cooking it real

Skillet glazed pork loin chops

2009-08-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

My husband was giving me attitude about all the light meals. So I picked up some pork loin chops which aren't so bad if you cut the fat off. Seared them a really nice golden brown on both sides,

Then I poured in some of that Vidalia Cherry sauce I had made for salmon, let it boil away to glaze, and by then the meat was cooked through. I let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving so they would have the best texture. I don't seem to be able to figure out the proper settings on my camera. Sometimes the color is so off! The pictures I took in the pan with the glaze look creepy, or like a picture from a 1973 Bon Appetit- I'm not posting them.

Served with some plain baked sweet potatoes and a lot of broccoli rabe cooked with garlic and olive oil. The pic is 1/2 a chop: 3 oz = 150 calories. With the other stuff I estimated this plate was well under 300 calories (it's actually a salad plate- looks full, right? you would never guess you're still hungry- eye roll).

Tandoori Shrimp on Curry Vegetables

2009-08-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

A theme emerges. Lean protein on a buttload of vegetables. I don't like eating this much animal but since I'm the only one here who will eat Tofu, and cheese is pretty much out of my life at the moment- oh well.

This was actually sort of a make ahead dish. First, I cleaned the shrimp and rubbed them with Penzey's Tandoori seasoning and a drop of vegetable oil. Then, I sauteed carrots, onion, and red pepper til they started to get soft in just the barest smudge of butter (Indian food traditionally uses ghee, which is butterfat without the water and milk solids found in European style butter). Then I added some Penzey's Maharajah curry powder, cauliflower, a cubed Yukon gold potato, a diced tomato, and some green beans, and cooked that just long enough for the curry to release its fragrance. I added some chikcen broth just to come about halfway up, covered, and simmered until the vegetables were tender. Then, I added a bit of flour/broth slurry to thicken, brought it back to the boil, and went to Zumba.

When I came home, all I had to do was reheat the vegetables and add a third of a can of "Lite" coconut milk, and salt and sautee the shrimp in my cast iron skillet.

Served with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime. It was good- my husband said it needed rice or something. I ate the leftover vegetables with chopped roasted peanuts on top for some crunch. This was unbelievably about as many calories as a can of soda. I think. I don't drink soda. It was about 200 for 5 large shrimp + the veg.

I guess the other theme is Penzey's! Anyone from Penzey's want to hire me as your spokesperson? Anyone? Will work for spices!

Fast chicken "fajitas"

2009-08-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Not as good as the real deal, but still pretty tasty and at only 150ish calories per, they hit the spot.

I started with 2 chicken breasts, butterflied them but cut all the way through (so they were the same size but thinner), then rubed them liberally with Penzey's Adobo seasoning and salt. While the chicken marinated, I made a little slaw out of cabbage and carrots with a cilantro lime dressing based on buttermilk and lowfat mayo. Then, I seared the chicken in my cast iron skillet. When it was cooked, I took it out and added sliced red peppers and onions. When they were cooked, I turned the heat off, added half a can of leftover black beans, and the sliced chicken:

I served the slaw on the chicken in the tortillas, as well as some salsa, and on the side I made an avocado and Heirloom tomato salad with lime juice and olive oil.

Ho Hum Chicken Noodle Stew

2009-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Kind of boring, but then again everyone liked it and it was fast and healthy.

In a touch of olive oil, I sauteed onion, celery, and lots of chunky carrots. When they were almost soft, I added some chicken tenders, cut crosswise into chunks. I stirred and cooked this mixture for a few minutes, seasoned it with salt and Penzeys poultry seasoning, then added probably 2 cups of chicken broth and brought to simmer. In went some leftover corn kernels, some fresh green beans, and some thick egg noodles (dried). Slapped a lid on and simmered for 15 minutes or so, 'til the noodles were cooked, and called it dinner.

Chicken tenders are like breast meat, they are from the breast, but they don't seem to me to get that awful texture if they are overcooked- so they're good in dishes like this one that need a little flexibility or are not going to be served right away. I didn't bother to figure out the calories in this- as long as you don't overdo the noodles, it's pretty low. Eat up.

An awesome snack

2009-08-09T18:18:00.001-07:00

Greek yogurt with homemade peach sauce and a sprinkle of toasted almonds.

If you've been eating any kind of "lite" yogurt you may want to give Fage Greek 2% a try. I love it topped with fresh fruit or homemade jam, fruit coulis or sauce, and then a touch of nuts or granola (or pulverized granola bar), for textural interest. The peach sauce I made because I had, sadly, about 5 extremely disappointing peaches in the bowl. I simply could not gag them down raw. I just peeled, sliced, and cooked them up with a very small amount of sugar (like 2T fro 5 peaches) and a bit of water to keep them from burning in the beginning.

Fage 2% yogurt has this creamy, lucious texture and light flavor. It's a lot thicker than most commercial yogurts, and any "lite" ones especially. When you put fruit on, it will have more calories than some nasty artificially flavored junk, but it tastes a hell of a lot better and is better for you. And fills you up, too. Get this: a 6 oz serving has 103 calories and about 14 g protein. That's twice the protein of Dannon All Natural Vanilla (kids choice around here). So with the fruit and stuff, like the photo, it's going to run about 175 cals. Ditch the nuts and you can knock it down to 150 (only 60 more than the type that's full of chemicals and leaves you unsatisfied).

Available at some Sendiks and Trader Joes.

Ma Po Tofu

2009-08-08T21:22:00.001-07:00

I should probably preface this entry by admitting that I am the only one in the family that will eat this. I love it! It's on almost every Chinese Food menu, a comfort food dish of tofu simmered with a small amount of meat, seasonings, and broth.

I browned 2 oz of ground beef, breaking it up in the pan. Then added 1 shredded carrot, 3 sliced scallions, 2 cloves of minced garlic and the same amount of ginger. When the carrots were cooked through- just a few minutes- I added about 1T soy sauce, 1t oyster sauce, and 2 t black bean sauce, and half a can of chicken broth. After bringing it to a boil and thickening it with a cornstarch broth slurry, I added 12 oz extra firm tofu and maybe 2t sesame oil. Once it's hot it's done. This would serve 2 adults and 2 kids (if they would eat it!). I guess you have to like tofu.

Over a whole grain rice, rye, and barley pilaf with plain broccoli on the side, this plate was about 325 calories and very satisfying.

Two Veggie Pitas

2009-08-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

Grilled eggplant....salad? and Hummus.

Eaten with sauteed zucchini, roasted peppers, tomato, lettuce, and whole wheat pitas.

I had previously grilled an eggplant, and I wanted to use it. You just throw the whole thing on a cooler area of the grill until it's collapsed, turning from time to time. Then, when it's cool, you slit it open and scrape the flesh away, leaving behind as much liquid and seeds as possible. It gives the eggplant a great smoky flavor. Often I do this with the plan to make baba ghannouj, but that has a bit too much fat for my current situation, so I improvised a sort of salad with diced tomato, scallions and garlic cooked in a touch of olive oil, lemon, cumin, cilantro and parsley. It was pretty good, if very austere tasting. I miss gratuitous fat! A couple tablespoons of olive oil and the salad would have been sublime.

The rest of the meal is old hat but I still love homemade hummus with vegetables in pita. The bread and hummus were the only things with any significant calories- two pita halves, one with the eggplant and the other with hummus and vegetables weighed in at 335 cals.

Very veggie turkey chili

2009-08-05T15:08:00.001-07:00

Ingredients: Home ground turkey thigh, onions, carrot, celery, orange bell pepper, ground fresh tomatoes, Penzey's chili powder, garlic, chicken broth, black beans, corn, and a diced sweet potato. Calorie count: 300 for a big bowl. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

I have a hard time with cutting out the refined carbs and still filling up myself and my active family. Starchy vegetables like corn and sweet potatoes do the trick. Sweet potatoes are actually a really good fit with southwestern flavors- try chipotle with them in your favorite recipe (unless it has marshmallows in it!). Plus beans are filling and protein rich. I topped my serving with a squeeze of lime and some diced avocado- the non dieters also had cheese and oyster crackers.

Day 2

2009-08-04T20:28:00.001-07:00

Did anybody else see the adorable medium sized colored peppers for sale? Of course I had to have them, but then what? The perfect thing would be to stuff them with Bacalao or a rich goat cheese and sizzle them with a little garlic and olive oil. Mmmm. But, this is a family dinner, so...

Stuffed peppers again. I roasted and peeled the peppers first- I figure if we're going for a high pepper to filling ratio, the peppers had better be tasty. I used a NY strip steak with all the fat cut away, then ground it. I also ground the leftover chard and some grilled Vidalia onions in there from the other night, to up the veg content. Some cooked rice and seasonings, a little watery tomato sauce, and they were good to go.
This photo was raw- I was out of the house at dinnertime. Each pepper had about 100 calories- I ate 3. The peppers have a lot of pectin so they have an almost oily, unctuous mouthfeel that is pretty satisfying.

Time to get serious

2009-08-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of always whining about that damn 10 lbs and never actually making the effort to shed it. I mean, I've been here before, I know what to do....so this blog is having a rebirth as my accountability. Day 1: grilled salmon, garlic sauteed rainbow chard, corn, grilled sweet potato (just slice it about 1/3 inch and cook them over indirect heat about 10 minutes). This meal was about 420 cals including the little vidalia- cherry coulis and the butter on the corn.

I like to cut salmon like this: into a thick slice of filet, then sliced down to the skin and folded back to make like a "mock steak" but without the bones.

I threw some extras on the grill, too. A large eggplant, just whole, some baby orange peppers, and some thick sliced Vidalia onion. It's always helpful to have some grilled veggies in the fridge, right?

Chicken Marbella

2009-03-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

For years when I was dreaming of becoming a chef, The Silver Palate cookbook was my bible. I thought everything in it was so chic, so delicious...except this recipe for Chicken Marbella that the authors raved about. It was for chicken pieces marinated and cooked with prunes, green olives, and garlic among other things. Even though I like those flavors, the combination puzzled and repulsed me.

Then one day a respected chef- colleague of mine mentioned that Chicken Marbella was her go-to party dish, and I decided to give it a try. Now it's a go to dish for me, too. Not only is it sublime, but the prep is mostly done the night before- making it perfect for weeknights as well as parties.

I've made some changes and have not peeked at the actual recipe in years...here's my version:

Marinate the skinless chicken thighs overnight. I always score the meat so the flavors can really penetrate. The marinade is a big clove of garlic (crushed), salt, about a quarter cup of brown sugar, 3T red wine vinegar (mild balsamic would be OK too), a bay leaf, a shake of oregano or Italian herb blend, half a cup of pitted green olives, half a cup of prunes, a big drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and 1 T of capers in brine. I put everything in a big Ziplock and turn it over a few times during the marinating time.

The next day, simply dump it all into a baking dish, pour a little white wine over, sprinkle with a touch more brown sugar, and bake for about 50 minutes at 375'- until the chicken is definitely cooked through, browned, and the juices have reduced to a slightly syrupy consistency. Baste occasionally. The chicken will be very moist and flavorful. I served it with buttermilk mashed yukon gold potatoes, and roasted broccoli with cherry tomatoes.

New York Pizza? NOT!

2009-03-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

A new pizza delivery place opened up around here promising New York Style Pizza. My husband was all excited as he loves NY (and only NY) pizza. Well. This pizza had as much cheese on it as 4 New York Pizzas. I love cheese. I mean. Please. But, come on, Wisconsinites, learn a little subtlety with the cheese already! Show some restraint! Less is more, and more is way too much.

Yuk! Look at these pictures and weep for us. The crust was pliable under the toppings, but it was still all wrong. A New York Pizza has an outer rim of puffed crust that is shatteringly crisp on the outside, pillowy soft on the inside. It bends but does not snap when you fold the slice to bring it to your lips.

*sigh*

Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing

2009-03-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Remember the '80s? Parmesan peppercorn dressing was on all the menus. I still like it- more importantly, the basic formula is a good one to be familiar with- for improvising slaws, drizzles, dips....

Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing

1 cup real mayo

1 cup buttermilk or- sour cream if you dare

pinch sugar

splash vinegar or lemon (especially if you use sour cream)

salt to taste

Whisk together. This is your creamy dressing base. from here, you can go...lots of places. Chipotle lime? Sesame ginger? Mixed herb? Blue cheese? Blue cheese and Bacon???

