Day Three: 'chi fan!

So I managed to sleep in a little this morning. I was startled awake by a dream in which I had to accomplish a specific list of culinary tasks with ingredients I've never heard of to save the Gulf from the hurricane.

:|

That's what happens when you fall asleep looking at CNN.com while watching Food Network.

So the menu today will be lunch and dinner only, and we're going Asian. FYI, "'chi fan!" means "Eat!" in Chinese. (Thanks Google Translate!)

Lunch will be a Mahi Mahi fillet marinated in Chinese five spice, soy sauce, and a tiny bit of dark sesame oil, and a salad.

Dinner will be a tuna casserole bake with Maifun noodles, which can be "par cooked" simply by dunking them in hot water. I'm also going to attempt "packet cooking" in the EBO for the first time. I have a theory I want to test out about how to steam veggies in there. Likely, broccoli.

Catch you on the flip side, kids!

Day Two: Results and Recipes - It's all about the Timing

Today was interesting. The food turned out great, but I got a major reality check about the time it takes to cook normal food in what is, essentially, a functioning toy oven.

In the great words of Inigo Montoya, "Let me 'splain. No... is too much. Let me sum up."

Pretty much everything I cooked today took about 25 minutes. The one thing that didn't actually took longer than that.

Here's the scoop:

Breakfast was two blueberry pancakes. I used the basic pancake recipe found here, and just added fresh blueberries. I made the batter a few days ago and cooked those pancakes the regular way, on a hot griddle. they were pretty fluffy and didn't need any syrup or butter. They had great flavour all on their own. I knew I'd probably want to try pancakes during this project, so I set aside about a cup of the batter.

So, I just sprayed the pans with the non-stick spray and poured the batter in. Another lesson-- if you want your pancakes to take 25 minutes to cook, by all means, please fill those cute little pans up to the top. That's what I did, and it was definitely a waiting game.



I would have done better to fill the pans about half way and just make four thinner ones. It probably would have taken the same amount of time, and they would have come out more like pancakes rather than just... well, cakes. Now, I've got nothing against cake, but there's a reason your momma won't let you have it for breakfast.

However, I will say, they tasted pretty darn good. They cooked all the way through, were pretty fluffy on the inside, although not as fluffy as the pancakes I made earlier.




Although I ended up not going to a movie today (opted for a nap on top of an ice pack, instead), I did make the turkey and cheese roll ups. I just couldn't be bothered to cook while it was that hot.

But dinner... well, dinner made up for it.

Dinner was cheesy jerk chicken and avocado bake, along with roasted balsamic grape tomatoes.

The Chicken Recipe:
Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of diced thigh meat chicken
1/4 C of diced avocado
2 1/2 fairly healthy pinches of jerk seasoning
1 pinch of sea salt
2 T of shredded cheese
1 tsp of mandarin infused olive oil for marinating



I know I said I wasn't going to use oils inside the EBO, but this was added as a vehicle for flavour and not as a fat--it was part of the marinade. The chicken and avocado sort of just soaked up all the citrusy goodness of the oil along with the jerk seasoning, but didn't get oily. Also, just in case you're curious, I used dark meat chicken for a couple of reasons.

1) It does have more flavour because it has more fat. Don't be afraid of fat. I'm not, especially in such small servings of food. I want to cram as much flavour as I can into everything I eat so I'm satisfied with one serving. I also wanted to make sure the meat didn't dry out due to a longer cooking time (25 minutes).

B) It's cheap. I can imagine making this recipe again in the big oven later, and it just makes sense to me to use meat that's going to scale up economically.

I think you can all pretty much assume I'm going to spray the pan with non-stick spray every time, right? So I can stop saying that bit from now on, right? Cool. Thanks. You're awesome.

So the chicken cooked in about 25 minutes. The pieces of chicken were tender and juicy, and gave off some great juices that mixed with the slightly broken down avocado and all the seasoning and was just... nom nom nom. The cheese melted perfectly, but didn't really brown, which is fine. Melty goodness works for me.



The Tomato Recipe

10 grape tomatoes
Sprinkle of sea salt and a couple grinds of pepper
1 T good balsamic olive oil drizzled over the top



Note: I say GOOD balsamic because, well, I'm a food snob, but also because when the flavour intensifies as the vinegar reduces, what do you want to taste? The more intense flavour of crappy stuff or the sweet, tangy, deliciously syrupy goodness of the good stuff?

