Oven Adventures

For those of you who don't read my other blog, we recently bought a combination microwave/convection oven to replace the vent hood over our gas range.

We bought it last Saturday, Spouse Guy installed in Sunday, and since then I've had very little time to play with it, but here's what I know about it so far.

The microwave is just as you'd expect. However, the popcorn sensor button really works, which is something that never quite worked well on the other microwaves I've had.

The convection oven will take a little getting used to. For one thing, the instruction manual was contradictory about whether or not you can use traditional metal pans when using the convection only feature. I've been especially careful about using microwave safe dishes, and I've been slightly dissatisfied with the way things have browned (or not) on the bottom. A phone call to Maytag this morning cleared that up; when using the convection-only setting, metal pans may be used.

Here's my first attempt at baking something. It's obviously a pizza, but I don't think it's a good test example. For one thing, I used a crust mix rather than mixing up my own (I almost never do that, but I was busy yesterday) and I accidentally bought fat-free mozzarella cheese and had it open before I realized my mistake. That stuff doesn't melt! I baked the pizza on a stone, which I often do, and used the convection setting. The bottom didn't brown well. I'm not going to make a judgment call on this, because I'd like to try again, with my own crust, cheese that will melt and a metal pan.



This morning I tried baking muffins. This was before the phone call to Maytag, so erring on the side of caution, I used my new silicone muffin pan. This first batch, filled with Peach-Mango fruit spread, went straight into the pan (no greasing or spraying necessary) and was baked on the convection setting. They took 15 minutes to bake and were nicely brown on top, but a little less so on bottom.



For the second batch, filled with strawberry preserves, I used cupcake papers simply so that I could get them ready while the first batch baked. I put the filled papers into the same silicone pan. This time I used the combination microwave/convection setting and they took just 9 minutes to get done, but as you can see, they barely browned at all, didn't rise as well, and they stuck to the papers (which I probably should have sprayed with non-stick spray).



Obviously, the first batch is more visually appealing. Both batches tasted great, but the second batch was actually just a little more moist and tender. Really, the taste/texture difference wasn't enough to be concerned about.



I think if I were making cupcakes or a cake that was going to be frosted, I would use the quicker combination-cooking setting. Otherwise, I'd use convection for the sake of appearance.



Next time I'll try baking in a metal pan, or maybe roasting or broiling meat. I'll let you know how those turn out, too.

Meanwhile, here's the muffin recipe. It came from Tawra Kellam's book "Not Just Beans", which is a really great cookbook for basic, frugal recipes.


Basic Muffins

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Mix ingredients together; batter will be lumpy. Spoon into greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 425° for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12-15 muffins.

Jam Muffins

Fill greased muffin cups 1/4 full. Place 1 teaspoon jam on top of batter and fill with more batter until muffin cup is 2/3 full. Bake as above.

Go Ahead. Search My Kitchen.

I just added a neat little search bar to the blog at the top of my sidebar. Now you can search my recipes by ingredient or any other keyword you like. Or you can go beyond my blog to other blogs or the entire Interwebs.

Have fun!

Preparing For A Busy Week

Being a stay-at-home wife, I'm used to the luxury (at least, I consider it a luxury) of being able to start supper early in the afternoon. It's been quite a while since I've had to come home late in the afternoon and try to put a meal together in a hurry.

This week, I have appointments to keep throughout the day Monday, some important work to do here at home on Tuesday, then Wednesday through Friday, I'll be caring for a friend's mother all day. (She recently had shoulder surgery and needs someone to stay with her in her home until family members can get there after work.) So, it will be an unusually busy week for me.

I have some free time today, so I'm going to take advantage of it by doing a lot of prep work in the kitchen to plan for the week ahead. That way, on those three busiest days at the end of the week, I'll have lots of yummy leftovers that I can just heat up quickly for us to eat.

Here is our menu for this week:

Today (and again on Wednesday): Marinated Broiled Flank Steak, Twice-Baked Cheddar Potatoes, Braised Cabbage, Green Salad.

Monday (and again on Thursday): Taco Salads in Tortilla Bowls, Drunken Pinto Beans

Tuesday (and again on Friday): Cheese Ravioli Lasagna, Garlic Toast, Summer Squash Veggie Medley, Green Salad.

