Food Geek. Being Geeky.

Avocado: A Love Story

2010-07-13T20:50:00.000-04:00

Seriously, is there anything more awesome than avocado? At this moment, to this writer, no. Oh man, do I love avocado. It's my new go-to item for when I want to add some richness and fat to a salad, but don't necessarily have or want meat. Or... you know, when I want to make super awesome sushi, or guacamole, or...anything. Once Alton Brown taught me (via Good Eats, of course) the safe and quick way to get the pit out, I never feared avocado again... and thus the great green love affair began.

So, let's talk about tonight's salad dinner. I won't say it's the absolute best salad I've ever made, but it was super delicious, and that's always okay in my book.

The fiance brought home a big bowl o' leftover Panera salad, which consisted of greens, a little bit of red onion, and a teensy amount of tomato and cucumber.

I added a couple handfuls of grape tomatoes, cut in half, a handful of fresh mozzarella balls (the little bitty ones, or you can use a bigger one cut into smaller pieces), cut in half, about 5 little red radishes, trimmed and sliced thin, a handful of sliced banana peppers (straight out of the jar), and one avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced. Then I sprinkled on a bunch of grated parmesan cheese, some red wine vinegar, a good pinch (or three) of salt, and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Instant Awesomeness! So you get the acidic bite of the vinegar, but it's mellowed out by the oil, and then you get this creamy fatty richness from the mozzarella and the avocado (which surprisingly enough, play VERY well together), and you've got the fresh crisp salad thing going on too. How can you go wrong?

I'm thinking I need to be adding avocado to every salad I make for at least the rest of the summer. It's going to be a good summer. =)

In Celebration of National Fried Chicken Day...

2010-07-06T21:36:00.001-04:00

Today, July 6, 2010, is National Fried Chicken Day (here's a link: http://www.mypunchbowl.com/holidays/2010/7/6/national-fried-chicken-day) ... which is just so amazing it's beyond words. I did not actually *make* fried chicken today, because I'd made fried chicken yesterday and I didn't want to eat the same thing two days in a row but I figured writing about it is just as good a way to celebrate =)

So... say that you have a recipe (buttermilk waffles, perhaps?) that calls for a certain amount of buttermilk, which is far less than the smallest amount of buttermilk you can actually buy at the store. Say you're scouring your brain for ways to use up that extra buttermilk, but you don't want to bake any more biscuits or pancakes, you don't want to make buttermilk mashed potatoes, and your fiance doesn't particularly like ranch dressing, so no point in making any buttermilk ranch. What do you do?

Well, if you're like me, you've seen lots of people on various cooking shows soak chicken in buttermilk before frying those bad boys. And you think... oh man, that's brilliant! (disclaimer: this is not a new recipe for me; I learned the buttermilk trick at least 5 years ago.)

The amounts here are approximate, as always, and I play a little fast and loose with the whole "frying" concept, mostly due to lack of appropriate frying oil and vessel. BUT - by the end of this, you will have 8 VERY DELICIOUS pieces of gorgeous looking fried chicken, so how can you go wrong?

The goods:
1 whole chicken, cut up (You can get it pre-cut up at the store, but make sure it's bone-in and skin-on. Trust me. It tastes much better this way.) ((If you're doing it yourself, make sure you end up with 2 each of breast, thigh, drumstick, and wing pieces))
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
Flour
Salt, Pepper, and your spice blend (dry rub, Essence, whatever) of choice
Vegetable Oil (If you have shortening or lard, go with a 50/50 mix of solid fat and vegetable oil)

The method:
1. Cover your chicken with the buttermilk. The absolute best way I've found (and I use this method to marinate EVERYTHING) is to stick the meat in a big (gallon-sized) zip-top bag, and pour in the wet stuff. Then get as much air out of the bag as you can, seal it, and you're good to go. Let your chicken soak for at least 2 hours.
2. Start heating your oil in a big deep frying pan. You want enough oil to go at least an inch up the side of your frying pan. (You can also use a good-sized Dutch Oven or cooking pot, in which case you're more deep-frying than pan-frying, and you want a heck of a lot more oil. Or if you're lucky enough to own a real deep-fryer, get the oil to about 350 degrees)
3. Drain your chicken. Drain it well.
4. Season your flour with several pinches of salt, pepper, and what-have-you.
5. Dredge your chicken in your flour mixture. Get it nice and covered, but don't just pack on the flour. Shake off the excess.
6. Once your oil is roughly 350 degrees, get fryin'!

- Here's where I start changing things up. I really don't have the resources or the patience to cook the chicken completely by frying it in oil. I find that by the time the chicken is done on the inside, it's too dark on the outside. I don't particularly like that. So what I do is just cook the chicken til it's a lovely golden brown on all sides, then throw it on a baking sheet and bake it in a 350 degree (preheated!) oven for about 20 minutes or so until it's finished cooking. How do I know when it's done? I stick a meat thermometer in right next to the bone and make sure it's 165 degrees. If you don't have a meat thermometer (get one! you can find them for nice and cheap at any good housewares store) then cut one open and make sure that all the juices are running clear and there's no trace of pink.

There you have it! You are now in possession of some seriously tasty, tangy, crispy, gorgeous fried chicken. Hey, remember those waffles I mentioned way back at the beginning of this post? They go great together. I'm serious!

Or, you know, you could be boring and just have this fried chicken with potatoes and gravy, or picnic-style with corn and coleslaw. =) At any rate, I don't make this often because it's not all that healthy, but if you're going to have fried chicken, you might as well make yourself the good stuff. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Buttermilk Waffles

2010-06-29T19:34:00.000-04:00

These are basically the best waffles ever. They came out super fluffy... possibly because of the buttermilk? And had this really great sweet/tart balance. Perfect with fresh fruit and whipped cream, and/or syrup.

... Chicken and waffles, anyone? This was adapted from Emeril's recipe for fried chicken and buttermilke waffles. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/fried-chicken-and-buttermilk-waffles-recipe/index.html)

The goods:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar (this is basically the only change I made to the recipe)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
a couple shakes of cinnamon

The method (in my words here; "real" recipes tend to get overly wordy):

Preheat your waffle iron.
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Mix the wet ingredients together.
Combine the two and mix well until there are no lumps.
Pour batter into waffle iron and cook until golden brown and slightly crispy.

Enjoy! =)

Chocolate Mousse: VEGAN!

2010-06-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

I posted last week on my twitter account that I had watched an episode of "A Lyon in the Kitchen" (this is not surprising or newsworthy) and that Nathan Lyon had made a non-dairy chocolate mousse that had blown my mind. There were three ingredients, I kid you not: silken tofu, almond extract, and chocolate. Amazing! Now, I am neither vegan nor vegetarian. I am, however, always on the search for new, interesting and healthy recipes, and I do have a certain amount of lactose sensitivity. So of course, I decided I simply had to try the recipe.

Here's the recipe, copied from the show's site at Discovery Health (http://health.discovery.com/fansites/nathan-lyon/recipes/non-dairy-chocolate-mousse.html):

Non-Dairy Chocolate Mousse (serves 4)

Ingredients:
14 ounces of 'silken' tofu, sitting at room temperature for 30 minutes
6 ounces of good quality semi-sweet chocolate, 62% cocoa, plus extra for shaving
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
Fresh raspberries, garnish
Fresh picked mint, garnish
Instructions:
Over low heat in a sauce pan or over a bain-marie with simmering water, melt the chocolate. Then in a blender add the tofu and almond extract; then on the lowest setting, blend until smooth. Add 1 teaspoon water if necessary to expedite the blending process. With the blender on the lowest setting, pour in the melted chocolate and using a spatula to scrape down the sides, blend until fully mixed. Spoon into serving dishes and chill in the refrigerator. Garnish with berries and mint.

--> Naturally, I had to tinker with the recipe. I doubled the recipe, since I hadn't read the "serves 4" part and on the show he'd only filled 2 glasses of mousse. Because of this miscalculation, I ended up with about 6 GENEROUS portions of mousse (I'd say about 8 oz each; which is really a lot considering how rich this dessert is)

I didn't use fresh raspberries or mint; what I did do was us some mixed frozen berries that I had on hand and let them thaw for a bit before topping the mousse with them.
Also, since no one I was serving was actually vegan or for any other reason avoiding dairy, I topped them with some home-made whipped cream.

The mousse was surprisingly good! Like, I knew it was going to be good, but this turned out amazing. It wasn't light and airy like a proper french mousse is, since of course there was no air painstakingly whipped in. But silken tofu is pretty light on its own, and it was definitely nice and smooth. Tofu also actually does have a flavor, albeit a very light one. So the mousse came out chocolately, and slightly sweet, and also just a bit tangy from the tofu itself. It was quite interesting. I found the almond flavor a little overwhelming, so next time I do this I think I'll go with half the amount of almond extract and the other half vanilla. Or just all vanilla, and toasted almonds on top. Yeah, that sounds right. Also I think rather than semisweet, I'll just go full-stop and use milk chocolate, because I like my chocolate mousse to be fairly ridiculously sweet.

All in all though, a fantastic experiment and something I'm really glad I tried. The only other vegan dessert I know how to make is vegan brownies, and that gets boring after a while. =)

Summer is a Time for Fruit

2010-05-24T21:59:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know, technically it's not summer yet. But it's warm and beautiful, and the air is heavy with promise, so I declare it summer.
Summertime is a time when I love eating cold foods - not just for the obvious reasons of "I don't want to have to heat up my kitchen" and "it's hot out so we should eat cold things to cool off" but also because there's a sense of rightness and joy about eat crisp, cool foods on hot days. I think it hearkens back to childhood, and cookouts with fruit salad and/or popsicles, and that feeling of innocence and that feeling that you can conquer anything ahead of you. But I digress.

Darren doesn't particularly enjoy eating cold foods when it's cold out, so while I am pretty much always in the mood for salad, summertime is when we really enjoy eating salads together. In the winter, he'll eat a salad, but he won't enjoy it nearly as much as I do.

The latest hot trend is to have a sweet salad instead of a heartier salad; have you noticed that? I started noticing several years back that more and more people were eating "harvest salads" which were mostly fruits, dried berries, and nuts over salad greens, rather than "chef salads" which involve deli meats and cheeses, and general a creamy dressing rather than a vinaigrette. I happen to like both types of salads (though I prefer chef salads, to be honest with you) and you can still find both types at most restaurants, but I'd never really thought about putting fruits and veggies together until then. Which is just ludicrous, really. One of the better known salads out there, the Waldorf, is mainly apples, raisins, and mayonnaise, sometimes served on lettuce, which pretty much breaks all the major salad conventions (if there are any - they may be all in my own crazy head.)

So where am I going with this?

About a year or so back I was feeling experimental, so I threw some diced apples and pears into a bowl with some salad greens, a light and sweet vinaigrette, some raisins and feta, tossed it all around, and served it to Darren and myself for dinner. It was not completely new; we'd had that type of salad before at Panera and as starters at a few weddings. But it was the first time I'd made one at home for us. And it was magic. The crispness of the apples balances what I consider to be a buttery texture from the pears, and then there's the sharpness from the feta, the sweetness from the raisins... and of course, some nice organic field greens for some extra filling and yet another balance point - I always buy a salad mix that has some nice peppery arugula in it (I love arugula) so there's all these different textures and flavors mixed in and you would think it would be chaos but somehow it comes together and ... it just works.

I did it again most recently tonight for dinner, and accompanied it with some crusty garlic bread (store-made, I was feeling lazy) and you just couldn't ask for more. Summer - salads, fruits, all fresh things that make you feel good about life. Embrace it!

Sprouts That Blew My Mind

2010-05-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

I've recently discovered that I do, in fact, like brussels sprouts. I just don't like them the way most people make them, which is boiled to death and then not properly seasoned. A few months back I had some rather lovely sprouts made by a friend who literally just covered them and microwaved them, and I thought they were awesome! I was shocked, because since they are, after all, one of the most reviled foods around, I was not expecting to like them. But since I can't ever in good conscience turn down anything before I've tried it, I took a bite, and then finished my plate. Good times! So since then, I have tried to keep a bag of frozen brussels sprouts on hand so I can cook them when I get the urge. Then last week happened.
I had been home sick for a couple of days, and during one of those days I happened to watch someone make roasted brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar, and I was VERY intrigued.
So cue a few nights ago, when I needed a vegetable to go with our tacos. For the record? Balsamic roasted brussels sprouts are AMAZING.

The goods:
1 bag frozen brussels sprouts
Balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

The method:
Bring some water to boil in a small saucepan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
When water boils, dump in the sprouts and cook for a few minutes (around 5 minutes, or as directed on package)
Drain thoroughly.
Toss into a baking pan with a few drizzles of oil and several splashes of vinegar. Shimmy and shake the pan a few times so that all the sprouts get nicely coated.
Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are lightly caramelized and they smell so good you can't resist them.

These are seriously awesome. The balsamic vinegar reduces so it's super sweet and balances perfectly with the slight bitterness of the sprouts. I sprinkled a light pinch of kosher salt over them, and then between me and Darren we ate practically the entire pan.

Yay!

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #8 (Assorted Crostini, the remix)

2010-04-25T15:44:00.001-04:00

Crostini - alternate view
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

In addition to the pesto crostini, my final project for the weekend was roast beef on sourdough... mostly because I really love roast beef and wanted to eat some.
I made up some wasabi mayonnaise (it's exactly as simple as it sounds) and put that into a bag I'd fashioned out of tin foil, then cut a corner so I could use that as a piping bag to get the nice squiggle effect over the top.

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #7 (Pesto!)

2010-04-25T14:32:00.001-04:00

pesto-caprese-2.JPG
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

Pictured: french bread, pesto, mozzarella and sliced tomato. I like pesto. It makes things taste fresh and clean, and it's actually a really simple recipe. All you need is fresh basil, good olive oil, garlic, shredded parmesan cheese, and a little bit of salt. The proportions differ based on personal tastes.

I rarely eat pesto though, because it's rather ridiculously expensive premade in jars, and it's hard to find a good price on fresh basil when it's not in season. So of course when I found big bags of fresh basil for a really good price at the market yesterday during my food adventures, I scooped it right up.

The method: I took the basil leaves off the stems and threw them in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of minced garlic, a good pinch or three of salt, and just a little bit of oil. Then I put some serious hurting on them with my handy stick blender. Once the leaves broke down some more, I added more oil bit by bit until I had the right consistency. Then I adjusted the garlic and salt levels.
You can also brighten up the flavor with a splash of lemon juice, or add pine nuts or walnuts for texture.

In addition to just being great on toast, you can serve this with pasta, chicken, shrimp, or mix it with mayo for a fantastic sandwich spread.

My favorite application is still the simple little crostini though. The beauty of its simplicity just makes my mouth happy.

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #6 (Waffles!)

2010-04-25T12:34:00.001-04:00

waffles
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

... Yeah, I got nothin'. There's not much that needs to be said, really. Respect your waffle iron and it will treat you right. Top your waffles with fresh fruit or lots of syrup, either way they are pretty fantastic. =)

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #5 (Hot Chocolate!)

2010-04-25T11:41:00.001-04:00

hotchocolate
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

Hot Chocolate is so many shades of awesome. I love hot chocolate and make it many ways - with milk, without milk, using real chocolate, using the powder stuff, adding fun flavors, etc etc.
This incarnation is using the powdered stuff. My trick is that I use roughly 2 to 3 times the amount of powder per portion that they suggest. I also added mini marshmallows and an Andes mint, which melted right into the mix, and topped it with whipped cream.
The end result, once it's cooled down enough to drink, is super sweet and creamy from the melted marshmallows and with a good hint of sweet mint flavor. It's like drinking a hot grasshopper. Or a hot liquid thin mint.
Life is good when there's hot chocolate to be had. =)

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #4 (Assorted Crostini)

2010-04-24T17:09:00.002-04:00

Turkey, avocado, tomato and pepperjack on sourdough
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

Crostini (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crostini) can describe any manner of what I like to affectionately refer to as "crap on a cracker." Start with some good bread, and the sky's the limit. I suppose if you want to be "traditional" or whatever then the toppings should be savory, but I feel like that's really more of a guideline than a hard rule, and if you want to mix your savory and sweet, then you should do what feels right.

Having really good bread is so key though. It's the base and basis of the dish, and the first thing that hits your tongue. I'm also a total starch junkie and I love fancy breads. I like ones that have a good balance between crusty and soft, ones that aren't all crumbly. Above all else though, they've got to taste good, because, really, that's the most important thing. I happened to luck out at today's jam, as there was a "When Pigs Fly" retail location within walking distance. I've seen their artisan breads for sale at my local supermarket but I hadn't tried them until today because they are on the pricey side and I really don't need gourmet sourdough for my PB & J or tuna sandwich. =) For crostini, however, I won't by anything less fancy than a good french bread loaf.

In addition to the crostini pictured, which is sliced turkey, avocado, tomato and pepperjack cheese on some fantastic sourdough, I did three others. I did simply avocado, tomato and pepperjack on the sourdough, hummus, cucumber and feta on spicy olive bread, and a bruschetta mix (tomatoes, basil and garlic) on french bread. The best thing about crostini is, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, is that the sky's the limit! Tomorrow I think I'll do something involving pesto and mozzarella, and if I can find the meat market a friend was telling me about, I'll get some roast beef and do something with a wasabi mayonnaise. I've also had cheese and fruit on french bread, which is always a welcome and tasty snack.

Crostini. Love it. Embrace it. It will not disappoint. =)

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #3 (Pigs in Blankets!)

2010-04-24T15:04:00.002-04:00

Pigs in Blankets
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

I love pigs in blankets. I really do. Just about any time you combine some sort of savory protein log (weenie, breakfast sausage, turkey dog, tofu dog, andouille, kielbasa... I'm not picky.) with some sort of flaky dough (pie crust, croissant crust, puff pastry) I'm a big fan.
Since today was actually National Pigs in a Blanket Day (I'm not kidding, I swear.) and I happened to be at a jam, I figured I would jam out some piggies. I was limited by what I'd bought (only 1 package of lil' smokies and 1 package of pie crust) and by the equipment (my little toaster oven that I'd brought in) but they still turned out phenomenally well and disappeared quickly. Hooray! :D

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #2 (Knives and Fruits!)

2010-04-24T11:37:00.001-04:00

Closeup - Honeydew Bowl
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually enjoy prepping foods that take a lot of cutting. I don't know why. I find cutting to be relaxing. I don't have to think too hard about it, other than making sure my fingers are out of the way, and when I'm done, my food is cut up. I especially love cutting fruit because it's easy. Good ripe fruits and good sharp knives play so well together, and there's no gross meat juices to have to deal with, and the peels just don't get as messy as like peeling carrots or potatoes.
Then I can get fancy (sort of), like I did here cutting a zigzag pattern into the honeydew and hollowing it out with an ice cream scoop to make a bowl. I did the same zigzag pattern for the strawberry crowns. In the background on the left, I took a paring knife to a whole strawberry and by not cutting all the way through, I was able to slice and spread the strawberry out into a pretty fan.

