Awarded To Me

Because I know your time is valuable and this post is long winded feel free to just skip down to the part that really has any meaning... the part where I finally get around to awarding others with this award after my mindless ramblings about my life. I promise, no hurt feelings if you don't care to learn more about me. I learned at an early age the world does not revolve around me.

I was awarded with this by Ping the other morning. It was such a nice surprise since I am new to food blogging and to be recognized by a fellow blogger. Not having any tech savy I struggled to figure out how to even get the award onto my blog. Copy and paste. Smacking myself in the forehead.

The "rules" for accepting the award claim that I need to give a thank you shout out to the person who gives me the award, share 7 boring things about myself, and pass the award onto other bloggers.

Once again I'd like to thank Ping for thinking about me and presenting me with this award. It meant a lot to me and it was very much appreciated!

Now for the useless facts about the Pretend Chef that you didn't know before and are probably wishing you didn't know now.

1. I live with my guy, Mr. Sideline Chef. We are not married but have been together for 3 1/2 years. No we do not celebrate monthly anniversaries nor are we the mushy gushy couple who make you want to vomit while out in public. We also have a baby boy together, Jason Jr, my itty bitty, as I often refer to him as. Jason Jr is 2 1/2 years old and runs the workings of the household. Amazing how having a child turns your world upside down but in a FANTASTIC way! We also have not one but TWO Jack Russells named Samson (4 years old) and Maximus (1 year old). I am crazy to have all of this chaos under a two bedroom apartment.
2. We live on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. Neither one of us understands the craze of Texans and their motto of "Texas is the best because I was born here", they probably have never seen any other parts of the country. I was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada but my family moved us to the Pacific NW my high school years. Mr. Sideline Chef is from Ohio. We met while he was living at a motel I was working at. Due to fraternization rules I put in my two week notice and followed my heart back to Texas. We live in Texas only because we are here for work.
3. I'm a very sarcastic person. I've made my own mother cry on several occasions. I swear I'm not a malicious person she was just having sensitive days and I tend to be insensitive.
4. I grew up being a tomboy. My mother thought I was disgusting for taking great joy in showing off my battle wounds from playing football in the street with the boys or getting a chipped tooth the night of my graduation party in the boxing ring with a fellow male classmate.
5. Although I was a tomboy at heart the only sports I ever took an interest in were gymnastics and cheerleading. I once tried out for baseball and could pitch better than the boys but school rules would not allow me to play except for softball... not my thing... I liked hanging out with the boys more.
6. I was the kid in school you wanted to punch in the back of the head. I had a high GPA and graduated 6th in my class. I never had to study because I easily retained the useless crap we were learning in school. I took AP classes and shake my head for overloading my Senior year. The teachers loved me because I did everything by the book other than keeping my mouth shut. I never got in trouble for my condition I call diarhea of the mouth. I often times picked debates with others just to ruffle their feathers. Whatever my political views were I would go with the opposite if the person I was talking with didn't agree just for the sake of a debate. I once made another female classmate cry over her love of going green. I believe in reuse, recycle but because she did I didn't only for the sake of a debate.
7. From #6 you might think I suffer from "little person syndrome" once you learn that I measure in at 4'11". This really isn't true. Now I pick and choose my battles. I rarely battle. If someone feels more strongly about something I let them revel in their rightness. I don't feel it's necessary to have the last word and now I know when it's best to bite my tongue. I live and learn everyday and set out to make today better than the last.

Now that you've learned a little bit more about me, the Pretend Chef, or as my mother named me, Rochelle, you can use any of the above 1-7 for great conversation starters. I'm sure it'll make for a rather interesting convo over lunch.

Awarding other bloggers... I'm not tech savy like I have previously mentioned. The only way I know how to award the others is by making a list, checking it twice, sorry in the spirit of the holiday, and allowing the others to copy and paste if they so choose to have the award on their blogs.

• Cake Duchess - These cupcakes are tempting enough to make me want to break any sort of health kick I'm on at the moment with trying to take off the last 10 pounds of my weight loss journey.
• Cookin' Canuck - Serving up veggie side dishes to her family that are drool worthy like this one.
• Jeanette's Healthy Living - She is continuously giving me reason to expand my tastes and try new foods that help fight off various health issues such as cancer.
• Kimba's Kitchen - Have you seen the food that comes out of her kitchen? If not head over there now, with a bib, because all of her dishes are drool worthy!
• More Than A Mount Full - A Culinary Journey - This man shares his blog space with other food bloggers on Fridays via Guest Posts. How amazing is that? Talk about a heart of gold.
• No Face Plate - Creativity like this makes me envious to no end.