But for this one, you need grated Parmesan..about 2/3 cup

Fresh ground black pepper....a lot...to taste

A dash Worchestershire for a base note

Keeps a week or two. Give it to the kids with their chicken nuggets.

I like to use creamy dressings on crisp, crunchy lettuces like romaine or iceberg. For the main dish, I roasted up a turkey breast, served it with a stuffing I threw together from bread out of the freezer, and leftover cheesy cauliflower. Now I also have fresh roasted turkey for sandwiches :)

Meat and 3

2009-02-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Meat and Three is what you get at some old school family restaurants, particularly in the South. You pick your main entree, the meat, and then get three choices from a list of sides. My husband asked for steak for dinner, and I really am trying to eat healthy here, so I made three vegetable sides. Only one was fattening- the cauliflower gratin. I also made a baked sweet potato and some steamed haricots vert.

Usually "3 cheese" is such a gimmicky Olive Garden thing- but in some cases different cheeses can really improve the flavor of a dish. This is often true in cheese sauce, where you want to use the minimum amount of cheese to get the best flavor. If you were to use a mild cheese and add enough of it to get a good cheese flavor, the sauce could be unpleasantly stringy and would be more prone to the fat seperating out when heated. I made a basic white sauce (bechamel) with whole milk, then added super sharp cheddar, Gruyere, and Parmesan which are all strongly flavored.

Poured over steamed cauliflower, topped with some crushed croutons (what's on hand), and run under the broiler- delicious! My kids loved this.

SO that's it. Steaks well seasoned and cooked in the cast iron skillet-

Oh, don't forget the wine!

Old Standby

2009-02-27T13:52:00.001-08:00

Wednesday nights I have to make something for the rest of the family before I go out to Zumba, then I eat when I get home. An old favorite fits the bill: homemade Hummus with sauteed zucchini and roasted red pepper, in whole wheat pitas.

Mardi Gras

2009-02-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot it was Fat Tuesday! I found myself planing the meal while I was at the grocery store. We had New Orleans "BBQ" shrimp,

Blackened scallops, collard greens, and macque- choux, which is a Cajun corn dish.

I have had macque -choux, but when I googled a recipe I found such a huge variation in ingredients that I just winged it with this stuff:

A good trick for slicing corn off the cob is to stand it in a large bowl. That way the kernels don't fly off everywhere.

I browned half an Andouille sausage,

added scallions, red peppers, and celery and cooked briefly,

then added the corn, diced tomato, some thyme and a little broth.

When the corn was tender, I boiled off all the broth and added a little cream. Macque -choux is supposed to be decadent.

New Orleans BBQ shrimp is not grilled or with BBQ sauce. It's shell on shrimp cooked in butter with Cajun spices and Worcestershire sauce. I added a little beer, too. The idea is the spicy seasoning gets all over your fingers as you peel the shrimp and you slurp it off...messy.

The seasoned scallops blackening in butter in my smoking hot cast iron skillet. Be sure to buy the "dry processed" scallops if you want to get them nice and brown. Frozen or wet pack will never work for something like this.

Woo hoo. That was our crazy Mardi Gras! It seems like the big retail holidays get ever bigger and more prolonged while all the fun little ones get forgotten about. I guess that's my job as a mom- to keep the traditions alive.

Oven crispy Ceasar chicken strips....with salad

2009-02-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Finally a good oven baked chicken that is not dripping in butter! I've always been drawn to crispy oven baked chicken, but nothing compared to the flour>melted butter>Parmesan breadcrumb technique that I learned many years ago. That is SO fatty though, and when done with boneless breasts it's lackluster anyway.

This does not qualify as diet food, but it's reasonable enough for everyday. The grown ups had the chicken over a nice salad with slow roasted tomatoes, red peppers, and balsamic vinaigrette. The kids had some raw cherry tomatoes and some fruit with theirs. Everyone liked it.

For the "marinade" I mixed equal parts mayonnaise and grated Parmesan cheese with Dijon, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. The chicken breast strips sat in there for about an hour...

While I roasted the tomatoes and peppers at 325' to concentrate their flavors.

Next, I mixed about 3 parts Panko bread crumbs with 1 part Parmesan, salt and pepper, and just enough olive oil to lightly coat the crumbs so they crisp up. For this bowlful it was about a tablespoon. Keeping a good thick coating of the marinade on, I rolled the strips in the crumbs and baked than at 425' for about 15 minutes.

They got nicely browned, crunchy, and tender and juicy inside with good caesarey flavor.

While the chicken was cooking I made a balsamic vinaigrette with more Dijon, olive oil, and fresh parsley, tossed in the vegetables, and then when I was ready to serve dinner I just mixed the mesclun into that.

Impromptu Valentine Tea

2009-02-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

Some of my family decided to make the 2 hour drive to come over on Valentines Day. I didn't have much notice but I wanted to make something "valentiney," like tea party food, as the meal would be served mid afternoon. The menu, clockwise from the top, was Pineapple and strawberries, chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce. smoked turkey and Gruyere mini melts, Star Cakes my daughters made with their Aunt, cream cheese brownies, Mom's homemade fudge, chicken salad puffs, and cucumber radish sandwiches.

For these puffs, I made Pate Choux (cream puff pastry) the night before and stashed it in the fridge right in it's piping bag. The morning of, it was simple to just pipe them out and bake them. The salad was rotisserie chicken breasts with toasted pecans, grapes, celery, parsley, and mayo mixed with a little sour cream and Dijon.

These melts were good. It's just a thick bechamel (white sauce) with chopped deli smoked turkey and shredded Gruyere folded in, spread on sliced baguette and broiled. A tiny dollop of cranberry sauce on top brightens the flavor and appearance.
Cocktail rye's with chive cream cheese, cuke slices, radish slices, yellow grape tomato slivers and fresh parsley.

The cream cheese brownies were from the Baker's chocolate box. I like that recipe!

I had the shrimp in my freezer, so the rest was just a matter of cutting and plating. Easy and quick, but it felt special to graze on all those miniatures! Sadly, the cakes were not that delicious- from a mix- even the little girls are getting too spoiled for boxed mixes! I remember as a kid I hated boxed or bakery cakes with their grainy crisco frosting. Only my grandma's cakes with real butter frosting would do!

Sort of like chicken Cordon Blue

2009-02-22T21:57:00.001-08:00

This is a fast, cheesy yummy dish. I really needed this to be quick so I bought some frozen roasted potato wedges. My standards are really starting to slip. If I ever post about hamburger helper somebody drive over here and stage an intervention! Anyhow, the package was trying to be kind of upscale with "olive oil" and "organic" and "sea salt" but in any case they were not that bad. I also quickly sauteed a bag of baby spinach to round out the meal.

First I seasoned boneless skinless chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and dusted them with fine breadcrumbs. I browned them in a touch of olive oil. This pan is my All Clad 16" braiser and I love it. It goes right into the oven or broiler, great heat distribution, and if you get it at just the right temperature, you can use the tiniest bit of oil and foods don't stick.

Then I smeared a little honey mustard on the chicken, draped on a slice of deli ham, and piled on the shredded Swiss. I poured a teensy splash of white wine into the pan to prevent burning, popped it under the broiler for a few minutes and ...

Voila. Ooey gooey, smokey, salty with that tangy sweet mustard bite, and ready in about 20 minutes.

Florentine Renaissance Bites (wonkish)

2009-02-21T20:54:00.001-08:00

Wonkish- I think- means academic or cerebral or maybe just on and on with the details. For people who have a deep interest in the subject.

For my January Book Club (at my house) we read The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, which was set in Florence during the Renaissance. This was a significant period in culinary arts as well as the other arts. For one thing, the spice routes were well established so new and exotic ingredients from the East and South were available. For another thing, Europe was relatively peaceful so trade flourished and people were exposed to different styles and preparations. The rise of the Merchant middle/upper class meant a greatly expanded demand for fine dining (previously, as I understand it, there was royalty food and peasant subsistance food). Caterina De Medici, the daughter of the famous family of politicians and patrons of the arts, is often credited with ushering in the start of modern French cooking when she was wed to the King of France.

So anyway, from an actual medieval recipe in Kaspar's The Splendid Table, I made a sweet capellini pie- a sturdy pastry crust filled with a mixture of cooked angel hair pasta, ground almonds, sugar, butter, and whipped eggs. The juxtaposition of sweet and savory together was a hallmark of the late medieval/early renaissance periods

Since chestnut was a staple in Italy at that time, I made a light sponge cake rolled around sweetened chestnut puree:
For a savory, I wanted to utilize some of the exotic spice combinations that were popular at the time. I chose to make small meat pies using ground turkey, onions, sultanas (yellow raisins), pine nuts, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, and cloves. I used a touch of Penzeys Garam Masala, too, which contains a nice mix of a bunch of Indian spices like cardamom, fenugreek....

The dough was lightly sweet yeast dough with saffron. These were baked in the oven.

Finally I made a thin chickpea flour pancake filled with fresh ricotta and sauteed Swiss Chard.

By the time my guests got to the food these had lost the charms of the crispy hot olive oil-fried edges but in my opinion they were a happy discovery.

Apparently anyone who has spent quality time noshing street food in the French or Italian Mediterranean coast is familiar with Socca or Farinata, which is the name fort these pancakes. There, they are cooked over an outdoor steel drum griddle and served plain. In Florence, they are known as cecini, derived from ceci, a name for garbanzos. The batter of the pancake is simply chickpea flour (Bob's Red Mill makes it) mixed with water to the consistency of heavy cream, and seasoned with salt and plenty of pepper. Finish the batter off with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, and then fry it, crepe style, in more of the same. I really liked these.

A few days after book club I had a friend over for lunch and served the Socca filled with a mixture of feta and ricotta, as well as sauteed spinach. We had a light and healthy Carrot Ginger puree soup as well, and, rather a nonsequiter, those crescent rolls from a tube. Well, those were bought for the kids, but it's kind of hard to say no when they're piping hot on the table, you know?

Yes, I am still cooking.

2009-02-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

I was in a post holiday slump. Yes, still. We've had lots of comfort food, like-

Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic sauteed rapini.

Made some "fat mints" (aka chocolate mint cookies) with the girls,

Yeah, that was fun...for them.

They ate so much of the creamed butter/sugar/eggs and cocoa that the recipe was adversely affected as were their bedtimes.

We've had our share of Chinese take out...

Chicken and biscuits.

Split Pea Soup with cornbread.

Grill- pan seared swordfish with sun dried tomato and olive relish (Stonewall Kitchen), couscous with roasted vegetables, and blanched green beans.

Tandoori marinated chicken thighs with jicama, pepper, and cilantro slaw and a tomato yogurt sauce, served in pita breads.
My blogging kept me cooking healthy foods- when I slipped off with the blogging I also slipped on a few lbs, so I have a few reasons to want to get back to posting!

My little helper

2009-02-21T12:47:00.001-08:00

Indulge me for a moment if you please. Like all mothers I think my children are impossibly adorable. My 5 year old is brilliant etc. But my almost 2 year old LOVES to cook and eat- she insists upon helping me in the kitchen. Here she is making pizza dough...

She actually got the hang (somewhat) of kneading it.

Here she is with the sauce. She doesn't talk all that much yet, but she says "mix" and "taste" when she helps.

She peeled this carrot very well.

And a wicked sweet tooth.

Holiday food pics

2009-01-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

I suppose there are some people out there who would like to see our Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners, so without further ado:

Christmas Eve must be Swedish food, kind of like my MorMor (mother's mother aka grandma) used to make. We start out with herring, cheese, smoked salmon, and crispbread. The main course is ham,

Swedish meatballs, Jansson's temptation (a potato, cream, and onion gratin with...shhhh...anchovies),

Homemade Limpa, which is a rye bread with molasses, caraway, orange zest, and anise seed,

And braised sweet and sour kale. Dessert is cookies and rice pudding- oops, no pic.

