Ladies Weekend part deux

Thanks to Miss A for supplying a new serving piece and some delish salsa. I wouldn't have thought to check out Crate & Barrel's food lines, but they have Rick Bayless (fab authentic Mexican chef) serving up salsa recipes. Check it out.


Beware the giant salsa jar, it'll come get you...

Ladies Weekend food (multi parts)

Mmm....ladies weekend food. We ate fairly well, no? There was a schload of food. I forgot to take pictures of some of it, I may try to play catch up with leftovers this week, here's a little sample:

Friday night dessert was lovely sour cream pound cake (thanks Paula!) with berries and whipped cream.



We had fruit salad with breakfast both mornings (look at those blackberries from WV) to counteract the fattyness of the other breakfast items. Mmm. Breakfat.

Custard? Good. Jam? Good? Meat? Goood!

Thanks Friends, for bringing us such quotable quotes. Ok, so I left the meat out of my trifle. But it was pretty tasty nonetheless. And it was semi-homemade, because I was feeling lazy.

I took store-bought angel food cake, instant vanilla pudding, fresh whipped cream (I'm not THAT lazy) , and berries and layered them in a trifle dish. Cake. Berries. Pudding. Cream. Repeat. Top with decorative berries. The end.

Mmm...puddin'

I resurrected an "old" favorite over the weekend whilst entertaining the in-laws, Paula Deen's "Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding." Mmm. Puddin'.

Line a 9x13 dish with Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies. Slice 6-8 bananas over cookies. Prepare one package of french vanilla instant pudding according to package direction. In a separate bowl, mix together 8 oz softened cream cheese and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Fold in one container whipped topping or equal amount whipped cream. Fold in pudding. Pour pudding mix over bananas. Top with Chessmen. Refrigerate. Serve.

Changes - I find this recipe too sweet. I think it's the whipped topping. When I make it again, perhaps later in the fall, I will make whipped cream and either not sweeten it or only sweeten it slightly. That will make it a little less sticky sweet.

Mmm...le boeuf

Steak. I heart steak. And, as I believe I've said before, I'm a big fan of the flat iron steak. On Friday, I put together a marinade for said flat iron steak consisting of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, a few crushed garlic cloves, some red pepper flakes, a splash of olive oil, and ground black pepper. Let that carry on its business for a long time (all day) then grill.

On the side, I sauteed up some scallions, then added rice, cooked the rice with water, then tossed in some lightly salted peanuts. We also had salad. I try to force some green food into R whenever possible, it's quite difficult.

Chicken parm

Mmm...delish chicken parm. A fab highlight of the Lower dining hall menu*. I'm sure I've written of it before, but here it is again. Pound chicken flat. Dredge in flour. Then egg. Then a mix of half seasoned breadcrumbs, half parmesan cheese. Pan fry in olive oil and butter until crisp and brown. Serve with pasta and red sauce. Delish.




*Now known as "Lower Live at Corcoran Common" wtf? Lower live? Live?

Light, summery meal.

Psyche. Pot roast, yummy, gravy covered pot roast.

For this culinary triumph, of which I may have blogged before but am too lazy to go through my past entries, I took a ginormous hunk of beef chuck and placed it in a lovely bath of cream of mushroom soup, beef broth, pepper, and onion soup mix. Bake at 300 degrees forever (or 3-4 hours).

I think my chuck roast was probably 4 pounds. It was large and in charge folks. It was quite a thrill, and I'm a bit startled at how much of a charge I got out of handling a large bit of meat. R offered to leave the two of us alone. I demurred. Although, that would leave more pot roast for me.....

I'm gonna open a freakin' bakery....

MORE COOKIES!!! This time, oatmeal scotchies. I ripped the recipe off some random blog who said he/she had ripped the recipe off the back of the Tollhouse butterscotch chip package.

In a small bowl, mix 1 1/4 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. In the mixer bowl, cream together 2 sticks of butter, 3/4 c white sugar, and 3/4 c brown sugar. Add 1 tsp vanilla. Add 2 eggs. Slowly add flour mix. Add 3 c oats. Add one package butterscotch chips. Add nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded tbspfulls onto baking sheet, bake at 375 degrees for 9-12 minutes. Makes approximately 2000 cookies (or 5 dozen).

Greek gluttony

Last night was modified Greek salad night. First off, I made a dressing/marinade with 1/4 c lemon juice, a hefty splash of fancy red wine vinegar P&D gave me from Oil & Vinegar, salt, pepper, 2 tbsp Greek seasoning from Penzeys, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and about 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil. I put 3/4 pound chicken tenderloins in a 1/2 c of the dressing and let that marinate for a few hours. The rest was set aside for dressing purposes.

For the salad, I mixed a package of sweet butter lettuce, 3 plum tomatoes, 1/2 an English cucumber, a large handful of crumbled feta cheese, and a handful of chopped mixed olives (Kalamata, etc.) R grilled the chicken and I brushed several pita rounds with the dressing, and they were also grilled. After grilling, I chopped both the chicken and the pita into bite-sized pieces and tossed them into the salad. Toss in the dressing and there you have a lovely dinner salad.

