A light, summery meal

Despite the fact that is was over 90 degrees yesterday, I wanted my special linguine with the bacon/shallot/pea alfredo sauce and parmesan chicken, so that's what I made. I swear I've blogged about both items, but my mad research skillz cannot find those entries, so I shall write of them now.

First, the parmesan chicken. A knockoff of many recipes. Pound chicken breasts flat, cut into reasonably-sized pieces. Dredge in flour. Then egg. Then a seasoned bread crumb/parmesan cheese mixture. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter over medium heat. When hot (sizzling hot), add breaded chicken and cook until dark and crispy. I use this base when I make regular Chicken Parm with pasta as well.


The crowning glory of the meal is this luscious pasta (notice the red sparkly spoonula). In a large, deep pan, cook 3 slices of bacon until crisp and remove to paper towels. Meanwhile, in a large pot, boil lots of water, add lots of salt, and cook a pound of dried linguine or other string pasta according to package directions minus one minute. Add 3-4 tbsp butter to the bacon fat and saute one chopped shallot until softened. Add 1 to 1 1/2 c heavy cream and a smashed garlic clove. Add a pinch of nutmeg. Add a lot of pepper. Cook until the cream thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add 1 c parm cheese, about 1 c frozen peas, and the cooked bacon (crumbled). When the pasta is slightly underdone, add the pasta to the cream mixture. Add a bit of pasta water to make the pasta flow. Then you enjoy it. And you'll likely enjoy it for several days, as you can see, a pound of pasta is a lot.

Definitely not a light dish, but v. high yum.

The world's fattiest cake

Mmm....like any good Southerner, I HEART pound cake. Sour cream pound cake to be precise. And even better is a BIG sour cream pound cake. I got a new issue of Southern Living and it included a sour cream pound cake recipe, and I happened to have all the ingredients, so I said, "why not?"

First, you cream THREE sticks of butter with THREE cups of sugar. Then you add SIX eggs. Then some almond and vanilla extracts.* Then add alternatively 8 oz of sour cream and THREE cups of flour, some baking soda, and salt. Pour this loveliness into a bundt or tube pan and bake at 325 deg. for about 90 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a rack. Then eat a lot of it. Until your heart begins to hurt from the butter and eggs.



* The recipe called for lemon extract. I hate lemon in baked goods unless they are SUPPOSED to be lemony - lemon bars and the Barefoot Contessa lemon cake. Those are luscious. But this newfangled compulsion with adding lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract, lemon curd, lemon stems, lemon trees, lemon bark, lemon fungus, lemon bugs, lemon WHATEVER to anything makes me crazy. Sometimes things don't need to be "brighter" or "tangier" or "lemonier." And don't get me started about mixing chocolate and orange, a classic combo that makes me want to honk.

Mmm...alcoholic chicken

Hello all. Last week, I noticed an easy and yummy sounding meal in my most recent issue of Everyday Food, Chicken Thighs Braised in Wine. After a few nights of lame meals (grilled cheese, soup, and there may have been some Taco Bell), I felt the urge to be a bit more healthy and inventive. The chicken and rice was served alongside some fresh green beans sauteed in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes.

As you can see from the recipe, you braise the chicken in the white wine with some garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Eventually, you add some lemon. Then you reduce the wine to make a sauce and serve the lot over rice. Very easy.

I subbed chicken breasts for thighs, because that's what I had in the freezer. I also added a handful of chopped mushrooms (crimini, what else?).

I have few issues with this recipe. I felt there wasn't enough sauce at the end (I only used 2 chicken breasts, and had just enough, and the recipe is designed for 4 servings). In the future, I might increase the amount of wine prior to reduction, or add in some chicken stock (and another pat of butter of course). Also, it was a bit too lemony, which is odd given that it was only 1 tbsp of lemon juice, plus the cooking lemons. But several bites of rice were eye-openingly lemony. A grain of rice may have been shot up my nose as I sputtered at the lemoniness. Diluting the sauce would help. Using chicken thighs, which are fattier and more flavorful than the plain ol' breast, would probably help too - add a bit more lusciousness to the sauce and all that.