I'll give you time to think about that question....

Go ahead. Think. I'll wait.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

See? You know I speak truth.

The tomatoes took a little more than half an hour. (I actually did get to use the warming chamber today, to keep the chicken warm while the tomatoes finished.) I will tell you, though, it was sooooo worth it. The tomatoes actually browned a little on the bottom, and gave off some awesome liquid that mixed with the balsamic and ooooooommmmmmmmgggggggg. I seriously drank the leftover liquid. I did. I would do it as a shot. SO effing yum.



I honestly thought I wasn't going to be able to get too creative, but today I learned that I can't have ANY preconceived notions when it comes to cooking this way, I just have to forge ahead and learn from my mistakes.

I also learned that you don't have to wear pants when you cook with the Easy Bake.

tmi?

Day Two: It's what's for dinner

It's Menu time again! I know, I said I was sleeping in but after six months of getting up for work, my circadian rhythms or whatever have clearly betrayed me. Jerks. (foreshadowing alert!)

So it looks like I'll be having breakfast after all.

You know, when I think about breakfast I wander back to my childhood... Just kidding. I'll get on with it.

Breakfast will be two blueberry pancakes. I made the batter a couple days ago and squirreled some away for another time. Guess what? It's another time!

I'm off work today, and I don't plan on hanging out in my apartment for lunch, so that will probably be some turkey and cheese rolls and cut up raw broccoli, which I will sneak into the dollar movie. I don't have central A/C, and I can't run that silly window unit 24/7, so I'm going to take advantage of someone else's electric bill for a couple hours.

What? Don't give me that look.

And dinner... well... I'm pretty excited about dinner.

Dinner will be a cheesy jerk chicken and avocado bake. Get it? Jerk? Because my circadian rhythms are jer... Sorry. Anyhoots... I raided my spice cabinet and found some jerk seasoning from Savory (i really do love that place). I'll give you the recipe tonight. I will probably roast some more tomatoes to go with it.

Results and Recipes tonight!

Day One Results and Recipes

Hi there! How've you been all day? Ready for the results show?

Here goes nuttin'.

First-- Breakfast. The most important meal of the day, they say. I'm not gonna lie, breakfast for me generally consists of a cup of coffee gulped down somewhere between 9 and 10 as I start work for the day. Don't lecture, I KNOW it's bad, ok? I guess if nothing else comes of this little adventure, I'll probably start eating breakfast more often, yeah?

Oh. but don't count on it tomorrow. I have the day off and I'm sleeping in, yo!

Breakfast was an Oven Omelette. I wasn't quite sure it qualified as a fritatta, so I just made up my own name for it.

The Recipe:
1 egg, beaten with 1T of water
2 T of shredded cheese
1 T of diced red bell pepper
3/4 of a medium-ish broccoli florette, chopped into pieces

I beat the egg and water together, and added the cheese, and a little salt and pepper. Then I sprayed the tart pan with some non-stick spray and poured the egg mixture into it, and arranged the veggies on top. I sort of... wiggled them down into the egg mixture just a little bit to make sure they were part of the omelette instead of sitting on top. Vegetables will get high and mighty if you don't squish them a little.

And then, into the EBO. I didn't take a before picture of breakfast, but I will do a before and after of everything from now on. It cooked for about 9 minutes or so. I was only half awake so I forgot to set the timer at first, but I know what time it went in and what time I actually set the timer when I realized I'd forgotten.

(Awkward sentence structure for 500, Alex.)

Here's what it looked like when it came out of the EBO:



And here are a couple more of after I de-panned it. Notice that the bottom didn't burn, but the inside with the cheese is still creamy and melty.




Jordan! Get to the point! How did it taste?

Truth? Really good. I kind of expected the edges to be a little dried out and styrofoamy, but the egg/cheese bit cooked perfectly. The peppers did pretty well, and the broccoli was probably closer to raw than cooked, but altogether I think i'll declare my Day One Breakfast a success.

And now, on to dinner.

Along with a Big Ass Salad, I baked salmon and some roasted cauliflower and grape tomatoes.