I think the beauty of cut fruit too is that it's so beautiful on its own it doesn't need a whole lot of work to make it look appetizing. It's fruit! Fruit is awesome.

DINO Jam: Food Jam Live Blog #1

2010-04-24T10:15:00.000-04:00

Darren and his smart-people friends do a thing called Game Jam, where people do game design projects over the course of a weekend - the general idea is to have a workable game prototype by the end of the event. I think this is a great idea for all art disciplines, and since I am not tech-y or art-y, but I am quite a bit food-y, I decided to throw myself into the mix and "food jam." This benefits me because I get a chance to really explore my relationship with food and tinker about, which I don't do enough of because I'm usually focused on the goal of getting whatever I'm making to the table to feed either my customers or my friends/family. Today, I'm not going to worry about timing, I'm not going to worry about multi-tasking, and I'm just going to tinker.
I'm limited by my space - I'm at DINO labs in Somerville and all I've got is my knives, a toaster oven, and a small refrigerator.
My goals are to have fun, make snacks, and record my thoughts.

Ready? Okay, here we go!

Corn and Green Bean Salad

2010-04-03T10:15:00.002-04:00

We had an impromptu cookout last night because the weather was gorgeous and... why not, really? I decided I needed to do something in the way of plant food, because most of my friends, as awesome as they are, are rather dedicated carnivores and I just don't like to have quite that much meat at one sitting. Or at all, really. But I knew I didn't feel like doing a green salad (wilts too quickly) or a potato salad (not actually veggies, but starch) so I ransacked my freezer and remembered this really really REALLY simple dish. Really.

The goods:
1 bag frozen sweet corn
1 bag frozen green beans (cut)
1 medium to large sweet onion, diced fine
salt, pepper, ground mustard, other spices to taste
2-ish Tablespoons butter, margarine, country crock, or whatever butter-flavored substitute you like.
1-ish Tablespoon olive oil

The method:
Get the olive oil good and hot in a big skillet or wok.
Add the onion, saute for about a minute or two.
Throw in your frozen veggies. Cook until everything is hot.
Add your butter (or butter-flavored substitute). Stir.
Add your flavorings. I went with a couple good pinches of salt, about 10 grinds of black pepper, three shakes of ground mustard, and five shakes of my favorite spicy dry rub.

Dish up and enjoy =)

Caramel Apple Topping

2010-03-24T18:27:00.003-04:00

This is kind of one of those all-purpose awesome sweet things. It can go over ice cream, crepes, pancakes, waffles, cheesecake, pastries, oatmeal... you get the idea. I made this originally to go with some awesome buttermilk pancakes that I made the other night, and Darren overwhelmingly declared it to be the best thing I'd ever made. Of course, he's been doing that a lot lately, since I've been tinkering more and more in the kitchen. But I'll take the compliment anyway =)

Of course, since I did this in a hurry and wasn't paying attention, there are no real measurements for this. It's one you can easily play with though, until you get it to where you want it. =)

The goods:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 fuji or gala apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced
2 fistfuls of light brown sugar
splash of maple syrup
3 or 4 shakes ground cinnamon

The method:
Melt butter on medium-ish heat in a small nonstick saucepan.
Throw in everything else and cook until caramelized, gooey, and awesome.

Enjoy! =)

Roasted Asparagus

2010-03-14T11:55:00.003-04:00

I love. Love. Asparagus. Really. I do. But I'm not a fan of steamed asparagus, because god forbid you steam it too long, and then it's all mushy and kind of gross and the whole house smells like asparagus for days.
Roasting, however, I am a fan of. It caramelizes the outside ever so slightly, which adds a nuttiness and sweetness to the asparagus which balances so perfectly with the slight bitterness of the stalks. It's not soggy. It doesn't make your house smell like asparagus. How can you go wrong?

The goods:
1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed.
olive oil
salt
pepper

The method:
- Preheat your oven to 425.
- Trim the ends of your asparagus. What I usually do is grab a stalk and bend it until it snaps. Throw away the bottom. Keep the top.
- Throw all that lovely asparagus onto a baking sheet. Drizzle generously with oil. (If you're super paranoid, you can hit the baking sheet with cooking spray first. It's not really necessary though.)
- Toss asparagus in oil until everything is nice and coated. Spread into a single layer.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper. I often also hit it with bacon salt or my favorite dry rub mix.
- Whack it in the oven. This is where things get a little imprecise, because I have never set a timer on my asparagus. Cook it until it's slightly browned/blackened just at the tips, and it is tender all the way through. This will usually be between 10 and 15 minutes, but seriously? Just be vigilant about checking on it. It will take longer if you've got big honking fat asparagus, and less time if you've got the really slender baby asparagus.

- When you've reached your desired level of done-ness, plate up and enjoy!

I also use this technique for roasting zucchini and summer squash that I've sliced up, and for haricots verts, which are delightful french beans. Try it! =)

The Tofu Manifesto... sort of.

2010-03-01T16:36:00.002-05:00

Let me just make sure to start off by saying that I'm not one of those militant vegan or vegetarian types. I'm not a vegetarian. I will never be a vegetarian. I have no interest in it.
But I do love tofu, which seems to often fool people into thinking I am vegan/vegetarian. I don't get it, but whatever.

Here's the thing about tofu, okay? If you like cheese, then you are being way hypocritical if you then bash tofu for being gross. It's not gross. It's simply soy milk that has had a coagulant (curdling agent) added. Those resulting curds are then pressed, or sometimes flavored and then drained/pressed. (source: wikipedia's article on tofu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu)
Sound familiar to you? It should.
At its simplest description, cheese is milk that has been curdled through addition of some coagulant. It separates into curds and whey. The curds are separated out, flavored, and pressed into their final form. (source: wikipedia's article on cheese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese)

So. If they're basically made the same way, how can one be gross while the other is a much-beloved part of almost every world cuisine? I respectfully assert that I may have just blown that part of your argument out of the water.

I will accept that a lot of people have issue with the texture or the flavor. In which case... Look, there's different textures of tofu. You can also get different *flavors* of tofu, where the manufacturers add herbs and spices and whatnot. So seriously, just keep trying until you find something you like. Not everyone is an equal-opportunity tofu lover like I am. I'm okay with that. But discounting the entire tofu world because you had one bland, poorly-prepared tofu experience? That'd be like me swearing off all cheese because I happen to not like Camembert. It's just a little unfair. (And then I wouldn't be able to indulge in Port-Salud, or Brie, or make pizzas or french onion soups or paninis... well, you get the idea.)

Plus, tofu is really really good for you. It's a great healthy way to get protein, and there's all those smart medical-types saying that people, women especially, should be eating more soy. So unless you want to just be eating soyjoy bars or drinking soy milk (which I find way too processed and sweet, at least around where I live) or snacking on edamame for the rest of your life, which are all great options but not all that exciting, you should really give tofu a try.

Now I don't claim to know a lot about tofu or even a lot of great ways to use it. But we do all have the internet, and the internet is great for finding things out. Here are some ideas off the top of my head though, that I have tried and really liked.

- silken tofu: use this to add body to your smoothies in place of yogurt. Throw some into your next batch of hot and sour soup or miso soup.

- soft tofu: just a little bit firmer than the silken stuff (which will pretty much fall through your fingers, it's that delicate) and I love using this instead of ricotta when I make lasagna. Also, I happen to really hate ricotta, but really love lasagna, so this makes me super happy. Just whisk up the soft tofu with an egg or two to help it really hold together as your lasagna bakes.

- firm tofu: this is what I use the most often. I've marinated it in chili powder and fried it up for delicious tofu tacos (and really, tacos for me are just a vehicle to see how much guacamole I can cram into my greedy mouth). I've tossed it into any and all sorts of stir-fries. I tend to cube this up and add it to my miso soup instead of the silken just because I like my tofu to be more regular-shaped and the silken harder to work with... and I'm lazy. I've made fantastic tofu appetizers by baking up some wonton cups and filling them with a mixture of tofu whisked together with soy sauce, garlic, and just a little sugar. It has gotten me at least one marriage proposal, from someone who has never and will never be romantically interested in me.

There's also the super-pressed tofus, and tofu tempeh, and that stuff seriously cuts like steak. It's what many people think of when they see "meat substitutes." And let's not forget the fantastic sweetened fried tofu skins, which are one half of the ingredients for inari sushi. (The other ingredient being sushi rice.) And of course since we are in the Western world, there's tofu hot dogs, ground tofu, soy burgers, etc etc etc.

So really what it boils down to is that you have to have an open mind, and you have to keep trying. You won't like it all. Not even I like it all. But I do love tofu in most forms, and I think you should too.

Chocolate Filled Croissants

2010-02-13T09:29:00.002-05:00

So I totally meant to write my massive tofu manifesto this week, but you know how life is and you lose the thread and then you get distracted... suffice to say, it didn't get written.
But I did watch an episode of Julie Child's "The French Chef" the other day wherein she made croissants the old-school way. I decided then and there that while I love croissants and that was a fantastic episode to watch, I so do not have the patience to ever actually MAKE croissants.
But I figured that in honor of Valentines Day and all things French seeming vaguely romantic, here's a great cheating way to make something fancy and nummies for your V-Day breakfast or brunch. Or anytime, really.

The goods:
1 can of pre-made croissant dough (or "crescent rolls")
appropriate number of mini ("fun size") chocolate bars, or one big chocolate bar broken into appropriate number of pieces

The method:
Separate the croissants along those handy perforations.
Before rolling, stick a hunk of chocolate onto the wide end.
Roll up according to directions on package. The only added step is to try to seal up the chocolate so it won't ooze all over your baking sheet.
Bake according to directions on package.

Yummers! You get the soft flakey buttery croissant goodness, PLUS a little surprise of chocolate in the middle.

How much better can life get?

The Beauty of Bechamel

2010-01-28T16:55:00.003-05:00

So last week (MLK Day, to be exact) I had the day off from work and was idly catching up on cooking shows that I'd recorded on my lovely DVR, and lo and behold, two separate chefs had done bits on caulifower au gratin. Me being easily suggestible as I am, I was struck with the intense urge to make cauliflower au gratin for dinner that night. So I did, and it turned out beautifully, and life was good. As we were cleaning up, Darren and I got into a conversation about how awesome cheesy sauces are and how they're so needlessly intimidating.

So here's the thing: you can accomplish a lot - in fact, probably most of anything you want a cream or a cheese sauce for - with a bechamel. And people get all freaked out because it's a French word, and that MUST mean it's complicated, and good lord, it's one of the MOTHER SAUCES, so that's intimidating, and really, honestly? Swear to god, it's actually harder to learn how to PRONOUNCE bechamel, than it is to make it. (By the way, the pronunciation is BEH-sha-MEL) For the super-geeky like me, here's the Wikipedia article on Bechamel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechamel

Here's the simple, easy way to make it:
1. cook equal parts of flour and butter together until it forms a paste, froths just a little, and just starts to smell nutty. Or at least, stops smelling like hot raw flour. This, by the way, is a roux, and it is your BEST FRIEND in many sauce and/or soup applications.
2. slowly add in milk, either stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or a whisk so there are no lumps. At this point, I like to add about a shake of ground mustard, and a good pinch or two of salt and pepper. Because I can.
3. simmer.

See? That's it. I stopped measuring my milk for sauces once I finished culinary school, because it just doesn't need to be that exact. Want a thick sauce? Less milk. Want a thin sauce? More milk. Accidentally added too much milk? Simmer it for a little longer, or make up a smidge more roux and add it in. It's actually pretty forgiving, as long as you're mindful of your heat level and don't scorch it.

And there you go. Now you have bechamel.

What can you do with a bechamel? Darlings, the possibilities are mind-boggling:

1. The cauliflower au gratin that started it all: Steam about a head of cauliflower for just a couple minutes until it's tender. Cut it into bite-sized florets. Throw it into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle liberally with cheese. Any cheese. I had on hand some pizza mix and some shredded parmesan. Pour in some bechamel. Cover with bread crumbs and bake till golden and bubbly.

2. Scalloped potatoes: Peel and slice some potatoes. Throw it into a greased casserole dish. Cover with bechamel. Top with bread crumbs and bake till golden and bubbly.

2a. Potatoes au gratin: When your bechamel hits a simmer, throw in some handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and incorporated. The sauce can take more cheddar than you'd think, so don't be shy. Go until it tastes good. Once you have your cheese sauce, the preparation is virtually identical to the scalloped potatoes.

3. Creamed spinach: Thaw some frozen chopped spinach, and drain the heck out of it. Actually squeeze the water out of it. With your hands. Trust me. Once it's as dry as you can get it, saute it in some butter. And some garlic, if that's your thing. Make up a thicker bechamel, and throw in a dash of nutmeg. Add your bechamel to your spinach, stir to combine, and heat the whole thing through. (Oh my god, this is good.)

4. Mac and Cheese: Remember that cheddar sauce from two paragraphs ago, for the potatoes au gratin? Yeah, use that. Add a dash of worcestershire sauce and your favorite hot sauce to kick it up a bit. Pour your cheddar sauce over cooked pasta and mix gently to combine. At this point you can dig right in, or if you prefer baked mac and cheese, throw the whole mess into a greased casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and guess what? Bake until it's golden brown and bubbly and delicious.

And you don't always have to do something hardcore with bechamel. Stir in some stone-ground mustard and serve it as a lovely mustard sauce over pork chops. Stir in a load of parmesan cheese and some tomato sauce, and you have fantastic faked-out pink sauce for pasta. Add a bunch of garlic, some oregano and thyme, and you've got sauce for a white pizza. Thin it out with just a touch of chicken stock and you've got a fantastic creamy gravy for poultry or mashed potatoes.

Or you could go REALLY hardcore: Do a white lasagna. Make a moussaka (which, by the way, is my favorite Greek food of all time. More than gyros, and THAT'S saying something.). Saute up some mushrooms and onions, add just a smidge of sauce to bring it all together, and use that as a crepe filling, with more silky creamy awesome bechamel over top. Okay, I'm drooling.

So that's it. Bechamel. It's easy. It's beautiful. It's very, very French. Do I think you should eat it every day? Oh lord, no. It's incredibly rich. But it shouldn't be intimidating, and no one's dinner menu should have to suffer for lack of it, because it's nowhere NEAR as complicated as people fear it is.

... Okay, I'll get down off my soap box now.

Veggie Fried Rice

2010-01-17T22:31:00.003-05:00

The beauty of fried rice is that you can really put just about anything into it and it'll still be okay, because at the end of the day it's just rice with stuff stirred in. It's the kind of smorgasbord cooking that's great for cleaning out freezer and/or pantry items. Or getting fancy. Either way, it's always faboo.

Note: I am trying to eat less meat, so I tend to make my fried rice without any. If you want to add meat, cook it first, cool it, cut it, and throw it in towards the end to just warm through with the other ingredients. Throwing raw meat into a hot pan with cooked rice? Just not something I'd recommend or be comfortable with. The timing involved in making sure the meat cooks while the rice doesn't burn boggles my poor feeble mind.

Anyway, on to the rice! ... Or today's version, anyway. It changes often based on my mood and what I have on hand.

The goods:
3 cups COOKED and cooled rice (that's 1 1/2 cups uncooked, but seriously. cook it first. also, jasmine rice is my rice of choice for this application.)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 to 2 cups frozen lima beans
1 8oz package cremini mushrooms, sliced
vegetable oil
3 eggs
sesame oil
soy sauce (low-sodium is okay!)
sugar

The method:
Grab a wok or your biggest skillet, get it hot.
While your wok is heating, you can be chopping your vegetables. Time management, yay!
Once the wok is hot, drizzle in about 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (2 to 3 turns around the pan)
Let the oil heat up while you scramble your eggs. Add a pinch of salt to the eggs.
Throw the eggs into your hot, oily wok. Once it starts to solidify a little, start stirring it around to break it up. Just like scrambled eggs!
Once the eggs are mostly cooked, add the vegetables. Stir often so nothing burns and everything cooks evenly. Cook until vegetables are tender but not mush, maybe around 5 minutes.
Add rice and mix it all up. Let rice heat up for 1 minute or two, stirring all the while.
Drizzle in about 3 tablespoons of sesame oil.
Add in soy sauce to your tastes. Let the whole thing heat through.
Right at the end, stir in a good sprinkle of sugar to take the bite off the soy sauce.

Enjoy! =)

Seared Salmon over Salad Greens

2010-01-12T19:55:00.003-05:00

Continuing what is apparently a trend, I have a delicious pile of seafood over some salad greens. In my defense, wild Sockeye salmon was on sale at the market this week, and I had salad greens left over from last week. ... Okay, so that's not really a defense. Either way, Darren and I were both highly pleased with the results. =)

The goods:
8 oz or so fresh salmon filet (skin off or on, your choice.)
extra virgin olive oil
salad greens, two or three good handfuls
1 teaspoon spicy or dijon-style mustard (I used Dr. Gonzo's Adirondack Black Fly)
1 teaspoon honey
apple cider vinegar, just a splash
salt
grill seasoning or dry rub, preferably spicy (I used Dr. Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub)
dried dill (optional)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, diced, and tossed with some lime juice
nonstick cooking spray

The method:
preheat oven to 425 degrees
use this time while the oven preheats to get your chopping done.
generously rub oil onto both sides of salmon.
sprinkle salt, grill seasoning or dry rub, and a little dill on top.
crank your stove up to high and slap down a good skillet, oven-safe is preferred. If you have a good stainless steel one, use it.
Once your skillet is screaming hot, spritz it with a tiny amount of cooking spray and slap down your salmon (flesh side down first, if you've got the skin on still)
THIS WILL SMOKE. HAVE YOUR FUME HOOD ON. TRUST ME.
Jiggle your pan a little so the salmon doesn't stick. (between the oil AND the cooking spray, you shouldn't have a problem.)
Cook salmon for about a minute or until the flesh just barely starts to blacken.
Flip salmon, jiggle again to make sure it wont' stick, and immediately throw it in the oven. (NOTE: If you don't have a skillet that you can put in a hot oven, flip the salmon into a pie plate or cookie sheet that's been sprayed with cooking spray.)
Cook salmon until firm and it flakes when you apply pressure. Take it out of the oven as soon as you think it's close to done - remember, it will continue to cook for a little while after you remove it from the heat, and overcooked salmon is just not as good as properly cooked salmon.
Build your vinaigrette: Whisk together the mustard, honey and cider vinegar. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while whisking, until you have your desired consistency. Add a pinch of salt if you like.

Assemble salad:
toss greens in vinaigrette to lightly coat leaves. divide up between two plates.
top with tomatoes and cucumber. If desired, lightly sprinkle some salt over top.
Cut salmon into two even (mostly) pieces and put one on top of each pile.
Top with avocado. Serve with a warm pita on the side, if desired.

If you want to go really crazy, add a little dollop of sour cream on top.

