Cheese Souffle

One of my childhood favorites was definitely Cheese Souffle. So tonight we decided to have a go at it. The only issue is that I'm somewhat lactose intolerant. Or at least I used to be. We looked at a bunch of recipes and decided on Martha Stewart's. The only issue was that it called for 2 cups of Parmesan Cheese and Sour Cream. While shopping we found dairy free sour cream substitute, so we thought we'd give it a go. However when we got home we realized we only had 12oz of the substitute, but it called for 16oz. We opted to skim 4oz of yogurt off of the top of a "fruit on the bottom" strawberry yogurt. :) But I digress.

Katie handled most of the measuring, and mixing, and I spent lots of time separating beating the egg whites. We started with the yogurt & sour cream substitute, sifted in the flour, added the egg yolks one by one, added the salt, chives, cayenne, and parmesan. We then beat the whites until they were stiff, then gently folded them into the sour cream & egg mixture. In her video, Martha Stewart said that the key to folding was to think about chiffon. Think "light and airy". And I must say, when watching Katie fold, I could see the difference between when she was and was not thinking of chiffon.

The final product tasted fantastic, however Martha said it would rise to be 2 inches above the rim and turn golden brown. Our was perfectly golden brown, however we had no such rising. Ours stayed at least 1 inch below the rim. Damn. But it did taste great!

So, how the heck do we get it to rise next time? Any tips?

Lentil & Brown Rice Extravaganza!

Tonight was our 3rd cooking expedition. Again, we followed the lead of Daniel and Nancy from Abounding Harvest. Here's a quick slideshow of our efforts:

Three of my favorite ads

Not sure why stuffed and balloon (condom) animals are so funny, but they are.


And this speaker commercial is another all time favorite. It will make even more sense for any of you who rode in my prior Volvo.


And lastly, a great ring-tone commercial from India.

Pasta Sauce!

Last night I decided to make my own pasta sauce. I had seen a friend of mine, and fantastic chef, make home made pasta sauce a few times before, so I had some idea of what should go into it. Tomato paste, diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, peper, and maybe a few other things. I wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything, so I pulled out a jar of pasta sauce and looked on the back to see what the ingredients were. :) I thought that was pretty clever. I also added ground beef and mushrooms to make it fun. Like everything else I've cooked thus far, I started with oil, onions and garlic. Once I sauteed them for a while I added the ground beef, followed by the tomato paste. I then added the diced tomatoes (from a can), mushrooms, and spices. In hindsight I could have added the mushrooms earlier so that they were softer by the time the sauce was done. Otherwise, it was pretty damn good. I think I added a bit too much tomato paste, and not enough salt and pepper. But otherwise, so far so good.

Any suggestions on how to improve it? Also, any recommendations for my next dish?

Chef-Boy-R-David

David's cooking!

After a week in Jackson, WY with friends Daniel and Nancy who run an organic farm and who are fantastic cooks, I decided to follow their lead and do some cooking of my own. Katie and I decided to start fairly easy. We started with a veggie & chicken stir-fry, I guess you could call it. We started with oil in the pan along with onions, carrots, and as we went we added garlic, bok choy, broccoli, chicken and mushroom, in that order, along with soy sauce and sesame seeds.


It was good, but not legendary. I wanted to be sure the chicken was sufficiently cooked, so I may have over done it, and in doing so probably over cooked the veggies, as all were pretty soft by the end. I'm still trying to figure out the timing for each ingredient (any suggestions on order?), as well as how to work in meat. Daniel and Nancy are vegetarians, so they cooked with tofu, seitan, and miso, which I may have to try as I figure out the timing & seasoning for meat.

Any thoughts or suggestions?