Michelle vs. Cooking - Round 1

I hated cooking when I was younger, but hate is such a strong word. Maybe I just didn't care enough to learn! Now as I get older and starting my own family the desire to learn how to cook and make delicious meals for my family and friends is really important to me.  I come from a family of amazing cooks, my Nonna's, my mom and my mother in law. It's hard to learn how to cook when the instructions are "a squeeze of this", "a pinch of that or just "you'll know how much to add'. This  inspiration came when I watched the movie Julie & Julia. Where Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book. OK so I'm not doing that...but instead I'll make some of mine and my hubby's favorite meals from our family recipes and blog about the process and outcome. Obviously I'm going to tweak the recipes a bit for two reasons.
1. Just for fun and a bit different taste
2. Calorie count!
So here was my first challenge! Stuffed Peppers. My mom, Nonna as well as my mother in law all make amazing stuffed peppers. Very different in taste from the Russians to the Italians but basically the same core ingredients.  For both Danny and I these are a total comfort food. This is what they SHOULD look like when I'm done! YUMMMY!

Step 1, I started by calling my mother and asking her how she makes hers. As I listened to her tell me exactly what to do I was scribbling notes on a pad of paper furiously. Once I had all my ingredients and prepped my kitchen I was ready to tackle this head on! 

I've got my meat, my rice (that has been cooked and is cooling) an onion and bread. Ok key element I've learnt is how important prepping your ingredients is when cooking. Otherwise things overcook, my timing is all off and I tend to forget things! Plus I've found out I'm a little OCD when it comes to cooking... I like to cook and clean as I go.. I can't work in a dirty kitchen! If I could have a small dish/bowl for every ingredient I would.

Moving On! Next I was cleaning and cutting the peppers, getting them ready and in the top of one of the pepper, I see this! At first a little grossed out but then realised it's a pepper growing in a pepper! Cool! After doing some research about how this happens apparently there is very very little on how or why it happens. I did find an article that said the following: "That little pepper inside a bigger pepper is called an “internal proliferation.” Its form can vary from irregular and contorted to a near-perfect but sterile fruit. A pepper growing inside a pepper is a type of parthenocarpy, which is the formation of fruits without fertilization or the formation of seeds. No one is sure what causes them, but temperature and nutrient levels have been ruled out. Plant breeders, who consider this anomaly undesirable, keep an eye out for it when selecting for new cultivars, because the trait is inheritable."
huh!?
Annnnnyways moving on... next I cooked the mushrooms, just a basic saute with seasoning. Now normally in a stuffed pepper you would not find mushrooms but this is my version, which will have them. The best part of the whole dish is the sauce.. it comes together with a great sauce. Lucky for me I still had a jar of mom's tomato sauce!

saute the mushrooms

mmmm sauce!

The hardest part for me when it comes to cooking is knowing what to add in terms of herbs and spice? I know what I like and don't like, I just have no idea what goes well and with what? My mother in law goes nuts on the herbs and spice where as my mom adds a little of this and a little of that, depends on what she has in the house. So what did I do, I went with a little of both! I added oregano, salt, pepper, a few chili peppers and a little bit of butter.. oh and parmigiano cheese, that's it! As my favorite chef Gordon Ramsey says, taste everything!

Next... where's the beef?
I sauteed the beef which I was told to cook it how I would any ground beef. So I added onions, garlic and pepper. sauteed that up and set it aside to cool a little. Looking good so far!

At this point everything is cooling and waiting to be combined and stuffed! This is the part I dread the most. Why you ask? this is the part that no one can teach you, this is the part where both mothers and Nonna's said you mix everything together, add one egg and then add breadcrumbs, moistened bread and Parmesan cheese until you get a proper consistency. Well that's the trick, how much do you add to get proper consistency!

well here goes nothing!

 I mixed all my ingredients together and remember from eating a lot of stuffed peppers what the consistency should look like, key word SHOULD. Mine looked alright, I think the rice was a little too overcooked but it all smelled fantastic!
The next step was to literally stuff the peppers... I had only 3 peppers and waaaay too much filing so i jammed those suckers as full as i could. mom said i should put them in a corning ware and cook them at 350 for an hour. Here is what they looked like before they hit the oven.

