Steak and Summer

Broiled stuffed flank steak and zucchini with a lemon yogurt sauce. Dinner has been fancy at the Hogans' lately.

I swear I don't just eat all the time, contrary to what my blog lately would lead one to believe. I guess because I've had so little free time, and we have to eat, I've been throwing all my creative efforts into cooking. I have to let it out somehow. The result is, we've been eating like royalty. We've made some damn good food lately.

This latest culinary expedition was SO GOOD. Like fancy restaurant good. This is really the first time we had broiled anything, and we totally set the smoke alarm off while broiling the steak. I'm pretty sure I saw some of the kitchen twine give off a tiny burst of flame at one point. But smokey apartment aside, it was delicious and the steak cooked perfectly. We broiled the zucchini as well. I was seriously amazed at how well broiling cooked everything and how fast it was. Fast is good in my book, less time on your feet.

So in other news, concerning my life outside of the kitchen, summer is basically over for the Hogans. Brendon's first day back to pharmacy school was yesterday. Whomp, whomp, whomp. But, what a wonderful summer we had! Possibly my favorite summer in my young life so far. We more than made up for the lameness that was the summer of 2011. And though I am a little bummed about Brendon being back in school, fall is such a wonderful time of the year it doesn't seem so bad. The weather is cooling down already and I have visions of pumpkins and holiday goodness in my head. Fall brings so many good things, even the big dark cloud that is pharmacy school can't bring me down! Though I may be singing a different tune once school steals my husband away for real. It's still the first week so we aren't in full out pharmacy mode yet. I have high hopes though. This is our second year so we're more prepared, older and wiser (HA)! One more semester down and then it will be like summer time all the time! Just work and play. What a relief it will be to not have school in our lives for the first time, ever. 

But in the mean time, I'm trying to enjoy these days. Enjoy Brendon's first days of school, hanging out with our phriends (see what I did there?), pretending I'm a UT student and lurking around campus. As stressful as these times may be, I'm sure we'll look back on them with fond memories. Plus, I've taken to thinking of the UT College of Pharmacy as the UT School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (with a focus on potions) and obviously that makes it a hell of a lot cooler and more bearable. I did marry a Harry Potter look alike after all.

Cauliflower and cheese soup

Cauliflower is a little weird. It looks like a brain. It's definitely not one of my favorite foods, although I'll eat it (as long as it's cooked to death or drowning in a sauce of some sort). But this soup y'all... it's good. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. It's so easy and so bueno. And you could totally swap the cauliflower for pretty much whatever veggie you want.

Here's the run down:

You'll need; butter, an onion, a head of cauliflower (or an equal-ish amount of another veggie), cheese (white cheddar here), chicken broth, water, salt & pepper, and then cayenne to sprinkle on top (optional, but delicious). Specific amounts found over in Martha's recipe.

First things first, get yo' butter melting in your pan while you chop up your onion and cauliflower.

Cook your onion in the butter until it's soft. Drool over how delicious it smells.

While my onion was a-cookin', I had my Mr. H shred my cheese (doesn't that sound like an innuendo?). We couldn't find white cheddar pre-shredded, so we just got a block and did it ourselves. And you could totally use regular yellow cheddar. Or any cheese you'd like!

After your onions are soft, throw in your cauliflower and cook until they're golden brown. Stir these babies a bunch, or the ones on the bottom will stick to the pan and the guys on top wont cook.

Next up, the liquid! 4 cups of chicken broth + 1 cup of water. Really any liquid will do here. Chicken broth has lots of flavor, so anything flavorful is bueno. We make a similar sweet potato soup with coconut milk and broth. Though I've never tried it, I bet beer would be good. Beer and cheese? Win.

Once your cauliflower is soft and mushy, puree the whole thing in the blender. We did ours in two batches. After it's a nice even texture, pour it back into the pan and add your cheese.

