Jonathan the Chef (Bork Bork Bork)

props to cazi for the sweedish chef joke.

So not this weekend but the one before, I was invited to visit my friend Becca up at her place in Riverside. We chat a lot online when shes at work and home (she works for the apartment complex where she lives) and now after visiting I can actually picture what shes talking about. Anywho, while I was there I stubled across a cookbook titled "Food Network Kitchen's Favorite Recipes."



As a big fan of anything Food Network, and a desire to learn how to cook more than pasta or mac and cheese, I asked to borrow the cookbook to try out my skills as a cook.

Last Monday I gave it a go for dinner and opened up the book, the first recipe I ran across was a breakfast recipe, "Baked eggs with farmhouse cheddar & potatoes" and I thought, hey! I have all those ingredients (almost)



I substituted red potatoes for the normal ones I had, and the farmhouse cheddar with some Chipotle Cheddar(which is AWESOME). Bake'd it up.



Presentation is key (I can hear Gordon Ramsey saying "wipe those edges!")



It was delicious. I know this recipe was super easy, hashbrowns, eggs, and cheese. But I needed a starting off point.

Yesterday I kicked it up a notch. This weekend Becca was in town visiting her family and came by for dinner to help make another recipe from the book. We chose the "Turkey Enchilada Casserole" but sub'd the turkey for chicken as I imagine I'll get my fill of year's quota of turkey this week.

It was lots of fun following this recipe. One thing we learned is to prep all the ingredients first. Butter and oil was ready before we got the onion, garlic, and jalapeno chopped. And that was cooking well when we found out one of the incredients was "cooked" chicken, so we had to remove mixture until our chicken could cook. Live and learn, rookie mistake. Read the entire recipe again before you start and have everything chopped and ready to go before you start.

A small onion, a couple cloves of garlic, a jalapeno, and a touch of cumin and salt joined with some green tomatillo sauce:


Add some cooked chicken: (thanks to the speed of the george foreman grill)



(Side note on the chicken. Do your shopping. The butcher had chicken breasts waaaay cheaper than the pre packaged chicken. Also Stater Brothers has the best premade hamburger patties in the butcher's window, they are to die for.)

Add some corn torillas cut into small strips and some cheese:



Bring to a boil:



Top with cheese and bake it in the oven for 10-20 minutes:



And the presentation:



Becca and I had fun, and it was super delicious. Bummer everyone else had plans, they missed out on some great Chicken Enchilada Casserole.

Jonathan the Baker

First off let me tell you again how great WinCo Foods is.



WinCo Foods has a section in the back corner of the store that sells stuff in bulk by weight, like a candy store.



They sell nuts, rice, grain, granola, flour, coffee, sugar, cereal, salt, candy, even dog food, and anything else you can imagine. Oh and you can make your own peanut butter too. It's amazing. I bought a crapload of sugar for like 80 cents. It's definitely the only way to shop.

So I had gone to WinCo to pick up some sugar, backing soda, vanilla, pumpkin, and other stuff I have yet to purchase and amass in my baking needs cabinet. I also saw pre made pumpkin pies for like $2.00, but really, whats the fun in that?!?

Its funny to mention that since I'm new to baking, I lacked a few kitchen tools that are required of bakers, especially if I was taking advantage of WinCo bulk ingredients. I didn't have storage containers for flour, sugar, etc. I first stopped by Linen's N Things hoping to get a great going out of business sale only to be again disappointed that 20% off 20 bucks is 4 dollars, and not a great deal. Then I cruised the mall, Robinson's May, Sears, no containers there. Was this such a hard request? Next I tried Costco, at this point I was getting very thirsty but remembered the Hot Dog place doesn't accept ATM cards, just dolla bills y'all. So anyway they did have a set, but it was all stainless steal and more form than function, plus I have a small kitchen and counter real estate is high so I wanted function more than form. Then I found what I was really looking for, at a place I knew from the beginning that would have what I wanted but was lazy to drive there first, Kitchen Fantasy in the Temecula Target shopping center.



At Kitchen Fantasy I found air locking containers by Oxo, they are easy to open and seal and come in a ton of different sized containers. My rating is five stars.



My whole inspiration to make pies comes from my new KitchenAid mixer, I made homemade pizza dough the night before and I can say with confidence that it was the best pizza I have ever made.



So back to making the pies. Got all the ingredients and was ready to start. First I mixed up all the different spices and ingredients for the filling. The recipe said I can buy pumpkin spice instead of all the spices but again, whats the fun in that, plus I imagine all the different spices will taste better, and really, when am I ever going to use pumpkin spice again, its a waste. So after I mixed all the ingredients, I transferred them to a bowl.



After I made the filling I made the crust from scratch following a recipe from the KitchenAid mixer, Once I made the dough I rolled it into two circles and chilled in the fridge for 15 minutes.



After chilling I put them into two pyrex pie containers that my grandparents gave me when they moved to my moms. Next I poured in the filling.



And put them in the oven, watched a little tv and bam! I've got pie!



Looks really yummy. I'm gonna make some homemade coolwhip later today thanks to Tara (aka soapbox Tara, aka my baking inspiration) and my other friend Ruth (A missionary friend I support who's now living in Indonesia learning the language so that they can share the gospel with people who have never heard of Jesus, learn more here) for giving me some recipes on making coolwhip. I'll let everyone know if they turned out to be delicious.

Goal for the day: Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and I am in charge of bringing 2 Costco pumpkin pies for the fam to feast on. Normally I would rush out and buy 2 delicious pies from Costco, but not this year(i hope). Today I plan on making a test pie using my new Professional KitchenAid mixer I've had my eye on for the last year, and thanks to Tara for linking me to a deal for one that was pretty much half off.

The test pie is important. I've never made a pie before in my life. I'm even going to make the crust myself. I hope mine turns out like the photo above. Today will determine whether or not I end up going to Costco for pies, I hope mine turns out delicious because showing up with 2 homemade pies is way better than showing up with 2 store-bought pies.

Can I make my own cool-whip too?

Hahahaha it shivers! Best car commercial ever.

Thanks Tara for sending this video to me!

Best Halloween Joke Ever!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Don't blame me, I voted for Ron Paul.

I Voted!, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

I voted first thing this morning, at the Century 21 office by my house.

I wrote in Ron Paul for President, I don't like Obama or McCain, they both suck. My prediction is that Obama will win. My hope is that in 4 years Ron Paul or a Ron Paul like candidate takes on Obama.

I voted for May Bono Mack for U.S. Representative, even though I originally wanted to vote against her when she voted for the 700+billion bailout twice with tons of addons. I emailed her opponent who never emailed me back, not even a canned letter, so without knowing Mack's stance on the economy, I voted along party lines, Republican.

I voted to reelect Jeffries for for State Assembly, I've heard good things with him working with Murrieta and Temecula.

I voted for Randon Lane and Douglas McAllister for Murrieta City Council.

And last but not least, I voted no on all the props except 7, I would like to require more alternative renewable energy.

And of course you know I voted no on 8.I can see both sides, and could have voted either way, but ultimately chose mainly because its unfair and wrong to discriminate against people under the law.

After voting I drove to Starbucks and got my free coffee, even though im not a coffee fan at all, I'm a frapachino man. But as they say, whats better than Starbucks Coffee? FREE Starbucks Coffee.

Budget Cuts

Budget Cuts, originally uploaded by mindbottling.

Pretty Funny.