Dig in and enjoy =)

Pineapple Salsa

2010-01-05T21:18:00.003-05:00

This is great over grilled turkey, grilled pork, with chips, and with the shrimp salad mentioned in the previous post. =)

The Goods:
1 pineapple, peeled and cored
1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1 anaheim pepper or 2 jalapeno peppers, ribs and seeds removed
1 red onion or 3 shallots, peeled
lime juice
sugar (optional)
salt

Then method:
Finely dice everything. Seriously. The smaller and more even you can get it, the better.
Mix together your pineapple, peppers, and onion or shallot.
Add lime juice and a pinch of salt.
Taste it. My pineapple was a bit under-ripe so I added a couple pinches of sugar to bring out the sweetness of the fruit. Adjust seasonings according to taste.

The end! Don't you love salsas? =)

Grilled Shrimp over Salad Greens with Pineapple Salsa

2010-01-05T21:08:00.003-05:00

I don't necessarily think I need to explain this one too much: I wanted shrimp, and I wanted salad. =)

The Goods:
1 lb shrimp (I ended up getting the 40/50 size), peeled and deveined
~2 cups pineapple salsa (recipe to follow in next post)
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 avocado, pitted and diced
several handfuls of your favorite salad mix: mine is organic baby greens mixed with some baby spinach
lemon juice
lime juice
1 tsp honey mustard
salt
pepper
sugar
extra virgin olive oil

The Method:
- While your grill (or broiler, or George Foreman) is heating up, marinate your shrimp. Put them in a bowl with some lime juice, olive oil (about 2 Tablespoons each) and a good pinch of salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
- Assemble your citrus vinaigrette: in a large bowl, whisk about 1 and 1/2 Tablespoon each of lemon and lime juice with the 1 teaspoon of honey mustard until well blended. while whisking, slowly drizzle in extra virgin olive oil (about 3 ounces, or 6 Tablespoons). Whisk in a good pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt. Taste. Add more salt or oil (or juice) to taste.
- Get your shrimp cooked. I used the George Foreman. It took only a couple minutes. Cook until the shrimp is nice and pink.
- Assemble salad: Add your handfuls of salad greens into the bowl with the vinaigrette, toss gently until all the leaves are lightly coated. Plate up. Then on top of your greens, spoon on the pineapple salsa, the tomatoes, and the avocado. Arrange shrimp on top. Hit everything with a light sprinkle of salt.

Dig In! This made two dinner-sized salads, or it can make 4 to 6 appetizer salads. Enjoy! =)

New Year, Same Resolution

2010-01-03T19:59:00.002-05:00

Every year, I say to myself that this will be the year I finally stop being a lazy bum, and blog more often, and explore more recipes, etc etc etc.
... Well, here's hoping this time it sticks =)

This year I've asked my lovely fiance Darren to help keep me honest about blogging, and keep me on task, and save me from the depths of my own inertia. So hopefully you'll be seeing more from me. My goal was originally to post every day, but I know that's well nigh impossible, so I'm going to go for the more attainable of a new post every week. That gives me a whole week in which to tinker around with food in the hopes of coming up with something I'm proud enough of to share with the whole wired world.

So here's to a new year -- a year full of cooking, and laughter, and fun, and to lots of tasty new discoveries! I can hardly wait!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter FUDGE!!!

2009-12-06T20:33:00.002-05:00

I adapted this from a PB Fudge recipe I found on allrecipes.com
But I added CHOCOLATE! ... which made it like ten times better. and AWESOME. Did I mention awesome? This fudge has actually been fought over. I wasn't there at the time so I don't know whether it was in jest or actually fighting, though I'm sure it was play-fighting and not real. At least I'd like to believe that my friends aren't that violently dedicated to my food. Especially since this is hands-down one of the easiest recipes I've come across and I can whip it up in about 20 minutes. Then cool it for a night. SO SIMPLE.

The Goods:

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup milk

7 oz marshmallow fluff (1 small jar)

1 1/3 cups smooth/creamy peanut butter

6 oz chocolate chips (I really like the super-mini morsels, they melt a little faster)

The Method:

Boil milk and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Immediately stir in the marshmallow fluff and peanut butter. Stir until it's all smooth and incorporated.

**note** as soon as you add the fluff and PB to the sugar, get the chocolate chips melting in the microwave. whack it in on high for 2 minutes, stir, then 1 minute, stir, repeat until you get it beautiful and smooth and liquid.

Pour and spread PB mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 glass baking dish.

Pour in melted chocolate and stir gently to create a marbled effect.

Cool completely, overnight is recommended, before cutting and serving.

This is rich and super sugary stuff, so I cut one pan into 48 pieces. Trust me, those pieces are NOT too small. =)

Yummy Easy Bruschetta!

2009-11-17T21:14:00.002-05:00

I love tomatoes. Darren loves tomatoes. I love garlic. Darren... not so much, but still.
When we're short on time and/or inspiration, but still want something filling and tasty and perhaps a little off the beaten path, this works out really really well! Tonight I made bruschetta with artichokes and mozzarella, and served it atop some awesome four-cheese ciabatta I found at the grocery store =)

The goods:
2 vine-ripe tomatoes, medium to small dice
1 tsp or so minced garlic
1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh mozzarella, medium dice
1/2 cup artichoke hearts, rough chopped (I got the marinated stuff from the olive bar at the supermarket =))
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
several shakes dried basil
salt & pepper to taste
splash or two of red wine vinegar

nice crusty bread, sliced, drizzled with olive oil, and toasted

The method:
mix all the stuff together, taste and tinker with it as needed, serve on top and/or with crusty bread.
Enjoy!! =)

Musings on meat

2009-11-07T19:35:00.003-05:00

I eat too much meat. I'm beginning to think that we, as Americans, living in the land of plenty, simply tend towards it because it is so readily available. And tasty. But we eat too much of it, and it's bad for us and the environment to do so.

However, I'm not ready to give it all up completely. And to be honest, I don't think I ever will. I like having the freedom to have some sort of animal flesh if I want to. I just know that I shouldn't do it as often as I do.

With that in mind (and being inspired by my recent adventure at the Boston Vegetarian Society Food Festival) I'm thinking of cutting down my animal consumption to just once or twice a week. It's not really a big sacrifice and it definitely helps Darren and I get more healthy veggies and grains into our diets - which is awesome. It will also encourage me to expand my repertoire, and we all know how much I enjoy tinkering in the kitchen.

Budget-wise, this is also a good move for us. We've been trying to trim the fat, figuratively and literally, from our lives, and let's face it: meat is expensive. Unless something is on crazy sale, you buy a pack of steak and a couple pieces of chicken for dinners for the week and you're already up to ten or so dollars. Ten dollars gets a whole lot of great fresh and/or frozen veggies, with the added benefits of all those vitamins and fiber and not all that fat and cholesterol. (Sorry if I'm getting preachy, but I'm just running through my thought processes for the past week) I just can't see a downside to cutting down on our meat consumption.

So our new plan of attack at the grocery store is to stock up on produce and only buy 1 animal protein per week. 1 pound of ground turkey, 1 can of tuna, 1 pound of steak, or 1 small chicken, you get the idea. I almost always end up with leftovers when I cook so 1 package of meat will invariably translate into 2, maybe 3 nights worth of food. And that is cheaper, and still a generous amount of meat to consume. I'll pad out the rest of the week's meals with tofu and veggies. And there's never anything wrong with a nice grilled cheese sandwich and cup of tomato soup. =)

So that's it. Sorry if you were expecting something more earth-shattering or tasty (or both) from me. Promise I'll faithfully put up recipes if/when I discover new and exciting things.

Thanks for tolerating my brain-dump. =)

Tarte Tatin, and other French things!

2009-09-27T00:23:00.002-04:00

TarteTatin2
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

So I decided randomly that today was going to be French Cuisine night at my house for dinner.
Starter: French Onion Soup (Gratinee Lyonnaise)
Main: Coq Au Vin with Smashed Red Potatoes
Dessert: Tarte des Desmoiselles Tatin (apple tart!)

It was my first attempt at this particular pastry and I am quite proud to say it came out looking just like the picture in my old textbook. Go me! =)

Baking Madness

2009-09-13T21:42:00.003-04:00

Two very good friends of mine are getting married next Sunday. Because I am awesome, insane, or awesomely insane, I am doing their wedding cake. Luckily for me, they want a cake that tastes like cake and not fondant. And lots of strawberries. But that's awesome.
So this week is going to be interesting for me. And quite crazy. But I think I'm up to the challenge, and I'm relatively positive I can do it without losing sleep.
My schedule looks something like this:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: After work, make 1 batch of cake per day. This will net me 1 cake per day or thereabouts dependent upon which size pans I'm using that day (5 cakes of varying sizes on a cascading tier set-up). And since it only takes a few hours do bake 1 cake, I should be able to get done and cleaned up well before bedtime. After the cakes are cooled, I will be tightly wrapping them and storing them wherever I can find space between my fridge and freezer.
Friday after work: Kidnap bride-to-be and go shopping for ridiculous amounts of whipped cream and strawberries for the cake's gorgeous outside. It's going to be an amaretto-whipped-cream frosting. And lots of strawberries, did I mention that? =)
Friday night: make 1 of 5 batches of frosting, assemble cake layers (end up with 5 layered cakes as opposed to a sea of individual cake layers), start cutting strawberries
Saturday: Make up the rest of the frosting, finish cutting strawberries. Make some sugar cookie letter blocks if I have time.
Sunday: Arrive at wedding site bright and early armed with cakes, berries, spatulas, and aprons, frost and decorate outsides of cakes, place strawberries, and RELAX.

See? Sounds like a lot, but it's totally doable. =)

Mushroom and Broccoli "Jasma-sotto"

2009-09-02T17:04:00.002-04:00

So yesterday I had a rough day and came home wanting risotto, which is pretty high up on my comfort food list. Unfortunately, I was totally out of arborio rice. Cue sadface. I did have jasmine rice though, so I figured I'd use the risotto method on the jasmine rice. Worst that could happen was that I end up with kind of soupy but still tasty rice.
Luckily, that didn't happen. What I ended up with was a really close approximation to a standard risotto, a bit less creamy because jasmine just doesn't have enough starch to release, but nice and thick and wonderful all the same. A little milk and parmesan cheese and it was just as creamy and gooey as I'd ever want it. I win!

The goods:
5ish tablespoons unsalted butter
1ish cup button mushrooms, sliced
2ish cups broccoli florets
1 cup jasmine rice
4 cups chicken stock or chicken broth, hot
1/2 cup milk (less or more, depending on preference)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese (less or more, you get the idea.)

The method:
In big skillet or wok on medium-ish heat, melt butter.
Add broccoli, saute for about a minute.
Add mushrooms, cook mixture until mushrooms are soft.
Add rice, cook, stirring constantly, for 5ish minutes or until rice grains are translucent
Add 1/2 cup of stock, cook, stirring, until all stock is absorbed.
Repeat. Keep adding stock in 1/2 cup increments, making sure each batch is absorbed fully before the next addition. Turn down the heat a tad if it's going too fast.
After the last of the stock is absorbed, turn off the heat.
Add milk and parmesan to desired consistency. Taste, and add salt and pepper if necessary (I use a fantastic brand of chicken stock so I didn't need any.)

Blueberry Trifle, the quick and dirty way

2009-08-13T21:10:00.003-04:00

I like trifle, but damned if I'm going to spend an hour making a custard cream every time I want some.
Sort of related: Darren and I went on our annual blueberry-picking trip a week ago. Now we're swimming in berries (most of them have been frozen for future use)

So, here you go, almost-instant blueberry trifle. No measurements, just go by what you like.

The goods:
angel-food cake or pound cake
vanilla pudding
whipped topping
blueberries

The method:
Okay, hold onto your hats, this one's REALLY complicated!
1. grab a vessel of your choice. casserole dish, trifle bowl, wine glass, whatever.
2. layer ingredients: cake on the bottom, then pudding, blueberries, whip, and more berries. in that order.
3. repeat, if desired and/or there's room left.

DIG IN!

This is great for those lazy nights where I want something sweet but can't be bothered to do any real cooking. =)

on veganism and experimentation

2009-07-31T20:18:00.002-04:00

About a year ago I experimented with vegan brownies because Darren's mom was visiting, and she is had gone almost entirely vegan but still loved chocolate, and I couldn't very well deny her baked goods simply because I always bake with eggs and milk. They turned out pretty well.

I'm a dedicated omnivore and an equal-opportunity animal-parts-and-products consumer, but I do know vegans and vegetarians, and I always make sure to keep them in mind when I entertain.
That being said, there are some vegans coming to my party tomorrow night, and I need to make sure I can have some snackies on-hand for them. Since I'm far too lazy to actually make up labels on what is vegan and what is not out of my normally dairy-laden hors-doeuvre fare, I figured this time around I would just make primarily vegan-friendly snackies and call it a day. It helps that it's the dead of summer and I can get away with setting out cold veggie trays, which would be more refreshing and welcomed. I hope.

I have made fantastic hummus and baba ghannouj for years, so I'll definitely do that. The vegan brownies too, because they're actually so easy it's almost retarded. I think I'll also do a quick bruschetta mix, that way I can just do up a bunch of garlic toasts and veggie sticks for the 3 dips and it'll LOOK all fancy and work-intensive, but it really won't be.

I do want to do some sort of fancy baked item though. I was thinking some sort of blended soft tofu mix served inside wonton cups. I've found some easy methodology on teh intarwebs to make the wonton cups. For the tofu I think I'll just mix it with some soy sauce, garlic, and a bit of sugar. It's a slight variation on a tofu salad my mom always used to make on the really really hot days in cali. Hmm... maybe some shallot. Mom always used scallions, but I can't be arsed to buy an entire bunch of scallions when I only need like one.

Of course, it can't be a Vickie party without a big pot of something spicy and cheesy. That will NOT be a vegan option, duh. But instead of the usual pot o' meaty-beany mess, I think I'll do a modified fondue. I'll use broth or beer, but use a blended cheese instead of swiss (I actually don't much care for swiss) and I'll add a crapload of my favorite spicy comestibles... because I can.

So that's what I need to get accomplished within the next 23 hours. And cleaning, and hopefully some sleep somewhere in there. It'll be a piece of cake. =)

DONUTS!!!

2009-07-05T22:47:00.002-04:00

I wish I could post the recipe since it's fabulous, but it's copyrighted material from my baking textbook so I can't. Suffice it to say, the recipe in there for yeast-raised doughnuts? FANTASTIC. I did not have any mace in my cupboard so I substituted a little clove and nutmeg. They came out delicious =)

Also, I have discovered that my double-tall corazon shot glass make the perfect size cutter for donut holes. Which in the end were much easier than making full donuts.

Good thing it's a 3-4 hour process, or I fear I'd spend all my time making donuts and getting fat. =)

Super-Decadent: Bananas Foster

2009-06-21T21:19:00.002-04:00

I don't think I need to say more than Oh. My. God. =)

The Goods:
4 oz unsalted butter
4 to 5 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 to 4 bananas, peeled and sliced lengthwise (and cut in half, if desired)
99 Bananas liqueur
ice cream (classically it should be vanilla, we used chocolate ice cream laced with fudge swirls to fantastic effect!!)

The Method:
- Get a decent nonstick skillet warm, melt butter
- add brown sugar, stir, heat and until it's melted and slightly bubbly
- add bananas, cook for 30 sec to 1 min and flip over
- add a couple tablespoons of liqueur, let that bubble for about 10 seconds
- TAKE SKILLET OFF THE STOVE. Light the alcohol fumes. THEN you can put the skillet back on the heat.
- swirl the sauce around until the flames go out.
- put bananas in bowl, top with ice cream.

You can add cinnamon and/or nutmeg to the sugar as it cooks, but I like it so much just plain like this that I'd be hard-pressed to even want to try to improve it. =)

A Testament to Healthy AND Decadent!

2009-06-05T22:48:00.004-04:00

Health and dietary concerns mean that I shouldn't eat pasta nearly as often as I want to, which sometimes makes me sad. However, it has been lots of fun finding ways to satisfy my belly's cravings while not killing my diet and/or my health.

SO... I had some awesome leftover tomato sauce (this one, in fact) and I thought I could modify a Chicken Parmesan to make it (a) healthier and (b) AWESOME. Know what? I SUCCEEDED!!

Kicked-Up AND Simplified Chicken Parm, serves two (plus extra.)
The Goods:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
flour
salt, pepper to taste
1 spaghetti squash, roasted.
3-4 cups of your favorite marinara sauce, homemade or not.
mozzarella, shredded
parmesan, shredded (and some grated, if you like)

The Method:

First things first -- I roasted the squash a day in advance so I wouldn't have to come home tired and hungry and then spend 2 hours on dinner. It's a good trick.

1. Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out as much of the seeds and stringy crud as you can. Place face down onto greased baking dish/baking sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for an hour, or until a fork easily pierces it.
2. Let cool. Seriously.
3. Scrape out squash with a fork. See how it's kind of stringy like spaghetti? Awesome. Cool and store until needed.

The day of:
1. Pound chicken breasts until about flat and only about 1/2 inch thick. (also, at this point preheat your oven to 350)
2. Get your best skillet and heat oil (I use a blend of canola and EVOO) over medium-high.
3. Lightly dredge chicken in flour (seasoned, if you like); shake off excess
4. Fry chicken until lightly browned on both sides, transfer to greased baking sheet.
5. Top chicken with sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan. However much or little you want.
6. Bake chicken in oven while you finish up the pasta.
7. In same skillet as before (pour out some oil if you have too much; you only want about a Tablespoon or two of oil now) lightly saute shredded squash until warmed through.
8. Incorporate the remainder of your marinara until everything is warm and happy. Add salt, pepper, red pepper, whatever to taste.
9. Plate up! Plunk down some of your spaghetti squash marinara, place a piece of simplified chicken parm on plate, grab your utensils and go to town.

Darren, who normally doesn't enjoy pasta in tomato sauce, loved this dish. The squash adds a little bit of sweetness that really counterbalances the acidity of the tomatoes. It's awesome!

Holy Guacamole! ... and chips.

2009-05-18T20:18:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I enjoy a good chunky guac as much as the next person, but I'm generally not patient enough to finely dice every ingredient and mash it all together with a fork to get those good chunks. I find it easier to just whack things into the food processor and call it a day.

I made one of my best batches of guac ever the other day; part of it was I happened to luck out on some really stellar avocados at the store and part of it was the addition of a few extras:

The goods:
2 ripe avocados, peeled, pits removed, and cut into large chunks.
1/2 yellow onion, peeled, rough chopped (or cut into chunks)
2 small jalapenos, ribs and seeds removed, cut in half
about 4ish ounces of plain yogurt
salt, lime juice to taste

Whack the avocados, onion, and jalapenos into your food processor or go at it with your stick blender. When most of the avocado is broken up, add yogurt until it reaches desired consistency. I opted for a good thick one this time around since the last time I way overdid it on the yogurt and ended up with an avocado sauce and not a good guac. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Goes really well with homemade tortilla chips and pita chips. Speaking of which.....