On to Christmas Day: a few simple seafood hors d'Oeuvres:

This is terrible but there was a third appetizer, a puff pastry palmier filled with fig jam and prosciutto. They were on the baking sheet to cool down enough to plate them- that fig jam is like molten lava out of the oven- and people just started eating them right off the pan. Whatever- one less dish to wash

.
Our first seated course was parsnip and leek puree garnished with a drizzle of heavy cream, chives, and chopped smoked almonds for a little textural pop as well as an interesting additional flavor. It was quite good and light enough not to cloy the palate.

For the main course, I bought some big-ass pork shoulder roasts, seasoned them up really well the night before with salt, pepper, and Penzey's Bavarian Blend, and then seared them off and roasted the heck out of them. I believe they were in the oven for about 5 hours at 325' The awesome thing about pork shoulder for a party, is, well, number one it is super cheap, especially compared to prime rib or goose. Two, is it simply cannot be overcooked. These are the cuts they use in real BBQ where the things smoke for upwards of 24 hours. You can under cook it, but not if you're paying attention! Third, it's a breeze to slice and serve. No elaborate and messy carving ritual. Four, these days pork is so lean, people are really surprised and pleased at the fatty succulence and fall-apart tenderness of the shoulder. Five (!) leftovers are versatile. Great for Cuban or shredded bbq sandwiches.

The pork was served with a luscious gravy, spaetzle, braised red cabbage with bacon and nice warm spices, and simple steamed haricots vert and julienned carrots.

To end on a lighter note, a cranberry orange Bavarian. That's a jellyroll filled with homemade cranberry jam around and over an orange cream filling, with Grand Marnier and juicy orange segments. This is kind of an old fashioned dessert- it has gelatin in it (not jello- eeeew)- but I was happy with it because it not only can, it has to be made the day ahead, and it's a refreshing conclusion to a heavy meal, with seasonal flavors.

A handful of cookies...

2009-01-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

The traditional Gingerbread house- this year my 5 year old did the decorating all by herself! It's hard to see but there's a Christmas tree inside.

I honestly didn't go overboard on the cookies this year. Kind of sad to skip tradition. Here's peanut brittle, lemon squares (Mom's recipe), and Rose Levy Beranbaum's Chocolate Walnut Chews...a base of oatmeal cookie dough strewn with walnuts and dark chocolate, then blanketed with caramel and melded in the oven to something greater than the sum of its parts.

Close up on the chews...these are good keepers, too. Good for about 2 weeks.

The brittle.

Well, guess I didn't get a pic of the decorated cutouts-- but if you ever need a third hand to fill a piping bag with icing, use this trick (it's in a pint glass, before the end is snipped off).

One of my personal favorites are Vanilla Buttercreams. It's a melt in your mouth (but crisp to the bite) vanilla scented shortbread round, sandwiched with luxurious vanilla scented butter cream filling- kissed with rum.

The dough is: process, roll, chill, slice, and bake. Easy peasy! They don't look like much, but if you like sticking your finger in the bowl after creaming the butter, sugar, and vanilla...these are for you.

The Family Tradition: Mormor's Swedish Pepperkakor. They are subtle but everyone loves them. They have to be thin. So thin that you seem to have as much dough left after cutting the cookies as before rolling it out.

Baked, with minimal adornment.

They are molasses spice cookies. So crispy and tender you just shatter them on the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Goes great with coffee, tea, milk, red wine... They are the cookie that eats like a chip.

My Aunt Carol gets them even thinner. Don't ask me how!

Perfect cookie baking weather, eh?

Pork loin with prosciutto, figs, and bleu cheese

2008-12-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

Served with garlic sauteed rapini and roasted acorn squash.

I used a piece of boneless pork loin, about 2 lbs.

First I butterflied it by slicing into the bottom third horizontally with a thin fillet knife,

Then folding the flap back like opening a book, and continuing the cut into the rest of the meat:

I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper, spread a thin layer of fig jam and laid a few slices of blue cheese on there. I used a double creme blue because that's what I had, but a better choice would have been a harder blue. For those who eschew blue, a firm aged Gouda would do, too.

I folded it back up and wrapped it in some prosciutto.

Then in plastic to firm up before sauteing. It's not necessary to tie or otherwise secure the roast as long as you treat it with tender, loving care. Until you slice it up and devour it, anyway.

Browned the prosciutto exterior in some olive oil, in an ovenproof pan.

Then it roasts at 350 until 150' or so- about 50 minutes for this one. The roast and juices were removed to rest. I cooked some sweet onion in the roasting pan until soft, then added some not-quite-ripe figs.

Deglazed with white wine when the figs started to soften,

Finished up with some chicken stock mixed with just a touch of cornstarch and a few drops of decent balsamic vinegar (always seems to go well with figs).

Dinner for us plus a special guest.

4 dinners

2008-12-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas season. My least favorite time of the year. I try to like it, but I guess it's just not in my nature to enjoy running around in the crappy weather, shopping under pressure, hauling out decorations knowing they just have to be put away in a few weeks, keeping the house neat with 2 little kids- my birthday- etc etc. Thank goodness I actually like cooking and baking or I'd be in even more of a funk. Anyway. Just to catch up, here's what we've been eating:

Red wine beef stew,
Tofu stir fry with black bean sauce and chicken,
My birthday dinner- my wonderful husband cooked!
This dull looking plate is a little NY strip steak with mushrooms and cauliflower cheese gratin. We had a salad, too.

Appetizers and Desserts for Wine Club!

2008-12-15T21:41:00.001-08:00

The second Friday of the month is my favorite Friday. Wine Club!!!

Ready. Bring on the wine!

Citrus curd meringue tarts. I have been so lame! Can you believe? This party was early December. No posts in weeks and I was doing a lot of cooking, too. And cleaning, shopping, hosting, wrapping...you know. But it's time to get back into it.

So, for the "Holiday Extravaganza" wine club we were doing a mix of different, unusual, and highly recommended wines from Tom at Waterford Wine Co on Brady St. Thanks Tom! I didn't know what to really plan for so I just did some old standbys and tried a few new things, too. My wine buddies don't mind being guinea pigs (or so they say). So: clockwise from the top- crab tarts with cream cheese and chives, Italian sausage stuffed mushrooms, a quick bread with bacon, dried pears, and Gouda cheese (not that good- a bit dry IMO), and a really nice, easy flourless chocolate ganache cake. I'll post the recipe for that later.

I served (from top) a 2 year old Gouda, double creme blue, and a white Stilton with dates and orange (from Trader Joe's).

Here we have those citrus tarts, and roasted fingerling potatoes with sour cream remoulade and smoked salmon.

The cookies: Swedish Pepperkakor, cranberry white chocolate shortbread, and raspberry almond butter bars.

Here is the savory Apple- Cheddar galette and the pineapple bread puddings with warm caramel drizzle. A big bowl of freshly whipped cream for the Ganache cake. Wasn't there something else? Maybe not. This was like my third day with the new camera so sorry about the photo quality.

OK- this picture is some the most fun, stylish, and interesting women in the greater Milwaukee area. We had 16 ladies but I couldn't get them all in! I had a great time and sampled some very offbeat yet traditional wines. I'm sorry I can't review them or even tell you specifics but I just wanted a nice, relaxing time drinking and chatting with my crew, so I didn't take notes.

Friday morning 2 am

2008-12-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

Friday was my wine club's Holiday Extravaganza, at my house. I tried to do as much as possible the days before- cookies baked,

Tart shells baked, caramelized pineapple bread puddings (and their caramel sauce) done,

A bunch of other cooking I got done early, too. The gateau (chocolate cake), the mushroom stuffing, the citrus curd for the tarts, the sour cream mixture for the smoked salmon things...

Here's a good tip: Set your table the night before. Get out all your serving pieces (those scraps of paper on them say what will be on that dish), your utensils ready, etc. This always takes me longer than it seems like it should. There's always something I can't find, or something that needs polishing. I hate being crunched for time so I always get set up the night before if possible.

The kitchen is somewhat cleaned, though still not ready for inspection.....

I'm going to bed.

Thanks Mac!

2008-12-03T13:04:00.001-08:00

So I remembered my laptop has a built in camera. I'm not exactly getting the hang of using it to take pictures of food, though- this is the best of, like, 10 pictures of the Red Beans and Rice:

It's cold and snowy here. I made a big pot of rib- sticking New Orleans style Red Beans and rice. First, I sauteed the "trinity:" onion, celery, and green bell pepper. Then I added garlic, one Usingers Andouille sausage (diced), tomato paste, Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning, and half a pound of red kidney beans. Cover with water and cook until the beans are soft- about 2 or 3 hours on simmer. Mash some of the beans with a potato masher, and serve over rice. I also browned some smoked Polish sausages and some shrimp to garnish the top- and a scattering of scallion greens (but everyone else polished off the Polish before I got home from Zumba).

That's me, tasting the broth. Can you say "Cheese?"

I am getting a camera in 3 days; and I am hosting our Holiday Extravaganza Wine Club Party this weekend- so hopefully I'll have some good stuff to post about coming up soon!!

Disaster

2008-11-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

Maybe it was my fault for thinking I could do two things at once. First I was making hummus and roasted eggplant/yogurt salad for dinner- to eat with pitas and some lettuce, tomato, and roasted red peppers. This is the cubed, roasted eggplant with the Greek yogurt, a bit of honey, toasted and ground cumin and coriander seeds, and some cilantro waiting to be chopped and added.

Then I was also trying to make a caramel pecan ganache tart for Thanksgiving, and a few extra pie crusts to stash inthe freezer. But, I had a would be helper who would not take "no" for an answer:

Eeew. Actually, she gets her love of butter from her Swedish side (that would be me).

Crust rolled out beautifully...

"UP!" "UP!" "UP!"
I thought giving her the camera would buy me a few minutes to get the tart dough into the pan. Too bad she had those buttery fingers. It fell on the floor, for like the 20th time- but this time it broke.

See you when I get a new camera, everyone!

Mustard Glazed Pork Chops

2008-11-30T22:03:00.000-08:00

I have carnivore guilt just looking at the picture. Thick cut, bone in pork chops with a sweet, smoky, and tangy BBQ mustard glaze, sweet potato and apple casserole, and plain blanched sugar snap peas.

I seasoned the pork with just salt and pepper, then seared them in a very hot saute pan. I didn't even need to add any extra fat since the chops were well marbled. Let me explain about that skillet- it's not dirty, really. That black stuff all over the sides is like the seasoning on a cast iron skillet. A permanent coating from cooking a lot, with very high heat. I don't even notice it since all the saute pans in restaurant kitchens are this way, but when someone- like my mom- tries to scrub it off I feel a little embarrassed about it so I thought I'd just put that excuse out there...

SO the chops are nice and brown and almost cooked through- I added a dollop of this BBQ mustard, a splash of white wine, a pinch of brown sugar and a glug of chicken stock and let it all boil down into a sticky intense glaze.

Previously, I had cooked some diced Fuji apple in butter and a pinch of allspice.

I folded the apples into some mashed sweet potatoes, spooned the mixture into a little Pyrex baking dish, and topped it with a scattering of buttered pretzel crumbs before popping it into the oven to crisp up. I'm a big fan of the crispy toppings, in case you hadn't noticed!

The chops and potato rest while I blanch the snap peas in boiling water. They only take about a 45 seconds to perfection.

Lasagna Bolognese

2008-11-30T20:35:00.001-08:00

This is an absolutely delicious lasagna. Unfortunately the photo of it is as a leftover. I made the lasagna on a night when we went to the Opera and left my parents in charge of baking and eating it while they babysat. I had the Bolognese sauce in the freezer so it went together in about 15 minutes.

First I made a roux- you know, equal parts flour and fat (in this case butter) cooked briefly together.

Then I added whole milk and brought to a boil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. I used about 1/3 cup each of butter and flour, and about 4 cups of milk. The sauce should be thinner than you might think, since the noodles soak up liquid.

Can I just say again how awesome those no boil lasagna noodles are? I never used to make lasagna until someone told me how well these work- now lasagna is a feasible everyday meal. So anyway, the bechamel (that's the milk sauce) gets layered with the Bolognese and the noodles.

Sprinkle some Parmesan on the top, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes at 350'. Then remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes or so.

Yum.

Steak Soft Tacos

2008-11-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

Adobo spice rubbed Flank steak, with black beans, seared peppers and onions, avocado, and fresh salsa on warm flour tortillas.

