The Chef or the Pot?

I LOVE my Staub! Its the greatest pot in the world. I can't help but wonder if the delicious things produced from its beautiful enameled innards are indeed a product of the pots magical powers or the skill of the Chef. I'd like to think that its me but after my latest cooking experience I'm beginning to doubt it has anything to do with me at all.  This pot IS magical! I can put whatever food concoction into the pot I want and after waving my bamboo spoon/wand (with a Lucifur tail hair core) and muttering creato deliscioso a seemingly mystical power turns my food into a medley of flavors I didn't even know were possible.

notice the magical mists doing their magical things

Just the other day I had a bunch of tomatoes lying on the counter and I thought to myself gee I wonder what the magical Mr. Staub can do with these? I roasted the snot out of them and threw them into the pot with some garlic, onions and basil and simmered it for a good two hours. It was incredible!

I even used garlic grown from Liz's garden. I'd like to be able to tell Liz that her garlic was super delicious but who knows? It could have been Mr. Staub.

Sometimes I offer up even less effort and just chop up a bunch of crap, throw it in with whatever meat looked good at the market and hope for the best. It never fails. Always delicious.

Its magic.

Mrawmin eats all the Bacon

Mrawmin came to visit in January and as usual we had a blast! She always comes ready and willing to play which is why she is pretty much the COOLEST Mom ever. We did the usual things like eating at fun places such as Guru's for breakfast and P.F. Changs for lunch. And of course we always HAVE to go shopping because we NEED that one certain item, or there is a special sale, or someone we know and love is in dire need of a gift. Plus shopping is just one of the funnest things ever! Other than those two staples (eating and shopping) we entertained ourselves with girlie chit chats and laughter.

I love this picture of my Grandma! She ordered the most delicious flourless chocolate cake.

We always talk about certain things that we want to do during Mrawmins many visits out here, one of which is a cooking day. This trip we finally made it happen. Steph and I had been drooling over some websites with delicious food and decided we wanted to try making them. With Mrawmin here we decided the timing was perfect.

Our two recipes for the event were French Onion soup and Bacon Chocolate Truffles. Yup. They were delicious! The most common statement of the evening was "Mom stop eating all the bacon!" In truth we were all just as guilty but somehow way more sleuth in our bacon stealing/tasting.

My favorite part about our cooking adventure was the "field trip" to the state run liquor store where a few supplies needed to be purchased. Have no fears those supplies were thoroughly cooked out leaving behind some delicious flavors.

Pretty sure that bottle isn't supposed to be empty.

Look at how gooey the bacon is?! Its covered in brown sugar.

We couldn't resist eating it!

Or sniffing it.

We're putting the finishing touches of Gruyere cheese on top. Its the most delicious cheese in the world.

Everyone enjoyed it!



Next we finished the bacon chocolates. Luckily there was still enough bacon left over.

It was hard work being Chocolatiers.

The finished product was so delicious though that it made the effort worth it!

Come again Mom! 

Perhaps in April after the half-marathon we can justify another 3000 calorie cooking day.

Holidaze 2011

Hello All-

This 2011 Holiday season seemed to whiz by at incredible speed. Looking back at it brings a smile to my face so I'm guessing we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Let me start this post off by wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year! 

Traditionally in my family we stay up really late the night before Thanksgiving and bake pies. This year was no exception. I had Steph and a few other family members over for the pie baking festivities.

notice how half of the crust has beautiful edges and the other half looks squampus... 

now guess which half Steph helped with.

Things started off slow but soon the evening turned into a party with everyone joining in the fun and being half awake. Notice the cans of mountain dew strewn all about the counters in various pictures.

So Much Baking!

In total I believe we made 8 pies. Two pumpkin, two lemon, two raspberry cream pies with oreo crusts, an apple pie and finally a chocolate silk pie.

A few of our finished products.

Steph finally left with a car full of pies around 3am. I slept a fair amount before waking up ready to do MORE cooking.

And now... Introducing Norbert!

and the story of when he meets Mr. King Kooker. 

Its a beautiful story that we shall call Thanksgiving!

Deep frying a turkey can be especially dangerous so do not attempt this unless you have watched the You Tube video of William Shatner explaining the dangers. Also, the video of Alton Brown is exceptional in teaching proper safety protocols. Most helpful however is a husband willing to do the dangerous part.

Turkey being fried in peanut oil.

Grandpa watching the turkey very closely... with a proper turkey watching beverage in hand.

Me all proud of my precious Norbert.

Christian forgetting to smile cause he was too excited about eating Norbert.

Playing with the newest addition to the Knight household. Meet Gris.

Liz whipping up the whip cream with a touch of bourbon added. I'm guessing not all of it ended up in the bowl.

Dinner was delicious! Don't you just love the individual cranberry sauces!

I only have a few pictures for Christmas...

Christian excited about his advent calendar...

and Christian putting together his Lego Millennium Falcon whilst watching Star Trek Enterprise in the background. He's such a cute nerd!

I really wish I had brought my camera to Sigurd Utah where we spent Christmas with Christian's Grandpa Brow. We had some late nights playing cards and laughing at each others stories. Liz pulled out all the stops making better then crack sweet rolls and several varieties of quiche. She also made super delicious spaghetti and meatballs and her famous Shwinenbird in a terracotta pot. My mouth is watering just thinking about how yummy it all was.

This finally brings us to the end of our Holidaze catch up post. Christian and I have decided that 2012 will be a very exciting year for us. To help this "resolution" along we've signed up to run a half marathon with some of our family and friends in April. We've purchased plane tickets to Thailand for May, and we also geared ourselves out with latest in Ski and Snowboarding essentials. Now if only it would snow we could tide ourselves over until May.