tiny biscuits

Eat to Live!

2012-01-16T14:40:00.002-06:00

After a long hiatus, I am back posting. But this comeback post won't be exciting. Consider yourself warned.

There are two reasons this post is boring. First, it has no pictures. I haven't made Drew photograph our dinners lately, so I have no pictures to post. Sorry. Second, it's about Eat to Live.

What is Eat to Live, you ask? It's a book/lifestyle plan by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. We're following it, which means that we are not eating: (1) oil; (2) dairy; (3) (most) meat; (4) sugar; (5) salt; or (6) refined carbohydrates. But because we are rockstar cooks, we are nonetheless making some delicious meals.

I cheat a little. I have a plethora of homemade chicken stock frozen, so I use it, even though I'm not supposed to eat animal protein. And I use a dash of fish sauce pretty often, which is high in salt. And we have seafood once or twice a week. But on the whole, we're following this pretty strictly.

The first week was hell because we followed the "recipes" in the back of the book. It's an understatement to say they were yucky. Dr. Fuhrman does provide some good recipes, but they're few and far between. And there's not much on the internet...or if there is, I can't find it.

So, I'm going to be posting our favorite Eat to Live-ish recipes over the next...well, lifetime if this sticks. Dr. Fuhrman recognizes that it's hard to eat this way, so we're allowed to eat the restricted foods 10% of the time. So, the death food recipes won't disappear all together, but the healthy recipes will definitely increase. With pictures in the future, I promise.

Accordingly, I offer a recipe for Apple-Butternut Squash Soup:

1 butternut squash, peeled and sliced
2 Granny Smith apples, diced but not peeled
1 red onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. ginger, minced
2 small dried hot red peppers, crushed
5 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock (or homemade chicken stock if you're bad like I am)
2 tbsp. garam masala
1 small squeeze of fish sauce (optional)

Sprinkle squash with about half of the garam masala and roast on a baking pan lined in foil at 425 for 45 minutes or until mushy. In the meantime, saute apples, onion, cloves, peppers, and ginger.

Now, "saute" does not mean "saute in oil," though if you weren't following this diet, you could do that. No, "saute" means "water saute," a term Dr. Furhman coined. Basically you add about 3 tbsp. of water to a very hot pan, add your vegetables, and continue adding small amounts of water as it dries up, until the vegetables are cooked through. They will brown slightly using this method. They will also make a hot mess of your pans.

Ok, so once veggies are sauteed and squash roasted, combine and add stock and remaining garam masala and simmer 30 min or so. Puree in batches in a blender. You can add some arrowroot powder (a tablespoon or so) if you want a thicker consistency, but it works a bit like cornstarch, so it gives soups a kind of shiny texture that I associate with Chinese food and also find weird.

That's it! This soup is good and satisfying on a cold winter night. It takes a while but it's not hard, and it's worth the effort.

starch substitute

2011-08-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

When Kaytie and I first moved in together, we made a lifestyle change. We went low-carb.

(This lasted for a while, we lost weight, and then we went back to eating like normal people. We occasionally go back to the low-carb lifestyle when necessary.)

This was the beginning of our cooking escapades, and one of our favorite sides that we discovered was mashed cauliflower. This turned out to be a great substitute for grits and felt starchy, even though it was a vegetable. We could eat the mashed cauliflower for dinner one night, and then the next morning, the leftovers were great with fried eggs.

I'm pretty sure the recipe for these came from the South Beach cookbook, but I've made them so many times that I don't remember the original.

Mashed Cauliflower 'Grits'

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

4 oz fat-free cream cheese

1/2 c 'Italian-mix' grated cheese (or good Parmesan, if you'd rather)

1/4 c butter

garlic salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 while you are cutting up the cauliflower.

Spread the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil on the cauliflower and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes.

Combine everything in the food processor and puree until the cauliflower is the texture of grits.

Easy as pie.

pb & cake

2011-08-25T12:21:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I attended a lunch presentation about the state of obesity in Mississippi. (Basically, it's a problem.)

The yogurt parfait served as dessert, while good, did not satisfy my sweet tooth, even after I ate an extra one. So, last night, I made a cake.

It wasn't really my idea. After dinner, Kaytie said she wanted some cake. I always want cake, but I was feeling a bit lazy, so I wasn't really sold on making a cake until Kaytie started talking about peanut butter icing. That got me motivated, and since we are not obese, I looked up a Cook's Illustrated chocolate cake recipe. They suggested serving the cake with a dusting of powdered sugar, which I'm sure is nice.

But powdered sugar ain't got nothin' on this peanut butter icing.

(Because this is thick, it may be more accurately labeled as frosting, not icing, but when I was growing up, if it was spread on a cake, it was icing, no matter the consistency. Besides, who cares about semantics? It's delicious.)

Peanut Butter Icing

makes enough to ice a 2-layer 9-inch cake

1 stick room temperature butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

Cream the butter and peanut butter until smooth. (Note: if you decided to make this cake at the last minute, like I did, cold butter out of the fridge will do fine. It'll just take a little longer to get the mixture smooth.)

Beat in the powdered sugar. This may be easier and less dusty if you do it a cup at a time.

Finally, add the milk. Mix it all together until it is smoothly combined.

Ice your cake.

(Because of the milk, I'm keeping this cake in the fridge.)

fresh mex

2011-08-08T22:04:00.002-05:00

Last night, I grilled a flank steak and served it with asparagus, corn salad, and sauteed mushrooms. Tonight, we decided to use the leftover steak for tacos.

To go alongside, I made pinto beans. They were beautiful. I started with dried beans, soaked them, and started them simmering in plenty of time for a dinner at seven thirty. They had five different kinds of peppers in them, including jalapenos from my garden and banana pepper from Daniel's. Fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market. Kaytie walked in after work and immediately asked about the wonderful smell that filled the house.

"Beans," I said as I dumped half a beer into the pot. We went out to the back deck to have a beer and to admire the lights I'd spent the day hanging. One beer turned into two, and when we finally went back in, the beans were burned.

So, instead of beans, I'm offering a recipe for guacamole. Growing up in Texas, I heard lots of recipes for guacamole. Some use sour cream, some marshmallow fluff, some start with store-bought guacamole. This recipe is simple, fresh, and delicious. And not burned.

Guacamole

2 avocados
1 tomato, peeled & diced
1/4 c diced red onion
1 jalapeno
2 cloves garlic, roasted & minced
juice of 1 lime
salt & pepper to taste
(cilantro to taste, optional)
(1/4 red bell pepper, diced & optional)
(1 tomatillo, diced & optional)

Start with roasting your garlic cloves. I toss mine in some olive oil and roast it in the toaster oven for about ten minutes at 450.

While the garlic is roasting, get the meat out of the avocados. Run your knife around the equator of the avocado, penetrating to the pit. Unlock the magic by pulling and twisting the two halves apart. Set the pit aside. (I have not experimented to prove this, but I was raised to believe that if you put the pit back into the guacamole when you put it in the fridge, your guac won't turn brown.) Use a spoon to scrape out the flesh of the avocado into a medium bowl.

Squeeze the lime juice over the avocado and use two knives to cut the avocado into small pieces. Mush it around a little.

Slice the top off your jalapeno and throw it away. Slice it in half lengthwise. Scrape out the white ribs and seeds and get rid of them. Dice the rest of the jalapeno very small and add it to the avocado.

Add all of the other ingredients. (I recommend all of the optional ingredients.) Mix well. Eat with chips.

baked pasta 2

2011-08-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

I have a tendency to get interested in one thing and go a little overboard. (You may have noticed a string of cookie posts about a year ago.) Well, I did it again. I only made two baked pastas, but it was within one week, which was too much baked pasta for Kaytie.

This was a good recipe, too, but it might be good to space your baked pastas out!

Baked Veggie Pasta

1 stick butter
1/2 c + 2 Tbs flour
4 c whole milk
6 slices bacon
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 c fresh basil, sliced
1/2 c roasted pine nuts (or walnuts)
1 onion, diced
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
10 oz spinach
4 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 lb pasta (choose your favorite shape)
2 Tbs butter
1-2 c grated Parmesan

First, make the bechamel. Melt the stick of butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Mix in the flour. Add the milk. Increase the heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast the garlic. I do this in the toaster oven - about 15 minutes at 400. Chop it up.

Chop up the bacon and saute it until just browned. Add the mushrooms and saute until browned. Set mushrooms and bacon aside.

Saute the onion until translucent. Add spinach and saute until wilted.

Stir the basil, nuts, bacon, and all veggies together in a medium bowl.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, but stop cooking a minute or two early. (I used radiatore because it looked awesome.) You want the pasta to be be just tender, but still firm. Drain, return to the pot, and toss to coat with 2 Tbs butter. Mix in the veggies.

Preheat oven to 400.

