Camping!

We decided to take our first camping trip of the year last week. We had a great time and the weather was perfect. We love hiking, fishing, and the whole not showering thing... Something that we also get excited for is the food,though. We go beyond just roasting hot dogs and boiling water. Mikey usually handles the dinner portion (because it means he can play with the fire) while Mo handles breakfast. Our overall menu included eggs, potatoes, bacon, baked potatoes, roasted corn on the cob, clam chowder, chicken sandwiches with tomato, hot dogs, and S'mores. Oh yeah- we know...

Let's talk about the propane stove we had. It was small and only held one pan (or pot) at a time but it was so easy. It held the pot for the chowder, the pan for the bacon, the eggs, and the potatoes, and even was easy enough to use for a just a tea kettle for a quick cup of hot chocolate. The best part is that we could keep the stove by the campfire in case we absolutely needed hot chocolate but didn't feel like getting up :)

Breakfast was another thing that we had a good system for thanks to our wonder stove. Since we were only feeding the two of us we could use one pan to make everything for breakfast. One day breakfast came out particularly well; Bacon-Scrambled Eggs and Breakfast Potatoes. First cut the bacon into small pieces then cook it so there's enough fat in the pan to cook the potatoes. When the bacon's done but it on a plate with a paper towel and cover with foil. Next you have to dice the potatoes up then put them in the pan as soon as the bacon is done. Mo hates to cover things because it keeps her from being able to see what's happening but we did it anyway and they cooked faster. When the potatoes get soft and you've put enough garlic powder, salt and pepper on them then put them onto a plate and cover with foil too. Leave whatever oil is left in the pan and turn you pan to low heat. Now add beaten eggs. They should start cooking right away. You need really low heat. Mo is sort of awesome at eggs and knows you can't rush the process. When the eggs start to cook together and have lost most of their liquid consistency add the chopped bacon to the eggs. Fold, mix, stir, you know.

*Quick tip* We don't bring milk when we camp but if you're like Mo and won't cook without something in your eggs then used evaporated milk. It does the same thing, just as well.

You can't tell us that's not a pretty good meal for one pan, cooked in the outdoors! It was really filling and cleanup was minimal.

America's Most Harmful Drinks

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Help Our Kids- Courtesy of Jamie Oliver

Remember Jamie Oliver, once The Naked Chef? How many people were watching his new show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Well we were. The show was sort of on at a weird time- Friday nights at 9. But in case you didn't watch it (shame on you) what he did was simple. Jamie went to the unhealthiest town in America (Huntington, WV) and tried to get a food revolution going to make their people healthy again.

Jamie Oliver 's Food Revolution Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-mYAoWu-O8

When Jamie arrived at an elementary school he faced a lot of resistance from the adults who seemed too lazy to make any real changes and resistance from kids who would die for their chocolate milk...an literally were. What Jamie found in Huntington were people dying of obesity, entire families getting diabetes, and young kids getting their lives shortened because of the fatty, processed food they over-consumed on a daily basis.

Jamie tried replacing the crappy school lunches (nuggets, french fries, several types of pizza, and and every color of milk except white) at the schools with homemade food that were full of vegetables and nutrients. Real bread, baked chicken, and salads were too much for the lunch ladies...sorry...school cooks to handle. Jamie went through every resource he could to let the people know he had a kitchen up for people to come in and learn how to cook good, healthy, meals. There's one episode left but so far Jamie has taught over 1,000 people in that town a better way to cook. His kitchen is open up to anyone and the people are starting to take notice of their problem and trying to fix it.

