Curry in not so much of a hurry

Nigella inspired me to make a chicken curry for dinner for R, myself, and little brother last night. For my version of the dish, I first browned about 2 1/2 lbs of chicken breasts in a bit of oil. Once brown, they were set aside on a plate. In the remaining oil, I sauteed two finely chopped onions until soft. I then added about 1 tsp of red pepper flakes, 2 tsp cumin, 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1 1/2 tsp ground cardomon, salt, pepper, and 5 minced garlic cloves. I let the spices toast a bit, then put in about 1 1/2 c Greek yogurt, 1/2 c heavy cream, 1 c chicken stock, a cinnamon stick, 1 1/2 tsp garam masala, a tiny bit of sugar, and more salt/pepper. I added the chicken back in and cooked at a low bubble until the chicken was cooked through.

Meanwhile, I sauteed another small onion, finely chopped, in a few tbsp of butter in a medium saucepan with some salt and pepper. I then added 3 c uncooked basmati rice (this was to last several meals) and let that toast for a bit. I then added about 4 c water and 1 1/2 c chicken stock and cooked the rice for about 20 min, then let it sit in its pan off the heat, covered, until we were ready to eat. Delish.

Serve topped with some sliced almonds and you're off.

Christmas baking time

Here are some cookies. From the top left: almond bars, jam thumbprints, peanut butter chocolate biscotti, shortbread thumbelinas, and of course, cream cheese sugar cookies with royal icing (flavored with almond, not lemon).

Mmm...roast beast....

So, I purchased a giant eye of round roast over the weekend. Half went into the freezer and the other half was gently roasted in the oven and made part of a delicious Sunday roast, with potatoes, gravy, and roasted asparagus. And knotted yeast rolls, which I purchased from the fab Fresh Market and are not in the picture sadly.

For the roast, I smashed four cloves of garlic and quartered (did not peel) an onion. I spread a tiny bit of butter on the roast, sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper, and rested it on top of the onions and garlic. It was placed in a 325 deg oven for about 2 1/2 hours. We generally like our roast beast at medium and I accidently let it go to 156 deg before I removed it from the oven, so by the time it had rested and I had made gravy, it had gone beyond the desired medium doneness at 160 deg. Oh well. Live and learn. While it rested, I boiled up the smashed potatoes and roasted the asparagus. Delish.

Crockpot Stroganoff

As Rachael would say, we took the express train to eastern Europe with this passport meal. For said crockpot goodness, I cut 2 lbs of chuck into 1 1/2 inch cubes and mixed 2 thinly sliced medium onions, 8 oz. of sliced buttom mushrooms, 1 can of cream of onion soup, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 c of water in the crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours until the meat is lovely and tender. Cube one 8 oz package of cream cheese and add to the meat mixture, stirring until melted. Meanwhile, prepare 6 c of egg noodles or rice to serve under the meat. Once the cream cheese is melted, add 8 oz. sour cream and serve over the noodles or rice. DELISH for a winter's night.

Thanks to Miss M at work for the recipe!

Cookies!

I generally bake a LOT of cookies at the holiday time, and here is one of my faves, almond bars.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cream together 1 stick of butter with 1 c of sugar until fluffy. Add one egg and 1/2 tsp almond extract. Sift together 1 3/4 c flour, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Gradually add to butter mixture and mix until combined. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and form the mixture into two 12x13 inch logs. Place the logs on a lightly greased cookie sheet, brush with milk, and top with sliced almonds. Bake for 9-12 minutes, then turn the pan, and bake another 9-12, until the ends are rather browned and the middle is turning brown. Slice, while warm, on an angle, allow to cool a few minutes on the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack. Then slam.

Cowboy Chicken Casserole

Now that I have less flexible work hours, I have to plan meals ahead over the weekends. For part of this week, R and I are dining on cowboy chicken casserole, or at least, my modification of such from an Emeril recipe.

To start, in a sauce pan, mix about 1 1/2 c chicken broth, 1 c water, 1/2 c white wine, a handful of cilantro stalks, the juice and hulls of two limes, salt, pepper, and oregano. Place 4 chicken breasts in the pan and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, then let the chicken steep in the poaching liquid for 45 minutes on the back of the stove.

Meanwhile, crush many handfuls of tortilla chips and put at the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish. Once the chicken is fully cooked and steeped, pour one cup of the poaching liquid over the crushed chips.





Chop the cooked chicken, 1-2 onions, 1-2 bell peppers, and 1-2 jalapenos (or chipotles, as I used) and place over the chips.



Top this with shredded cheese, then place a layer of flour tortillas over the mix. Top with one can of drained and rinsed black beans, one can of drained corn, and one large can of diced tomatoes.