Dump the pasta mixture in a greased casserole dish. Spread the bechamel over it, and top with grated Parmesan.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

baked pasta 1

2011-08-03T08:31:00.000-05:00

In March, Bon Appetit had an issue with several recipes for baked pastas. Seemed like a great idea - make one dish and eat it for a few days. When Kaytie and I are busy, leftovers are a quick and easy dinner. (This, by the way, is being posted months after I actually made it. I was too busy to post.) I, however, am not very good at sticking to a recipe. (Unless it is a baked good.)

According to the writers, all you need for a baked pasta is pasta (of course), some interesting fillings, and a bechamel. I decided that bacon is also an essential ingredient. In the recipe I chose, the bechamel was replaced with a parsnip puree. I figured this was healthier, and, with a few modifications, it ended up tasting great.

Baked Tortellini

4 medium parsnips, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch slices

2 1/2 c whole milk, divided

1 c grated Parmesan cheese, divided

6-8 slices bacon

5 oz spinach, sauteed

1 large onion, diced

1 can tomatoes, drained

1 1/2 lbs mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

1 20-oz pkg cheese-filled fresh tortellini

2 Tbs butter

1 c Naked Goat cheese, grated

Boil parsnips in salted water for about 20 minutes, until they are tender. Drain.

Put the parsnips in a food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups milk, and blend until smooth. Keep the food processor running, and slowly add the remaining 1 cup milk. Blend in 3/4 cup of Parmesan.

In a medium saucepan, simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes, whisking often. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Chop the bacon into small pieces and saute it until crispy. Remove the bacon. Add the onion and saute until translucent - about 5 minutes. Remove the onion and saute the mushrooms until they are browned. Add the onions, garlic, and rosemary. Saute until fragrant.

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a baking dish.

Cook the pasta. Follow the package directions, but stop cooking when the pasta is just tender but still firm. Drain pasta and return to the pot. Toss the pasta with 2 Tbs butter. Mix in the sauteed veggies and bacon.

Spread the pasta mixture in the baking dish. Cover it with the parsnip sauce and top the entire dish with the Naked Goat cheese and the remaining Parmesan.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes until the sauce is heated through and bubbling. If you want, broil 1-2 minutes to brown the top.

Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.

who needs phyllo?

2011-07-29T20:20:00.002-05:00

There are many reasons to like staying in a hotel. Room service, comfortable beds, fancy pillows. (Kaytie once found pillow that she liked so much, we paid the front desk 50 bucks for it. They thought we were nuts.) One of our favorite things to do when we stay in a hotel is to watch TV.

I know that sounds lame. What you should know is that Kaytie and I only pay 12 bucks a month for cable at home. This means that we only get about 18 channels, two of which are shopping networks, and two of which are CSPAN. So, when given the opportunity to surf through dozens of channels, we have a tendency to veg out. And I'm sure you can guess what we usually end up watching. Food Network, of course.

During one recent stay, we saw someone use tortillas & muffin tins to make crunchy cups for a migas-style brunch dish (which was delicious, by the way, but you'll have to find that recipe on their site). We're always looking for new ways to serve hand-held food (because of the Christmas party), so I was excited to try some smaller tortilla cups.

Spinach Cups

makes 24

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 c mayo

1 egg

5 oz fresh spinach

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, diced

6 slices bacon

1/4 c finely grated parmesan

juice of 1/4 lemon

salt & pepper to taste

6 flour tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy. Set the bacon aside, and drain most of the grease from the frying pan. Turn off the stove.

Cut the tortillas into quarters. Briefly warm a quarter-tortilla in the frying pan, about 2-3 seconds per side. Press the tortilla into an oiled mini-muffin tin. This is dangerous, and you may burn yourself. (No pain, no gain. Stop whining.) Repeat the warming & pressing maneuvers 23 more times.

Bake the cups for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, turn the stove back on to medium heat, and saute the onion until translucent.

Add the garlic & saute for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Remove the onions & garlic, and saute the spinach until wilted.

Crumble the bacon.

In a medium bowl, combine most of the crumbled bacon (reserve about 1/4 cup), cream cheese, mayo, and egg. Stir together, and then add the onion, garlic, spinach, and parmesan. Squeeze in the lemon juice and mix everything well. Season with salt & pepper. Stir some more.

Spoon equal amounts of the mixture into each tortilla cup.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Cover loosely with foil to prevent over-browning of the tortillas, and then bake about 5 more minutes.

Top with crumbled bacon.

These are best warm, but they're pretty good at room temperature, too. You'll see some variation of the tortilla cup at the 2011 Christmas party, I'm sure.

complex napoleons

2011-06-21T19:33:00.003-05:00

I learned a lot in my first year of med school. For example, there is not quite enough time in the day to keep a food blog updated AND keep up with classwork.

But, now it's summer, and I have loads of free time. Kaytie's workload has recently lightened a bit, so we decided to have a small dinner party last weekend. Five courses with an Italian bent.

We started with prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe. We followed with a caprese-inspired napoleon, but instead of just tomato, basil, & fresh mozzarella, we added some watermelon and mint. The seafood ceviche was served in ice bowls. The main course was roasted pork tenderloin in a picatta sauce with asparagus and easy Italian bread on the side. And for dessert, we made peach ice cream, topped it with caramel sauce, and served it with florentine cookies.

Everything was good (except for the squid in the ceviche - it got way too rubbery), but the napoleons were the prettiest.

Tomato & Watermelon Napoleons

good tomatoes from the farmer's market

watermelon

fresh mozzarella

fresh basil

fresh mint

red onion, diced

balsamic vinaigrette

This is pretty easy, but it's delicious and looks very fancy.

Peel and slice the tomatoes. Season them with salt & pepper. (Note: if you want to add some more color to this, get some heirloom tomatoes.)

Cut the watermelon into slices that are approximately the same size as the tomato slices. If you're nice, and I am, remove the seeds. Not only will your guests appreciate your efforts, it will also reduce spitting at the dinner table.

Slice the fresh mozzarella.

For assembly, I started with a tomato slice. I put a couple basil leaves on it, and then added a slice of mozzarella. Next was a slice of watermelon topped with a couple mint leaves. Then, I just kept stacking.

Once the tower was an appropriate height, I sprinkled on some diced red onion and a little julienned basil.

These can be assembled before everyone arrives - just splash a little balsamic vinegar on top right before you serve them.

franks n beans

2011-02-27T21:08:00.003-06:00

This is a recipe that I tried to have ready for Kaytie when she got home from the Coast. (She's been working weekends away from home. It's very lonely here, and I have no excuse not to study. It sucks.) I did not have it ready when she got home. It was ready an hour and a half after she arrived. But it was good.

So, two weeks later, after Kaytie's next weekend on the Coast, I made it again, with a few alterations. This confused Kaytie - "I'm not sure why you'd want to make the same thing twice in a month." Well, I was perfecting it. (By the way, it was not ready on time, either.)

Making this may make you feel like a French chef. Because instead of calling it a casserole, we can call it a cassoulet, which is a nice way of saying white bean stew. Now, traditionally, a cassoulet would use confit. This doesn't, which makes it easier. Anyway, here's a recipe for some fancy pork and beans. It's based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Pork & White Bean 'Cassoulet'

1 lb dried white beans
2 ribs of celery, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 bay leaf
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2-3 inches of fresh rosemary
1 lb fresh bratwurst
6 oz salt pork
1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 medium carrots, diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs tomato paste
1/2 c dry white wine
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
4 c chicken broth
1 c cornbread crumbs
1/2 c chopped parsley
salt & pepper
a Dutch oven
some cheesecloth

Stir 2 1/2 Tbs salt into 10 cups warm water in a large pot. Dump the white beans in. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes. Cover, and let the beans soak for an hour. Drain & rinse the beans.

Move your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 300.

Make your bouquet garni: Wrap the celery, bay leaf, thyme, & rosemary in cheesecloth, and tie the bundle closed with string.

In a large saucepan, cover your sausages and salt pork with an inch of cold water. Bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and let the sausages cool for a minute or two. (Save the salt pork!) Slice the sausage into 1-inch pieces.

In a Dutch oven, over medium-high heat, brown the sausage on all sides in about a Tbs of olive oil. Set the sausage aside.

Brown the pork chunks on all sides. This should take about 5 minutes.

Add the onions & carrots. Stir constantly until the onion is translucent. This will take about 2-3 minutes.

Add the garlic & tomato paste. Stir for about a minute.

Add the sausage, and stir everything together. Add the wine to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape any crusty bits off the bottom of the pan. Cook for a minute to reduce the wine a little.

Stir in the tomatoes, bouquet garni, and salt pork. Add the white beans and chicken broth. If any of the beans are above the level of the liquid, add a little water.

Increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Cover, and put it in the oven for an hour and a half.

Remove the bouquet garni and salt pork. Season the stew with salt and pepper.

Increase the oven temperature to 350, and bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the cornbread crumbs and parlsey with a couple Tbs of olive oil. Season with a little salt & pepper.

Sprinkle about half a cup of the crumb mixture over the top of the cassoulet. Bake covered for 15 minutes.