The goods:
small flour tortillas, cut into wedges
pitas, cut into wedges and split into single layers
canola oil
BIG deep thick skillet (you want a good thick one that will hold its heat really well)

Pour about 1/2 to 1 inch of oil down into skillet. Heat oil to roughly 350 degrees. (Useful trick: if you don't have a high-temp thermometer, use the stick end of a big wooden spoon. Stick the end down into your oil, if bubbles come up along the sides of the wood, your oil is hot enough.)
Drop chips in the oil a few at a time, making sure not to crowd the pan. Fry for a few seconds on each side until they just barely darken in color and get crispy. Remove to paper towel-lined pan. Sprinkle salt over top while oil is still bubbly and hot.

Once cooled, go to town!

Breaded Eggplant Bliss

2009-05-09T16:37:00.003-04:00

This is an adaptation of something that we used to use at a place I used to work at, and that's about as much detail as I can give.
Anyway, breaded eggplant slices are wicked easy, as I've discovered, and can be used for many things and that is AWESOME.

The goods:
1 big eggplant, sliced into roughly 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices
salt
flour
egg wash (2 eggs and a splash of milk)
bread crumbs (I used Italian bread crumbs, which is flavored with herbs and romano cheese)
canola or other good frying oil
skillet

The method:
lay out eggplant slices on a rack over the sink or on a plate, liberally salt both sides. Let rest for at least half an hour. This takes the bitterness out of the eggplant and helps it fry up nice and tender.
rinse eggplant slices under cold running water.
dredge in flour, then egg wash, then breadcrumbs. Yes, this is a standard 3-step breading procedure.
fry in hot oil until nice and crispy golden brown on both sides. Drain on some paper towels and lightly season with salt or dry rub or whatever.

If your eggplant slices are on the thicker side, once your slices are golden brown you can finish them in a 350 degree oven for like 5 to 10 minutes.

Service options... Sky's the limit!
Great with sauteed spinach and mushroom risotto, makes fantastic eggplant parm sandwiches, good on pizza. Go hog wild!

Pork Chop Hat Trick

2009-03-19T17:26:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the extended absence, all 1 of you that still reads this thing =) Life has been busy, and assorted other lame excuses. Anyway.

The first time I made this recipe, I loved it and vowed that I would actually measure things the next time, so I could post an accurate, real and good recipe. That clearly didn't happen. The second time I made it, it was plated up and we had started eating when I finally realized that once again, I never measure things in the kitchen. Drat. So play around... nothing delicate in the recipe that you can ruin (it's not baking, after all) and enjoy!

** PS, this recipe makes copious use of Dr. Gonzo's Uncommon Condiments. Three of them. Get it... three items... hat trick... never mind. Anyway, if you are not in the greater New England area and would like to use Gonzo products, get them online (www.drgonzos.com) or get in touch with me and I'll hook you up. Otherwise, feel free to experiment with what you would consider to be a close approximation. And let me know how it turns out! I'll include suggestions in the ingredients list.

The goods:
4 thin pork chops (boneless or bone-in, doesn't matter so long as it's no more than 1 inch thick)
flour (oh... 1 cup or so?)

handful of cremini / baby bella mushrooms, sliced thin. (optional)

extra virgin olive oil

milk (1 to 2 cups)

Dr Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub, about 1/2 cup or to taste (any sort of grill seasoning or dry rub will probably work. Emeril's Essence is good and spicy too.)
Dr Gonzo's Mustard Plaster, 2ish Tablespoons (this is a honey mustard. try to find the THICKEST, GOOEY-EST honey mustard you can.)
Dr Gonzo's Kamehamehamash, 2ish Tablespoons (this is a pineapple and hot pepper relish. I would recommend any sort of fruity chutney or fruit salsa, so long as it's not too watery. or get a fruit salsa, and drain off some of the liquid. not a fruit fan? any sweet-hot pepper relish like the kind you get in a deli would work.)
1 large skillet, 2 plates

The method:
Heat up some oil in your skillet.
Mix up flour and dry rub in a plate. Dredge your chops in the flour mix. Don't throw all the flour away yet, though. You'll need a little of it later.
Fry up your chops. Try not to over-fry them. I went until I got some nice brown color on both sides and them took them out.
Set chops aside on a clean plate.
Pour off or top off your skillet until there are 4-ish Tablespoons of oil in it. (** note: If you're not using mushrooms, go with only about 1 1/2 - 2 Tablespoons of oil)
Add mushrooms, cook until soft.
Sprinkle in about 1 heaping spoonful of the flour mixture, stir until you get a sort of paste-like consistency.
Throw in your Mustard and your Mash. Stir that whole mess together for about a minute.
Slowly add milk, stirring to prevent lumps. Add milk until your gravy reaches desired consistency. Remember it'll keep thickening once it hits a boil and cools back down, so you will probably need to add a little more milk at the end to get it just right.
Add chops back into pan, reheat until warmed through.

To serve:
Chops on plate. Gravy over chops. Easy! Goes great with peas.

.. If you're like me and view most food as simply a vehicle for consuming gravy, then use less pork. That way, you get more gravy on each piece. =)

Hoisin-glazed Veggies

2009-01-24T14:25:00.002-05:00

This is a really good side dish to accompany any sort of Asian-inspired night. Also fantastic if you toss some thinly sliced meats into the veggie mix, just make sure that if you're cooking with meat, (a) cut it into small, bite-sized pieces, and (b)put the meat in the wok first.
As with all stir-fries, cook it HOT and FAST to preserve texture and flavor. This recipe involves no measurements because I want people to experiment. Also, the Hoisin varies in thickness depending on which brand you buy, so let that tailor your experience.

The goods - And remember, this is a stir-fry, so everything should be sliced thinly and/or in bite-sized pieces:
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Bell Peppers, if desired
Spanish or Vidalia Onion (something that cooks up nice and sweet)
Hoisin Sauce
Orange Juice
Vegetable Oil or Olive Oil
optional: cornstarch

The method:
Grab a wok or a big skillet (I prefer nonstick for this application) and get it screaming hot.
Add some oil and heat that up.
Throw in your veggies and toss them around. Since you're cooking super-hot, keep things moving so they don't burn or stick.
After 30 seconds to a minute, throw in about equal parts hoisin and orange juice. I go with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of each. Mix everything together, reduce the heat a little, and let it bubble away for a few minutes.

If you prefer your sauce to be super-thick, then mix up some cornstarch with a little water (just enough to get a paste-like consistency) and dump that into the pan, and stir it up. It will thicken like crazy as soon as the cornstarch reaches a boil. Be sparing with your cornstarch slurry though ... I used way too much and had to add water to my pot because I had effectively solidified my sauce.

This is great served over rice or long noodles. Or, since this is hoisin-based, wrap it up in a tortilla for homemade Mu Shu!

Pizza Parties are Awesome.

2009-01-03T11:02:00.002-05:00

Darren and I had a bunch of people over last night for pizza and whiskies (it works somehow, I swear) and the pizzas were such a big hit, I had to share. I can't post the dough recipe, since it's.. y'know... copyrighted. But since I don't really know as many people motivated enough to do from-scratch dough, I figure it's not a huge deal. Go with your favorite brand of premade dough, and I'll give you the sauce and toppings. =)

The sauce:
1/2 large onion, diced.
1 Tablespoon minced garlic (from a jar is fine)
extra virgin olive oil, roughly 1-2 Tablespoons.
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
dried oregano, thyme, basil, and crushed red pepper flakes
3-ish oz any old red wine you have left over (it was Sangiovese for me. Also, this is optional. If you don't have or want wine, just add a couple pinches of sugar to combat the acidity of the tomatoes.)

The method:
heat olive oil in a medium saucepan, add onion and garlic and saute until translucent.
Dump in tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it hits a bare simmer.
Add seasonings to taste, and your wine.
Simmer for maybe 10 more minutes, or until the flavors all come together.

* I should note that this recipe makes a ridiculous amount of sauce... Like enough to top 8 pizzas, easily, for me. But I go skimpy on the sauce for my pizzas, so if you're a heavy sauce-er or like to have extra dipping sauce on the side, it'll be less for you. The sauce is a generic marinara, so you can also re-use it over pasta or breadsticks or whatever you like. =)

The pizza toppings:

BBQ Chicken Pizza - diced cooked chicken (grilled or broiled, probably best), about 1/2 onion diced, mozzarella, and drizzle some good BBQ sauce over the top.

Veggie Pizza - mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, diced onion, diced green bell pepper.

Darren and D's "THE PIZZA" - mozzarella, pepperoni, sliced cooked eggplant (I grilled mine, but it should probably be pan-fried if you want it crispy)

WAFFLES!!!!!

2008-12-31T11:19:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I get a little excited about waffles. I'm not huge on breakfast foods, but there's just something about waffles. They make me happy. And y'know what? My George Foreman has WAFFLE PLATES!!

This recipe shamelessly stolen from allrecipes and then modified to suit my tastes. =)

The goods:

2 cups AP flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups milk

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The method:

preheat your wafflemaker

In a large bowl, whisk or sift together all your dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in butter, milk, and vanilla.

Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture, stir until it's all blended. (Technically since this is mostly Muffin Method, you should fold your ingredients, but stirring is fine, trust me. I whisked the tar of of the batter the first time I made it and it still turned out fine.)

Lightly grease your waffle iron (cooking spray works perfectly) and ladle on the batter. I can't say for sure how much this makes because it seems like every waffle make is a different size, but cook it high and fast, and you'll be fine. Yay!

"Tandoori" Chicken!

2008-12-31T11:11:00.004-05:00

It's probably not authentic. It certainly doesn't have that pretty reddish-pink color. BUT - I can do this in my George Foreman, and it tastes really great! Therefore, I win. =)

The goods:

3 to 4 good-sized boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup lowfat plain yogurt

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon lemon juice

pinch ground clove

1/4 teaspoon salt (...ish)

several grinds black pepper

The method:

whisk together all the spices, lemon juice, and yogurt.

put chicken in a large ziptop freezer bag and pour yogurt mixture in.

get out as much of the air as you can and seal the bag. massage the chicken just a few times to make sure the yogurt is all around each piece.

marinate overnight.

the next day, grill your yogurt-y chicken, or broil it, or bake it. If you bake it, it seems like common consensus is to bake it HOT to caramelize the chicken up really nice. One of the base recipes I played with said 500 degrees, but I think anything over 425 would do it. Of course, I used my brand new George Foreman, and that was AWESOME.

I served this with cooked broccoli and cauliflower and curry-flavored couscous. Yum!!

Panini for the win!

2008-12-28T19:44:00.003-05:00

So for Christmas this year, one of the big items I got was the George Foreman G-4. It's a George Foreman grill, but get this: the plates are removable, AND it comes with waffle plates! (4 plates... G-4, get it?)
So of course I made waffles on Saturday. They were fabulous! I still have to tinker with the recipe a bit, but waffles - yay!
Also, fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches, fantastic tuna melts... I actually think I'm going to end up using the grill every time I cook dinner this week. I know I'll be doing patty melts in it at some point, I've already got two burgers defrosted in the fridge.

But yes.... it is fabulous.

Reverse engineering: Firefly's sweet potato pecan pudding

2008-11-28T09:27:00.007-05:00

This year for Thanksgiving, Kevin and I made it our duty to attempt to reverse engineer our favorite sweet potato dish of all time, the sweet potato pecan pudding at Firefly's.

We started out with 3 different recipes that all incorporated different pieces of the puzzle, and built out a test run recipe.

Sweet Potato & Pecan Pudding
Sweet Potato Coconut Casserole
Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Pecan Streusel (for the streusel only)

The first recipe we tried was very nearly correct, except for a little too much sugar in both the potatoes and the topping. We also decided to add the step of browning the top of the casserole to create a nice crunchy crust with the streusel. We made the adjusted recipe for Thanksgiving dinner with Kevin's parents, brother, grandmother, uncle, and my mom, and it seemed to go over well.

And now... the recipe! We're thinking of still lowering the amount of sugar in the streusel a little more, but we haven't quite decided yet.

Sweet Potato Pecan Pudding

Ingredients:
4 cups sweet potatoes (6 medium, 3-4 medium-large, or 2 huge potaotes)
¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup flaked sweetened coconut

Pecan streusel:
1 cup pecan pieces
6 Tbsp + 1 tsp packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ cup butter

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash and peel potatoes and boil until tender in salted water. Add butter and puree in a food processor or with a stick blender while still hot. Stir in brown sugar, orange juice, vanilla, and seasonings.

Beat eggs well and combine with milk. Stir coconut into milk. Slowly add milk mixture to sweet potatoes, stirring till well mixed. Stir in pecans.

Make streusel topping: Combine brown sugar and flour; cut in the butter with fingertips until crumbly. Stir in pecan pieces.

Transfer potato mixture to a buttered 9x13 casserole dish. Spread evenly and sprinkle top with streusel mixture. Bake at 400 degrees until top is golden brown and potatoes are hot and firm, about 25 minutes. If you want a browner, crunchier streusel, broil for a couple of minutes at the end of cooking.

Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing!

2008-11-27T08:41:00.002-05:00

Darren's sister is vegetarian (well, pesco-vegetarian, really), and for years the poor girl has had to make do at Thanksgiving with boxed, pre-made stuffing (y'know, the red can?). That stuff is chock-full of poultry flavor! Poor thing.
So this year I took it upon myself to make an actual vegetarian stuffing. Also, I love cornbread. Was there possibly a way to combine the two?! The answer: YES!

The goods (and this is quite approximate, so adjust as needed):
7ish cups of your favorite cornbread (yes, you can use box mix), cubed
1 large onion, medium dice
2 carrots, medium to small dice
3 stalks celery, medium to small dice
1-2 cups thickly sliced cremini mushrooms (white button mushrooms also work fine)
6 cups vegetable broth, HOT (organic bullion cubes yay!)
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
salt, pepper, assorted other spices

The method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put the cornbread cubes into a big mixing bowl. The biggest one you own.
In a big skillet, melt the butter and get it heated through.
Add all the veggies and sweat until onions and celery are just about translucent and mushrooms are tender. This takes several minutes. DON'T brown anything.
Add several generous pinches of salt. Also add pepper and other desired flavorings. I shook in a decent amount (probably a good teaspoon or so) of Dr. Gonzo's One-Hump Dry Rub.
When veggies are good and ready, pour over cornbread.
Pour at least 5 cups of broth over the whole mix, toss to combine. It's going to be really soupy, don't worry. Add some more broth if you think it needs it. I know I didn't use all 6 cups of my broth, but I did use MOST of it.
Dump the whole mess into a greased 9x13 casserole/baking dish and whack it in the oven.
Bake for 60 - 70 minutes until the top is slightly brown and it doesn't move too much when you jiggle it.
Rest on counter for at least 20 minutes (any liquid you see remaining in the dish will reabsorb)
If you're not going to eat it right away, cool it for at least an hour, then wrap it up and put it in the fridge.

Dish out and enjoy, or wrap up and prepare for travel! I sprinkled a little grated parmesan on mine just before baking, and the smells coming from my little oven were fantastic. I can't tell you quite yet how it tastes since I couldn't take any without leaving a big gaping hole in the dish, but I snuck a piece of bread off the top and it tasted DIVINE. =)

Maple Scallop Salad

2008-10-28T09:57:00.002-04:00

Mostly healthy, ALL-DELICIOUS. This one, unfortunately, I made in a real hurry and didn't measure out much of anything, so it's written completely from memory and guesswork. It's okay, though. I have faith that you can do this too. =) Makes 2 really big salads.

The Goods:
maple Syrup, 1/2 cup plus a extra as needed.
red wine vinegar, about 1 Tbsp... ish
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
salt, pepper to taste
1/2 lb bay scallops, patted dry
raisins
crumbled gorgonzola cheese
1 pear, cored and diced small
salad greens (I like organic spring mix, myself.)

The method:
Heat a tablespoon or so of oil in a skillet. (Since I'm rather paranoid, I used my trusty nonstick)
When oil is nice and hot, toss in scallops. Saute until just evenly browned.
Pour in 1/2 cup of maple syrup, lower heat, and simmer until scallops are cooked all the way through.
While scallops are simmering, build vinaigrette:
In a large bowl, combine 2-3 Tbsp maple syrup and 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, whisk until well mixed. While continuing to whisk, slowly drizzle in olive oil (it won't take more than 1/2 cup, I don't think.) until you have a good-looking vinaigrette. Taste. Add more maple if you want it sweeter, add more vinegar if you want it tarter. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Once vinaigrette and scallops are done, assemble salad
Toss a couple big handfuls of salad greens into vinaigrette bowl and fold/toss until leaves are nicely coated with dressing. Divide greens onto plates.
Top with gorgonzola, raisins, pears, and scallops. If desired, drizzle a small amount of maple syrup over the top.

Yummy yum!

Butternut Risotto

2008-10-06T21:22:00.004-04:00

It being fall and me being addicted to butternut squash, I have been dying to make something squashy and creamy and starchy. Therefore, risotto is the most logical answer!

The goods:
1/2 decent-sized butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, medium dice
2 shallots, minced, or 1/2 onion, fine diced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup arborio rice
6 cups (at least) vegetable stock, warm
1 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon to taste
BIG skillet. Or wok. Seriously, is there anything a wok CAN'T do?

The method:
Heat oil, sweat shallot or onion for a few minutes until translucent
add squash, cook for about 5 minutes.
stir in rice, stir so every rice grain is coated with oil. add more oil if you need to.
cook for just a few minutes, stirring the whole time, until rice is barely translucent.
slowly add stock, about 1/2 cup to 1 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. DO NOT add the next batch of liquid until the previous one is completely absorbed.
Continue adding stock in small batches until rice and squash are both cooked.
Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Stir in heavy cream and heat through.
Add some more stock if it's too thick.

Serve topped with some parmesan cheese. Goes great accompanied with some roasted asparagus.

Enjoy!

Turkey Chili

2008-10-06T21:09:00.003-04:00

I have long loved chili, but I've always had trouble coming up with the perfect chili. This one comes pretty close, and it just keeps getting better as it gets older! You will have to adjust the seasonings to your own tastes, as I made this several days ago and of course never measure a thing.