Top this layer with more cheese and more crushed tortilla chips.





Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Serve and enjoy. We found it tasted better the second day and with a dollop of sour cream.




If I were to make it again, I think I'd ditch the bottom mushy layer of corn chips - I didn't care for it - and replace it with more flour tortillas. I think I'd also make a cheese sauce versus just using shredded cheese. And finally, I think I'd use salsa instead of just canned tomatoes. But we really did enjoy it!

Mama's little Daisy loves shortbread....

Yeah, so we discovered that Daisy loves shortbread so much, she's willing to get her feet up on the counter and nose around to get it off the back of the stove. I'm willing to overlook it, because the shortbread IS quite tasty. Thanks to Miss M who gave me a ceramic shortbread cookie pan for Christmas - the British Isles version, with imprints of a Celtic knot, Welsh dragon, Scottish thistle, and English rose-type thingee (see right).


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For said shortbread, one mixes 1 stick of butter, 3/4 powdered sugar, 1 1/2 c flour (I think, will double check), and a splash of vanilla. Press into a lightly greased shortbread pan and bake about 35 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes, then slide a knife around the edges and flip out (gently) onto a cutting board. Cut into wedges and devour.

Thanksgiving part 7 - Cheesecake

I made a cheesecake for my contribution to dessert at R's request. I roundly enjoy a good cheesecake, but for whatever reason, I don't ever really enjoy my own. Everyone else seems to, but then again, they could just be acting polite. For this cheesecake, I relied on an Emeril recipe. I made the crust from cinnamon graham crackers, because that's what I had on hand. The filling was like most fillings (lotsa cream cheese, sour cream, eggs) and I may have under-sugared it, as I'm wont to do in desserts. It was a very VERY tall cheesecake - a half inch of crust and 4 inches of creamcheesiness. Also at R's request, I made a blueberry topping. I did not want to just buy a can of pie filling, so I mixed 1 package of frozen blueberries with sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange juice, cinnamon, a few tbsp of cornstarch, and some water in a pan on the stove and heated until most of the berries had burst, and the liquid had thickened. It seemed to be well-received. And I will say that it tasted quite good on some sugar cookies I'd made for my niece to decorate. So there you go.

Thanksgiving part 6 - giblets

Giblets. The word evokes pleasure to some - thinking of giblet gravy and hearth and home. The word brings about horror to others - sick, innards of a bird. I was rather firmly in the latter camp, but Elle and others persuaded me that perhaps they DID have a use. I took the innards and boiled them in water for about 15 hours (actually, more like 80 minutes) with some salt and peppercorns. I used the resulting stock in my Thanksgiving meal. Whatever happened to the giblets themselves? Why, Miss Daisy got a series of delicious additions to her Iams kibble over the weekend of course!

Thanksgiving part 5 - sweet potatoes

So, I discovered that my in-laws do not generally enjoy sweet potatoes. No problem, I'll skip them in the future. That being said, I'm still working on a large casserole of sweet potatoes, so I'm feeling a bit bitter. :)

For said sweet potato casserole, I relied on a Tyler Florence recipe. I roasted 6 medium sweet potatoes in a 375 deg oven for about 40 minutes. I then tossed in four bananas and continued to roast for another 15 minutes. I then put them in the ol' Kitchenaid and whipped them up with a stick of butter, about 2 tbsp of honey, a large handful of brown sugar, and some cinnamon, nutmeg, and some salt. Actually, a LOT of cinnamon and nutmeg because they smelled kinda bland. I smushed them into a large oval casserole dish then made a butter/brown sugar/pecan/cinnamon praline topping. They got baked (heehee) for about 35 minutes in a 375 deg oven.

They were pretty good, although I would probably not do them with the bananas again, it added a strange taste to some bites. And blackened bananas were a bit rude to look at on my countertop. R was a bit startled when he saw them.

Thanksgiving part 4 - Stuffing

My stuffing isn't really that spectacularly unique - Pepperidge Farm cubed herbed stuffing, chicken stock, onion, celery...mix...bake...or stuff into bird and bake....I like it a bit dry, so you can put gravy on it and moisten it up.

The problem with stuffing the bird is the cloud of food poisoning or destroying the turkey. You are supposed to get the stuffing temperature to 165 deg. in order to prevent food-borne illness. In order to avoid the whole "toxically undercooked stuffing" dilemna, once the turkey was done, I took out the stuffing and put it back in the oven for a good half hour. To date, no one got sick, so fingers crossed this works in the future too. Safe stuffing plus NOT overcooked bird = happy guests.