Uncover, and bake for 15 more minutes.

Sprinkle the rest of the cumbs over the top, and bake for about 30 minutes, until the crumbs are a golden brown. (If you get impatient, or if your wife gets home earlier than you expected, you can turn on the broiler to brown the crumbs. Just keep an eye on it, so they don't burn.)

Let it rest for 15 minutes, and enjoy.

mmmmmm.....

2011-02-18T22:39:00.004-06:00

What's better than delicious chocolate cake?

A bigger chocolate cake! (Duh.)

So, here's the genesis of this post: Bon Appetit's Cocoa Layer Cake. A couple weeks ago, Kaytie said she wanted some cake, and since I suffer from a bona fide sugar addiction, I was happy to oblige her craving.

We'd just gotten our February Bon Appetit, and the cake on page 90 looked delicious. I followed the recipe, almost. And it was great. BUT, it was only about 3 inches tall. And because I'm a red-blooded American, I believe that bigger is better.

So, I doubled the recipe, moved some espresso powder around, and added some nuts. This is the best chocolate cake ever, and it looks like a cake that you could buy at a fancy bakery. Guaranteed to impress.

Chocolate Cake

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups warm water, divided
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
scant 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
2 eggs, room temp & beaten slightly
1 cup toasted pecan pieces/chips

Note: You need 3 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides.

Position your oven racks so one is in the top third of your oven and the other is in the bottom third. Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut parchment paper rounds that fit into your cake pans. Butter (or spray with Pam) the pans. Press the parchment paper rounds into the pans, and grease the paper. Dust the sides of the pan with flour. (Tilt the pan, dump a pinch or two of flour on the side, and rotate the pan so the flour lightly covers the inside of the walls of the pan.) This will give the batter something to grab, and your cakes will rise evenly, instead of rising more in the middle.

Whisk the cocoa and espresso powder into 1 cup of water in a small bowl.

Whisk buttermilk and 1 cup of water together in another small bowl.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and both sugars in a large bowl for about 5 minutes.

With the mixer running, add the eggs, and beat about 15-30 seconds, until smooth.

Add the cocoa mixture. Beat to blend.

Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture and beating to blend with each addition.

Divide the batter evenly between the 3 cake pans. (About 3 1/4 cups each)

Bake cakes about 20 minutes, reversing the pans about halfway through. The cakes will be done when a tester (or toothpick) inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes (in pans) completely on racks.

Icing

10 Tbs unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp instant espresso powder
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in the sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, and salt.

Gradually stir in the cream. Keep stirring until the mixture just begins to simmer at the edges.

Reduce heat to low, and stir for about a minute.

Dump the mixture in a medium bowl, and stir in the vanilla.

Stick the icing in the fridge, and let it cool for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. Then, let it stand at room temperature.

Now, it's time to assemble the cake. To get the cakes out of the pan, run a knife around the sides of the cake. Carefully, invert one cake onto a plate. (Please note, these cakes are fragile and very moist, almost sticky. Handle with care.) Peel off the paper, and spread about 1/2 cup of icing on top. Invert the second cake onto your palm, and carefully slide it onto the first layer. Peel off the parchment, and spread about 1/2 cup of icing on that layer. Repeat with the third layer. Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake.

And finally, it's time for fun. To get the nuts on the cake, I literally threw small handfuls of pecans at it. And they stick. (This is the dogs' favorite step, because some nuts inevitably end up on the floor, which means the dogs get to eat them.)

put this on your pork & smoke it

2011-01-09T13:21:00.006-06:00

Well, another Christmas party has come and gone. We don't have a lot of new recipes because (1) we wanted to make sure the food was great, so we went with some old favorties, and (2) we were too rushed to write down what we were doing. (My last exam was on the 21st, and the party was on the 23rd.)

But, rushed as were were to get everything out on time, it was a great party, and the food was excellent. Lots of recipes are already on the blog. We served peanut butter balls, white chocolate-cranberry cookies, boiled shrimp with my cocktail sauce, mushrooms stuffed with duck sausage, and cured salmon.

There were quesadillas filled with the stuffing from our sausage & smoked gouda poppers. The corn, crab, & brie dip was, as always, a hit. We filled phyllo cups with mashed sweet potatoes and topped them with candied bacon.

There were little bowls of roasted walnuts scattered throughout the house for easy snacking. Kaytie made a punch with citron vodka, creme de cassis, pomegranate juice, and prosecco. We always serve mulled wine, and of course, we served med-rare venison tenderloin slices on toast with gorgonzola-horseradish butter. (It's one of the party standards.)

My favorite thing this year was an open-faced Cuban-inspired sandwich. Smoked pork, garlic aioli, and homemade pickles on toast, topped with dill Havarti cheese.

That pork was damn fine, if I do say so myself. It tasted even better than it looked. Here's the rub I used:

Garlic Pork Rub

5 dried chipotle peppers
1 dried habanero (dump the seeds out)
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 Tbs cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 Tbs coriander seeds
1/4 tsp white peppercorns
1/4 tsp black peppercorns
1 1/2 Tbs paprika
2 Tbs onion powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
8-10 garlic cloves, diced ultra-fine

I have a reformed coffee grinder that we use to grind dried peppers, seeds, and peppercorns. If you're a traditionalist, I suppose you can use an old-fashioned mortar and pestle. Either way, once you get everything ground down to a powder, the instructions are pretty simple: mix everything together.

Rinse your pork shoulder, and pat it dry. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork. I usually put it on a rack over a baking sheet so I can pick up any rub that falls off and rub it back on the meat. (Tip - if you wear rubber gloves, less rub will stick to your fingers. Plus, once you take the gloves off, you can rub your eyes or pick your nose without fear of pepper residue under your fingernails.)

I smoked the pork, but you could definitely roast it in the oven. I'm not going to get into specifics of cooking it because I haven't made careful enough notes about time & heat, but you can get good information from a google search. I will tell you that I normally cook a pork shoulder to an internal temperature of 150-155 degrees, which is lower than many sites will recommend. Use your own discretion.

so much stuffing...

2010-12-01T08:44:00.000-06:00

In the week after Thanksgiving, our fridge is normally full of leftovers. I assume that yours is, too. I've offered an option for your leftover turkey, and now I'm moving on to stuffing.

Or dressing, depending on where you're from. I've always called it stuffing, even though I've always been eating dressing. I don't think it really matters, as long as it is cornbread-based.

Regardless, you can use your old stuffing for turkey sushi. Don't freak out - the turkey's not raw. This is just a convenient way to get your holiday dinner in one bite, and it looks kind of like sushi. People love it.

We did this a couple years ago for one of our Christmas parties. For those of you not in the know, Kaytie and I throw a big Christmas party every year. It's a chance to see everyone we know, and it's also a chance to show off. There's usually a theme, like cajun or comfort food, etc. One year, we were inspired by our big 28-course anniversary dinner at Alinea, and we decided to do Christmas dinner, deconstructed and reimagined.

Some of the highlights were sweet potato & marshmallow nachos, mushrooms stuffed with green bean casserole, and, of course, turkey sushi.

Turkey Sushi

smoked turkey breast from the deli
(turkey should be sliced thick enough to stay together instead of all the slices falling apart)
canned cranberry sauce, cut into long strips
green onions
stuffing (see below)
mayonaise
seasoned cream cheese (see below)

Mix the stuffing and the mayonaise together. You only need enough mayo to moisten the stuffing and make it stick together. Probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of mayo for a whole pan of stuffing.

Lay one slice of turkey on a bamboo sushi-rolling mat. Spread a thin layer of seasoned cream cheese all over the turkey. Lay a green onion and a strip of cranberry sauce longways across one edge of the slice of turkey. Spoon some of the stuffing mixture over the cranberry sauce and green onion. Use the mat to roll the turkey around the stuffing, sauce, and onion, forming a roll about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Slice into 1-inch slices with a very sharp knife.

Cornbread Stuffing/Dressing

1 pan of cornbread (we make ours from a mix)
4 cups of dried herb-flavored white bread stuffing
1 stick of butter, melted
1 can of chicken stock (about 2 cups)
2 onions, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp fresh sage, chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute the onion and celery until wilted.

Crumble the cornbread, and add it to the white bread stuffing. Add the veggies, and stir everything together. Pour the butter and chicken stock over everything, and add the spices. Mix everything together.

Spread the mixture evenly in a casserole dish, and bake for 30-45 minutes, until browned.

Seasoned Cream Cheese

1 pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 Tbs poultry seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1 Tbs fresh sage, chopped

Mix it all together.

too much turkey?

2010-11-27T19:36:00.003-06:00

So, Thanksgiving has come and gone (time for Christmas! Whoo hoo!), and you have a bunch of leftover turkey, right? (Unless you ate at my Thanksgiving dinner - the head honcho prefers roast chicken and ham. But I'm cooking a turkey next year. Fried or smoked, it matters not to me. With God as my witness, there will be turkey at my next Thanksgiving dinner!)