The green beans are so easy - clean the beans, cook the beans in salted, boiling water for about 3 minutes, shock them in ice water, then toss them in a medium heat pan with olive oil, garlic, s/p, and chili flakes to taste.

Tribute chef

Please check out the sweet cheffing skillz of Jules.

White sangria

I don't have any photos, but I did make a Southern Living (subscription required for recipe search) recipe for white sangria this weekend.

All you do is mix the following:

1 bottle white wine (I used leftover wedding chardonnay)
1 c orange juice concentrate (I used a bit less)
1/3 c lemonade concentrate
1/3 c limeade concentrate
Slices of lemon, orange, and lime
3 c of club soda or seltzer

Serve over ice. It was v. fruity. I might toss some vodka in next time to give it a little more punch.

Super Meatloaf!

Because we are easily persuaded, after watching the premiere of the revamped "Tyler's Ultimate," we wanted to make his "ultimate" meatloaf with mashed potatoes. As you can see from the recipe, this involves making a tomato-red pepper relish that goes in, on, and beside the meatloaf. My ultimate review of this recipe is generally positive, but I will say that meatloaf is just one of those dishes that you grew up with, and anything different from what your mom or grandmother or whoever made just doesn't cut it when you want meatloaf. We did like this recipe, but I don't know that we'll stray from our standard meatloaf formula again.

So anyways, you start with the tomato-pepper relish - mixing onion, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, ketchup, worcestershire, salt, and pepper.


About half of this relish is added to the meat, bread, egg, seasoning mixture that becomes the world's biggest meatloaf. Mmm, delicious bacon on top. You can see that the meatloaf stretches from the edge of one burner, across another burner, to an inch or two past the counter's edge. It was large.

After baking for about 75 minutes, our finished product was still insanely large and unwieldy (fell apart a bit). We served it with some roasted garlic mashed potatoes which were delish.

When Wellington Goes South

Hullo, fair readers - it's been a nice, long break for me. A little fishing, a little catching up with old friends, a little home repair, and a lot of watching TV have helped me recover from the end of exams nicely. Now, if only I weren't a terrible employee...

Regardless, I have time to cook again, and it was again time to experiment. As most of you were at LTTS's wedding, you're familiar with the Wellington concept - take seared beef tenderloin, top it off with a duxelles blend and some pate, wrap it in puff pastry and bake. Emeril has a good recipe if you want to go traditional. But I'm southern, so the typical formula was gonna need a little reworking.

First, take out a piece of puff pastry from the freezer. (You do have puff in your freezer, right?) Let it thaw on the counter for about 10 minutes, then carefully unfold it. Allow it to thaw for another 20-30 minutes.

Now for the good stuff. Again, thanks to Father to the Stars (I swear, I do cook with materials that don't come from him), I took a half venison tenderloin and seared it quickly in olive oil - no more than 1min on each side. Set this aside to cool completely. In the same pan, fry up about 1/3 lb. of bacon (about seven strips) until it's completely cooked, but flexible and not crispy. Set these aside as well. Now, to the same hot greasy pan, add 1tsp of minced garlic and 1 cup each of Cremini mushrooms and Vidalia onions, both finely chopped. Saute these in your grease until they are nice and soft, then remove them to a bowl to cool, keeping as much of the grease in the pan as possible.

After preheating our oven to 375, let's get back to the puff for a moment. Lightly flour your counter, and gently roll the puff out on both sides - the goal here is just to remove creases, not to thin the pastry out. Once your puff is in good shape and everything else has cooled, it's time to construct. Lay a thin stripe of your aromatic blend down the middle of the puff. Next comes the tenderloin, followed by the bacon. Do your best to wrap the bacon around the tenderloin to keep this tight. Finally, cover the meats with another stripe of 'shrooms and onions. In order to tightly wrap the puff around all this deliciousness, go about it like you are wrapping a present, tucking and tightening the puff at each stage.

Top this all off with a little bit of egg wash - one egg blended with a dash of water, lightly brushed onto the wrapped Wellington. Don't have a pastry brush? Neither do I. Either use a spatula to carefully apply the wash, or dab a paper towel in the egg wash and apply thusly. Get the whole thing onto a greased cookie sheet, then throw it in your 375 oven for 30-35 minutes, until the puff is golden brown. The meat should be at around 140 inside, a nice rare-medium rare.

