Family Meal

Cracklings

2011-11-21T21:49:00.003-08:00

David said that I should take a picture of my green beans with chicken cracklings on top as he was taking the plate to the dinner table this evening. I responded with, "Really? Nah." I just didn't think I was going to have the motivation to post, about it, since I haven't since, oh, 1999.

I should've because the cracklings were good, and the beans were, too. Cracklings on top of crack. Yeah.

What's cracklings, you ask? Crispy skin.

I've been thinking of it since Saturday night at work. Our chicken for family meal came out slightly underdone. Ick. So, Saul, who hadn't eaten since breakfast and was super hungry took matters into his own hands. He cut up some chicken, pulled off the skin and roasted it to done. More than done, I'd say. But, the skin got so nice and crispy. I didn't get a chance to sneak a piece, but it looked good. Later, I jumped on the hot line to help out, and one of the dishes is finished with duck cracklings. Hello. Again, I only saw, not tasted.

Tonight, when I was cutting up leftover roasted chicken for dinner, I pulled the skin off, cut it into small pieces and broiled them. Crack, crack, cracklings. With green beans, of course. The rest of the meal wasn't much to talk about; leftover butter chicken with noodles. Oh, and some roasted red beets.

Lovely Sandwiches

2011-10-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

I ran into a couple of pretzel baguettes at Whole Foods today. They begged me to bring them home and make them into delicious sandwiches. I think I could do that.

Let's see, what do I have at home, and what else will I need? Ah, who cares! If I can't come up with something good, they'll be tasty all on their own.

This is what I came up with.

On your left is Black Forest Ham and Tillamook's Cracked Black Pepper White Cheddar Cheese, and on your right is flat iron steak, avocado, and that white cheddar from Tillamook. I thought about putting some olive oil, or mayo, or butter on the bread, but we don't need the extra calories. I did, however, have some pickled shallots on the side for David and I to add to our portions. Here's what they looked like closed up.

And, sliced and on a plate.

Vincent had the ham and cheese, while Tyler had the steak with avocado and cheese. I had both, with the pickled shallots added (homemade). David had just one piece of the steak sandwhich, as he was heading out to play poker with friends and they'll be having pizza. On the side, we had a golden beets salad with romaine lettuce tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.

Homemade Pasta

2011-10-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about making pasta at home lately. I mean, actually making the pasta. It's actually pretty easy, but I always feel like it's time consuming. A few weeks ago, when I spent my first evening working in Lark's kitchen since 2006. While there, Wiley Frank, sous chef, was showing one of the guys how to make raviolis. He knocked out a set of them so quickly, and smoothly, I thought, "I need to make pasta at home." Of course, he's the sous chef at Lark, and I've never been a sous chef in my life. But, I do know how to use my pasta machine, and I wasn't planning on making raviolis.

I've been hesitant to make pasta since that evening. I'm not afraid. My problem, and this happens with so many things in my life, is that I want to do it right. This desire makes me feel like I need to take the time to research, read, watch videos, etc., before making the attempt to do just about anything I feel worth doing. But, I lack the time, and quite frankly, the energy to go through all that. Instead, I end up not doing it at all. That is, until my want for making such item becomes greater than my need to make it perfectly, and then I just pull whatever I can find off the Internet (thank you, Steve Jobs, for your lovely, lovely iPhone & iPad), and try see what happens. I have every intention to go back and catch up on the research and make it even better then next time.

I finally felt the urge to pull the pasta machine off the shelf and go for it this afternoon. I looked up and compared a few recipes, and settled on a super simple on of semolina flour, water, salt, and olive oil. The result was a very dry, crumbly dough, to which I added a little more water, bit by bit, and kneaded, kneaded, kneaded. When it was finally soft and smooth, I wrapped it up in plastic and let it rest on the counter.

After the boys got up from their naps, I asked if they were interested in making noodles with me. They were super excited. I attached the machine to our dining table, and we went to work, cranking away. The boys each took a turn with the crank, and were amazed to see the large, flat piece of pasta get cut into thin strips of noodles right before their eyes.

What a beautiful thing homemade pasta is, especially when the rest of the meal was homemade as well. I had cooked up a batch of chanterelle and shitake mushrooms at lunch today. I ate about 1/3 of it, and had enough to use for tonight. I pan roasted a piece of flat iron steak, and when it was finished, I threw the cooked mushrooms into the pan with the steak juices to warm up. I deglazed with a little madiera wine, which I then flambeed (mainly just for the effect to show off to my boys), then tossed in the cooked noodles. We also had a romaine salad with golden beets, roasted cashews, and shredded "cracked black pepper white cheddar" cheese from Tillamook. A yummy, yummy meal.

You have got to excuse this picture, as I absolutely need to get a better camera.

Grilled Tenderloin Steak, Zucchini, and Green Beans with Corn and Cherry Tomatoes

2011-08-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

The steak and the zucchini are pretty self-explanatory...grill as you like. But, I'm pretty proud of my green beans tonight.

First, I steamed them in a shallow saute pan, covered, for about 3-4 minutes. Then, I drained off most of the water, added some olive oil and allowed the bean to cook until the remainder water had cooked off. Then, I added finely chopped tropea onions (shallots would work) and garlic, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Next, I added fresh corn kernels and cooked until the beans were just tender. I added a touch of water and a splash of sherry vinegar, then swirled in about a tablespoon of butter. Finally, I tossed in my cherry tomato halves, chopped flat leaf parsley and chopped chives. Adjusted the seasoning, and done.

Poulet Basquaise

2011-08-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

This comes from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. I made this almost exactly as the recipe says, and it was dee-lish. Thank you, Mr. Kitchen Confidential. Sorry, no photo available.

poulet basquaise

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, about 4 lb, cut into 8 pieces (I purchased my bird from Whole Foods, who butchered it up for me, and gave me the remainder body pieces. Convenient, and free. Next time, though, I would just cut it up myself, as I like to take the breasts completely off the bone, and they kept them attached. I ended up having to do some cutting at home, too. No big deal. I used all the scraps, minus the liver, for making stock.)

salt and black pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper or piment d'esplete (I used smoked paprika, cuz, well, that's what I have, and what the heck is piment d'esplete, anyway?)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

2 red bell peppers cut into fine julienne

2 green bell peppers cut into fine julienne (there were no green bells at the store, and the yellow and orange were expensive, so I omitted this ingredient)

1 onion thinly sliced

16 ounces canned Italian plum tomatoes

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup water + 1/2 cube chicken bouillon or 1/2 cup light chicken stock or broth (like I said, I used the scraps to make a stock, so I used that. Anthony says, "this is one dish that can handle a bouillon cube.)

3 sprigs of flat parsely finely chopped (oh, oops! I didn't see this ingredient until just now)

Equipment - large pot with cover, tongs, plate, wooden spoon, serving platter

Serves 4

Season the chicken all over with salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Heat the large pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the butter. When the butter has foamed and subsided, add the chicken, skin side down, and brown on that side only. Remove the chicken with the tongs and set aside on the plate. Add the peppers and the onion to the pot and reduce the heat to medium low. cook for about 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the wine, scraping, scraping - as always - to get the good stuff up. Cook until the wine is reduced by half, then add water and bouillon (or the chicken stock). Return the chicken to the pot, making sure to add all the juices that's accumulated on the plate while it rested. Cover the pot and allow to cook on low heat for about 25 minutes, then remove the chicken to the serving platter.

Crank up the heat to high and reduce the sauce for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the parsley. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately, with rice pilaf.

**So, I've already mentioned a few things I did differently in the ingredients, but there's more. Since chicken breasts, though bigger than the other pieces of meat, cook up a little faster and have a tendency to get dry, I add all the chicken into the pot around the same time I added the wine. The legs and thighs can handle the extra cooking and not become dry. The last thing I did before lowering the heat and covering the pot was add the chicken breasts, setting them on top of the other pieces of meat. In hindsight, I'm not sure it was necessary to do that, but nonetheless, the breasts came out perfectly.

We ate our dish with whole wheat penne pasta, and didn't miss any of the green stuff.

Jen Beatty's Saag Paneer

2011-07-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Jen, for this recipe. It was yummy!

Saag Paneer My favorite Indian dish! If you can't find paneer, you can use extra firm tofu (drained, pressed and cut into cubes). Serves 4
Ingredients
1½ Pounds Fresh Spinach

1 Pound Paneer, Cubed

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

6 Tablespoons Butter

1 Onion, Peeled & Chopped

4 Garlic Cloves, Peeled & Chopped

1 Inch Fresh Ginger, Peeled & Grated

1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin

½ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

½ Teaspoon Garam Masala

1 Teaspoon Salt

Pinch Tumeric

1 Cup Whole Milk Yogurt
Preparation

Cook and drain spinach. If using fresh, chop.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet. Fry the paneer in batches, turning over once or twice, until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Melt the butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and cook the onion until just beginning to brown. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the ginger and spices and stir well. Heat for a few minutes.

Transfer contents of skillet into food processor or blender. Add the yogurt and process until smooth. (Can be made a day ahead at this point.)

Transfer the spinach mixture back to the skillet. Add paneer and simmer, covered for 10 minutes or until hot. Serve hot with rice.

Blueberry Banana Muffins

2011-06-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Rarely is baking as easy for me as it was this afternoon. And, rarely do my food photos come out this nicely. So, I must share this simple, delicious recipe with you. The original recipe calls for all purpose flour and shortening instead of butter. It also only calls for one cup of blueberries, but one of the reviews recommended more. I had 2 cups, but Vincent and I ate about a half cup before I added them to the batter. Lastly, the recipe did not call for yogurt. I've seen sour cream added to some banana bread recipes, but didn't have any on hand; I had yogurt, so why not?

2 C whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C butter, room temperature (1 stick)

1 C sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed

1-1/2 C fresh blueberries

3 Tbl nonfat vanilla yogurt**

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Beat in bananas. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. **This is where I added the yogurt; it was an after thought, since my batter looked thick. I think it could have been added at the same time as the bananas. Fold in blueberries.

2. Pour into a greased muffin tin (I think mine had 12 spots). Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack.

I honestly think that the yogurt was helpful. This recipe may have come out dry if I didn't use it, since I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.

Bust

2011-05-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what kid doesn't like spaghetti with meat sauce? Well, I have the two on earth who don't. Okay, I guess, maybe not all kids eat meat, but mine do. They quite enjoy meat. Tyler even likes meatballs; the ones with spaghetti sauce.

I had a feeling Vincent would be so-so on this meal. He hasn't liked red sauce since he was about 2 years old. He also doesn't care for meatballs. But, I haven't tried to make something like this in ages. The closest I get is chili, and lately he's been okay with it. He's also been eating pizza a lot more, which has red sauce on it. After analyzing my childrens' palates, I decided to take a chance.

WTF. Gosh, I don't even want to go into the details of their behavior over this meal. It'll just make me resent them, and I don't want to. Maybe it was because I didn't make the sauce from scratch? I just threw this together with leftover meatloaf and a jar of store bought sauce. Frankly, I enjoyed it. I guess I could think of it as a compliment to my real cooking, since they usually do a better job of eating the scratch meals I make.

Funky Olive Tart-thingy

2011-05-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

I forgot to take pictures of tonight's dinner. Doh! Mainly because of the tart thing I made. I only call it a tart because that's the dough I used. It was more like a crust, or cracker, or cookie. Yeah, maybe an olive cookie.

Anyway, I had some tart dough that I pulled out of the freezer a couple of days ago. I knew it needed to be used. And, I had some homemade olive tapenade that had been around a few days, too. So, I decided to combine them.

I rolled out my dough, then spread the tapenade on top, then folded in the edges so that they over lapped. Then, I rolled it out a little more to smooth it. I docked the down with a fork and stuck it in the freezer. Basically, it was a rectangle shape, and about 1/4 inch thick.

Popped it in a 425F degree oven for 20 minutes, and voila, olive cookie. But, it tasted less of olives and more of buttery tart crust.

We also had grilled flat iron steak, from the late Thundering Hooves Farm, with grilled strips of zucchini. I made a sauce for the steak, which was sauteed red onions pureed with fresh cilantro, extra virgin olive oil, sherry wine vinegar, salt and smoked paprika. Yum. Tyler asked for some and actually ate most of the teaspoon I gave him. This was a delightful meal.

Cabbage and Kielbasa Salad

2011-04-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

Cabbage-and-kielbasa salad (warm)

I found this recipe from America's Test Kitchen's 30 Minute Suppers magazine.

2 Tbl Dijon mustard (I only used 1)

2 Tbl honey

2 Tbl cider vinegar (I didn't have it, so I subbed with Banyul wine vinegar)

5 Tbl olive oil

1 pound kielbasa, cut on bias into 1/2-inch slices

1 red onion, halved and sliced thin (Doh! I read the recipe wrong and only used half of the onion)

1/2 tsp caraway seed

1 (16oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (I used Great Northern)

salt and pepper

1 head napa cabbage (about 1.5lbs), sliced thin

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (didn't use it)

1. Whisk together mustard, honey, vinegar and 4 tbl oil in bowl. Cook sausage in large skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer sausage to plate and tent with foil.

2. Add remaining oil, onion, and caraway seed to skillet, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and browned, about 12 minutes. Add beans and 2 Tbl dressing and cook until warmed through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Reduce heat to low, add remaining dressing and cabbage to skillet, and toss until warmed through and slightly wilted, about 4 minutes. Off heat, stir in dill and season with salt and pepper. Top with kielbasa and onion-bean mixture.*

*I skipped the dill (as mentioned). I cooked the cabbage with the onions-beans, and tossed the kielbasa into the whole pan. Now that I'm typing it all, it seems maybe they meant for the onions-beans to be cooked separately from the cabbage. Nonetheless, it turned out very nicely. I cooked the cabage a bit longer than it calls for, which produced a nice broth. I also roasted some fingerling potatoes, with I topped with this "salad."

Meal Planning

2011-03-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

I've sort of been planning our meals out the past two weeks. I needed to do it because I bought proteins at the store without planning. I needed to make sure they get cooked before they expire, so then I planned out our meals based on what I bought. A little backwards, but whatever.

I went to PCC Natural Market last Friday and bought a whole chicken, a chunk of pork loin, and some turkey breakfast sausage. Then, I went to Mutual Fish and picked up some prawns and rockfish. It's a lot of pressure to make sure these things get cooked!

With the prawns, I made a pasta dish Friday night. First, I made a clarified prawn butter with the shells. Then, I used that butter to cook the prawns. Some garlic, red pepper flakes, the prawns, white wine, chopped fresh parsley, all tossed with whole wheat spaghetti. Ooh, and a sprinkling of toasted bread crumbs. Mmmmm.

That same night, I just baked some of the rockfish in the oven, wrapped in foil. Just salt and pepper for a few minutes. That was for the kids. Tyler loved it, Vincent was so-so. I did the same thing, again, last night with the remainder of my fish. After letting the meat cool, I broke it apart and tossed it with cannellini beans, shallots, chopped parsely, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. It was my lunch today.

I roasted the whole chicken for dinner on Sunday night. I served it with mushroom risotto. I used this fancy mix of cultivated mushrooms I found at PCC. They weren't super mushroomy flavored, which was a little disappointing. Nonetheless, this was a delicious meal. The legs and thighs of this organic chicken wasn't as juicy as the non-organic stuff. My chicken skin came out nice and golden crispy. The boys loved the skin.

Tonight, I cooked the pork loin. First, I brined the meat for 2 days. A couple hours before cooking, I took it out of the brine, rinsed it, and patted it dry. I left it out at room temperature until I was ready to cook. All I did was sear it on both sides before popping it into a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. After letting it rest, I sliced the meat thinly, and served it along side balsamic glazed onions, for build-your-own-sandwiches. I put a sliced up loaf of Columbia City Bakery's filone on the table with a bowl of extra virgin olive oil and a pastry brush. We had our friend, Jill, and her kids over for dinner. Each adult would take bread, brush it with olive oil, pile on the onions and sliced pork. The kids ate the pork, too, along with homemade skillet mac and cheese. Tyler actually didn't finish his pasta, and Vincent asked for more. Guess who's he got to finish. Dessert was the bakery's Super Chip cookies.