So, a fridge full of turkey - now what? Well, there's always the obligatory turkey & cranberry sauce sandwich, but how many sandwiches can you eat?

I have your solution: turkey bone gumbo. It's a recipe handed down to me from my mom and modified a little ('cuz that's how we roll) by Kaytie. It's friggin' delicious.

By the way, you may be wondering how we made this, since there was no turkey at our Thanksgiving dinner. Well, we like this recipe so much that we begged for bones from another house!

(Historical note: The first time we made this was the first time we ever made stock. Now, we make stock all the time! Like pioneers.)

Turkey Bone Gumbo

(makes a lot)

for turkey stock:

turkey bones

2-3 carrots

2-3 stalks celery

2 onions

1 rutabega

2-3 bay leaves

1 tsp black peppercorns

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

for the gumbo:

1/2 stick butter

1/4 c olive oil

3/4 c flour

2 onions, diced

1 bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried oregano

1 Tbs dried basil

1-2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped

1 Tbs powdered sage

hot sauce, salt, & pepper to taste

1 pint heavy cream

2 c chopped turkey

1 lb smoked sausage, cut into bite-size pieces

1 bunch of green onions, diced

Put the turkey bones in a big stock pot. (We had a discussion about this at Thanksgiving dinner this year. What's the most appetizing word for turkey bones? Carcass? Body? Cadaver?)

Chop the carrots, celery, onion, and rutabega into large chunks, and dump them in the pot. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, and thyme. (Please note: all of this stuff is optional, but it will make the stock delicious!)

Cover everything in the pot with water. Boil (covered) for about 1 1/2 hours. The meat should pretty much fall off the bone.

Strain everything out, and reserve the meat and the broth.

Saute the sausage in a frying pan. Get a good browning on most sides. Reserve the sausage.

Now, make a roux in the sausage drippings. First, melt the butter over low heat. Add the olive oil and flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the flour turns light brown and no longer smells raw.

Add the onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Cook until the veggies are wilted.

Add 2 quarts (8 cups) of the reserved turkey broth. (Freeze the rest in 2-3 cup containers for later use when making more turkey bone gumbo, cooking rice, making soup, etc...)

Add the bay leaves, oregano, basil, parsley, sage, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Bring the whole thing to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for an hour.

Add the cream. Bring to a boil, and boil until the liquid level reduces by about an inch.

Add the sausage and chopped turkey. Lower the heat to med-low, and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the green onions, and cook for a few more minutes.

Serve over rice.

study break

2010-10-25T20:07:00.007-05:00

So, I eat a lot of snacks these days. For some reason, I want to eat when I am studying, and since I study 12-13 hours a day these days, I want to eat all the time.

I like salty snacks. I really like candy, and I eat a lot of it. But I know these things are not good for me, and I've actually discovered that eating fruits and vegetables makes me feel better, so I try to work in some healthy snacks, too. Like apples & peanut butter, string cheese, nuts. (I'm currently a big fan of plain almonds. They're my new favorite super food. Other super foods: spinach, salmon, eggs, annnd... bacon.) I eat a lot of carrots, too. They're nice and crunchy - a good quality in a snack food. Plus, I can dip them in stuff. Like hummus.

Hummus

(makes about 5 cups)

1/2 lb chickpeas

3/4 cup tahini

1-2 Tbs garlic powder

1-2 tsp paprika

1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne powder

1 tsp salt

juice 1 1/2 lemons

1 1/4 cups water

First, the chickpeas. They come, dried, in 1-pound bags. Prepare them according to the package directions (salt the water). This will make too many, but you can freeze half of them until you make the next batch of hummus. You'll need about 3 cups of cooked chickpeas. (This probably translates to about 2 drained cans of chickpeas, if you want to take a shortcut. I don't judge.)

Now, let's talk tahini. You can buy it at the grocery store in the international aisle. (I've bought it at Kroger.) But I think you can probably get a better deal at a Mediterranean grocery store. I know for sure that you can get your weight in bay leaves for about 3 bucks. It's worth checking.

Okay, now for the recipe. It's pretty simple. Dump everything in a food processor, and puree the hell out of it. I've made the spice measurements variable for a reason. Start low, and add more until you like the taste. Also, if the hummus is too thick, you can add more water, a little at a time, to thin it out.

Puree, puree, puree. Store it in the fridge, and eat it on carrots while you learn about inherited disorders of metabolism or the lumbar plexus. Or on pita chips or Wheat Thins - hummus is good on those, too.

one last bite of summer

2010-10-16T12:08:00.003-05:00

We hadn’t seen Sarah and Tim in a while. Sarah’s a doctor – I’ve followed her around the ER a little bit – and Tim is a lawyer, so it’s a pretty good match for us. (Because Kaytie’s a lawyer, and I’m in med school.) As a side note, they also have one of the best babies I’ve ever met. She's not quite as cute as Aubrey, but it's a pretty close competition.

Anyway, our schedules finally aligned a couple weeks ago, so we planned to have a glass of wine at their house. Well, we don’t like to go anywhere without food, and I hadn’t cooked anything in a while, so I thought I’d make a dip. Something on the lighter side, fresh-tasting. Something that just catches the tail end of the summer produce.

And now, here is the most thorough recipe for dip that you will EVER read.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip
(makes about 3 cups)

2-3 red bell peppers
2 ears of corn, husks on
2 shallots, diced small
2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped fine
3-4 slices bacon
½ cup manchego cheese, grated superfine
1 ½ cups mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
salt & pepper

Roast your peppers. Preheat your oven to 425. Remove seeds and ribs and cut peppers into large slices. (the larger, the better) Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty foil, and spray it with Pam. Lay your peppers out, skin side up, and slide them in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, and then broil ‘em until the skin blisters and blackens all over. Let them cool.

Cook your bacon. Crispy is good, but burned is bad. I usually cut my slices in half, cook them over medium heat, and flip them often. Once the bacon is cooked, lay it out on paper towels. As soon as it is cool enough to touch, crumble it into a food processor, but reserve a little bit (about ½ tsp) of crumbs for garnish. Pulverize the rest of it in the food processor into very, very small crumbs.

If you still have bacon grease in the frying pan, use it to sauté your shallots over medium heat until they’re just translucent. If you tossed the grease already, just use a little olive oil. Set the shallots aside.

I like grilled corn. A lot. So, instead of just draining a can of corn and using that (which you can do if you want), I decided to grill the corn and slice it off the cob. Basically, pull as much of the silk off as you can, rewrap the corn with the husks, and soak them for 10-15 minutes so the water soaks up into the husks. Grill for about 5-10 minutes on each side. Wear some leather gloves and work quickly as you shuck the husks off the corn and throw them back on the grill. Keep an eye on them and rotate to brown the corn a little bit. When it cools down a little, slice it off the cob. Reserve a little for garnish.

Okay, time to do some stirring. Combine the mayo, sour cream, basil, bacon, shallots, and corn in a mixing bowl. Stir it up and add the cheese. By the way, pretty much any hard cheese would be good – I used manchego (I think – it might have been gruyere - I can't remember) because we had it in the fridge. Also, I used a microplane to grate it so fine it was fluffy.

Back to the peppers. Once they’re cool enough to handle, you need to get the peels off. This is a messy and slightly annoying task, but it’s worth it. Home-roasted peppers are SO much better than the ones you buy in a jar.

Puree the peeled peppers in the food processor. Add the resulting mush to the dip that you’ve already mixed. Stir well. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Put it in a serving bowl, and garnish with the corn kernels and bacon crumbles. You could add some julienned basil, too. You can serve this right away, but I think it benefits from a couple hours in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap. That gives it time for the flavors to marry.

We served this with plain pita chips. It would be great with Fritos, too.

one-upper

2010-09-26T22:32:00.003-05:00

Obviously, I haven't been posting much lately. Why, you're wondering? Well, I started med school in August. And let me tell you this - there's a lot to learn. Luckily, I like what I'm learning.

Every once in a while, though, I need to cook. It's a great study break.

So, recently, I made some "World Peace" cookies from a recipe I found in a recent Bon Appetit. Sounds great, right? Well, they were good. A little on the dry side, though. My buddy Kris said cookies don't have to be soft. He and his wife enjoyed them.

I disagree. Cookies should be soft. And what does Bon Appetit know? I can make a better cookie. So, I messed with the recipe, and let me tell you, they're SO much better.

There are times to be humble, I know. This is not one of them. These cookies are absolutely delicious. I can say without exaggeration that they are the best chocolate cookies you'll ever eat. Okay, that may be a bit of a boast, but these cookies are great. They're soft and rich and light at the same time.

Kaytie took one bite, looked at me, and said, "I hope you wrote this down."

I did. And instead of learning about the innervation of the heart, I'm sharing it with you. It's THAT important.