You'll note that I kept the grease in the pan - that's because we're making gravy. Add about 1/2 of flour to your still-hot bacon grease, whisking briskly to make a roux. (I find it helpful to add the flour in two stages to keep it from clumping.) After a few minutes of whisking, add 1 cup of beef broth and continue to blend. Finally, add a few splashes (to your taste) of whatever red wine you have lying around. The wine is key - it helps even out the flavors from all the different things we've cooked in the pan. Whisk for another minute, then take it off the heat - it'll thicken as it cools.

When the Southern Wellington is done, let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting so that the juices don't all run out. Serve with your meaty wine gravy, as well as some steamed asparagus or broccoli. Maybe next time, I'll try making a potato cake to go with it, but, hey, I'm just getting back into the kitchen. :)

Jambalaya, mon

For my midwest version of jambalaya, I start by baking two boneless chicken breasts seasoned with a knockoff of Emeril's "Essence" seasoning mix.* Meanwhile, cut about a 1/2 pound of kielbasa or other smoked sausage into bite-sized pieces and brown in a splash of olive oil in the bottom of a large stockpot over medium heat. Add one medium chopped onion. Add a tablespoon of the seasoning mix plus some red pepper flakes to taste. Add one chopped bell pepper. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic, a bay leaf, pepper, and anything else that strikes you as being tasty. Add the baked, cubed chicken to the mix. Add about 2 c of rice and stir to coat the rice with the mixture. Add 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes and 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, along with about 2 c of chicken stock. Stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer, covered, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and is tender, at least 20 minutes. Be sure not to let it boil out of control, or the rice will lose all its consistency and become mushy. I then added a can of black beans (rinsed) and some frozen corn, but other beans and or veggies would also be great - red beans, okra, etc. Serve hot.

This makes a ton, and I always end up making more than I intended to. But it is a great, inexpensive way to stretch meat. And, like the pasta salad, we'll be eating it all week.



*Emeril's seasoning - The word "essence" disturbs me. But to make it, you mix 2 1/2 tbsp paprika, 2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp black pepper, 1 tbsp onion powder, 1 tbsp cayenne, 1 tbsp oregano, and 1 tbsp thyme.

Fried Mac and Cheese, baby

As many of you may know, and as Kathy Griffin alluded in her latest Bravo standup special, the Cheesecake Factory offers fried macaroni and cheese as an appetizer. R and I tried it and found it delicious. So, with our leftover m 'n' c from Saturday, we tried to create our own delicious, fatty treat.

Basically, we just cut the leftover mac into smallish squares, dipped them in egg, dipped them in breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese, and fried in canola oil until lovely and crisp. We found that the middle of the fried cheese square wasn't quite hot enough, so I put them in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes or so to finish them off. I then served them with some leftover marinara sauce. Delicious.

Summer foods and comfort foods

On Saturday, I had originally planned on having the Barefoot Contessa tequila lime chicken with pasta salad. However, that was based on warm, sunny weather. What we instead got was 49 degrees and rain. So we regrouped and subbed homemade mac 'n' cheese for the pasta salad. This is why I will be eating pasta salad all week for lunch.

For the forgotten pasta salad, fill a large pot with water and boil - add a pound of pasta of your choice and a handful of salt (I use farfalle, the bowties). Meanwhile, chop a variety of veggies into bite sized pieces. I typically use seedless cucumber, green onions, bell pepper, and grape tomatoes. Place in a large serving bowl, and add any type of Italian or vinaigrette style dressing. I had lots of almost empty bottles in the fridge - balsamic, Robusto Italian, and red wine vinegar dressing. So I tossed those in (probably totaling less than a 1/2 c) plus some more extra virgin olive oil and some straight-up balsamic and mixed thoroughly. When the pasta is al dente and drained, pour over the veggies and mix thoroughly with the dressing. I usually add a big handful of cheese - parmesan, feta, whatever strikes me at the time. Then chill and serve.

The tequila lime chicken is a fabulous recipe, found in Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Basically, you mix lime juice, orange juice, salt, pepper, chili powder, tequila, garlic and other yummy things together to form a marinade for chicken. You must let the chicken sit as long as possible - at least 6 hours. Then grill. Very delicious. Sorry, no pics.