It's kind of messy to cook a flank steak on the stove top. The broiler might have been a better plan. Foil over the top keeps the spatters to a minimum and helps speed the cooking.

The ingredients for a little fresh salsa...

The peppers and onion cook while the steak rests...

And voila. I couldn't resist a little cheddar, too.

Funny thing about this blog. We just had something like this meal about 10 days ago. You see how you eat in reality, not just how you think you eat. I would have said we eat fish and vegetarian both about once a week-also I would not have thought that I repeat meals within the month- obviously, that's not exactly true.

Swedish PanneBouef

2008-11-22T12:15:00.001-08:00

It's like little meatloaves cooked on top of the stove, with lots of nice creamy gravy.

Back story: when I worked for a Swedish chef in NY (ha ha, like on Sesame Street), a lot of Swedish cooks came over to work there and live in NYC for a while. Like most fine dining restaurants, the cooks made a meal for the whole staff each service. Many of us enjoyed to chance to cook "family meal" for our colleagues, but sometimes time was tight and it became a real PITA. In any case, this PanneBouef was made occasionally by one of the Swedes. He'd grind up half of a Top Round for it. The panne evidently means "forehead" I guess- don't really get that- but since it's cooked in a pan it's a good enough name for a simple, quick dinner that most kids will love.

I actually ground up an enormous strip steak for this because I cooked its twin and found it to be less than stellar due to the fact it was frozen for a while. It was probably close to 1 lb. Then I added an egg, some breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, dried minced onion (from Penzey's- a decent substitute for when you don't want to bother sauteing a little onion for meatloaves or balls), Worcestershire sauce, a little milk...I think that was it.

I formed the mixture into 4 flattened ovals and browned them in a little oil. Then, I removed them from the pan and added sliced mushrooms to brown. You can see the ovals on the inverted pan lid on top of the Dutch oven. Anything to save a dish!

Then a little minced onion is added and just cooked through, and some beef broth mixed with a tablespoon of flour get whisked in and brought to the boil to thicken. A hit of heavy cream-

And to finish it I used a touch of stone ground mustard and some capers. The beef goes back in for a few minutes to cook through and get coated in the delicious sauce. On the side I served roasted sweet and new potatoes (photo is raw). This was one of those nights I go out and my husband eats with the girls. The nice thing about the PanneBoeuf is that it can rest there in it's gravy for a little while before dinnertime. Sour cream is good to use instead fo the heavy cream, but it must be added at the very end and not brought to the boil or else it might curdle.

Catching up

2008-11-20T22:39:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I posted so here's what's been on the table: Sunday somebody gave me a fresh 18 lb turkey (don't ask). I had thought to roast the whole thing, but then I came to my senses about having the carcass haunting me for the next week, so I broke it down. I froze the thighs and a breast, I made a nice broth, and I roasted the drumsticks, wings, and the other breast. From that, we got dinner plus leftover dark meat and most of the breast for sandwiches. I didn't take pictures and more's the pity because it was quite the spectacle, with raw turkey all over the counter and the little one pitching a fit to be included.

Monday I made a big calzone, like a stromboli even- roasted eggplant and peppers, spinach, sauce, pepperoni, and fresh mozzarella on a TJ's herb dough. Rolled it up and baked it about 35 minutes at 380'

Tuesday I used that roasted turkey to make Turkey and Dumplings according to my grandmother's recipe. Here is it in the pot-

And here plated.

I also made bagels. They were only OK- I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour which is supposed to be pretty much interchangeable with white, but I thought the bagels were a little heavy and slightly bitter. Bagels get simmered in sweetened water before they are baked.

The next night we had spinach and feta fritatta with marinated tomato and roasted peppers on crusty baguette.

Schnitzel, southern style

2008-11-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

Breaded pork cutlets with collard greens and mashed rutabaga.

I had bought a whole boneless pork loin at Sendiks because it was on sale. The thing weighed 8 lbs. I took off the trimmings for grinding- that was about half a pound, plus there was about a quarter pound of waste. Fat, etc. The remaining I cut into 4 chunks. 3 I froze. The last I cut into 4 cutlets, pounded to heck with the pointed side of the meat mallet to make sure it's tender and thin, and breaded. First I sprinkled them liberally with Penzey's Salad Sprinkle- chosen mostly for the garlic (I don't keep garlic salt but that's the flavor I wanted). Then, they get dusted in flour, dipped in beaten egg, and dredged in fine, dry breadcrumbs.

And pan fried in vegetable oil. This is a rare treat and it was SO delish!

First, though, I made the collard greens and rutabaga. Collards are possibly the toughest, hardiest green. They need long, slow cooking. Remove the central rib with a paring knife,

Stack and roll up all the leaves, and slice about half an inch thick. Then wash them well. I threw these in a pot with some water and a small amount of baked ham I had in the freezer. Covered, they took at least 45 minutes to get tender. Towards the end, remove the lid so the excess water can boil off.

Here is the rutabaga. The skin is thick and wax- coated. It needs to be peeled with a knife rather than a flimsy vegetable peeler.

First cut a slice off the top and bottom to stabilize it.

The rutabaga simply gets diced and cooked in salted water, then mashed with a large pat of butter. It's mild and quite tasty. Takes longer to cook than potato, and never really achieves that silken texture (unless you want to get out a blender or Cuisinart). Nevertheless, I like them a lot.

Beef Barley Soup

2008-11-17T21:06:00.001-08:00

A richly flavorful, thick broth with chunks of savory vegetables, tender beef, and hearty barley.

I started with about a pound of chuck, cut by hand into medium dice. That gets nicely browned (in bacon fat- mmmm), then celery, onion, garlic, and thick rounds of carrot are added and lightly sauteed. Next, some tomato paste, and paprika get added and cooked until the bottom of the pot is starting to have a nice brown "fond" (in other words, the juices are sticking to the pot and caramelizing).

This is how I store the rest of the can of tomato paste in the freezer. It's pre- chunked so I can just take a little bit.

The liquid for this soup is beef broth, red wine, and a little dried shiitake mushroom soaking water. Those shiitakes, some thyme, and the barley get added along with the liquids, and the soup cooks for about an hour. You have to dutifully skim the frothy stuff that comes up, otherwise your soup will look and taste a bit muddy and greasy.

Near the end, I added some white mushrooms that I had sauteed separately. I had a nice comforting bowl when I got home from a Mom's Night Out. It was just right.

On top of Spaghetti

2008-11-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

All covered with cheese,

I pulled out some meatballs

From the deep freeze.

My children love meatballs,

So I make a huge pot.

When I don't feel like cooking

They sure hit the spot.

Greek Steak Flatbread Wraps

2008-11-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

One of my husband's favorite meals, this is marinated flank steak (grilled in summer, broiled in winter) wrapped in a flatbread with some greens and a saucy Greek salad.

The salad is tomato, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives (one of the few flavorful varieties that are available pitted), feta, and some red onion in a quick balsamic vinaigrette.

When I use raw onions in salads I always cut them very thin with a sharp knife and then rinse them under cold water. It takes away some of the sharpness that can take over a dish.

The flank steak, marinated overnight in salt, balsamic, a touch of brown sugar, lots of garlic, and a little red wine. After broiling I let it rest, then slice it thin and toss the slices back onto the juices on the broiling sheet to get all that good flavor.

This is a pretty quick dinner if you use pita bread. I felt like cooking, though, so I made breads. First I made a "sponge" of a few tablespoons flour and about a cup of warm water. That sits for an hour or so to give the yeast a chance to get going.

Next, salt, olive oil, and the rest of the flour are added and it gets kneaded. Such a little bit of dough is easier to do by hand than cleaning the mixer, I find.

This is the "smooth and elastic" ball of dough before rising...

And after about 45 minutes. I cut it into 6 pc and roll it out into rough circles about as thick as one of those floor puzzle pieces- pretty thin.

If you try to work the risen dough into balls to get perfect circles, you will have to let it rest again before you will be able to roll it out. Dough seizes up when worked and your rounds will sort of shrivel back in if the dough is not sufficiently relaxed when you go to roll it out.

Then throw it right on your griddle or cast iron skillet. It cooks quick. You can roll the next one out while they cook. Probably no more than 2 minutes for both sides.

As they come off the stove, wrap them in a clean towel to stay warm and pliable. I cooked the breads while the steak was resting. Fresh cooked breads are awesome.

Frito Salmon

2008-11-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

It was serendipity. I don't even like Fritos, nobody here does. That is why we have the little lunchbox baggies of them kicking around the pantry. But as I prepared the BBQ sauce- coated salmon for the oven they just looked so naked and blase, I knew I had to add a crunchy topping. Buttered breadcrumbs don't have enough time to crisp up during the 10 minutes the salmon needs- it had to be something that was already crunchy, but that wouldn't soggify on the sauce. Fritos! Brilliant (if I do say so myself).

The side dish was sweet potato and Brussels sprout hash. First I cooked 2 slices of diced bacon til crispy, then removed the bacon but left the fat. Into the pan went diced sweet and new potatoes to brown. Meanwhile, I boiled the Brussels sprouts in salted water until tender, and drained. When the potatoes were soft, I pushed them aside and added the sprouts to get a little caramelization as well.

Finally I added some thinly sliced scallions and the reserved bacon.

Those salmon fillets took 10 minutes at 425'. I whipped up a little sauce from equal parts mayo and light sour cream with a chipotle pepper in adobo (which I pureed using the garlic press). It needed pinches of salt and sugar to balance the flavors. Some lime would have been good, too- but I didn't have any.

It's not hard to make a little parchment paper cone to drizzle the chipotle cream on in a cool professional looking design- but why bother? It tastes just as good sloppily glopped off a spoon. When I cook salmon like this in the oven, I always slide the spatula between the flesh and the skin and leave the gross skin behind on the foil so it doesn't get all mixed up with the good stuff. You can eat salmon skin for sure, but if you're going to do so, you would want to get it really crispy by searing it skin side down in a hot oiled pan.

To cut a papaya

2008-11-09T22:56:00.000-08:00

The papaya is ripe when soft to the touch and fragrant. It bruises easily so treat it gently.

Cut off the top and bottom, stand it on end, and use a sharp knife to take strips of the skin off, moving from top to bottom and lightly sawing with your knife.

Bisect the fruit and use a teaspoon to remove the seeds.

Fridge Stir Fry

2008-11-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

As opposed to, you know, shopping for dinner. In fact, there's a point when you're sort of obligated to make a stir fry or soup or curry because of all the odd bits of vegetables in the bin.

Pretty typical bunch of ingredients: onion, broccoli, shredded carrots, red pepper...there's ginger and garlic, soy, black bean paste, sherry, chicken broth and cornstarch to make a little sauce, and actually I put in some ketchup- only like 2T- to get that reddish sweet sour thing going on in the sauce.

Oh, and a single thin cut pork chop from the freezer which I marinated (soy, ginger, garlic, sherry, brown sugar) and seared first. It's easy to cut that thin when it's still partially frozen.

The pork comes out, the veggies go in. To use less oil, add a little water and cover to steam them tender after stir frying for a few moments. The thing is, all the vegetables have to be cut so that they cook in the same time. Or if not, add them in order.

The sauce stuff goes in and is brought up to simmer, and the pork goes back in. It looks a bit boring and brown, but it was tasty served on a blend of brown and red rices, barley, and rye berries.

Chicken Saltimbocca

2008-11-05T11:52:00.001-08:00

With sauteed garlic spinach and roasted red potatoes.

Traditionally Saltimbocca ("jumps in the mouth") is made with veal and a sage leaf. I used chicken breasts and a little Poultry Seasoning in place of the sage. I sort of half- butterflied the breasts: just used my knife to open up the thickest part of the breast. Then I dried them, sprinkled on the seasoning, pressed the prosciutto onto one side and around the edges, and pounded them to an even thinness with the mallet. The Prosciutto just sort of sticks. Right before sauteing them in olive oil, I dusted them lightly with flour and pepper.

Then, into the pan goes white wine, sauteed mushrooms, and capers.

Once the brown bits were scraped up and the wine was mostly boiled away, I just added some chicken broth with a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved into it to get a nice little sauce.

