rice cooker) When the rice is done, stir in the frozen peas and let it sit for a minute so that the peas can cook through.

XOXO

Natalie

College Casserole

So here's an interesting meal. It's interesting because anybody not in college may want to close the page now. You will probably be disgusted/insulted by this meal appearing on a cooking blog. However, if you are in college, this is the best thing you will ever eat in your life.

You may be asking yourself: How can that be?

This is how:

frozen ground beef + tots + frozen corn + cheese = college casserole.

Simple ingredients that ended up being staples in my fridge last year combined to make the most ridiculously fattening cheesy delicious meal ever. Of course, when I started telling non-college students about it, all I got were nauseated looks! I expect that as soon as I graduate I will no longer like it. So I post it while I can!

This is basically a trashy shepherd's pie. I know, Paula Dean makes a pretty trashy one too involving potatoes, biscuits, beef, sausage, and an insane amount of butter, but I think I out-trashed her with the tots.

College Casserole

2 lb ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups chopped tomato

4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

4 tsp salt

3 cups frozen corn

1 32oz bag of frozen tots

1/2 cup flour

8 Tbsp melted butter

Shredded cheese

Combine the beef, onion, tomatoes, worcestershire, and salt. In a separate bowl combine the potatoes, flour, and butter. If this is an obscene amount of butter to you, that's ok. You don't have to use all of it, it just makes the crust crispy. Then spread the beef mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish, followed by the corn, then the potato mixture. Bake uncovered at 375F for 45 min. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and then bake for another 10-15 minutes.

It's super easy, and the guys in my apartment really really loved it. So come on, I dare you, make this college casserole.

XOXO

Natalie

Onion strings!

So I haven't gotten my kitchen yet. SAD NATALIE! They were remodeling the kitchen and it was supposed to be finished about a week ago. But I don't think that they've even started it yet. While I am frustrated, I'm not freaking out because the dining hall has been surprisingly awesome. Lots of gluten free food and lots of options. This morning I had a gluten free bagel for breakfast! How cool is that? Although my dining hall (crown dining hall) is so far the only one with gluten free options. So I'm still kind of without food on the weekend. But that's what microwave meals are for! ...wow I can't believe I just wrote that. On a cooking blog for god's sake!

My apologies. In further news: I made it onto the improv team! We have shows about once a month and (hopefully) I will be able to put up a video of one of them. Then all you readers not living on campus with me can see it!

As far as today's recipe, I think I'll share one with you that I've had sitting on my to-post-list for a long time. These are Pioneer Woman's Onion Strings! I've altered them just by making them gluten free. I also made cooking time longer because I like my onion strings super duper crispy.

Onion Strings

Adapted from Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 large onion

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or taco seasoning!)

canola oil

Slice the onion very thinly. Super thinly. REALLY THIN. Put them in a casserole dish and pour buttermilk over them. Let the onions soak for at least an hour. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Heat plenty of oil in a large pan. The way I like to test it for temperature is to flick a couple drops of water into the oil. If they start dancing around all crazy like, then the oil is hot enough. Coat the buttermilk onions with the flour mix, shake off the excess and drop into the oil. Fry until golden brown, or until they are crispy enough for your liking.

OMNOM onions!

XOXO

Natalie

The Simple Things in Life

You know how there are some foods that are kind of...well...plain? It's so simple it's almost boring, but it's something that you just love? Whether it be because it's something you grew up with or because you are learning to appreciate simplicity in your life; simple foods can end up being just so darn tasty. One of my favorite simple foods is polenta. I love it because you can make it completely on it's own-I'm talking water and corn meal here-and have a tasty side dish. Because corn is just GOOD. Of course adding things like chicken broth, basil, and a healthy dose of tomato sauce doesn't hurt either. That's what I made and it was mmmmm goooood. I made my fantastically-delicious-party-in-your-mouth-mushroom-marinara to put on top of the polenta. I know it's strange to put so much effort into a sauce that will go on top of the simplest base ever, but hey, I gotta be me. I just followed the instructions on the back of the polenta bag but used chicken broth and stirred in a little basil and parmesan. Just pop it in the oven and wait. Here's what it looked like: Gosh it's so pretty!

Anyway, the point of this post is two fold. 1.To share my new favorite quick meal and 2. to remind myself, and you dear reader, to enjoy the simpler things because they can end up being amazing.

XOXO

Natalie