And finally, the star of the comfort food show, homemade mac 'n' cheese. I basically stuck to an Alton Brown recipe, with a few modification. For this recipe, you make a roux and prepare a white sauce. Alton calls for some bay leaves to steep in the white sauce - I tossed in a smashed garlic clove as well. In addition, I added some freshly grated nutmeg* to the white sauce since that's what all the crazy chefs do. Finally, for the cheese, I mixed Gruyere** and Cheddar and it gave it a really nice, nutty flavor. This recipe was not too greasy, as I've found with other homemade mac 'n' cheese recipes, and we were able to use it on Monday for fried mac 'n' cheese (more later).


*And yes, we did look at each other and say "hmmm"
** Bless the $3 cheese bin at Whole Foods

Fake 'n' Bake

So, after obtaining about 20 coupons for the product, I decided to try one of Duncan Hines' Signature Desserts, the Chocolate Silk Torte (at right).

Things I Like About It:
1) It was easy - you make the two thin layers and the mousse whips up easily
2) It tastes pretty good
3) Leftovers seem to be holding up well in the fridge - the mousse retains its shape, etc.

Things I Would Change:
1) The "torte" layer does not have the depth of flavor I want in chocolate. If I were to make this again, I would add some coffee, vanilla extract, and/or dark chocolate bits to the mix.
2) The mousse could also take some more flavor - so, if I added some dark chocolate to the torte, I might add a splash of almond extract, just a tiny bit, or some other very very small amount of flavoring to the mousse.
3) Another idea, although not something I would necessarily do, is to replace the middle layer of mousse with something like raspberry jam or a coulis. I know all the fruit/chocolate nuts out there will go wild.

All in all though, it tastes pretty good, I'd just make some ticky tacky tweaks the next time 'round.

Another superb creation from R

Because he is super cute, R prepared for me delicious stuffed pork chops on my return from Cleveland on Sunday. Even though I was still moderately stuffed, they smelled so delicious I couldn't resist. I'm not entirely sure how he prepared them because he took some artistic license with some recipes, I do know that he made a butter/garlic/onion/wine sauce in which to cook said pork chops, and filled them with a basic box stuffing mix that literally came alive when you put the sauce on it. They were extremely good. Perhaps I'll get him to do a guest bit.

Mother's Day brunch

I enjoyed a sumptuous brunch feast avec ma mere et mes grand-meres on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland. It was amaaaazing. It had both breakfast and lunch foods, as brunches typically do. It featured a seafood raw bar with a Mother's Day ice sculpture. There was also a chef prepared little bites of food - vanilla-scented diver scallops served over saffron risotto and a deliciously-seasoned veal tenderloin over a fresh pea risotto. High yum.

Let's see...what else to carry on about? They had a fabulous cheese and antipasti selection - all kinds of delicious cheeses, crackers, Italian meats, roasted veggies, etc. Beignets prepared before you eyes with various fruit compotes. Waffles with same. Prime rib with a peppercorn demi-glace and horseradish sauce; loin of pork with a soy-molasses sauce. Yukon gold potatoes au gratin, steamed veggies, chicken with morels, mini-quiche with Virginia ham and Jarlsberg cheese (mmm) where the eggs were perfect, eggs benedict, and the list goes on. There was a kids' buffet that was at kid-level, v. cute, featuring mac 'n' cheese, chicken tenders, and PBJ. And finally, the desserts. They were luscious. All in 2-bite servings, so you could eat 4, like I did, and not feel like a complete hog. Tiramisu served in chocolate cups, raspberry cheesecakes, bread pudding, flourless chocolate torte, Bavarian mocha cream pyramids, and about 6 others....I practically exploded after leaving the place.

All I have to say is that if I'm pregnant when another Mother's Day rolls around (not in the cards right now, but in the future) I'm totally making R or whoever take me there again when I can fully revel in overeating and being a piggy.

School cafeteria nostalgia

Earlier this week, I prepared some moderately delicious meat and gravy over rice. I need to come up with a flashier name. Back in my Elon Elementary days, it was called "Beef Tips on Rice" but as I was just using stew meat, it didn't seem appropriate.