Jamie has a petition up so that we can get our kids' school lunches healthier across America and not just in that one town. Here's the link. It's really simple to sign, you just need to do it. We hope you do.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

Also, on the show Jamie showed the town how to make a really awesome looking beef stirfry. He chose it because all the ingredients are healthy and obtainable. We haven't tried it yet but we're dying to soon. Here's the recipe. We'll let you know what we think soon. :)

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-and-vegetable-stir-fry

Grown Ups and Rice Crispy Treats

So we haven't had much to post these days. We're getting ready to move soon so a lot of time has gone to that. Apartment hunting, school, working... it all takes so much time. Obviously our cooking took a back seat (along with the blog) but we're trying. It's never been that being an adult is hard its just cooking sounded like the last thing we wanted to do after a long day- to be honest that didn't make us very happy. We finally got back into the groove of "cooking" one night when we actually had some time off. (What? Time off? What's that?) Actually we did use that day for school stuff but that night we needed something that would be suiting for our broke-college-student needs (basically cheap and quick... and something sweet!) What did we make? Rice Crispy Treats, of course. Three ingredients and ready in less 10 minutes. You can't beat food that easy. The recipe was on the box, but it wasn't like we really needed it. Melt butter, add marshmallow and melt, then add Rice Crispy cereal and mix well. Done. It's easy but we did change one thing. Instead of adding the given amount of cereal, we added the same amount as the marshmallows. What we ended up with was the perfect amount of chewy and soft- magic for the most part. It was nice to allow the children that we still are at heart to come out for a while. We learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes being in the kitchen doesn't mean we have to produce the perfect 10 course meal, but being silly and not so serious is way more important. It was so worth it.

Mikey and Mo's very grown up Rice Crispy Treats

(Too) Hot Wings

Buffalo wings are something that we try to find wherever we go. There's all kinds to choose from and they're pretty much offered at any restaurant or pizza joint so finding some isn't hard. Ok. Buffalo wings are one thing, but habanero wings are another. This is our slightly ridiculous attempt at trying to be brave while trying to eat 15 habanero wings (5 of which were regular buffalo for backup). We've eaten the wings before which is how we found out about the place called Texas Buffalo Wings in Lathrop, CA. Mo's the one who can handle the spiciness a little better but that doesn't make these wings that much easier to eat. The wings have a horrible habit of being so tolerable for so long that you let your guard down when you eat them next, then when you do, you feel like hell itself has literally taken up temporary residence in your mouth. Pain as actually a word that comes to mind pretty quickly.

Believe it or not the red saucy, spicy looking wings on the left of the picture are actually the regular buffalo wings. The three on the right are the evil ones. So this is how the night went. We got our 15 order of wings and could instantly smell the spiciness through the Styrofoam container. This made us really excited (a short lived emotion). We sat there with a glass of water, a large amount of ranch and enough napkins to almost feel guilty for. We both dipped a wing in ranch and went for it. There was a surprising amount of flavor for just one wing. The surprising amount of heat came next- our mouths burned in pain. They weren't this hot last time! The water didn't help and neither did the ranch. It took us about 3 minutes to recover from the shock of the first wing. After that, we just paced ourselves. Once we would finish one we would seemed to forget the pain and think we could keep going. We did this until we ended up with one of each type left and we just couldn't do it anymore. We'll probably wait a while until we do it again but this definitely won't be the last time that we do this. Overall it was a really fun experience and we recommend them. =)

A Cookie Cake Pie

We must be crazy or in dire need of cavities. This recipe is so simple but be warned- it's incredibly sweet. All we used were ready-to-make desserts so we could throw them together, bake, and eat. This isn't really a recipe, just the play-by-play of our little adventure. The ingredients here are enough to make two Cookie Cake Pies but even we didn't need that much!

Obviously it was a Pillsbury night... no idea how Betty got in there

So we started by laying the (already made) pie crust in the pan, layering the (already made) cookie dough on the bottom to make a layer about 1 inch thick. Then we put that in the oven at 350 for around 7 minutes.

While the crust and cookie were in the oven we started getting everything for the (easy to mix) cake mix. Eggs, oil, and water. It was a piece of cake... (hehehe) Anyway, once it's mixed and the cookie is out just pour enough of the cake mix to fill the rest of the pie tin up.