Thanksgiving part 3 - Gravy

As mentioned, the gravy was quite tasty. Some of this can be put down to homemade stock. There really IS a difference, although, it is a PIA if you don't have poultry carcasses lying around. I also contend that allowing the drippings to pool around lovely roasting onions/garlic/herbs helps a lot. After the turkey(s) were finished, I strained out the vegetables and flotsam, and put the roasting pan and its dripping back on the stove top on medium high. I added a large knob of butter, probably equally around 1 c of liquid drippings total. I tossed in probably a half cup of flour and made a lovely roux. After said roux had cooked adequately to erase raw flour tastes, R helped me add probably 3/4 of a gallon of the stock along with some wine, salt, and pepper. I cooked this until thickened and serve. We had a LOT of gravy obviously, but it was really good!

Thanksgiving part 2 - The turkey

So in addition to the turkey breast, we also had a 12 pound turkey. For the lovely turkey, I made a roasted shallot/garlic/thyme rub to put under the turkey skin. I roasted a half pound of shallots, about 6 garlic cloves, and several sprigs of thyme in a 375 deg. oven for an hour. I then pureed them with about a stick of butter and smeared it all under the breast skin and inside the turkey cavity. The turkey was stuffed (I live dangerously) and placed on a rack in a large roasting pan, hovering over 2 onions, quartered (skins on), several cloves of garlic, and sprigs of thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and sage. I liberally buttered the entire bird as well. I poured in about a cup of chicken stock and a hefty splash of Chardonnay and roasted it for about 3 3/4 hours at 325 degrees. I added new butter from time to time as it roasted. It was quite tasty, although, compared to the brined breast, wasn't quite as lovely. But the shallot rub did keep it moister than usual. And the gravy, more later, was ambrosial.

Thanksgiving part 1 - turkey breast

Holy schmoley, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry for that. It's been a weird month. Nonetheless, the mecca of holiday feasting, Thanksgiving, was recently upon us. In installments, I will (without pics, sadly) explain how it went down.

First off, we had a turkey breast (turkey will be discussed later). R and I decided to experiment a bit and brine the turkey before roasting it. Relying loosely on an Alton recipe, I heated about 2 qts of water with about a 1/2 c of kosher salt, 1/4 c of brown sugar, and a tbsp of peppercorns. I allowed that to cool and then poured it into a large stock pot in the sink, cushioned the pot with ice, and put the turkey breast in. I replaced the ice throughout the morning and let the turkey float in its brine for about 4 hours before thoroughly rinsing it, buttering it up, and putting it in its baking dish. Once at the Thanksgiving final destination of the brother-in-law, it got baked for about 2 1/2 hours and was LUSCIOUSLY moist and tender and perfectly seasoned. Would highly recommend doing, and will likely do it to an entire turkey next year. Thumbs up on brining.

Life altering candy bar

So, since it is it now post-Halloween, everyone has a schload of candy leftover. One of my coworkers made up little sachets of goodness - a few candy bars, some peanut butter crackers, twizzlers, a pencil, etc. V. nice. Included among the goodies was a mini Take 5 bar. Have others had this type of candy bar? It is utterly amazing. Milk chocolate, peanut butter, peanuts, caramels, and the piece de resistance - pretzels. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!

Spooooooky Cake!

We had a bake sale at work today. Elle made a tombstone cake which was totally sweet. I went slightly lamer and just made a delish Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. Quite tasty, less impressive though.

Note the deformed looking spider...I was running out of decorating gel!

Thanksgiving trial run

Having never really prepared a turkey on my own before, or all the accoutrements, I decided to get a bone-in turkey breast and make some fixins this weekend. I had a delightful 6.3 pound breast that apparently needed lots of weird gross juices added to it, which I had to pour out of the cavity and rinse thoroughly. The dog was VERY interested in these smells. Anyways, I seasoned said bird with salt, pepper, and slathered some butter all over it. Then tossed an onion in the small cavity and slung it in a 325 deg. oven. It needed about 3 and a quarter hours until it reached 170 degs internally.

Meanwhile, I prepared some stuffing/dressing. I cheated - I simply softened an onion and some celery in some butter with salt/pepper, then tossed in about 3 c of cubed Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing mix and added the requisite amount of chicken broth. Toss in a casserole dish, and it baked alongside the turkey for the last hour or so.

Additionally meanwhile, I made some mashed potatoes. I'm not going to explain how to make potatoes. If you need assistance, see the Food Network homepage.

And finally, I made gravy with the turkey drippings. Drippings, plus flour, mix until flour is unfloury, add chicken broth (or turkey broth) and in my case, pepper and wine. A bit too much wine, so I had to cook it a bit longer and add more broth, but it was still pretty good.

c'est fin.

