At Home with Kristi

Today my friend Mary and I visited the Wild Canid Center in Eureka, Missouri.  In addition to seeing some incredibly beautiful animals, I learned a lot too!

The land that the center is on belongs to Washington University and used to be small arms munition depot during World War II.  The Wild Canid Center was founded by Marlin Perkins. Many of you may remember Marlin Perkins as the host of Wild Kingdom.  My brother and I used to love this show when we were kids.

We also learned that all of the animals in the Wild Canid Center have been wild at one time and also are on the federal endangered species list.

The Wild Canid Center is a non-profit organization and 75cents of every dollar that the center gets comes from individuals through tour tickets, gift shop purchase, the adopt a wolf program and other donations.

Besides being a wonderful center for wild canid research and survival, the animals are simply phenomenal to see.

Tickets for the 1 hour walking tour are $8, reservations are required.

When you pull up to the address there is no big sign that says “Wild Canid Center”, you pull up to a gate and dial a number using a call box and someone tells you when someone will be there to let you in.

The tour guide, called a docent, eventually comes down and opens the gate and everyone scheduled for the tour gathers in the gatehouse, then gets back in their cars and drives a mile or so up the road when you park again.

You are then taken on a walking tour by the very knowlegable docent, who shows you the animals and explans about the center and the animals themselves.  Our docent was great, sprinkling in bits of local history and stories though the tour. In total you probably walk about a mile, over graveled areas, some of it uphill.  We saw 5 different species of canids in our tour and got pretty close to some of them.  It is a tour I’d highly recommend.  There are a few pictures here, you can see more here.

Don’t forget to visit Lone Elk Park and World Bird Sanctuary while you are out that way! World Eagle Day is March 21st and its FREE!  Check out some pics from past  World Eagle Days.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
• 1 cups skim milk
• 1 large banana, very ripe, mashed*
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp apple pie spice
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

* When bananas are going bad, instead of throwing them out put them in the freezer.  Don’t do anything to them, just straight in the freezer.  When you need bananas to make banana bread or banana pecan pancakes, just pop how many you need out of the freezer, let thaw on the counter for about 20 minutes, then slice down the skin and peel it off.  They will be mushy and ready for your recipe! Oh, they turn BLACK inside the freezer, that is okay!

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together until just combined.  There will be a few lumps in the batter, that’s okay!

1. Heat a pan or griddle and coat it with butter
2. Ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle into about 6″ circles                                                                                                                                                                        
3. Cook until the edges of the pancake look slightly dry and there are dryish bubbles on top of the pancake (like this).  Be careful not to have the pan too hot and not to overcook
4. Flip the pancakes and cook an additional minute or so
5. If you are working in batches, move the cooked pancakes to a sheet pan in a 200 degree oven to hold while you finish
6. Serve with maple syrup and bacon!

I have quiet a lot of costume jewelry, especially necklaces, that I wear to work.   I didn’t have a good place to put the jewelry , so it ended up here

on this lovely candle holder on my dresser.

The problems with the candle holder jewelry rack:

1. the necklaces get tangled together

2. you often have to remove more than one to get to the one you want

3.  I can’t see my pretty candle holder

So, after pondering different solutions here is what I came up with.

We have this LARGE armoire that is part of our bedroom set.

Said armoire has a curved front and inset panels in the doors.

So I went and got some command hooks

and placed rows of them inside the doors, like this

Where I then placed my necklaces!

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin (about a pound)
• 1/4 cup Lysanders pork rub (or seasoning of your choice)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp flour
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup water or stock
• 1 ounce chopped prosciutto
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp thyme

Directions

1. Cut the pork tenderloin into 1/2 inch thick slices (its best to slice it when is very cold)

2. Coat the pork medallions with the seasoning mix (its easiest to put the seasoning or rub in a zip top back and shake it!)