Please check out their blogs and show them some love. I FOLLOW these blogs for a reason. I have nothing better to do with my mornings until my son wakes up. In all seriousness... you better do it or else Santa won't be stopping by your house on Christmas eve. I joke, I joke.

Pumpkin Seeds

Scratch your head and get it over with. I know. October and November have come and passed and all things pumpkin should no longer be a novelty in the house. I had a pumpkin sitting in my window for over a month and it was time to use it up. I turned it into Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup and saved the seeds.

When it came time to roasting the seeds I opened my spice cabinet up to draw some inspiration for a flavor combination I have never tried before. What was staring right at me were the spices I used from the pumpkin soup and thought why not give it a shot? If they tasted great in the soup they will taste great flavoring the pumpkin seeds.

No exact amounts. I grabbed my spices along with some honey, maple syrup, and vegetable oil and put a little of this and a dash of that into a mixing bowl. I added my pumpkin seeds and gave them a toss in the sweetened mixture and laid them in a single layer on the baking sheet.

They only took 20 minutes to roast. The dogs were going pumpkin seeds nuts over the sound of the pumpkin seeds cracking open and popping about in the oven. I knew it was time to pull them out. The smell from the cinnamon and maple syrup was so aromatic that I couldn't wait to pull the baking sheet out of the oven and get my hands all over these.

I have never had pumpkin seeds on the sweet side. I was sure missing out! Let me tell you... these were the most incredibly tasty pumpkin seeds ever! I never eat the shells but these were so perfectly roasted and flavored that I just popped them in my mouth and ate the shells as well. FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC! My entire batch was gone in the blink of an eye. It was a small pumpkin and gave me about a 1/2 cup of the pumpkin seeds.

Saving this "recipe" in my safe spot, here on my blog, for a reminder to make pumpkin seeds the same way next year... is it October yet? Sigh. They were here and now they are gone like the novelty of the pumpkin until next season.

Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin Seeds

Stars of the Show:

*Make the mixture to your tastes. I added a dash of each seasoning until the spice was just to my liking. Do the same! You'll be glad you gave this a try!*

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• allspice
• nutmeg
• honey
• maple syrup
• pumpkin seeds

And Action:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a bowl combine the vegetable oil through maple syrup and whisk to combine. Add the pumpkin seeds to the bowl and toss to coat the seeds. Lay the pumpkin seeds on a single layer on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and stir every 10 minutes until the pumpkin seeds are toasted to your heart's desire.

Orange You Glad For Vitamin C?

In an email forwarded to me from my Uncle were photos from an orange festival that was held in the Netherlands. Anytime I see any sort of artwork it makes me envious. My stick people are enough to make a kindergartener shutter.

Here's to getting your daily dose of Vitamin C!

Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup

I look forward to checking out Foodbuzz's Daily Top 9. One of those days I came across this recipe for Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup from Kelsey's blog over at Apple A Day through Foodbuzz. Her photo of the soup was crave worthy. A scan of the ingredients list had me giddy considering the fact that all of the items were on hand and one more meal was able to be added to the roster of meals to make to eat up what we have on hand. Please check out her blog to see the beauty that is of this pumpkin soup and how it really should have turned out. A key ingredient of mine ended up being rancid and did not make it's way into the dish.

While making my Rosemary Focaccia I set to making this soup. It has been on my mind for two days now and the orange gourd sitting in the window as a decoration of the month of October and November had seen the end of it's days. I mean come on... don't pumpkin dishes kind of lose their seasonal charm after all of the Thanksgiving leftovers have been consumed?

Never having roasted a pumpkin or any other squash I had no idea how. After a quick search on the good ol' Internet and a pictorial I was on my way to fresh not from a can pumpkin puree sans food processor just elbow grease and a fork. Okay so it didn't turn out smooth but it still tasted incredible and I can look past the chunks of pumpkin.

The real issue came when it was time to add the sour cream. Just the day before my container of sour cream looked and smelt fresh. Upon opening the container lid my stomach started to turn and I threw it away. No other creams on hand I felt stiffed out of the full experience of what this dish had in store.