Looking good so far! I forgot to add cheese to the top but no worries there is already some inside and of course you can always add it after. Danny says I'm a bit of a cheese addict but WHATEVER! So, 1 hour later I anxiously pulled the peppers out of oven and VOILA! 

So? you ask how did they come out? They looked and smelt delicious! I did it! They were really good. Even the hubby was thoroughly impressed for my first go round. And no one got sick off them!! GREAT SUCCESS!

Here are some takeaways or tweaks I learnt for the next time...
1. Don't stuff them so full!
2. Rice was a little overcooked
3. The peppers were really not as soft as we would have liked them... so either blanche them before hand or leave the whole thing in longer!
4. you don't need the moistened bread like mom recommended.
5. add a bit more spice or herbs even!

I have to admit when something works out and it tastes good it really gives me a sense that I could be as great a chef as the women in my life. Who know maybe one day my kids will be calling me asking me how to make some of their favorite dishes.

My next attempt will be something from the Russian menu... Borsch!
If your not sure what Borsch is, there are many variations of it but here is a good link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht
I want to learn it the way my mother in law makes it. I'm not a big soup fan but this, I LOVE!

Until then here is a great quote on cooking from Julia Child... "This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"
 

There's no place like home...

I've always been a home body! Don't get me wrong, I love to travel and see new places and experience new things....but there is no place like home! I would spend hours picturing and imagining what my home would look like and how I wanted it decorated. I look back now and yes I've had many wonderful homes that I've lived in with my parents as well as the handful of rooms, apartments and condos I called home. But nothing could compare to the excitement I felt on the day Danny and I bought our first home!!

On February 10th 2010, Danny and I purchased our first home. This would be the place that we started our family and it's all ours! I told Danny that I was going to document from the minute we bought the house to the day we moved in! So here are the details, it's a semi detached almost 1800 square foot home in Maple/Vaughan. Our closing is June 15, 2011  My wonderful super agent mother in-law picked the biggest house on the best lot! Gotta love her she got up early in the freezing cold and headed to the sales office to make sure she was first in line because according to her "my kids need za best!" Here it is in all it's glory!

We are on the right side

So we have been waiting now  a few months short of a year for them to start something, anything... we'd drive by anytime we were in the neighbourhood to see what was going on. This was the first picture we took of our lot..

After harassing all the builders in my family and i'm sure driving them insane with question like...when they would dig? how long will it take? will it be ready in time?
I just wanted to see them at least dig the footings. Then about 3 weeks ago we were at my in laws for a visit and my father in law said "I saw something happening on your new street, you should go check". Literally at that point I was so anxious to go that you'd think they had built the entire house! So we jumped in the car and headed over...WOAH! to my surprise in a matter of just a couple weeks this is what they had done!

Ok so I missed the foundation and digging but when I saw how much had been done, who am I to complain!! From that point on we kept watching and more and more would be added.
Then on Oct 17 we found out that my sister and brother-in-law brought a house literally 5 streets over from us! Seriously could it get any better? we are so excited to be living so close and being able to not only hang out with each other but, have our future kids go to school together, walk the dog together..well you get the point. It's crazy to see how far we have come in our "sister" relationship because I remember the days when my sister and I got along better the further we were from each other. Now I am literally counting the days till we are neighbours!

OK back to the house, a few weeks ago they started the shingles on the roof, the windows and doors are in and it looks like they a couple houses away from starting our brick! The best part is my wonderful husband and brother-in-law took me inside the house so I could take some pics.
Here is the pictures from the inside! Welcome to Casa de Smolyar....

Family Room

The Kitchen

Breakfast Area

Master Bath

Master Bedroom!

Danny in the Spare Room

Stairs heading downstairs

So that's the update for now, I love seeing all come together and I'm hoping the next time we have a major update they will be putting up drywall and we will be a couple months to moving in! Oh and don't worry I will be there to document it! :-)