Best Chocolate Cookies EVER

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temp

1 Tbs vanilla

1 Tbs milk

2 Tbs strong coffee, room temp

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

5 oz bittersweet chocolate

Mix the butter, vanilla, coffee, milk, both sugars, and salt until creamy. Add the egg and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, and mix until smooth.

Chop the chocolate into small chunks (nothing bigger than about 1/3 of an inch). Fold the chocolate into the dough.

Refrigerate the dough for a couple hours until it is firm. (NOTE: This step is unnecessary. If you want your cookies faster, you can cook 'em right off the bat - just knock a minute or two off the baking time. The benefit to cooling the dough is that you have a lot more control over the shape and size of the cookies.)

Preheat the oven to 325.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Roll the dough into balls that are about 1 - 1.25 inches in diameter. I recommend wearing latex gloves while you do this. Place the balls on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. (If you decided not to chill your dough, just scoop it onto the cookie sheets.)

Bake for 11 minutes.

You probably can't bake all of the dough at the same time. You should keep the extra dough in the fridge while you're baking the first round.

Cool the cookies on a rack.

Makes about 4 1/2 dozen delicious cookies.

parting gift

2010-08-13T19:35:00.003-05:00

August is a big month for us. Kaytie starts a new job – she just finished her clerkship today. I quit the restaurant business, and on Monday, I start med school. I, of course, am excited about this, but leaving my work was bittersweet. I will miss my friends there, and I’ll probably be too busy to stop for a drink.

As a parting gift, Melissa made me one of her famous angel food cakes. This, to me, is in the same class of culinary magic as homemade marshmallows. I think of angel food cake as something that is bought at the store, not made at home. Melissa has proved otherwise, and I can’t wait to make this cake myself.

Angel Food Cake

1 ¼ cups sifted flour
1 ½ cup sugar, separated in half
12 egg whites
1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract

Plan ahead. Set your dozen eggs on the counter and let them sit out overnight. Don’t worry – you’ll be fine.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Sift ¾ cup of sugar and the flour together. Set aside.

Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat with a wire whip until soft peaks form.

Gradually add ¾ cup more sugar, about 2 Tbsp at a time. Beat until the meringue holds stiff peaks.

Gradually fold in the flour/sugar mixture until it is just incorporated.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan that is 4 inches deep. Gently run a knife through the batter a couple times.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Invert the pan on a cooling rack until the cake is completely cool.

the end of an evening

2010-05-29T14:52:00.000-05:00

To finish off Tott’s end-of-the-first-year-of-law-school dinner, we served a lemon crème brulee that the folks at Briarwood paired with an Elderton Semillon.

We chose crème brulee for a couple of reasons. We’d had several successes in the past. The custard could be made beforehand. And, of course, everyone loves crème brulee and thinks it is fancy.

Lemon Crème Brulee
(makes 8 servings)

2 lemons
3 cups heavy cream
7 Tbs white granulated sugar
6 large egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla
about 8 tsp turbinado sugar
8 crème brulee ramekins
1 blowtorch

Preheat the oven to 325. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position.

Zest the two lemons and combine the zest with the cream in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the white sugar and a pinch of salt. (Save the zested lemons for juice later.)

Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat until it is almost boiling. Remove it from heat. Allow it to cool to room temperature, and then cool in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours. (You don’t have to do this step of cooling it in the fridge, but if you do, the lemon flavor will be stronger.)

Remove the cream mixture from the fridge and place it over medium-low heat. Once again, stir occasionally as it warms, and remove it from the heat just before it boils.

Lightly beat the yolks in a heatproof bowl. Gradually whisk in the cream. Just slowly drizzle it into the yolks while you are whisking quickly. This should prevent the eggs from curdling.

Pour the custard mixture through a wire colander to strain out the zest and any cooked yolk. Stir in the vanilla and 1 tsp fresh lemon juice.

Divide the custard evenly among the 8 ramekins.

Arrange the ramekins in a roasting pan. Place the pan on the oven rack, and pour in water until the water level is about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes. The custard will be set around the edges, but the centers should wobble when the ramekins are wiggled.

Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven. (I bumped the edge of the stove and ruined two custards when the water bath spilled into them. I was able to save two others by carefully soaking up the spilled water off the tops of the custards with paper towels.)

Cool the custards in the water bath for 20 minutes, then chill uncovered in the fridge for 4 hours.

Just before serving, evenly sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the tops of the custards. Use your blowtorch to melt and caramelize the sugar. Keep the torch moving to avoid burning the sugar.

greater tuna

2010-05-26T07:53:00.001-05:00

It’s about time we got some seared tuna on this blog. (Actually, my mom put a recipe on here, but I didn’t get to taste it.) This was the main course of Tott’s celebration dinner: seared tuna with a beurre blanc over rice, sautéed snow peas, and ginger pureed carrots.

Step 1: Get some good tuna. Sushi-grade – because the middle of this is going to just on the rare side of raw. But if you have good tuna, that will be delicious. (By the way, my favorite way to get good fish is to make friends with a restaurant kitchen manager. Retail is for suckers.)

Orange-Ginger Seared Tuna
(4 light servings)

1 lb sushi-grade tuna (2 steaks)
2 oranges
2 Tbs soy sauce
5 quarter-sized slices of fresh ginger
¼ tsp Sriracha hot chili sauce
1 dash sesame oil
Black pepper

Make your marinade. Zest about half an orange into a bowl. Squeeze the juice from both oranges into said bowl. Add everything else (except the tuna), and stir it all together.

Put your tuna in a Ziploc bag. Dump in the marinade. Squish around to ensure even coverage. Marinate the tuna in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour.

I seared the tuna in a cast iron skillet. The trick is to make it very hot. Heat the pan on high until it begins to smoke a little. Add just a bit of oil to just barely coat the pan.

Remove the tuna from the marinade, making sure the ginger slices don’t stick to the fish. Lay the tuna on one side and cook for 1-2 minutes. Flip the tuna, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Slice thinly and fan over a bed of rice. We topped this off with a beurre blanc (which made it richer and fancier), but Kaytie made the sauce, so you’ll have to wait for her to post that recipe.

the perfect food

2010-05-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

Mark Bittman calls the scallop one of nature’s most perfect foods. (I know this because we’ve been cooking a lot out of his Minimalist Cooks at Home cookbook. Great recipes.) I agree with him. Who doesn’t love scallops?

That’s why we chose a seared scallop as an amuse bouche for Tott’s fancy dinner.

Kaytie really should be writing this post, since she made the stuffing, sautéed the spinach, and whipped up the delicious sauce. (All I did was stuff and sear the scallops.) But she’s taking a nap right now. You snooze, you lose, baby. Plus, I really like how the scallop in the picture looks like a monster. A delicious little monster.

(I do hope she’ll post the recipe for her beurre blanc, though. It was incredible.)

Seared Stuffed Scallops over Sauteed Spinach
(an exercise in alliteration)

Scallops: Since we served this as a quick appetizer, we only served one scallop per person. (A total of five.) If you want to serve this as an entrée, then you will, of course, need more scallops. Mark Bittman recommends 1 ½ pounds for 4 servings. You’ll probably need to double the stuffing recipe.

Stuffing
1 handful fresh basil leaves
1 very small garlic clove
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
juice of ¼ lemon
1 Tbs olive oil

Mince the basil, garlic, salt, and pepper together until everything is very finely chopped – almost a puree. Mix in the olive oil and lemon juice to make a paste.

To stuff the scallops, cut horizontally almost all the way through the scallops. They’ll open up like a clamshell. Spread a little dollop of the stuffing inside each scallop, and close them.

Place a large skillet over high heat for a little while. I used our trusty cast iron skillet and waited until it was smokin’ hot.

Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to the pan.

Add the scallops one at a time. Let them brown for 1 or 2 minutes. Carefully flip them over to brown the other side for another 1 or 2 minutes. These need to be served quickly, so they’re nice and hot.

While I was searing the scallops, Kaytie was sautéing spinach and making the sauce. We put a little spinach on each plate, put a scallop on that, and topped the whole thing off with beurre blanc and some capers.

porch drinks

2010-05-22T09:13:00.000-05:00

We had wine for most of the courses of Tott’s dinner. We wanted to mix it up a little, though, so while we seared the tuna and sautéed the snow peas and while our guests snacked on gravlax & cucumber bites, we had a sake cocktail.

Tott kept calling them sake-tinis, but I’m not a fan of that. They’re based on a recipe we found for a drink called Green My Eyes, which is an incredibly stupid name. Whatever you call it, this is a great summer cocktail. It would be perfect for sitting on the porch or by the pool, and we will certainly be taking a bottle of sake to Dallas for the 4th of July family reunion.

We used “seedless” cucumbers, which were smaller than regular cucumbers and turned out to have seeds. Liars. I think it would be fine to use regular cucumbers.

