KylePrime

It’s been forever since I posted some cooking stuff. Tonight I stepped away from the slow cooker and decided to pretend I know how to bake. I had some chicken in the freezer and got some fresh rosemary and a couple potatoes. My roommate is a bit of  a picky eater, so if he liked it, I consider it a win.

Ingredients:

• 2lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary (I used half of a large sprig)
• 1 tbsp italian seasoning (fresh is better, I am poor)
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (eyeballed, give or take [x] amount)
• 2 russet potatoes
• 1 handful of sea salt
• Baked potato fixings (butter, sour cream, chives, bacon pieces, cracked peppercorns)

1. Preheat the oven to 350f
2. Clean the potatoes, paint them with olive oil and roll them around in the sea salt
   
3. Toss the potatoes in the oven on a baking pan and set a timer for 30 minutes
4. Chop the rosemary up, combine it with the other italian seasonings and toss it in the remaining olive oil
   
5. Roll the chicken through the olive oil mix
6. Wait for the timer to go off and place the chicken on the pan with the potatoes
   
7. Set the timer for another 30 minutes
8. Depending on the size of your potatoes and chicken your cooking time might vary, but the chicken should be browning and the potatoes should have no resistance when you poke a fork at it. To be safe, cut the chicken at it’s thickest spot and make sure it is completely cooked through.
9. When everything is completely cooked, pull the baking pan out and let the chicken rest for about 5 minutes. You can start dressing up your baked potatoes immediately.

That’s it. It was about 80 minutes with prep and cooking time. The aroma of rosemary is still floating around the apartment 2 hours later. The only regret – we don’t have an air conditioner and the apartment was already pretty warm, so kicking the oven on at 350f wasn’t the greatest of ideas, but the taste was worth it.

Posted in Food
Tags: recipe

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the herb stuffed pork I got from Amazon Fresh this weekend, but when I woke up in the morning I decided to toss it in the slow cooker with some chicken broth and just let it do its own thing. When Mason and I ventured out to grab lunch we stopped by the grocery store to pick up sides for the dinner and it turned out fantastic.

Ingredients:

• 1.75lb Herb stuffed pork chop from Fischer Meats in Issaquah, WA. It was stuffed with rosemary and not sure what else
• 32 oz Chicken Broth
• 1 bunch Asparagus (18 or so medium sized stems)
• 2 teaspoons Olive Oil
• 1 or 2 stems rosemary
• 2 teaspoons Minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons crushed peppercorns
• 1 bag spinach
• 1 bottle balsamic vinaigrette
• 1 package Greek feta
• 1 basket cherry or grape tomatoes

1. Toss the pork chop and chicken broth in to the slow cooked and set it to low for 8 hours
2. If your chicken broth doesn’t cover the whole pork chop and your slow cooker lets out steam a lot like mine does, I suggest spooning some of the chicken broth over the pork chop about every hour or so to keep it all moist. 
3. When the 8 hours is nearly up preheat the oven to 400 f
4. Snap the ends off the asparagus and clean them. Toss them in a container and pour the olive oil on it. Toss in the rosemary petals, garlic, salt and crushed peppercorns on top. Then cover the container and shake it to make sure all the asparagus are covered somewhat equally. 
5. Put some foil on a baking pan and lay the asparagus out in a single layer and slap that in the oven for about 12 minutes (depending on how thick your asparagus is you might need 8 to 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on it every couple minutes after about 8 minutes).

Posted in CrockBlog, Food
Tags: CrockBlog, recipe

This is definitely not a healthy choice family meal. It’s probably a bazillion calories, but worth the cheesy goodness once in awhile. How unhealthy? Well, it’s based on Paula Dean’s Crock Pot Mac and Cheese. Anyone that has ever looked at Paula Dean recipes will know that low-calorie / low-carb is not really her trademark. That being said, you could modify her recipe some to decrease the calorie count – but that just didn’t sound like fun at all this Saturday. Let’s start with the ingredients. This is for a double batch to serve up about 8+ servings. I trust you can do the math to do a single batch:

• 1/2 gallon of spiced rum (Admiral Nelson or Captain Morgans are excellent choices)
• 1 liter of Diet Coke
• 4 cups of your favorite short cut pasta. I used sea shells – macaroni bores me, but it is traditional
• 8 tablespoons of butter (seriously Paula Dean?  8?  We’re going to have a heart attack)
• 5 cups shredded cheese. I used Tillamook Sharp Cheddar
• 4 eggs (Paula says 6 – I don’t see the need for that many. Eggs could be completely ommited)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cans (10.75 oz) condensed cheese soup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon cracked peppercorn
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon all spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha rooster sauce (cock sauce)

Posted in CrockBlog, Food
Tags: CrockBlog, recipe

Hello everyone! We’ve been eating a lot of Thai and Indian delivery curry dishes at the Pretty Kitty Palace (Prime’s house). So I decided to do a curry this weekend for Mason and I while the roommates are at Burning Man. I started it about an hour ago and the kitchen is slowly filling with a lovely aroma. I can’t wait to taste this tonight. For those that want to play at home, here is what I made (with mega picture uploads and music!)