Sandwich experiments

R and I experimented with a Cuban sandwich, as envisioned by one Mr. Alton Brown in this recipe. It involved layering pork, ham, cheese, mustard, and pickle slices on a hoagie bun. It was actually quite delish. Elle will be horrified.

More FB snacks

Elle will recall these from our recent mini-party at Chez Elle, but R and I devoured a plate of these whilst watching football on Saturday:

Mmm....delicious crescent roll filled with pepperoni and provolone...

Eat a dang quesadilla!

Last night's dinner was fab quesadillas. Tortillas with a spread of refried beans mixed with diced chilis, some shredded chicken, a bit of cheese, and sauteed onions and peppers. Mmm. Delish.

Here's R's, sans beans. Photo by R.

Building a soup

Sunday was spent in the kitchen making some soups. I decided to do a sort of vegetable beef stew and R requested chicken noodle for his lunches.


For the vegetable beef stew, I lightly floured* 2 lbs of extra lean stew meat and browned it in a small amount of olive oil, in batches. Set aside the meat on a plate. In the remaining fat, add 2 chopped onions, 1 c thinly sliced carrots, and 1/2 c chopped celery.



Give that 10-15 minutes to soften. Then I added 1 chopped zucchini, about 1 1/2 c fresh green beans, and 2 diced potatoes.





THEN, I added the herbs - a sprig of rosemary, several sprigs of thyme, and some bay leaves, along with more salt/pepper. And I squished in some roasted garlic.



I added about 1/2 c of red wine and allowed that to simmer. Then came a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, with their juice, and 2 boxes of beef broth. I let that simmer forever, meanwhile, adding about 1/3 c of pearl barley, 1/4 elbow macaroni, and about 1/4 c lentils. There was also corn. I added about a shot's worth of Worcestershire sauce and probably a tsp of bouillion powder over the duration of the cooking time. I don't have a pic of the final product, because I keep forgetting. But it is quite good. And we're eating it again tonight. Third night of it. Yeah.


The chicken soup is much quicker. First, I browned 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in a small bit of oil. Once the skin was browned, I added some salt and pepper, and 1 box and 1 can of low sodium chicken broth, along with a can's worth of water. I added a sprig of rosemary, two thyme sprigs, a sprig of majoram, more salt and pepper, 1 chopped onion, about 1 c of chopped carrot and 1 stalk of chopped celery (R doesn't like celery). I also squeezed in some remaining roasted garlic, about 3 cloves worth. I allowed that to simmer at a low boil for about 20-25 minutes, until the chicken was cooked through. I took the chicken thighs out, and replaced them with 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. After 15 minutes, those were also removed, and all the chicken parts were de-meated and the meat was shredded (skin/bones were discarded, much to the pup's dismay). The chicken meat was returned to the pot, the liquid was brought back up to a boil, and a heaping handful of egg noodles were added and cooked until soft. And that's that.








*I seasoned the flour with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Pasta fagioli

As mentioned, we kick off the diet with dinners of decent sized helping of pasta fagioli, or, Italian bean soup (we add meat too b/c we heart meat).

Start by frying up one strip of bacon over medium low heat with 1 tbsp olive oil in a large stockpot. Meanwhile, brown 3/4 lb ground sirloin in a separate pan, and drain thoroughly. To the bacon, add 2 medium onions, chopped, 1/2 chopped carrots, and 2 chopped celery stalks. Turn up heat to medium and cook until slightly tender. Add 3-4 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, 1 tsp dried rosemary (crushed), 1-2 tsp dried thyme (crushed), salt, and pepper. Allow the seasonings to toast a bit, then add in the ground beef, 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 smaller can of diced tomatoes (I used leftover garden tomatoes), and about 5 c of chicken stock. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, then add 6-8 oz. dried elbow macaroni, or other short pasta. Add one can each dark red kidney beans and navy beans, rinsed and drained. Allow to cook on medium heat until pasta is tender. Serve with a light dusting of parmigiano reggiano grated on top. Delish.

Chicken and beyond

Earlier this month, R and I had a chance to dine at one of our fave restaurants, Maggiano's for a rehearsal dinner. We had some lovely apps, followed by a family-style servings of chopped salad and caesar salad, gnocci with a tomato vodka sauce, chicken saltimbocca, roasted pork, chicken with veggies and farfalle, and for dessert, chocolate zuccotto and a delicious apple crostada. It was super delish, and super filling, obviously.

R lurved the chicken saltimbocca, so I set about to replicate it at home. Basically, I pounded out chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, and an Italian seasoning mix (was out of sage, and was v. po'd about it) and then layered on some prosciutto and a sprinkling of parm. Rolled it up, pinned it with some toothpicks, and then browned it in a pan and baked until done. I then made a bit of a sauce using the brown bits in the pan, a splash of wine, chicken broth, lemon juice, and butter.