3. Sear the pork medallions on both sides. Don’t be shy, get a GOOD sear on there!

4.  Next, move the pork medallions to a casserole dish (oh, and preheat the oven to 375)

5. In the still hot pan, place the vegetable oil

6. Add in the flour and stir it around to make a roux

7. Once you have the roux made, add the wine and water (or stock)

8. Add the prosciutto and mix in the herbs and spices and let simmer for about 5 minutes

9. Pour the sauce over the pork medallions in the casserole dish and bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

10. Serve with rice

Printable Recipe

Cut 3/4 to 1 lb of chicken into small pieces

Place 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper in a ziplock bag, then place the chicken in the bag and shake to coat

Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large pot.  Once hot add the chicken and flour mix and stir occasionally until brown the chicken

Once the chicken has browned, add 1 cup of chicken broth

Cut one large russet potato into medium large chunks

Add the potatoes to the pot

Next add in about 2/3 of a package (about 5 oz)  of dried cheese tortellini

Add the tortellini to the pot along with 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp rosemary, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic  and salt to taste.

Simmer for at least an hour, the longer the better, I think it would also be good in a crock pot.

I served mine with some fresh baked bread.

This month’s issues of Cooking Light has a great article on the most common mistakes home cooks make.

You can find the article here http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/techniques/cooking-questions-tips-00400000064986/ as well as in the magazine.

My most common mistakes from the list?

#2, #3, #9 & #22

What are yours?

Here are two quick yet tasty, weeknight dinners, under 30 minutes each.

A co-worker and I had been talking about Swedish meatballs but I didn’t have all of the ingredients for that, so I made this instead.

Meatballs in Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

1. 1lb ground beef (lean)
2. 1/2 medium onion chopped
3. 1/4 cup egg substitute
4. 1/4 cup bread crumbs
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1/2 tsp black pepper
7. 1 tsp paprika
8. 1 tsp garlic powder
9. 1/2 tsp ground cumin
10. 1 can cream of mushroom soup
11. 1 cup chicken stock

Directions

Mix the first 9  ingredients together in a bowl

Tip: you can use whatever spices you want, I used what came handy that night.

Then either using a tablespoon or a small disher, make them into meatballs and put them in a pan sprayed with non-stick spray

Cook until they are browned all over (turning once or twice during the process to get a good crust all the way around), should take about 15 minutes.

Mix the mushroom soup and chicken broth together and pour over the meatballs

Simmer for about 10 minutes while you boil some egg noodles

Serve over egg noodles.

Pork Cube Steak

Ingredients

• 1/2 to 3/4 pound pork cube steak
• 2/3 cup milk or butter milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Marinate the pork in the milk or buttermilk overnight (I am not counting this time in the 30 minutes obviously)

Mix the flour and seasonings together on a plate

Dredge the cube steaks in the flour mixture and put them in a HOT pan

Turn once at about 7 or 8 minutes

Serve with mashed potatoes and some canned low fat pork gravy (I like the Heinz brand)

A few days ago Matthew asked me what we were having for dinner. “Chicken Picatta” I said.

“What’s that?”

“Chicken in white wine and lemon sauce”

Matthew gives me a skeptical look.

“It will be good, you’ll like it.”

“It doesn’t  sound very good” he said, looking kind of sad.

“Trust me, you’ll like it”

“Ok” he said, still looking sad.

So I…..

Mixed 1/3 of a cup of flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and  1/2 tsp garlic powder in a bowl

Pounded some chicken breasts out flat

Dredged the chicken in the flour mixture

Melted 1tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan

Put the chicken in the pan

Waited a few minutes and flipped it over

Waited until it was nice and golden and removed it to a plate

and proceeded to make the sauce

You are supposed to use “rinsed capers”.  For those of you who have never worked with capers, they are tiny, not easy to rinse. Here is how I did it.

I then added the capers, about 3 tbsp worth, to the juice of one lemon, 1/2 cup of white wine and 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

Now, I am going to deviate for a moment and tell you what I SHOULD have done, not what I DID.

Remember the pan you cooked your chicken in?  Look at all the yummy butter and chicken bits left in it.

Mmmmm….

Okay, stop drooling and take about a tablespoon (maybe two depending on how much oil/butter is left in the pan) and make a roux.  I can’ t show you this, because I didnt do it, and my sauce did not get thick so I had to add the flour in after and do many tiring things to get the lumps out.  So do as I say, not as I do.  Once you have the flour incorporated into the oil in a roux, add the liquids (and capers).

And you’ll get a sauce that looks much nicer than this one

Now I returned the chicken to the pan for a few minutes to heat back up and get all saucy!

Finally I plated it up with a bit of pasta with the sauce over it, some crusty bread that I toasted a bit and a Caesar salad.