Tomorrow, I'll be making chili with the turkey breakfast sausage. I don't know, it sounded much easier than adding my own mix of seasonings into chili. We'll see. I think it'll be tasty.

Gadget Removed & CSA Update

2011-02-14T16:23:00.001-08:00

Yup, I removed my gadget with my weekly menu ideas. It was a short lived addition that I failed miserably at. Oh well.

But, let's talk about last week's CSA. I did end up roasting my sunchokes and turnips, like I said I would. David and I ate them like a snack, but they were also served alongside some homemade chorizo chili and grilled chicken (for the kids). I used my roasted beets in a salad with the greenleaf lettuce on Friday, when a couple of girlfriends and I got our children together and cooked together while our husbands were away. The broccoli is kept simple. Steamed with water and some salt. That's the way my boys like it. And, finally, my friend, Jean, cooked up the spinach for us with sesame oil and garlic. Dee-lish.

We still half the box left. I don't see any fancy cooking in the near future, but you'd better believe it'll still be healthy, wholesome, fresh and delicious.

Already February

2011-02-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Time is just flying by. I am feeling a bit old as I think back to 6th grade when my teacher talked about how each year seems to go faster and faster for him. I was like, "huh?" Well, Mr. Bisetta, I think I am starting to understand you.

Anywho, I received our shipment of fruits and vegetables from Full Circle Farm today. We get a box every other week. As I was going through its contents and washing the leafy greens, I felt inspired by the fresh produce. I thought to myself, "What if I post about what I do with the stuff in this box?" So, let me try it...

Box Contents:

1lb purple top turnips

.75lb sunchokes

3 ea Cameo apples

3 ea Gala apples

1.5lbs garnet yams

1lb Chioggia beets

1 bunch broccoli

1lb zucchini

.4lb cremini mushrooms

1 bunch Lancinato kale

1 bunch spinach

1 bunch green leaf lettuce

As mentioned, I washed the leafy greens. For the kale, I took the leaves off the stems and tore them into bite sized pieces before washing. For the spinach, I just picked the leaves off the long stems. And, the green leaf lettuce was torn into bite sized pieces as well. Now I have those greens washed, spun dried, and ready for use when I need them.

I also put the Chioggia beets into a pan, drizzled with EVOO, added salt & pepper, covered with foil, and they are in the oven (350F) at this very moment. I think it's about time to pull them out, actually. I will let them cool a bit, then rub the skins off with paper towels, cut them up and store them in the fridge for munching on later. Yeah, I would just eat them like that, or I many dice up a little shallot and toss it with EVOO, vinegar, salt & pepper. Better yet, I have some herbed goat cheese in the fridge. I'll make a salad with the green leaf lettuce, beets, and the goat cheese. Ooh, and I made croutons the other day. Yum.

I'm really looking forward to the turnips and the sunchokes. I never really liked turnips until a couple years ago when my dear friend, Julia (and I don't mean Child) gave me some baby white turnips from her garden. I didn't really know what to do with them, even though I've used them plenty of times as a line cook. Her advice, roast 'em & eat 'em. Wow. It's truly amazing. All this time I was trying to think of what to cook them with, when they can stand all on their own. And, that day I first tried roasting them, my mother-in-law was in town, and she fell in love, too.

As for the sunchokes, same thing. I eat them like a snack!

Tonight's Dinner Plan

2011-01-26T14:56:00.002-08:00

Right now, I have 15 strips of sliced been marinating in a balsamic vinaigrette, waiting to be skewered and grilled. Served alongside will be new potatoes tossed in pesto, probably a baby greens salad, and maybe some sauteed spinach.

Oct. 11-17th

2010-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I decided to add a gadget to the blog: Dinner This Week. Sadly, I've already fallen behind on keeping it up. But, I do have some results of last week's dinners, and I will be adding this week's to the gadget.

Monday, Oct. 11 - Panacea cooked us up a delicious, comforting meal of Mac 'n' Cheese, with a salad of iceberg lettuce, frozen peas, bacon, shredded cheddar, water chestnuts, some other stuff, and a super light (as in fluffy, not low fat), and creamy dressing. Oh, and roasted broccoli.

Tuesday, Oct. 12 - I have been forgetting that David and I have dates on Tuesday nights now. I had planned on making flat iron steak sandwiches. I decided to proceed with it, even though we had originally planned on tacos at Licorous. I bought potato rolls at Essential Bakery, and made super simple mini sandwiches of flat iron steak & arugula, with a drizzle of olive oil for me, and some butter for David. I also make a roasted chioggia beet salad. With the remainder of the meat, I had our sitter make the boys steak quesadillas, which they enjoyed. Though this meal was super delicious, we still had to go try out those $1 tacos!

Wednesday, Oct. 13 - For my chicken legs, I braised them with mirepoix (onion, carrots, celery), a couple bay leaves, sprigs of thyme, white wine, and water. After the legs were cooked, I removed them, then added chopped Lucques olives, and allowed the liquid to reduce a little. YUM. I served this over some whole wheat pasta.

Thursday, Oct. 14 - Braised short ribs, sauteed crimini mushrooms, and apple/parsnips puree. What a labor of love. This was a simple meal, but it did take some time, and a full dishwasher of cookware. The night before, Vincent and I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, and added some aromatics. The day of, I pulled the meat out of the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature. When it was time to cook, I patted the pieces of meat with paper towels to dry. Then, in a dutch oven, sear the meat on all sides. Ideally, you would remove the meat, then cook your vegetables in the pan, then add the meat back in. I didn't. I just deglazed my pan with red wine, put the vegetables (leeks, carrots and celery) on top with garlic, thyme and bay, brought to a boil, then reduced the heat and covered. I cooked the meat for about 3.5 hours.

As the meat cooked, prepare the other items.
*mushrooms: sliced. Sauteed in olive oil with garlic and shallots
*parsnips puree: Peel and cut apples to large dice. Cook in a little water, lemon juice and a pinch of salt until the consistency of apple sauce. For the parsnips, peel and cut to uniform pieces. Place in a sauce pan and cover with milk. Pinch of salt. Simmer until tender. Remove the parsnips from the milk and puree in a food processor with the cooked apples until very smooth. Pass the puree through a sieve.

Friday, Oct. 15 - Dinner out.

Saturday, Oct. 16 - With the leftover short ribs, I pulled the meat off the bone, shredded it, and stored it in a container with the mushrooms and cooking liquid. On Saturday, I reduced all of this on the stove by about half. Then, I put it into an oven-safe dish, topped with the leftover apple-parsnips puree, and sprinkled leftover breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, from Panacea's mac 'n' cheese, on top. Broil that up until nice and golden brown...Heavenly.

Sunday, Oct. 17- David took Vincen to his hockey game, so they ate out afterwards. Tyler and I had noodles with broccoli and tofu. Oh, wait, that's what he had. I had a Gardern Burger on a whole wheat english muffin. Simple.

Chicken and Steak

2010-10-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last week, I roasted a beautiful chicken. I was really proud of how pretty it came out, but still ended up with a meltdown on the kitchen floor. Think Julie Powell in "Julie and Julia". Pathetic.

I really have such a tough time roasting a whole chicken. I don't know why. I've posted about this the past. For some reason, I can't get that thing to the dinner table in time, no matter how well I plan. And, even when I inserted my thermometer, once again, and it read 165 degrees F, I still had some pink when I carved into the wings. The meat was cooked, but the joints were a little, well, not done, I guess. I mean, I've bought a store chicken in the past and gotten something like this. But, why?

So, here's my bird, sitting on top of a sheet of sliced yukon gold potatoes.

I just seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, put some aromatics into the cavity, trussed, and then let it sit in the fridge for about an hour (a tip from my friend, Jen, who said it'll help give it a crisper skin).

And it did..

The drippings from the chicken made the potatoes (which were tossed in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper) oh so yummy.

The next day, I used the leftover meat to make chicken noodle soup, with broth made from the leftover carcass.

Now, the steak part of this posting...
Really simple. Just flat iron steak, seasoned with salt and smoked paprika, pan roasted and sliced. Served with roasted delicata squash, crimini mushrooms, arugula and balsamic vinegar, and plain, short grain brown rice.

One of the things I love about flat iron steak is that it seems to come out perfectly, temperature-wise, everytime. Not the mention its tenderness.

OMG! I Did That??

2010-10-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

I posted the same food twice! What's wrong with me. I should check where I left off, huh? Well, moving forward...

Oh My, It's Been So Long...

2010-10-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

Has it been a month? Maybe more? I have been cooking up a storm, actually, just not sharing. Here's a quick recap of some meals in September...

Poached Pork TenderloinChopped herbs and extra virgin olive oil, in a Foodsaver bag, then poached in a shallow pan of water for 8 minutes on each side.

Tender and juicy...

Served with new potatoes and roasted beets.

David made this chicken dinner: Balsamic chicken with mushrooms, sauteed chard, and whole wheat linguini.

Summer squash and chicken with whole grain mustard in packets.

My parchment paper and chicken, ready to be topped with vegetables and made into a packet.

Toppe with veggies...made into a packet...

Voila, another healthy and delicious meal. Baking in the packet helped keep the meat moist, and used so little fat.

I may have served it with this homemade tomato soup. Yes, those are homemade croutons. This is the kids' portion.Salad of tuna and canollini beans. It wasn't bad, but definitely tasted healthy.

Turkey shepards' pie. Check out the golden brown top.

Toddler portion.

We were away for part of the month, so that's all I've got. But, I did make a nice meal on Sunday. It was flat iron steak with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. Super simple, steak and potatoes kind of meal, but so good.

Pork Tenderloin

2010-09-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Poached pork tenderloin with butter & dill baby potatoes and roasted beets. After trimming the fat and silverskin off the tenderloin, I cut off the end pieces and one other chunk on the side, leaving a nice, 6-oz piece for poaching.I had made a basil sauce the night before, consisting of basil, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Like a pesto, minus the pinenuts and Parmesan cheese. I put about a teaspoon of the sauce into a Foodsaver bag, spread it around, then added the pork and sealed it.

I poached the whole bag in a shallow pan of water, 8 minutes on each side.As for the other pieces, I pan roasted them, and finished off with about a tablespoon of butter, which I basted the meat with. When done, I removed them from the pan onto a paper towel and patted off some of the butter, allowing the meat to rest for a few minutes. This was for the kids, and it turned out beautifully.

The poached meat was gorgeous, too. After cooking, I let it rest in the bag, with the juices for a few minutes as well.

After slicing, I sprinkled herbed sea salt on top. Yum.

Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

2010-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Not bad. Whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's. So easy. I topped ours with and olive oil base, then caramelized onions, sauteed chard, thinly sliced shitake mushrooms (on half only), and feta cheese. Steamy hot & delicious.

Dieting

2010-08-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's hard. Especially for someone who loves food. I love food. LOVE it.

I had a conversation with a friend this morning about our love for food and dieting. How do people do it? I ask because I am really trying, but losing weight is a hard thing to do. I have cut out butter whenever possible. I measure how much oil (okay, most of the time) I put into stuff. I have decreased my portion sizes. I buy fresh, local, organic. I cook most of my family's meals from scratch. We eat LOTS of vegetables. I choose lean proteins. Etc., etc. And, still, I exceed my daily allowance of Weight Watcher points. I even exceed my overall weekly points, including the ones I get for activity. Okay, okay, I'm not getting that much activity in. But, it's not like I'm sitting on my ass, either. It sounds like a lame excuse, but I can't get to the gym enough. I am lucky if I get there twice a week. And, even then things don't go my way, like last week when I had to pull the kids out of the gym's daycare early because they were coughing up a storm.

How do people do it?

I read an article on fat free food items recently. Oh man! There is a lot of hard to pronounce ingredients that go into making food fat free. I'd rather take the fat over all that extra stuff.

So, what do I do? Frankly, I don't know.

I have allowed a few low fat items into my diet, like Skinny Cow ice cream products and Laughing Cow cheese. Maybe if I see the cow on the packaging, I'll feel like I'm having something real. I believe we also have fat free pretzels in our pantry. Oh and we have milk & yogurt. All the other stuff we have with no fat is in the form or a fresh fruit or vegetable. I feel good about that. But, it's a lot of work.

I have signed up for a 3 month plan on Weight Watchers. I'm 2 days into my 4th week. I lost 5 pounds, then gained one, so I'm down a total of 4. Ooh, did you get that complicated math I just threw out? I'm determined to make it to my goal of 10 pounds in 3 months. I thought it seemed totally reasonable and attainable, but now I'm not so sure. Stay tuned...

Diet Pasta?

2010-08-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

No, but in moderation, I guess it is.

Doesn't that look yummy? Okay, not a very clear shot. But, let me tell you, it was so good. I guess I mostly only post if something is good, huh?

Tri-color noodles from La Pasta, bought at the farmers' market. The greens? Beet greens. Then there's the chicken. Left over roasted chicken thighs and legs from last nights QFC whole roasted chicken. That's it, really. So simple, but it was just so flavorful.

I cooked the noodles separately. I pulled the meat off the bones. I sauteed onions, garlic and beet greens together with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and water. Then, I added the chicken pieces. Once everything was nice and hot, I added it to the cooked pasta. Voila! Dinner.

Oh, and I also made a creamy corn soup and a salad. The corn was from leftover corn on the cob we had last night. I made the soup with onions, carrots, celery, chicken bones, corn cobs, water and a bay leaf. When all that was done, I took out the bones, cobs and bay leaf and put everything in the blender and pureed it all. I thought it was great, but the kids were so so. Oh well.

And, a nice salad with lemon cucumbers, Walla Walla onions, and the usual stuff.

I Love Seattle Because...

2010-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

I can go to Melrose Market to pick up my Oxbow Farm CSA at Marigold and Mint, wave at a familiar face at Sitka and Spruce, and then buy half of a freshly butchered rabbit from Rain Shadow Meats, on a whim, all with two little boys in tow. Yes, I do have to bribe them with a little fruit leather to sit and wait for me to pick out our vegetables, and I have to keep reminding them, that this will only take one more second, but I love Melrose Market.

The second reason I love Seattle is that the next day, the kids and I went to the farmers' market to browse, and I came home with a pound of "just-caught it-yesterday" rockfish. The guys there are always happy to see us, and have made a smoked salmon lover out of Tyler.

So, here's my rabbit. And, in case you were wondering, this was the price; almost 1.5 pounds.I was intimidated by that little creature. The guy at the butcher was very casual about how to prepare it, and my boys wouldn't allow me to ask too many questions. Something about "just like chicken...throw it right on the grill...this part is a little tough..." And, since he said it should hold in the fridge for up to 10 days, I didn't rush home to cook it. In fact, I didn't cook it until Sunday.

I braised it on the stove with carrots, onions, celery, garlic cloves and one bay leaf, in chicken stock, for 30 minutes. I was afraid to dry it out. The broth and vegetables were very yummy. The legs were a bit tough to take off the bone, but once off, they weren't chewy. I probably couldn't taken the loin out after 30 minutes and let the legs cook for another 15. I'm not sure. After I removed the rabbit pieces, I tossed in a few picholine olives and let the broth reduce by about half. It ended up being pretty salty, so I added about 2 tablespoons of champagne vinegar. I sauteed zucchini and yellow squash separately, and added those into the vegetables, along with some leftover green beans.

As for my rockfish, David grilled up the fillets last night and we had tacos. YUM!

Cutting Back, and Another Rachael Ray Item

2010-08-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

I am on a diet. In the last few months my clothes have been getting tighter and tighter. I'm uncomfortable. No, I'm not pregnant, just gaining a little weight. So, I've decided to go on a 3 month diet. I can't tell you the last time I tried to diet. I'm on day 3, and doing okay. Definitely hungrier than usual. But, I think this'll be nice to be more aware of what I'm consuming, and how to eat better.

