Season of Stew

I've been on a crazy stew kick. I make about one a week. Each one different than the other. It started about a month ago, when our summer CSA had come to an end, and my winter boxes were about to start coming. I still had parsnips, squash, carrots, treviso, list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I love this. If you have three busy, small children (boys, to be exact), it can be hard to carve out the time to cut up all your wonderful veggies. This is especially tricky if one of them needs to be held more on an particular day, or, if they are sick. Heck, it's tricky even with one healthy child in the household!

My vegetables had been piling up. I did my best to go through the fridge and compost what was no longer usable, and tried to come up with a delicious meal with what needed to be used up quickly. I also found some frozen chicken sausages in my freezer. And, I just so happened to come across a recipe for sausage and potato stew on the Internet. Improvise here, improvise there, ta-da! dinner was served.

At first, my children were apprehensive. This was the only dish made that evening and they were hungry. Everything was all mixed in, which can be hit or miss for my little guys. Hunger won, and they ate what they could that night. With each subsequent stew since, they have gotten better. One night, I even got a, "Mmmmm," from Vincent. Boo-ya!

I've been so bad about taking pictures, but here are a couple from the first stew.

 The little balls in there are Israeli cous cous.

Lamb Sliders

I was able to find ground burgers from AmazonFresh, and slider buns. I decided to try it out.

The buns were tiny, but turned out to be an excitement to the kids. The burger meat were two large, half pound patties - huge. I cut each into quarters, to go with the eight buns. David came home and grilled them up, along with sliced patty pan squash and fennel bulbs. We put Swiss cheese on the sliders (mine had goat). The kids seemed into it. Tyler was actually only so so, but Vincent had two, one without cheese and bun.

All-in-all, a successful meal. The kids did not complain about the squash. We also had steamed Romano beans. I should have taken pictures.

Garlic and Rosemary Pork Roast

I made this recipe tonight: 
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/garlic-and-rosemary-roast-pork-loin 

This is what mine looked like (with roasted fingerling potatoes and carrots, and dill mayo for dipping). Vincent said the meat was his favorite part of tonight's meal, which is HUGE.

 

Mojo Chicken, Cilantro Rice, Savory Black Beans

I have been dreaming of mojo chicken since culinary school. One of my chef instructors made it for us, and it was so damn good. But, I can't seem to recreate it the way she made it, nor can I find a recipe/method like hers. It wasn't part of the curriculum, either, so it's not in my (gigantic) recipe binder from that class. 

But, I keep trying. This one I made was not even close, but it was tasty enough. The night I made it, I did not serve it with the rice and beans, but rather just tortillas. I made the rice and beans about a week later to go with bread fish tacos. I found the whole meal from macheesmo.com. But, I tweeked it work for my family.

For the chicken:

-marinade = 1 cup orange juice, juice of 1 lime, garlic, cilantro, ground cumin, salt and pepper.

-I used chicken legs and thighs, which I removed the bones, skin on

-marinate the chicken for at least  1 hour

-drain the marinade, and sear the chicken, skin side down, in a hot skillet with oil. 

-once the skin is browned, flip over the chicken pieces and pop the pan into a hot (450F) oven, or continue to cook on the stove, turning the burner down to medium, until cooked through.

Cilantro Rice: 

-Long grain rice, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper.

-Basically, you cook the rice, then add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine.

Savory Black Beans: 

-1 can black beans, extra virgin olive oil, diced red onions (or shallots), chopped garlic, smoked paprika, salt and pepper

-in a skillet, heat the olive oil

-add onions and garlic and cook for 1 minute

-add drained, rinse black beans

-season with paprika, salt and pepper

-cook until heated through, about 3-5 minutes

 

Recent Meals

I found some food photos recently, and realized that I have not blogged about any of them!! Shame on me. So, here's a quick photo journey of some of the foods I've made in our home for dinner...

(Giant) Rosti- shredded Yukon gold potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, and pan fried in duck fat.

Sauteed kale with turkey kielbasa, garlic, and a touch of sherry vinegar.

 

 Sauteed clams with Chinese sausage and black bean sauce.

 Cabbage salad.

 Chicken Parmesan. My first time making this. It was yummy.

Okay, this one, I didn't make, nor was it in my home. But, it was one of the 5 delicious courses I recently had at Rover's restaurant. This is their seared foie gras with savory profiterole, and brandy gastrique. It was not part of the 4 course tasting menu I ordered, but I just had to add this on. It was pretty incredible. This was one of my best meals in Seattle. Sadly, Rover's will be closing its doors this spring.

Pesto tortellini, turkey kielbasa, and broccoli, tossed in a tomato cream sauce.

This is my brunoise mire poix for bolognese sauce (and a 6-inch chef's knife). Why is this significant? Because, I contemplated chopping my veggies in a food processor, before settling on hand cutting. I had this whole dialog with myself (in my head) about the importance of using my knife skills, and hand chopping vs a food processor, etc. Even though it was all going into a ragu, and will hardly be noticed. Knife skills are one of my few talents I feel really proud and strongly about. These are not perfectly diced vegetables. Not even close. But, I know I can do this, and I know I can do it fairly quickly. And, when I'm done, I only need to clean my knife and cutting board, which neither requires unplugging and disassembling. Just sayin'.

 Whole wheat spaghetti bolognese (with those brunoise veggies).