Cucumber Fizz

3 slices cucumber
1 oz chilled sake
½ oz simple syrup
club soda

Muddle the cucumbers in the bottom of a rocks glass (or a highball glass). Fill with ice. Add the sake and simple syrup and top it all off with the club soda. Stir lightly to mix, or pour it into a shaker and back into the glass. You can garnish it with another slice of cucumber, if you’re into that sort of thing.

**These are delicious as they are, but I think I’m going to muddle a couple of mint leaves with the cucumbers next time, just to see how it goes. Not too much mint, though, because you don’t want to overwhelm the cucumber flavor.

A cure for salmon

2010-05-20T08:30:00.001-05:00

When I waited tables at the Parker House, the ladies loved to order salmon. Pronounced SAL-mon. Well done, please. And could you bring a glass of white zinfandel? Blech. Maybe that experience is why I hate most cooked salmon; it just tastes fishy and gross to me. But I do love smoked salmon. I actually trained myself to like it when I was in my early twenties; I'd just started dating Drew, and his family liked to have smoked salmon, capers, and cream cheese with bagels at brunch. I thought this was the height of elegance, and so I was convinced that truly cultured people liked smoked salmon. I choked down a ton of it, trying to acquire a taste for it. And you know what? I did!

Well, so since I love smoked salmon (and I know Tott does, too), I wanted to make it for her party last Saturday. Unfortunately, I don't know how to work a smoker. I'm sure Drew could make it if he tried (there's not much I think Drew can't do, other than carry a tune), but he had to work most of last week when we were getting ready for Tott's party. So smoked salmon was out, and I didn't know what to do for the third course. Then I came across a Mark Bittman recipe for gravlax--cured salmon, in other words. Well, I figured I could do that. And you know what? I could!

Cured salmon is super easy--you only need a little bit of really fresh, high-quality salmon and time. We served it sliced thin and piled on top of cucumber rounds with a little dollop of some dill-infused sour cream. Sooooo good.

Citrus-Cured Salmon

(modified from The Minimalist Cookbook by Bittman)

1 lb. fresh raw salmon

1/2 cup salt

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons sriacha

zest of one lime, one lemon, one orange, and one grapefruit

1 tablespoon ground coriander

Combine all ingredients but salmon. Lay salmon on a clean sheet of cling wrap. Cover in salt mixtures, piling it all on there. If your salmon fillet has skin on it, pile it all on the opposite side. Wrap tightly in cling wrap (I think I put mine in a baggie). Let it rest 36 hours in the refridgerator. Rinse mixture off and dry. Slice thinly on the bias.

aubrey approved

2010-05-16T12:29:00.004-05:00

Last night, we had a dinner party for Tott. You see, she just finished her first year of law school. So, we came up with a killer menu – seared stuffed scallops, crab salad over avocado, cured salmon & cucumber, seared tuna, and lemon crème brulee. The nice folks at Briarwood took a look and picked out wine for each course. (The pairings were great, by the way.) We like to cook over the top, and we had an excuse.

We didn’t want people to have to stand around in the kitchen, watching us prepare each course, so we spent Saturday prepping. And what’s better than prepping all day? Prepping while babysitting!

Kaytie’s goddaughter came over at 6 AM. Luckily, even a baby knows that’s way too early to be awake, so she slept until 9:30. (So did we.) Then, Kaytie and I cooked while Aubrey made a mess and a LOT of noise. (We didn’t mind, of course, but the dogs preferred to spend the day outside.)

We had decided to serve the tuna with sautéed snow peas and pureed carrots. As I was turning the carrots into mush, I realized that I had a rare opportunity. I was making something that looked like baby food, AND I had a real live baby in the house. With just a couple pictures, I could make this food blog a whole lot cuter.

Anyway, these are the best carrots you’ll ever eat. Even Alice, who was scarred by a childhood memory of Mickey Mouse and some carrot cake, ate all of her carrots. They’re that good.

Ginger Pureed Carrots
(serves 4-5)

1 lb baby carrots, cut in half
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
½ cup chicken stock
½ tsp salt
5 Tbs butter
¼ cup heavy c ream

Over high heat and in a covered pot, simmer the carrots, sugar, ginger, salt, and chicken broth for about 12 minutes, until the carrots are fork-tender.

Puree the mixture with the butter and cream in a food processor until it is the consistency of baby food. You may want to season with a little more salt.

You can make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave for 4 minutes or so, stirring once half way through. Make sure it's not too hot if you're going to feed it to a baby.

quick & easy

2010-05-13T12:52:00.002-05:00

We had Kaytie’s parents (Kathy & Eddie) over Sunday night to celebrate Mother’s Day. Since I had been working the busiest lunch all year from 9 to 4, we needed an easy meal. Easy and delicious.

Our go-to meal? Boiled shrimp. It’s one of Eddie’s specialties – he also fries a mean piece of deer meat, but only when Kathy’s out of town. Anyway, Kaytie has learned the recipe well, and now you can, too.

For sides, we had boiled potatoes, blanched asparagus, and grilled corn.

Eddie’s Boiled Shrimp

raw, unpeeled, headless shrimp (roughly 1 lb per person)
water
crab boil (found by the spices at the store)
1-2 lemons, cut in half
1 onion, quartered
salt

Fill a large pot ¾ full of water. Add crab boil to taste – Kaytie usually uses two capfuls.

If you have bought frozen shrimp, which we usually do, thaw it out. We put the shrimp in a colander and run cold water over it, and this thaws it pretty quickly.

Bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the shrimp, lemons, and onion – this will stop the boiling.

Let the water return to a boil. When it does, boil for 1 minute.

Turn off the heat and add a generous amount of salt. (This makes the shrimp easier to peel.)

Let the pot stand covered for 5 minutes.

Drain the water off, and dump the shrimp over ice, which will stop them from overcooking themselves.

Serve with…

Drew’s Delicious Cocktail Sauce

1 ½ cups ketchup
1-2 Tbs horseradish to taste
juice of 1 lime
1-2 Tbs Sriracha hot chili sauce
1 heaping Tbs honey

Mix together, chill, and serve.

one from the vault: best corn ever

2010-05-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

We’ve made this several times. It’s been served alongside grilled dove, boiled shrimp, and roasted pork shoulder. It’s also been a hit every time.

Grilled Corn on the Cob

fresh corn, in the husk

Soak your corn for about 10 minutes. Remove the silk. I carefully peel back the husks about half way to make sure I get as much of the silk off as possible. “Re-husk” the ears of corn so they are covered again. Soak the corn for another 5 minutes. This soaking will get some water into the husks, which will kind of steam the corn on the grill. It’ll also help keep the husks from burning.

I use a gas grill on medium-high heat. Put the corn on, close the grill cover, and grill for about 5 minutes. Rotate the ears, close the cover, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Here’s the brilliant part. (Also, a little dangerous.) You’re going to quickly peel off the husks and return the corn to the grill. I say quickly because they’re hot. I recommend wearing a pair of leather gloves. (You might want a pair of latex gloves underneath, too.) You still need to work quickly, though, because there is steam and hot water inside the husks, and your gloves are gradually going to get wetter and hotter.

All this risk of steamed palms is worth it, though. When you return the husked corn to the grill, you’re going to caramelize the kernels. Keep watch and turn them frequently until the kernels are golden brown.

Grilled corn is delicious on its own, but it’s even better with…

Blue Cheese Compound Butter

3 sticks butter, room temp
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 Tbs fresh thyme, finely minced
pinch of salt
½ lb crumbled blue cheese

Gently mix everything together in a bowl. Add more salt if needed. This is best served at room temperature.

two bad dogs

2010-04-30T15:29:00.002-05:00

I’m normally very proud of my dogs. They’re great with our goddaughter. They follow the rules. (No barking inside when we’re home. No dogs in the bedroom.) They haven’t had an accident inside in about seven years. I’m pretty sure they speak English, and I swear they can tell time – they wake me up every morning precisely at six. They do have some endearing peculiarities: they love ice, they really enjoy eating plants, they’re scared of thunder and hide in the closet when it rains, and they’re terrified of cameras. (I had to catch Belle by surprise as she came out of the bushes to get the above picture, and I had to use my lousy camera phone. There was no chance of getting them both in the same picture.)

Every once in a while, however, they make me mad. A couple months ago, I was going to pick Kaytie up from work for lunch. I made two sandwiches, left them on the counter, and left. (Most of the time, I can leave food on the coffee table, leave the room, and come back to find the food untouched.) When we got home, the sandwiches were gone, and Belle and Bailey had guilty looks on their faces.

With this in mind, I thought I’d taken enough precautions to protect my bread. The two loaves were cooling on a rack that I slid to the very back of the counter. I moved the knife block to create a physical barrier in front of the rack. I thought it was safe. We were on our way to a wine tasting, and we were throwing a small after party. The bread was for bruschetta with olives, roasted red peppers, and manchego.

I think you know where this is going. When we got back to the house, an entire loaf of bread had disappeared. At least they left us one loaf for the bruschetta, though I think that was due less to their altruism than to the second loaf being out of reach.