Anyway, here's what we had for dinner: Thundering Hooves smoked pork chops, with whole wheat pasta, and Rachel Ray's agrodolce relish and arugula. This was David's plate.This was mine. I cut a 4 oz portion and replaced the pasta with a 1/2 cup of brown rice. I also measured out the amount of arugula and relish, at one cup each. I was happily satisfied with the amount I ate, but the pork chops were so delicious, I wanted to eat more and feel stuffed. Alas, I had will power.
By the way, why all the Rachael Ray these days? Somehow, two weeks in a row, I've ended up at the gym right when her show comes on. I'm whimpy and only do a 30 minute workout, which is how long the show runs, and it's perfect for me. What I really want is to watch Ina Garten's show that comes on right after. But, I have to admit that Rachael does have some quick, simple, tasty ideas. Maybe I'm becoming a fan...

Thank You (GASP!) Rachel Ray!

2010-08-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Rachel Ray. Yeah, I can see why she's so popular, but whatever. This week, while on the treadmill at the gym, I watched her 30 minute meals show. She made a beef wellington with blue cheese and watercress. On the side, she had this stuffed tomato, broccolini, and herbed potatoes. Three sides! It was a huge meal.

Anyway, she helped inspire tonight's dinner. Even though it wasn't the same thing, her meal got me thinking of what I can do with stuff I already had (and a few extras I grabbed at the store). So, this is what I made:

-Mini chicken sandwiches with Dinah's Cheese and sliced apples from my parents backyard, on Essential Bakery's potato rolls

-Mini flat iron steak sandwiches with the above ingredients, on Essential's rosemary rolls, with the addition of Oxbow Farm's lettuce (gosh, I can't remember the name of it, but it's deep red in color with long, curly leaves), and sundried tomatoes.

-Oxbow Farm green beans, blanched in salted water until pretty tender (little mouths to feed), and nothing else. So good.

-Mini yellow potatoes from Alvarez Farm with herbs (chives, dill, cilantro and basil) and butter

I know, not much like Rachel Ray. The potatoes was the closest. She made red potatoes with parsely and dill. My 4 herbs were what I had on hand. Thank goodness I had the dill. That was the flavor that stood out, for me, the most. These potatoes were so buttery on their own, they really didn't need the butter, but I added just a tablespoon, cuz, well, it's butter!

Rachel's beef wellington had the strong cheese and peppery greens thing going for it. I didn't feel like using blue cheese, so when I found Dinah's Cheese at Madison Market, I knew that would work perfectly. It's slightly pungent, but not over-powering. I looked for arugula, in place of the cress, but didn't find it.

The steak sandwiches were good, but I think the chicken was better. I marinated the chicken breasts in store-bought balsamic vinaigrette overnight. Before cooking, I butterflied the breasts and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.

My kids, including one who has had a fever all day, ate their meal happily. Well, most of their meal. Nonetheless, I would consider this a winning Hunt Family meal.

A note on Alvarez Farm: I wish I could give you a link to them, but I couldn't find one. If anyone out there has a good link to share, let me know.

Salade Nicoise with White Bean Crostini

2010-06-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

This is what Lightning McQueen had for dinner. This is what his best buds, Tow Mater & Sally had. Thank you, Panacea!

Clockwise from the top: red potatoes, capers & tomatoes, red butter head lettuce, steamed green beans, white bean puree, more white bean puree, crostinis, salad dressing, hard boiled eggs, poached tuna.

Roasted Chicken Success!!!!

2010-06-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

And, no picture to prove it! It was so bee-oo-tiful, too! Well, maybe now I'll have learned something from myself and actually know how to roast a chicken proficiently to repeat it and take pictures.

Yeah, you heard me correctly. I mess up roasted chicken. Often.

Okay, okay, that's not entiredly the truth. I don't actually mess it up. Typically, it's edible, even tasty. But, it always takes me way longer than planned, and then somehow is a little underdone in the thighs. Again, edible, but we have to zap the thighs in the microwave a little.

Not this time, my friends! No, it was done, golden, and tasty.

What did I do?

First of all, I brined it that morning. I kind of made it up. Maybe a liter of water, half a liter of white wine, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 5-6 black peppercorns...Tasted it. Seemed fine. In goes the chicken.

When it came time to cook, I stuffed it with fresh sprigs of parsley and thyme, a small rib or celery, and a carrot (cut up), then trussed it. I roasted the bird at 452 degrees F for 30 minutes, then another 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. I let it rest for about 10 minutes before carving into it.

Oddly enough, when I was cutting the leftovers up to put away, the joint between the breast and the little drummette part of the wing was ever-so-slightly underdone. Hmmmm. Everywhere else was perfect.

Taco Photos and Penne with Snap Peas

2010-06-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

We had a repeat of the beef tacos, so I was able to get a picture of mine (half-eaten). So simple, yet so delicious. Thank you, m'am, may I have another?!

Here's a happy kid gettin' ready to dig into a kid version of deliciousness. And, what's that in his bowl?This is what's in the bowl! Whole wheat penne pasta with sugar snap peas. What's all that other stuff in it, you ask? I cooked up some mushrooms and spinach for lunch one day, and had leftovers, so I threw them in the food processor and tossed them into the noodles. I also bought some dill & garlic cheese curds from Golden Glen Creamery at the farmers market so I tossed those in as well. And, since I was using dilly cheese, and happened to have some fresh dill on hand, I chopped that up and tossed them in, too. I was a little skeptical, but I did a taster before putting all the dilly stuff in and it seemed alright. (BTW, if your kids try a lot of one sample at the farmers' market, are you then obligated to make a purchase? Probably not, but I did anyway...the cheese curds. But, it made for a good snack to keep them from asking for other samples the remainder of our visit to the market.)Verdict?

*Husband - quite enjoyed it. Ate it all.

*3 year old - questioned what all the chopped up stuff was, then decided to only eat the snap peas and cheese curds...too much chopped stuff stuck to the noodles, I suppose.

*1 year old - can't talk, so no questions asked. Devoured the noodles and cheese curds, tried tasting the snap peas but did not eat them.

All-in-all, everyone got something healthy out of it. Mission accomplished.

Tacos

2010-06-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

I have no picture! It was one of those Friday evening mad-rush to get dinner on the table nights (again). Isn't it every night? More so on some than others.

We stayed way too long at the farmers' market, of course. But, the boys didn't have their post-nap/pre-dinner snack, and they let me know it. Each time I stopped, they wanted to taste something, and when they got a taste, they wanted more. Sheesh!

Enough about the market.

We got home at a quarter to 6pm, and I still needed to fire up the grill, season the fish, ready the meat, and cut the cabbage, onions and limes. It was actually a pretty simple meal, but both kids screamed at me as I lugged the mini grill from the garage to the porch. I left them inside, looking out through the glass door, as I ran back and forth in and out of the house. Each time I opened the door, one of them would try to sneak out. I wasn't ready for them to go outside just yet. When I finally felt like I was at a holding pattern until David got home, I unleashed them.

Once David was home things went pretty quickly.

Dinner consisted of carne asada (from Thundering Hooves) cut into bite size pieces, grilled halibut bought at the farmers' market, shredded cabbage, chopped red onions, white corn tortillas, and a cut up lime. Simple. So good.

For the carne asada, I seasoned the slices with salt, pepper and smoked paprika this morning. I also put garlic cloves, sliced in half, thyme sprigs and parsley stems in the container. For the fish, I left the skin on, and seasoned with just salt and pepper.

I love when a meal is so simple and so delicious. There really wasn't much to it.

Tyler at his meal "decomposed" while Vincent made his own tacos (the boys had shredded cheddar with theirs), and even ate it like a grown up. He looked so darn cute trying to keep it from falling apart in his hands, and said to me, "It doesn't stay together so well, Mommy."

Chicken Piccata with Lemon & Capers

2010-06-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Rarely do I follow an exact recipe. When I do, I tend to mess it up. I think it's because I read it, then think I remembered the steps, and then I'll forget something, misread it. Even the simplest of recipes. David sort of makes fun of me about it.

NOT TONIGHT!

This is what Vincent's plate looked like. Yummy, if you ask me. This is what my plate looked like. Even yummier.

The recipe, taken from the June 2010 issue of Parenting Magazine.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

4 small (4-5 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1/3 cup flour

3 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided

1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut in cubes

2 Tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

1 lemon, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional)

1) slice the chicken horizontally to make 8 thin cutlets. Season the chicken lightly with salt & pepper. Pound very gently between waxed paper to even thickness to about 1/4 inch. Dredge in the flour, shake off excess, and transfer to a large plate.

2) Heat 1.5 T of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and saute until golden, about 2 minutes. Turn and saute about 1 minute more, until browned. Transfer to a clean plate and cover with foil. Repeat with the remaining chicken, using the other 1.5 T oil.

3) After removing the chicken from the pan, add the garlic, stir about 10 seconds, then add the wine. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, and cook until wine is reduced slightly and almost syrupy. Add the broth and 1 T of the lemon juice, and cook a few minutes more, until slightly reduced. Return the chicken to the pan, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.

4) Plate the chicken. Turn off the heat, swirl in the butter, the capers, and the remaining T of lemon juice; season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over chicken, and garnish, if you like, with the lemon slices. Serve with orzo and steamed broccolini.

*I served with capellini and steamed broccolette. I don't know the difference, but that's what it was called when I got my CSA box yesterday. This was really tasty. In the photos, I didn't show the stems of the broccolette, but we did eat those as well. They're sweet, but the ends get really tough. I tossed the florettes in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and sprinkled paremesan cheese on top.

Chicken & Mushrooms Cooked in Marsala, And, White Asparagus

2010-05-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I made this chicken dish. Then, I ran out the door to go to my sewing class. When I returned a few hours later & reheated my portion, it was still super yummy.

What I did was slice up two chicken breast on a bias, so that the pieces were sort of small and flat. Then, I dredged them in a little bit of seasoned flour and seared them in a little oil in a frying pan. Once all the pieces were seared on both sides, I placed them on a baking sheet & finished cooking them in the oven.

While the chicken cooked, I prepared my sauce. I sauteed sliced crimini mushrooms (I know, so uninteresting, but in these economic times, they're more affordable than wild mushrooms) on medium-high heat, added chopped garlic and deglazed the pan with marsala wine. I allowed that to reduce by about half, then added mushroom broth (I took the stems off the mushrooms and just put them in a small pan with water and made a light broth). When the chicken was done cooking, I added them into the sauce and finished with some butter. Chopped parsley makes a nice garnish. White asparagus...mmmmmm.

Aren't these beautiful? This is what Jamie Oliver says you should do with WHITE asparagus...

"Using a peeler, peel off the outer layer of the asparagus spears, from 2 inches below the tip down to the bottom, then tie them in a bundle with a piece of string. Get your deepest saucepan with a lid - the asparagus spears should be able to stand up inside the pan. If they can't, slice the ends off to make them fit. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and stand the asparagus upright in it. Throw in any sliced-off ends, boil for 5 minutes with the lid on, then turn off the heat. Let the asparagus sit in the pan for another 10 minutes."

-Jamie Oliver, Jamie At Home

I did not stand my asparagus in the pot, and I cooked the spears for about 8 minutes, maybe 10 without the lid on. They turned out lovely. I just served these with sprinkled with sea salt and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. They were delicate and sweet.

Orecchietti with Shrimp & Chorizo

2010-05-11T21:28:00.001-07:00

Oh my goodness, just thinking about this dish makes me mouth water. My photo doesn't do this dish justice. And, since I couldn't wait to dig in, I couldn't stop and take another photo with it in my bowl. You'll just have to take my word for it.

I got the idea for this the night before I made it, when I made chorizo sandwiches (not as good as I pictured in my head). I had purchased wild caught prawns on a whim that day & the wheels began to turn. I wrote down on a piece of paper my preparation idea, held on to it after the dish was made, and apparently lost it since then. So I'll do my best to remember.

Here's what I did (I think):

-1/2 pound orecchietti pasta, cooked as per packaging, drizzled with olive oil and set aside.

-1 pound size 10/15 (I think mine were more like 15) wild caught prawns, peeled, deveined &
set aside until time to cook.

Put the prawn shells into a small pan, cover with water and simmer for approximately 45 minutes. You may add aromatics, such as the green part of a leek, garlic, onion, fennel, but I didn't. Strain and set aside in a warm place until ready to use.

-1 chorizo sausage link, squeezed out of its casing; approx. 1/4 pound
Pour about 1T of cooking oil to a medium/large hot skillet. Add the chorizo and break up into
bits. Allow to cook on med/high heat until the meat starts to brown, then add...

-1/2 sweet onion, brunoise (I actually diced mine slightly thicker than in this video, but either
should work). Cook onions about 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with white wine, enough to almost cover the chorizo & onions. Let the wine reduce by about half.

Add the prawns to the pan (I didn't season them ahead of time, but you may choose to do so).

Add enough of the shell stock to just cover the prawns. Allow the broth to simmer until the
prawns are almost cooked, approximately 3 minutes on each side, then drizzle with a good
amount of extra virgin olive oil & bring to a quick boil (it helps emulsify the oil & broth a bit).

Add the orecchietti, and allow to cook just until the noodles are warmed through, stirring
gently. Check for seasoning and adjust as needed. Sprinkle with chopped Italian parsley. EAT!

Have your favorite crusty, dipping bread on the side for this...you'll want to sop up this broth, for sure. That's the one thing I forgot, but I was sure to finish up all my broth with a spoon.

Vegetable Risotto

2010-04-30T22:08:00.001-07:00

Oh, this was good. Really good. I got the idea for this dish from America's Test Kitchen, for a spring vegetable risotto. I used the recipe as a guideline, as I've made risotto many times, but it have me some new ideas, which was nice. I liked how it suggests putting the vegetables trimmings into water to make a broth. I also liked the addition of garlic with the onions (I used shallots). It called for asparagus and peas. Tyler is possibly allergic to peas, so I didn't use them, but I had asparagus in house. It was a really great last minute meal, if I do say so myself. In addition to the asparagus, there's zucchini and crimini mushrooms as well. Rather than mix the parmesan cheese into the dish, I served it on the side with extra-virgin olive oil. Vincent likes to sprinkle his cheese himself, and though he could use the extra fat, I can't. One the side made the dish only a tiny bit healthier.

The salad is baby arugula with proscuitto and pinenuts with a pear balsamic vinegar & extra-virgin olive oil. Minced shallots. Use minced shallots in your salads. So good.

For Tyler, I put some of the vegetables in a food processor and chopped it up finely, then added it to the risotto.

Shrimp with Quinoa

2010-04-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

I made this dish a couple of days ago. You can get these wild caught frozen jumbo shrimps at Trader Joe's. The shrimp were seasoned with salt & smoked paprika, sauteed in a pan with olive oil and the juice of half a lemon at the end. The quinoa has bacon, mushrooms, shallots, and marsala wine, cooked separately, then mixed in when the quinoa was done. Sorry there aren't more details...I'm a little bit in a rush. Kind of a monochromatic dish, huh? But, it was super yummy. Smokey, sweet goodness.

Balsamic-baked onions and potatoes with skewered flank steak

2010-04-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

Fried shallots have been on my mind. Today, I made them happen. This is one way to get my kids to eat onions. Aren't they cute? Fired up the old 'Q for the first time this year. Yeeha! Here's David manning the grill...after much needed cleaning and a new set of tools. A little rusty from not grilling since last summer (hence the little flames flaring up). Nonetheless, those were some mighty tasty skewers. Vincent ate more steak than I've seen him eat in the last year.

This is what my plate looked like (sorry for the partially eaten piece of bread). Since the grill was still hot, I grilled up some ciabatta bread - YUM. I also sliced up a tomato that came in our CSA box this week & drizzled extra-virgin olive oil & pear balsamic vinegar on top. It wasn't too bad, considering it's not tomato season.

Here's the recipe for the onions and potatoes (a la Jamie Oliver):

3 1/2 lbs medium-sized waxy potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
7 ounces butter, cubed
a bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
1 whole bulb of garlic, quartered or smashed
5 medium red onions, peeled and quartered
1 1/2 cups cheap balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put the potatoes into a pan of boiling, salted water and cook for around 8 minutes, then drain and return to the pan. Chuff them up a bit by shaking the pan.**Jamie, what does "chuff" mean???