What I ended up with was a spicy pumpkin soup with a broth base. It was still incredibly flavorful. In a text to my mom, "but it burns so good", is how I described the soup. Nothing a glass of milk couldn't tame. Next time I'll be sure to make sure the sour cream is fresh in order to help cut the heat from the chipotle pepper. You have to see the real deal to see how this should look and be garnished with. Absolutely beautiful with it's vibrant orange color compared to my murky brown color. My color came from the fact that I used the full amount of chicken broth before making measuring out how much pumpkin puree I had.

Nonetheless this was absolutely delicious and will need a redo in my kitchen so I can get it right! Another inquiry I have to all of my fellow food bloggers who turn out incredible photography... what kind of camera should I tell Mr. Sideline Chef Santa he needs to bring me? This little Kodak point and shoot isn't doing the job of providing good enough food porn. Thank you in advance for the tips and ideas!

I'm not going to post the recipe on my blog. I would rather you head on over to Kelsey's Apple A Day Blog and get the recipe from there and check out her photography. I can't stress it enough. This is why she made Foodbuzz's Daily Top 9! Really? Why are you still on my page? Haha!

Rosemary Focaccia

My taste buds were in serious need of a shake up. After ending the night before on a low with the Ginger White Rice they needed to be shook up.

My morning started out with a cup of coffee, 2 egg whites, and bacon. Bacon is my love. I would give up my first fourth child in return for a lifetime supply of bacon. I say my fourth child because I only have one and I don't see Mr. Sideline Chef and I having more than 2 more babies. Knock on wood we don't end up with triplets on our next attempt because then it will be adios numero four. For lunch I continued on with eating up some of the leftovers, Ginger White Rice and the Baked Italian Shrimp. Both of those weren't worth a damn for leftovers. As you read from yesterday's post the rice was bland and the Baked Italian Shrimp aren't good reheated since the breaded crust gets soggy. I also grabbed 3 pieces of Hormel's Natural Choice Oven Roasted Turkey Breast and rolled them up and ate them as a quick snack.

Bacon was the highlight of my diet for the day. Bacon never lets me down. By the time dinner rolled around I wanted something with flavor and a change of pace.

I did some searching on MyRecipes.com and found a recipe for Rosemary Focaccia. Done. Also while reading some of my favorite blogs that I follow I came across a recipe for Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup. Done. I'll be sharing more about the pumpkin soup tomorrow.

After 3 hours spent in and out of the kitchen I had made my dough, let it rise, prepared my pumpkin puree, punched my dough down, another rise, and then had fresh baked Rosemary Focaccia to go with my pumpkin soup. My timing was not the best considering the fact that I was sitting down for dinner at 8 p.m. My bedtime is usually around 10 p.m. and dinner is usually around 6 p.m. Not a big advocate for myself eating dinner so close to bed time but I made an exception. Once again I am left hoping that my afternoon workout will do my waistline justice after eating four pieces of the focaccia. It was so delicious and addictive. When is fresh bread not?

My taste buds were very grateful for fresh baked bread and a nice big bowl of spicy pumpkin soup. The Rosemary Focaccia had a beautiful airy texture with a slight bite to it. The rosemary salt topping was incredible. My first time making focaccia bread and it was a success and so easy to make.

Going to be using the bread for turkey sandwiches and a side to my pumpkin soup. Wahoo for flavor!!!

Rosemary Focaccia

MyRecipes.com and Cooking Light, January 2005

Makes 14 servings

Stars of the Show:

• 1 1/4 cup boiling water
• 3 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary, divided - I used dried rosemary.
• 1 tbsp honey - I used sugar free honey. Trying to keep my sugar intake to a minimum with the knowing that holiday cookie trays are just around the corner.
• 1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
• 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour, divided
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided - I ran out of olive oil after adding what I needed to my dough and had to use vegetable oil when I did my egg wash.
• 1 tsp salt
• cooking spray
• 1 tsp water
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp sea salt

And Action:

Combine boiling water, 1 tsp rosemary, and honey in a large bowl, cool to cool to 100° to 110°. Sprinkle the yeast over the honey mixture, and let stand for 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Add 3 1/4 cups flour, 2 tbsp oil, and 1 tsp salt to the honey mixture, stirring to form the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic for about 10 minutes. Add enough of the remaining flour 1 tbsp at a time to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray and making sure to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°) free from drafts, I choose putting it on the dryer while it's running, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Gently press two fingers into dough. If the indentation stays then the dough is ready. Punch it down. Pat dough into a 14x12-inch rectangle on a coated baking sheet. Cover and let rise 20 minutes or doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350º.