The nice thing about the Real Meals oven is that there is room for two pans, so I wasn't going to have to risk one part of the meal getting cold while the other one cooked. The Real Meals oven also has a warming chamber that stays pretty hot, so maybe that wouldn't be a major issue anyway. I'll probably have the opportunity to test that theory eventually.

The Recipe:
The Salmon
1 salmon fillet, trimmed to fit the pan - I seasoned it with a little sea salt and a "California Citrus Spice Blend" from Savory Spice Shop in Boulder

Trimming the salmon to fit into the pan was a little tricky, but I think I ended up with about a 2.5 oz piece. I left the skin on because I like it, but if you don't you can just trim it off. Don't judge. Salmon skin is delicious. *glare*

(Don't alienate the readers Jordan! Ok. Sorry.)

The Veggies
1 medium-ish and 1 smallish cauliflower floret, sliced into relatively flat pieces
3 grape tomatoes, cut in half

Again, I sprayed the pan with non-stick spray, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I put both pans in the oven together, and set the timer for 10 minutes...



then after 10 minutes pushed them through to the cooling chamber to check the progress. Neither looked done yet, so i pushed them back into the oven section and set the timer for another 10 minutes. At about 8 minutes, I could smell the salmon, and when I checked it was done. The veggies were, well, not QUITE as done. The cauliflower had softened, and the tomatoes were just starting to give off some juice.

However, I was pretty flipping ravenous by that time so I pulled them out anyway.



I did worry that the cooking time on the veggies and the salmon would be too different, and it turns out that was a valid concern. However, I'm not crazy enough about the cauliflower to try it again, so next time I will probably try tomatoes and mushrooms or asparagus.

I'll also note that the salmon was still a little bit frozen in the middle when I put it in the EBO, so fully thawed fish would probably take less time, maybe 12 - 15 minutes. The fish WAS surprisingly moist, given the size of the piece and how long it was in there.

I know it's only been one day, but if I have to judge by today's results I'd guess that my "spidey sense" about food cooking times is going to come into play quite a bit. I could smell both the eggs and the fish just before I pulled them out and saw that they were done.

For the first day, totally flying by the seat of my pants, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. I have some blueberries in the fridge, and I'm thinking I might try some sort of dessert with them tomorrow. (oooh. teaser!)

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I'm happy to let you experiment vicariously. :)

G'night, kiddies.

Day One... and HEEEEEEEERE We go!

Good morning my lovelies! The EBO is warming as we speak, and I'm preparing to make a delicious, wholesome, circle shaped...

yeah. You know what? I'm a little unprepared. I have an idea of what breakfast will be, but the menu I type right after this will be completely off the cuff because I fell asleep last night before doing any real planning. So, you'll be finding out what's to eat today juuuust about the same time I do.

It'll be fun, right? Just making it up as I go along... Jussssst being all spontaneous and stuff.... I'm Miss Spontaneous Culinary Adventure, right? RIGHT?!?!

I'm kidding. Well, not about the making it up part. But about the freaking out part. I'm actually so psyched to get started i'm pretty sure I could be heating up canned peas (and I HATE canned peas) and still be excited about this. So let's get started, shall we?

Breakfast
Oven Omelette (eggs, shredded cheese, diced red bell pepper, diced broccoli, salt and pepper)

Lunch
It's a work day, and my lack of preparation has left me without time or an idea for lunch, so i'll be brown bagging some tuna today.

Dinner
Baked Salmon, Roasted Cauliflower and Cherry Tomatoes, Big Ass Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette

You like how I call the salmon "baked" and the veggies "roasted"? Yes, I know it's all going into the exact same cooking implement, but it's either call everything "baked" (obvious, much?) or we all agree I'm allowed take a little creative license with my culinary adjectives.

So that's the menu, folks. Who's excited?!

Next Post: Day One Results and Recipes

tomorrow the fun starts

Hi all!

I'm pretty sure I'm still talking to myself at this point, but that's ok. :)

I'm still working on tomorrow's menu. I had hoped to do some experimenting before tomorrow to get a feel for the EBO, but timing and work and all sorts of other things were against that plan. I almost feel ok about it, because maybe experimenting before the experimenting is cheating a little, yeah?