We put the whole thing in the oven for about 40 minutes. We got worried because it got pretty brown on top pretty quickly and looked wiggly, but it never got much darker and the wiggle went away. While this was cooking we ate the cookie dough. 40 minutes is a long time and we didn't want it to go to waste. What were we suppose to do.

We really had no choice..

 So when the whole thing came out we let it cool for a bit. Mo couldn't wait to put the frosting on so she didn't. We used white vanilla frosting with the sprinkles in them because that was used the confetti cake mix too. When we cut it we found that everything was cooked well. We both make homemade pie crust that is sweeter than what we bought but the less sweet Pillsbury brand worked well with everything else that was so sweet.

Voila!

Seafood Bonanza

Okay. We're not trying to sound corny, but there was a seafood bonanza... like literally, Food 4 Less had their Seafood Bonanza and we bought a lot of seafood. How are we supposed to live in California and not take advantage of something like that? So after waiting a couple months for this weekend, we went in with shrimp in mind, but still open for anything. There was a lot of choices; fish, prawns, scallops, etc. There were only a few crab legs and they all seemed like- well they just weren't good enough. The boy working the seafood counter obviously saw the amount of thought we were trying to put into which legs were the least scrawny, and if it was worth it, because he told us he had some really big claws in the back and he'd bring them out for us. He wasn't kidding. Not only were the legs bigger but the claws he brought out were the size of Mo's wrist. We willingly caved into his up-sale and decided to buy a little more than a pound of crab legs and claws. In order to make a full meal out of it we bought a Cesar salad (the kind that comes with everything in the bag) and some tools to crack open the shells.

So we got home and put those suckers in boiling water. We thought it would be better because they were frozen but by the time the water was boiling they were thawed and we could have just put them in the oven. Ugh. But we finally got the water to boil and only put salt and garlic powder for seasoning.

Mikey did most of the crab-in-the-water handling because he could actually see into the ginormous pot. Meanwhile, Mo handled the salad prep and getting the butter ready.
The butter (which is actually vegetable oil spread) was melted for 15 seconds and garlic powder was added to that. We're garlic people if you haven't gotten that by now.

We finally pulled out the crab and were happy to see that it was thoroughly warmed from only being in the water for about 8 minutes. It smelled so good in the kitchen, we couldn't wait to eat. We plated everything then sat down. As far as cracking the shells went we just used scissors. The shells were too soft for the little contraptions we bought. If we would've baked them then the shells would have been harder. We kind of rushed through the salads as a sort of first course, then mentally prepared for the large clumps of crab that sat on the plate. The claws had really given some amazing pieces. So we ate every single bit that was on that plate.Every piece was so juicy because of getting boiled and with the garlic butter that we didn't even talk. "This is sooo good" and "we're definitely doing this again" were all we said. There wasn't a single thing left to eat, and that's exactly the way it should be. And yes, we will be doing this again.

Linguine and Clams

So this one is really Mikey's special. Today (or more like on the 4th) we decided to do clams and linguine rather than another attempt at linguine and shrimp- which was equally as awesome. Anyway, the cost for this meal was literally only $2.00. We had everything we needed in the pantry so all we had to buy was mushrooms and half and half. We used fresh mushrooms instead of canned and canned clams instead of fresh. Why? Because it was cheaper. We cut the original (family) recipe in half for the two of us but we agreed that next time we wouldn't. The recipe below is the halved version but next time we would double it and use 3/4 pounds of pasta instead because we like a little more sauce for this dish and basically because it was just more for us to eat...

What You'll Need:

1 (or 2) can of chopped clams

1/2 pound linguine

1/2 T minced garlic

1/2 T dried basil

1/4 t oregano

1/8 t garlic powder

2 T butter

2 T olive oil

1/8 C white wine

1/8 C half and half

6 mushrooms

1/2 T cornstarch if needed

salt and pepper to taste

First we usually do the prep. Today, this meant washing and cutting mushrooms. One of the things we've trained ourselves to do right away is start the pasta water. There's nothing worse than being in the middle of cooking and realizing you still have to wait for the pasta because you forgot. So, we did that right after we cut the mushrooms.