Having an issue with my photo software, but thought this was cute anyway- she finished hers and went right for mine. BOTH kids ate this all up!

Comfort Food- Chicken noodle casserole

2008-11-04T12:39:00.001-08:00

Typical Midwestern Home Cooking. This election has me all wound up and I wanted some creamy, simple comfort food.

Spaghetti, rotisserie chicken, sauteed mushrooms, celery, and onion. A hit of sherry and a nice white sauce (bechamel). Swiss cheese. Parmesan and almonds on top. Steamed broccoli on the side.

Stuffed Peppers

2008-11-03T12:35:00.001-08:00

Turkey and Rice stuffed Red Peppers with Honey Roasted Delicata Squash

I make a lot of winter squash for the beta carotene but I really don't love them. The Delicata is a fairly hard squash. Cut off the top and bottom to stabilize it, then use your knife to carve away swaths of peel from top to bottom.

Quarter, scoop out the seeds, and you are left with manageable pieces to work with. I sliced these into wedges, tossed with oil, salt, and pepper, drizzled with honey, and roasted, covered, with about 1/4c water in the bottom of the pan. Took about 25 minutes at 400.'

The peppers: par cooked rice, ground turkey, half an onion minced and cooked in bacon fat, and some poultry seasoning. For sauce, I used a can of plain "tomato sauce" with a hit of chicken broth (just to keep the consistency from getting too gloppy), and then I add rather a lot of good Paprika, brown sugar, and a splash of cider vinegar (also salt and pepper) to achieve a sort of sweet sour balance that I associate with the Eastern European feel of this dish.

I like to slice and fill the peppers lengthwise, like this ^. It's easier to make and to eat, and gives a better ratio of filling to pepper. These took about 45 minutes at 400.'

When I'm bad, I'm better

2008-11-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

Warm Salad of Duck Confit, Canelli Beans, and Dijon vinaigrette on Curly Endive.

They had duck legs at Sendiks. Easy enough to order a duck but you rarely see the legs out for sale. So I carpe deimed.

Duck confit is an old French cooking method where the legs are lightly cured overnight in a mixture of 1 part salt, 2 parts sugar (I used brown) and whatever seasoning. Pickling spice works well. For the 3 legs I used about 1T salt. Here they are the next day:

Then....the duck is slowly cooked in duck fat. Yeah, actually I DO have duck fat in back of my freezer from the last time I cooked a whole duck. Plus there was a good bit of fat on the legs (I removed before curing).

The duck simmers in the fat for a few hours, until it is super tender and the meat practically falls off the bone.

Here are the legs, resting. The leftover fat gets boiled until all the moisture is gone, strained, and refrozen. It's good fat to use for sauteing vegetables, particularly potatoes.

A can of cannelli beans, cooked with a splash of white wine, a tomato, and some shallot. Then the confit, a sharp dijon vinaigrette (using mmm...the brown goop that was in the bottom of the confit pan when I poured off the leftover fat). The whole was tossed with Curly Endive, a nice sturdy green that cuts a little of the richness of the duck.

So, this was the night when my 5 year old asked if the duck we were eating was an actual dead duck that had been killed. Uh oh....

Spinach Mushroom Phyllo thingies

2008-10-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Just wanted something I could make with stuff I already had, to go with leftover Lentil soup. I had the mushrooms because I was intending to add them to the Shepherd's Pie (but it seemed unnecessary once I saw how much filling there already was). And the spinach and cream cheese were from the enchiladas. Add some Feta- which I often have on hand for salads and such- some scallions and dried dill...

I was lucky to get a good batch of Phyllo. It can be hit or miss with that stuff. 2 layers, brushed with butter, then rolled up burrito style, and baked at 400' for 15 - 20 minutes.

I made 3 pastries and no leftovers!

Shepherd's Pie

2008-10-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

I had some frozen tri tip steaks from Trader Joe's and I wasn't sure how to cook them (sometime I'll have to tell you why I have so much frozen meat from TJ's). So I hedged my bets and minced it in the food processor for Shepherd's Pie.

The meat is browned; celery, carrot, and onion are added and softened, then some green beans, beef broth, and a spoonful of leftover tomato sauce go in. After all is tender, the gravy is thickened by a flour and water slurry.

I had help mashing the potatoes!

Ready to bake for about 20 minutes at 425' - just until lightly browned and bubbling.

Enchiladas with Green Sauce

2008-10-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

I don't really know how to classify this dish. I wanted to use some homemade tomatillo sauce I had in the freezer and make plain chicken enchiladas, but it wasn't going to be enough. Then I saw someone at the store put spinach into her cart and I thought "if I was a good mom I'd give my children spinach tonight as well,".... and also, a cheese craving struck.

It's a petty complicated recipe unless you happen to have some homemade tomatillo sauce, too...so let me just say the sauce was tangy and creamy, the filling was spinach, cream cheese,and rotisserie chicken shreds. Rolled up in corn tortillas...I finally gave up on trying to make decent enchiladas without frying the tortillas in a little fat before rolling them. My fat of choice? Dare I tell? It's actually lard leftover from frying carnitas. It is unbelievable. Use in moderation. You can get it at the meat counter at El Rey.

Here they are covered in the sauce and Monterrey Jack cheese,

And on the plate with frijoles refritos and a saute of corn, zucchini, and red pepper with some scallions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Protein Fix

2008-10-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Most of the time I don't even come close to the recommended 30% of daily calories from protein. Tonight I far surpassed that. The 3 most important factors to great steak at home are (duh) great steak to start with, using a well seasoned cast iron skillet, and letting them rest for at least 5 minutes before you cut them.

These strip steaks actually were not that great because they had been frozen. But they started out pretty good. I like to season steak liberally with Montreal Steak seasoning to get a really flavorful crust. Then they're just seared in a hot (and I'm talking about preheating your pan on high for 2 minutes hot) pan- turn on your fan- left undisturbed until they have that nice char, then flipped for a total of maybe 6 minutes for rare/med rare. This probably goes without saying but take them out of the pan to rest.

One big sweet potato, honey roasted. And escarole. That would be 'scaROlay if you're in my favorite Italian restaurant in Queens. I wanted to show how to cook it because I know a lot of people are unsure, and it's really tasty. Below is the head of escarole. Escarole resembles lettuce more than it does than sturdy greens like kale. Just cut it into pieces the same way you would cut leaf lettuce for a salad, if maybe on the larger side. Make sure the escarole is as clean and dry as possible. Then, it needs quick cooking over medium high heat in enough olive oil or butter to "dress" it.

Heat the pan, add good olive oil and a clove of minced garlic. Cook until the garlic loses its raw smell, about 20 seconds.

Then add the escarole. This is that whole head.

Toss it around with tongs for no more than 2 minutes, until it is wilted but not browning or completely withered. This is how much it cooks down. Only salt it at the very end because salt draws out the moisture and instead of having a nice juicy dish of lightly dressed wilted green, you'll have soggy lettuce water running all over your plate.

The finished product. Now way did we finish all that red meat- there was almost a whole steak leftover!

Eggplant- finally!

2008-10-23T20:29:00.001-07:00

I finally got to make the Eggplant involtini- slices of tender eggplant wrapped around creamy ricotta and napped with a quick fresh tasting tomato sauce, then topped with sharp provolone and browned in the oven.

The eggplant cut on the bias into 1/2 inch thick slices,

Rubbed with olive oil and lightly browned in a hot (450') oven for about 10 minutes,

Topped with the ricotta mixed with salt, pepper, and Parmesan. I LOVE the Grande brand ricotta. It's a local company and the cheese is fresh and delicate but flavorful. I smeared the eggplant slices with some pesto and put a slice of leftover roasted red pepper on top, too.

Rolled up, topped with with sauce (just a can of tomatoes simmered with some garlic and onion cooked in olive oil), and sprinkled with Grande Aged Provolone- a super awesome cheese that is smoked ever so lightly, sharp, and creamy. Don't drown these in sauce- it's better to keep some sauce hot in the pan fir the pasta than to have the involtini drowning and overwhelmed.

Ready to pop in the oven for around 20 minutes at 400' I served it with penne and a salad.

Lentil Soup

2008-10-23T06:21:00.001-07:00

My husband has issues with soup for dinner. I guess he automatically envisions a slosh of pallid broth with perhaps a meager crust of bread, then being sent to bed hungry. This is unfortunate, as I love soup. But old demons die hard. I can get away with chowders or bean/ pea soups, though. I decided to make Lentil soup because I found a bit of ham in the freezer (from a party ham) and I also had about 1/2 cup of corn from the other night that I could fold into some cornbread batter. It's not really so much about using leftovers as it is getting an idea from somewhere.

Here's the fixin's for plain old Lentil soup...

First, the celery, carrots, garlic, and onions get "sweated" (that means salted and cooked in a little fat until they soften but don't brown). Then the ham and some chopped tomato are added...

Then, the lentils, water, and a bay leaf...and the soup simmers for about an hour, until the lentils are tender. I used half a bag of lentils and got about 6 large serving of soup.

I added a cubed Idaho potato during the last 15 minutes, then pureed a few batches of the soup in the blender to make it smoother. Sometimes I feel like a soup full of whole beans or pulses is just a little too unappealing. Call me a prima donna but chewing your way through an entire bowlful can feel like health food penance. I like a base of silky smooth puree with lots of chunks of vegetables. One could cook the lentils long enough that they would just disintegrate, but then your other vegetables are mush as well.

One word of caution....don't fill your blender over 1/3 full with hot liquids. Ever. They tend to explode out the top and make a big mess.

I made a small batch of cornbread to serve with the soup. I love the recipe off the Quaker cornmeal box as a guide....I happened to use buttermilk and I added that leftover cooked corn, too. I find that half a recipe (for a 9 x 9 pan) bakes up perfectly in a 9 x 5 loaf pan. It's only about 2 inches thick, and my family can eat the whole thing...no leftovers!

Now the leftover soup is another matter....

Arroz con Pollo

2008-10-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

There's a gazillion authentic ways to prepare this popular dish. I used to work with a lot of people from the Caribbean- especially Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. They taught me how to make Arroz con Pollo their way. Normally I use chicken thighs, but breasts are lighter.

I tried another shortcut last night. Ideally, I would use a medium grain rice and a seasoning product called "Sazon Goya con Azafran," but the store had neither...it did have this Vigo Yellow Rice Dinner stuff, which I bought and used and it was pretty much OK.

This is the cured "Spanish" Chorizo, which is very different from raw Mexican Chorizo. The texture is more like pepperoni than, say, bratwurst. Look for Goya brand if you're not sure what to buy. You need to peel it and then slice it thin. It's more of a flavoring than a meat item in your dish.

I browned the 3 chicken breasts, then sauteed a red pepper, half an onion, garlic, and 1 chorizo link in the same pan:

Then the rice got added, the liquid called for on the package, and the chicken was tucked in there and it was covered to cook through. I removed the chicken when it was done (about 7 minutes into the 20 minute cooking time).

Rice is cooked- a final garnish of fresh cilantro and green olives gets incorporated...

The chicken sliced and added back to reheat for a few moments...

That's it. The whole bag of rice was a bit much for 3 chicken breasts and 2 adults/2 kids, but other than that, it was a good old favorite dinner for a chilly evening.

Spaghetti with Rapini and Scallops

2008-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

I had no idea what was going to be for dinner last night when I sent the kids down to the basement so I could cook it. I was confounded by the ruination of my plans to make eggplant involtini- there were no eggplants at Sendiks. So I grabbed a big zucchini instead and figured I'd come up with something using that and the fresh ricotta.

Well I didn't- but I did have some cooked rapini that I had decided not to use for book club crostinis- and some frozen scallops (from Trader Joe's- surprisingly good).

Rummaging around in the freezer I came up with a few slices of pancetta, which I cooked til crisp. Added garlic and the rapini, a little pasta cooking water and spaghetti:

The I seared the scallops in olive oil, deglazed the pan with white wine and a small splash of balsamic vinegar:

Like the sexy boudoir lighting? Oooh, succulent....I need to work on these photos :(

Anyway, it was pretty good, considering it was seat-of-the-pants cooking!

Book Club Goodies

2008-10-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

The book was "Mudbound," set in rural Mississippi right after WWII. Thumbs up on the book.