Uncover dough and make indentations on the top of the dough using your fingertips or a wooden spoon handle. Combine 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp water, and the egg yolk, brush over the dough. Drizzle the remaining 1 tbsp oil and sprinkle with remaining rosemary and sea salt.

Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 166 (25% from fat)
Fat: 4.6g (sat 0.7g,mono 3g,poly 0.6g)
Protein: 3.9g
Carbohydrate: 27.1g
Fiber: 1.1g
Cholesterol: 15mg
Iron: 1.7mg
Sodium: 335mg
Calcium: 9mg

Ginger White Rice

Really this recipe was nothing outstanding. No photos even. Imagine a bowl of brown rice. I came across the recipe while browsing the Internet and thought it would be perfect for continuing on with eating up the contents in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. The end result was just like eating straight white rice. Both the ginger and soy sauce taste nonexistent and I had to add more after scooping the rice into my bowl.

There is plenty of leftover rice so the game plan for another night will be making a chicken stir fry out of it and adding more of those Asian flavors that I love and lots of egg! My stir fried rice can never have too much egg in it. Hoping to salvage what I have so I don't have to eat another side of blandness.

As for the Ginger White Rice making an appearance in this house again it doesn't look promising.

Ginger White Rice

MyRecipes.com and Real Simple, March 2001

Makes 4 servings

Stars of the Show (It's a long stretch.):

• 1 1/2 cups white rice
• 1 tbsp peeled, grated or minced ginger - I used ground ginger.
• 2 tsp soy sauce

And Action (Obviously the ingredients forgot how to get along together.):

Place the rice in a large pot and add the ginger, soy sauce, and 2 1/2 cup water. Over high heat bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover and cook for 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

The original recipe suggests serving this with Salmon with Black Bean Sauce and I am sure that is where the flavor really comes from and the rice is there to soak up the sauce rather than being the "it" dish.

Parmesan Parsley Biscuit Flatbreads

This one had me laughing to myself and shaking my head. Wanting to continue on with my vow to try and eat up the contents of our food items on hand before heading back to the grocery store before our vacation I decided to give this recipe a try.

Flatbreads make me giddy. They make the perfect vehicle for pizza toppings and sandwiches and such. Much to my disappointment these did not turn out to be flatbreads but instead biscuits that were smooshed down with a flavorless Parmesan cheese-parsley topping. What made these refrigerated biscuits amazing was the fact that the original recipe called for the biscuit to be dipped in olive oil on both sides. When the biscuits came out of the oven the bottoms were beautifully browned and crisp. That was the addicting part. It was like biting into Pizza Hut's pan pizza crust.

Okay so the results were nothing like I expected. No flatbread. What lesson I did learn was this: anytime refrigerated biscuits are made they will take a quick dip into an olive oil bath before baking for that crisp bottomed effect. Lip smacking deliciousness. Probably explains why I ended up eating four of them. Slapping hand and jumping on the treadmill now to burn off the calories I just inhaled.

Thoughts on a redo would include a dip in olive oil on both sides, the tops being sprinkled with more Parmesan cheese than the original recipe calls for and adding garlic as well. I could see these being served in a pinch to go along with a pasta dish.

Parmesan Parsley Biscuit Flatbreads

MyRecipes.com and Southern Living, March 2008

Makes 8 servings

Stars of the Show:

• 1 (16.3 oz) can refrigerated jumbo biscuits - I used Pillsbury Grands Butter Tastin' Jumbo Biscuits.
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh parsley - I used dried parsley.
• pinch of salt and black pepper

And Action:

Preheat oven to 400°. Dip both sides of the biscuit rounds in the olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. *I would skip the following step if I was to make these again.* Using fingertips, press each round into a 4-inch free form flat round. Sprinkle each biscuit top with the Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

On to more exciting news!... I got my first shout out on another food bloggers page! After suggesting that she turn her guilty pleasures into healthier versions to enjoy whenever she wants she took my idea and did so. You can click HERE to check it out and give Alexandria kudos for a healthier swap!