To prepare said dish, I dredged a pound of stew meat in a flour/garlic powder/onion powder/thyme/salt/pepper mixture, then browned the meat in a few tbsp of oil over medium heat. Remove the meat from the pan and add one chopped onion. After a few minutes, add about 1 1/2 c of sliced mushrooms (I used crimini, my fave). Then I added 3 minced garlic cloves. I then added the meat back to the mixture, and tossed in about a 1/2 c of red wine. I allowed that to cook for one minute, then added 1 1/2 cans of low-sodium beef broth. Allow the mixture to reach a bubble, to let the flour do its work. The mixture tasted a bit bland at this point, so I added a bit more salt/pepper and another splash of wine. What I needed was a splash of worcestshire, but I was out, so I improvised. I threw in about a tbsp of red wine vinegar, and that seemed to cut the cloying fatty beefy taste. I served the reasonably tasty but not particularly appealing to the eye mixture over some fluffy long-grain rice. A very comforty, Tuesday night kind of meal.

And she bakes some more....

Another weekend of baking. Since R and I can no longer find his fave Pepperidge Farm Nutty Oatmeal bread, I decided to try my hand at it. Using the recipe for Honey Oatmeal Bread that came with my Kitchenaid, I simply added sunflower seeds to more closely mimic the PF bread.

I also made Elle's snickerdoodles, many thanks for the recipe. I ate about 20.

And finally, I made cinnamon bread, from the same Kitchenaid cookbook for my breakfasts this week. Mmm. This loaf is mildly deformed, but delicious nonetheless.

Opa! Hooray for the Gyro!

After much debate, R and I made gyros on Saturday night for dinner, served with wedges of russet potato from the world's largest baking potatoes.

To make the gyro meat, we embarked on a 400-step process. First, we drove to Whole Foods where we purchased a 4 pound boneless leg of lamb. Next, we walked the streets for a few hours to pay for said meat. Haha, just kidding.

We then went home and ground up the meat, again using our trusty Kitchenaid grinder. Then, following Alton's recipe, we blitzed an onion in the food processor, then mixed said onion with the meat, some garlic, rosemary, herbes de provence, salt, and pepper and blitzed that mixture in the food processor until it formed a chunky meat paste. Mmm. Meat paste. The meat paste was pressed into a bread baking tin (see left), similar to a meatloaf, then baked at 325 degrees for about 65 minutes. After baking, we wrapped another baking tin in aluminum foil, then placed that tin over the meatloaf and put several bottles of booze in the baking tin to press down on the loaf. After 20 minutes of pressing, the loaf is removed from the pan and sliced thinly (see right). We served the gyro meat on warm pitas with tzatziki sauce, feta, tomatoes, lettuce, and Vidalia onions.

Meanwhile, we cut two large russet potatoes into big wedges. On a rimmed baking sheet, we tossed the wedges with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. We put the wedges in the oven at the same time as the gyro meat, but while the gyro meat was being pressed, cranked the oven up to 450 degrees.

Overall, a fabulously tasty meal, but definitely not something to do on a Tuesday night (notice the new white Fiesta).

Breakfast on the Run

As some of y'all know, I'm two exams and six days away from relaxing on a fishing boat with my father and calling myself a 2L. The difference between 1L and 2L can only be understood by those who have experienced it (directly or indirectly through a loved one), but sufficed to say, it's huge.

In the meantime, unfortunately, I don't have a boatload of time for any cooking. Hence, the huge amounts of the previous recipes I posted, which allowed me to eat all week without resorting to Wendy's. (Though, being a 24-year-old and Ohio-borne boy, I do anyway.) Even more unfortunately (for both me and this blog's First Dog), my gameday study habits usually send me into the Law School no later than 6am on the day of the exam. If you are going to keep that schedule, solid breakfast food is a must. Enter: portable Denver omelettes. High-culinary? No. High taste and high energy? Absolutely.

