The story behind "... en la Cocina" (in the Kitchen) blog

Those of you that know me, know that I can find my way around the kitchen, and that I'm not a half bad as cook, baker, and general foodie. I do enjoy preparing meals for others, but I do not enjoy doing it just for myself, and I hate the cleanup duties.

More than 7 years ago I started a spin-off blog called "...en la Cocina" to document all the recipes I've gathered and created through the years. Some of the gathered recipes come from recipes given to me by family and friends dating back to when I first started to cook as a little kid.

My dad was a great cook and I think I must have inherited this gene. It certainly didn't come from my mother. All her recipes were well done, overcooked, or over boiled mush, typical of the mid-west farmers back in the day. Corn on the cob had to boil forever (15 minutes +) for her to consider it "done." It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered how wonderful corn on the cob can be if it is done right. I like mine a little crisp, and I particularly like the grassy taste you get when it's cooked with the husk on. Today, I use the microwave, I peel back the first layer of corn husk, remove all the other leaves and all the silk, pull the first layer back up, put it in a covered microwave safe dish with ¼ cup of water and nuke it on high for 4 minutes, adding extra time for additional ears of corn.

Wow, did I get off on a tangent there, or what? Sorry, back to "... en la Cocina," and my dad.

Dad's ship was sunk in the South Pacific during WWII, and he lost his job as a radio operator. The survivors were sent back to San Diego, and reassigned to other ships. Some were assigned new duties. Dad became a Navy Cook. He told me he learned to cook "on the job" and experimented with different ingredients. He admits, sometimes the food was barely edible, but over time he figured out how to combine flavors to get the best results. Growing up I remember more than one meal he had prepared getting dumped in the garbage. If he didn't like it, he didn't serve it. He was the master of experimentation in the kitchen, and I don't think my mother ever knew how many failed meal attempts went into the trash. But, I can assure you, his successes far outnumber the failures. I've always thought his simple scrambled eggs were the best I have ever eaten. His recipe for sourdough garlic cheese toast is second to none. Just give me this toast, with a small side of spaghetti, and I'm a happy camper. Thank you Dad, for teaching me to not be afraid of complicated recipes and strange new ingredients. Because of him, I am a decent cook today, and I think my family appreciates my culinary heritage.

My recipe blog has become an easy place for me to store our favorite recipes. I frequently look up a recipe in the blog and then setup my laptop, or iPhone, in the kitchen, to have access to the ingredients and directions. I used to print the recipes out, but that was such a waste of paper and obviously not very "green."

With all the social media out there, I've started sharing my recipes on Pinterest and on my Facebook page. It has been fun to watch the tracking tools to see where all the visitors to "... en la Cocina" are coming from. I've come to the conclusion there are a lot of home sick Ticos (Costa Ricans) around the world and they are all looking for the comfort foods from their homeland. Many of these visitors find me through search engines, like Google, and they come from all around the globe: U.S.A., Canada, England, Ireland, Gemany, China, Japan, Africa, and on and on. They are usually searching for the recipes for "Olla de Carne" (Costa Rican beef stew), "Bizcocho" (toasted cornmeal rings that taste similar to Fritos), and "Platano" (plantains) fixed anyway you can imagine. I also get a number of visitors looking for ways to make something from scratch. They usually can't find something that comes prepackaged in the States. For instance, this week I had a visitor from Costa Rica looking for a Graham Cracker Pie Crust. Another person from Malaysia found me by looking for Red Enchilada Sauce. At other times, I've had folks looking for Bisquick Mix, Miracle Whip, and even Lawry's Seasoned Salt.

Every time we get a craving for something from our homeland, I search for mock recipes to make it from scratch and then figure out what I can use for a substitute when a key ingredient can't be found here in Costa Rica. To date, I have 172 recipes posted in my blog, and the number will continue to continue to grow as I discover new and interesting recipes. Maybe you'll find a new favorite recipe "... en la Cocina."

!Buen Provecho!

