A Fresh Start

Jon and I recently started Weight Watchers, and so far, it is going really well.  What does this mean for our blog?  You will notice that our portions are slightly smaller, we eat more veggies (0 points), and less carbs (many points).  We will also include the point count for those of you who are also on Weight Watchers or just want to have a better idea of the nutritional value of our food.  Just to put things in perspective, I get 26 points each day, while Jon gets 41.  So far, we've LOVED what we've been eating and we've been under our point limit every day.  The best part?  I don't have to give up chocolate!


Chicken Sauté with Caramelized Ginger Sauce
Cooking Light
8 Points


Key Ingredients: Chicken, ginger, bok choy, soy sauce, and garlic chili paste

  When I first read this recipe, the ingredients for the chicken sauce sounded a lot like the one for Spicy Stir-fried Sesame Chicken with Green Beans and Shiitake Mushrooms.  Since this one is much healthier, I suggested we try it.  It was really different, but just as delicious.  The meat was so juicy and full of flavor.  Jon and I also realized how much we both love bok choy.  We'll definitely be making this dish again and bok choy more often.


Linguine with Genoese Pesto
The Silver Spoon
13 Points

Key Inregients: Linguine, basil, olive oil, romano cheese, paramesean cheese, garlic, and green beans

We changed this recipe quite a bit.  It actually calls for potatoes, but we cut that out altogether.  We also doubled the amount of green beans.  The result?  We liked it just as much as the original recipe!  Potatoes are great, don't get me wrong.  But adding that would increase the number of points in this dish by 4.  And the pasta satisfies our cravings for starch.

Sautéed Tuna and Green Onions Stalks on Romaine

Cooking Light
9 Points

Key Ingredients: Tuna, baby romaine, green onions, orange juice, chili garlic sauce, and sesame oil 

We actually made this dish before we started our new diet (or rather, our new"way of life").  This is a very fresh and fulfilling salad.  We both love tuna.  But the best part of this dish is definitely the dressing.  It has a great asian flavor.  I have a feeling we'll be making this a lot in the future.

Azula Wants my Brownies



Key Ingredients: Azula holding my Fiber One Chocolate Fudge Brownies



Risotto 1

First of all, we are very sorry for only posting once in April.  Last month, I was out of town for 14 days and Jon was out for 4.  Well, what about the other 12 days of the month?!  Have no fear, we will update you quickly on a few delicious recipes that we cooked while we were MIA (and we also have another post ready and waiting for tomorrow, so don't go away!)

For this post, we are going to talk about risotto!  We named this one Risotto 1 because we cook risotto so often that we know this is only the first of many.

Risotto is a very special dish to us because it was after cooking risotto with my family that Jon was inspired to begin his cooking frenzy.  And look how far we've come!

Risotto with Smoked Bacon and Tomato

Potatoe & Rice, by Barker, Mansfield, and Ingram

Key Ingredients: Bacon, sundried tomatoes, onions, chives, and parsley

This is a dish that I often request for my birthday dinner.  It is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in my life.  I'd have it all the time it were just a bit healthier.  Before I describe the dish in detail, I want to mention that the title is misleading because this dish doesn't call for fresh tomatoes, but for sundried tomatoes (double yum).  You cook the bacon in the oil of the sundried tomatoes, which makes the whole house smell delicious.  Then there is the typical risotto protocal (heat chicken stock in one pot, cook onions, then rice in the other and begin adding the stock slowly to the rice/onions).  This is such a great dish that I'm salvating just thinking about.  Jon also made this for his family Christmas day.  I wasn't there, so I'm mad at him now for telling me that (I had forgotten, I guess).

Risotto with Bacon, Baby Zucchini, and Bell Peppers

Potatoe & Rice, by Barker, Mansfield, and Ingram



Key Ingredients: Bacon, zucchini, wild mushrooms, bell peppersgarlic, cream, and dry sherry



This is not my favorite risotto.  Although it has cream and is, therefore, fattier than the other risottos listed here, it isn't as rich or fulfilling.  But it's still quite good.  How could you ever go wrong with bacon?  Funny fact: Jon calls Azula "baby zucchini."  Once when I said that it was time to add the baby zucchini to the pot, he yelped and exclaimed he'd never cook our baby zucchini!  It was a good laugh.

Cream of Tomato Risotto

The New Basics, by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins



Key Ingredients: Canned tomatoes, onions, and rosemary



This is the first risotto I ever ate when I was a child.  My family and I instantly fell in love with this classic Italian dish, and this easy recipe has been a staple of my life ever since.  This is definitely the easiest risotto we've ever made.  I know it's crazy, but Jon and I don't even own The New Basics cookbook, we look it up online (although at this point, we have it memorized).  For more information about Google Books and intellectual property, please visit my brother's blog. 

A Gift from Uncle Cosmo

Key Ingredients: Azula in a Zabar's bag

Key Ingredients: Cosmo in a plastic bag

Cosmo sent Azula a Zabar's bag from New York.  She loves it.  Cosmo also sent a picture of himself in a bag to show her how it's done.

