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.

Stuffed chicken

So, on Sunday, I decided to tweak a recipe R had prepared back in May, using chicken breasts in favor of pork chops. We made regular ol' chicken style Stovetop stuffing, stuffed it into some boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and dredged the chicken lightly in flour. I heated a bit of butter and oil in a pan, and browned the chicken breasts, not cooking them through. I then added 2 minced shallots and one minced clove of garlic to the pan and heated them for a few minutes. I then threw in a good cup of white wine, let that cook for another 2 minutes, added the chicken back, and threw it in a 375 deg. oven for 15 minutes or so. Delish.

Food of the future part 2

More garden shots!

Baby tomatoes!

Mmm...nachos

So, for whatever reason, I happened to watch 5 minutes of an episode of Paula where she makes nachos, and I HAD to have nachos RIGHT AWAY. So, R and I braved a terrifically exciting thunderstorm and headed up to the K-roger for some fatty ingredients, including beef, Velveeta (delicious and disgusting all at once), and tortilla chips. Basically, I just made taco beef, using some fab Penzey's taco seasoning provided by S in CO. I then headed up some delicious Velveeta in a saucepan and added some regular shredded cheese, a bit of milk, and a bit of beer. R said I can't make Velveeta anymore b/c it makes a mess. I then laid out some chips on a plate, topped with meat, cheese sauce, salsa, and chopped green onion and proceeded to slam with some beer. I guess I slammed too quickly, b/c then I felt a bit ill. But I'm SURE it was NOT the processed goodness of the Velveeta that caused it. No way.

Then I dragged R to BB&B to look at china. That's how we roll.

More marinara

I made more marinara sauce this past weekend - just something I was craving, regardless of the fact that it was over 90 degrees. This time, I was able to add fresh basil from my garden. I promise to put up more pics of said garden - as it is jungle like, and taking over my small back patio. We have many baby tomatoes.

I also purchased some lovely sweet and hot Italian sausage from the ol' Fresh Market. Then made some meatballs. Mmm. It was quite delicious.

The Bomb

Ah, fond memories of senior year of college. Alas, it was so very long ago. But, I relived a bit of it on Friday afternoon by making some infamous Byrnie Bombs. Start by mixing about 3/4 of a tsp of delicious Crystal Light ruby red grapefruit with some water in a glass. Then add a lot of ice. Then a lot of vodka. You do not need to use the quality vodka featured, but as many know, we have a lot of such vodka hanging out. Mix very thoroughly, add a straw, and get going. Do not drink more than one if you are more than 4 years out of college. You will start to feel lightheaded less than halfway through one. While this may have been a pleasant sensation back in the day, it simply makes me want to nap nowadays. And takes away any desire to drink delicious beers at establishments such as the Lizard.