Not Your Momma’s Chicken Pot Pie

Growing up, I loved chicken pot pie night. I thought it was soooo yummy. However, the pot pie I ate was a frozen one and was filled with preservatives and just bad tasting stuff. I had no idea how truly awful it was until I tried it again years later as a poor college student. Now I make pot pie from scratch, with real ingredients and I don’t have to poke the frozen top with a fork (although that was my favorite part as a kid!).

Since it actually hit the freezing point here in Ft Lauderdale a few weeks ago, I was craving some comfort food, and chicken pot pie was the first thing that popped in my head. I forgot how easy and quick this is to make. If you want to make it even easier, top it with store bought puff pastry.

Read more about this entry →

January 29, 2010 | Filed Under Chicken

5 Critiques

Hot & Spicy!

Can you believe it is 2010? When I was a kid, I thought we’d have flying cars and be wearing silver colored suits by 2010. I suppose we do have iPhones and cool things like that, although I’d like a flying car! We rang in the New Year with some new friends at their lovely home. These people knew how to throw a party! The food was to die for and they had more alcohol than should have been legal. But that’s not a bad thing. One of the hosts, Bodo (from Germany) made an amazing goulash soup that I’ve been thinking about since. Now that we are smack dab in a week long cold spell, I felt the need for something hot and spicy… and I also decided to make some soup too. HA! I keeeel me.

Read more about this entry →

January 5, 2010 | Filed Under Beef, Soup

8 Critiques

Making Whoopie

It’s that time of year again… birthday season! My husband Stephan and I have a very unusual coincidence when it comes to our birthdays. His is today (Christmas Eve) and mine is tomorrow (Christmas Day.) What are the odds? It is honestly not fun to have your birthday on or close to Christmas. You get combo presents… you get birthday presents wrapped in paper with Santas on it. Lastly, your birthday is overshadowed by someone else’s birthday. :P However, I do like that we get to celebrate together. This year I bought Stephan a really big expensive present and made it a……. combo. Yes, it is a faux pas, but Bose makes really expensive man toys! Sorry honey! Actually, we both received the best present ever this year, a wedding we photographed this summer was just published in InStyle Weddings!!!

Instead of making a traditional cake, I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Filling. Our photography studio has been very busy this month with last minute photo shoots and holiday cards and there just wasn’t the time to make a real birthday cake. It’s OK, though. Stephan really doesn’t like traditional birthday cake. I only made them in the past because it seemed like the right thing to do. So this year, I not only combined his birthday and Christmas present, but I combined his birthday cake and a Christmas cookie. Yeah, I know… not cool. I’m definitely not winning the wife of the year award! Thankfully, the whoopie pies are really yummy and made up for the lack of birthday-ness!
Read more about this entry →

December 24, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

5 Critiques

Miso Hungry

I’m sure most of my loyal blog followers thought I fell off of the earth… Well, I didn’t! I’ve just been insanely busy the past month. First, Stephan’s parents were here visiting from Germany for three weeks. Then we sent them on a cruise for my father in law’s 60th birthday. We figured they would want company on the cruise so we went with them… :P Lastly, we booked a commercial shoot at Atlantis in the Bahamas… we had to be there five days… it was just awful. By awful, I mean awesome! If you haven’t been to Atlantis, add it to your list of must see places! During the shoot, we were lucky to find the time to have dinner at Nobu and Mesa Grill. I highly recommend both! Now we’re home and pretty much plan to be here for a while.

In keeping with our new health kick, Stephan and I joined a gym. Can you believe I’ve gone every day since I joined? The fact that I joined two days ago is a minor detail. lol! On a whim, we tried spinning for the first time yesterday. I don’t know how many spin enthusiasts there are out there, but what’s up with the butt pain afterward? I think I might need to order one of those embarrassing inflatable donuts to sit on! Yowsers! All jokes aside, I truly enjoyed spinning and definitely plan to continue with it.

Now on to the food… This is a very quick miso glazed salmon. It’s flavorful and oh so healthy! Next time I make this I want to grill the fish instead of broiling. I think it would be even better! Oh yeah, and those gorgeous salad greens…… I grew them!! :::patting self furiously on the back:::
Read more about this entry →

December 19, 2009 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip

3 Critiques

Your Daily Bread

I’ve noticed every time we return home from our annual visit to Germany, my husband is a little depressed. At first, I thought it was that he missed his family… then I thought it was the weather… Finally, I realized it was the bread. Of course, he does miss his family and he hates the heat in South Florida, but the bread is what causes his sadness upon each return. The bread in Germany is amazing. His parents go out each morning to a local bakery and bring home a few brochen (small bread rolls) for us to eat for breakfast. You could say this spoils us… especially when we get home and the bread is awful here. The only way to get really good bread here is to find a great European bakery close to where you live or make it yourself. I’ve given up on finding a great European Bakery. They don’t seem to exist in South Florida… :(