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Culinary delights from our stone oven

What a treat we been enjoying this week. John brined a fresh ham and cooked it in our wood fired stone oven. The ham is just delicious and we've been fixing it every way you can think of... sliced hot, cold, in sandwiches, fried, etc. If you want the recipe and the full story click on this link:

How to brine and cook a fresh ham...
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From kitchen disaster to chef's masterpiece

We have a wonderful sweet pepper sold here in the farmers markets (ferias) of Costa Rica. At the moment there is an abundant harvest going on and the price has dropped to less than a dollar a pound.  Depending on size, that could be anywhere from 12 to 20 peppers. They are similar to a bell pepper, 4 or 5 inches long, and they taper down to a point from the stem. They are sold green, red & green, and red (when fully ripe). I love to use them in many of my recipes.

Yesterday found me with way too many peppers to consume in a week so I roasted a bunch, de-seeded and peeled them to pack in olive oil. Peppers packed in oil will keep for weeks in the fridge and their roasted sweetness makes the ideal substitute for pimentos and canned diced green chilies.

Since I had all these roasted peppers ready to store, I came up with the "brilliant" idea to make pimento cheese sandwiches for lunch. I can't remember the last time we had that for lunch. Anyway, I digress...

Searching the fridge for cheese I found we had some cheeses from the ECAG (the UTC (national technical university) has a local college campus for The Central American School for Animal Husbandry). We like most of their cheeses and try to buy local whenever we can. This time I found we had some of their wonderful Gouda and a finely grated salty cheese that looked to be cheddar and whatever else they decided to throw in the mix that day. I also found we had some grated cheese from the national dairy that is sold for pizza topping, containing a mix of mild cheddar, mozzarella and another white cheese similar to a Monterrey Jack.

I'm no slouch around the kitchen and that looked like a pretty good start to a pimento cheese spread if you ask me. I started with about a cup of the ECAG grated cheese, then I added the other two cheeses in equal amounts, half a tub of cream cheese, half a cup of mayonnaise, a little grated onion and garlic, a half cup of diced roasted red peppers and lots of fresh ground black pepper. Sounds yummy, right?  IT WAS AWFUL!!! It was so salty from the ECAG grated cheese, it was unpalatable. I started adding more and more of the other cheese I had on hand and it improved just enough to be able to choke down a sandwich.

After lunch I stored the disaster (now a large bowl full) in the fridge, wondering if anything at all could be done to salvage it. You know, kinda along the lines of making lemonade out of lemons.

Fast forward to today.... "John, what do you want for lunch?"

"Oh, I don't know.... got any of that cheese spread left?"

"Yes, but it's way too salty to do anything with it."

"Why don't you boil some pasta and then mix the spread into it?  It might be O.K. that way, just don't salt the pasta when you cook it."

What a genius! So glad I married the smart guy. This got the wheels turning and I came up with way to salvage what would have found it's way to the garbage.

I cooked some Penne pasta until just slightly al dente, then I folded in my salty pimento cheese spread and add some freshly chopped basil leaves. I buttered a casserole dish, layered in my new version of a "mac 'n cheese", poured about a half a cup of milk over it, topped it with some grated mozzarella and baked it for 30 minutes. Wow! It is now an over-the-top, grown-up "mac 'n cheese" masterpiece.  I am so saving this recipe!

Guess what's for dinner!
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Retirement - Day 24: When life hands you limes, make Key Lime Pie!

True lemons don't grow in Costa Rica. Here, we have several varieties of limes. They grow everywhere. In fact, we have a few trees planted, but they aren't producing yet.

Fortunately for us, friends have been delivering bags of limes to us on a weekly basis. We have far too many limes for two people to consume. I mean really, how many lime cokes can one person drink? How about limeade? Then, there is lime in the salad dressing, or fresh squeezed on chicharrónes (fried pork) and chorizo sausage. The only thing we hadn't made with the limes, was a Key Lime Pie. That changed today!

Graham crackers are not found in Costa Rica, let alone a Graham cracker pie shell. The pie shell can probably be found in one of the high-end super market that caters to expats with expensive imported foodstuff. The lack of Graham crackers was not going to deter me from making us a Key Lime pie.

I remember years ago, my sons' grandmother used to make a crust with Galletas Maria. The Galleta Maria is a very popular sweet vanilla cookie with the crispness of a cracker. You can find it everywhere in Costa Rica, so I decided this would be my substitute for the Rev. Sylvester Graham's cracker. I crushed the galletas until I had about 1½ cups of fine crumbs. I then mixed this with ¼ cup of sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and ¾ of a stick of butter, melted.