The EBO i ordered off of ebay did not come with pans, and after calling around I discovered that the few places that carry anything EBO related do not have just accessory sets or pans by themselves. So, I'm improvising. I headed over to Williams Sonoma this evening after work and picked up a set of six, 4" tartlet pans. The specs I located online for pans that normally come with the Real Meals EBO say that they're 1" deep, so I knew I needed to find something no deeper than that. I think the tartlet pans will do the trick. I didn't get the non-stick ones. They did have non-stick ones, but they were over five dollars more (the plain ones were $16), and I can buy a can of PAM for less than that.



The conversation in Williams Sonoma was pretty amusing. I walked in and was immediately approached by a salesperson.

"Hello. Can I help you find something?"

"Well, maybe. I'm looking for small baking pans that are less than 5 inches in diameter and an inch or less deep."

"Hmm... ok. What will you be using them for?"

"I'm going to cook food in them... inside an Easy Bake Oven. I'm doing a blog project in which everything I cook at home will be cooked inside an Easy Bake Oven."

*dead stare, mouth agape*

She then called over two more saleswomen, completely talking over the instructor for a cooking class that was going on.

"You guys! Come here! You've got to hear this! Tell them!"

So I told them.

I got some pretty skeptical looks. In fact, that might be putting it mildly. If you can imagine the LEAST encouraging look someone can have on their face, multiply it by three and that's what I got.

"Oh, that should be... interesting."
"Hmm. How... fun..."

Saleswoman #1 then showed me where they kept the tart pans. We also had a pretty interesting conversation about the potential pros and cons of using silicone in an EBO. I told here that once I had an idea of how intense the heat inside the EBO is, I might come back for some of their adorable mini silicone cupcake umm.... thingies. We talked a little about how this whole blogging thing was going to work, the rules of the project, and the fact that I was going to stay away from the mixes and use actual ingredients.

The discouraging face began to morph into one of begrudging approval. Maybe she still didn't think it was going to work, but at least she agreed I was going about it the right way. And, by the time she rang up my purchase, she was sounding a little more hopeful. Perhaps our discussion back over by the tart pans impressed upon her that I did, at least, know how to cook, and I wasn't going into this whole thing willy nilly and without a plan.

I told her that if I did come back in for the silicone... thingies, that I would bring her the link to the blog so they could follow along.

Oh! and just for the record, here's the focus of all this activity. Ladies and Gents, my Easy Bake Oven:



Tomorrow is Day One, kiddos. Something tells me I should rest up.

Next Post: Day One Menu

The Rules *with addendum

I've been thinking a lot about the best way to go about this. I want to honor the spirit of the project, but I also realize that my chosen cooking method DOES have its limitations, both in terms of safety as well as cuisine type. So, after a lot of thought, I've come up with the following list of Official Rules for The Easy Bake™ Project:

1. While not everything I eat will be cooked, anything that requires heat will be cooked/heated in the EBO (Easy Bake™ Oven). This means:
Composed salads are allowed, as are fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as bread, as long as I do any toasting or baking in the EBO and not in the toaster.

2. Recipes will be made "from scratch." In order to ensure control over the ingredients used (mostly for safety reasons), I won't use mixes or prepared foods. This includes mixes designed for the EBO. Frozen ingredients are allowed.

3. Also for safety reasons, I will use non-stick spray only for anything prepared inside the EBO. Additional fats like butter or olive oil may be added after all EBO cooking is complete. This will hopefully reduce the possibility of splattering liquids that could hit the lamp assembly or drip onto the bottom of the EBO and burn.

4. I will post a minimum of twice a day. The first post will include the day's menu, and any general project updates. The second post will report results, and answer any questions or comments I might have received. There may be a third post on some days if something particularly exciting happens, or if I'm looking for specific feedback for the following day's menu.

5. I will post every recipe used, complete with measurements and cooking times for the EBO. All recipes that are not my own will be given proper credit.

One additional note: I'm not going to isolate myself in my house for a whole month for the sake of eating everything from an EBO. I will be going out to eat or to friends houses at least a few times, and I'm not going to haul the oven around with me and force other people to participate in this little experiment. However, unless I am out of town and in a situation where it is completely unreasonable for me to have the EBO with me, I will eat at least one meal a day that contains at least one item cooked in the EBO.

I think that covers the basics, yes? If anyone has questions, needs clarification, or has a suggestion, please let me know. I've tried to keep the rules as broad as I can because I honestly don't know what's possible with the EBO. I suspect failure will be my best teacher.