Get a roasting pan, into which you can fit the potatoes in one layer, and heat it on the stove. When hot, pour a glug of olive oil into it and add the butter, rosemary and garlic. Add the potatoes and toss them in all the flavors. Add the onions and all the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes on the burner to reduce the vinegar a little. Place the pan on the top shelf and cook for around 50 minutes, until the potatoes and onions are dark, sticky and crispy - removing the pan to toss the onions and potatoes halfway through.

**Mmm, mmmm, good.

I'm obsessed with Jamie Oliver, by the way.

Roasted Chicken

2010-04-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, lovely purple top turnips (and all turnips for that matter), I'm so glad that I have finally learned to appreciate and enjoy eating them. I like them simply peeled, quartered (depends on the size), tossed in olive oil, salt & pepper, and roasted until tender.

My whole roasted chicken. I got the recipe from Art Smith's, "Return To The Table," and made a few changes. Basically, tons of herbs, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper, all mixed together and rubbed under the skin & inside the cavity of the bird. I put one half of a lemon in the cavity and trussed the whole thing. More seasoning all over & into a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes...

...Unfortunately, even for as small of a chicken as we had, it still took FOREVER to cook. I lost track of how long, but more than 45 minutes for sure. We did have the turnips on there, too, so I'm sure that made a difference. Nonetheless, beautiful, juicy, and delicious was the result.

Flank Steak Dinner

2010-04-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

I loaded up this plate with everything we had for dinner last night, except the sauce. There was a delicious madeira wine sauce with this dinner. What you are seeing here is roasted cauliflower, sauteed snow peas with almonds, tater tots, and marinated flank steak with St. Agur blue cheese.For the steak, I marinated it with salt, pepper, fresh thyme leaves, chopped fresh rosemary, chopped garlic, and extra-virgin olive oil, overnight. When it was time to cook, I pulled the steak out of the fridge and set it on the counter to temper a bit while I got the rest of dinner together, about 10-15 minutes. I heated my saute pan, added canola oil to the pan, then seared my meat. I had the oven preheated to 425 for the cauliflower and tater tots, so after I seared the meat on both sides (approx. 3 minutes per side), I popped my pan in the oven to finish cooking for about 5 minutes.

So, what's up with the tots? I have kids! Plus, I love steak frites, and since we didn't have fries in house, I went with what we had...tater tots!

Dinner turned out to be a hit with everyone & it was all eaten up! For dessert, we finished off the caramel apples and whipped cream from yesterday. While Tyler was eating his dessert, he kept saying, "Mmmmm."

Caramalized Apples, Meyer Lemon Crisp and Whipped Cream

2010-04-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

A wonderful source for recipes is Williams-Sonoma's catalog. You know, the one that comes in the mail. I have made a few of their recipes and have had success with them. Tonight, I served homemade dessert to the family after dinner. Usually, it's something store bought, or raw fruit, or nothing. I used a recipe that I cut out of the W-S catalog eons ago. The full recipe is for Cinnamon Waffles with Caramelized Apples, but I only made the apples. Take a look!

Top view
Side view of David getting ready to dive in.

Close up side view of my serving.

It was yummy. The meyer lemon crisp was purchased from Trader Joe's. I whipped up that cream myself, with the addition of a bit of powdered sugar and a smidge of vanilla bean extract. Did I already say, "YUM!"?? Okay, so I need to practice making my whipped cream quenelles a bit. It's been a long time since I've attempted one of those, but I was pretty good at it back in the day.

Here's the recipe for my caramelized apples, adapted from W-S:

3 T unsalted butter

5 Cameo apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4" slices

1/2 C unrefined sugar

1 t cornstarch

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t salt

2 t vanilla extract

In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, melt 3 T butter. Add the apples, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Stir together and cook about 18 minutes, turning down the heat as needed. Off heat, stir in the vanilla extract.

I ended up having to add about a 1/4 cup of water, as I felt the caramel was a bit too thick, and I wanted more sauce. That seemed to work well. I allowed it to cool, and then transferred it to a storage container and refrigerated it. I made this yesterday, so when I decided to serve this tonight, I made sure to bring it out of the refrigerator to come to room temp a little. I warmed it up in a small nonstick skillet on medium, but did not allow the sauce to bubble up or the apples to get too hot. We ate less than half the batch tonight, so we'll have dessert again tomorrow night! Vincent asked for more, which "makes my heart super happy," as his friend, Kai-lan would say.

Meatballs

2010-04-05T20:42:00.001-07:00

Thank you, David, for these delicious meatballs!Adapted From Simply Recipes
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/speghetti_and_meatballs

Sauce
-2 T extra virgin olive oil
-1/2 chopped sweet yellow onion *used 1.5 medium shallots
-3 cloves chopped garlic
-1 cup very finely chopped carrots
-1 cup chopped crimini mushrooms *did not use
*had some celery in house, so used about 1 cup, finely chopped
-2 28-oz cans Italian plum tomatoes (San Marzano brand in possible) *only had one can San Marzano at home, but substituted other can with 12 oz of fresh, chunky salsa
-1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
-1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
-3 T tomato paste concentrate in tube *did not use
-1/4 cup grated parmesan-romano cheese blend *used only Parmesan Reggiano
-salt to taste (~1 t)
-1/4 cup red wine

Meatballs
-1 lb ground beef
-1/2 lb fresh bulk Italian style pork sausage
*used 2 lbs beef, no sausage
-2 T finely chopped basil
-2 T finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
-1/2 cup finely chopped crimini brown mushrooms *did not use
-2 eggs *used 3, due to the extra .5 lb of meat
-3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs *used 1 cup, due to the extra .5 lb of meat
-1/4 cup grated parmesan-romano cheese blend *used only Parmesan Reggiano
-2 t sea salt *used Kosher
-2 t fresh ground black pepper
-1 T olive oil *used canola...actually, did use some extra virgin olive oil
-red wine

Pasta - 1 1/2 lbs of the dried stuff; recipe calls for spaghetti, David chose campenelli

Method
1. Prepare the sauce. Heat olive oil in 4-5 quart pot on medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add carrots and celery, mix together for 2 minutes. Add canned tomatoes (& salsa), stir together. Add basil and parsley, stir tomatoes with a potato masher until sauce starts to thicken about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. *Did not do the potato masher because I forgot to get it for David. Also, this is when you would add your tomato paste concentrate & stir to blend. Reduce heat and simmer while preparing meat balls, stirring occasionally.

2. Prepare the meatballs. Mis by hand in a large bowl beef, (Italian sausage, if using), basil, parsley, (mushrooms, if using), eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, salt & pepper (*David accidentally added extra virgin olive oil as well) until well mixed. Use small melon baller, or teaspoon to form 1-inch round meat balls. Roll and compress into tight balls.

3. Heat frying pan on high heat. Add olive (or canola). Sear and brown meat balls on all sides. About 2-3 minutes. Depending on pan size you may need to brown two batches of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan by stacking the meatballs. Cook in a single layer. Do not over-cook. As meatballs and finishing, add a little bit of red wine to de-glaze pan.

4. Add 1/4 cup red wine to the sauce. Then stir in 1/4 cup cheese. Add salt to taste. Add meatballs, gently stir. Simmer sauce and meatballs for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot with 4 quarts of water in it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add 1 T of salt. When the water returns to a boil...**WAIT! No. Follow the directions on your box of pasta. Drain.

To serve, place thin layer of sauce on plate, add pasta, add sauce and meatballs, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

EAT! It's super flavorful, juicy and delicious.

**Some (more) notes about this meal...When David decided to make spaghetti & meatballs, I thought about the basic ingredients needed and what we have on-hand at home. I concluded that we had everything, or at least close to. I was wrong, hence the salsa, the shallots, no mushrooms, etc. A word about the salsa. It worked. Okay, there was a little bit of a cilantro flavor to it, but just barely. I think for a basic meatball dish, mushrooms should be omitted. Not everyone likes mushrooms, including my kids. And, celery imparts a nice added flavor. C'mon, mire poix! We did have a pound of unflavored ground pork in the house, but opted to go all beef. We also think that the olive oil may have given the meatballs the extra juiciness. Not sure.

David thought the whole meal was a tad on the salty side. I thought it was just right. The sauce was a bit chunky & runny. After dinner, I ended up fishing out the meatballs and pureeing all the sauce. We ate this with a bottle of Sagelands table wine.

All-in-all, a super Easter dinner!

Thank you, Jamie Oliver!

2010-03-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this wasn't one of his dishes, but he inspired me to make this. I was looking at his newest book & came across a zucchini carbonar. It looked super yummy. I was already thinking of doing something with bloomsdale spinach and bacon, but hadn't thought about making a pasta. I know, seems like a given, right? Well, I didn't have any cream in house, and I didn't want to mess things up by trying to fudge the dish with half & half or milk. So, no carbonara, but oh so delicious.Spinach and bacon fiori pasta with finely shaved parmesan cheese.

Cut up the bacon & cook in a large skillet. After the bacon is nicely rendered and crispy, drain most of the fat. Add chopped garlic. Deglaze with Madiera wine, and scrap the pan. Allow to reduce by half, then add the washed spinach. Wilt down the spinach and add about 2 tablespoons of cold butter, cut up into pieces. Once the butter is melted and there's a little buttery sauce, add everything to cooked pasta.

I forgot to season with pepper, which I think would've been great. I didn't have to add any extra salt, as the bacon & the pasta cooked in salted water added enough saltiness to the whole dish.

Grate your parmesan on top and enjoy!

Quinoa, Apple Pie, Aoili

2010-03-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

I made a sausage pasta for friends that we had over for dinner a couple weekends ago. I used sweet Italian sausage that I had to squeeze out of the casings. There were two uncooked sausages leftover from the package so I decided to make a quinoa dish with them. Included in the dish were the sausages, carrots, zuccini, and shallots. I may have even sprinkled chopped chives in at the end, but now I can't remember, as it has been a while since I made this. I folded in grated Parmesan cheese at the end. Super yummy, and I believe quinoa is one of those super grains. Now, on to my apple pie. Yes, I baked a homemade apple/pear pie. The bottom of the crust was store bought, but everything else was from scratch. I had to use up the pie crust that I thawed for quiche that I didnt' end up making. Since I had some fresh apples & pears, I decided to try something outside of my comfort zone. It looked great, and it tasted alright, but I wasn't happy with the filling. I made it with less sugar than the recipe called, which was good, but the apples and pears were not as soft & moist as they should've been. Maybe I needed a little more water when cooking, or I should've cooked them longer. I don't know. But, I feel good that I did it, and I will try again.

I used a tart dough that was intended for a quiche, so it had no sugar in it. To try and get a sweet crust, I did an egg wash and sprinkled course rainbow sugar on top. Yes, rainbow...it's what I had.

Aoili - this one I made with champagne vinegar & whole grain mustard. Ooh, it was, in the words of my husband, "Divine."

1 egg yolk

1 tsp whole grain mustard (or dijon)

1 cup canola oil

to taste, champagne vinegar, salt & freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolk until the color begins to turn a little pale. Whisk in the mustard. Slowly drizzle the oil into the bowl while whisking, whisking, whisking. If the aoili starts to get too thick before you finish drizzling all the oil, you can start to add some vinegar to loosen it. When all the oil is emulsified into the eggs, add more vinegar as needed, and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

We had this aoili alongside roasted red potatoes for dipping.

Ground Meat #3

2010-03-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Lamb burgers! They turned out super. Instead of buying burger buns, I found these Oroweat dinner rolls that were basically little unsliced buns. I sliced them myself, put a little butter on them & toasted them in the oven. Actually, David put them in the oven. Here's my little lamb burger with melted American cheese, thick sliced bacon, romaine lettuce, and balsamic onions. For the burger meat, I mixed the ground lamb with finely chopped carrots ("sneaking" in for the kids) & shallots, salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan cheese. When I make burgers, I like to first roll the meat into a ball, then shape it into a patty with a ring mold. I choose a ring mold that is slightly larger than the bun to allow for shrinkage during cooking. Shaping my burgers this way yields the best results. I've tried doing it without starting with the ball or just smashing the ball into a patty, and in both cases, they just don't hold the nice "patty" shape. Try it...make three different burgers using each of the above techniques and let me know how yours turn out. I'm totally curious! David actually did the cooking of the burgers tonight. I just got everything ready.

Oh, and as a side, we had a light coleslaw, similar to last night's. This one had shredded broccoli stems as well.

2 Months Later...3 Days of Ground Meat

2010-03-13T22:40:00.000-08:00

Oh gosh, so bad at posting! But, I have a picture! Ugh, now that I'm looking at it, it looks pretty boring, but I assure it, it was yummy.

Dinner tonight was ground beef tacos with corn tortillas. I made a light slaw of shredded red cabbage & romaine lettuce, julienned carrots, and sliced shallots, with a dash of champagne vinegar, salt & pepper. It went really nicely inside the tacos, but was also tasty just on its own. The rice was just a mix of white & brown rice from last night's meal. We also had some store bought local, organic salsa & sour cream. **This was ground meat #2.

Ground meat #1 was last night, pork cooked in soy sauce, served over rice. On the side, we had steamed broccoli & a salad of romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage, shallots, and toasted sliced almonds, with an orange dressing from Drew's. This was my best batch of this pork dish so far, I think. It wasn't as salty as normal, but still very flavorful. I cooked it with chunks of galic & ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken stock, one bay leaf, and just a small amount of unrefined sugar.

The plan is to have ground meat #3 tomorrow night, lamb. I think it'll be lamb burgers, but I'm torn. It might end up being lamb bolognese. We'll see.

Why all this ground meat? Sale at QFC.

Last week I got a little inspired and did two seafood dishes. I rarely do seafood, so twice in one week was unheard of! Fish tacos one night and crab salad another night.

My other menu thoughts for the upcoming week include *pasta a la carbonara, *quiche, & *quinoa with sausage. Coming in my Full Circle Farm box next week include spinach, crimini mushrooms, eggplants, red potatoes, mizuna, zucchini, and sunchokes. I'm excited about this box and will be working on finding dishes to match my produce.

Ooh, and last weekend I made blood orange ice cream! We finished the last of it for dessert tonight. It was subtle, creamy and delicious.

Dinners this year

2010-01-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

We are ten days into the new year, and though it wasn't a resolution of mine to cook more at home, I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job. Unfortunately, I should've made it a resolution to take more photos and post more about the food. Blah! Sorry. It's such a mad scramble in our house once family meal is served that I barely have time to think about feeding myself, let alone take photos of it all.

Anyway, here's a recap of some of the things I've made recently.

-pizzas
-flat iron steak salad
-beef yaki soba (made with leftover flat iron steak)
-orrechietti pasta with tomato sauce of vegetables & maple breakfast sausage
-ground pork in soy sauce with flavored hard boiled eggs with brown rice
-acorn squash soup
-all sorts of vegetable dishes, like roasted red potatoes, glazed carrots, & sauteed broccoli

And, this is why I should've been taking more pictures...I can't remember all of the stuff I've cooked. I know I've made more than these. Oh well, maybe I'll start doing better.

Some thoughts on dinner this week:
-pizza; maybe arugula with proscuitto or pear gorgonzola???
-roasted delicata squash
-Costco battered halibut with celeriac slaw
-crispy chicken salad (Okay, I'll admit, we have a HUGE box of dino nuggets from Costco that I'll cook up, chop up and throw into the salad; not fancy at all).
**Any suggestions?

As I sign off, I want to say that this isn't about creating a bunch of fancy food for my family. It's about eating, and getting by each day with two busy boys tuggy at my legs while trying to cook dinner. I want to remember the things I fed my family when we were first starting out, and see how we have evolved through the years. I would love to make complicated, fresh, organic meals for them all the time, but it's not my reality. But, I try my best. And, truth be told, I have dinner cooked for us once a week to top it off. Yup, I'm so lucky that my friends JM & Hannah have started a little dinner making service that we participate in. Love it.

I feel so blessed each and every day for the food that comes to our table every meal. We are so lucky to be able to fill our stomachs and our hearts even when we think "There's nothing to eat in the house!" There really is always something to eat in our house, and I am thankful.

Homemade Pizza

2010-01-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

Alice Water's pizza dough recipe. I made the dough last night, but ran out of time to make it for dinner. I let it rise slowly in the fridge for almost a day, then took it out about an hour before I needed to start dinner, divided it into two balls and let them rise. After about an hour, I flattened both balls into 5-6 inch discs and allowed them to rest for about 15 minutes, then rolled them out to about 10 inches each.

