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By J.Ho, January 14, 2016 10:20 pm

Well, I’m back.  It’s been ten years since I launched this site and I’ve barely added much to it over the past five years.  I’ve been missing out on all the fun.  My friend Leigh has posted some interesting recipes and we’ll both be contributing a lot more in the new year.

I’m not sure what makes this dish Korean, but I’ve always known it as such.  There are several approaches to this dish, but this particular method is my wife’s favorite.  She’s the one pushing me to get more involved with this site and explore my creativity.  She doesn’t like my preferred way of doing this dish, so much for creativity.

I’ve made some great meals lately and looking forward to sharing them with everyone.  Namaste and Yankees suck!

• 1 pound ground beef (85/15)
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, grated
• salt & pepper
• 1 bunch green onions, diced
• white rice, steamed
• Sriracha sauce

Heat the olive and sesame oils in a large stir-fry pan.  Add the garlic and ginger and sauté for a couple minutes.  Add the ground beef, season with salt and pepper and cook through.  Once beef is browned add the soy sauce and brown sugar.  Stir over high heat until it is dissolved and completely combined.  Lower hear to medium and cook for another few minutes.

Spoon the mixture over steamed white rice (make sure to scoop up some of the juices too).  Drizzle with Sriracha sauce and top with diced green onions.  Enjoy!

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By BakedOuttaMyMind, March 3, 2014 1:18 pm

I am always on the lookout for new dishes to try out and/or tweak.  Enter the Peruvian Quinoa Stew.  I went out to dinner with a friend and I was just craving a nasty, crappy burger.  My friend, Craig, tries to be healthy whenever he can be (he trains at a Krav Maga gym and is a total beast;)), so he orders the PQS, a vegetarian dish.  It comes out, it looks great. I ask him how it is and his response is “meh…” I always find this answer to be a challenge to taste the food myself, so I dig in.  “Meh…” was an understatement.  The flavor was just so bland.  There was nothing there.  Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely edible (as i proved by eating my double bacon cheeseburger AND finishing his stew off), but it still left something to be desired.  I decided to make it a plan to reinvent the PQS. Plus, it gave me another chance to cook with quinoa.  I was still warming up to it back then.  I hadn’t really been sold on the idea of this little grain since you have to season the shit out of it to make it taste less like cardboard filler.  I have since grown to accept it as a necessity in my pantry and I really enjoy it in stews, soups, salads, and toasted in granola. Hopefully, if you haven’t had any luck with quinoa, this will change your mind! ENJOY!!

PERUVIAN QUINOA STEW
YIELDS 5-6 QUARTS OF STEW
INGREDIENTS:

1C Quinoa, uncooked
2C water
1 Sweet Onion, diced
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
3 Celery Ribs, sliced in 1/4in thick slices
2 Carrots, sliced in 1/4 in thick slices
1 Orange Bell Pepper, diced
1 Summer Squash, cubed
1 Zucchini, cubed
1-28oz can Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1/2C Fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
2C Kale, chopped
1C Sweet Kernel Corn
3tsp Cumin
1tsp Chili Powder
2tsp Coriander
1tsp Crushed Red Pepper flakes
1-48oz Chicken Stock
4C water
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

In a saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add quinoa and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook until almost all liquid is absorbed (about 12 mins). Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large stock pot or Dutch Oven (about 6-8 qts), saute onions, garlic, carrots, bell pepper, and celery in 2T of oil.  When onions start to appear clear and are tender to the touch, add tomatoes and their liquid, chicken stock, water, zucchini and summer squash.  Return to a simmer and cook until squash is fork tender, but still firm. Add Kale and corn.  Return to a simmer.

This is when you need to taste the stock and make sure the flavors are there.  Season accordingly, until a desired flavor is reached (You should be able to just taste the cumin and coriander and there should be a gentle after-heat from the crushed red pepper flakes).  Add the quinoa.  Continue to simmer until the quinoa has absorbed some of the liquid and has thickened the stock (about 10 mins). Serve hot or store in freezer. Mine just doesn’t seem to stay there very long 😉

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By J.Ho, December 22, 2013 6:42 pm

I haven’t been doing anything with this site for who knows how long.  Luckily my lovely friend Leigh from Beverly has been adding some recipes served up with her dazzling personality.

A lot has happened in my life over the past two years.  Some truly great and amazing things and some not.  I’ll be updating content in the near future while revamping the underlying infrastructure.

There still seems to be a lot of web traffic here.  Quite a bit from California and eastern Massachusetts.  Particularly the Mass north shore and an alarmingly large amount of visits from Hamilton!!! What’s that all about?

Stay tuned …

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By BakedOuttaMyMind, December 11, 2013 6:46 pm

This dish has become a staple in our family for Christmas morning breakfast.  It is just one of the best things and actually, the REAL reason I get excited for Christmas morning.  Yup.  I’m a fat kid.  I love me some custardy stuff.  It isn’t just for breakfast, either.  Essentially, it is a bread pudding.  Whatever you add to it (Or, in our case, whatever time of day you eat it), is really what determines its nature.  I’m actually going to make it for the restaurant as a dessert using a favorite holiday treat as an additive (I’ll post more on that when I cross that bridge…).  This serves about 4-6 normal people (3 in my house.  My bro-in-law and I are custard junkies), so you may want to double or triple the recipe if you plan on having seconds 😉 Picture will be posted at a later date, since I can’t seem to find it :/

CROISSANT PUDDING

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-large eggs
• 2/3C sugar
• 2C milk (preferably whole)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4-large croissants (preferably day old) torn into large pieces

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 300*.  Lightly butter shallow baking dish.  Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, milk and salt until combined.
• Add croissants, toss to coat and let sit to absorb liquid (about 10 mins).
• Pour mixture into baking dish and smooth with spatula.
• Bake until pudding has puffed up and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about 40-50 mins).  Cool at least 10 mins before serving.