The most popular munchie was Cherry Almond Phantoms (recipe at bottom):

I also made Bourbon Apple Strudel,

Mini Brie and Apricot Mustard panninis,

And Prosciutto Parmesan Palmiers.

The Phantoms are really delicious cookies. The recipe was given to me by a very excellent pastry chef who used to work at the Hotel Metro. They are extremely fudgy and creamy in the center with big chunks of nuts, chocolate, and dried fruit. The exterior is a shiny, thin, melt in your mouth crust that barely holds all the goodness in. You can definitely switch up the chunks (for example- craisins, white chocolate, and walnuts). I've always liked this combination of flavors. though. Don't think it will be better to chop up the chunky stuff. Normally I'm not one for big chunks (like whole almonds) in cookies, but this recipe creates an awesome synergy between the ganache-like creaminess of the dough and the large chunks of nut and fruit. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Phantoms

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 t vanilla

8 oz good chocolate semi or bittersweet

1 oz butter

3 T flour

1/4 t baking powder

pinch salt

1 c chopped chocolate

1 c toasted blanched almonds

3/4 c dried cherries (if they are not moist, plump in hot water for a minute, then drain)

Melt 8 oz chocolate and butter. Cool to lukewarm.

Whip eggs and sugar with a mixer until thick and pale. Add vanilla, then melted chocolate.

Sift flour, bp, and salt, add to batter.

Fold in the chunky additions.

Chill batter about an hour.

Scoop onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet by rounded tablespoonfuls.

Bake at 350" 7-9 minutes, until cookies look dry on top.

Freeze if keeping longer than one full day. If you want to serve these at their peak on a busy day, try to just make the batter the day before, then scoop and bake the day of serving. Or, freeze as soon as they are cool. They freeze really well, actually.

Here's what beaten thick eggs and sugar look like. When you lift the beater, it forms a ribbon that dissolves slowly back in:

Variation on a Chicken Sandwich

2008-10-18T19:58:00.001-07:00

Whole wheat pitas with marinated chicken, roasted red pepper, tomato, lettuce, and a Turkish influenced yogurt sauce.

The sauce was Greek Yogurt (one of my favorite staples), cilantro, parsley, lemon zest, honey, salt, pepper, a touch of garlic, and freshly toasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds. Those last two are in the mortar there. I can practically see you rolling your eyes....but it's not that big a PITA. I have a little pan I only use for toasting spices so it only really needs to be wiped out, and my mortar and pestle are stored within reach. And it honestly makes a big difference in a simple sauce like this!

Chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) marinated in a bunch of stuff I threw in the blender (like olive oil, a pepperoncini, a few cherry tomatoes, garlic, shallot, wine...). They stay nice and juicy under the broiler:

Cheap, easy, pretty healthy...fo' real, baby. Peace out.

Butternut and Mushroom Lasagna

2008-10-16T12:22:00.001-07:00

Deliciousness accomplished.

I had some leftover cooked butternut squash that I decided to turn into a lasagna along with mushrooms, cheese, and bechamel sauce.

I sauteed white mushrooms in oil (I use Crisco oil rather than olive or butter so I can get the pan really hot and brown the shrooms), added some crushed garlic, sherry, and Penzy's Poultry seasoning- the sage and marjoram are great partners for winter squashes.

Bechamel is white sauce- you know, equal parts butter and flour cooked together, milk added, brought to the boil. I made about 4 cups with say 1/3 cup flour, for a 7"x 11" pan. The sauce for baked pasta dishes needs to be both more liquidy and more abundant than you might think. Here's the proper consistency:

The no boil lasagna noodles are great. Better than the regular kind, even without the convenience factor. I do always wet them with warm tap water before layering, so they soak up a little less sauce (because they do soak up sauce, you need to account for that in your layering). They expand, too...I never overlap them in the dish.

Layer 1: Sauce, pasta, squash, Parmesan, more sauce...

Layer 2: The mushrooms and some Fontina cheese, then more sauce....repeat...

Ready to bake.

The broccolini all nestled in the steamer. And then I ducked out and went to Zumba, leaving my husband to serve dinner to the children. I love Zumba nights. Sometimes a mom just needs to get the heck away, ya know?!?

When I came home there was plenty left. This lasagna was very, very tasty. I mean, throw enough cheese at anything and it's going to be good, but still... the squash gave it an extra creaminess and sweet flavor, while the mushrooms added an earthy tone and toothsome texture. The austere and slightly bitter broccolini was the perfect foil, on the side. You should make this.

Black Bavarian Beef Stew

2008-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Carbonnade a la Flamande is a traditional Flemish beef stew cooked in Belgian Ale. The first time I ever made this dish I was living half a block from the old Lakefront Brewery in Riverwest, and at that time they didn't bottle East Side Dark, only sold it in kegs. I walked over to the brewery with a plastic pitcher and they filled it up for me, poured me a few samples of their other wares, and chatted about food and beer for a while. What a bunch of nice guys, and though East Side Dark is still my favorite for this stew, any good dark beer will work. You can make it with Guinness for St Patrick's day.

I love to serve it with gnocchi (another convenience product I scorned back in the day).

This is a 1.4 lb Chuck Roast. You would never "roast" this in the oven. It's for pot roast and braises. The chuck is cut from the shoulder and it needs long, slow cooking to tenderize it.

I just cut into a few pieces to remove those large fat deposits, seasoned and floured it, and browned it well in a little oil.

Then the meat is removed and a whole large onion, thinly sliced, is added to the pot and deeply caramelized. This takes a while. You can add a bit of water if the onion begins to stick too much. Try not to add much excess oil since it's a pain to skim it off the top later. Salt the onions as they cook. They really do need to get that dark to add the proper sweet flavor, and then they pretty much dissolve into the sauce as it finishes cooking.

Then the beef is reintroduced, a whole bottle of Sprecher Black Bavarian is added along with a few allspice berries and half a bay leaf, and it gets simmered, covered, for 2 hours, or until the meat is quite tender.

Here it is. While the beef rested, I got all the fat off the top of the sauce, and I added some shredded carrots for a little extra sweetness and some beta carotene. They only needed a few minutes to cook.

It's so easy to pull it apart into large chunks. Then it gets added back into the sauce...

The cooked gnocchi is mixed in...

Oooh, don't you wish you could smell that steam?

Passed the kid test:

Yes, I do have 2 children, and I love them both equally. You will see the other one on this blog when she actually eats her dinner with anything approaching the enthusiasm of the little one.

And best of all- no leftovers!

Poached Cod with Beet Vinaigrette

2008-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

The vinaigrette is rather a shocking pink...

I had a wonderful beet vinaigrette with swordfish at Le Cite in NY (ages ago). I've also had a lovely halibut dish at Le Bernadine that was presented as a poached filet topped with dilled creme fraiche, then the server poured ruby borcht all over the dish at the table. So fish with beet sauce is not something I just made up. In fact the concept of light vegetable based vinaigrettes was pioneered by Jean Georges Vongerichten (of JoJo, Vong, the SPice Market) in NYC in the 90's. And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know.

I also made some healthy Kale and some end of season corn.

The vinaigrette was merely homemade pickled beets and a spoonful of mustard pureed in the blender, with a bit of vegetable oil drizzled in. It had a nice earthy, sweet and sour flavor.

The cod was poached in a light broth, flavored water mostly, with some wine, lemon, onion, parsley, pickling spice, salt, and some shrimp shells.

Here's the kale...the ribs.....the cleaned leaves and then the chopped. I sauteed it in a tiny bit of bacon fat, then added a little water and salt and slapped a lid on for about 20 minutes (on low). Then, when the kale is tender, the lid is removed and the excess liquid boils off. Sometimes kale needs a pinch of sugar to balance the bitterness. Don't be intimidated by the sturdier leafy greens. They're so good for you and really easy to cook. Kale is especially good in soups, as it can stand up to long simmering.

Cioppino

2008-10-13T12:05:00.001-07:00

Friday I got to go out to diner with a group of girlfriends! We dined at Casa Di Giorgio in Franklin. I had Cioppino, which is the San Francisco Italian community's answer to Bouillabaisse- a quick seafood stew with a tomato based sauce with wine and garlic:

This one was pretty good- the mussels, squid, shrimp and scallops were fresh and not overcooked. Traditionally you would find fin fish (snapper, usually) in this type of dish...however, I stay away from menu items with chunks of random fish, it often turns out to be leftovers that don't really belong. My only complaint is that the kitchen was a little heavy handed with the tomato sauce. The mussels release so much flavorful juice that you don't really need a lot of added sauce, and in fact there was so much, and it was so thick and chunky, that the flavor of the seafood was too diluted and the sauce lost some elegance and refinement. But these are quibbles- it was yummy and I scarfed it all down!

So-so Spinach Artichoke Chicken

2008-10-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

I love spinach artichoke dip. The hot melty kind, made with loads of mayonnaise and cheese. I thought I would apply the concept to a topping for broiled chicken paillards (breasts pounded thin). Unfortunately, I also thought I'd "lighten it up" a bit. Well duh- The charm of spinach artichoke dip is not in the healthy components. What I wound up with was not particularly light, not good enough to be worth it, basically pretty insipid dinner:

I still think this idea has merit, in a kind of populist, "Olive Garden" excess way, but you'd have to really embrace the gooey fatty aspect of the original dip. I mixed frozen chopped spinach, canned artichokes, and cream cheese, and used that to top broiled chicken breasts- then sprinkled Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs on top of that, and returned it to the broiler (on low) to heat up the topping and crisp the crumbs.

If you wanted to improve the dish: use fresh spinach sauteed with garlic in butter, add a generous dollop of mayonnaise to the filling, and make sure the ratio of vegetables to fatty goodness (mayo, cheese) in the filling was about 60-40 (mine was more like 80-20). Then saute the chicken in a pan, deglaze with white wine, put the topping on and stick it in a very hot oven, not broiler. That would give you the gooey rich effect I was trying to achieve, foolishly, without the gooey rich ingredients.

If there's anyone out there who has never faced down a butternut squash, here's the deal:

Cut off both ends, then use a good strong peeler to get all the skin and green fibers right under the skin off.

Scoop out the seeds in the lower portion with a tablespoon. It is one of the easier winter squashes to cut up because the neck is solid flesh. I like to saute it in butter, salt it, then add a little water and cover to finish cooking by steaming in the buttery liquid. Dry cooking can leave it a little too pasty in the mouth.

Now I have a lot of leftover cooked squash....

Ravioli? Risotto? Autumn Vegetable lasagna? Soup?

What would you like to see me make?

Turkey Hominy Chili

2008-10-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

I know. Yawn. Think of it as an early day of atonement- each serving had about 325 calories.

The two mildly interesting aspects of this chili are the use of a whole turkey thigh, and hominy.

That's one thigh, 1.5 lbs and $2.25. I take the skin off and then actually render some of the fat in the pot while I dice up the meat:

Here's the fat all ready, as soon as I get that gross looking skin out of there...

The meat gets nicely browned (one of the CIA mantras is "color is flavor"). Then a good dose of Penzey's chili powder....

The chopped vegetables waiting to go in...

When the veggies are soft, I add tomato paste and cook it until it is almost ready to burn on the bottom (caramelize it a bit- pincer is the French term)...

See, I threw the bone in there as well, to give it as much flavor as possible. At this point the liquid (broth) and tomatoes go in, and it simmers for a good 30 minutes or so.

Hominy is corn that is treated the same way as corn for tortilla masa (dough) is. It has that tortilla flavor and is very tender. It is a key ingredient in Posole, and I like it a lot in chili. I think it makes it more filling and although it is a caloric starch, it has a lot of fiber. I add the beans and hominy for the last 30 minutes of simmering.

Almost done...

Just get that extra fat off the surface with a spoon...

Call it dinner.

As usual, the 1 year old ate it all up while the 5 year old tried to get away with just shredded cheese and oyster crackers for dinner.

Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

2008-10-08T11:30:00.001-07:00

Jip Jip Rocks 2006 Shiraz, Limestone Coast, Australia. I think it was $12 at Binny's.

The wine was richly colored with a deep garnet hue -opaque in the center and translucent at the edges. Swirling the wine, it clung to the glass (nice legs, in winespeak- probably had something to do with the whopping 15% alcohol).

