Baked elbows

Hello all. Last night, I prepared some delish baked elbow mac. R called it fancy Hamburger Helper. Gourmet, even.

First, brown 1 lb of ground chuck and one chopped onion. Toss in some red pepper, salt, and black pepper. Meanwhile, prepare 1 lb of elbow macaroni or other short pasta, cooking a few minutes shy of al dente. In a large mixing bowl, mix 1 1/2 to 2 c marinara sauce*, 1 c ricotta, 1 c shredded Italian cheeses (usually a blend of mozzarella, asiago, parm, etc.), salt, pepper, and other seasonings, such as dried basil and oregano. Add the browned meat/onion mix and mix well, add in the pasta, mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole, top with more shredded cheese and some grated parm for good measure. Baked at 400 for 25 minutes, then crank on the broiler for 3-5 minutes to get the top nice and brown. Slam.




*Here's my chance to act like a Food Network chef - I store homemade marinara in the freezer, but if you don't have homemade, use your favorite store brand!

Beef!

I again borrowed from the Wellfed site, and make a chipotle maple beef brisket. My only changes to the recipe were to use a chuck shoulder roast (that's what I had on hand) and to use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. I also cooked it in that most important tool of the Midwestern wife, the Crockpot. It was very very good. Very flavorful and tender. Will be purchasing an actual brisket to do it properly this weekend for the husband's fam. I can see how grilling it before you slow roast it will make it taste even better. Am v. pumped.

More pork

Sorry for my lack of posts as of late - the new pup is taking it out of me.


Last night, I prepared another round of boneless pork chops with a rice side and some frozen corn. I won't insult anyone's intelligence by explaining how to prepare frozen corn. For the pork chops, I marinated them in a mixture of about 1 tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce, a crushed garlic clove, a splash of olive oil, some red pepper flakes, black pepper, and something else I'm probably forgetting. After an hour or so, I then heated up a tsp of oil in a skillet and cooked the pork chops.

For the rice, I heated one tbsp butter and one tsp olive oil in a saucepan. I then added one minced shallot, salt, and pepper. Once the shallot was softened, I added 1 1/2 c long grain white rice and stirred until it was coated with the buttery mixture. I then added 2 1/2 c chicken broth and a splash of water, along with some more salt and cooked according to the package directions. It was quite yummy. I suggest tossing in an extra pat or two of butter.

Smothered pork

What sounds fattier than a smothered pork chop? Not a whole lot, I wager. We prepared this meat/carb overload of a meal last night. Pork chop? check. Kielbasa? check. Potatoes? check. Rice? check. And above all, gravy? check and double check.

Hysterical website

Check out Pimp that Snack. V. funny. Many thanks to J for the suggestion.

I particularly like the suggestions for home-pimping, especially the pimped out Iced Bun. I think this becomes funnier because it is apparently English, but the idea to just take a loaf of bread and ice it to make a giant bun made me laugh. The t-shirts and other merchandise are also quite funny.

Uses for fresh summer tomatoes

Saturday, we made a lovely steak and had some pasta with a fresh tomato, basil, garlic, onion, etc. sauce.

To make said sauce, first make cross-shaped slices in the bottoms of four roma tomatoes. Place in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes, until skins start to split, then transfer to a bowl of ice water. Peel. Repeat (less cooking) with a variety of cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile, slice 2 onions and start to heat over medium heat with a bit of olive oil. When these have sweated, add 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and some red pepper flake. Then chop the peeled roma tomatoes and add them to the pan.


Break the tomatoes up as you go (be careful not to overheat the sauce, the seeds from the tomatoes could burn and turn the sauce bitter. Alternatively, you could seed the tomatoes, but that's a PIA when you just don't feel like it). Add the peeled cherry tomatoes after 15 minutes or so. I've been known to drop a splash of red wine in at this point, maybe a handful of parm, too. Chop several handfuls of basil and add that to the mix right at the end. Prepare any type of pasta according to the package directions, but let the pasta cook its remaining minute or two in the sauce.

Toss, serve with the lovely steak and you are all set. Some nice wine doesn't hurt either.

Summer Foods, Part I - Chicken Salad

Hm...I haven't been posting here much of late. Guess that has something to do with crazy travel schedules, busy times at work, and getting my own blog back up and kicking. But there is still cooking to be done!

As the summer comes to a close, it's time to do a quick review of top shelf summer dishes before getting into some tastiness for the fall tailgate season. Today - my recipe, only slightly stolen, for Tarragon Chicken Salad.

Start with 3lb of chicken leg quarters (for a wallet-friendly balance of white and dark meat), and cook them any way you want. However, while I normally do not advocate the boiling of any meat, in this case a hot water bath is just what the doctor ordered. All the boiling will leave the meat falling off the bones, and as a bonus, you'll have high quality homemade chicken stock as a leftover! The boiling should take somewhere in the ballpark of 90 minutes to get the chicken nice and melty.

Once the chicken is done (and cooled), shred until you just can't shred anymore! Some people prefer to chop the chicken, and to those people I say - go back to Russia. Chicken salad is the poultry version of pork barbeque - the only proper way to do it is to shred the meat. You can be a sissy and do this with a fork, but I prefer to do it by hand - it makes it a lot easier to grab morsels off the bones and to remove skin.

Now, for the remainder of the salad ingredients. As with just about every other thing I cook, I seek a balance of flavors and a balance of textures. To that end, I add about 1 1/2 cups of diced celery, 2 cups of diced Granny Smith apples, and 1 cup of sliced radishes (or red onion if you can't find them) to the chicken. The combination gives sweet, tart, spice, and most importantly, crunch to balance the soft chicken.

While the dry goods will contribute some flavor, you definitely want most of the flavor to come from the dressing. I combine: 2 cups of light mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of that chicken stock you just created, 4 tbsp of dried tarragon, 1 tbsp of dried dill, and 1 tbsp of dried oregano. If you want a bit of kick, feel free to add 1 tsp of cayenne as well - but as much as I like spice, I don't include that. Mix well, then stir it into the dry goods.

Voila! Homemade chicken salad - and a lot of it - that will be good for lunches all week and a picnic for your friends on Saturday. What's that? Chicken salad won't last six days in the fridge? Of course it will. If the chicken is cooked, it's good for a week in the fridge. The mayo would in and of itself be good for months in the fridge. The only real risk are the vegetables, but they will only go bad if exposed to water and oxygen - the oil-based mayonnaise sauce surrounding them will prevent that, so long as you keep a good lid on the tupperware. So don't worry about it.

Tomatoes!

A bowl of delish cherry tomatoes!

Breakfast for Dinner

I have been craving pancakes forever it seems, so we went with a breakfast for dinner theme last night featuring said pancakes plus eggs scrambled with veggies and meats and cheese. Delish.

For the pancakes, I prepared the oh-so-complex Bisquick pancake batter and fried those suckers up with butter and a tiny bit of cinnamon. Mmm.

For the eggs, I cooked a few sausage patties and a few strips of bacon, then chopped and set aside . I sauteed half an onion, finely chopped, with half an orange pepper, chopped, in the bacon fat. I added some salt, pepper, thyme, and a bit of cayenne and paprika. I then added a handful each of chopped cherry and yellow cherry tomatoes (from the patio garden). Then I added back the meat. Meanwhile, I mixed a heaping tablespoon of sour cream, salt, pepper, and 6 eggs. I poured the egg mixture over the meat/veg skillet and cooked until the eggs were soft set, sprinkled with some cheddah just before removing the eggs from the heat, then I slammed. Boy, did I slam. We both slammed.

Fruits of the Patio Jungle!

Behold the quasi-cornucopia!