For the base, I opted not to make an actual pizza sauce. Instead, I combined chopped garlic, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl, then brushed the mixture on the dough. Next came a layer of crushed San Marzano tomatoes (as seen in picture #1 below), then a layer of shredded gruyere cheese, and finally, a sprinkling of chiffonade basil.

This pie had Salumi's salame.
The other pie had chicken & balsamic cippolini onions.

Into a 500 degree F oven for 10 minutes, and out came to beautiful, puffy, delicious pizzas!

Last Meal I Cooked This Year

2009-12-31T21:12:00.000-08:00

For dinner tonight, we had cheese tortellini...from Trader Joe's. I did make the sauce myself. It was creamy spinach with proscuitto. I heated olive oil on medium high heat in a pan & added chopped garlic and shallots. I was moving too slowly & started to toast them a little bit, but that's okay because it adds a little more flavor & they didn't burn. Then, I deglazed with white wine & let that reduce by about half & added the spinach. I just used chopped frozen spinach that I defrosted. Add, chopped proscuitto & saute for another minute. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream, season with salt and pepper & allow the sauce to come to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce until it thickens slightly, another couple of minutes. Finish with 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Add the cooked tortellini and you're good to go!

Pan roasted hanger steak with sauteed mushrooms and blue cheese

2009-12-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was yummy. Just as the title says, I made hanger steak. I cooked it on the stove & did not pop it into the oven at all because I forgot to turn the oven on. I wasn't sure if I would be able to get it cooked to the correct temperature doing it like this, but it turned out perfect. I cooked the steaks to medium well, since we were sharing with the kids (they get to each the edges, where it's cooked further). I finished by basting the in butter. Yum.

For the mushrooms, I just sauteed them in olive oil & butter, and added chopped garlic at the end.

For the sauce, I sweated diced onions in olive oil, then deglazed the pan with white wine. In a different pan, I seared two little scraps of beef, then added the to the onions. I drained the fat off the pan, then deglazed it with red wine. I'm not really sure why I did that, but just thought I'd try. I combined the two wines, added a sprig of fresh thyme and chicken stock and let the whole thing simmer, reducing the liquid by about half. When it was time to serve the steak, I strained the liquid into a saute pan, brought it to a little boil, whisked in a little nug of butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

On the side, we had Brussels sprouts from a nearby restaurant, Vios, that I bought earlier today. We topped the steaks with the mushrooms and blue cheese and drizzled sauce all over. Delicious. That's what all that butter does, huh?

Tyler loves steak. Vincent loved it at this age, too.

But, this is what we ate tonight!

2009-12-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

Blue cheese and bacon stuffed chicken breasts. Sorry, this is an awful picture, but it was actually super delicious. Here's the link to a much better photo:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/provolone-and-pancetta-stuffed-chicken-breasts.html

I had gotten the recipe from Williams-Sonoma, which was originally used with provolone and pancetta. I was in the mood for blue cheese, and we had bacon instead of pancetta in the house. I mean, who really just has pancetta available in their house? Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 tsp. plus 1 1/2 cups olive oil
6 oz. bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs. minced fresh sage
5 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, each about 8 oz., pounded 1/2 inch thick
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 Tbs. crumbled Maytag blue cheese
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
3 1/2 cups toasted bread crumbs
Directions:
In a fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the 1 tsp. olive oil. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until crispy. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Transfer the bacon mixture to a small bowl and stir in the sage.

Create a pocket in each chicken breast: Lay the breast on a work surface with the pointed end away from you. Insert a long paring knife in the center of the end closest to you (the rounded end). Move the knife around to enlarge the opening, forming a pocket; be careful not to cut through to the outside of the breast. Then remove the knife. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Stuff each chicken breast with 2 Tbs. of the cheese and 1 Tbs. of the bacon mixture. Set the chicken on a wire rack-lined baking sheet and freeze for 5 minutes. (oops, I missed this step)

Put the flour, egg whites and bread crumbs in separate breading pans or shallow dishes. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then dip into the egg whites and coat evenly with the bread crumbs, pressing so they adhere. Set the chicken on a wire rack-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

In a wide pan over high heat, heat the 1 1/2 cups olive oil. Working in batches, fry the chicken until crisp and browned underneath, 5 to 6 minutes. Turn the chicken over, reduce the heat to medium and cook until the chicken is cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes more, adding more oil to the pan if needed. Drain the chicken on a paper towel-lined plate. Transfer to a platter and serve immediately. Serves 5.

**I only made 2 breasts for the amount of cheese used. Also, I did not pound the chicken breast, and I removed the chicken tenders, breaded them and fried them separately from the breast. In addition, I finished the breasts in a 400 degrees F oven for about 5-6 minutes.

For the breadcrumbs, I toasted two slices of 9 grain bread & pulsed them in a food processor. They weren't as dry as the store bought stuff, but they worked just fine.

This was quite yummy.

OOPS!

2009-12-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

I have not posted about Thanksgiving, yet. Sheesh!

Happy, Thankful, and Full

2009-11-26T21:27:00.001-08:00

Dinner turned out just right, if not better. I'm exhausted and ready to sit down with David with a glass of wine and talk about our plan of attack for Black Friday...not really. Will post details tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's The Big Day!

2009-11-26T10:04:00.001-08:00

OMG! What have I been doing since Sunday????

Well, let's look back:

Monday - pulled the turkey from the freezer.
Tuesday - nothing...unless you count that I thought about Thanksgiving dinner.
Wednesday - busy, busy!
-cut and cleaned kale
-sliced & diced onions
-diced celery
-picked thyme & parsley off stems
-poached Bosc pears
-made sage butter
-chopped garlic
-reconstituted dried mushrooms
-made ranch dip

I opted not to brine the turkey, because it wasn't quite defrosted, and I just ran out of steam. I didn't chop my herbs as planned, either. And, I didn't make the giblet broth. Gosh, I hope I don't end up scrambling a more today. Oh well, I'm sure it'll all come together at some point today, and if I don't have time to make the broth, well, let's just say I'm THANKFUL for boxed chicken stock. Heeheehee.

It's The Big Day!

2009-11-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

5 days to go and counting...

2009-11-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

My gougeres. I think they look so cute and tasty. Unfortunately, I don't think I added enough salt to the recipe. They're a bit bland. Bummer. The recipe called for a large pinch of salt, which is what I put in. I was afraid to add too much salt, since the gruyere cheese is a bit salty, too. Oh well. Maybe I'll have to make something to dip them in.

Turkey Day Countdown - 3

2009-11-21T16:33:00.001-08:00

Wow! Full Circle Farm is great! I got my weekly newsletter stating what the contents of our box will be and was able to go and change items around. When we did it a few years ago, it was only 3 items per box. This time I got to change just about everything, if I wanted. I could double some stuff, too. And, the now have a "green grocer" which means I could order other produce (for additional charge, of course) to come with my box. And, it will all be delivered to my door by 6am on Wednesday morning! Just in time for me to start prepping for the big feast.

I got to check off of my shopping list sage, thyme, parsley, kale, delicata squash, and yukon gold potatoes. I also decided to add poached pears to the menu because that was one of my original box contents. Now I have a few more things to add to my shoppinglist, but that's okay.

Yesterday, I braved Costco to pick up the gruyere cheese (along with some other necessary, non-Thanksgiving things). I have made it my end of the year goal not to go to Costco again for the remainder of 2009.

So, here's the gougeres recipe I am planning to follow. Seems pretty easy. I will grate the cheese later today - probably as soon as I log out of Blogger - and I will make and freese them tomorrow. I think I will omit the nutmeg. Check back tomorrow to see how these came out!

ACTIVE: 15 MIN
TOTAL TIME: 45 MIN
SERVINGS: MAKES ABOUT 28 GOUGÈRES
Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
Large pinch of coarse salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
3 1/2 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (1 cup), plus more for sprinkling
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Add the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms; stir over low heat until it dries out and pulls away from the pan, about 2 minutes.
Scrape the dough into a bowl; let cool for 1 minute. Beat the eggs into the dough, 1 at a time, beating thoroughly between each one. Add the cheese and a pinch each of pepper and nutmeg.
Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip and pipe tablespoon-size mounds onto the baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 22 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Serve hot, or let cool and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat in a 350° oven until piping hot.

Turkey Day Countdown - 2

2009-11-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

I need to make a shopping list. I don't think it'll be too big of a list, as I've got some of it already, and we are getting some vegetables in next week from our CSA. We just signed up for the boxes this week to start next week. I'm super excited. It's with Full Circle Farm in Carnation, WA. Our first CSA was with them. Then, we did the summer CSA with Oxbow. Oxbow does not offer their boxes in the fall and winter months, which is actually when I have the hardest time buying vegetables in the store.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent...

So, here's what I have on hand:
-dried bread for stuffing
-dried wild mushrooms
-dried cranberries
-onions
-cooked chestnuts
-muffin mix
-chicken stock
-turkey is ordered & on its way
-sparkling juices for drinking
-butter
-an assortment of potaotes (if I decide to use them)

Here's what I need:
-fresh thyme, sage, and parsley
-yukon gold potatoes (maybe)
-gruyere cheese
-kale (2 bunches)
-delicata squash (x2); should be arriving with CSA
-poultry seasoning (???) it's what the stuffing called for...

I can't think of what else. I am sure I'll be adding more as the day draws near.

Countdown to Turkey Day - 1

2009-11-18T14:45:00.001-08:00

The menu:
-gougeres
-one 7lb heritage turkey
-chestnuts and wildmushroom stuffing
-mashed potatoes
-gravy
-browned butter kale with cranberries and pinenuts
-apple cinnamon muffins

possibly more...

I've been thinking about what all I will need, but not really organized yet. I think we require a trip to Costco for gruyere cheese.

Pork Cheeks Ragu

2009-10-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

It's fall, there's a nip in the air, and I'm back to braising. Tonight's dinner, pork cheeks ragu & celeriac slaw.

I actually made both of these last night, but couldn't rally to get the braise finished by dinnertime. It was nice to just reheat and eat. Plus, I think this tasted better having sat overnight, too.

Here's the pork cheeks in the pot.
This is the celeriac slaw.

And, the pork cheeks, again, in a bowl.

I wanted to be able to link you to some information about pork cheeks, but sadly, I couldn't really find anything very helpful. It's not your ordinary cut of meat, but it's very tasty. Each piece was about 2-3 inches big. I had a package of about 6 pieces that was given to me as a gift from a friend who works on a farm that I order my meats from (www.thunderinghooves.net). I have been waiting for the weather to cool down to cook them. Since we also got some cranberry shelling beans from our Oxbow Farm CSA last week, I knew it was time.

First, I cured the meat with just salt, pepper and crushed garlic cloves overnight. Normally, I would throw in sprigs of thyme and bay leaves, but I didn't have either on hand. Oh well.

To cook, I dried each piece of meat on a paper towel, then seared each side in a hot dutch oven. I removed the meat, & cleaned the pan with a paper towel. Then, I cooked cut up mushrooms in butter and olive oil in the same pan, and removed those as well. Next, I sweat diced carrots, onions and celery in olive oil until the onions became translucent, and deglazed the pan with white wine (chardonnay is what I had on hand). I let the wine reduce by half, the fresh cranberry beans, the mushrooms, and the pork cheeks. I just barely covered the ingredients with chicken stock, brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer, and cooked covered for about 2 hours.

Tonight, I reheated the ragu, and finished it off with a tablespoon of butter to thicken things up.

That's it! It was so yummy. You could really taste the sweetness of the carrots.

For the celeriac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeriac) slaw, I made it just like I would've made a regular coleslaw. Ingredients are: celeriac, carrots, celery, apples, shallots, mayo, and vinegar.

The Works Tonight

2009-10-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hubby took the kids to a class this afternoon, which allowed me to take the time to prepare a full meal.

First, the cheese plate. Seastack from Mt. Townsend Creamery The salad - a mixture of 3 different lettuces (I forget what they're called now), arugula, & basil, with red onions, homemade croutons, toasted almonds, sliced carrots, and sliced breakfast radishes. Tossed with fresh squeezed lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Main dish - Pan roasted pork chops from Thundering Hooves, roasted cauliflower with just a touch of curry, and sliced fresh peaches. The pork chops were nice and juicey and needed no sauce.

Dessert - Fresh baked peanut butter cookies with toffee and chocolate chips.

Corn Cob Chowder

2009-08-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

"Oh, I this is going to be good." That’s what I was thinking as I began my preparation of last night's dinner.

It was a spur of the moment idea, when David suggested we walk to the farmers’ market with the kids yesterday morning. We didn’t really need anything, since we just got our CSA box on Friday. But, I bought 4 ears of corn on Wednesday from Alvarez Organic Farms at the Columbia City Market that I almost forgot about & needed to cook up before we go on our trip. We got a couple of potatoes at the market for the chowder from Olsen Farms – one starchy and one waxy. Here’s what I did:

- cut corn kernels of the cob & cut the cobs in half
- put the cobs in a pot, covered with water, brought to a boil, reduced heat and simmered for about 30 minutes.
- while cobs are simmering, rendered about ½ cup of diced bacon in a dutch oven.
- drain the bacon & set aside
- in the same pan, sweat diced onions, carrots, celery & garlic with about 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat
- add 1 tablespoon flour and stir to coat the vegetable with flour and cook the flour a little (about 1 minute)
- drain the cob stock into the pan; I covered the cobs with more water & added some parmesan cheese rinds that I had sitting around in the fridge (for shits and giggles) & let simmer for another 30 minutes **I did this only because the first pot of stock wasn’t enough for the amount of vegetables I had** - add the corn kernel, fresh thyme sprigs (about 2 or 3), one bay leaf, the starchy potato, peeled and diced, and one cup of cream (that’s all I had in house)
- bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer
- add the cob/parmesan stock to the pot
- add the bacon
- allow to simmer gently until the potatoes are done and soup has thickened nicely
- remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf
- puree about 1 cup of the soup and add it back in to give the soup a little creaminess
- adjust seasoning & serve hot

**I didn't end up adding the waxy potato to the dish because I felt like one potato was enough.

The soup was yum yum yum!

Our CSA, and my little mistake

2009-08-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

I meant to post last night's meal here, but it ended up on our family blog. You can go see it there at http://ourteamhunt.blogspot.com/.

We have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box again this year with Oxbow Farm. We share it with another family because one box each week is more than we can eat. We LOVE it.

This week, we get the whole box, since our friends are camping. We're leaving town next week, too, so I want to make sure I get as much use out of it as I can, though I suspect I might have to give some veggies away to my neighbors.

I spent much of last night working on just that. Beets got roasted, beet greens taken off their stems & washed, lettuces cut and washed, carrots stemed and washed, cucumber cut up & "pickled" with sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, salt, sugar and sriracha, and basil turned into pesto.

I'm pretty proud of myself for working so hard.

Beautiful basil.Behold, my pesto.

And the verdict is...

2009-08-13T20:57:00.001-07:00

"Nice work, Honey. That was so good," said Mr. Hunt.

This isn't a great picture, but the meal really was delicious. The potatoes were cut into eighths & quickly sauteed in a hot pan with olive oil, butter, salt, pepper and minced garlic, then roasted in the oven with diced shallots uncovered for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

This is the wine we had with dinner. It's Italian, but still went very well. David and I purchased this bottle of Brunello di Montalcino about 4 years ago in Tuscany. We've been waiting for it to "come of age," which is a minimum of 10 years.

The table is set. All we need is to sit down, pour the wine, and feast. And feast we did. My 2.5 year old didn't appreciate it as much as we did, and my 5 month old eyed Lucy's plate & kept reaching for it, but was only allowed to have pureed peas from a jar (which he was very pleased with).

P.S. - I cooked this meal in my new All-Clad pans.

Boeuf Bourguignon

2009-08-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms

(my version has no onions - at least not the little white onions braised in brown stock that this recipe calls for. There are, however, sliced onions used in cooking the meat)

WELCOME BACK TO THE WORLD OF HUNT FAMILY MEALS!!