The goods:
1 pkg lean ground turkey
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1/2 onion, finely diced
extra virgin olive oil
chili powder .... 3 - 4 ish tablespoons?
ground coriander, several dashes
dried oregano, several dashes
Dr Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub, several dashes
ground cumin, not more than 1 teaspoon
worcestershire sauce, several dashes
chicken stock as needed

The method:
get yourself a decent-sized soup pot (I used my wok - I am AWESOME like that.)
heat up your oil. throw in some minced garlic, or just add some Dr. Gonzo's Dragons Tearz (a hot garlic chili oil)
sweat onion until just barely translucent
add turkey, breaking up the chunks. cook until no longer pink.
Add tomatoes and garbanzo beans (if you like wetter chilis, don't drain the cans, just whack the whole thing in, liquid and all. I drained the cans and added chicken stock to loosen it up more, since I wanted a more meaty flavor. Alternately, add beer.)
Add seasonings, mix until well-distributed. Use your nose when you season ... when it smells good, that's a good starting point.
Add chicken stock and bring to simmer. I would start with about 1 cup of stock and add more if I need it... If there's one thing I truly hate in this world, it's a watery chili. You can always add, but you can't take away.
Simmer for 30 min or until thick. Taste and adjust seasonings. At this point if you want your chili to have a kick, you can add your hot sauce or your peppermash or whatever hot stuff you prefer.

Serve topped with some cheese, over rice or with some nice crusty bread (Hint: homemade sourdough?)
Enjoy!

Sourdough! (Not Authentic, but you can't win 'em all)

2008-09-29T16:54:00.003-04:00

I have always wanted to become a better baker. Mostly because I love that moment when you step inside like a Panera or even the bakery section at a supermarket, and all the fresh breads are still piping hot, and it just smells so fantastic. I've also been obsessed with sourdough for about as long as I can remember. Something about that little sour twang in the flavor... man, I get happy just thinking about it. So the other day I was watching Good Eats and Alton Brown made a "Knead Not Sourdough" and of course, I had to try it.
This recipe is rather heavily modified, as I own neither bread flour nor dutch oven. =)
Also to note: This recipe seriously takes like 24 hours to make, from start to finish. Most of it is just letting the dough rise, but don't expect to start this in the morning and be able to have it for dinner. =)

The goods:
17.5 ounces AP flour, plus extra for shaping (weigh it out people, it's the ONLY way to bake properly)
1/4 teaspoon active-dry yeast
2.5 teaspoons salt (kosher if you got it, I don't, so I used the regular table variety)
12 oz FILTERED water (brita, pur, whatever it takes)
2 tablespoons cornmeal (or somewhere around there, I didn't actually measure this)

The method:
Whisk together flour, yeast and salt in large mixing bowl. Add the water and stir until combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 19 hours. Seriously.

After 19 hours, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Also, flour your hands. Trust me. Punch down the dough and turn it over onto itself a couple times. I ended up actually kneading it for a couple minutes, since AP flour has less gluten-forming potential than bread flour. I figured I'd help it along a little bit. Cover with a tea towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, shape the dough into a ball, or several small balls, or a loaf, or loaves. Again, flour your hands. It makes things easier. Sprinkle the tea towel with half of the cornmeal and lay the dough on top of it, seam side down. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the rest of the cornmeal and cover with the towel. So really, you want to keep your dough ball (or pieces) on one half of the tea towel and fold the other side over. If you made a bunch of smaller pieces, I would probably spread them out all over the towel and just place a fresh towel on top. Allow dough to rise for another 2 to 3 hours or until dough has doubled in size. (side note: at this point I didn't see any discernible rising in my dough, but I did leave it for 2 hours as the recipe said)

Baking:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Shift around your racks to make sure there's room for the dough balls to rise. Iput one rack on the very bottom and shifted the other one to the very top.
Place dough onto ungreased cookie sheet, cornmeal and all, and place onto bottom rack in oven.
Bake for 30 minutes, then turn, and bake for about another 15 min. The bread should reach an internal temp of 210 to 212 degrees. I don't have an instant-read thermometer, so I pulled it when it got a pretty golden-brown color on top. Also, you should be able to knock on the outside without caving it in.
Allow bread to cool at least 15 minutes before serving. I'd cool it for like an hour.

This "sourdough" tastes fantastic. It actually came out pretty dense, so it's great for dipping into soups or stews... or really, for any purpose since I like sourdough so much.
Happy baking!

Mulligatawny Soup - For the Win!

2008-09-29T16:39:00.003-04:00

One of my roommates in college made a fantastic mulligatawny soup. Which I always found quite impressive, since, bless her heart, the rest of the time she seemed to subsist on chef boyardee and the occasional shepherd's pie. Since then, I've always been a bit fascinated with the soup, and never quite sure what it was about the mulligatawnies I had in Indian restaurants that didn't agree with me as much. I'm still not much closer to an answer, but I am proud to say that I shamelessly stole this recipe from allrecipes.com and I have mastered the HECK out of mulligatawny soup.
I doubled the recipe I found online, so here's what I used. Please feel free to scale down if you're not insane like me, and/or feeding a small army. Yields... a lot. Theoretically 12ish servings... I don't think I got quite that many, but I know I got at least 8 hearty (dinner-portioned) bowls out of it. Great with sourdough for dippin'. =)

The goods:
1 medium onion, finely diced
4 stalks of celery, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1/2 cup butter (that's 1 stick)
3 tablespoons AP flour
1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) curry powder
8 cups chicken broth (2 boxes)
1 apple, cored and finely diced
1/2 cup white rice, uncooked
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, medium dice
salt and pepper, to taste
1 good pinch dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream
ground coriander, turmeric, paprika, and chili/garlic paste (sriracha) to taste (my personal touch)

The method:
saute onions, celery, carrot and butter in a large soup pot (I actually used my wok) until translucent.
add flour and curry, and cook about 5 more minutes.
add chicken stock, mix well, bring to a boil. simmer about 30 min.
add apple, rice, chicken, salt, pepper, and thyme. simmer 15-20 min or until rice is done.
adjust seasonings.
just before serving, stir in cream and heat through. check and adjust seasonings again.

Next time I try this, I might sub out the heavy cream for coconut milk, since I do remember the restaurant versions being more coconut-y. Anyway, it's a great recipe. Even better a day or two old, since the rice really thickens up the soup. Yum!

Roast Beef Palmiers

2008-08-31T09:07:00.003-04:00

So before anyone gets all worried that this is actually complicated, palmiers are just a term for puff pastry rolled up like elephant ears. I've seen sweet and savory ones in my books; this is a made-up savory one.

The goods:
puff pastry sheets, thawed (store-bought works great!)
whipped herb or chive cream cheese, room temperature
shaved roast beef, or your favorite deli meat

The method:
preheat oven to 400.
Unfold the puff pastry sheet, pinch the seams back together, and go over each side a couple times with a rolling pin just to make it all flat and even.
Spread a THIN layer of the cream cheese all over it, going all the way into the edges and corners. I found that my offset cake spatula works beautifully for this.
Cover the cream cheese with a thin single layer of the meat. You're not looking for a big ol' meat pie here, folks, it's just a cute little hors-doeuvre. Remember that.
Roll up the top and bottom edges, meeting at the middle. Flip over your pastry-meat-log, and slice into 1/4-inch slices.
Place onto a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 min or so until pastries are a nice amber-brown.

Enjoy!

Zucchini parmesan

2008-08-19T22:58:00.003-04:00

This dish was a summer staple in the Momberger household. A couple weeks ago I made a huge pan of it as a side dish to an eggplant lasagna, and it disappeared much faster than the main dish. That's a good indication that I should post the recipe here.

for each 10-12" zucchini, have 1 large onion and 3-5oz. of Parmesan cheese handy. 1tbsp of butter helps as well.

Quarter the onions and slice into 1/4" slices. Fry in your handy cast iron or nonstick skillet in oil until translucent and slightly brown. Salt and pepper to season. Slice washed, unpeeled zucchini as thinly as possible, 1/16" to 1/8" in thickness. Use a mandolin if you have one. Add zucchini slices to the pan, cover, and cook until soft and translucent. Uncover near the end of cooking to cook off the liquid. Once the water has cooked off, reduce the heat and add butter and parmesan. Mix together and heat until the parmsan melts and gets stringy when stirred. Serve warm.

Pizza!

2008-08-12T21:24:00.002-04:00

So despite the fact that I very rarely want to *eat* pizza, I've always wanted to know how to *make* pizza. And since I had one of my very rare pizza cravings this week, I decided to actually use some of that knowledge that school has crammed into my brain, and do pizza mostly from scratch.

Dough (scaled massively down from my textbook recipe):
1 cup warm water (about 100 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 packet active dry yeast, .25 oz.

3 and 3/8 cup all-purpose flour (the 3/8 should be semolina, but I wasn't able to find any at the store)
3/4 tablespoon salt
1.5 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for coating bowl.

Method:
place just a little less than 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl, stir in yeast and sugar to dissolve, set aside to bloom for 5-10 min (until it's all foamy)

in large (stainless steel, preferably) bowl, mix 2 and 3/8 cups flour (or 2 cups flour, 3/8 cup semolina flour if you have it) and salt.
gradually mix in the remaining 3/4 cup water. all oil, stir until well blended (about 2 min)
fold in yeast mixture with rubber spatula
mix in remaining 1 cup flour
knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (seriously. time yourself.) ** at this point I should mention that I somehow ended up with quite a bit of flour left over in the bowl. I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as your dough ball is smooth and elastic, it's all good.
lightly oil the bottom and sides of a clean bowl, rub the dough around in it, and leave dough in bowl smooth side up. cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, somewhere between 1/2 hour and 60 minutes.
punch dough down, shape into pizza crust.
* I have no round pizza pans, so I pressed it out into one of my sheet pans (cookie trays). The dough is incredibly elastic so it took me a while, since it kept springing back. A trick that I found worked pretty well was to press it out to the edges, leave it for a few minutes, come back, press it out again, and repeat until it would actually stay pressed out all the way to the edges of the pan. It doesn't take that long, promise.

Sauce:
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
olive oil
salt, pepper, oregano, basil, ground coriander, nutmeg, sugar, dill, crushed red pepper
1 large can crushed tomatoes.

- sweat onion in olive oil.
when onions are translucent, add garlic, cook for a couple minutes.
dump in the entire can of tomatoes. At this point you might want to reduce the heat so that it doesn't splatter all over the place as it cooks. Add spices to taste. I wish I could tell you what I used, but I have a bad habit of never measuring things when I cook at home.
Simmer gently for a few minutes. Done!

Assembly:
Press or roll out pizza dough to desired shape.
Top with sauce (not too much)
sprinkle liberally with mozzarella cheese (I also used some "italian blend" from the store, which was mozzarella and asiago)
Top with whatever you want! I added some sauteed mushrooms, breaded eggplant (store-bought), cooked hamburger meat, and more cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for somewhere around 20 minutes (or until it's done).

Yay! Also... delicious.

adventures in cake making

2008-07-22T11:54:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Kevin's birthday, so I made dinner and dessert. The dinner (Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Spinach and Cheese Cakes) didn't come out as gourmet-looking as I'd hoped, but it did taste delicious, so I consider that a win. But the cake, oh the cake...

Now, this cake wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, high-class. But it looked really cool, and didn't taste half-bad, to boot! First, I decided I wanted to make an ice cream cake. Then I wanted to make a pizza cake. Problem was, no one who has ever made a pizza ice cream cake has posted about it on the intarwebs... so it was up to me to practice the ancient art of making things up. I drew inspiration from this cake and various other dessert pizza recipes found online.

Ingredients

-a tube of premade sugar cookie dough (from the dairy case)
-strawberry jam
-french vanilla ice cream (it's slightly more yellow than regular vanilla)
-Reese's miniature peanut butter cups
-a bar of white chocolate
-green frosting from a squeezy tube

Method

I took a smallish round pizza pan (12 or 13 inches, I think) and greased it up with butter. I let the cookie dough out for a few minutes before I opened it so it softened a bit. Once it was softened, I patted it into the pan, right to the edges, so it became one giant cookie, and baked it at 350 degrees for probably about 10 minutes... I just kept an eye on it and took it out when the edges were pretty golden and middle was starting to get golden. I set up a cooling rack and put the pan right on there to cool down, about 20 minutes.

Once the cookie was lukewarm, I smeared the jam around it, much like one would put sauce on a pizza. I avoided the outer half-inch to inch of cookie, to make the crust. Once the jam was spread, I wrapped the whole pan up in tinfoil and stuck it in the freezer to chill the jam so it wouldn't move around during the next step. At that point, I also stuck the ice cream in the fridge to soften up.

After about a half hour, I popped the pizza out of the freezer - the jam was nicely chilled into place. The ice cream came out of the fridge soft enough to spoon onto the pizza and kind of pat/spread it into place, but not completely melty. I spread a pretty thick layer on (maybe a little less than a centimeter thick) since the whole point was for this to be an ice cream cake. I left just a little bit of the jam showing around the edges in some spots. Once the ice cream was on, it was starting to get a little melty, which is okay... the pizza went back into the freezer, unwrapped for 15 - 20 minutes.

While the ice cream was firming up again, I started prepping the toppings. I made a "sausage, pepper and onion" pizza, but there's definitely room for invention here. For the sausage, I just cut Reese's miniatures peanut butter cups in half so that I ended up with 2 thinner circles from each one. The onions came from a white chocolate bar, cut into chunks approximating the size of coarsely diced onions. I took the idea of the peppers directly from the pizza cake recipe I linked above - I greased a small plate, squeezed 1-2 inch green frosting pieces onto the plate, and stuck the plate into the freezer for 15 minutes or so.

When the pizza came out of the freezer, the ice cream was still pretty soft, so I had to work quickly. First came the peanut butter cups, placed peanut butter side down and pushed a little bit into the ice cream. Next came the chilled and slightly more solid green frosting strands, scattered around in between the peanut butter cups. Finally, the white chocolate chunks were placed and pushed slightly into the ice cream, filling in the additional spaces. Finally, the whole thing was wrapped in tinfoil and put in the freezer overnight.

To serve, I was actually afraid to take it out of the pan in one piece (though later I discovered nothing stuck to the pan after all), so I just used a pizza cutter to cut into 8 slices. It actually held up really well to being eaten like pizza, and was pretty tasty! Kevin wants me to make it for future PIzza Friday gatherings... we'll see. :)

The pizza cake in all of its glory

I'm just so excited that something I was flying completely blind on ended up coming out so well. :)

tomatillo salsa verde

2008-07-16T08:10:00.003-04:00

I have been long obsessed with the tomatillo salsa at Moe's. This is not the same, but it is fantastic, and therefore I must share.
Adapted from a Deen family recipe on foodnetwork.com:

The goods:
1 lb tomatillos
1/2 smallish red onion, diced fine
1/2 cup cilantro (roughly a small handful)
1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
lime juice, sugar, salt and pepper to taste
2 spoonfuls of Dr. Gonzo's Jalapenomash

The method:
remove husks from tomatillos, rinse well, cut in half
broil cut-side-down on a foil-lined sheet for 5 min or so until they just barely start to blacken
(meanwhile be chopping up your onion, garlic, and cilantro)
combine tomatillos, onion, garlic and cilantro in your food processor/blender of choice and pulse until everything is finely chopped and mixed well (I used my handy-dandy stick blender and more or less liquefied everything)
add a good pinch of sugar, a fair squirt of lime, and several pinches of salt, stir vigorously
stir in jalapenomash
taste. re-season as needed. (seriously. the original recipe called for 1 tablespoon of salt, but i'm fairly certain i used more than that.)
let everything sit for 1/2 hr to 1 hr so that the flavors can really develop.
enjoy!

I had this with pork carnitas, in refried black beans, and on chips. it was a verde night!

Chicken Scalloppini in Lemon-Mushroom Sauce

2008-07-08T23:27:00.004-04:00

The fabulous thing about a scalloppini is that you can do anything with it. Marsala? You bet. Piccatta? Absolutely. But supposing you're really lame like me and have no wine with which to cook? Then you make something up.

The goods:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded thin, then cut in half (yield: 4 pieces total)
flour
butter (6 oz or thereabouts, unsalted)
chicken stock (organic/low sodium. about... 1 cup?)
cremini mushrooms, sliced (uhh... a good handful.)
lemon juice (squeeze bulb. a good couple tablespoons)
salt, pepper (to taste)

The method:
dredge your thin chicken pieces in flour. make sure you get flour in all the nooks and crannies.
get a skillet nice and hot. melt most of the butter. leave about 1 tbsp for the end.
when butter is slightly foamy, slide chicken in.
cook until golden brown on both sides. AND make sure it's done in the middle.
temporarily remove chicken to a plate.
add mushrooms to whatever butter is left in the skillet (add some olive oil if you're running dry)
saute until nice and soft.
add chicken stock. if you've got anything stuck to the bottom of the skillet, use a wooden spoon now to get it scraped up.
reduce just a little bit. add your lemon juice.
cook that whole pile of awesomeness for a few minutes until slightly thickened. return the chicken to the sauce and make sure it gets nice and coated. Now would be your moment to add salt, pepper, or whatever seasonings you think you still need.
at the very end, add that last pat of butter and swirl around to melt it and mix into the sauce.

Service:
Plonk chicken on plate. Spoon on top some of those beautiful mushrooms and some of that delish sauce. Serve with grains and veg of choice - we had couscous and broccoli.

Ain't it grand?

On Grilling

2008-06-09T12:32:00.003-04:00

I will admit this: I have no preference on charcoal vs gas for grilling. I have used charcoal exclusively to this point because I'm poor, and yeah, it's got nice flavor. But when I eat food that has been prepared on a gas grill... I get the exact same grill-icious enjoyment. Perhaps my taste buds aren't sensitive enough, but for me, there's really no discernible difference.

Now, charcoal is cheap, but I don't have a grill that's easy to get the ash and residue out of. It also takes a long time to heat up, so grilling for me takes quite a bit of pre-planning. I lust after gas grills that have like a couple burners so you can have different temperature zones. I salivate at the thought of pushing a button and WHAM instant flame. I go into paroxysms of delight at the very concept of not having to scrape out an assload of ash and half-burned briquets before every grill session.

That and there is that pesky rumor going around that smoke from charcoal is carcinogenic. Then again, everything is carcinogenic these days, so what's new?

Anyway, my point is that you can't beat a gas grill for instant gratification. And sometimes, that's really what I'm all about.

Someday in the far future when I have a couple hundred bucks stashed away, I'm going to get me a gas grill. And then... whoo boy, watch out. Life will be ever so very good.

Homework or Advertisement Copy?

2008-04-01T23:19:00.002-04:00

So... I had an assignment for my Beverages class last week wherein I had to taste a beverage and write up my observations on it. Now, as a glorified lit major, and generally long-winded at that, I filled my little paper with all sorts of flowery descriptives.
And my instructor liked it so much he made me read it aloud to the class.

So since this IS marginally related to geeking over food, here's my homework. Because I just felt like sharing. And also because this is pretty much the only creative food-related thing I've done in a while. Unless you count adding a teaspoon of sriracha into my tuna helper.

Beverage Analysis – Drumgray Highland Cream Liqueur

Vickie Wu

Drumgray is a cream liqueur made with aged Deanston Single Malt Scotch. It has a sweet aroma – to the nose, it is reminiscent of chocolate or coffee flavored milk with an undertone of Scotch. When smelling, I can definitely tell that it will be sweet on the tongue.