Pizza, Suzy, Zuzy

I'm very depressed because we just dropped Susan off at the airport. 

Susan is unlike anyone else I've ever met.  She is incredibly kind, intelligent, and funny.  She brightens up my life.  I am so lucky to have her as a friend.  I love her dearly and miss her terribly already.  I can't wait to see her again in May!

As always, we had a wonderful time together.  It's always so great to just hang out and catch up.  We watched Singing in the Rain and two Marx Brothers movies.  We had a great time laughing and watching YouTube videos.  We also had a great time cooking pizza!

The funniest part of this evening was when we realized that we prepared enough dough to make 6-8 pizzas!  So, we went back to the grocery store and got more ingredients.  We ended up making three different kinds of pizza instead of just one and froze the rest of the dough.



Key Ingredients: Bread flour, semolina flour, yeast, super fine sugar, salt, water, and olive oil 


The trickiest part to making the pizza was definitely making the dough.  We were supposed to make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water/olive oil mixture.  This worked well until we started moving the flour into the well and the walls broke.  Water and olive oil started spilling everywhere, including on my pants!  However, we were able to stop it and catch enough of the liquid.  Next time, I think we'll make a larger well and add the liquid in two parts.

Margarita Pizza

Also known as the classic pizza.  We decided to use fresh tomatoes instead of tomato sauce because my mother warned that pizzas often turn out soggy if your oven isn't hot enough.  It turns out ours is.  It successfully pre-heated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit!



Tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil


Goat Cheese and Apple Pizza

So delicious.  Who doesn't love goat cheese?  Susan and Jon agreed that this was in their top 2 favorites.  I personally found it to be a little dry.  Maybe next time I'll add a little bit more oil.  I know it sounds weird, but I also think I might want to have mine with a bit of honey.

Key Ingredients: Goat cheese, apples, walnuts, and arugula

Mushroom and Raclette Pizza

This was my favorite of the three.  We wanted to get fontina, but oddly enough, Fromagination (our local cheese shop) doesn't sell it.  This is odd because they sell really obscure cheeses.  The storekeepers recommended using raclette instead.  Susan reassured me and Jon that this was a great melting cheese.  I'm glad we listened to her!  Yes, Yum!

Key Ingredients: Tomatoes, raclette cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and sage

It was wonderful to see Susan and Azula reunited.  Zuzu was incredibly affectionate with Suzy, just like she was when we first met her at the Dane County Humane Society five months ago.

Azula had a great weekend.  She saw Susan and got a new box to play in!



Azula in a pizza stone box

March Madness

We apologize for being MIA for a few days.  But have no fear, you won't miss out on any of the delicious meals we've made recently.  Also, please excuse the inconsistency of our posts.  We are still trying to figure out what format we like best.  Please feel free to give us your feedback too!

Cavatappi with Asparagus, Arugula, Walnuts, and Blue Cheese
(The New Best Recipe)


Key Ingredients: Strozzapareti, roquefort, asparagus, walnuts, and baby arugula

This pasta was delicious.  Instead of using cavatappi like the recipe calls for, we used strozzapareti.  The pasta was incredibly fresh.  And the roquefort mealted instantly, spreading the blue cheesy flavor throughout the whole dish.  Jon says this is the best pasta he's ever had.  And I have to say, it's up there for me too!

Pan-fried Catfish
(The New Best Recipe)

Key Ingredients: Catfish, mayo, sour cream, chipotle peppers, and lime



This dish was not as healthy as we thought it would be before we started making.  It was pretty much deep-friend (not fantastic given that we are on a diet).  We also burned the first filet (not pictured).  However, Jon, being the gentleman he is (and also liking burnt food more than I do) had that piece and saved me this one.  All in all, this dish was good.  The inside was juicy and the outside was crispy and crunchy.  Nevertheless, I think we'll be trying a few other catfish dishes before coming back to this one.

Roasted Rack of Lamb with Orange Pan Sauce and Middle Eastern Spices
(The New Best Recipe)

Key Ingredients: Lamb, orange, chicken broath, shallots, cumin, cardamum, cayanne pepper, and cinnamon

My favorite part of this dish was definitely the sauce.  Although Jon wished it had been thicker, I was in heaven.  Next time we are going to make a red wine rosemary sauce.  This was the first time Jon ever made a rack of lamb.  Way to go!  It was also the first time he ever cut himself on a chef's knife.  I told him months ago that it happens to every great chef.  Although it bled a lot at first, there definitely was no need to go to the ED (Emergency Department).  The way he cut himself was pretty stupid.  But it wasn't nearly as stupid as when I cut myself on a knife today when we were in a kitchen supply store off of Capitol Square (I ran my figure along it because I didn't think it looked very sharp...as my father would say, "What a maroon!").

Coming up Next on The Kitten's Kitchen...

We bought a pizza stone today!

And even more exciting...Susan is visiting this weekend!  We are uber excited.  Did you know that the last time she visited us in Madison we adopted Azula? 