Next we got a large pan, the one we use for pretty much everything, to saute the mushrooms in.

Butter. Mushrooms. Two items and it already smelled amazing. So, add the butter and oil to the hot pan then add the mushrooms. Now is also the best time to start the water for the pasta. Add salt to the water to help the process along.

When the mushrooms look glossy and start to shrink add the garlic. Let that heat through until it smells even more amazing then add the herbs. Turn the heat to low and just let everything heat through together. The mushrooms should be dark now and pretty soft.

Soon after this, the water should be boiling. Add the pasta to it when it is.

Now the mushrooms are ready for a little clams and alcohol. Open the clams and pour both clams and juice into pan and bring to a simmer. Next add wine, half and half, and garlic powder. Cover and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

Don't forget about the water. When its boiling drain it but don't rinse it.

The sauce is suppose to be thick enough to really cover the noodles. Three things can fix a runny sauce. One is adding the noodles to the sauce so the starch thickens it, another is to let the sauce sit on a low heat for a couple minutes without stirring, or the third is to mix cornstarch into some wine or half and half and pour and stir into the sauce (which is what we did). Cover and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

When the sauce is the right consistency, fold the linguine into the sauce on low heat and mix well.

Enjoy!

Baked Potato Chips

We are definitely not the kind of people who are against junk food. Everyone needs those days to eat way too much junk food, right? In an attempt to not be quite so glutenous we decided to make an adult version of potato chips by baking them and adding tons of herbs. Our only regret was that we didn't make a bigger batch. This was our first attempt and I don't think we would change anything if (...when) we make them again.

INGREDIENTS
(there's not very many)

3 Russet or red potatoes
garlic olive oil
thyme
oregano
parsley
garlic powder
salt

STEPS

Preheat oven to 450. Wash all the potatoes and cut into really thin circles.

Now place the rounds onto a big foil covered cookie sheet. We recommend you cover the tray in foil and spray it with non-stick cooking spray or use that non-stick foil to prevent the really thin slices from sticking. Brush the potatoes with a little garlic olive oil and lightly salt. Put the potatoes in oven for 10 minutes.

Mix the thyme, basil, oregano, and garlic powder together. Take the potatoes out and flip them over. Sprinkle a little of the herb mix on each potato and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Take them out and eat with some sour cream (or in Mikey's case, A LOT of sour cream).

Tomato and Mozzarella on a Baguette

Today we were in the mood for something light but with a lot of flavor. This is another one we didn't really have a recipe for, we just went with it. Everyone knows about mozzarella with tomato and basil but we did our own thing (mainly because basil was too expensive for just one dish). Anyway, we also decided that once we toasted the baguette, a little blend of the tomato and mozzarella on top would be perfect, basically like Bruschetta. There is no denying that we made something amazing that tasted phenomenal.

What You'll Need:

1 sourdough baguette

2 Roma tomatoes

8 oz mozzarella cheese

garlic olive oil

salt

pepper

Cut baguette into diagonal slices to get a slightly longer slice. Turn your broiler on just so it's ready (it'll be ready when there's a pretty steady flame from the top). Place the slices on a foil covered cookie sheet and arrange them so they're even. Pour a little of the garlic olive oil in a small bowl and put aside.

Put the bread in the oven for around 5 minutes. Half way through take out the cookie sheet and brush a little of the olive oil on the toast and place back in the oven for another few minutes. It's a pretty quick process. Wait until the bread turns a medium to dark golden brown, turn off the broiler and leave the bread in so it stays warm.

Now, cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into cubes the size of a centimeter. Drizzle some olive oil over the mix and add a dash of salt and pepper for a little more taste. Spoon the mix onto the slices of toast and eat it from there.

We bothered with plating and all that, but truth be told we ate off the cookie sheet too...