Happy 4th!

For our non-traditional Fourth of July feast, R and I prepared a sumptuous grilled ribeye smeared with garlic butter and pasta with a fresh tomato, basil, and roasted garlic sauce. Mmm.

The ribeye is v. easy. Mash together 1/2 stick of softened butter, 4 minced cloves of garlic, some salt, and pepper. Rub onto one lovely ribeye steak. Grill steak. Eat steak.

For the pasta. I used about 5 roma tomatoes and 3 plain old vine ripened round tomatoes. Peel by slicing a small x in the bottom of the tomato, and dipping in boiling water for about 30-60 seconds. Remove and place in ice water. Once cool to touch, remove peel, squeeze out seeds, and set aside for future use. Here is a naked tomato:


To make the sauce, I prepared 1 lb of spaghetti according to the package directions, but undercook by 1 minute. Meanwhile, I took one head of roasted garlic (plus a few minced garlic cloves, just in case it wasn't garlicky enough), about 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, and 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and heated over medium low heat until very very fragrant. I lightly chopped the naked tomatoes and added them. I let the mixture saute for about 10 minutes and then added about 1/3 c julienned basil. Add the slightly undercooked pasta into the saute mixture and toss for a few minutes until the pasta is fully al dente. Add in some parmesan and bob's your uncle.

We also had a random "cheese course" with some aged Gruyere and smoked "robust" blue cheese. We both tried the blue with the ribeye which was really very good. Mmm.

More chicky!

Mmm. BBQ chicken. I heart it. and I FINALLY found a way to get the BBQ flavor INTO the meat of the otherwise flavorless boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I took said chicken, banged it into a bag, poured about 1/2 c BBQ sauce, 1/4 c apple cider vinegar, and 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce into said bag. Allow it to marinate for approximately 100 years, or overnight plus all day. It was very juicy, very flavorful, and the plain blah white meat tasted like BBQ! yay!

With the chicken, we ate some lovely chicken rice and canned green beans. Very dull, but the chicken was good!

More Cookies!

My new work schedule permits me to bake any ol' day, so I whipped up more cookies on Monday - this time double chocolate oatmeal cookies (slightly modified Quaker recipe). Mix 1 3/4 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 c cocoa, 1/4 tsp salt. Cream together 2 sticks butter, 1 c brown sugar, and 1/2 c white sugar. Add 1 tsp vanilla and 2 eggs. Add in flour mixture slowly. Add in 2 c oats, 12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips, and chopped nuts to taste. Drop by tbsp-full onto a cookie sheet - bake at 375 degrees for 9-12 minutes until set but soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack. If you have a pet, remove them from the middle of your dining room table before allowing the beast to roam freely or else she will eat 20 of the cookies. Hopefully, there will be no explosions awaiting for me when I return home from work this afternoon.

Giant Pigs in Giant Blankets

You've seen normal pigs in blankets. They are a party favorite, right?

Last night, R and I were very tired from a very busy weekend (I visited 3 states in a 24 hour period, although, Maine was an accident and only for about 20 seconds). We couldn't fathom running out to find food for dinner. We had purchased a packet of Nathan's hotdogs, because R was dancing around about how life alteringly good they were compared to a normal hotdog. We had leftover pizza dough from making pizzas last week. We looked at the hotdogs. Then the dough. Then back and forth again. An idea was slowly forming in our addled minds. GIANT PIGS IN BLANKETS!!!!!

We rolled out the pizza dough, threw on some cheese, wrapped up the hotdogs, threw them in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. Throw in some cheesy potatoes and a slice of delish summer watermelon, and you get a tasty, if not odd, meal.

Favorite school lunch

Well, apart from the pizza/french fry day that is. As R reminded me, TACO SALAD day was a big "buy your lunch" day at lots of elementary schools, mine included.* I also roundly enjoyed "chicken pot pie/green bean" day, but I digress.

After going with the lovely Miss A and Elle to El Arepazo for a fab Venezuelan lunch a few weeks ago (I don't know that it has its own website, see here, here, and here for more info) I was inspired by the tostada that I devoured to recreate something similar, albeit much more pedestrian and suburban and white-bread in my own home. Hence, the rise of the taco salad.

At its base, a bed of crunchy romaine. Contrary to what the picture portrays, there is a large amount of lettuce. Next, some lightly crunched tortilla chips. Next, a mixture of seasoned beef, onion, and black beans (again, was lazy and just used taco seasoning, what can I say, I heart it). Then prepared salsa, fresh tomatoes, shredded cheese, and a "dressing" of sour cream mixed with lime juice and some salt/pepper. I managed to get R to eat approximately 2 1/2 c of a green veg, so it was quite a meal accomplishment, even if that green veg was drowned in meat and cheese.

To forecast future blog entries, we're going to attempt a similar "saladization" of favorite foods this week with a Greek spin.

*I don't see taco salad on my local elementary school lunch menu per se. However, there are listings for "nachos with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and tomato and a tortilla" AND "soft taco with nacho chips." Also, a "BBQ ribbette on bun?" What is a ribbette?