Holy Cheesy Poof!

Those who know me know that few foods can soothe me in the way that a good cheesy poof can. So you can understand the gravity of this statement - these are the BEST CHEESE SNACK FOODS I HAVE EVER TASTED IN MY LIFE. TGI Friday's brand Mozzarella sticks. Fabulous. Delicious. A must try.

You're my heart....

Long live the mock TV dinner

I apologize for my absence. What with the brain crisis and the home buying and what not, it's been a dull food month. However, I made a TV dinner tribute last night - Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and peapods. R demurred on the peapods, as they are green and, therefore, evil.

I relied on an Emeril recipe. You basically make little meat patties full of beef, pork, onions, bacon, and lovely flavorings like Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, garlic, etc. You make a mushroom gravy. You make luscious mashed potatoes. And then you eat it.

I must admit, I wasn't wild on the Salisbury steak itself. It was a bit too burgery - a little tough. If I were to make something like this again, I'd make it more like a meatloaf - a little more egg, add some breadcrumbs, lighten it up a bit, so the gravy can actually permeate the meat. Now, the gravy - that I did enjoy. It was a bit too mushroomy at first, but with some additional beef broth and a dash of Worcestershire, it was delish.

Chicken braid

Thanks to Miss Elle for the lovely chicken braid recipe. I am sure she can school me in the future on "braid" construction, as you can see, it looks a bit odd, but it tasted VERY good.

For the braid, remove two cans of crescent rolls from their tubes - press the seams together and form two rectangles of dough - press the two rectangles together and roll into one long rectangle. I found it easier to fold the place one rectangle on top of the other, and then roll them out together into one long one.

For the filling, mix 2 c cooked chicken, 1/2 c shredded cheese (I used more like a cup), 1/2 c mayo, 1 small chopped red pepper, 1/2 small chopped onion, 1 finely minced clove garlic, 1 tsp dill, salt, and pepper together.*

Place the filling down the middle of the crescent roll rectangle. Cut strips about an inch wide on the sides of the rectangle, and brain them across the filling. Brush with egg wash.

Bake at 350 deg. for 25-30 min until golden.

When I get my master class on braid construction, I will update.

*The original recipe calls for broccoli and no onion. R's deep personal hatred of broccoli led to the substitution.

New Year's toast

Miss M and I toasted in our new year at a fab fun party, crowned with lovely prosecco and mango sorbet drinks. Thanks for the suggestion, Nigella!

Mmm...chicken beast

I have only few pics, but Miss M and I also prepared a lovely roasted chicken with sides of steamed broccoli and welsh rarebit sauce (thank you Stouffer's!) and the Barefoot Contessa's roasted mustard potatoes.

For the chicken, we got a 4.5 lb roaster and shoved 1/2 an onion, some garlic, and half a lemon in its unmentionables, salted/peppered the outside, then brushed with olive oil and roasted for about 1 1/2 hours in my janky 425 deg. oven, occasionally brushing with butter. The chicken rested on a bed of the other 1/2 onion and lemon and more garlic. It produced an insane amount of juicy goodness, so we made gravy with the dripping. Very moist and tasty.

For the potatoes, we cubed about 3 lbs of Yukon gold potatoes, then tossed with 2-3 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp whole grain mustard, salt, and pepper. They roasted at the same temp as the chicken for probably 65 minutes or so. Again, my oven is janky.

The broccoli was steamed and doused with cheesy goodness. Mmm.

Pomegranate cosmos

Lovely Miss M from Buffalo came to visit over the weekend and we had a very brief flurry of cooking. To buck us up for cooking ('cause we're Buckeyes!), Miss M prepared some lovely pomegranate cosmopolitan drinks. She'll have to verify the recipe, but I know that they included vodka, pomegranate juice, some OJ, and lime juice. They were delish. Pomegranate juice is VERY sour without some sort of sweetener, which is why we used orange juice.

Note the random items in the pic - whole grain mustard, s/p, sponge, etc. We keep a tidy kitchen.

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.