It has an extremely smooth mouth feel. The liqueur is velvety on the tongue without being sticky and coating. The creaminess balances the bite of the whiskey. After the creaminess, there is a distinct whiskey taste and burn, but it is very soft as it has been tempered by the sweetness of the cream. I don't generally enjoy the bite of whiskey, but this is a situation in which it provides a refreshing counterpoint to a drink that would otherwise be too sticky-sweet. As the drink warms up, the whiskey becomes more pronounced on the palate and a bit sharper. Letting the fumes roll around inside the mouth heightens that sensation, but again it is very sweet.

The taste is almost like melted coffee ice cream. The sharpness at the back end that I cannot adequately describe, but have always termed “the whiskey burn” is very light, and the sweetness remains on the palate after the whiskey has dissipated. Once the whiskey fumes are gone, there is no discernible aftertaste, but there is a sensation on the tongue that tells me that I have definitely just had something sweet. It hits harder on the tongue than Irish Creams, but that again is a refreshing change, as I find most Irish Cream Liqueurs to be too sweet and sticky.

sweet potato pancakes

2008-03-25T07:11:00.001-04:00

Meant to post this way back but forgot, as usual. Had mashed sweet potato left over from previous post re: turkey and etc so decided to try sweet potato pancakes. Ganked this from allrecipes: I halved the recipe. Also found that 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake makes perfect sized pancakes - slightly larger than silver dollar pancakes but not huge.

"Louisiana Sweet Potato Pancakes"

INGREDIENTS

3/4 pound sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
DIRECTIONS

Place sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan of boiling water, and cook until tender but firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, and immediately immerse in cold water to loosen skins. Drain, remove skins, chop, and mash.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Mix mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, milk and butter in a separate medium bowl. Blend sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture to form a batter.
Preheat a lightly greased griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter mixture onto the prepared griddle by heaping tablespoonfuls, and cook until golden brown, turning once with a spatula when the surface begins to bubble.

simple dinner

2008-03-05T21:40:00.002-05:00

Felt like having some healthier fare, as I have been having far too much pub grub and takeout lately. Here's the menu - everything was really simple and uncomplicated, so no recipes necessary.

Pan-fried turkey tenderloins (sliced thin, dredged in seasoned flour, pan-fried)

sauteed spinach and cremini mushrooms

mashed sweet potatoes (with butter and brown sugar)

Amazingly simple, but actually incredibly satisfying. =)

School/Career Success - no recipe, sorry!

2008-02-21T10:48:00.001-05:00

This would be the point where I play my "I Win" card.

So last week I took the ServSafe test. Every foodservice establishment needs at least one full-timer on staff with that certification. You need 75% to pass.
This morning I got an email saying my results were available online.

I GOT 98%, BABY!

I was so nervous about that test going into it. I think I read the textbook cover to cover like 3 times.
And the test was worded and laid out much differently than the quizzes we'd had in class, so it definitely threw me for a loop.

But yeah. I will get an official certificate saying that I am servsafe certified. It will last me 5 years. And THAT, my friends, is awesome. When I eventually move on from my current restaurant, that will be a great bargaining chip. Go me!

(x-posted to Vickie's LJ.)

almost a skillet meal

2008-02-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

Continuing Val's trend of easy meals - this one doesn't quite qualify since I boiled the pasta separately, but it's close.

The goods:

1/2 box rotini

about 8 oz cremini or button mushrooms, sliced ( I love cremini)

2 zucchini, peeled and sliced

1/4 red onion

1 can tuna, drained (chunk light works best)

1 package frozen artichokes, thawed and chopped

fresh grated parmesan

The Method:

boil the pasta. this should be self-explanatory.

meanwhile, get some olive oil (2 tablespoons or so?) heated up in a bigass skillet (nonstick is best)

toss in the onions and saute for about a minute until they start softening up

toss in the zucchini. keep everything moving.

after another minute toss in the mushroom, artichokes and tuna. you want to break up the tuna as much as you can.

Add assorted seasonings, to taste. I used adobo powder, oregano, and crushed red pepper.

When the veg are all cooked and soft, throw in the pasta and get everything mixed up really well.

plonk a serving into a bowl and sprinkle liberally with parmesan. Yum!

If you want, you can also add some chopped tomatoes towards the end - but be warned, this will make the dish quite a bit wetter.

lazy, healthy skillet dinner

2008-02-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

Tonight was one of those nights where I didn't have any plans for dinner, and only had sandwich stuff around to eat. One of my coworkers suggested Hamburger Helper (25 year old single guy... it's understandable), and I found myself actually craving that. But, Hamburger Helper definitely, DEFINITELY doesn't fit in with trying to eat better, so I wandered around Stop and Shop, trying to decide how to approximate the saucy, cheesy yummyness I so desperately craved.

I decided that I would make a low-fat cheese sauce, and simmer up ground chicken, whole wheat pasta, and spinach. Alas, Stop and Shop decided to foil me - no ground chicken or turkey to be found, and no frozen spinach in bags (I hate bricks o' spinach). However, I found bags of frozen zucchini, and ground bison (which was cheaper than the leanest ground beef - go figure).

By the time I got home, my stomach was feeling pretty queasy, so I decided to nix the cheese sauce. I still wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do... but that was part of the fun! At the end of everything, I ended up making a pretty tasty meal with leftovers - not bad for throwing stuff in a skillet.

INGREDIENTS
1lb ground meat (I used bison)
approximately 8oz whole wheat fusilli pasta
1lb frozen zucchini
salt
pepper
garlic powder
italian herbs
reduced fat shredded italian blend cheese (for garnish)

RECIPE
Brown meat in a skillet; drain well. Toss the pasta in, and put enough water in to just barely cover the meat and pasta. Dump a bunch of herbs and spices in, to taste. Simmer until the pasta is maybe a minute or 2 from being done (add more water during cooking, if necessary), and dump in the frozen zucchini. There should be a little liquid left, to cover the zucchini and heat it through. Add more herbs and spices if you think you need more. Simmer, simmer, simmer, until the pasta is done. If you added too much water (like I did), use a slotted spoon to serve. Sprinkle shredded cheese over it while it's still hot. Grated romano or parmesan cheese would probably work even better.

Fish & Chips

2008-02-01T22:06:00.001-05:00

Dude. I totally achieved awesome fish and chips tonight. Kind of piecemealed the recipe and method from a couple recipes I found online, but here's the gist of what I did:

Chips:
preheat oven to 350.
cut up 2 large baking potatoes into steak fries-sized pieces.
toss in a large bowl with 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil and a couple big pinches of Dr Gonzo's Dry Rub.
Spray down a couple baking sheets with cooking spray.
arrange chips in a single layer on baking sheets.
bake for 20 to 25 min or until to desired level of crispiness, rotating and/or flipping fries halfway through.
toss cooked fries in large bowl with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Yummy!

Fish:
put 2 to 3 quarts canola oil in dutch oven or bigass stockpot and bring to somewhere between 350 and 375 degrees.
mix 1 cup good beer and 1 cup all-purpose flour. whisk gently to combine. *
cut 2 lbs haddock into manageable pieces (2-inch portions is good)
dip haddock into batter and drop gently into oil. (don't fry more than 4 at a time, it'll crowd the pot and drop the temp of the oil too much)
poke and prod to keep it moving and not stuck to bottom of pot.
fry until a nice dark golden brown, drain on paper towels.
hit each piece with salt while it's still hot and some oil remains on it.

* I used a friend's homebrew beer that must have been left here after a party... I wish I knew what it was because it made the most excellent beer batter I've ever tasted. It was dark... maybe a nutty or a porter? Anyway, definitely go with a good beer. Don't bother if you're using a beer you wouldn't drink yourself. =)

I served the fish and chips with some peas lightly sprinkled with lemon juice, as Darren and D had fond memories of fish, chips and peas when they were in London. It was SO good.

However, given that I had to buy 3 quarts of canola oil... I probably wouldn't make this again unless I was frying up a ridiculous amount of food. Perhaps next time I do fried fish, I'll also beer-batter a bunch of veg and just fry til I drop.

resurfacing - foodshow rundown

2008-01-26T01:53:00.000-05:00

The night classes worked together to put together a table for this past week's Savor the Flavors MS Fundraiser at Union Station in Worcester. It was so many kinds of awesome. We basically treated it like a huge catering and ordered the food and did 3 dishes for the guests... Again... more fun than I've had in ages.

One of the dishes was a stir-fry with a really awesome hoisin-orange sauce. I won't give it away because it's not my own creation - it was my classmate's. But man oh man, it was good. I know the secret, so hit me up and I'll it make it for you sometime. (This offer only extends to my friends who live within the Mboro-Hudson triangle o' love, sorry!

Some unexpected time off coming to me in the next couple days, so I'll try to catch up some on my experiments from the past couple months and get them online. Thanks for tuning in!

Pumpkin scones

2007-11-05T10:34:00.000-05:00

So on Sunday, Kevin and I baked up a batch of pumpkin scones and shared them for brunch. I brought a bunch to work today too, and they're disappearing like crazy, so I guess they're a hit. Anyway, we didn't change the recipe much, so here's the link to the original recipe.

Joy of Baking - Pumpkin Scones

We made them plain - no add-ins or toppings, and very slightly modified the egg wash recipe to 1 egg, 1/2 Tbsp water, and 1/2 Tbsp melted butter (due to a lack of milk). I thought about drizzling a confectioner's sugar and water glaze on them, but ended up feeling entirely too lazy. Next time, Gadget, next time!

Black Mage 7 (xtreme closeup!)

2007-10-29T17:28:00.001-04:00

Black Mage 7 (xtreme closeup!)
Originally uploaded by Vampyre Kitty

Officially usurping the title of "Geekiest Cake Vickie's Ever Made," this little guy is made of colored marzipan. Under him is crushed toffee bits, chocolate buttercream icing, and german chocolate cake.

12 photos total at my Flickr account, check them out! =)

(x-posted to my LJ)

poached pears and disagreements

2007-10-19T09:44:00.000-04:00

(x-posted to vampyre_kitty.livejournal.com)

Rough week for me in the kitchens. I did poached pears that took me all 3 class days due to various issues, and I was just really displeased with how it turned out.

The base ingredients:
8 pears, peeled and cored (with stems intact)
10 whole peppercorns
about 1/2 cup port
5-6 cups burgundy (in the book it called for 52 fl oz zinfandel, but there was none)
1 oz basil, chopped
zest of 1 orange
10 oz sugar

Basically you whack it all into a large saucepan (non-reactive), bring it to a boil, and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Then chill the pears, and strain the wine mixture back into a saucepan (I believe I switched to a large flat skillet at this point to get more surface area in contact with heat)

Reduce until it coats the back of a spoon.

Serve pears chilled on a pool of sauce.

Here's where I disagreed: Chef had me reduce the sauce WAY further than where I would have taken it. I'm thinking... served on sauce... you want to actually be able to get sauce onto the pear, right? By the time I was allowed to take my skillet off the heat, the damn sauce was the consistency of caramel. So after it cooled a little, it was... well, it was like caramel. Difficult to spoon, harder to spread out on a plate, and definitely not what I wanted. It did taste good, but... texture too, man!
The other thing was that there was this big honkin' hole in each pear where I'd scooped out the core and seeds, so he had me fill it. Which I didn't object to. The filling was a mixture of cream cheese, ricotta, and sour cream. He gave me no parameters on how to sweeten it, so I used honey. Which liquefied the sauce completely, so then I had to fold in dissolved gelatin powder to thicken it back up again. It made me angry. Plus after all that effort, it basically tasted like sweetened mascarpone. So why did I even go to all that effort, when I could have just used mascarpone and maybe some brown sugar and not panicked that I had a crappy filling?

In the end, it did turn out pretty tasty, but I'm just really not thrilled about how it all went down. And I was stuck in the dishroom most of the evening so I didn't even get a chance to snag some of the pork chops and potatoes au gratin that the international cuisine students made. Sad.

Class Report, no recipes

2007-10-09T22:48:00.000-04:00

I probably should have mentioned this, but I'm in culinary school! I'm taking night classes at the Salter School in the culinary arts program! Okay, now on with the post:

(x-posted from vampyre_kitty.livejournal.com)

So the two classes I'm taking this term (10 week terms) are Desserts and Back of House Operations. Back of House is fascinating, but probably only to me because I'm a total nerd. It's like all the safety and sanitation regulations, pricing and cost of menu items, scheduling, etc etc.

Desserts however... now who doesn't like desserts? =)

Last week because I was new I shadowed a classmate and helped with the little stuff like babysitting cream on the stove, measuring, cutting dough, etc.

So imagine my surprise when today in class, Chef-Professor declares that I must produce a batch of vanilla ice cream all on my own! (I believe I might have squeaked in surprise.) So away I go, frantically mixing and boiling and whisking and tempering. Once the custard is in the ice bath to cool, Chef notices that there is still a good portion of time left in the period and decides that he really needs a batch of crepes.
Let me now make the disclaimer that I can only just barely flip pancakes. Crepes terrify me.
So okay, a few more random squealy noises later (I kept the noises in my head, I'm not that crazy) I'm off and running, hunting down the ingredients for crepe batter. Chef joins me at the stove for a quick crepe-flipping tutorial and to get the first few going, then leaves me to my own devices. And also, the order to have at least 20 good crepes by the end of class.
!!!!!
So there I am, frantically buttering, ladle-ing, and flipping. And at one point I drop everything to go move the ice cream batter into the ice cream maker. And then scurry back towards the stove. I just barely squeaked the last few crepes in before the end of class.

And I swear, I don't remember having this much fun in ages. I think it's great that Chef was "testing" me, and it's even greater that I evidently passed with flying colors. I got a couple high-fives and plenty of compliments (which is actually quite disconcerting) so go me!

It's also good to be reassured that I can make it, because what kept me from enrolling sooner was my paralyzing fear of failure. BUT, I can hold my own in a class of students all with more experience than me, and I can keep my cool while juggling a bunch of things AND while Chef is yelling at everyone. I do believe that I am quite well-suited to the kitchens!

So that is all. I won't post reports of everything I make in class, but tonight I figured I should since I was *literally* bouncing around when I got home, I'd had such a great time at school. =) Again... go me!

Loco Moco!

2007-09-18T23:19:00.000-04:00

It's like a trip to Hawaii, only without the super expensive plane fare!
Loco Moco is a Hawaiian dish, and I'm sure it was one of those "well damn, all we got is these leftovers, now what" sort of dishes. (like shepherd's pie)

Anyway, here's what I did:

- make some white rice. long-grain, if you have it. make it in water, not broth.
- pan-fry a couple of beef burgers. If you're making your own patties, make them no bigger than 1/4 lb. and make them thin. Also, don't forget to flavor your meat. I hit the meat with a good amount of adobo powder and dry rub.
- when burgers are done, move them to a plate to rest.
- in the drippings in the pan, melt a tablespoon or two of butter (real precise, i know)
- add 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour to pan to make a good thick paste (yes, you're making a roux)
- cook roux for a few minutes until it smells nutty
- add beef broth. make yourself a nice gravy.
- in another skillet, fry some eggs. sunny-side up. *rolls eyes* okay, over-easy if you're grossed out by sunny-side.

Build your Loco Moco:

rice on bottom. burger patty on rice. fried egg on burger patty. now... drown that whole sucker in gravy.

No, seriously. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Darren wasn't sure he'd like it and he inhaled his whole bowl of it.

Now give me some luau music and a pitcher of fruity frozen drink, and I'm all set.

Mushroom Risotto... yummies!

2007-09-10T19:19:00.001-04:00

It has been a goal of mine for the past several months to get a good risotto recipe... and I have succeeded!

The base recipe was from food network, but I of course messed with it, so here is the final:

The goods:
olive oil
1 largeish shallot, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 finely diced red onion
2 portobello caps, rinsed and rough chopped
2 cups Arborio rice
8 cups vegetable broth
1 cup grated Parmesan (get the good stuff from the cheese case, not the green can)

The method:
- put broth in stock pot over low heat to warm up while you're chopping your goods
- mince shallot, dice onion, chop mushroom
- get a bigass skillet nice and hot. add a couple tablespoons olive oil
- saute shallot, garlic and onion. move FAST so nothing burns.
- when shallots and onion are barely translucent, add mushrooms (and more oil if needed to keep everything moving), saute for another 2 or 3 min.
- stir in the rice, saute until grains are translucent. (at this point I turned down the heat on my skillet to around medium)
- add one ladle-ful (about 1/2 cup) of broth to rice, stir until fully absorbed.
- continue adding broth one ladle at a time. Do not add next ladle until the previous one is fully absorbed. This takes about 20 or more minutes.
- when rice is creamy but not mushy and kind of just-past-aldente, it's perfect.
- stir in the cup of parmesan cheese
- taste, and adjust seasonings. I added a whole bunch of salt and pepper. And more garlic powder.

Plate it up! Garnish with more cheese, or fresh basil or parsley.

OH SO GOOD.

dill and sour cream potato salad!

2007-09-03T15:51:00.001-04:00

Ganked from allrecipes, but so delicious. I subbed out dijon mustard for Dr Gonzo's Drunk Stunt Mustard. Also used dry dill because I'm poor. And didn't measure salt/pepper, instead shook in some adobo powder and Dr Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub. Yum Potato!!

INGREDIENTS

* 7 cups chopped red potatoes
* 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill weed
* 1 teaspoon dried parsley
* 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool, and chill.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine sour cream, dill, parsley, Dijon, salt and pepper.
3. Pour dressing over potatoes and toss gently. Chill before serving.

Click click bloody click... PANCAKES!

2007-09-01T12:40:00.000-04:00

So this morning, Kevin and I decided that we wanted pancakes for breakfast. The problem? No eggs in the house! With some internet research on vegan pancakes, and some spur of the moment ideas, we came up with a pretty tasty recipe.

Originally, we started out with this and this base recipe, replacing the soy milk with 1% milk and the Earth Balance vegan margarine with butter. I had added the flour and 1/2 cup of milk when Kevin said, "I'm going to have some pudding while we're waiting." A light bulb went off in my head - pudding is thick and it's sweetened (with Splenda - we had the Jello sugar-free pudding cups) which means we didn't need to add sugar. So instead of using cornstarch and banana to thicken the mixture, replacing about 1/3 cup milk with 2 single-serve pudding cups seemed to work out nicely.

For a sheer experimental mixture, these pancakes cooked up surprisingly well, and tasted pretty great. The insides were more... creamy than normal pancakes - not uncooked, just not as dry as regular pancakes. For working with what we had around the house, though, they totally worked.