To go along with the chicken, I made an Everyday Food recipe, Mushroom Ragout with Pasta. I didn't use quite that many mushrooms, mainly b/c I didn't feel like buying that many mushrooms, and I subbed in some tomato balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar (because I had it on hand, from the fab Oil & Vinegar store). It was pretty tasty, and R loooved it. I'm not sure that I'd build the sauce with just tomato paste the next time, but then, I guess it simply becomes a basic mushroom sauce. Hmm. Anyways, I would recommend it for mushroom people.

Chicken Cordon Bleu (or something like it)

So, after seeing leftovers of Elle's fab chicken, I decided to go out on my own and prepare something resembling chicken cordon bleu. First, I mixed about 1/3 c of mayo, 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard, 1 finely minced garlic clove, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 c shredded swiss cheese. Then, I pounded flat two chicken breasts, laid slices of smoked ham on top, and spread on the swiss cheese mixture.

I then crushed about half a sleeve of faux Ritz crackers and placed in a bowl. The chicken was rolled up, floured, egged, and crackered, then fried in a bit of oil and butter until crisp and browned. The chicken was tossed in a 375 degree oven until cooked through (25 minutes?) and served with a fabulous (actually, kinda gross) Rice-a-Roni mixture and some green beans with red pepper and garlic.



Note to BC grads - anyone remember the Chicken Kiev or whatever it was called that was served in the dining halls that would literally shoot butter in your face when you sliced it?

R's cooking adventures

Last night, craving something other than leftover jambalaya and corn chowder, R prepared a meal of beef stroganoff for me. I came home from the dog park, offered assistance, was rebuffed, and awaited the meal ahead. Everything seemed to go smoothly, and the resulting meal was quite tasty (albeit, a bit drab looking). Well done R! I salute you!

Experimental Snack Food

So, as Miss A will recall, I purchased a bag of Totino's Pepperoni Trio pizza rolls on Sunday afternoon, for a v. light and fatty lunch before we ate a fab dinner (to be discussed later). THREE flavors of pepperoni! THREE! They were hot, nuclear hot, and very spicy after you ate more than 3 of them. One of the three flavors was clearly "nuke-ular." Am not sure what other pepperoni flavors were present.

Ingestion of the Trio rolls forced ingestion of these:

Pigskin Pigout

So, R and I indulged a LOT on Saturday afternoon/evening between the Notre Dame and OSU games...our menu included chicken empanadas, pigs in blankets, and fried ravioli. All were delish, but particularly the chicken empanadas. I used the Paula Deen recipe, with some changes. I increased the cream cheese, decreased the chicken, added a chipotle in adobo (b/c I heart them) instead of a regular pepper, added a roasted red pepper and some carmelized onions instead of just a regular sweet pepper. I still have half of the filling left, I may make enchiladas, or more empanadas. They were really really REEEEALLY good. For the fried ravioli, I used a Giada recipe, of course, and I don't think I made any changes!

Baked elbows

Hello all. Last night, I prepared some delish baked elbow mac. R called it fancy Hamburger Helper. Gourmet, even.

First, brown 1 lb of ground chuck and one chopped onion. Toss in some red pepper, salt, and black pepper. Meanwhile, prepare 1 lb of elbow macaroni or other short pasta, cooking a few minutes shy of al dente. In a large mixing bowl, mix 1 1/2 to 2 c marinara sauce*, 1 c ricotta, 1 c shredded Italian cheeses (usually a blend of mozzarella, asiago, parm, etc.), salt, pepper, and other seasonings, such as dried basil and oregano. Add the browned meat/onion mix and mix well, add in the pasta, mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole, top with more shredded cheese and some grated parm for good measure. Baked at 400 for 25 minutes, then crank on the broiler for 3-5 minutes to get the top nice and brown. Slam.




*Here's my chance to act like a Food Network chef - I store homemade marinara in the freezer, but if you don't have homemade, use your favorite store brand!

Beef!

I again borrowed from the Wellfed site, and make a chipotle maple beef brisket. My only changes to the recipe were to use a chuck shoulder roast (that's what I had on hand) and to use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. I also cooked it in that most important tool of the Midwestern wife, the Crockpot. It was very very good. Very flavorful and tender. Will be purchasing an actual brisket to do it properly this weekend for the husband's fam. I can see how grilling it before you slow roast it will make it taste even better. Am v. pumped.

More pork

Sorry for my lack of posts as of late - the new pup is taking it out of me.