Right away I could smell spice, cranberry sauce, fig jam...it smelled like a Thanksgiving kitchen (without the turkey) or mulled wine. It had a rich, full flavor that lived up to the nose. On the palate it was clean, smooth, bodacious...almost jellylike without being cloying. Tannins were there but not overly aggressive.

After the wine opened up a little you really got some pine forest aromas: juniper, camphor (in a good way)...eucalyptus? Very classic Shiraz flavor profile. A nice expression of the Australian style with the grape (known in France as Syrah and in California as either Shiraz or Syrah).

I do like this wine a lot. It would be a good partner for pasta bolognese (the meaty kind, not the glorified tomato sauce kind). Maybe a bold poultry dish- turkey mole or jerk duck would bring out the allspice flavors as long as the dish isn't chili pepper hot. Blue cheese. Any combination of red fruit jam and strong cheese. The classic pairing of the grape is with lamb, and although I am not a fan of lamb I concede it would be perfect with lamb cooked with rosemary to compliment the piney flavor. Maybe a simple lamb kebab skewered on rosemary sprigs.

Oh yeah, dinner....we ordered pizza!

Tasty Cuban

2008-10-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, we're international baby!

If you're ever in South Beach after bartime and you need a greasy, salty, starchy, delicious something to eat- get yourself over to Puerto Sagua on Collins, and ask for a "media noche" (midnight sandwich). Or even a regular Cubano. Mmmmm. It's thin slices of well seasoned roast pork, ham, dill pickles, swiss cheese, and mustard (sometimes mixed with mayo) on a long, soft and airy roll, which is well buttered and pressed while grilling, like a pannini.

Which brings me to my leftover roast pork....

I use a Goerge Foreman grill for my paninis/Cubans. Works great. The Cuban roll is hard to find so I cheat on that - I keep a round loaf of Pan Turano in my freezer for paninis.

Yeah, THAT will help me drop the pounds...not! I have an excuse. Monday dinners have to be easy because I hit the gym that night. And I did have a salad....

My Fan in Japan

2008-10-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just look at this beautiful bacon and cheese etc. frittata made by a reader in Japan (ok, it's my sister).

Thanks Dr. Evans! Any requests? Gotta love this internet thingy ;-)

Black Bean Burgers

2008-10-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Rough night. The girls were determined to be underfoot. The 1 yr old tries to drag a dining room chair into the kitchen so she can climb up on it and either scald herself on the stove or fall off and knock her teeth out on the tile floor. Good thing I had an easy dinner planned: Southwestern Black Bean Burgers in whole wheat pitas. I don't have much for you in the way of photos, though, which is a shame, because I wanted to show how simple this healthy meal is to put together.

If you like falafel, you might consider giving these a try. Unlike falafel, though, they have a smooth, almost creamy interior which contrasts well with the pita and veggies. Here are the ingredients I planned to use, but I made a few adjustments as I went along.

Black Bean Burgers

1 slice of bread

1 clove of garlic

1 small shallot, or scallion, rough chopped

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 c chopped cilantro (loosely piled in there)

salt

chipotle peppers or hot sauce

1/2 t cumin

3 T mayonnaise

1/2 c melty cheese like jack, mozzarella, cheddar

Fine, dry breadcrumbs

Oil or -Mmm, bacon fat -for sauteeing

For Serving:

Pitas

Tomato slices

Lettuce

Salsa

Roasted peppers

Sour Cream

Get out your food processor. Tear up the bread and run it in the processor until it's like bread crumbs. Drop the garlic and onion in, and pulse until minced small.

Add the beans and seasonings and pulse until the beans are in small bits. Add the mayo and cheese and pulse just until well incorporated. You want the beans to retain some texture, but overall not too chunky.

Heat a nonstick saute pan over med, then film it with your fat of choice. Meanwhile, put some dry breadcrumbs into a dish and glop 1/4 of the bean mixture onto it. Gently roll and shape it into a patty, and transfer it gently into the oil. Repeat. These are fragile, they seem to get softer as they heat up, and you may need to add more fat when you flip them. The best is to get a nice crusty exterior and a creamy, melty interior.

Planning Ahead

2008-10-05T21:29:00.001-07:00

Kind of boring tonight. Roast pork loin with buttermilk mashed garnet yams and haricots vert (little green beans- sssh, they were frozen from Trader Joes). I have ulterior motives for the pork.

I like Penzey's Bavarian seasoning for this. Plenty of salt, too (kosher), then I brown the thing on all sides in my beat up old restaurant supply saute pan, and throw it in a 400' oven for about 50 minutes.

Sweet potatoes ready to be mashed with butter and buttermilk. The tang works well with the sweetness of the potatoes.

The frozen TJ's beans. I blanch them in that pan in shallow water, then drain the water off, add some cherry tomatoes, more butter (but not too much!) and Mrs. Dash. You know what I like about Mrs. Dash? I have no aversion to salt, believe me. But Mrs. Dash leaves all these appetizing looking specks of seasoning on your food. I dig that.

Make sure you let your roasts rest before slicing. This 2.25 lb roast (before cooking) needed about 10 minutes.

I just used the pan juices with a little white wine to dissolve them for a sauce. Usually that doesn't make enough, but we were only eating half the pork tonight. The leftovers I have in mind don't require sauce....

Teriyaki Glazed Salmon

2008-10-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a great way to prepare salmon fillets. It's easy and flavorful- the salmon has a sticky, intense, sweet and salty glaze clinging to it. It's not the kind of sauce you want to pour all over rice, so I served a nice warm potato salad and some steamed broccoli with it. And yes, that IS a huge-ass serving of salmon. I cut the fillet into 2 pieces to facilitate cooking it, then we cut the girls portions off the more done ends of ours (after this pic!).

This goes together fast so I have everything at the ready:

The vegetables? That's boiled new potatoes, and thinly sliced fennel and scallions. A little parsley waits on the side.

Right, that's a fennel bulb. Just cut off the stalks, halve it, pare out a central core which you will see, and the rest is fully edible raw or cooked. The teriyaki glaze is simply about 3T each brown sugar, sake or water, and soy sauce, and 1t each fresh garlic and fresh or ground ginger.

The salmon is seared on the first side on med high heat, about 1 1/2 minutes. With a good nonstick pan, you don't even need to add any oil:

As soon as it is flipped, the glaze is added. It will boil up violently. Turn down the heat to med. You can control the outcome of this dish with 2 things- a cover,and some water. If your glaze is boiling away too fast, that is, before the salmon is cooked, either add water or slap a lid on it to both prevent evaporation and raise the cooking temp.

Ideally the salmon should be a perfect medium rare just as the glaze is reduced to a deliciously syrupy consistency. Plan on about 8 minutes total cooking time. Flip the salmon over a few more times to really coat it with the glaze.

Meanwhile, I browned the potatoes in butter, then tossed in the other veggies just until crisp- tender. Steamed the broccoli- done.

Adults Only Pasta

2008-10-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

This is my husband's favorite pasta, and since he had to work beyond the girls' bedtimes last night, I made it for him: Cavatappi with Rapini, Italian Sausage, and Parmesan.

Rapini, AKA Broccoli Rabe, is a slightly bitter, sturdy green vegetable. It's packed with good nutrition but I find it's at it's best when not treated like a health food. It needs plenty of fat and salt (much of which comes from the sausage and the cheese), and it's best when cooked beyond al dente. On the left is the rapini with just the bottoms chopped off, the right has been stripped of the biggest, toughest, or bruised leaves. It's ready to cook.

Boil a big pot of salted water. Blanch the rapini for 3-5 minutes, until mostly tender. Remove the rapini and cook the pasta in the same water to save a pot.

Brown an Italian sausage in some olive oil, and break it up into small pieces. I use a spoon to smush it flat, and then I chop it with the edge of a wooden spatula. Add a couple cloves of chopped garlic and a dash of hot pepper flakes.

Right when the garlic starts to brown, add a glug of white wine or Vermouth. Then add half a can of chicken broth. When the pasta is nearly done, add the rapini and thicken the sauce with a bit of cornstarch (approx 1 T) dissolved in cold broth or water:

Ready for the pasta. Taste it. You might need salt, and a grind of pepper would be good about now. After the pasta is mixed in, you add a big handful of Parmesan and just let it soak up and get flavor- melded there in the pan for a minute or two. Serve more cheese on top.

I love this little tool. It's called a spider or a skimmer and it's so much more convenient than hassling with a big colander. The one in this picture is old enough to get married, in most states.

Chicken Breasts Tonight

2008-10-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made what I guess you could call a "Supreme du Volaille Nicoise" except for two things: I used Kalamata, not Nicoise, olives- and nobody would know what you were talking about.

I've never been big on naming my dinners. This was based on flavors you might find in the south of France, as well as Mediterannean Spain, Greece, and Italy. Or, as the case may be- kicking around the back of my fridge.

Chicken breasts

Olive Oil

Onion and garlic

Splash of white wine

Tomatoes

Stuff like- roasted peppers, artichokes, olives, sun dried tomatoes, capers, fresh basil.....

Chicken broth

I cut the chicken like this to get pieces that cook quickly and evenly. They get seasoned and browned in olive oil. Then they are removed from the pan, and the onions and garlic are lightly browned in the same pan. Turn the heat down and salt them to help them get soft before they burn. Then, you just pour in the wine and boil ot briefly, add the other stuff, and simmer about 10 minutes. Add the chicken back and cook it another 5 minutes:

Do you like polenta? It's such a tasty easy side. If you can make oatmeal on the stovetop, you've practically already made polenta. It's just a coarse ground cornmeal that cooks up in salted water to a kind of mush- but then you add butter and cheese (parmesan, here). Mmmm.

Make sure you cook it as long as the package says, and don't be afraid to add more water as it cooks.

Maybe you noticed I seemed to have cooked way too much zucchini last night? I did. So tonight, I topped the sauteed slices with Panko bread crumbs, parmesan, and olive oil; and broiled them:

It was good :)

Speaking of leftovers, I took a lot of the veggies I used tonight and the grain mix from the other night, and got a head start on my husband's lunch for tomorrow. I'll add some goat cheese and dressing before I pack it.

Hummus- don't buy it, make it!

2008-10-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

You can make the best Hummus at home, as long as you have a food processor. The secrets: blend it long enough to make it really smooth and creamy, and add plenty of extra virgin olive oil at the end.

Hummus

1 small can chick peas aka garbanzo beans

1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste, keeps months in the fridge)

juice of 1 lemon or to taste

1 clove of garlic or to taste, roughly chopped

1 t salt or to taste

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Drain and rinse chick peas. Put them in the food processor with everything except the oil, and process for a minute or two until really creamy. You may add about 2T warm water to get things moving.

Pour in the oil with the blade running and then turn it off. Overworking olive oil can give it a bitter flavor.

If you're too skinny, or looking to impress someone, (not, and not) - you can drizzle more oil on the top of the plated hummus and sprinkle it with paprika, parsley, or chopped olives.

Often you see hummus in pitas with raw salad vegetables- lettuce, tomato, cukes. I tend to prefer it with sauteed or grilled zucchini and roasted peppers.

To roast a pepper, those of you with gas stoves, put the thing right on the burner and blacken it on all sides:

When it's cool enough to handle, rinse the skin off under running water. If a chef asks, tell them you just scraped the skin off with a paring knife so as not to lose any of the flavor (eye roll).
Again, I quickly heat any kind of flatbreads right over the open flame. These pitas were in my freezer, and this technique really seems to freshen them up.

Dinner is served:
This meal is healthy, but don't kid yourself that hummus is low cal or low fat. It's not. So load up on the veggies, too.

The Ugly: Pork Mole Tacos

2008-09-30T12:04:00.001-07:00

It didn't start off ugly. I browned the country style pork ribs,

Added 2 T jarred mole (La Casita, but I've never used a kind I didn't like), salt, pinch of sugar, and chicken broth to come halfway up the ribs. I covered the pan and put the heat on low until those ribs were fork tender. This technique is formally called a braise. It took about 1 1/2 hours.

Then I turned the heat off and went downstairs to do a quick yoga tape.

I thought I turned the heat off...