Stir until the cheese melts, pour into bowls, sprinkle it with cayenne (or any seasoning you favor, cinnamon or nutmeg would be good with a squash or sweet potato based soup) and eat! Preferably with some sort of dipping side item. We had ours with french bread!

Soups like this are so easy. They're fairly quick and kind of a one dish wonder. Just cook your veggies, add some liquid, and blend it up! Great meal when you're not in the mood for something heavy and overly filling. And soups are perfect for fall and cool weather, although we are obviously jumping the gun here a bit. I mean it is still in the 90's, but whatev.

Cooking fresh

So it's not really a secret, I like to cook and love to bake. I'm not super talented in the kitchen department, but I'm fairly competent. I've been cooking for myself and Brendon for a while, and over the years I've built up a decent arsenal of cookware, spices, and general knowledge of preparing food, including the ever important cooking lingo.

When I moved into my first apartment and was away from my mom's home cooked goodness (and dorm food) and I started cooking on my own, I made a lot of quick and easy frozen/boxed dinners. A lot. I mean we're talking fish sticks and frozen pizza. This was progress for me, because somehow I got it into my head as a young adult that I couldn't cook. That idea was completely ridiculous because I had grown up cooking along side my momma, thank goodness. I was mostly just lazy I think.

As the years went by I ventured into the wide world of recipes. OH RECIPES, how you changed my life. I found that hey, I could make the same stuff that came prepackaged and it would taste better! And it was better for me! Home cooked meals became my bread and butter. At first we had a standard variety of meals that we rotated through, nothing too fancy. Not everything was from scratch, but at least the main dish was. Then I got sick of our normal options and was forced to get creative. I subscribed to a few cooking/home magazines and tore recipes out like crazy, and I still do. Thank you, Martha.

Yours truly, in a pot.

I'd say these days whenever we (and I mean we, because Brendon has been a champ in the kitchen lately) cook (which is almost every night of the week), 85% of our meals are made from scratch. We still supplement our meals with a canned veggie or packaged rice to save time occasionally, but the fresh stuff is just so much better. And we're re-doing the way we grocery shop. Usually we'd make a massive trip to the store to last us for a few weeks, but this doesn't work so well when you're cooking with fresh ingredients. So lately we've been doing a little menu planning and shopping more often for what we'll need that week or so, using our recipes as our grocery list instead of just getting the same old batch of stuff. This is, unfortunately, a bit pricier. Fresh veggies are not as cheap as canned or frozen, plus you're going shopping more often. BUT, it tastes so much better. And we're eating new things all the time! Sometimes they're good and sometimes they're not. You live, you eat, you learn. And then you throw that terrible recipe out.

Of course, cooking from scratch is time consuming and there are definitely some nights when we're absolutely beat from work (after working on your feet all day, cooking is not always appealing) and neither of us have the energy to cook, so we grab fast food or get Chinese delivered, which is never ever good and we always regret it. But I think for the most part we've radically changed the way we eat. We're eating fresher, healthier, and better quality food. And they say, you are what you eat! I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be fresh than preserved!

But because I don't want you to take me too seriously, you must know I still drink a whole lot of these:

Yaaaaay-uhhh. Guilty pleasure. That and, of course, desserts of all varieties.

Pyrex family

When we first moved to Austin, I started collecting Pyrex. Growing up we had some really pretty pieces that we used all the time (and my mom still does), and now that I was all grown up (joke, obviously) I needed my own! Luckily Austin is full of thrift stores, which is the best (cheapest) place to buy Pyrex. We live super close to a bunch, one is seriously within walking distance and we visit almost weekly. There's not always Pyrex (mostly there's junk, dirty junk, and more junk), but when we find some it's always so exciting. It's like adding a new little member to our growing Pyrex family! And the best part is that we use a lot of it all the time!