Now comes the hard part. I still don't have an oven! I pressed the crumbs into a foil pie shell and then baked it for 15 minutes @ 280°F. in my electric skillet. While the pie crust was baking, I mixed all the ingredients for pie filling, using our favorite Key Lime Pie recipe. I poured the filling into the pie shell and put it back in the electric skillet for 10 more minutes, until it was firmly set.

Once the pie had cooled, I needed a topping. Since I didn't have any whipping cream, I made a simple topping from fresh natilla (sour cream) a little sugar and lime zest. Yum!
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Retirement - Day 16: Mayan Banana Bread

We went to the feria (farmers' market) last weekend and bought more bananas than we could possibly consume in a week. What can you do with 7 overripe bananas and no oven?

All our stuff, including my combo microwave/convection oven and the gas range are in the sea container we expect to be delivered around August 12th.

This doesn't help with the ripe banana situation today! So, I decided to try making banana bread in my electric skillet. I used my Mayan Banana Bread recipe and instead of using a loaf pan, I just poured the batter in the preheated skillet and baked it for 50 minutes @ 275° F. As expected, it did not brown on top, but the sides and bottom came out nicely toasted. The bread is perfectly moist and delicious.

I think I'll serve it with some fresh natilla (sour cream) and French pressed coffee this afternoon.
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Retirement - Days 7 & 8: The first harvest from our Mango tree

A little over a year ago, we planted lots of fruit trees and here is the first harvest from our Mango tree. It is amazing how fast everything grows here in the tropics.


 
The boys have settled into life in the tropics, as you can see in this photo of John and his pack. Randy is just a little jealous, but he will always be top dog. Gus is doing well, we just need to get him to stop chewing everything in sight.

Yesterday, I got a little creative and cooked a meatloaf in the electric skillet. It actually came out pretty amazing and much better than I expected. It takes longer and you have to turn it over about half way through the cooking time to brown it on both sides. Since meatloaf always needs a tomato sauce topping, I decided to experiment and try my hand at some homemade tomato ketchup. I used some fresh limes from a friend's tree, garlic, wine vinegar, tomato paste and splenda. I think I like it better than any store bought brand I've had. Heinz, better watch out, you may have to make room for some new competition.

Last nights dinner with meatloaf, rice and a salad was delicious. Today we need to pick up some bread at the bakery so we can enjoy some leftover meatloaf sandwiches for lunch.

Cooking in the little casita has certainly been challenge with the lack of space and tools. I have to use all my inventive skills to create interesting meals. I can't wait for our 40' container to arrive next month. Then I'll have a real gas range with a real oven. I'm more than ready to activate my sourdough starter and get back to bread baking.
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Homemade Sausage - Part 2

The Chorizo sausage we made earlier this month turned out so good, we decided to try Italian sausage this morning. In keeping with our healthy diet objective, we made Italian Turkey sausage.

We ground about 2 parts of turkey breast meat with 1 part of pork. Then we added the spices and fried up a bit to make sure the seasonings was just right before we packed it into the casings.

Tonight we plan to cook some for dinner on the barbecue grill.
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Homemade Sausage

One of the things we may miss after we move to Costa Rica will be great sausage at the local supermarket. I bought a great book on sausage making and find there is no reason we can't make our own. This book has recipes from bratwurst to chorizo and everything in between.

Today, we gave it a try using the grinder attachment on my Viking mixer.

We made about 10 pounds of Chorizo and now it is hanging in our electric cooler to dry for about 24 hours.

We made some fresh pan sausage with this recipe for breakfast this morning and it was outstanding. After the stuffed sausage links have a chance to dry, we grill some tomorrow for dinner and we'll post the results.

3-Oct-10 Update: We had the chorizo with dinner tonight and it was terrific. We vacuum sealed the rest and froze it for later. Now we have to plan the recipe for our next experiment. I'm leaning toward something with gound turkey. Click on Chorizo to see our recipe.