Start with store-bought bagels - whatever savoury variety you like, though as my father's son I prefer those of the everything variety. Obviously, bagel store bagels are best; since I don't have time to go to the bagel store every evening for a fresh one, I rely on the good folks at Thomas or Pepperidge Farm. Toast according to your taste (I prefer them just short of burnt), and add a VERY thin layer of butter for flavor. The goal is to eat these on the run or in the car; too much butter and the innards will go flying.

Now, for our filling. Take two large eggs and scramble them quickly in a small bowl, adding a splash of water. Water, you say? Yes, water, not milk; water will steam and make the eggs fluffy, while milk simply softens the flavor of the eggs. And yes, this happens in real omelettes too. (That's two semi-scientific explanations in one entry. I kinda feel like Alton Brown.) Now, for your omelet filling. Since this is a Denver omelet (Western omelet to some), we're going to add a half-handful of diced ham, one diced slice apiece of red onion and bell pepper, and another half-handful of Mexican shredded cheese, and since I'm a spiceaholic, a healthy splash of Texas Pete. Mix well. (Oh man...pre-cooked ham, pre-shredded cheese, commercial hot sauce...I just went from Alton to Sandra Lee. Please shoot me.)

Nuke your egg bowl for around two and half minutes (just enough to ensure no Mississippians are harmed); obviously, this will vary based on your nuker. Once the mixture is completely cooked with no runny egg, use your mixing fork to scoop it out in one piece onto the bagel. Ouila! You're on your way out the door. (Don't forget to fill that dirty bowl with soapy water; cooked egg is a bitch to clean.)

Now, like I said, this isn't a groundbreaking recipe. But unlike most portable breakfasts, it's high in both flavor and protein, giving you energy to help you get through whatever you need to accomplish that morning, be it legal studies or real world work.

Garlic, some garlic, add some more garlic....

Last night, I tried yet another Emeril recipe (I need to stop, but by virtue of his longevity at Food Network, he pops up a lot when you search) for Beer Cheese Soup with Garlic Croutons and Kielbasa.

It came out v. "eh." I did, however, make a lot of substitutions and changes, so perhaps it would have been better had I stuck to the recipe. First off, the budget did not allow for $12 worth of cheese for the soup, so I subbed a mixture of Swiss and Cheddar for the Gruyere. Gruyere is a superior melting cheese, but I thought the Swiss/Cheddar mix would match our palates and budget a bit better. Second, I again used more leftover wedding Smithwick's (an ale) instead of the lager called for. And finally, I used dried thyme instead of fresh, but for this type of recipe, it is highly unlike that made so much of a difference.

My problems with this recipe:
1) The 6 tbsp of flour were not nearly enough to thicken it - I wasn't expected library paste, but it was still extremely runny. I ended up with a v. thin soup.
2) It was EXTREMELY salty, and if anything, I usually reduce the salt in recipes unless I can see that it is chemically/culinarily required. This may have been the kielbasa's fault, though, because 1 tsp of salt doesn't seem excessive for 8 cups of liquid.
3) The onion to garlic ratio is absurd. Between the 3 tbsp of garlic in the soup, and the 2 tbsp of garlic on the croutons, plus garlic in the kielbasa, I could literally smell garlic seeping out of my skin this morning, which is NOT a delightful morning smell. I'll have to ask R if he thought it was hot.
4) There was a v. weird bitter taste in the background of the soup. Again, maybe the kielbasa did something weird, maybe it was the beer. But I didn't take it early on in the cooking process, it came out late in the game. V. odd.

I still think the soup has potential, or potential with other modifications. I like the idea of a hearty, creamy beer cheese soup, even something with hunks of potatoes in it (sorry, Elle, I know you hate those potato hunks) or some nice bacon. But then I guess it becomes a baked potato soup. I guess I was expecting something that tasted more like an "everyman's" fondue in a soup form. If I try it again, we'll see how it turns out. But I'll probably wait for Fall...we're past soup season now.

The croutons are great. We used them on salads too. How can bread/butter/garlic/s&p not be good?

Side note - I'm sick of kielbasa. I don't know what possessed us to buy so much at the store a few weeks ago. We will be taking an indefinite hiatus.