Anyway, you should have the recipe for this bread, even if you don’t have a picture of it. The bread is great – one of Mom’s staples when I was growing up. So easy to make that two of my brothers sold loaves door-to-door for pocket money, and so tasty that it’s always a crowd pleaser.

Easy Italian Bread
(makes two loaves)

4 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus some extra for dusting
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs butter
2 packages active dry yeast
1 ¾ cups warm water (110˚)
cornmeal
vegetable oil
1 egg white (optional)
1 Tbs cold water (optional)

The original recipe calls for making this in a food processor, which is easy. My food processor is not very big, so I used my stand-up mixer. Either way, you want to combine 3 cups flour, salt, sugar, and butter in the food processor or bowl. Pulse the food processor a few times to cut in the butter. If you’re using the mixer, cut in the butter with 2 knives in a criss-crossing motion and mix the ingredients with the paddle attachment briefly.

Stir the yeast into the water in a measuring cup. Add half the water to the dry ingredients. Pulse the food processor 4 times. (Or run the mixer using the dough hook for a few seconds.)

Add 1 ½ cups flour and the rest of the water/yeast mixture. Pulse the food processor 4 more times. (Or use the dough hook to mix.)

Run the food processor or the mixer until a ball of dough forms. Once the ball forms, keep running to knead for a minute or so.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board. Knead a few times to form a smooth ball.

Cover the ball loosely with plastic wrap and a dishtowel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a rough rectangle that’s about 15 x 10 inches. Start at the wide side and roll the dough tightly to form a long baguette-looking loaf. Pinch the seams together and seal by gently rolling back and forth.

Grease one or two cookie sheets and dust with cornmeal.

Put the dough on the cookie sheets. Brush the dough with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

When you’re ready to bake the bread, take it out of the fridge. Let it rest at room temperature, uncovered, for about 10 minutes while the oven is preheating to 425˚. Make 4 or 5 diagonal slits in the top of each loaf with a sharp knife. I keep a scalpel in the kitchen for just this purpose.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. (My oven’s perfect time is 16 minutes.) The bread should be light brown. (To check for doneness, thump the loaf on the bottom. If it sounds hollow, the bread is done.)

If you want a shiny loaf, do the following. Mix the egg white and cold water together. Take the bread out of the oven at about 14 minutes. Brush with the egg white mixture and return the bread to the oven. Bake for about 5 minutes more, until the bread is golden brown and shiny.

Cool the bread on a wire rack, out of the reach of your bad dogs.

eureka!

2010-04-23T09:04:00.002-05:00

“Mmm, baby, this is the recipe!”

When Kaytie said that, I knew I’d finally made a great batch of biscuits. Off and on, I’ve been working on a recipe and learning the process of biscuit-making over the past year. I grew up with biscuits of the drop or canned variety, but now that I live in Mississippi, I wanted to learn to make the classic Southern biscuits that we have here.

Lots of people claim to have a great biscuit-maker in their family, and in the next breath, they tell me there’s no recipe. You have to watch someone to learn to make biscuits. But nobody ever invited me to watch.

So, I played. I looked online. I picked up some tips along the way. The fat needs to be cold. Kneading too much creates a tough biscuit. Don’t twist the biscuit cutter when you cut the biscuits out. White Lily is the best self-rising flour, and the recipe on the bag is the best. (Not all of the tips panned out. My attempt at the White Lily recipe was a flop. White Lily’s supposed to be good because of the low protein content, so I decided to use cake flour in my recipe. So, some good came out of that batch of tiny hockey pucks.)

These biscuits are soft and light and taste like butter. Good luck!

Classic Southern Biscuits
(makes 10-12 2-inch biscuits)

2 ¼ cups cake flour, plus some extra
2 Tbs double-acting baking powder
1 ¼ tsp salt
½ cup unsalted butter, cold
½ cup butter flavor shortening, cold
1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk until well-mixed.

Slice the butter and shortening into quarter-inch slices. Toss the slices in the flour mixture to coat them. Use a pastry blender (or two knives) to cut in the butter and shortening. If you’re using knives, move them towards each other through the flour so that they criss-cross in the middle of the bowl like scissors. The point here is to cut the chunks of fat into smaller pieces. You should cut in the butter and shortening until you have pea-sized pieces throughout.

Put the bowl in the fridge for about 10 minutes. You want the butter and shortening to stay cold. I forget why, but it’s important. While you’re waiting, preheat the oven to 450.

Mix in the buttermilk until everything is just combined.

Get yourself a little bowl of flour. Dump the dough onto a floured surface. Liberally dust the top of the dough with flour. Knead it a couple times, adding more flour as necessary. You want the dough to be sticky, but not too sticky.

Pat the dough into a rectangle that is about 3/4 inch thick. Dust the top lightly with flour and fold the rectangle in half. Pick up the dough and smack it back down. I’m not sure why you have to be so rough with it, but Kaytie’s dad thinks the smacking is important, and I did it, and the biscuits turned out well.

Pat the dough back into a rectangle. Repeat this dusting, folding, and smacking process two or three more times.

Pat the dough down to about ¾-inch thickness. Cut biscuits with a two-inch biscuit cutter. (I use a drinking glass.) Do not twist the cutter. Press straight down and pick straight up. Go ahead and cut all the biscuits that can fit before you pick any of them up.

Peel away the extra dough, pick up the biscuits, and place them on a cookie sheet that you have lined with parchment paper. The biscuits should be just touching, side by side.

Mush the extra dough back together. Flatten it out, fold it over, and smack it down. Flatten back out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut more biscuits, and repeat this process until all the dough is gone.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

one from the vault: olé!

2010-04-19T14:41:00.002-05:00

This recipe comes from waaay back. Back in Marks, MS, in a tiny little house that had been a garage at one point. Window unit A/C, space heaters, bugs galore, and a flooded living room whenever it rained too hard – this was our first year living together. But we had a decent kitchen, and with only one restaurant (two, if you count McDonald’s) open for dinner, we set about learning to cook.

One thing we cooked often was deer meat. (I grew up in Dallas, and we called it venison. Mississippi’s more straightforward.) We had a never-ending supply, thanks to Kaytie’s dad and a deep freezer. We’d grill or roast the tenderloins and grind the rest. I had an old-fashioned hand-crank meat grinder, and I’d mix about half deer meat and half beef, to get some fat in there.

Of course, then we had pounds of ground deer meat. Tacos and chili, sure, but after a while, we had to get a little creative. One of the best dishes was Mexican Casserole. (Probably not the most PC name – I’ll take suggestions for a new one...) It tastes great when you make it, and the leftovers are good, too. You can just reheat it, or you can scramble it in with eggs for breakfast. (Red beans & rice leftovers make a great omelette, too !)

Mexican Casserole
(makes 5-6 servings)

1 cup rice
1 ½ cups chicken stock (or water)
1 can Rotel tomatoes & chilies
½ onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded & minced
1 lb ground meat
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt
½ tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
½ tsp chipotle powder (optional)
2-3 oz cream cheese
8 oz Velveeta (optional)
plenty of grated cheese

First, make the rice. Put the rice, chicken stock, and Rotel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to med-low, and simmer 25-30 minutes, until all the water is soaked up.

Over medium heat, saute the onion in a little olive oil until it’s translucent. Add the jalapeno, and cook about 2 minutes more.

Add the meat and the spices. Cook, stirring, until the meat is browned.

Mix the beef, rice, cream cheese, and Velveeta together and put all of it in a casserole dish. Top with grated cheese – the more, the better.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is all melted.

**You can make this casserole and freeze it. Just follow the recipe, but leave off the grated cheese, and put the casserole in the freezer instead of the oven. Let it thaw before you cook it, and cook for 20-25 minutes instead.

best broccoli

2010-03-22T07:27:00.000-05:00

Used to be, Kaytie would have thought that good broccoli was impossible. Just the smell of cooking broccoli was enough to make her gag repeatedly. She hated the soggy, limp texture that steaming produced.

The solution? Roast the florets! The caramelization is great. Then, finish them off with some lemon – I’ve decided lemon is the best complement to most dark green veggies – sautéed spinach, asparagus, and of course, broccoli.

Roasted Broccoli

1 bunch of broccoli
2-3 garlic cloves
1 lemon
salt & pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425.

Cut the broccoli off the big stem into florets. Slice the garlic thinly. Put the broccoli and garlic in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Toss to cover evenly.

Spread the broccoli and garlic on a cookie sheet. (I lined mine with heavy-duty foil first.) Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.

After you pull the broccoli out of the oven, zest about half the lemon over the broccoli. Slice the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice over the broccoli, too.

Top with finely grated parmesan.

infusion conclusion

2010-03-17T22:31:00.003-05:00

Well, Infusion 5000 has come and gone. About 20 people came over, and we tasted 13 infused liquors. It was a blind tasting – we had scorecards and everything, even a trophy!

I spent most of the evening pouring samples for everyone.

