Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

cooking

Time For Sea Otter Chefs?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

I read somewhere the average family rotates the same ten recipes for meals. That seems about eight more than I use on a regular basis. To increase my skills I’ve been watching a Mediterranean Cooking course. This class is taught by a Chef Instructor so I am way out of my league. Thought it would mostly involve cutting vegetables.

When I saw these rescued sea otters at the Oregon Zoo showing how to whip up a seafood buffet, I felt much more at home. Think I may use their shellfish opening techniques on the stuck lid on the spaghetti sauce jar. Get me a big rock! Or as we called them in the Army, a BFR.

Have a great weekend and Happy Quirky Friday!

Comfort Food Here I Come!

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Between the time change, sick cat, election day, my job and Veterans Day last week, by the time Saturday arrived I could have used a cattle prod and a six-pack of energy drinks to get out of bed. Luckily a new purchase arrived and I was feeling dangerous.

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Little Red bravely doing the water test. Such a trooper.

 

My mini pressure cooker. Two quart size. Nickname – Little Red. Since I’m trying to increase my cooking skills, I never would’ve attempted this piece of equipment but it’s small. Figured I might be able to handle it. Maybe.

First I had to go through the precautions and initiate a water safety test. Felt like I was back on drown-proofing duty in the Army. Thirty minutes later I hadn’t blown anything up or had leaking machine parts. Fabo!

Next on to real food. One of the many things that hooked me while watching this little gem on Home Shopping Network, HSN to us loyal fans, was being able to cook things quickly and keep the nutrients in without firing up the big oven.

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Even I can cut up potatoes. Love the skins for fiber and taste. How festive. 

 

Decided to go for mashed potatoes on my maiden voyage. Cut up my favorite red potatoes, skins and all. Put in water. Locked down the lid. Pushed the potato button. How easy is that? Waited. About ten minutes later it beeped at me. Perfect potatoes!

I smashed them with the egg salad maker since I didn’t have a potato masher; then added milk and butter. Next was pepper and done. Wonderful. Ate the leftovers most of the rainy week. Emboldened by my success, I promptly purchased a potato masher. Every girl should have one.

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After the mash and before the ingredients. Can you smell the starch?

 

Think next I’m going big time, moving up to frozen pork chops. Little Red will cook frozen foods, just have to add time from the list in the book. Think I can handle the math.

Figure the worst that happens is I have to wipe pork chops off the kitchen ceiling; but since I haven’t fixed the ceiling yet from the peeing furnace that got torn out, who cares?

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Mix up the pepper and done! Actually, I could carry the entire mini pan and eat out of it, but I chose to go with a plate. Bring on winter!  

 

Supposedly one can bake cakes, pasta and chicken wings in Little Red too. Seems I’ve hired a cook in the kitchen while I watch Football. Perfect.

Viva la Pressure Cooker! Viva la Comfort Food!

Got steam?

 

 

Can You Master Lazy Entertaining?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                 (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Easter is one of my favorite holidays since it’s an all bunnies all the time zone. This past Sunday I hosted the family holiday again but I entertained in full mosey mode. Its been a busy couple months with a surgery, an accident recovery and general chaos in the family.

So my plan was to air lift the vittles from one of our favorite restaurants. I ordered the ham and cheese quiche and the four different pieces of pie online from Shari’s Restaurant on Thursday. Picked them up at 10 a.m. on Saturday and put all in the frig. Since I also picked up lettuce, tomatoes, Hawaiian Sweet Rolls and two bouquets of flowers on Thursday night after work, fini!

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Bunny booty bag, name tag holder and chocolate eggs. Step 1.

 

Since the cooking was done except for heating up the quiche on Sunday morning, I decided to do some bunny table decorating. I always have to make bunny booty bags to go for all my guests; it’s the perfect excuse to buy more Easter candy. Found the name tag holders for the table, the pink tablecloth and the bunny candy dish.

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Add more bunny candy and flowers. Step 2.

 

My collection of rabbits from around the world sits right next to the dining room table, so adding the candy dish with Hershey’s Kisses and the chocolate candy covered eggs in the blue measuring bowl, almost perfect. I added two bouquets of flowers and all was set.

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Years of bunny collecting, hares everywhere!

 

Some folks might call this slacking, but after years of cooking and baking, sometimes a person just needs a break. In the past we’ve tried this for Mother’s Day and it worked out quite well. There’s nothing like zooming past the waiting  line of 10,000 people at The Olive Garden to get lasagna, bread sticks and salad to go. The whimpers from those in the line is always followed by someone saying “Why didn’t we do that?”

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Then right before guests arrive some gate crasher always shows up looking for his name tag on the table. Step 3. There are fewer chocolate eggs in the bowl in this picture. No idea how that happened. That’s my story ……..  

 

So after we had our meal, a nice chat and some folks took a little power nap, it was time to unbox the pie. We had one piece of everyone’s favorite, because you can’t buy a chocolate cream, peach, Marion berry, chocolate silk pie. Plus I sent home a piece of quiche for all to go with their bunny bags of chocolates.

Totally unexpected was a bunny booty haul I made with gifts from my sister and family. A mini bunny baking cake pan, chocolate bunny, chocolate carrots, bunny napkins, bunny marshmallow decorating kit and a bunny centerpiece. Bunnypalooza! Does life get much better than that? I think not.

Sometimes lazy really pays off. Viva la online food ordering! Plan ahead, Mother’s Day is coming….

 

Let’s All Flip Potato Cakes On Saturday!

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Tomorrow is Julia Child’s birthday. The woman who brought fun cooking to tv and an amazing French Cook Book to us all deserves our respect and imitation. You can watch many of her shows on YouTube, but I love this short clip  where she takes a normal kitchen muck-up and creates something new. Fearless in the kitchen she is!

We can all learn a lot from Julia. So tomorrow take a shot at being brave in the kitchen. Julia would want us to flip with the courage of our convictions. Have a great weekend and Happy Quirky Friday!

Got Chocolate Leftovers?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

The only thing I like more than leftover chocolate Easter cupcakes is Easter candy on sale! Since we always have candy snack packs for the “big kids” every Easter, I had to stock up ahead of time on treats. The bags were on sale two-for-one before the holiday, so I experimented and found some Hershey’s chocolate covered almonds.

Chocolate covered almonds and chocolate cupcakes; double-decker dessert! Yes, but of course I have pink china.
Chocolate covered almonds and chocolate cupcakes; double-decker dessert! But of course I have pink china.

Weekend before last when I was under the weather, it seemed the perfect time to taste test the new morsels. They were fabulous. Included some in the snack sacks and then shared them on the top shelf of the cupcake dessert display.

Added some of the Dove dark chocolate half eggs in the bunny bowl on the table and all the treats seemed to disappear throughout the meal.

Decided to check out the leftover Easter candy after work last night and the locusts had already hit the store; no Hershey’s chocolate covered almonds in sight. Sigh.

However, I did find some sugar-free dark chocolate covered almonds in the bulk candy section. It’s a miracle! They also have milk chocolate covered almonds too, so I must insist on testing those out.

I always travel with snacks so I must see if these new items are worthy to be added to the peanut M&M’s I always carry when I take a trip. One thing the military taught me, always pack snacks. It’s logistics!

Now all I need to do is put a reminder in my calendar to stock up on the Hershey’s chocolate covered almonds next Easter. Maybe a case. Buying in bulk is always a good idea when it comes to snacks. Got candy?