Chicken tikka tavi

After perusing Wellfed, I found this
chicken tikka recipe that sounded really good. I stuck to his marinade recipe, for the most part, but I substituted Greek yogurt for regular. The Greek yogurt is much thicker and tangier. I used about 2/3 of the sauce to marinade the chicken overnight, then pan fried it. Once it was done, I removed the remnants of the torched sauce, and added some oil, onions, and peppers to the pan. Once they had been thoroughly cooked, I added back chunks of the chicken, and poured the remaining sauce over top. Served over rice, this was quite tasty, and it at least gave the illusion of healthfulness.

Mmm...balls.

Sunday night's dinner made use of leftover marinara sauce and leftover ground beef from Saturday's butchery display.

I mixed the ground beef, some chopped onion, garlic, red wine, parm cheese, egg, bread crumbs, and milk and rolled them into balls. Haha. Balls. Similar to my brother's approach, I fried them in a bit of oil until they got a nice crust, then poured in leftover marinara and placed the pan in the oven to finish the balls off, for about 20-30 minutes. I then added a handful of grated parm and smoked mozzarella. Served over some penne. Mmm.

I highly recommend the smoked mozzarella to add flair to dishes. I find mozzarella to be a bit bland, so I enjoy the fact that the smoking actually gives it some flavor.

Oh, the joy of fungi!

I'm hitting the realm of baking hard. I made a sourdough starter last week, and this weekend, I tried baking with it. All in all, it was a success, but I learned several lessons along the way.

First, the starter. For those NOT in the know, sourdough breads are so classified not so much for their sour taste (not all have that taste) but for the fact that they are not made from a yeast/water/sugar mixture at the start like most yeast breads. Rather, you make what is called a starter - a runny mixture of flour, water, and a tiny bit of sugar. The starter attracts yeast and good bacteria from the air, and begins percolating. You use the starter instead of packets of active yeast when you bake. Purists would say that you should never use commercial yeast in your starter. I threw caution to the wind and added a bit of commercial yeast to my flour/water/sugar mixture to make sure the stuff got percolating. I used, as a base, an Emeril recipe for my starter, but I decreased the amount of commercial yeast, and added a 1/2 c of rye flour to the all purpose flour. I then mixed thoroughly, loosely covered the stuff in a non-metal bowl, and let it sit on the counter for about 24 hours. Then I put it in the fridge. It began to smell like warm beer almost instantly, a comforting smell.

The next step of sourdough prep is to make a sponge. The sponge is a mixture of starter, flour, and water, which you allow to sit at room temp for a number of hours until it triples in volume. To a cup of my starter, I added 2 c of flour, and about 3/4 c warm water and gave it a vigorous stir. It was amazing to see how active the yeast was - this stuff was snapping and popping like soda. I covered the bowl with a towel, and let it sit on the counter for about 8 hours, then refrigerated overnight.

Finally, the dough. For the dough, you take your sponge, and add about 1 1/2 c flour and I added a few tbsp of warm water. I also added some olive oil for flavor. I threw it in the ol' Kitchenaid with the dough hook, and let it knead for about 6-7 minutes. Then I hand kneaded for a bit, threw it in a greased bowl, and let it rise for an hour. After an hour, I repeated the hand kneading, let it go another hour. Then I got my oven heated to 400 (with a baking stone inside)* got the bread punched down a bit and formed into a rough loaf, and put it in the oven. Before I put it in, I placed a pan of water underneath the baking stone. This is to encourage a chewy crust.** I baked the loaf until it was golden and crisp all over, and gave it a brush of melted butter halfway through.***

It was really quite tasty, but I'll have to keep working to find that sour taste. Supposedly, the sour taste comes from the bacteria the starter/sponge pick up as they bubble away, but we'll see what happens in the future!

* Must heat oven longer so baking stone gets v. hot. Did not do this, and had to eventually flip the loaf over to get the bottom browned.
** Hmm, water doesn't boil in the oven and create steam. What you are supposed to do is put a metal pan in the oven and let it get super hot, then right before you add the dough to the oven, pour water into said superhot pan and create a steam room for the loaf.
*** Butter may make it tasty, but not shiny. Egg wash would be better.

The other other white meat

That's right ... I had baby for dinner last night. What? It was just pork? Bah!

Last night, I made East-West Pork Chops with Roasted Asparagus. I'll give away the ending up front - all three components of the meal were good, but they didn't work together well, so I won't be making them all at the same time again. However, I highly recommend each component on its own.