Recommended listening: SkyCriesX – Destinations Mix 8/14/2005 [195mb] (More mixes found on SkyCriesX’s website)

Prime’s Beef Curry

• 2 lb Beef Boneless Chuck Roll (though any beef cut would probably be okay)
• 32 oz Beef Broth
• 1 sweet Walla Walla onion (any sweet onion is fine, I’m a fan of the local Walla Wallas though)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper corn
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 5-6 chopped red potatoes

No special instructions really. Pour some of the beef broth in the crock pot. Cut the beef in to bite sized (I’m lazy, so they are about two bites worth each) and toss it in. Cut the onion into slivers and toss it in. Toss all the herbs and spices in and pour about half of the beef broth in to partially combine the herbs and spices. Cut the potatoes in to bite size pieces and layer those on top of the beef. Pour the rest of the beef broth in and set the crock pot on low for 8 hours.

If you need pictures, I just happen to have some!  Lots actually!

Update Post Dinner: The dish didn’t turn out as curryific as i was hoping, but the beef fell apart and had a wonderful India spice type flavor that was pretty tasty. I mashed up the potatoes with a little butter and half and half which also had an allspice/cinnamon flavor infusion. I made some basic white rice to put the beef over and a side salad. All in all, it was pretty good, though I think it could have either used a bit more of a bite of hot spicy goodness or added yogurt and tomato paste to make it into more of a stew. Regardless, it was pretty darn good and Pretty Kitty Palace smells amazing still.

Posted in CrockBlog, Food
Tags: CrockBlog, recipe

I haven’t been cooking much in the crooker lately so I don’t have any new Prime recipes to share. I’ve mostly been trying to focus on salads and proteins and decreasing carbs (other than I drink beer, wine, and booze like a fish which basically undoes my dietary restrictions).  However, with summer here and camping and nature season in full swing I’m hoping to do some  BBQing and/or some dinner party (ish) things to spark some more life in to this blog.

Until then, live well, eat better, enjoy life.

Posted in Jibber Jabber
Tags: chatter

This Crock Pot (model SCRP500B) is definitely not top of the line crock potting. I was given this slow cooker for xmas and it has done me well so far. The reviews are not great for this model but I’ve managed to make it work. I do suggest using it primarily for very liquidy type dishes as it apparently cooks hotter than some other models and can dry out food or overcook pretty easily. If you plan on doing a lot of crock pot cooking I would suggest spending a bit more money and getting a higher quality unit. For being around $25 on sale during xmas time it really wasn’t too bad of a deal. Perfect for a first-time cooker.

5.0 Qt./4.7 L

Cleans pretty easily.

[link]

Posted in CrockBlog, Food
Tags: CrockBlog

Prime’s Indian Butter Chicken v1

4 chicken breasts (cut in bite size pieces)
1 red onion – Wedged
4 tbls butter
2 tsp curry
1 tsp Chili powder
2 tsp garam marsala
1 tsp crushed red peppers
1 tsp ground ginger
1 can (460ml) coconut milk
1 can (350ml) tomato puree
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 crushed cinnamon stick
1 whole squeezed lemon
1 cup plain yogurt

1. Add everything to the crock pot (in order as listed) other than yogurt.
2. Set on low for 8 hours (high for 4-5 would work too probably).
3. Add yogurt 15 minutes prior to serving. (See below, this is a good time to start cooking rice)
4. Cross fingers

I also made some rice for this dish:

1 can chicken broth (10-12oz)
1 can rice
1 can water
1 tbls butter
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp crushed peppercorn

1. Toss everything in to a pot
2. Bring it to a boil
3. Reduce heat to warm/simmer and put a lid on it
4. Wait 15 minutes – Don’t remove lid before then. (This is a good time to add the yogurt to the crock pot)
5. Remove from heat completely, stir rice and let sit for an additional 5 minutes
6. Nom nom nom

Suggestions for future versions of this dish:

• 1+ tbsp of chili oil to add some additional heat
• Serve with naan or other bread item as this dish is a bit on the stewy side.

Additionally, this dish filled the condo with a pleasant allspice/curry aroma that made the roommates salivate all day. It was kind of cruel – but totally worth it!

Posted in CrockBlog, Food
Tags: CrockBlog, recipe

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

– Charles Dickens

I really didn’t want to start my WordPress blog with a quote from some other author.  However, it is one of the more awesome quotes out there for starting a long story.  Mostly, I just needed content while I played with the layout.

Appreciate your patience while I build something out of this mess.

Posted in Beginnings
Tags: Beginnings, Dickens, WordPress