Whoa, that's ugly. The sauce has all boiled away, it's starting to scorch on the bottom where it's stuck to the pan, and all the fat is seperated out. Yuk.

But wait- I can fix this. Ribs- out of the pan. Fat- poured out (you want to get the fat off anyway). Then I deglazed the pan by adding more liquid and scraping that browm stuff off the bottom. Fortunately, I got to it before it actually crossed the line to burned.

The right tool for the job: a whisk, to incorporate the coagulated bits o' flavor into the added broth. I did end up having to strain some unredeemable black chunks out of the sauce.

But all's well that ends well. The meat shredded up beautifully and was reintroduced to the rich mole sauce.
Tortillas heated up right on the burner to give a fresh charred flavor, and to make them warm and pliable....

And here it is. I like mine with (leftover) slaw, my husband prefers queso fresco and red onion. Another day I might use avocado slices with cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Something sharp and fresh tasting to cut the richness of the moist, flavorful meat is called for.

Try this with Turkey thigh instead of pork, if your market caries them.

Incidentally- Rick Bayless has a great recipe for real mole in his excellent book "Mexican Kitchen." You'll have to make a trip to a Latin food store, use multiple pans, blenders, strainers, grills, etc. You'll probably have to steel wool your stove after it simmers for the requisite several hours too. It's worth it. But not for a Monday night.

Vegging Out

2008-09-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

You can almost smell it, right? The aroma of curry is so enticing- the saffron, cumin, ginger and garlic....if your curry powder is old, though, it will smell like old lady house dust and taste bitter. Toss it and get yourself down to Penzeys for some fresh. I like the Maharaja blend. Did you know curry powder is a blend of spices? Turmeric, fenugreek, coriander, pepper...and probably many others. Each spice house makes their own unique blend. Most are not at all spicy- it's up to you to add heat.

To make this basic vegetable curry, you first sweat onions, garlic, fresh ginger, carrots (I like the shreds for ease), and bell pepper in a little butter. Add a generous dose of curry powder- there's about 2 t in the pot above- and stir to coat and cook the spices a little. Some of the flavors in curry only reach their full potential when heated in oil- that's why you should always add it before any liquidy ingredients. Then add some chopped tomato, cauliflower florets, and green beans, about a cup of water or chicken broth, salt, cover, and cook until the veggies are tender (above photo). To finish this curry off, thicken the sauce by stirring in about 2T flour dissolved in a bit more broth, bring back to a boil, then add about 1/2 cup of coconut milk (freeze the leftover milk). I added some cilantro and chopped cashews, too.

This is a great use for little bits of unused vegetables- you really can't go too far wrong. At the grocery store my little one grabbed a spaghetti squash and threw it on the floor, so I had to buy it and I cooked it last night as well:
I served the curry on this:
It's a blend of brown and red rice, rye berries, and barley. Compared to white rice it is slightly higher in fiber and protein. It took 50 minutes to cook, but it had a nice nutty flavor- not overly assertive, and a pleasantly chewey texture without requiring mandibles of steel like some whole grain products.

So will your kids eat vegetable curry? 1 out of 2 kids surveyed preferred it to hot dogs-

Linguini Clam and Asparagus Mush

2008-09-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

Linguini with white clam sauce: I actually have 2 basic versions. The other one has a chowdery profile with some kind of cured pork- bacon or pancetta- sauteed onions, and a touch of cream. This is the summery, traditional one. Clams, garlic, olive oil, white wine, parsley. I also use lemon zest, tomato, and mount it with butter (sounds dirty, eh?) for unctuousness. I know you want to say it out loud: Unctuousness.

There was a time I wouldn't dream of using canned clams for anything. It's really not that much harder to cook with fresh, but you have to make sure they're really fresh, and scrubbing them is a drag, not to mention clam shells in the garbage are raccoon bait.

I'm not really a fan of discernable bivalve guts, so I really love the little cockles that are the size of a quarter. Hard to find, though.

In any case, it's canned clams these days. The dish couldn't be simpler. The most important thing with liquidy brothy sauces, though- salt that pasta water well. It really makes a difference and if you've ever had unsalted bread, you know what I mean. Also dip out a little of the cooking water once the pasta is done. You may need it if the sauce needs more juice. The pasta water is the preferred extra liquid because it's already hot, it's salty, and the starch from the pasta gives it a little body.

Heat the garlic with a good bit of oil, then add some wine and boil the alcohol off. Add the clams, tomatoes, and cooked pasta. Allow to absorb for a minute or two, then add as much butter as you dare and work it into the sauce. Add some parsley and zest right before serving. This bowl is topped with some garlicky toasted bread crumbs, too. Yum.

I try to serve some vegetables every night. Tonight it was roasted asparagus and cremini mushrooms with those garlic bread crumbs and parmesan. Notice I didn't say "freshly grated paragiano reggiano"- though that truly would have elevated the dish.

Sharp Tools and Red Wine

2008-09-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

In professional kitchens, the cooks bring their own knife kits to the job. Most line cooks have a Japanese Mandoline, or Benriner slicer in their roll, even though any good kitchen will have a stainless steel French mandoline (about a $300 item) for general use. The French mandolines have slightly more uses- they can cut waffle weave chips, for example- but they are difficult to sharpen and clean. Benriners are hard to sharpen too, but they stay sharp a long time and cost about $20. At home, you might be able to use your food processor to slice vegetables for slaw, chips, or stir fry, but you won't be able to get them as thin as with a Benriner. If you see one in an Asian food store, you might want to pick it up. But beware- these things are incredibly sharp! I've seen a lot of accidents when cooks were not paying attention to their fingertips.

This is my Benriner and a mound of cabbage for slaw. The slicer has attatchments for cutting julienne (matchsticks) as well.

Well, I broke my diet and had a burger form the grill last night. My husband's request for a last taste of summer. I did make a nice slaw, though. Plain old coleslaw- savoy cabbage, red onion (TIP: rinse the sliced onion under cold water for a few seconds to tone down the harshness), yellow pepper and carrots, all sliced paper thin.

Basic Slaw Dressing:

1/4 c mayo

1/4 c buttermilk

1 t sugar

1 T mild vinegar such as Cider

salt, pepper, Mrs Dash if you keep it in the house.

This slaw dressing is very basic and can be customized as you like- with lime juice and zest and cilantro for a Southwest jicima slaw, or used in a Waldorf type salad- its all about the balance of sweet, tangy, and creamy.

Use red wine vinegar and add blue cheese to make a dip/dressing.

Sub sour cream for buttermilk for a richer texture.

Use rice vinegar and a splash of sesame oil for an Asian flavor.

Red Wine: AFTER sharp tools! This is a mixed varietal red from Stone's Throw, which is a vintner in Door County WI that uses CA grapes. I am usually a fan of Stone's Throw wines. This bottle was about $8 at Sendiks. I'm holding it against the mac to show the color. The bottle does not tell the types of grapes they used- from the color, flavor and mouthfeel I'm guessing there's Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, and possibly some Zinfandel. See how it is a brick red instead of a purple red? And you can see through it? The Bordeaux grapes- Cab S, Merlot...and Syrah for that matter-they tend to be more opaque in a young wine like this, and have a more purple hue. The first taste was thin, with a flavor of nearly ripe plums that had been sitting on aluminum foil. It opened up to some oak, strawberry, geranium, and rain on dry ground aromas. Very light tannins (the puckery mouth flavor) and decent acidity though it is fairly thin and one dimensional with a short finish, meaning the flavors do not linger in your mouth. Not a bad wine, it would pair well with pizza, chicken cacciatori, or pasta with cream sauces for those who prefer a red.

Leftover Wars part II: Frittata

2008-09-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here's news you can use: the Frittata. If you like quiche, or omelettes, you definately want to have fritatta in your repertoire. All you need are eggs, a nonstick saute pan, something for filling, and about 10 minutes.

When I last posted I was wading through an unappealing sea of insipid leftovers. Pizza made a dent, but I was left with this cast of less than appetizing characters for Thursday night's dinner:

That's corn and black bean salad, fresh salsa, grilled chorizo pieces, and a baked potato (I managed to wedge the tortillas in the freezer). Now might be a good time to mention that I am back on the diet wagon, determined to lose that damn 5 pounds I gained back this summer. That plays a big role in what I make for dinner, since calories count, Ladies and Gents. So something like a gooey, cheese quesadilla was out. I considered a chili/stew type dish, but if there's one thing I hate more than leftovers, it's when the leftovers have leftovers, and chili definately runs that risk.

I decided to grab some eggs and an onion out of the fridge and make frittata and green salads for dinner. Frittata is a great use for leftovers. It's also known (in some places such as Tapas bars) as Tortilla Espagnole. Its similar to a quiche filling but without all the cream- and no crust either which makes it much faster, easier, and healthier. Some good filling suggestions are spinach, cheeses, broccoli, smoked or leftover salmon, mushrooms, bacon or Italian sausage- basically little bits and pieces of anything!

The corn salad and fresh salsa were dumped into a saucepan and simmered until they coalesced into a chunky fresh tasting sauce. The onion, potato, and chorizo were browned with a bit of olive oil in my trusty nonstick saute pan:

Then you just add 6 lightly beaten eggs, scramble them until they start to solidify, throw the whole thing under the broiler just until firm- about 4 minutes cooking time total once you add the eggs.

Sliced and topped with the sauce, it wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten but it was a satisfying, reasonably healthy, light dinner. The kids ate it, too.

That plate was about 350 calories, freeing me up for some wine. One of my favorite websites for figuring calories is www.calorie-count.com

Leftovers: How do I hate thee?

2008-09-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

We are innundated by leftovers here. I really hate leftovers. They're boring and never taste as good. Who wants to eat the same thing twice? Not me. And yet, right now I really have to use some of the leftovers we have from my 5 year old's family and kid party. Here's why:

And that's just the upstairs fridge! For the kid party, we had make your own pizzas. For the grownup party: Cheese enchiladas, flank stak soft tacos, corn and black bean salad with roasted peppers, and avocado tomato salad. Here's a steak taco:

Last night I had kickboxing, so dinner had to be ready fast when I got home.

Fast+leftovers=pizza. It was ready to go into the oven as soon as the oven was hot, and while it cooked I made salads and cleaned off the table. You don't need me to tell you how to turn leftovers into a pizza!

Pizza with (leftover) marinara sauce, roasted peppers, black olives, fresh mozzarella, and turkey pepperoni. It is what it is.

Special Breakfast: Crepes with Nutella

2008-09-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Special Breakfast: Crepes with Nutella

I guess I loaded the photos in backwards. So the finished product is above, and the crepes coking in the nonstick skillet is below, and the little one "helping" is last although chronologically first. This blog is going tohave to be a crash course (self taught) on computer skills, or it must perish. There's got to be a better way than what I just did.

In any case. Crepes are a favorite breakfast around here. In a pyrex measure, mix 1/4 cup flour with a bit of milk to form a smooth paste. Add one egg, then enough milk to get the consistency of paint. Melt 1 T butter in a nonstick 9" saute pan and mix it into the batter. Now your pan is also greased and ready. Pour in just enough batter to swirl around and coat the bottom of the pan- cook until firm- flip- cook another few seconds. This makes me 5 crepes and takes about 5 minutes. Each crepe cooks maybe 30 seconds?

Fill with jelly, nutella, cottage cheese, berries....or just roll up and serve with syrup (we call them Swedish Pancakes if we go that route).

Above is the 1.5 year old with the batter. I actually named the blog after I saw these pictures and noticed the mess in the background. If I have to make sure my kitchen is tidy before I can take pictures, I might as well not even try.

Keeping it real in the kitchen

2008-09-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm "cleo"- a former professional chef turned suburban stay at home mom. I still love to cook but my priorities have changed. Gone are the weeknights of drinking a bottle of wine while spending 3 hours cooking dinner using 8 pans and 2 sticks of butter, and eating at 9:30. Now, I'm "keeping it real." That means less labor, kid-acceptable, and reasonably healthy. Inexpensive doesn't hurt, either.

This is my blog of what I'm serving my family for dinner- the good, the bad, and the ugly. If something is good- I'll post the recipe. If it's bad, let it serve as a warning. And if it's ugly, you can just snicker at the picture.