For the pork chops (thanks again, Father to the Stars), I take them out the morning of, and place them in marinade - 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tbsp jar garlic, 1tsp brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder for a little kick. Whisk this well so the maple and soy combine and the dry goods dissolve. This was more than enough marinade for the five chops I worked with. Throw these in the fridge, and rotate the Gladware every couple of hours to get all of the chops evenly drenched. When you are ready to cook (at least six hours later), preheat your oven to 450, and warm a skillet over medium high heat, then hit it with a dash of cooking spray. Saute the chops for 3 minutes on each side, then place the whole skillet in the oven for 5 minutes to finish them off. They'll be juicy, sweet with a touch of both salt and spice.

For the asparagus, I cleaned them in cold water, then placed them into that same 450 oven for 8-10 minutes on a baking sheet to begin the roasting. While that was going, I combined the following in my handy-dandy 1 cup food processor - 3 tbsp of butter, 3 tsp of lime juice, and 2 tsp of chipotle pepper flakes. Mix these well so that they all combine - it will go easier if you soften the butter first, but you don't want to melt it yet. After the 8-10 minutes are up, pull the asparagus out and cover them with your chipotle butter, then back into the baker for another 5 minutes. When done, the asparagus should be a little crisp with a nice kick from the butter.

I also made some skin-on mashed redskins to finish the meal off - nothing fancy here, except that I finally learned that you need to start the cleaned potatoes in cold water, not dump them into a boiling bath. Whoops. Also, butter and half and half for the mashing, like Mother to the Stars taught 'ya.

Again, all three components were good, but didn't work well together. Ah well. Back to law.

Luxury burgers and more...

First off, I'd like to receive thanks and adoration for allowing my brother to post on this blog. Yes, I am a beneficent ruler of my blog...I allow the people to speak.

Now to the good stuff. R and I dined well this weekend. First off, another trip to the 'Bees happy hour. I know it's crap pub food, I know it's crap drinks, but they are CHEAP drinks and CHEAP food folks. We can drink enough to make us think we're in college again - well, maybe not. That would probably be bad. But it is a fun way to start the weekend nonetheless.

Saturday, we prepared a fab meal of crostini with gorgonzola, walnuts, and honey; grilled luxury burgers (more to come); grilled corn; and Emeril's Guinness onion rings. Finished with homemade strawberry ice cream, also courtesy of a modified Emeril recipe.

First, the crostini - a Giada recipe,* of course. I sliced a baguette on an angle, brushed with olive oil, and baked in a 375 deg. oven for about 6 minutes. Meanwhile, I mixed about 3-4 oz of gorgonzola dolce with some chopped toasted walnuts. When the crostini were golden brown, i spread a dollop of the gorgonzola mixture on the toasts. I placed them back in the oven and allowed the cheese to melt. I took them out, plated them on the lovely Shamrock Fiesta plate, and drizzled honey over top. Note - you NEED the honey in this, without the honey, the cheese is too sharp. The walnuts, bread, and honey mellow the cheese into something fabulous.


Then we got down to business. We had a few shoulder roasts of beef in the freezer, so we whipped out our handy dandy Kitchenaid food grinder, and got to work. Note to self - acquire aprons before next meat grinding project. Meat juices were rocketed onto my shirt.



Preparation of the luxury burgers begins. We seasoned the beef with salt, pepper, a splash of olive oil, and roasted garlic. My burger was then stuffed with crumbles of gorgonzola. R's burger was topped with slices of smoked mozzarella. Both may or may not have received some bacon. I also made a mayonnaise, brown mustard, roasted garlic, salt/pepper spread. Mmm. While R manned the grill, I made the Guinness (in our case, Smithwick's, that's what we had) onion rings.

Dessert was strawberry ice cream, out of our fab ice cream maker. I made sure to add some whole bits of strawberries (allowing them to macerate, so as to prevent them from becoming inpenetrably frozen blocks of fruit inside the creamy ice cream) to the mixture before the final freeze.





*The actual recipe is from "Giada's Family Dinners," her most recent cookbook. The Food Network version is a slight variation.