Last night, I prepared another round of boneless pork chops with a rice side and some frozen corn. I won't insult anyone's intelligence by explaining how to prepare frozen corn. For the pork chops, I marinated them in a mixture of about 1 tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce, a crushed garlic clove, a splash of olive oil, some red pepper flakes, black pepper, and something else I'm probably forgetting. After an hour or so, I then heated up a tsp of oil in a skillet and cooked the pork chops.

For the rice, I heated one tbsp butter and one tsp olive oil in a saucepan. I then added one minced shallot, salt, and pepper. Once the shallot was softened, I added 1 1/2 c long grain white rice and stirred until it was coated with the buttery mixture. I then added 2 1/2 c chicken broth and a splash of water, along with some more salt and cooked according to the package directions. It was quite yummy. I suggest tossing in an extra pat or two of butter.

Smothered pork

What sounds fattier than a smothered pork chop? Not a whole lot, I wager. We prepared this meat/carb overload of a meal last night. Pork chop? check. Kielbasa? check. Potatoes? check. Rice? check. And above all, gravy? check and double check.

Hysterical website

Check out Pimp that Snack. V. funny. Many thanks to J for the suggestion.

I particularly like the suggestions for home-pimping, especially the pimped out Iced Bun. I think this becomes funnier because it is apparently English, but the idea to just take a loaf of bread and ice it to make a giant bun made me laugh. The t-shirts and other merchandise are also quite funny.

Uses for fresh summer tomatoes

Saturday, we made a lovely steak and had some pasta with a fresh tomato, basil, garlic, onion, etc. sauce.

To make said sauce, first make cross-shaped slices in the bottoms of four roma tomatoes. Place in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes, until skins start to split, then transfer to a bowl of ice water. Peel. Repeat (less cooking) with a variety of cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile, slice 2 onions and start to heat over medium heat with a bit of olive oil. When these have sweated, add 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and some red pepper flake. Then chop the peeled roma tomatoes and add them to the pan.


Break the tomatoes up as you go (be careful not to overheat the sauce, the seeds from the tomatoes could burn and turn the sauce bitter. Alternatively, you could seed the tomatoes, but that's a PIA when you just don't feel like it). Add the peeled cherry tomatoes after 15 minutes or so. I've been known to drop a splash of red wine in at this point, maybe a handful of parm, too. Chop several handfuls of basil and add that to the mix right at the end. Prepare any type of pasta according to the package directions, but let the pasta cook its remaining minute or two in the sauce.

Toss, serve with the lovely steak and you are all set. Some nice wine doesn't hurt either.

Summer Foods, Part I - Chicken Salad

Hm...I haven't been posting here much of late. Guess that has something to do with crazy travel schedules, busy times at work, and getting my own blog back up and kicking. But there is still cooking to be done!

As the summer comes to a close, it's time to do a quick review of top shelf summer dishes before getting into some tastiness for the fall tailgate season. Today - my recipe, only slightly stolen, for Tarragon Chicken Salad.

Start with 3lb of chicken leg quarters (for a wallet-friendly balance of white and dark meat), and cook them any way you want. However, while I normally do not advocate the boiling of any meat, in this case a hot water bath is just what the doctor ordered. All the boiling will leave the meat falling off the bones, and as a bonus, you'll have high quality homemade chicken stock as a leftover! The boiling should take somewhere in the ballpark of 90 minutes to get the chicken nice and melty.

Once the chicken is done (and cooled), shred until you just can't shred anymore! Some people prefer to chop the chicken, and to those people I say - go back to Russia. Chicken salad is the poultry version of pork barbeque - the only proper way to do it is to shred the meat. You can be a sissy and do this with a fork, but I prefer to do it by hand - it makes it a lot easier to grab morsels off the bones and to remove skin.

Now, for the remainder of the salad ingredients. As with just about every other thing I cook, I seek a balance of flavors and a balance of textures. To that end, I add about 1 1/2 cups of diced celery, 2 cups of diced Granny Smith apples, and 1 cup of sliced radishes (or red onion if you can't find them) to the chicken. The combination gives sweet, tart, spice, and most importantly, crunch to balance the soft chicken.

While the dry goods will contribute some flavor, you definitely want most of the flavor to come from the dressing. I combine: 2 cups of light mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of that chicken stock you just created, 4 tbsp of dried tarragon, 1 tbsp of dried dill, and 1 tbsp of dried oregano. If you want a bit of kick, feel free to add 1 tsp of cayenne as well - but as much as I like spice, I don't include that. Mix well, then stir it into the dry goods.