Key Ingredients: Azula and milk



Pan-Fried Fresh Salmon Cakes

We've been digging the seafood lately.  But, we felt like we were making the same things all the time.  We decided to mix life up by making salmon cakes.  Boy, were these delicious! 

They were best salmon cakes either of us have ever had.  Restaurant quality, really! 
The panko bread crumbs made the cakes perfectly crispy.  But the inside was still moist.  The cakes weren't too oily, too salty, or too rich.  We both also loved the lemon  in the dipping sauce.

Yet again, The New Best Recipe has blown us away.  So glad we didn't halve this recipe (Yay for leftovers!).

Step 1: Prepare Ingredients

Key Ingredients: Salmon, mayonnaise, lemon juice, onions, chopped bread, and parsley

Step 2: Mix Ingredients, Roll into Cakes, and Place in Freezer for 15 min.



Step 3: Bread Salmon Cakes

Key Ingredients: Flour, eggs, and Japanese panko bread crumbs

 

Step 4: Serve with Sweet Corn, Brussel Sprouts, and Dipping Sauce

Key Ingredients: Mayonnaise, lemon juice, parsley, thyme, and scallions

Step 5: Enjoy

Key Ingredients: Azula licking her lips

Chickens Around the World

Coq au Vin
The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)

We cooked this during the State of the Union Address, so there was excitement all around us.  Jon assembles his own giant teabag (or as the French say, a Boquet Garni) to create this dish.  The teabag includes thyme, parsley, and bay leaves.  As is the case with tea, you don't eat the bag, but enjoy the juices which have sopped up all of the important flavors.  Jon also wanted me to write something about a beurre manie to show off our Frenchiness.

Key Ingredients: Chicken, bacon, red wine, pearl onions, white mushrooms, carrots, onions, and shallots

Chicken Marsala
The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)

The sweet marsala makes this dish, for lack of a better word, sweet.  We love the pancetta.  We'd make it more often if it were healthier.  We plan on adding less butter than is called for next time.  We'll keep you posted on the results.

Key Ingredients: Chicken, sweet marsala wine, pancetta, and white mushrooms

Chicken Provencal
The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)

We make this dish on a regular basis because it is the healthiest of all three here.  The herbs, anchovies, olives, and tomato paste make the sauce really flavorful.  We actually cooked this dish yesterday.  I was too lazy to pick up the nicoise olives, so we had it with pasta instead (a strange substition, I know).  It actually made for a very nice tomato sauce.  I think I'm going to pressure Jon into making it this way more often.  Unlike he and his lovely cardiologist father, I adore carbs.

Key Ingredients: Chicken, nicoise olives, tomato paste, anchovy, and herbs

Caternet Sauvignon

The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)

Key Ingredients: Azula in a wine bag

Welcome to The Kitten's Kitchen

Here are some dishes that we've made in the past that we love.

Trout and Prosciutto Risotto Rolls

Potato and Rice (Barker, Mansfield & Ingram)

This is one of our favorite risotto recipes.  And if you know us, then you know we love risotto.  This delicious dish looks like it requires much more effort than it really does, which is awesome when you're trying to impress new friends (Jeff and Willa).  First, you cook some shrimp.  Next, you cook a standard risotto base with porcini mushrooms.  Then, you wrap a strip of prosciutto around a piece of trout and some of the risotto and bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes with the rest of the risotto.  The fish is perfectly cooked.  This was the first dish that included fish that we've ever cooked before.

Key Ingredients: Trout, prosciutto, shrimp, and porcini mushrooms

Pan-Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks with Ginger-Soy Sauce with Scallions

The New Best Recipe  (Cook's Illustrated)

This tuna was simple, but very good.  This is a great time to mention that The New Best Recipe is currently our favorite cookbook (thanks James!).  Jon loves how precise the instructions are (down to 15 second intervals, just like my time-logging...erlaack).  The recipes are tested and perfected.  The authors even explain how they came up with these recipes (for example, they took their favorite three recipes and created one that used bits and pieces of each).  The sauce was sweet and tangy.  I especially enjoyed mixing it with some wasabi sauce that we purchased at Capitol Center (henceforth, Cap Center).

Key Ingredients: Tuna, asparagus, and udon

Spicy Stir-Fried Sesame Chicken with Green Beans and Shiitake Mushrooms

The New Best Recipe  (Cook's Illustrated)

We eat this dish about every other week.  I'll never order in Chinese food again so long as I'm with Jon.  This dish is spectacular.  So full of flavor.  The chicken is breaded (less so than General Tso' chicken, but similar idea) in a way that keeps the chicken juicy and delicous.  I love Jon and I love chicken!  So does Azula (I think she was getting tired of the tuna).

Key Ingredients: Chicken, shiitake mushrooms, green beans, and white rice

White Chocolate Fur Ball with Chocolate Sauce and a Side of Cuteness

The Kitten's Kitchen (Azula Grimmelmann-Lima)

This is by far our favorite dessert because it is the sweetest of them all.  Yum yum!

Key Ingredients: Azula on a plate