Then we sat down to eat.

A few minutes later Matthew looked over at me and says ‘This is good.”

“I told you so” may have slipped out.  I am only human after all.

Get the pdf of this recipe

I met Matthew online in 1997, on a bulletin board system called ISCA.  I was in college in Cullowhee, North Carolina and he was living and working in St. Cloud, Minnesota; we were both 22 years old.  We talked online and on the phone every day for months.  On October 23, 1997 Matthew flew down to North Carolina and we met for the first time on my 23rd birthday.   A month or so later Matthew moved to St. Louis, Missouri to take a job.

Over the next year I flew up to St. Louis several times and Matthew came back down to North Carolina a few times and we talked for hours on the phone everyday.  I graduated college in May 1998 and moved back in with my mom for a few months while I decided what to do with my life.  I hadn’t been able to find a job in my field (technical writing at the time) and missed Matthew terribly.  I lived with my mom and worked as a receptionist while saving up my money.  After long debate we decided that I would move to St. Louis.

On October 24, 1998 I moved to St. Louis, Missouri.  I knew two people in St. Louis, Matthew and his friend Jeff.  I brought with me two suitcases and my computer and less than $1,00o in the bank.  I had no job, no car.   We lived in a one bedroom apartment in Rock Hill.  We fought like crazy, I was depressed and homesick and going a little crazy because I couldn’t find a job.  It took me until February of 1999 to get a job; once I started to get out of the house and make some new friends things got better.

In the fall of 99 we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in the same complex, and I bought Matthew’s old Chevy Lumina from him when he bought a new car.  The next few years were up’s and down’s but we were together through it all. Including, losing my grandmother, losing my job at the bank due to a merger, getting another job at an internet start-up company only to have it go belly up a few months later, months of unemployment, a horrible job I don’t like to talk about, another job and anther layoff, Matthew changing jobs a couple times and buying a house.

We bought our house in the west county area of St. Louis in September 2002 and I was laid off again in October 2002.  It took me until February 2003 to find another job, where I still work today, at Webster University.

We’ve traveled a long way together, Matthew and I;  physically and emotionally.  No matter what happens I know that he will be there beside me.  Sure we fight sometimes, and bicker quite a bit, but to me that just proves that we still care. I see my friends go through stormy relationships and breakups and am thankful those days are behind me.

I love Matthew more than words can possibly express.  He has stood by me through all of the insanity that I have thrown at him, he has been my rock through all of the bad times.  I am a better person because of his love.

A few months ago I discovered the amazing thing called no knead bread.  I was skeptical at first, but after trying it the first time I was hooked!  I’m pretty sure this is the original one I used, and then this one as well.  As I said, these recipes produce amazing bread, but it seems that I don’t have the ability to leave a recipe well enough alone.  One of the major changes I made is that I like a sweeter bread, so I add sugar and honey.  Here is MY version.

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour (I usually mix white and wheat half and half but use whatever you like, as long as its bread flour)
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup warm water

Throw all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Mix in the water. It will look like a mess!

Coat a large bowl or other container with oil and throw the ugly dough in it, turning to coat.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave out in a warmish (room temperature) place for 12-24 hours.  You will see it start to rise in a couple hours but leave it alone!

Once the allotted time has passed (you’ve slept and gone to work and come home probably), turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Turn the dough over on itself once or twice.  DO NOT KNEAD THE DOUGH!  All you are doing is bringing it together.

Now, you can either make one loaf using a dutch oven or cast iron skillet which will end up looking something like this

Or you can shape it and make loaves or rolls.  I was making baguettes this time, so I shaped it into two long logs.

Once its shaped you want to let it rest, covered with a tea towel  for about 30 minutes.  I didn’t leave this one rest long enough and I’ll show you in a minute what that does.

It will puff up a bit more as it rests.

Bake at 425-450 for approximately 2o minutes.  It does very well if you cover the pan in foil to hold in the steam, makes lighter, aerier bread.

Now, let me show you the difference  not letting it rest long enough and not covering it in foil makes.

Bread not rested well and not covered in foil

Well rested, “steamed” bread

See all the nice holes!  That’s good bread!  (and yes, that one is mine too, just a different batch from awhile back)

I made some yummy french bread pizza from my bread for dinner tonight!

Get the pdf of this recipe