Voila! Homemade chicken salad - and a lot of it - that will be good for lunches all week and a picnic for your friends on Saturday. What's that? Chicken salad won't last six days in the fridge? Of course it will. If the chicken is cooked, it's good for a week in the fridge. The mayo would in and of itself be good for months in the fridge. The only real risk are the vegetables, but they will only go bad if exposed to water and oxygen - the oil-based mayonnaise sauce surrounding them will prevent that, so long as you keep a good lid on the tupperware. So don't worry about it.

Tomatoes!

A bowl of delish cherry tomatoes!

Breakfast for Dinner

I have been craving pancakes forever it seems, so we went with a breakfast for dinner theme last night featuring said pancakes plus eggs scrambled with veggies and meats and cheese. Delish.

For the pancakes, I prepared the oh-so-complex Bisquick pancake batter and fried those suckers up with butter and a tiny bit of cinnamon. Mmm.

For the eggs, I cooked a few sausage patties and a few strips of bacon, then chopped and set aside . I sauteed half an onion, finely chopped, with half an orange pepper, chopped, in the bacon fat. I added some salt, pepper, thyme, and a bit of cayenne and paprika. I then added a handful each of chopped cherry and yellow cherry tomatoes (from the patio garden). Then I added back the meat. Meanwhile, I mixed a heaping tablespoon of sour cream, salt, pepper, and 6 eggs. I poured the egg mixture over the meat/veg skillet and cooked until the eggs were soft set, sprinkled with some cheddah just before removing the eggs from the heat, then I slammed. Boy, did I slam. We both slammed.

Fruits of the Patio Jungle!

Behold the quasi-cornucopia!

Casserole Craze part 4

Many thanks to the newly engaged Miss ALO in Indy for this fab, economically sound recipe for tuna noodle casserole. I've made modifications over the years, but the core recipe is still there.

For said TNC, prepare one package of wide egg noodles according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat over medium one can of cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of celery soup, a hefty splash of milk, and some salt and pepper. Once the mixture is hot, add in 1 to 2 cups of shredded cheese and stir until melted. Mmm. Also while the noodles/soup are cooking, finely chop one medium onion and several stalks of celery.* Mix the onion and celery with about 3/4 c Miracle Whip and one large can of tuna. Drain the noodles and add them to the mix, then top with the soup mixture. The original recipe said to put the noodle/tuna/vegetable mixture in a casserole dish, then top with the soup mixture, but I just mix the whole lot up. Put the mixture into a 9x13 casserole dish. Top with something crunchy - I used either smashed Ritz crackers or smashed cornflakes tossed with a bit of butter, but ALO has used Cheezits, I think. Bake at 375 degrees for about a half hour or so (or at any other reasonable temperature, the joy of casseroles) until the top is crunchy and the filling is bubbly.




* I generally saute these in a pan with a bit of olive oil before adding them to the casserole to take away the bite of the onion, but this is optional.

Southern breakfast

Mmm. Biscuits and gravy. I know I've carried on in the past about how nasty sausage gravy is, but when you make it yourself using homemade spicy breakfast sausage, it becomes a quality breakfast. And no, I didn't make biscuits from scratch, sorry R. I don't have that kind of energy or drive first thing in the morning.

For the sausage gravy, brown 1 lb of breakfast sausage (preferably spicy sausage). Remove sausage to paper towels, leaving 2 tbsp of fat in the pan. Add about a 1/4 of flour, mix well, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 to 2 c water, salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you desire (like onion powder, garlic powder, etc.). Give this a few minutes to come up to temperature and thicken, then add back in sausage. Serve over piping hot biscuits.

Classy Saturday night

Pizza and prosecco. A delightful match indeed.

Food Network reviews - Rachael Ray

I decided to go ahead and get this one out of the way before the end of the world and before I forget the newest acronym from the RR world. Rachael Ray is the reigning queen of overexposure in the TV cook universe. Her FN shows are 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels, $40 a day, and Inside Dish. She has a monthly mag, Everyday with Rachael Ray. And her own daily, one-hour talk show will premiere in September. Say what you want about her on-air personality and menu planning, but the lady has to be a hard worker and must be able to operate on about 2 hours of sleep.

Many MANY people complain about Rachael. Her recipes are lame, her show is too frenetic, she's a bad tipper, she's too fluffy and silly, etc. Some people thinks she's downright evil. I'm not willing to go that far. I think she fills a niche. People are comfortable with her menus: no fois gras, no caviar, no talk of this vintage or that, no talk of "good" ingredients (again, wait for the Ina Garten review). She's not all evil. She's not all good.