Saturday: Ham and Pepperoni Panini, Roasted Corn and Crab Soup (I had originally planned for a creamy potato soup, but decided to try Violet's soup instead!)


To get a jump start on the week, this morning I have already:

- put the steak in the marinade and cooked the cabbage for today's meal;
- cooked and seasoned the ground beef, shredded the lettuce, sliced the black olives and made the salsa for the taco salad meal;
- cooked the Italian sausage and cut up the zucchini, yellow squash, onions and carrots for the lasagna meal. I have pasta sauce that I made last week in the freezer.

With these things done already, the meals will go together very quickly each evening. By Saturday, things will have slowed down again and I'll have plenty of time to make the soup and grill the sandwiches that are on the menu.

And if everything goes well, I might even have time to make a cake of some kind today for an early Valentine's Day treat.

Failure Is Always An Option

I was all set to do a post today featuring some Christmas treats. I found a nice-looking fudge recipe on another blog (that the blogger had found somewhere else herself), but when I tried to make it, it seized up terribly and was hard as a rock before I could even pour it into the pan.

I followed the directions without alteration, but I must have cooked the sugar and evaporated milk too long or at too high a temperature. I don't own a candy thermometer because I don't make candy often, and I don't make candy often because I don't own a candy thermometer. I think I'll just go back to my Foolproof Fudge recipe. It's specially designed for non-confectioners like me.

So, instead of fudge, you get some hints and tips I've used in the recipes I've posted recently. I find these ideas helpful; maybe you will, too. And if you know of better ways to do the same things, by all means, share!

1) Use non-stick pan spray any chance you get. It will make your life easier. I spray the inside of the crockpot before using it each time and it makes cleanup much easier. I spray pie pans, and roasting pans. I use parchment paper for baking cookies and cakes, but if I expect them to be especially sticky after they're baked, I spray the parchment paper, too. I have one of these, which I fill with extra light olive oil. You can use any oil you like in it. Extra light olive oil doesn't have the strong olive taste that extra virgin olive oil has, so it's ideal for cake and cookie pans. I also give a skillet a quick spray for frying eggs or sauteing vegetables.

2) Keep your meat a-movin'! That might not sound like a cooking tip, but stay with me here. When you are browning ground beef, pork, sausage, etc. for tacos, chili, pizza or any other dish where you want a finer meat texture, keep the meat in motion as you brown it. The more you stir, turn and flip it, the smaller those pieces will be.

3) If you're pressed for time, use the minced garlic that comes in a jar. It's not quite as tasty as mincing a fresh clove, but far superior to trying to substitute garlic powder.

4) Have multiple sets of measuring spoons and cups. If you cook a lot, you don't want to stop to wash and dry these utensils.

5) If you use a lot of shredded cheese, like we do, go ahead and buy it already shredded. It used to be that you had to pay for that convenience, but lately most basic cheeses (like Cheddar, Mozzarella and Monterey Jack) are the same price whether shredded or in a block.

6) If you have time, consider making up big batches of spaghetti sauce and freezing it in 2-3 cup amounts in zip-top bags (a typical large jar of sauce at the store is just less than 3 cups). If you lay them flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, you can later stand them on end in a freezer basket and they won't take up much room. If you don't have time or freezer space to make your own sauce, try some of the store brand sauces. I find them to be just as good as the name brands.

7) Consider buying bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves instead of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They are considerably less expensive nearly all the time, and it's easy to fillet the breast yourself (here's one way). The bones will still have a lot of meat left on them; wrap them up and freeze them, then boil them later, remove the bits of meat from the bones, and use the broth and meat for soup.

8) Use a salad spinner to spin the water out of thawed frozen spinach. Pressing water out of spinach is a job most cooks hate to do, but the spinner makes it a much easier and cleaner job.

9) Store onions in the refrigerator to help reduce eye irritation when cutting them. I love onions, but I'm extremely sensitive to their fumes and often end up crying like a baby. That's not safe when you're trying to keep cutting. Keeping the onions chilled has helped in my case, but I'm more than curious if any of you know of any other ways to reduce eye irritation.

10) I like to cook with alcohol. If you don't keep wine or liquor on hand or don't want to use it in your cooking, you can always substitute another liquid. Try apple juice, water, chicken broth or even the liquids from canned vegetables instead.