It's been over 8 months since my last post. I have been cooking. I have even taken some pictures here and there. I just haven't had the chance/energy/motivation to post about what I've made. So, for my return, I've decided to cook Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguinon; inspired by my recent trip to the movie theater to see Julie & Julia.

Here's the dish I'm making it in, with leek blossoms from our garden.Mis en place. Oops, I forgot to include the slotted spoon and butter!

I prepared the mushrooms in advance. Just crimini & shitake mushrooms. Trader Joe's sells the criminis already cut, for just a tad more money...totally worth is when you've got too kids still in diapers!

"Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides."

"...sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of pre-heated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees."

"Stir in the wine, and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove."

"Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours."

And, that's exactly what my dish is doing right now. I set it for 3 hours, and it has 51 minutes left. I will check it after 3 hours to see if it needs more time. I plan on serving the dish tomorrow night, but can prepare a day in advance. I still have a few steps to go after it comes out of the oven.

To be continued...

Creamy Whole Wheat Spaghetti

2008-12-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

I made a creamy spaghetti noodles dish with sauteed yellowfoot chanterelle mushrooms last night. We had a roasted chicken from the store, and sauteed zucchini on the side. Since David's going to be home late tonight, so Vincent and I had leftovers. The difference tonight is that I added the chicken into the pasta, shredded. For Vincent, he had corn in his noodles as well, and his mushrooms & zucchini were pureed, then added back into the noodles as a sauce.

It is always so hard to know if your child will actually eat what you put in front of them. I made the mistake of giving Vincent a milkshake with dinner. I thought if I gave him just a small amount, then it would be okay, but he was doing a much better job eating before the milkshake. At least it was just banana, blueberries and milk only. And, he did end up eating half the amount of noodles I dished up for him, which means he got the mushrooms and zucchini (in pureed form) as well. I'm thinking this is going to be the new thing for me whenever possible: making a sauce out of whatever pureed good stuff I know he won't eat if in regular form.

Oh the darn milkshake!

Make Meat Loaf, Then Make Sliders

2008-11-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

We had meat loaf earlier this week. This is the recipe I posted a couple months ago.
http://ourfamilymeal.blogspot.com/2008/08/meat-loaf.html
To tell you the truth, I don't follow a recipe for meat loaf (for much of anything for that matter).

This time, I made it with 2 pounds of ground beef, about 1/2 cup each of brunoise onions, carrots and celery, 2 eggs, and about 2 cups of bread crumbs. I also added some random dried herbs (stuff that probably doesn't have much "umph" left in them, so I used quite a bit), and seasoned with salt and pepper. I usually toss my cubes of bread in olive oil, salt and pepper, and dry them in the oven before putting them in a food processor for bread crumbs. My mushy pregnancy brain told me, this time, to cut up my bread, set it out overnight on a tray to dry, and then put in a food processor. The bread wasn't even that dry yet, so I don't know what I was thinking. I ended up tossing the "crumbs" in a bowl with extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), salt & pepper, and letting it all dry in the oven on a tray at 200 degrees F, for about an hour or so.

I think in the end, the extra-virgin olive oil in the bread crumbs added a nice, subtle aroma to the meatloaf. It was a very tasty loaf!

Two days later, I turned our meat loaf into open-faced sliders. YUM! I went to the store to look for some dinner rolls and they had a new product: Schwartz Brothers Bakery makes a sourdough dinner roll that was perfect!

First, I sliced the rolls open, like a burger bun, and drizzled some CARM extra-virgin olive oil on the slices. Next, I topped each side with half a piece of thinly sliced meat loaf. On top of the meat loaf, I put three very thinly sliced apples on top, and then some crumbled gorgonzola cheese. I put these open-faced sandwiches into the oven to broil until the cheese was melted and slightly browned. After I pulled them out of the oven, I topped them with a mushroom gravy, made from sauteed mushrooms, marsala wine, chicken stock and butter.

Brussels Sprouts & Farro

2008-11-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Alice Waters, for tonight's brussels sprouts inspiration. Let me just make a plug for her book, Chez Panisse Vegetables, because it really is a must have in your culinary library. I refer to it often when I need ideas on how to cook a vegetable. I also recommend her Fruit book, for the same reason. And, I like that some of her recipes are written like the way I like to cook - more with a method, and less with measurements. That's how all her brussels sprouts recipes were written.

My original thought on dinner was to make this recipe:
"Brussels Sprouts Pasta - Cut the stem out of each sprout and separate it into leaves. Thinly slice the tiny hearts if you can't tease apart all the leaves. Slice red onion very thinly and chop some garlic. Start cooking pasta (a sturdy dry type, such as farfalle or penne; orrechiette is good because it has the same size and shape as the brussels sprouts leaves).
-Heat a saute pan, add a little olive oil, toss in the sprout leaves, salt and pepper them, and saute for about a minute over high heat. Then add the sliced onions and a pinch of hot pepper flakes, and continue to saute until the sprouts are tender and a little browned, 2-5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the garlic, and toss. If the garlic appears to be browning, add a splash of water to the pan. Squeeze a little lemon onto the sprouts, and when the pasta is done, add it, drained, to the saute pan and toss everything together. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve drizzled with good extra-virgin olive oil. If you want, toss the pasta with some toasted bread crumbs, but if the sprouts are very sweet and tasty, don't bother."

Since we had noodles for dinner last night, I decided to cook farro instead. And, I went with a combination of three recipes, plus a little more. To save myself from having to type all of them, I'll just go put down what I did.

Browned Butter Balsamic Brussels Sprouts & Delicata Squash -
Heat a pan on medium high until pretty hot. Add about one tablespoon of butter to the pan. Allow to sizzle until the butter starts to brown (taking care not to let it burn). Add the sprout leaves (follow Alice's method of separating leaves above), and toss to coat with butter. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cook for about 1-2 minutes. Add chopped garlic & toss quickly. Add a little balsamic vinegar & toss. Add a little chicken stock (enough to make a little saucy).

If you can do this at the same time, in a separate pan (I'm not sure this was really necessary, but I had the pan & the space to do it), saute thinly sliced delicata squash with a little olive oil on medium heat. Add thinly sliced red onions & cook until squash & onions start to become tender. Season with salt & pepper, and add to the brussels sprouts. Finish the dish with another tablespoon of butter, and adjust the seasoning. Serve over farro.

For the farro, I cooked it just like I would cook risotto. Here's a basic method to cooking risotto (only I start with sweating finely diced onions before adding the grains):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risotto

Noodles

2008-11-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Another noodle night at the Hunt household.

I sat down during Vincent's marathon nap & made a list of dinner ideas, based on the list of food we have on-hand that I put together the day before. It's amazing how much less groceries you need when you know just what is in your house.

I think my list looks good. I had in mind to make a pasta with Brussels sprouts, something I found in the Alice Waters Vegetables book. But, then realized that there were more things that needed to be used up for the other noodle dish.

We had Asian noodles. The package says "Product of Taiwan." But, they look like soba (somen?) noodles. They're about 6" long, and as thin as angel hair. I started with some canola & semsame oil & fresh tofu in the pan, giving them just a hint of color. Then added matchstick carrots, chopped garlic, and sliced red onions. I cooked those for a minute and added some sauteed mushrooms (from last night), chopped baby bok choy and sliced scallions. I added about 1/4 cup of soy sauce & transferred my cooked noodles (water drained) to the pan. Toss all those together & finish with a drizzle of sesame oil.

Mushroom Gruyere Tart, Frisee Salad, Coppa Wrapped Dates

2008-11-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

I felt like dinner tonight was pretty solid. I had done an inventory of what we had on hand in the house & asked David what he thought we should have for dinner. We have a lot of stuff, but nothing too obvious, so he said, "Mac 'n' cheese." WHAT?! That wasn't even on my list of stuff. Well, I did tell him my idea of the mushroom tart, so the mac n cheese was supposed to "go with" that & be for Vincent. In the end, I made the mushroom tart, the mac n cheese, and a little something extra...

Mushroom gruyere tart - store bought puff pastry dough, grated gruyere cheese, sauteed mushrooms. Bake in 400 degree F oven for 16 minutes. Frisee salad - David got to have his with a poached egg, which is what you see here. The frisee was tossed with bacon lardons, shallots, salt, pepper, and sherry vinaigrette. Coppa wrapped dates - stuffed with plain, lowfat cream cheese, these Medjool dates were wrapped with thinly sliced coppa, then baked in a 400 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top, just because the meat became a little dry, but I'm not sure it made much of a difference in flavor or dryness.

Mac n cheese - from a box, but Annie's organic brand. I added frozen edamamme, corn, and a few pieces of the bacon. Vincent took a bath while I was making dinner, and when he back came out, the first thing he said was, "bacon." Apparently, my child knows what bacon smells like. I couldn't not give him any bacon.

Welcome Back!

2008-11-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

Our 30 day dinner challenge has come to an end. I am back to posting on this site.

We took a day off of cooking at home yesterday and headed to the mall for dinner. Actually, I still did some cooking - made a batch of potstickers. Vincent didn't have much time to run around yesterday, so the mall was the alternative to running around outside in the sloppy rain. It was just convenient to eat there as well.

For dinner tonight, we had baked potato bar and sauteed escarole on the side. It was yummy & fun, but the best part of it was the unsolicited help given by my husband. Now, that was sexy! I was on my way home from an outing with Vincent & I called to ask him to turn on the oven & get the potatoes back in there, if they had cooled. He told me he's got the bacon & chili going, and the potatoes are still hot. I'm in love all over again.

His potato:

Her potato:

Junior's potato (sweet & de-composed):

Sauteed escarole:

Sweat sliced garlic & red onions in oil until slightly tender. Deglaze the pan with white wine & add the chopped escarole. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, season with salt & pepper, and allow to wilt down. Add toasted pinenuts and dried cranberries. When the greens have fully wilted down and are cooked, you are done!

30 Day Dinner Challenge

2008-09-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

If you've been a regular reader of this blog, thanks! I just wanted to say that I'll be blogging somewhere else (though, actually still from my own home) for 30 days, starting October 8th. I'm doing a 30 day dinner challenge, that I've started with a couple of friends. They will all be starting tomorrow (I think), but our family is going out of town tomorrow for 5 days. I've decided to delay our start one week because I can't actually be cooking us dinner while on vacation (I'm not that ambitious, even if we have a hotel kitchenette!), and I need 2 days upon returning to prepare.

So, visit the other blog: http://30dinners.blogspot.com. I will not be the only writer, so there should be plenty of recipes, cooking tips and techniques, and what not there for you to read! Enjoy, and happy eating!

Chili

2008-09-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

OH. MY. GOD. I've run out of onions in the house! I can't believe it. I haven't had to buy onions all summer long, and at long last, I've run out. We've been getting them in our CSA box all summer long. Spring onions. Walla Walla sweet onions, & red onions. Suddenly, no more.

Luckily, I had shallots and scallions from the grocery store on hand.

1 cup carrots, 1/4" dice
1 cup celery, 1/4" dice
1 cup scallions, chopped
1 shallot, rough chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
1/2 cup of bacon, diced
1 lb ground beef
beef stock, as needed
1/2 cranberry beans, fresh (or other beans are fine, too)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cups roma tomatoes, *peeled & chopped

-Render the bacon pieces in a pan. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and sweat until they just start to become tender.
-Brown the ground beef in a pot with a little olive oil. Add the spices, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well to combine the spices & meat.
-Add the vegetables and bacon to the ground beef, and cover with beef stock.
-Add the cranberry beans. If you are using canned beans, do not add them yet.
-Add the tomatoes, and any additional stock if needed.
-Cook for two hours.

*A popular way to peel tomatoes is to remove the core stem, score the opposite end in a small "x" with a paring knife, and boil them for 15 seconds. After boiling, plunge them into an ice bath to stop the cooking. The scored end will have loosened the skin, and the tomato is ready to be peeled, ready to be chopped to desired shape. This blanching method may also be used with peaches and nuts. Also known as concasse tomatoes.

This is just what I did for my chili. I feel like everyone has a chili recipe they like. I actually don't, not that I think any are bad. I'm just not good at sticking to a particular one. I picked one out of a chili recipes book, a friend bought for me with her Marlboro cigarette points, just as a reference. I encourage you to do tweak my recipe all you want. I know I probably will in the future!

Campagne

2008-09-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

David and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary tonight (even though our actual anniversary is on Thursday). We had dinner reservations for 7:30pm at Campagne. We dropped my dad off at the airport, which was much quicker than we had expected. We got to Pike Place Market at 6pm, and decided to see if they could squeeze us in early. No problem.

Dinner was fantastic! Here's what we had:

David - Beef tartare with slices of potato fried in duck fat & arugula & parmesan salad; Veal sweetbread with curry carrots.
Anny - charcuterie plate with house cured duck proscuitto, bresaola, country-style pate, and rillette; sea scallops & gulf prawns with halibut brandade & sauteed Chinese spinach.
For dessert, we shared a lemon-ginger creme brulee.

It was all so delicious!

Marsala Wine Braised Chicken Legs with Shitake Mushrooms

2008-09-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

*may use chicken thighs as well/instead
**if using dried mushrooms, reconsistute them in hot water first

Sear chicken, on all sides, in a hot saute pan with oil.
Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup marsala wine & allow to reduce slightly.
Add the mushrooms with the soaking liquid.
Bring to a boil.
Transfer to an oven proof dish, cover with foil, and cook in 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes.
*hang on to the saute pan
Pour the liquid back into the saute pan and reduce by half. Whisk in a teaspoon of butter into the reduction, and pour the sauce back over the chicken and mushrooms.

What do I do with these chicken legs?

2008-09-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

I did a freezer pull earlier this week. In that pull was a pack of 3 chicken legs. They sat in the fridge, thawing. Then, they thawed. And, they continued to sit in the fridge some more.

The truth is, I had cooked 5 nights straight, and I was a bit burned out. Wednesday morning I woke up and said to my husband & dad, "We're eating out tonight." But, by that afternoon, I suddenly felt inspired, and those lettuce wraps made it to the table. So, yesterday was Saturday, and I had successfully gotten dinner on the table for all of us 5 nights in a row. I looked at those chicken legs and annouced, "Sushi tonight?"

Guilt ridden by a full day of eating out for the last four meals, mostly junk (Crossroads foodcourt food for lunch yesterday, Japanese for dinner dinner last night, Top Pot Doughnuts this morning, and Subway for lunch today), I felt that I needed to check out those chicken legs.

Fresh? YES! Gotta love the Foodsaver !

Here's what made it to the table:
-Marsala wine braised chicken legs with shitake mushrooms
-a HUGE salad with lettuce, lemon cucumbers, green bell peppers, & spiced pecans from Trader Joe's, with this blackberry vinaigrette my inlaws got us from Snoqualmie
-corn on the cob
-Red Baron French bread pizza boats
-leftover lettuce wrap filling

Weird variety of foods, but everything go eaten! I was delighted. I do have to admit that my dad, husband, and son seem to eat most things. Well, maybe not my son, but neither my dad or husband are that picky...especially not my dad.

Breakfast Sandwiches

2008-09-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Yum!

I ordered croissants from Boulangerie Nantaise through www.spud.com , but I think these sandwiches would've worked with any croissants.

I made two with sliced ham and two with strips of bacon. Each of the sandwiches got one of those meats, a fried egg (medium), and a slice of swiss cheese. I put them open faced under the broiler for a couple of minutes. As a side item, we had low fat, vanilla, organic yogurt with diced fresh peaches.

Pretty simple meal, but everyone enjoyed it.

Clam Chowder

2008-09-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's what I made tonight. Let's see if I can remember what I did...