Things I like about Rachael's shows:
1) I enjoy the travel shows, particularly if they are cities of which I'm particularly fond - Boston, Irish cities, etc. It is just fun to see places you love on TV.
2) I've gotten a few tips from her that I've made good use of - using chicken broth to cook rice/potatoes instead of water is the first one that comes to mind. That never occurred to me before I began watching her shows, and it adds a lot of flavor to bland starches.
3) She is unpretentious and lighthearted on all her shows. In the early 30MM shows, she was a lot calmer and less insane acting. If you see older episodes, you can see why people like her. The newer episodes show a much more spastic, sleep-deprived Rachael.

Things I do not like:
1) The incessant acronyms. EVOO (followed, each time, by saying extra virgin olive oil and not just letting the phrase stand without explanation). The new one, MYOTO, make your own take out. I swear, I almost threw a shoe at the TV. And, why are you always sauteeing in extra virgin olive oil? Why waste the flavor for mere sauteing?
2) With regard to 30MM, the 30 minute time frame is generally NOT accurate for most home cooks. Most cannot chop that quickly, most cannot put their hands on their smoked paprika quite so easily, most choose not to carry 30 pounds of ingredients at a time. Also, the explosive mess created by such whirlwind food preparation would easily require 45 minutes of cleanup. I get the gimmick - 30 MM sounds good for a show title and theme. But it just isn't accurate.
3) The girl needs to slow down - I guess her agent assumes that she needs to get her hand into every type of media before her star goes out, but it has taken a toll on her personality and appearance. Does the woman ever get a break?

Recipes I enjoy:
I don't use her recipes often, but in addition to the chicken broth trick above, her show did introduce me to the wonders of ground chicken, which I enjoy. In particular, I like the chicken cordon bleu burgers.

Food Network reviews - Giada De Laurentiis

I've not been doing much cooking, what with being on vaca and just general laziness, so I've decided that anticipation of what will hopefully be great new Food Network shows, I'm going to start doing mini-reviews. For now, I'll just review current favorites. As new shows premiere (including the wretched Deen boys in Road Tasted), I will mix those in!

So, in today's entry, we'll focus on Giada De Laurentiis. Now, most friends know how much I heart Giada. Yes, she's too skinny. Yes, she doesn't look like she eats her own food. Yes, she does the Italian accent over the top when she pronounced "spaghetti," etc. But her food IS good. Her recipes are accurate. And above all, the food is simple. And, of course, her show on FN is Everyday Italian, also the name of her first cookbook.

Things I like about the show:
1) Luscious production values - everything looks so beautiful, even when I know I would dislike the food (weird seafood or something)

2) She makes use of her friends, but they seem like real friends, unlike the weird relationships Ina Garten makes use of (more on that in a future update)

3) Unlike certain quick "cooks," Giada makes the preparation actually seem simple and straightforward, rather than racing around like a lunatic.

Things I don't like about the show:
1) It repeats the menu over and over. At the beginning, she tells you what she's making. Then there's a 20 second intro to each dish explaining how she makes it. Then she makes it. I end up fast forwarding through the first two runs. Thank goodness for my DVR.

2) I don't generally enjoy when she has guests cooking with her. I find it hard to believe that anyone in her family needs THAT much handholding in the kitchen. I appreciate that she is very close to her aunt, from whom she learned a lot in the kitchen, and I find it amusing when they disagree on Giada's embrace of butter vs. olive oil in some dishes, but I'd rather just watch the pro go at it.

Favorite recipes:
1) Mushroom risotto w/ peas
2) Rigatoni with steak sauce
3) Spaghetti with garlic, olive oil, and red pepper flakes
4) Nutella sandwich
5) Venetian panino

July 24 update - sometimes, GDL is just a little TOO expressive...

BBQ marinade

I needed something quick and dirty to make for dinner last night. I thawed some B/S chicken breasts and made a quick marinade - the juices of one orange, one lemon, and one lime mixed with about 1/4 c of prepared BBQ sauce, one roughly chopped garlic clove, 1/2 tsp of chili powder, s/p, 1 tsp grill seasoning, and about 1 tbsp honey. I let the chicken sit for 30-45 minutes, then cooked in a fry pan - but would have preferred to grill, had it not been for the jungle on my patio. I then served with some lovely Lipton/Knorr chicken rice and green beans.

Am on vaca tomorrow through Tuesday, hopefully I'll have some stories then!

PORK! and tomatoes

Crockpotted a Boston butt roast yesterday to make BBQ pulled pork. Took some random tomatoes we had floating around the house, hollowed them out, and stuffed them with seasoned bread crumbs, s/p, minced garlic, chopped basil from the garden(chiffonaded actually), a splash of olive oil, and some parm cheese. Baked at 375 for about 25 minutes. And served also with leftover stuffing from the previous night's meal. It was a night of stuffings.