The final recipe is as follows:

Egg-free blueberry vanilla pancakes (makes 10 4-inch diameter pancakes)

Ingredients

1 cup flour
2/3 cup milk
2 single-serve Jello pudding cups (we used sugar-free vanilla)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
a handful of blueberries

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl (we took the KitchenAid for its inaugural run with this recipe). Heat a non-stick skillet over high heat (as long as it's a good nonstick pan, you won't need any butter or oil to cook them in). When the pan is hot, turn the heat down to medium-high heat, and scoop about 1/3 cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. When the pancakes start to show lots of little bubbles around the edges and creeping into the middle and/or the edges look firmed up, flip them and cook until the underside is golden brown. Serve with butter, syrup, powdered sugar, or just eat them plain.

thoughts on tea

2007-08-23T08:59:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning to think I'm just totally odd when it comes to tea. I take "normal tea" (and by normal, I mean Twinings brand Earl Grey. If it's not Twinings, it's not Earl Grey) with milk and enough sugar to kill a horse. Seriously. You can look into the bottom of my cup once the tea is gone and there's still a layer of wet sugar at the bottom. I SUPER-saturate it. Fruity infusions (Celestial Seasonings) always involve some crazy amount of honey. Chai must be milky and, again, enough honey to kill a small mammal.

Yet I actually get offended when people try to adulterate my green tea. Or any of the various "get it in an asian restaurant" teas, really. Those I drink straight-up, and I don't understand why people feel the need to sugar those.

BUT... my green tea ice cream had better be sweeter than GOD, or there is hell to pay.

So... yeah. I don't make any sense. Not that that's anything new, really. Just felt like sharing.

"I've had a rough day"; chicken remix.

2007-08-14T10:55:00.001-04:00

I dunno about all y'all, but sometimes I just really need to let off some steam and get some frustrations out of my system. Pounding chicken to a pulp really helps.

The goods:
4 pieces boneless skinless chicken. (I prefer dark meat, you can use white. whatever works)
a good pounding implement (fists, mallet, heavy lowball glass, whatever)
cling wrap
large plate (or pie plate)
flour
spices (Now that Dr. Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub is my official house blend, I don't even really look at other spices anymore)
EVOO, naturally
Bigass nonstick skillet

The Method:

Get yourself a large piece of cling wrap. Place 1 piece of chicken on one side. Fold cling wrap over.
Pound away. Make your chicken flat and large. I'd say aim for 1/2-inch or less thick. Go crazy.
Lather, rinse, repeat until all your chicken is flat. You can reuse the cling wrap for the chicken.

Pour some flour into your plate. Add liberal amounts of your spice blend of choice. Remember, flour and chicken are bland, so be generous with the flavor. Mix.

Liberally (seriously, LIBERALLY) coat the bottom of your skillet with oil. Get your oil nice and hot.

Dredge chicken in flour, shake off excess, fry in oil. This should be relatively self-explanatory. Fry until golden-brown and delicious.

Is delicious served on a plate with sauteed zucchini, summer squash, and button mushrooms.

Plus you feel much better after beating up a bunch of defenseless chicken.

dinner of creamy decadence.

2007-07-29T22:13:00.000-04:00

This is devilishly simple... and probably has like a billion calories. But, it's quite rich so you don't need to have a lot. That helps!

Chicken in cream sauce

- Brown chicken in skillet in a tablespoon of olive oil (4 boneless skinless breasts or 5 boneless skinless thighs)
- once both sides are browned, mix in 1 can condensed cream of asparagus soup (or any creamy soup, really), 1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk, salt, pepper, and whatever else spices you like.
- simmer nice and low for 5 to 10 min (i was busy mashing potatoes and steaming veg, i wasn't paying attention)

Sour Cream Potatoes:

- skin 4 small potatoes and chop into about 1-inch pieces.
- plonk them into a pot with water, boil until soft.
- drain, mash. add sour cream until you reach desired consistency. salt and pepper to taste.

Asparagus:

- trim asparagus. steam until done. toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Build Plate:

Plop a big spoonful or two of mashed potato onto dinner plate.
Rest chicken on one side of potato pile.
Lean some asparagus on the pile, where the potato and chicken meet.
Spoon up some of that delicious creamy soupy sauce and pour over. Ta-Dah!!!

It looks great. It's retardedly simple. And it tastes DIVINE.

Of course, you might have to do some extra crunches to make up for it. But I consider it well worth it. =)

Southwesten Turkey Burgers

2007-07-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

I made these the other night, when I was craving turkey burgers, avocado and a fairly healthy, balanced meal. One burger and a serving or 2 of salad make for a very filling meal, though it may not look like much!

Ingredients

1.25 lb ground turkey
8 oz fat-free ricotta cheese
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro
1-2 cloves garlic
whole wheat burger buns
slices of colby jack cheese
salsa
sliced avocado

Directions

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl, either with your hands or with a spoon. Form mixture into 5 burgers. Grill or broil until cooked through. Put on a bun, and top with cheese, salsa, and avocado.

Notes

The seasoning blend is all approximate - I just dumped a bunch of stuff in, so do it to taste. The ricotta helps to keep the turkey nice and moist.
I broiled the burgers the one time I made them. The ricotta kind of charred when I broiled them for about 4 minutes on each side, then I baked them at 350 to cook them the rest of the way through. They looked as though they would fall apart if I'd grilled them, so I would recommend adding an egg and maybe bread crumbs to the burger mixture.

simple but beautiful

2007-07-15T21:07:00.000-04:00

This isn't really even a recipe, but I just figured I should mention how wonderful fruit salad is. It's light and crisp and refreshing and it's so so easy. All you need is some time, a big knife, and a huge bowl.

What I generally put in would be:

Half of a seedless watermelon
one honeydew melon
one pineapple
a bag of grapes

and it's great because other than the choppitychopping, you haven't got to really *do* anything. Darren's grandparents brought us a couple pints of fresh-picked blueberries; I may mix some of those in as well.

I do know people who hate chopping stuff and I guess it is effort intensive, but I dunno. I like chopping. I like working with knives. It gets me closer to the food and it's therapeutic. That probably makes me kind of a freak, but that's ok.

Anyway, fruit salad. whoo!

Sweet BBQ Turkey Loaf... sort of.

2007-07-11T10:22:00.000-04:00

So I had a bunch of ground turkey that was about to go bad, and I was not in the mood for sloppy joes, so I randomized a meatloaf recipe:

Start with bigass mixing bowl.

Add:

1 pkg ground turkey
1 lb ground beef (again... it was there)
1 cup italian breadcrumbs
several dashes worcestershire sauce. seriously. go crazy. (i think it came out to 1 or 2 tablespoons)
half a large red onion, chopped fine
4 eggs
3/4 c liquid (I had about half a cup of chicken marinade left over, so I used that and added water to make 3/4c. I bet you could use broth too)
several dashes assorted spices to your taste (parsley, garlic powder, dry rub, etc etc)

mix it all up. your hands will get disgusting.

grease up a 9x13 casserole dish (PAM cooking spray to the rescue!)

Dump meatpile into dish, form into basic loaf/log shape. This is a WET loaf mix, so it won't look perfect. Don't worry about it.

Glaze the top. Most meatloaf recipes I've seen use a ketchup/brown sugar type glaze, but I was lazy and out of ketchup, so I just used some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (I think I had the honey barbecue flavor). Bake at 350% for 1 hour or until cooked all the way through.

This is a very fluffy loaf; it's not anywhere near as dense as the meat bricks I often see. Each has their good qualities, I love dense meatloaf too, but this recipe was a really great way for me to get rid of some stuff I had lying around the fridge that needed to go.

Goes great served with more BBQ sauce, or any Gonzo mash.
I think next time I do a randomloaf, I'll leave off the glaze entirely and make up a mushroom gravy. Mmmmmm mushroom gravy.

DELISH marinated chicken

2007-07-04T22:13:00.000-04:00

I've made this twice in as many days, so you know it's good =)

The marinade:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup honey
several grinds black pepper
a good dash or three garlic powder
I also added a few dashes of Dr Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub just for good measure.

Whisk all that good stuff together. Pour mixture into a gallon-sized ziptop bag.
Add chicken - 4 boneless skinless breasts or 5 drumsticks, or equivalent amount.
Squeeze all air out of bag, massage the meat for a few seconds to get the marinade good and happy.
Marinate anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours.

Cook using heat supply of your choice. I cut up the chicken breast into cubes and made kabobs, and with the drumsticks I broiled in my oven, taking time to baste the chicken with the remaining marinade.

Whatever marinade is left over once chicken is on heat, you can pour into a saucepan and reduce down to a nice glaze. Or, you can heat up some veg in the marinade and the veggies will taste delish as well!

SO Good. Shamelessly stolen from allrecipes.com, but still delightful.

Enjoy!

Steak Sammies - better than advertised!

2007-04-16T19:09:00.000-04:00

Okay, so... I first discovered this recipe way back in the day when Jamie Oliver ruled the Food Network (I miss him... he's sexy) and I never really played with it, but it's become a favorite of mine and Darren's over the past year or so, so I figured it's about time I shared.

The Goods:
- loaf of interesting bread (I often use a crusty french, ciabatta works really well too. you want the outside to have some substance though.)
- package of steak. it doesn't have to be high quality. it does have to be less than an inch thick though. (I usually get cheap chuck .. it works just fine)
- EVOO, I keep it in my handy bottle with a pour spout.
- steak-type seasoning (Dr Gonzo One Hump Dry Rub is my new house seasoning of choice)
- mayo
- a good brown mustard. Guldens works. If you want KRAZY flavor, go with Dr Gonzo's Adirondack Black Fly.
- baby arugula. or spinach. something green and interesting.
- tomato, thinly sliced
- cucumber, thinly sliced
- cheese of your choice, sliced (i recommend pepperjack)

The Method:
- plonk a skillet on medium-high heat. let it get hot.
- drizzle some oil over each side of steak. rub.
- liberally sprinkle steak seasoning.
- steak goes in pan. sizzling is good!
- cook steak until desired level of doneness!
- REST YOUR MEAT PROPERLY. SERIOUSLY.
- cut the steak into thin slices. return to pan with juices until sammich is ready to assemble.

- halve the loaf lengthwise (like you're making one GINORMOUS sammich)
- mayo both sides. even if you don't like mayo. trust me.
- mustard!
- spread out some arugula
- layer on tomato and cuke
- lay on a layer of steak
- add cheese
- carefully close sammich, and cut into individual portions.

It's simple. It's hearty. It goes GREAT with smashed redskin taties and some gravy. It's full steak dinner that isn't actually terrible for you.

And I love it. =)

Kyoto A-Go-Go!

2007-03-23T12:23:00.000-04:00

A bit over a week ago was the boy's B-day, so us and a friend went and checked out the new Japanese restaurant on Lincoln St, Kyoto. Let me just say this: ZOMG.
So we get in and the decor is pretty nice... big bar. Pretty tables.
No mixed drinks for us, sadly... the three of us is all broke. We splurged on some appetizers: edamame, a rainbow roll, and a dragon roll. Edamame was cooked well, but undersalted, and that made me a bit sad. The rainbow was standard. And by standard I mean nothing about it stood out, but it was a superb roll. We generally love the rainbow roll no matter where we go =). The dragon was really good - the eel was done perfectly and the tempura shrimp was awesome, but it was cut too thick. We usually get eight pieces in a dragon and this time there was only six, which isn't really a huge deal but was still a bit sad. Also thicker rolls are a bit more difficult to eat, but y'know, whatev.
So okay, the main course(s).... Salad with standard ginger dressing, yum. Soup was watery... but I was the only one bothered by it, so I guess I'm just picky. Entrees: R got scallops, Boy got scallops and shrimp (I think) and I got swordfish. Let me say that again: Swordfish. I think that may be the first time I've seen swordfish on a teppanyaki menu. Everything was PERFECT. Seriously. One thing of note that I found interesting is that the chef fried up some bacon to mix in with the fried rice. Also, the dipping sauces were the standard ginger sauce and also the really good creamy sauce like Osaka serves, not the watered-down hot mustard like Sakura serves (this is a good thing. we LOVE the creamy sauce). And as the rice was cooking, he ladled on some of the cream sauce too. So the fried rice had just TONS of awesome flavors working through it. I'm a steamed rice purist, but I tried some of Darren's rice and I gotta say... it was fantastic.
The swordfish was pure ecstasy. That's all I can say. Oh, and the nice man put some teriyaki sauce on it for me.
We did get the big gong she-bang for the birthday celebration. The coconut ice cream had hints of ginger in it, which was cool for Darren, but bad for me, since I actually really dislike ginger.

The waitstaff was really awesome. All very nice, and okay, I hate to be mean, but here it is: The waitstaff at Kyoto speaks much better English (chefs included) than the other places we've been at, and that actually makes a difference for me. I can connect better with them at Kyoto and it makes the experience much more enjoyable. The chef was incredibly friendly and funny (you should have heard some of the horrible puns he made; it was awesome) and we definitely laughed and smiled throughout.

Pricewise, it was pretty on par with Osaka. Maybe a little bit pricier, but ... dude, I got swordfish. It was worth it.

So recap: Kyoto Japanese on Lincoln St. Extremely awesome, and you should go there. Now.

Reverse engineered dill dip

2007-03-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

Right, so pretty much anyone who knows me also knows about my slight obsession with the dill dip/dressing they have down at the B. After years of trial and error, I totally got it perfectly right last time I made it.

Only since I'm abysmal about recipes, I didn't measure a damn thing and now I'm not sure if I can replicate it. Ha, I'm such a loser.

Anyway, here's a good starting point:

8oz sour cream (and trust me, you want the full-fat kind)
8oz mayo (again, full-fat.)
some ri-goddamn-diculous amount of dried dill
dried onion flakes
garlic powder
dried parsley
salt or adobo powder
pepper
a few tablespoons of milk to thin it out a little

The trick is, you have to let it sit a few hours to let the flavors develop, so it's kind of hard to know right away when you have it right.

But in this case especially... experimenting is so rewarding.

Spinach Artichoke dip

2007-01-27T16:08:00.000-05:00

Blah. So, it's 3 hours before the pahhhhhhty, and there's no way I'm making it there - stupid stomach bug couldn't have come at a worse time! :( Instead, I shall share my (extremely vague) recipe for spinach artichoke dip as penance!

Ingredients
Frozen chopped spinach (preferably in a bag, thawing out the brick o' spinach sucks!)
One brick of cream cheese
One can of TJ's artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind)
Shredded (not grated) parmesan or italian four-cheese blend
Garlic powder to taste

Mix-it-up
1. Put the cream cheese in a microwave-safe casserole dish and zap it for 30 seconds or so to soften it up.
2. If you're using the bag of spinach, grab a handful or so and mix it into the softened cream cheese, until it's as much spinach as you want in the dip. If you're using the brick o' spinach, thaw it first, then mix some in.
3. Cut the artichoke hearts into more manageable pieces, and mix as much of that in as you want (probably most of the can).
4. Mix about a handful of the shredded cheese into the dip.
5. Sprinkle garlic powder to taste into the dip, and, you guessed it, mix!
6. Top with some extra shredded cheese.
7. Put into the oven at 350F, and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until bubbly and golden.
8. EAT! I like the TJ's soy and flaxseed chips or Tostito's Gold with it.

Holiday Wrap-Up... sort of.

2007-01-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

Right, so I'm really bad at updating. Whatever. =)

Anyway, since I have a bunch to tell all y'all and I'm way too scatterbrained to get it all in topic-specific posts, here's a bunch of little posts rolled into one big ol' one.

The boy and I went to visit his grandparents in FL between Xmas and New Year's, and that was super awesome. The best part? DISNEY!!! (You have to understand how retarded I am for Disney. It's scary.) We did one day at Epcot, and that was awesome (and I got me a Mickey ice cream pop) and a surprise bonus was *real* shave ice at the Japanese pavilion. I'd been disappointed over the summer at Hampton Beach because I was at a stand that advertised shave ice, and I was actually served a snow cone. Yes, there is a distinct difference. Mostly in texture. But it's there. So okay, shave ice, yay!
We did a second day at the Magic Kingdom, and there wasn't anything particularly amazing foodwise, but the day was AWESOME. And I have the pirate Mickey ears to prove it.

One of the highlights foodwise was after our beach day, the grandparents treated us to dinner at a restaurant called "Sweet Tomatoes", which is an all you can eat salad bar restaurant. Yup. You go in and build yourself a gigantic salad with all fresh veg and stuff (and they have the good ranch dressing. the tangy and not gloppy kind. trust me.) and then you pay for your meal. The added bonus (beyond the all-you-can-eat part even) is their soup and bread bars. Something like seven soups, and pizza foccacia, delish cornbread, baked potatoes and other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting. And they have soft-serve ice cream!
Now, this is all fine and great and a great way to pig out on stuff that's actually not bad for you, so awesome. BUT: the reason I was so excited is because they have the same parent company as my ABSOLUTE favorite place to get lunch in Brea, Souplantation. I had suspected when the concent was described to me, and then it was confirmed when we walked up to the restaurant and I saw the same seating layout through the windows, and the same green and black checkerboard trays. And that was so great seriously because I LOVE the Souplantation and I was sad that I'd have to wait until NEXT year to eat there again. So, yay! Seriously. Go look up Souplantation on Google and tell me it isn't like the best thing ever.

I also made two meals for the family while I was down there, which were very well-received. I actually have to check the archives to make sure I haven't already posted the recipes for those, so I won't include them here.
So that was our vacay. It was AWESOME.

There were two things this holiday season that made it the total bestest ever. One was Disney, duh. The other was that Darren, his sister and his dad (and stepmom) all chipped in and got me the Kitchenaid Artisan mixer for Xmas. I was so thrilled. I love it.
Since getting back on Jan 6th, I have made double chocolate cookies, two batches of jam thumbprint cookies, chocolate mint meringue cookies, and today I successfully beat into submission a batch of the most delicious chocolate mousse ever. It's funny though because since I've spent the last few years collecting recipes that don't need a stand mixer, now I have to practically rebuild my repertoire to include my beautiful new tow.
Next month I shall take on the molten chocolate cake. And I will WIN!

Anyway, that's it for me. Oh, and Darren and I are making a concerted effort to eat at home more, so hopefully I'll start posting recipes again.

So decadent, even the vegetables are mostly meat.

2006-12-21T04:26:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd talk a little bit about the things I did for Sunday dinner which got such rave reviews. Since I was working alone for this particular event, I only had two dishes but supplemented them with junk food. Even without the junk food we would have had plenty to eat, but I liked the overall dining experience of my working-class main dishes sharing a meal with Lindor truffles and the quintessentially addicting Royal Dansk cookies.
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It seems like New Englanders aren't really familiar with the simple pleasure of the ham barbecue. This could be for any number of reasons, for example the astronomical price of cold cuts here, the lack of a good fatty ham product meant to be shaved into paper thin sheets, or the tyranny of coastal culture with its seafood and false air of superiority. Whatever the reason, fortune shines on us for the ingredients of a fabulous ham barbecue can be found in any grocery store.