Okay, so I just started to type up a recipe, and I realized that I just don't remember the exact measurements. Sorry. So, please use what you think you would like, depending on the size of the party you are serving. Remember, it's soup, so making a big batch is okay!

onions, chopped 1/2" dice
carrots, chopped 1/2" dice
celery, chopped 1/2" dice
yukon pototoes (although, I think russets are better if you want a little more starch for thickening), peeled, cut to 1/2" dice
corn, fresh, kernels removed
bacon, 1/4" diced (optional)
1 can of clams
1 pint cream

-Heat a pot with oil. Add the chopped onions, carrots and celery & sweat until the onions are transluscent. Add the chopped bacon. *If your bacon is on the fattier side (mine wasn't), start with the bacon, and use the rendered fat from the bacon to cook the vegetables.
-Add the potatoes, corn, and clams
-Add just enough water to reach the top of the vegetables, bring to a boil
-Add cream, and any additional water if you would like more liquid
-Allow to simmer until all the vegetables are soft & the soup has a nice thick consistency - mine went for 2 hours

**if you would like a little more corn flavor to the soup, you could throw in the cob of the corn while cooking and fish it out before serving; or put it in a pot of cold water, and let it cook for 30-45 minutes, for a tasty corn broth to use some other time.

Lettuce Wraps - Again

2008-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we had lettuce wraps, once again. This time, I used ground beef instead of ground pork. In addition, we had fried rice made from leftovers of our lunch today. I had picked up some chicken katsu and chicken yakisoba from a nearby teriyaki joint. I added a little chopped garlic, some green beans, and an egg...PRESTO! Dinner was served!

It was a real hit with the family, including my dad, who loves to wrap anything edible in lettuce.This is my dad, the happy lettuce wrapper.

Wild Mushroom Risotto and Sesame Green Beans

2008-09-10T23:02:00.001-07:00

Big hit with the boys tonight, this risotto. I bought this dry wild mushroom mix from Trader Joe's that I ended up being a little disappointed with. There was a ton of wood ear mushrooms in the mix. I'm a fan of them, but I would've preferred some dried porcinis, chanterelles, even shitake. I also felt like the mix didn't taste mushroomy enough. But, in the end, the dish was a hit, so that's what matters most. I also bought the only arborio rice I could find at QFC, which was just a generic brand. It definitely was not as nice as the stuff I've gotten at DeLaurenti's.

These green beans, on the other hand, bought at the farmers' market this afternoon, were off the hook. Fresh, beautiful, tasty. I blanched them, cooled them, and then cut them into thirds. To finish them, I browned about a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, added the beans, seasoned with salt & pepper, and let them cook on medium/high heat for about a minute. I added just a touch of water, as the pan was very dry, then chopped garlic. I tossed that around and cooked for another minute or so, added a teaspoon of Banyul vinegar and about a teaspoon for toasted seasame seeds. Very yummy indeed!

Home Grown

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

Not the clearest photo, but these are some of the sungold tomatoes we have been enjoying this summer, grown right outside our door in our own little garden. We don't have much growing in our boxes this year, but plenty of these little gems. Our other tomatoes are starting to ripen as well. We have some San Marzano (Roma) and I believe Black Beauty (I forget their name), which are an heirloom variety.

Pork Spare Ribs - Part 2

2008-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

So how did it turn out? Pretty darn good, if I say so myself...

These are the beans I made as a side dish. I'll share my confession when I talk more about them.

These are the ribs.

Two hours into the roasting, I checked on my ribs. Pretty tender, but could be more. I let them go for another half hour. Seemed to be just right. I removed all the ribs from their pans onto another pan to cool. I strained all the juices from the ribs and skimmed off as much fat as I could. Then I started to make my beans.

For the beans, I rendered some diced bacon pieces. (I bought a pack of bacon ends from Thundering Hooves, which was perfect for this purpose.) Then, I added about a cup of chopped onions and two chopped garlic cloves. The bacon didn't give off much fat, so I added a little of the fat from the pork ribs to help the onions & garlic sweat a little. Here's the cheatin' part for the beans...I added one can of pinto beans, rinsed, to the pan. I covered everything with the strained liquid from the ribs, and brought it to a simmer.

The flavor of the beans was incredible, but pretty salty and it was a bit brothy. I took out about a cup of beans with liquid and pureed it with a little water & about a tablespoon of bbq sauce until very smooth. I added that back into the beans to give it a little thickness, without reducing the liquid and making the flavor saltier. This made the dish look a little like refried beans. I still felt it was a bit salty, so I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar and a splash of red wine vinegar. That seemed to do the trick.

To finish the ribs, we threw them on a charcoal grill and slathered them with bbq sauce, flipped, added more sauce, flipped again for another minute and pulled them off the grill. Sadly, I didn't make the sauce. America's Test Kitchen recommended Bullseye, so that's what we used.

I feel pretty proud of myself for making these ribs. They were actually quite simple to prepare, and didn't take a ton of time.

Pork Spare Ribs - Part 1

2008-09-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

I bought two packs of pork spare ribs from Thundering Hooves a couple of months ago. They've been sitting in my freezer, just waiting to be thawed. I've sort of been intimidated by these spare ribs, afraid it would be such a long process to make.

Last week, David and I watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen that has inspired me to thaw out the ribs.

As I type, they are sitting in 3 pans in the oven, rubbed with some spices and covered in foil, slow roasting at 275 degrees F. How long will they roast for? I'm not sure. My plan is to check in 2 hours...maybe 3.

This is the rub:
1 T smoked paprika
1 T freshly ground black pepper
1 T kosher salt
2 T light brown sugar

"Ribs have a papery membrane on the underside that can make it hard to pull the meat off the bone. Before cooking, loosen this membrane with the tip of a paring knife and, with the aid of a paper towel, pull it off slowly, all in one piece." - from www.americastestkitchen.com

Step-by-Step: How to Make Tender Ribs
Remove the Membrane: Ribs have a papery membrane on the underside that can make it hard to pull the meat off the bone. Before cooking, loosen this membrane with the tip of a paring knife and, with the aid of a paper towel, pull it off slowly, all in one piece.

To be continued...

Taco Night

2008-09-07T21:14:00.001-07:00

I must thank my husband for making dinner tonight. Hard tacos, with Spanish rice. He did all the work. All I had to do was play with my son, and then cut up the watermelon we had for dessert.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Pesto, Sungold Tomatoes, and Chicken

2008-09-04T19:14:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we received a beautiful bunch of basil in our CSA box. I decided to make some pesto and freeze it in little cubes. I forgot all about the pesto until this afternoon. It's so fun whenever I remember I have stuff I can make for dinner, so that I don't have to make a mad dash to the store. This is what I threw together tonight.

chopped garlic
zucchini
sungold tomatoes
one chicken breast, cooked and diced
pine nuts
whole wheat spaghetti
chopped green onions
chopped parsley

I cooked the pasta...Okay, I accidentally overcooked it. But, it still worked fine.

Sauteed garlic with zucchini, added the cooked noodles, added the pesto, and stirred to coat all the noodles. Added the pinenuts & chicken, then added the tomatoes at the very end. Turned off the heat and added the chopped green onions and parsley.

This is what I should've done:
Heat the oil, saute the zucchini, then added the garlic. Add the diced chicken, then the pesto. Add the cooked pasta. Make sure everthing is nicely coated with the pesto. Finish with pine nuts, tomatoes, chopped green onions and parsley.

Smith

2008-08-22T22:53:00.001-07:00

Dinner tonight was at a bar...Smith. It used to be 21 and over only. I don't know why the owner, Linda, decided to put the railing in between the bar and the dining area to allow children in. Business has been going well since they opened. Whatever the reason, we are pleased.

Vincent accompanied us to our "neighborhood pub" tonight. It's hip, it's loud, there's no play pit. We felt sort of cool. Although, how cool can you really feel when you come strollin' into a place like this with a giant jogging stroller?

Our experience? So so. Service was actually pretty decent. Vincent was like a wild man in there. Must've been the loud music getting him all hyped up. It's hard to sit and enjoy your meal as much when your tot is not at his best restaurant behavior. But, I have to admit that the food was just alright. And, I'm not being biased, just because I know the former chef and sous chef. It wasn't bad, it just simply wasn't great. What did we eat?

Poutine -( http://www.montrealpoutine.com/) Sadly, it was not like I remembered. It was fine & tasty, but just not as good as it used to be. It was a chunky gravy that had a strong black pepper flavor.

Crispy oxtail terrine with orange and parsley - It was sort of like Chicken Cordon Bleu, or at least it looked like it. I was imagining something like a pork pave, lightly dusted with flour and fried in a saute pan until crispy. I guess I was warned that it would be breaded and deep fried, but I still had a different imagine in my mind. There was some sort of tangy reduction drizzled all over the plate, which I felt overpowered the "terrine." The "terrine" could have been seasoned a bit more, and there was hardly any oxtail in the middle. It was mostly breading.

Heirloom tomato with arugula, green beans & bacon - I am picky about my salad greens. I like them crisp and green (or whatever color they're supposed to be). It irritates me when I get yellow or brown leaves, especially when it's so obvious that they should've been picked out before it got to the table. There was a whole lot of arugula on top of the tomatoes. More than I think necessary. The green beans in the salad were cooked just right and quiet tasty. I also enjoyed the crispy pieces of bacon. The salad as a whole, though, was a bit flat. There seemed to be more oil to vinegar ratio in the dressing. Maybe they thought the tomato would make up for the lack of acidity.

Roasted chicken with potato puree - This dish was great, actually! The chicken was cooked perfectly, with crispy skin and the right amount of seasoning. And, the potato puree was just right.

So there you have it. Our family meal tonight was at a pub. Not great, not bad. We will likely go back, but it probably won't be the first place to come to mind.

French Dip Sandwiches

2008-08-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

I racked my brain for something to cook for dinner. I looked in the fridge, the freezer, the cupboard...just couldn't pull it together. I probably could've scrounged up enough ingredients to make clam chowder, but I just didn't have the motivation to cut up all the vegetables. I came up with French dips. But, it did require that I go to the store, which I wasn't in the mood to do. Can you tell I was sort of on lazy mode this afternoon? But, I managed to get myself (and toddler) out the door and we strolled up to QFC.

Here's what you will need for these sandwiches:
-roast beef; see if the deli guy can give you something a little on the rare side
-French bread baguette or hoagie folls; I prefer the taste & texture of the baguette
-beef broth

That's about it! You may want to add a cheese and maybe caramelize some onions to go with it. That's what I did.
Bring your beef broth to a boil, add the roast beef, and turn the heat down to a low simmer. Cook until the beef is no longer rare. I cut the baguette to the desired sized pieces, split them open down the middle, and buttered them. I also sprinkled a little garlic powder and sea salt on them and topped with Asiago cheese. I toasted them in the oven to melt the cheese, then topped with the beef & onions. Serve with the beef broth used to cook the beef on the side for dipping.

Meat Loaf

2008-08-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

We had friends over Sunday night (yeah, a little late here), and I completely forgot to post about it.

The main dish was meat loaf, with some grilled zucchini & grilled radicchio on the side, as well as a salad with grilled bread croutons. We also had a few cheeses and some olive bread from Macrina Bakery. By the way, if you haven't had Macrina's Rustic Potato bread before, it is a must have. I love it sliced with a little Plugra butter and a sprinkle of kosher or sea salt.

My meat loaf (or at least what I did this time):
2# ground beef
1/2 c onions, finely chopped
1/2 c carrots, finely chopped
1/2 c celery, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 c bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 tsp parsley, picked & chopped
1 tsp thyme, picked
1 tsp rosemary, picked & chopped
1 tbl dill, picked & chopped
1/4 c ketchup
1 tsp sugar
TT smoked paprika (optional)
TT salt & pepper

*Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
*Sautee the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in olive oil until slightly soft but not completely cooked. Transfer to a plate or sheet try for cooling.
*When vegetables have cooled, combine the vegetables, beef, bread crumbs, eggs and herbs in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt & pepper (and smoked paprika if you wish). Mix well.
*Test a small bit of the mixture by cooking it in a pan until done. Adjust seasoning as needed.
*Form into desired loaf. I formed mine in a bread pan, and then turned it out on to a sheet tray.
*Cook for 1 hour. Combine ketchup and sugar, and glaze all over the top of the loaf. Return to the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes, with the internal temperature reading at 165 F.

Dragon's Tongue Beans

2008-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

These came in our CSA box last week. I've had them before, and I've even cooked them before. But, for some reason, I look at them in my fridge, and I think, "oh, I don't have time for those..." But, why? I honestly don't know why. Maybe because I'm just not sure how I want to prepare them. Really, there's no reason. So, I made them recently. They were delicious!

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the beans in and cook until just about tender. Drain and plunge into a bowl of ice water. Cut cooked beans into bite sized pieces. In a sautee pan, heat a small amount of olive oil with one tablespoon of butter on medium high heat. Add chopped garlic and beans to the pan. Season with salt & pepper, and cook for about 3 - 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Carmelized Onion Tart

2008-08-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me today that I have not been taking photos of our family meals. It's a shame, because seeing photos of food is very helpful. It's tough to remember something like snapping a shot of dinner as I'm scrambling to get everything together, while my tot is running around my legs, or asking me to pick him up, or saying, "try, try, try...", or getting himself into trouble. Lucky for me, something like a tart can still be picture ready after it's been dug into, even if it's not the whole tart. So, here you go:

Timing dinner can also be a bit of tricky thing. I didn't know if I would actually pull off this onion tart tonight. Everything was being made from scratch, starting at about 4pm, to be served at 6pm. Two hours should be enough time. But, I hadn't read the recipe ahead of time. What if I needed to let the dough rest, or chill? Dinner was actually done just after 6pm! Yippie!

Okay, here's the recipe:

Pate Brisee (tart dough), adapted from http://bakingbites.com/2007/10/pate-brisee-tart-dough/

1-1/3 cup (5.5 oz) all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup (4 oz) cold butter, cut into chunks

approx. 1/4 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse to combine flour, salt and sugar. Add in chunks of butter and pulse carefully until the mixture resembles very coarse sand.Pour in ice water in a slow stream and continue to pulse (slightly longer pulses here) until the dough comes together into a large, rough ball. It should not be too wet or sticky, but if it is too crumbly to hold together, add an additional tbsp or two of ice water.Divide dough into two discs and wrap each tightly in plastic. Chill at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, or store (even more tightly wrapped) in the freezer for 1-2 months. Refrigerated dough should be fine to work with for about a week.Makes 2 single crust (9 to 11-in.) tart shells (or 1 double-crust pie)
Basic Single Tart Crust
Preheat oven to 350F.Roll out half of the dough (one disc, from recipe above) into a circle large enough to fit a 9-10-inch tart pan.Press dough into pan without stretching it and pinch any excess off along the top edge. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork several times, line with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights.Bake for 25 minutes, remove foil and pie weights.

Tart filling:

1 tbl olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced

2 tsp all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, add the garlic, and cook, stirring 2-3 minutes. Add the butter & swirl it around the pan until it melts, then add the onions. Reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, golden brown, & caramelized, about 25 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring, 3 minutes more. Set aside to cool at least 2o minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt & pepper. Spread the cooled onions on the bottom of the tart crust. Pour the egg mixture into the crust, filling it to the top. Sprinkle the goat cheese all over the top of the tart. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the custard is set and the top is golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.

*This recipe can be made for up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated. Reheat in the oven before serving.

*May use Gruyere cheese instead of goat cheese. May also add oil-cured black olives, pitted & chopped, and 1 tsp each of chopped parsley & chopped basil (to be added into egg mixture).

*I baked for 25 minutes. It was done, but it probably wouldn't have hurt to go an extra 5 minutes.

Vegetable Barley Soup

2008-08-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of veggies in the fridge? Try making a vegetable soup! That's what I did tonight. You can pretty much put vegetables you have around in a soup like this, but I like to make sure I have a few basics, otherwise I would just not make it. Mirepoix. I love mirepoix. Three ingredients go into mirepoix: onions, carrots and celery. I like to have these three ingredients on hand in my home at all times. When there are no other vegetables in the house, at least I can find those.

My soup tonight had onions, carrots, celery, fennel bulb, zucchini, brocoli stems, garlic, and russet potatoes. I sauted all but the potatoes together with olive oil, added a little white wine, and put everything into a crock pot. I added the potatoes, about 1/2 cup of pearl barley (rinsed), covered everything with water, seasoned with salt & pepper, turned the crock pot to high, covered, and walked away. A few hours later, I finished it with sherry vinegar, a little extra virgin olive oil, adjusted the seasoning, and VOILA! Dinner is served. My cheatin' heart made asiago cheese bread with (YIKES!) garlic powder!!!! At least I used nice sea salt.