So to keep a happy hubby, I set out to make bread more often. I have tons of bread baking cookbooks, but most recipes call for a two or sometimes three day process. Well, that is a little difficult with my busy life. I came across this book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. Fabulous bread that takes you only 5 minutes to prepare? Rrrrrright. I thought it was a hoax… how can bread that is not kneaded be any good?!?!? Well… here’s the thing, IT IS GOOD! AND it really only takes 5 minutes of active time to bake fresh bread. I’m a believer, and we’ve been eating fresh bread more often (than we should! lol) I highly suggest everyone who likes bread to go out and buy this book… its totally worth it!

Healthy Eating Commences Now

I’ve set a goal. I know I’m never going to be back to my perfect size. Never gonna happen. But I’d like to get close to that size… or around the corner from it. Or just in the neighborhood. I’d like to lose 10 (really 15) pounds. I’ve been eating more fruits and vegetables, and trying to avoid the bad (or really, really good!) stuff. I’ve even been using my pool for laps every morning. We’ll see how long that lasts!

This salad is an attempt to recreate a lentil salad I had while on a friend’s sailboat recently. It was so good that I kept eating it. And eating it. And eating it. You get the point, right? The best part is that the salad was definitely healthy. All I remembered were lentils, caramelized onions and herbs. I’ve made something similar, but I’m pretty sure it’s totally different. Either way… its yummy and great for my new healthy eating regime!

Oatmeal, Cranberry and Raisin Cookie

Now that my vacations are 0ver, I’m putting my time back into the good old blog. I’ve missed the whole blogging experience in the past 6 months or so. Not only have I been slacking on my own blog, but I’ve also slacked when it comes to visiting my favorite blogs. I feel like I’ve been on a deserted island without the blogosphere. I’m definitely ready to remedy that! I’m now officially free from my day job and am working with my husband Stephan in our photography studio, Maloman Photographers. If anyone locally needs some amazing images, definitely check us out!

When I first started blogging back in 2007, I had the plan to make easy food that tasted good. This cookie recipe is just that. Simple. Quick. Tasty. What’s not to like?

EuroTrip 2009

We just got home from our annual trip to the Fatherland (Germany) to visit Stephan’s family. Its a really good thing to have in-laws who live in Europe… I’m a lucky gal! We always do a little side trip somewhere during our visits… Last year was Rome and this year was a East European road trip. We started our road trip in Frankfurt and drove to Prague, Vienna and Munich. As usual, our traveling consists of two things… eating traditional food and photo taking. Or as the Germans say… <insert German accent here> Photoshooting. Check out some AMAZING non-food images that Stephan took from our trip.

This is us in Prague, close to the Castle and the Famous Charles Bridge
Read more about this entry →

September 29, 2009 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip, Travel

9 Critiques

Looks can be deceiving

Hello from Deutschland!!! We’re currently in Frankfurt, Germany visiting Stephan’s family. The temperatures have been up in the high 90’s for weeks in South Florida, so this is perfect timing to leave for a few weeks! I haven’t been cooking since I got here as my mother in law is a fantastic cook, but this is a little something I made before I left for vacation. We’ll be off to Prague, Vienna and Munich next week and I plan on blogging the good eats we find along the way!

So… on to the tasty treat. Although this looks like a sweet treat, it is not. This cookie has one of my favorite savory ingredients… caramelized onion. There’s something magical that happens when you cook boring old onions in a little bit of butter. It turns into a sweet and caramel colored delicacy. You do have to be patient… very patient when caramelizing onion, though. Expect to spend the better part of an hour if you want perfectly caramelized onions. If you try to rush it, you’ll end up with a bitter tasting end result. Believe me… been there, done that!
Read more about this entry →

September 5, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery

17 Critiques

Stuffed Breasts

I’ve had Tyler Florence’s book, Tyler’s Ultimate for over a year. When I first bought the book at the Wine and Food Festival in South Beach last year, I was so excited to try some of the recipes. And then life got in the way, and I forgot. I was really in the mood for some cooking this past weekend and pulled out the book again. This is a fabulous book for simple but fabulously good recipes.

I made some minor changes to his recipes… I used turkey tenderloins because my grocery store had them all perfectly trimmed. I’m a sucker for convenience! I also used dried cranberries in place of dried apricots… To me, turkey and cranberries go together like cookies and milk or peanut butter and jelly! As I was eating this delicious dinner, I realized it was missing one thing… Just a little cranberry relish. I will DEFINITELY make this recipe again, but will add a bit of cranberry relish to the finished dish.

Read more about this entry →