Serving bowls, casseroles of all sizes (look at that tiny pink one! It's my favorite, so cute!), mixing bowls, cups, and little plates, all with the cutest little patterns. Most of them are in great shape too! Pyrex is so tough. For instance, while I was getting this nonsense together for a picture I dropped that big red casserole on the ground and I screamed and it just bounced (although it was on the carpet). This stuff is decades old, but it all still serves and bakes like champions! I think the green guy in the middle is probably in the worst condition, but who cares! There is always love for Pyrex in my home!

On our latest thrifting expedition, we found three saucers that had a pattern that matched some Pyrex cups I had perfectly, but there was no Pyrex logo on the bottom. It felt a little light for Pyrex, but I bought them anyway because they were like a dollar something and I couldn't pass up the matching pattern. After a little research I found out that they are actually "Corelle" plates from the 70's-80's that Pyrex made matching "compatible" items (such as cups) to go with. So not quite Pyrex but close enough! I saw a set of dinner plates that with a suspiciously Pyrex-eqsue pattern around the rim but no stamp on the bottom, I bet that's what they were! Shoulda bought 'em.

It probably bores the whole world but I love these little guys! They make me happy. And my food looks so much better sitting in them.

Peanut butter fudge

It's recipe time y'all, and today we're talkin' fudge. You can't go wrong with fudge! It's so easy and takes practically zero cooking skills. Usually I stick to regular old chocolate fudge, but recently I've been mixing it up. This recipe is for plain chocolate fudge, but deviation is encouraged. I got this recipe from my mom a few years back, it's the recipe she always made growing up and has always been my favorite. I think it's from the condensed milk container back in the day? Wherever it's from, it lives up to it's name, it's pretty "foolproof".

"Foolproof Fudge"

For the simple version you'll need:

- 18oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 (14oz) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (I'm sure you can use any brand, but this stuff makes the best fudge in my opinion)
- Dash of salt
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Now, to mix it up you can sub out half (or a third, or fourth, or whatever) white chocolate or peanut butter chips, etc, for the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Throw some nuts in there if you want. Coconut would probably be pretty good. Seriously put whatever you want in there, the sky (or the size of your pan) is the limit really.

For this particular batch of fudge I used about 12 oz of peanut butter chips and 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I made a large batch, so I increased the other ingredients as well.

SO, first you'll want to line a 8"x8" or 9"x9" pan with wax paper. Then in saucepans over low heat, melt the chips with your condensed milk. I divide up the condensed milk accordingly if I'm using multiple types of chips. Stir often and make sure it doesn't burn to the bottom.

Once it's all melted and smooth, add your salt and vanilla (again, divide up between pans if using multiple chips).

Then spread your first layer (or all of your melted fudge if you're doing one flavor) into your pan. It doesn't really matter which goes first, but I'd do whichever you have more of if you're not doing half and half.

Then add the next layer on top and smooth it out. You can also bang the pan a bit on the counter (if it's not a glass pan) to help it settle.

Here comes the fun part, marble that nonsense! It's so easy but it looks so pretty and fancy! I just use the end of a wooden spoon and swirl it around the pan, bringing up the bottom layer into the top. I want it to be mixed well but not to the point that it blends into one color. Although I'm sure it would taste great, it doesn't look as cool. And I'm all about looking cool.

Now throw that sucker into the fridge and let it cool for two+ hours. Once it's thoroughly chilled, you're going to flip it over onto a cutting board. Peel the wax paper off and cut it up into whatever size pieces you like. Fudge is super rich so I usually do about 1 inch squares.

And you're done! Store it loosely an airtight container at room temp, although we keep ours in the fridge because it's pretty good cold, especially in the summer!

Share it with your friends (or don't)! Fudge is great for sharing/gifting because it keeps really well and is super easy to package. I took half to work and Brendon took half to his work. Plus we ate some obviously.

And like I said this is soooo easy to alter. I've done it with white chocolate and subbed out the vanilla extract for almond and it was pretty delish. But honestly, as good as the fancier versions are, the regular old chocolate will always be my favorite. Just like my momma made it.