My Cheatin' Heart

2008-08-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Not all the meals I prepare for my family are made from scratch. Heck! Some of the stuff I serve up to the fam aren't even made by me. Let's see, there's the puttenesca from La Pasta, the tamales from Patty Pan, and there was even the oxtail soup made by my friend, just to name a few. I do try my best to cook from scratch, and when I do, I try even harder to buy locally & organically. But, the point of all this isn't to showcase my cooking skills or creativity. It's to have some record for myself of stuff I've made, what I did, if the family enjoyed or hated it, and what I could do to improve, if needed.

Why do I bring all this up? Because I feel guilt for some of the cheating I've been doing with cooking. Not a ton, but there is one that has been a success, and it's SO cheating! I need to come clean.

Gnocchi al Gorgonzola from Trader Joe's. Vincent hasn't liked gnocchi very much. Trader Joe's was sampling it one afternoon. I was hungry, so I took one. Vincent wants to eat whatever I'm eating, so I let him try it. His response: "Mmmmm!" I snuck another sample and gave him a little more. LOVED it. I decided to buy a bag. Here's the guilty part. It's so darn simple to make, one of my cats could make it. It's not cooking. It's heating up. I thought I'd at least need to boil a pot of water, then heat the sauce up separately. Nope. Just open the bag and empty the contents into a pan. Seven minutes later, delicious gnocchi that my 19 month old (and his daddy) will eat.

Today, I had half a bag leftover in the freezer. David wanted to have lunch at home (we usually eat lunch out on the weekends). I decided to get creative. Sauted some sliced mushrooms (sadly, just crimini), chopped shallots, & chopped garlic with a little olive oil, dump in the remainder contents of the bag o' gnocchi...7 minutes later, a little chopped parsley for garnish & lunch was served. And, my cheatin' heart will likely buy this product again, cuz it's a hit!

Fennel Fronds

2008-08-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. God. I got a whole fennel in my CSA box last week, fronds and all! Should I use the whole thing? What do I do with the fronds? Will my family eat it?

For the record, I love fennel. I quite enjoy its anise flavor, even though I've only recently become a fan of black licorice. And, even though I started this post with such drama, that's not exactly how I felt when I got my whole fennel. I know what to do with the bulb, no problem. I even had an idea what to do with the fronds. The questions was if my family would care for it.

For the bulb, I sliced it very thinly & tossed it into a salad. My husband didn't even seem to notice them. Then, the fronds...My dad was the one to introduce me to fennel. He would see it growing wild on the side of the road in Southern California, and threaten to pull over and harvest some. One day, he did. Boy, was he a happy man. He joyfully brought those precious (to him) fronds home and would wax poetic about how he's going to cook this up for us and it's going to be the best thing we've ever tasted.

Indeed, it was delicious, but I was a kid. Even for a kid whole loved vegetables, I wasn't blown away by this thing. I just thought, "Okay, I tried it, it's good. May I have some french fries now?"

Much later in life, in culinary school maybe, I was reintroduced to fennel. But, I never made the connection of fennel being the green, feathery looking (vegetable?) thing my dad loves because it was just the bulb. Eventually, I figured it out, and since then, I've been wanting to cook the fronds the way Dad does.

Friday afternoon, I called home to ask my dad about it. My mom answered the phone and seemed pleasantly surprised to hear me say, "I was wondering if you or Dad could tell me how you cook your fennel."

Here's what you do:

1. Wash, then pick the fronds off the main stem.

2. Heat a little oil in a pot, add sliced ginger & saute for about 1 minute.

3. Add water (what you think would be enough to just cover the fronds) & bring to a boil.

4. Add the fronds and allow, slightly reduce heat, and allow to simmer until tender.

5. Check for tenderness, ajust seasoning, and finish with a splash of cooking wine.

The result? Not quite like Dad's, but my 19 month old son quite enjoyed it, and the broth was so tasty. My husband couldn't quite get the hang of it, but he did enjoy the broth as well.

Catching up!

2008-08-07T13:55:00.001-07:00

Last week, I believe I hit a personal record...I cooked 6 days in a row! Be it big or small, I still cooked at least one item for dinner. I think Thursday night was the lettuce wraps, and now I can't remember what I made on Friday or Saturday!

Oh yes! Friday night we had oxtail soup made by my friend, Jen. So, no, I didn't make that, but I did pair it up with some brown rice and roasted new red potatoes. Yeah, yeah, not much, but like I said, I cooked something.

Saturday night I was really proud of all that made it to the table. Our main course was beef kabobs from Thundering Hooves. We had various leftovers to go with the kabobs and a few new items. We combines the roasted potatoes & carrots & wrapped them together in foil & threw them on the grill with the kabobs. We also finished off the mac n cheese. We had a salad with lettuces from Oxbow Farm and some homemade creamy sherry vinaigrette. Lastly, we had sweet potato fries (from Trader Joe's).

I took Sunday and Monday nights off from cooking. Tuesday night we had store bought gnocchi & a salad and garlic bread I picked up at Olympia Pizza. Last night was my first major meal since Saturday: Grilled Thundering Hooves pork chops, roasted Oxbow Farm baby carrots, grilled peaches, and a fantastic salad. Here's what went into the salad:
-red leaf & romaine lettuce
-shallots
-green onions from Oxbow Farm
-shaved fennel from Oxbow Farm
-goat cheese
-small beef steak tomatoes from Pilchuck Farm
-chunks of grilled crusty bread from Columbia City Bakery
-sea salt & fresh cracked pepper
-dressed with some store bought balsamic vinaigrette

Spicy Ground Chicken in Lettuce Bundles

2008-07-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Adapted from The Farm to Table Cookbook - The Art of Eating Locally, by Ivy Manning

1 lb ground chicken
1 T olive oil
2 t finely chopped garlic
2 green onions, finely chopped
1.5 t fresh ginger, minced
1.5 t sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
1.5 t Sriracha, or other hot chili paste or sauce
3 T cilantro leaves, picked and chopped
2 T fresh mint, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 head butter lettuce, washed and leaves separated

**Okay, so I didn't use mint because I didn't have any. But, I think it would've been nice, so I'm making sure to include it with this recipe. Also the recipe called for pork loin or lean boneless chops that you hand chop yourself. I had ground chicken on hand, so I used that instead.

Heat the oil in a pan over high heat. Add garlic, green onions and ginger, and stir-fry for one minute. Add the ground meat & continue to stir-fry until it is cooked through.

Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Continue to cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl. Gently stir in cilantro, mint and lime juice.

Serve with lettuce leaves.

**I included brown rice that we wrapped along with the meat. The dish is very flavorful itself, but I kept feeling like I needed to dip it in something a little sweet and tangy. We also had corn on the cob (because I needed to cook it up) served on the side. Dinner went over very well with the fam. I was afraid David was going to eat everything up and not leave much for me. Vincent ate his first (small) helping, and asked for more! This one will be added to my repertoire.

Macaroni & Cheese

2008-07-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

I have been all about recipes this week. It's a change from my usual ways of cooking at home. I'm liking this recipe following thing. It makes planning out my dinner a little more organized. That, or just having planned out specific meals for the week has been helpful. I've been on a cooking frenzy, since we've been eating out A LOT lately.

Here's my version of mac 'n' cheese I made last night, taken from Back To The Table, by Art Smith, Oprah's guy:

1 lb penne or elbow macaroni (Ha! I used campanelle pasta)
4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 C all-purpose flour
4 C milk, heated (I forgot to warm the milk ahead of time)
2 C (8 oz) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese (I used Tillamook, white)
2 C (8 oz) finely chopped American cheese (I used shredded Monterey Jack)
Salt & freshly ground pepper
Hot pepper sauce (I omitted)
1/4 C (1 oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Ha! Why measure?! Parmesan cheese is so good!!)

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain well. Toss with olive oil and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a deep 4-quart casserole.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat to low & simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat & stir in 1 cup of cheddar and 1 cup of monterey jack cheese. Season to taste.

Combine the remaining cheeses. Spread one third of the noodles over the bottom of the dish. Top with half of the cheese & a third of the sauce. Repeat, using another third of noodles with remaining cheese & half of sauce. Finish with remaining noodles and sauce. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.

Bake until bubbly & golden brown around edges, about 30 minutes. **You can pre-assemble the dish and refrigerate until you are ready to bake. If you do that, I suggest you bake it covered with foil for the first 20 or so minutes, and then remove the foil and continue to bake until done.

Saag Paneer

2008-07-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my friend, Jen, invited us over to make saag paneer. Included in this lesson was paneer making. Sadly, my son did not wake up from his nap (um, nor did I get my slow booty out the door) in time to catch the cheese making lesson, but I did get to see the final results, and most importantly, taste it. Later that night, Jen emailed me the recipe, along with a whole cookbook she put together. Awesome!

Tonight, I made saag paneer...with store bought paneer. Here's the recipe:
1.5 lb fresh spinach
1 lb paneer
3 T olive oil
6 T butter
1 ea onion, chopped
4cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled & grated
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t garam masala
1 t salt
pinch tumeric
1 C whole milk yogurt

Method:
**Okay, I did a little something different, so I'll only post what I actually did.

-Melt butter & 1 tsp of olive oil over medium heat and cook the onion until just beginning to brown. Add garlic & cook for 2 minutes. Add the ginger & spices, and stir well. Heat for a few minutes. **Add kale and beet greens, season with salt, and allow to wilt and cook until tender. I gently turned the greens around in the pan to help them wilt.
-Transfer contents of skillet into food processor or blender. Add the yogurt & process until smooth. (can be made a day ahead at this point)
-Heat oil in a large, non-stick skillet. Fry the paneer in batches, turning over once or twice, until they are golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.
-Transfer the greens mixture back to the skillet. Add paneer & simmer, covered for 10 minutes or until hot. Serve hot with rice. **I served with naan.

This was so delicious. The only thing that went wrong was that I think I reheated it too hot, too quickly, as the dish lost it's creaminess, and the yogurt seemed to curdle and separate a little. It didn't look bad, and it tasted just fine. I'm my own worst critic when it comes to my cooking, so I was pretty bummed that it turned out this way. Oh well. I will be making this dish again, so maybe next time I can keep it nice and creamy looking. Hit with the husband, so so with the tot.

Roasted Beet Salad

2008-07-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

To make the beets, roast a single layer of beets in a pan with olive oil, salt & pepper, and cover with foil, at 350 degrees F, for 40 minutes, or until tender and skin rubs off easily. When the beets are cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with a towel. Allow to cool. When cooled, cut into desired shape; I cut into wedges.

The beets were dressed with a creamy sherry vinaigrette, with toasted pecans, and goat cheese. I didn't have shallots or chives, but I would definitely add those!

Ideally, the pecans should be toasted in a single layer in an oven for even toasting. I toasted them on the stove, and ended up with uneven toasting. At least I saved them before they were burned.

Creamy Sherry Vinaigrette:
dijon mustard
sherry vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Smoked Salmon Chowder

2008-07-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

I made this last week & forgot to post, so hopefully I can remember what I did.

1T butter
1T flour
**I sort of made a roux, but I'm not sure I really needed this part. I figured since I was using butter, I might as well add a little flour. There was so little added, I'm not sure it made a difference.
1 each chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 small head brocoli chopped, stems included
2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 can whole kernel corn
6 oz smoked salmon
2 cups cream
water as needed
salt & pepper
nice vinegar of choice; I used banyuls; approximately 1/4 cup

*sweat onions, carrots, & celery in butter until onions are translucent (I like to season with some salt and pepper at this time)
*add flour, and cook for approx. 1 minute
*brocoli and potatoes, and just enough water to cover
*bring to a boil
*add corn, salmon, cream, and allow to cook until potatoes are tender and soup is thick and creamy. Adjust seasoning, and finish with vinegar to round out the flavor but not make it tart. You shouldn't even really notice the flavor of the vinegar.

Orzo!

2008-07-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh...lovely orzo. I often forget how much I enjoy eating orzo. Shaped like a large grain of rice, it is such a fun pasta. I must cook it more often. But, I also remembered today why I don't.

I suppose I don't have to do what I do when I make an orzo dish, but if I did any different, I wouldn't feel quite right. What do I do? Orzo, is small. Therefore, I cut my vegetables small. And, by small, I mean tiny. It isn't difficult to do, just time consuming. Especially with a 19 month old who wants to pull up a stool and stand right next to you while you are chopping away with a 10 inch (sharp) chef's knife.

Here's the salad we had for dinner:
*dice the following items to approximately 1/4 inch - carrots, celery, mushrooms, zucchini
*finely dice shallots
*chop garlic; however you feel like it, but pretty small
*chop basil
*cook orzo pasta until done, & toss in plenty of olive oil; set aside to cool (I spread it out on sheet trays in a thin layer for faster cooling, but I don't think it was necessary)
*cook mushrooms in olive oil, adding garlic & shallots at the end for one minute
*sweat carrots and celery in olive oil, add zucchini and cook until desired tenderness
*combine orzo, mushrooms, & vegetable mixture in a bowl and toss well to mix everything up evenly. Season with salt, pepper, a little vinegar (I used plain red wine vinegar cuz it's what I had, but would've preferred something like sherry vinegar), and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
*fold in chopped basil
*chill until ready to serve, or serve at room temperature

This was yummy. I think it needed more vinegar, but David thought it was just fine. It would've been fun to add some little nugs of goat cheese & maybe some cherry tomatoes, but I had neither available.

Refrigerator and Cherries

2008-07-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

My excuse for not posting recently is that our fridge has been on the fritz for a couple of weeks, making it difficult to go grocery shopping, thus having very little in the house to actually cook. But, of course, that's just an excuse, because I can honestly come up with plenty of stuff to make that would require no refrigeration. I could even make some sort of meat, if I really tried. But, I used the fridge as an excuse to cook less because of my second excuse not to cook: our kitchen has been too darn hot. It really has been. A couple months out of the year, we actually get hot enough here that it makes cooking in my kitchen unbearable. And, then there's my 3rd excuse: my 18 month old toddler. Some days, he makes it very difficult to get any cooking done. But, again, all excuses. Truth is, I haven't felt much like it lately. But, every few days, I guilt myself into doing it, and then I slack on posting about it.

Here's what I can remember that I've made recently:
-Thai red curry; forgo the light coconut milk & go for the good stuff! Red curry paste, a little goes a long way. If there's no kaffir lime leaves for lemongrass, rice wine vinegar does the trick.
-collard greens
And, several other things that I've posted about before, like pasta puttanesca...

Cherries: I discovered the "van" cherry today at the farmers' market. I didn't take note of the farm. These cherries are a little darker, a little stumpier, and maybe slightly smaller than the bing cherries. My best adjective for for this cherry is robust. I like 'em. Rainiers are still my faves.

Delicious Meal by My Friend

2008-07-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

I'd like to give credit to my dear friend, Lucy, who cooked us a delicious meal last night. I'm not going to talk about what all she did, but I will talk about what she made.

*champagne chicken
*baked mac n cheese
*sauteed brocoli
*cucumber salad
*brown rice
*mushroom sauce/gravy

I've got to get her mac n cheese and the champagne chicken recipes. Vincent LOVED the chicken. I'm not sure if it was hunger, a need for protein, or what, but he couldn't get enough of it. I'm gonna say it was because it was so tasty!

B.L.A.T.

2008-07-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato - YUM!

*bacon - Thundering Hooves; cooked in the oven on 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, and then I got impatient and turned up the heat to 400, because it was barely cooking. I think it stayed in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. I just kept checking on it until it looked about how I wanted it.

*lettuce - butter lettuce from Oxbow Farm (probably freshly picked today!)

*sliced avocado & tomato (beefsteak) - from Madison Market & probably from somewhere in California; at least they're organic

*toast - sliced, buttered, toasted Como from Grand Central Bakery

*side of Annie's Organic Mac n Cheese

B.L.A.T.s were AWESOME! I think the bread was a little crusty on the edges. It would've been great with Macrina Bakery's potato bread, but I wasn't near any place that carries it when I went shopping.