Ham barbecue:
Combine in a crock pot 2 pounds of shaved deli ham, where "shaved" means sliced thinly enough to readily see light through the slices; 2 bottles of Heinz chili sauce; 2/3 of a can of Coca-cola; and 1/2 of a green bell pepper, diced. If the ham isn't completely covered by the sauce, add water and adjust cooking time accordingly. Stir with some vigor so that the ham breaks apart, until it's become somewhat uniform, then leave alone for at least 2 hours (the first hour will be spent
heating up the mixture to a boil -- after this time the heat can be reduced to low). Serve on sandwich buns, potato rolls, or bulkie/kaiser rolls.

While the ham is simmering in the crock pot, the brine will leach out and mix with the sweet ingredients to form a delicious sauce. When served, the sauce will have coated all of the ham's surface as well as soak into the bun, not enough to make it fall apart, but enough to add a bit of flavor it it.
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My Slovak grandmother (known for absolutely unheard-of delicacies like egg baba, sauerkraut soup, and my personal favorite: krupy) made sausage and endive once when I went to visit with my father. Her version was very saucy and served with potatoes (qualities which do not describe my rendition), and I was surprised at the good flavors brought about by the vinegar twang and the saltiness rendered out of the sausage. Being a low-carber and having negative reactions to potatoes (from my digestion as well as my friends), I chose to stick to the goods and serve it as a flavorful vegetable.

Sausage and endive:
Wash 1 to 2 large bunches of endive (I used 1 but it cooks down just like spinach, so more is easy to handle). Chop into large pieces and set aside.
Brown 1 pound of your favorite loose sausage in a _large_ frying pan or chef's pan (I used sweet italian sausage from The Chop') until most of the fat contained therein has rendered down. Remove the bits of sausage but retain the fat. Using the fat rendered out of the sausage, sweat 1/2 of a medium onion, about 3 tablespoons, until the onion is translucent. Add cider vinegar, about three tablespoons to start, as well as some extra salt and pepper. Add endive and toss under medium low heat until endive wilts and reduces in volume. Endive should be coated with oil and vinegar. Taste to see whether more vinegar is necessary. Re-add the sausage and bring back to temperature. serve.
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Also, sorry about this, guys, but I had chocolate hazelnut spread that I meant to serve with the butter cookies. I forgot to retrieve it from the pantry.

lessons learned: aluminum conducts!

2006-11-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

All right, so I probably should have known this already, but blame it on my brain atrophying now that I'm not in school anymore. Or something.

Anyway, I was making up a batch of peanut butter cookies (again... been on a wicked huge PB kick the past few months) and I ran out of parchment paper to line my cookie sheet with. As I'm looking around my kitchen, I see a roll of aluminum foil and I think to myself... well, if it's only to keep the cookies from sticking to the pan, it won't make a differenc, right?

... Oy.

So the cookie sheet that I did have enough parchment paper to cover turned out beautiful cookies that I'm very proud of. The other one? Well, the tops look fine. The bottoms are burnt. And I am sad.

... Darren thinks they're tasty though. He's strange. =)

One of the few reasons I like winter:

2006-11-25T23:30:00.000-05:00

HOT CHOCOLATE!
I use the crappy powdered stuff normally, because I just can't be bothered to heat up milk, melt down chocolate, add sugar, etc etc when I want a cuppa.
But if you use about twice as much mix as they suggest in a mug of hot water, and add a candy cane garnish... you end up with a minty chocolatey concoction worthy of any pretentious coffee shop.

Seriously. Try it. =)

PS hot choc is great paired with freshly baked peanut butter cookies. Also, expect posting to become more prolific in the next month; I've signed myself up for food network's 12 days of cookies mailing list!

Gonz-ified Fried Delights

2006-11-22T08:25:00.000-05:00

Ever made a pan of casserole-style baked mac and cheese and not been pleased with how it turned out?

A week or so back I made a ginormous batch of it and then decided that it had set up too firm and I hated it. (I prefer the creamy ooey gooey kind)

So I was all... damn, I've got a big pan of really firm cheesy stuff and I don't know what to do. Then I remembered:

The goods:
- mac and cheese, chilled til it's firm, sliced into about inch-thick cutlets
- eggs
- bread crumbs
- vegetable oil

The method:
- beat the eggs in a bowl. in a different bowl, pour out some bread crumbs.
- egg and bread the mac and cheese. It's not difficult.
- heat up some veg oil in a nonstick skillet (I'm paranoid)
- fry till brown and delicious on both sides. You'll know when it's done when the smell just about drives you mad with hunger.
- put 4-ish layers of paper towel on a plate. transfer fried mac and cheese to plate.
- season both sides with some salt and some Dr Gonzo's One Hump Dry Rub.

... and then cry tears of joy as you consume.

I win!

Vader Cake!

2006-10-30T07:25:00.000-05:00

Check it out. I made a Vader cake this weekend. It's up on my Flickr acct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vampyre_kitty

It's a strawberry cake with peanut butter frosting. I rule!

trip report: North End bakeries; or why Phantom Gourmet is a dangerous show.

2006-10-24T09:46:00.000-04:00

Over the past 8 or so months of watching the Phantom Gourmet, I've learned the most important trick: you must watch it either while eating, or immediately afterwards. Watching it while hungry is a surefire trigger to go out and spend money on a nice meal (you can't just microwave chicken nuggets after watching all the tasty food). However, sometimes the "watch only while full" rule just doesn't hold up...

Monday night. 9pm. Kevin and I are curled up on my couch, bellies full of leftovers, watching a recorded Phantom from the last weekend, "Best of the North End". We're drooling at all the delicious-looking pasta and meats and pastries, and we start discussing dessert possibilities. There are sugar-free mini chocolate peanut butter cheesecakes in the fridge, ice cream in the freezer, and Lizzy's Ice Cream up the street. After watching the segment on the ice-cream injected cannolis and cupcakes, we decide, hey, let's go a little crazy and go to Lizzy's after we watch this episode.

Then... the Modern Pastry segment came on. The following conversation ensued (ganked from Kevin's LJ):
Val: "Mmmmmm....can we goto Modern Pastry??"
Kevin, no hesitation: "Yes."
Val: "..Now?"
Kevin, half joking: "..Yes."
Val: "..."
Kevin: "..."
There was a little more to it, but the end result was us pausing the Phantom episode (we were only halfway through!), grabbing our coats, and driving into the North End. Remember, 9pm-ish, Monday night. Par for the course, I'm sure. From Waltham, it's about a 20 minute drive, so not too unreasonable... I guess...

We parked sketchily on a side street, and walked the couple blocks to Modern. There were a few people sitting at tables, but no line (a rare occasion). Kevin spotted ricotta pie and started drooling. I spotted HUGE pieces of tiramisu and started drooling. We asked what kind of cannolis they had. One particular variety sounded great - a mix of vanilla mousse, chocolate mousse (I think it was actually white chocolate mousse), and ricotta filling. Kev got his slice of ricotta pie, I got my slice of tiramisu, and we picked up those magical mixed cannolis for our respective roommates (one for each, and one for Kevin for later on). Slice of ricotta pie, slice of tiramisu, and 5 cannolis - $15. NOT BAD!

While we're waiting for the cannolis (they fill them fresh in the back), I get the bright (read: sugar-shocking and artery-clogging) idea that, ya know, while we're here, we should swing by Mike's and nab a cannoli. You know, for scientific side-by-side comparison. We make sure the car hasn't been towed, drop the Modern boxes in the car (can't just walk into Mike's with those!), and skip back to Mike's. It was nearly 10 at that point, closing time for them, and it was EMPTY. I've only been to Mike's once before, and it was on a Friday night and jammed, so seeing the big bakery empty was an experience. I eyed the shiny, colorful marzipan candies, but we were there for a cannoli, and a cannoli we would get! Oh yeah, and rainbow layer cookies. Because rainbow layer cookies are amazing, and I'd never had good bakery ones, only supermarket ones. One cannoli and 6 rainbow cookies - $5.50. Still not bad at all!

Armed with a Mike's box containing a chocolate-dipped ricotta cannoli and 6 rainbow cookies, we made our way back to the car, giggling giddily in anticipation of the sugar rush. We couldn't wait any longer, so we busted open the Mike's box and each had a rainbow cookie. ZOMG amazing! They tasted so fresh compared to the supermarket ones I'm used to. The cake layers were moist and perfectly almond-flavored, the jelly wasn't overpoweringly sugary, and they used some darn good chocolate to coat the outside. Yummy!

We returned to my apartment only a little over an hour after we left it, and with boxes full of tasty fun! Got right back to curling up on the couch, distributed the goodies, and restarted the Modern Pastry segment. The three of us (Kevin, Jeff and I) traded bites around of each of our respective desserts.

Kevin's ricotta pie was dense and sweet, with a surprisingly non-soggy sugar-dusted crust. Jeff's cannoli was heavenly, with the relatively airy mousse-ricotta mix filling (mostly vanilla-flavored), and a sugar-dusted, not-sweet, semi-crunchy pastry shell. My tiramisu... mmmmm. It was lighter and fluffier than most tiramisu, but somehow they managed to pack ALL the richness into it. The coffee-soaked ladyfinger layers melded perfectly with the fluffy, creamy mascarpone, and the whole concotion was dusted with rich cocoa powder. I was full after half of the piece, so the boys happily helped me finish it up.

Interspersed with the Modern Pastry gorging, we played "pass the Mike's cannoli", each of us taking a bite or two, for the purpose of comparing Mike's to Modern. The consensus? Both wonderful! They were different styles, so a full-on winner couldn't be determined. The Mike's cannoli was heavier (all ricotta filling) and more pronouncedly sweet, rather than vanilla-y, and it went wonderfully with the shell and the dark chocolate coating.

Both Mike's and Modern put out some amazingly wonderful desserts. Modern seems to be a bit more cost-effective, but Mike's has a much wider selection (though I've only had cannolis and rainbow cookies from there, so I can't really speak to the quality). There's a damn good reason that both of them are packed full of people on weekend nights, though.

the sexiest chili i've ever made

2006-10-18T09:28:00.000-04:00

So I've made a few pots of tasty chili in my lifetime, but this time I wanted a simmered-all-day chili.
Plus, I wanted to use that damn crock pot.
Problem is, neither the boy nor I care too much for beans, and finding a beanless chili recipe is ... practically impossible.
I found a chili recipe in my crock pot cookbook that sounded decent (but had beans) and then improvised:

The Goods:
2 lbs chuck, cut into little bitty cubes
1 15oz(ish) can whole tomatoes. (fish out the tomatoes and chop them, but don't lose any of the liquid. it all goes into the recipe.)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup corn (I used frozen)
1 handful chopped scallion
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 or 3 heaping spoonfuls of Gonzo Supermash
1 tbsp mustard (Gonzo's Black Fly is awesome, but I'd just run out, so I used regular old Gulden's)
chili powder (the recipe said 1 tbsp, but that's bull. srsly.)
ground cumin
dried oregano
dried parsley
nutmeg
garlic powder
adobo seasoning
olive oil

The Process:

get yourself a bigass skillet, go once or twice around the bottom with some olive oil.
get it nice and hot, and brown the 2 lbs of chuck. this takes a while.
dump everything except spices and condiments into the crock pot (meat, tomato, etc) and give it a good stir.
flavor it: add supermash, mustard, a tablespoon or two of chili powder, a dash of cumin, 1 tsp oregano, some ridiculous amount of parsley, and a dash of nutmeg.

cover the crock pot, cook on low. leave it alone for about 6 hours. At hour six, give in to your temptation to poke at the delicious-smelling things in the pot. taste. add salt and pepper, and more chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, and adobo to taste. pop the lid back on and let it get ridiculously happy for 1 1/2 to 2 more hours.

serve hot with some shredded cheese and a glob of sour cream on top.

goes great with corn bread! i used the jiffy mix but i sprinkled some awesome dry rub on top before baking it. mmmmmmmm......

the cookbook said 8 servings, but I only managed to get 4 generous servings out of the pot. That's just fine by me though!

eh hehehh... oops.

2006-10-15T12:17:00.000-04:00

Had a bit of a lapse in common sense.
stainless steel skillet /= nonstick.
stainless quite all right for scrambling eggs... but not so great for keeping frittata intact.

should have known... but didn't think. whoopsie!

well, i have an awesome ham and cheese scramble now.

Cake update and restaurant review: 5 & Diner in Worcester

2006-10-01T09:14:00.000-04:00

Remember that cake I was talking about last post? Strawberry cake with peanut butter frosting in the middle and hazelnut frosting on the outside. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Everyone loved it.
That is my official new all-occasion cake now. Schweeeeet.

So there's this new cute 50s style diner in the Target complex off Lincoln St in Worcester and since I can't resist 50s diners, the boy and I felt we should give it a try. Very cute interior, lots of pictures of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and muscle cars. Each booth has a little jukebox so you can pick songs - 2 for a quarter. We had fun with that function. The menu is all right... burgers, sandwiches, salads, etc. Typical Americana. So decent start. The food... well, let's just say that someone had a really great idea but totally fell through on getting the right talent to make it happen.
We started off with a root beer shake for Darren and a strawberry malt for me. Pretty good, but the glasses were like 50% whipped cream... and it was overwhipped. The shit wouldn't even mix into the shakes all that well. Way too thick.
Got a bowl of chili, because I love chili. That was pretty decent. Darren liked it because it wasn't overly cumin-y, which he finds is a problem for him with most other chilis. We both thought it was too heavy on the beans though. The chili was about the best part of the whole experience, really.
After a bit (this place is like retardedly busy since it's still new) our food came out... Darren got the house burger, and I was brave and tried the shrimp po'boy. Oi. His bun was over-toasted and there wasn't enough veg and sauces, so his burger was way dry. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't... good.
My po'boy was pretty much a complete failure. The shrimp was way too over-breaded and salted... and a little overcooked too. There was like barely a whisper of tartar sauce on the whole thing... I needed it because breaded crap on a baguette? Yeah, dry city. And since the baguette was split all the way through, everything kept falling out when I took a bite. And let me just say... I like my food heavy on the spices, so when something is too salty even for me? That's kind of a problem. Same with the fries. The seasoning was probably good, but all I could taste was the damn salt. Which makes me sad, because damn do I loves my fries.
So yeah. cute concept, but sorely lacking in execution. Sorry, 5 & Diner, but you probably won't be seeing me around for a while.

newest cake experiment

2006-09-24T08:11:00.000-04:00

The cake: crazy strawberry cake with strawberry gelatin mix and pureed frozen strawberries in the batter. Comes out bright pink and smells divine.

The frosting: between layers, creamy peanut butter frosting.

top and sides (needed a pristine white writing surface): hazelnut infused basic butter frosting.

Separately, everything tastes ridiculously good. Unfortunately I can't tell you how the whole thing will taste because I haven't assembled yet, and it won't be served for at least three hours.

Sounds like a good idea though, innit?

I'll keep y'alls posted. =)

best grilled cheese sammich EVAR

2006-09-20T09:20:00.000-04:00

This morning, I decided to make grilled cheese sammiches for breakfast for Jeff and me. Not just white bread and American cheese though, oh, no, but grilled cheese gone GONZ'D!

Ingredients (for one sammich):
1 slice rye bread
1 slice pumpernickel
2 slices provolone cheese
a generous helping of Peppermash (or Supermash, if you're not a wimp like me)
plugrá butter

I make-a the sammich:
Put one slice of the bread on a plate (whichever one your little heart desires to have on the bottom), and lay out the 2 pieces of cheese. Glop as much Peppermash on top of the cheese as you want (good thing I was making them and not Jeff, else we wouldn't have any left!), and cover with the other slice of bread. Melt the plugrá butter in the frying pan, and grill one side of the sammich (I put the peppermash'd side down first, but it's really up to you). When the cheese hanging out the sides looks about half-melted, add more butter to the pan if necessary, then flip the sammich. Take off heat. Cut in half. EAT IT ALL!

Cake

2006-09-19T17:18:00.000-04:00

Check out this badass cake I baked:

More photos.

Baking it involved some guesswork, but here's an approximate ingredients list:

32 eggs
1 jar natural peanut butter
8 sticks butter
3 packages cream cheese
1/3rd tub palm oil
4 pounds confectioner's sugar
4 tbsp vanilla
4 tbsp baking powder
1 lb ricotta cheese
1/2 bag almond flour
6 carrots
2 small boxes raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 gallon whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 kilo Trader Joe's semisweet chocolate
1 Lindt baking chocolate bar
1/2 container cocoa powder
3 Lindt chocolate squares
Allspice/cinnamon/nutmeg
Sprinkles/jimmies/sunflower seeds

duck... duck... duck... duck... duck... PORK!

2006-09-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

So, since discovering the magical happy places that are taquerias (screw you, Moe's!), I've become extremely fond of carnitas. You know, me being a good Jew and all. While mulling over dinner suggestions for crockpot fun, Kevin suggested something pork that would fall apart after mucho cooking... and from there, it was only a small jump to decide, time to try my hand at carnitas! Searching the much-loved allrecipes.com produced this recipe, which I then modified for crockpottery (and less extraneous ingredients).

My recipe and method as follows:

Ingredients
1 pound boneless pork shoulder
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 onion, cut into 4 wedges
1 tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf

Instructions
1. Put all ingredients in the crock pot.
2. Add enough water to cover the roast.
3. Cook for about 11 hours on low.
4. Remove from crockpot, and shred the pork.
5. EAT! I recommend eating in soft tacos with lettuce, sour cream, cheese, salsa and avocado.

Oh man. I walked in the door to my building after work and thought "man, something smells good." Then I walked upstairs to my apartment and opened the door, and discovered the delicious smell was coming from inside. It took minimal prep work in the morning, and made there be tasty dinner well before 8:30pm on a worknight. Crockpot cookery is AMAZING.

Thai + Lamb Balls = Wheee

2006-09-12T13:58:00.000-04:00

Val and I decided to cook up a little Thai fun last night. My first run with such a thing, so I was afraid of less-than-desirable outcomes. Dish the first: Pad Thai. Val had done this before, and we kept it simple with the jar-o-permade-sauce method. Still, wicked tasty.

Dish the second: Green Curry Lamb Balls. I had to capitalize it, they're that awesome. Stumbled across this recipe at the ever-awesome allrecipes.com, while looking for something that was simple, Thai-style, and involved lamb. My own paraphrasing follows:

I N G R E D I E N T S
1/2 pound ground lamb
1/2 cup bread crumbs
steak seasoning to taste
1 (10 ounce) can coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons green curry paste

C O O K I T A N D S T U F F
1. Mix up lamb, bread crumbs, and seasoning. Make 'em into bout one-inch balls.
2. In a high-wall pan, brown the meatballs on all sides. Go for crusty. When done, take out and set aside.
3. Toss curry paste into hot pan, and fry for minute. Lower heat, pour in coconut milk, add the meatballs back in, and simmer. Give it maybe 5-10 minutes, or whenever the meat is sufficiently cooked.

The original recipe does not mention cooking the balls in the curry sauce....but I think this is foolish, as they meatballs won't be cooked through otherwise. This way is quite tasty. Dooooooo it.