Learning to Cook, One Cookbook at a Time.

I thought I knew how to cook, until I met my husband. Tacos and vegetarian pastas aren't enough to fill him up. Not to mention he has Crohns disease so his diet is all canned french cut green beans,  refined flour, and lean meats. Pretty much the opposite of what I eat.
Mike comes from a family of great cooks. His grandma takes pride in all the blue ribbons she has won for various recipes. Holidays with his family are thusly wonderful while my meals often turn out only ok.
I know my cooking is improving,  just not as quickly as I'd like it too. I'm not scared of spices and have creativity, but lack experience  and often end up going overboard. To solve this, I finally dug all those cookbooks I've gotten for Christmas out of the cupboard. Which book should I start with?

Amazing Rueben Rolls

Another St. Patrick's Day has came and gone but there was no corned beef to be found at my house. Sure, I went out for plenty of corned beef sandwiches and Mike picked up corned beef and cabbage for our St. Patrick's day dinner, but it wasn't the same as home made. So last weekend I went grocery shopping and picked up some ingredients to make us some semi-homemade corned beef for dinner. I opted for the non-traditional route. Instead of a classic Rueben sandwich or slow cooker corned beef and cabbage,  I surprised Mike with some amazing rueben rolls. They're a classic rueben sandwich wrapped up and deep fried in an egg roll wrapper instead of bread. Rueben rolls are surprisingly simple to make and they definitely cook much faster than an all day crock pot roast. It probably only took me a half hour to fourth five minutes to make them, from start to finish. It makes about 21 wraps. They're pretty rich so two or three are plenty per person. Which means this makes 8-10 servings.
All I used was one package Nasoya egg roll wraps, one bag Kraft shredded swiss cheese, six small packages of Buddig corned beef, one can of sauerkraut,  and some Wishbone thousand island dressing for dipping.
First lay one egg roll wrap out on a plate. Then add two or three slices of the Buddig corned beef, followed by a sprinkle of the shredded swiss cheese.  After that add a pinch of Sauerkraut. Make sure to drain the can of kraut first!  Otherwise your rolls may get soggy. Finally, lightly dampen two corner edges of your egg roll wrapper. I forgot to mention you should have a small bowl of water nearby for this. Fold the two opposite corners of the wrapper that you didn't wet, in and roll it up tightly,  like a burrito. I placed two or three rueben rolls in the deep fryer, at a time while I made the next couple.
After the surface of the rolls turned turned a nice shade of crispy,  golden brown, I carefully removed them from the deep fryer and placed them all on a paper towel covered plate to rest until I finish cooking.
They weren't safe there,  however.  It wasn't long until I spied a tiny hand reaching out to steal one of the fresh Rueben rolls. Layla has just recently learned how to climb and pull herself up on things lately and seems to be using her skills mostly to snatch yummy snacks off of the tables and counters. After watching all her efforts to get a rueben roll, I gave her some thousand island dressing to dip it in and she loved it. That's it. They officially have the Layla seal of approval. They are so delicious that I'm sure your loved ones will love them just as much as mine did!

A Fish Story.

Last Saturday Mike, brimming with spontaneity, snagged us two seats on a fishing charter boat in Milwaukee.  The morning started out like a complete circus. Neither one of us heard our alarms go off so when I woke up at quarter to three (am) so all  we had time to do was jump into our clothes and race to our truck. I made it to the harbor faster than seagull eats a french fry. Seriously. We barreled onto Lakeshore drive in just about a half hour. An impressive feat considering how far away I live and how much construction is going on along the Milwaukee lake front.  After arriving fifteen minutes late, we set out to catch our limit of trout and salmon.

 The day improved quickly,  especially once I saw the sun rise over lake Michigan. It was absolutely beautiful.  Mike helped the captain set up the poles and running boards while I watched the fish locator for our potential supper. We waited patiently. Switched bait. Then waited even longer. Turns out the fish just weren't biting that day. Our catch of the day was one modest Lake Trout. But the trout, combined with the relaxing lake atmosphere, was just enough to make my morning hassle worthwhile.

Mike filleted the trout for Sunday dinner. Although I thought cooking it would be complicated, it was surprisingly simple. First he placed one fillet onto a cedar plank that had been soaking in water for a few hours. Then Mike put the whole thing onto a cookie sheet for easier handling. Finally he topped the fish with a little pepper and a few fresh lemon slices. It was the first time he had ever cooked trout this way in the oven (according to him, a grill is the best place to cook with cedar planks). The fish had to bake a little longer than We had anticipated but it was so worth it in the end. 

I can't wait to go again and catch a few salmon for the freezer!