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Small Plates

I grew up in a family of 7, my parents, 4 siblings and myself. Informal meals were always served on a long counter with 4 bar stools on either side. The counter was actually a half wall between the kitchen and dining room. Food was always served "family style" with lots of dishes and platters placed in the middle of the counter. We would pass the dishes around so everyone could load up their plate for the first serving followed by seconds and sometimes even thirds. This is how I developed my early relationship with food.

When I married and had children of my own, I kept the same habits and found myself serving food to my family the same way I learned as a child. Once the boys got a little older, we all started loading our plates up in the kitchen so we could eat in front of the TV. I know, I know.... this was a terrible thing to do, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Now that we are older and wiser, we have developed new methods to help us stay focused on our new relationship with food. I have retired all the 12" inch dinner plates and started using the 9" inch salad plates to serve all our main entrees. I now plate all food in the kitchen and carry the plate to the dining room table. Serving dishes and platters are left in the kitchen with the pots and pans, so there is no going back for a second helping. The only exception to this rule is when we have company.

I find it really is true... "We eat with our eyes first." So, presentation has a lot to do with meal satisfaction. Here is the photo from last night's home cooked dinner. We split an 8 ounce Ahi Tuna steak, seared rare on the panini grill, dipped in toasted sesame seeds and a sugar-free teryaki sauce. This was served over a bed of stir-fried garlic spinach with key lime juice and a side of brown & wild rice. We also had a small cucumber, onion and grape tomato salad tossed in a creamy Greek yogurt & cider vinegar dressing. It wasn't a lot of food, but it was delicious and more that satisfying. Total number of calories: 397
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In my last post I mentioned John and I have lost 85 pounds between us. We have changed our eating habits and discovered we can eat just about everything if we limit the quantity and adjust some of the preparation methods. It's not rocket science, but in the past, neither one of us paid much attention to what we put in our mouths. We really enjoy eating, so it became paramount that we find a way to lose weight while satisfying our hunger with tasty foods.

Now that we have been committed to this since February, it has truly become a way of life and I don't think we could ever go back to our bad eating habits again. The price is just too high!

We have adjusted our calorie intake to an average between 1200 and 1500 calories per day. We eat 6 times a day, so we are never hungry. Since this calorie intake is so much less than what a normal body requires, we can't help but drop the pounds. I did a little research to back this up and here are the calorie requirements recommended by the "experts" at our goal weight:

Daily Calorie Requirement for MEN
Height: 5' 10"
Lifestyle: Lightly Actively
Desired Weight: 160
Calorie Requirement: 2000

Daily Calorie Requirement for WOMEN
Height: 5' 3"
Lifestyle: Lightly Actively
Desired Weight: 135
Calorie Requirement: 1600

I am now preparing meals that average 300-350 calories each. We supplement the meals with 3 snacks a day that average 100 calories each. The snacks are eaten mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening.

We started this journey by joining the Jenny Craig Weight Loss program. In the beginning, we got all our meals and snacks from them and then gradually I started adding in meals I had prepared. Now, I prepare all of the meals and most of the snacks. We still go to our local Jenny Craig center every Saturday to weigh in and keep ourselves on track.

There is a link to our family cookbook at the top of this page. I am going to start sharing all of my low calorie recipes with anyone looking for a healthy, well balanced meal. I will add the letters "*WP*" to the title of each low-cal recipe. I also plan to go back and edit each of recipes I have already posted to add in the nutritional information.

Below the blog postings you will find a ticker tracking tool we are using to mark our progress toward reaching our weight loss goal. At the rate we are going, we expect to be showing off a new wardrobe next year.

Next, I will tell you about all the new recipes I have come up with that make it easy to stick to this lifestyle....
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More family recipes to share

Once again, I've been busy gathering recipes from family and friends. I've posted several new recipes you need to try. Just click on the "Recipes" link above to go to Mi Chunche en la Cocina

If you've got some favorites you want posted, send them to me.
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Mi Chunche en la Cocina

Since some have you have enjoyed a meal or two at our place, I thought it might be fun to create a cookbook of some of our favortie recipes. If you look on the right side you will see a link to the recipes I have posted so far. If you have any recipes you'd like to share send them to me and I'll get them posted for you.
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