There were interesting combinations, some good and some not so much. After such success with our initial infusions, I went for a more complex flavor. Unfortunately, sun-dried tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic, olives, basil, and oregano in vodka turned out to be disgusting. Might work in a Bloody Mary, though.

The scorecards had space for people to guess what had been put in each liquor. There were lots of references to medicine and disinfectants. Bengay, soap, and moisturizer. Walgreen’s cologne. “It burns!” Staircase pigs. (Turned out Mokry was trying to write staircase piss.) My favorite, however, was in reference to one of the last vodkas. One judge wrote, “Same. They all taste the same now.”

Of course, there were a lot of insightful guesses, too. And some tasty liquors. Tott took third with her apple, ginger, and vanilla vodka. Kaytie won second. She soaked basically any dried fruit she could find – figs, dates, apricots, blueberries, cherries – and tossed in some fennel, vanilla, nutmeg, and I’m honestly not sure what else. It was good, though. The grand champion was Mary Kendall. She infused bourbon with honey and rosemary. Yum.

Anyway, here are some tips for infusing your own liquors.

Fatty substances, such as meat, dairy, or nuts do not infuse well.

Herbs infuse quickly; dried spices, even more so.

Buy dried herbs and spices in bulk; they’re so much cheaper that way.

Dried fruits work better than fresh fruits.

A combination of dried and fresh fruits or herbs is a good idea.

Higher-proof alcohol works best.

Fresh ingredients may rot if left in alcohol for too long.

Fruits and vegetables may take a while to infuse; best to start early and strain out if worried about rot.

Classic flavor combinations you enjoy in food will work well—e.g., lemon and basil, cinnamon and vanilla, orange and cloves.

Fruit will take about 2-3 weeks to infuse, and herbs will take about one week.

stating the obvious

2010-03-10T08:30:00.003-06:00

I realize that most of our six readers are serious foodies and accomplished cooks. This post, however, is for the rest of you. I am going to tell you something very obvious--how to make a very tasty salad.

A salad is something I rarely crave (unlike Tott, who can put away AN ENTIRE BAG OF RAW SPINACH in one sitting). My grandfather calls it "rabbit food," and I pretty much feel the same way. But lately I've been trying to eat in a healthier way (five pounds down, baby!), so I've been wracking my brain to come up with interesting salads.

This was one that I actually enjoyed more than my main course (a fine but unexciting chicken couscous), so I figured I'd share.

A Good, If Obvious, Salad

baby spinach
red grapes
white onion
roquefort cheese
spiced walnuts
Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

Make the walnuts (see linked recipe). Dice white onion fine. Salt. Saute in a little olive oil over medium-high heat until browned. Remove from heat and cool. Put on top of salad with other ingredients and toss with dressing. (I went easy on the cheese and nuts 'cause the fat. If you are not watching your girlish figure, don't worry about it--put as much as you like.)

PS--I just realized that I posted this under DREW's name, not mine! Ha! That makes this post much funnier if you read it thinking Drew is writing.

infusion profusion

2010-03-07T21:13:00.004-06:00

Last fall, kumquat trees were on sale for seven dollars. Seven bucks?! Of course I bought one. It had a bunch of green kumquats on it, and they ripened to orange. Which presented the question: What could we do with a bunch of kumquats?

Well, duh. We decided to soak them in vodka. There’s a little background here. I’d bought some glassware from a chemical supply company, and I’d been intending to make some infused liquors. Maybe a mint rum, or a lemon basil vodka, or a pepper vodka. These bottles had sat in a box for months. Finally, I had an excuse to buy a lot of vodka. (Luckily, we harvested the kumquats before the snow came.)

We had four bottles, so we went to the store and wandered around the produce section. We decided on four combinations: kumquats & rosemary; pomegranates & basil; blood oranges & star anise; and lemons, cucumbers, & dill.

Well, we opened the pomegranate & basil vodka with a few friends, and it was quickly gone. (Before I could even take a picture of it!) Delicious. The kumquat & rosemary was similarly dispatched. (Note: if you want to cover the taste of alcohol, use rosemary. Worked like a charm.) We have yet to drink the blood orange & anise vodka, but we’ve tasted it, and it is great. The herbs make these vodkas light and refreshing – something that makes a great aperitif over ice with club soda.

Notice that I have not mentioned the lemon, cucumber, & dill infusion. That’s because it was disgusting. It tasted like rotten pickles. We quickly dumped it down the sink.

Three successes out of four attempts is a pretty good record, especially since we had no real idea what we were doing. After a conversation with a mixologist at Cure in New Orleans, Kaytie came home with a wealth of information about infusing liquors, and we wanted to try more.

We also needed an excuse to have a party. The logical conclusion? Infusion 5000: The Epic Infused Liquor Contest! It’s going down this weekend. Stay tuned for the results.

mom's favorite breakfast

2010-03-04T09:31:00.000-06:00

Whenever we visit Dallas, Mom has banana bread as an option for breakfast. Consequently, I have made the assumption that she LOVES banana bread.

(Of course, it is possible that she has banana bread because she thinks WE love it. There was a period of several years when she would have a huge bowl of red apples waiting for me every single time I came to visit. I wasn't particularly fond of red apples, but Mom thought I liked them, so she made sure to always have them on hand. She's that kind of mom. I’m currently trying to impress upon her my love for cookies in hopes that there will always be a big plate of them in Dallas!)

Regardless, I think Mom likes banana bread. So, when she came to town last weekend, I had to have some banana bread ready for Saturday breakfast. BUT, for some reason, I don’t have her recipe. After looking at a couple online and trying one from a coworker, I’ve come up with a great recipe. (It got Mom’s stamp of approval.)

Banana Bread

5 ½ Tbs butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar
6 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1 egg
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 2/3 cups flour

First, let’s talk bananas. When a banana gets too dark, throw it in the freezer (peel on). When you have 6 bananas, you’re ready for this recipe. Why freeze them? I have found that when you thaw a frozen banana, it will be so gooshy that it is almost impossible to hold. It is disgusting, but so soft. And perfect for banana bread.

Okay, preheat the oven to 350.

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in the bananas, vanilla, and pineapple juice. Beat in the egg.

Add the salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix it in.

Mix in the flour.

Grease a 4 x 8 loaf pan. If you want to be sure that your bread will come out of the pan without sticking to the bottom, here’s a trick - cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan. After you grease the pan, press the paper onto the bottom, and grease the pan again. When the bread comes out of the pan, you’ll be able to peel the paper off the bottom of your bread.

Pour the batter into the pan, and bake it for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Take the bread out of the pan, and cool it on a rack.

guest blogger: my mom!

2010-02-28T09:44:00.009-06:00

Cena di Sicilia

Antipasti

Golden Risotto
with Shrimp

Seared Tuna
with Sweet-Sour Onions
Salad Greens in
Olive Oil Vinaigrette
Semolina Bread

Regaleali Bianco,
Tasca d’Almerita

Blood Orange and
Kiwi Composition
Almond Thins

I am Drew’s mother, and therefore, Kaytie’s mother-in-law. First of all, that’s fun because I love their medley of wonderful traits and talents, and second, because they love to cook and I love to eat. I like to think that I taught Drew everything I know about cooking, and maybe I did plant some seeds and a few family recipes, but the truth is, he and Kaytie take cooking to new levels as they add their own touches to existing recipes and invent new ones to share on this blog.

So when I told them about a recent “theme” dinner at our house, Kaytie invited me to be a guest blogger on Tiny Biscuits!

For Christmas our friends Cynthia and Bob gave us a copy of a newly-released cookbook written by their sister-in-law. Seafood alla Siciliana, by Toni Lydecker, is a beautiful book, so when I planned an evening with our dinner group (4 couples, including Bob and Cynthia) I thought it would be fun for each of us to cook a dish from Toni’s book. (We may be baby boomers, but our husbands do cook).

I planned the menu and my friends enthusiastically chose the part they each wanted to make. Chris and David started us off with the Antipasti. Their homemade crostini was especially perfect for the eggplant spread, and the herbs and olive oil they added to the mozzarella balls were delicious!

Gail made the Risotto with Shrimp, page 122, once she arrived so it could be served immediately when prepared, and we all licked our plates, partly because the orange zest made this dish so good.

My husband and I chose to do the Seared Tuna, page 183; the sweet-sour onions were a perfect complement to the tuna, along with the mint garnish. This dish was delicious, though next time we’ll be more generous with the sea salt and pepper when we season the fish. I also made the Semolina Bread which was fantastic - so well-worth the time. We found the semolina flour at Jimmy’s, a great Italian grocery store, as well as several of the wines that Toni suggests in her book.

We ended with Cynthia’s dessert – Kiwis and Blood Oranges, page 248 – fresh, light, and authentic since January is blood orange season in Italy, even though to buy them in Dallas in January you have to live with the guilt of carbon footprint. She planned on making the Almond Thins, page 245, but arrived with the Sesame Seed Cookies, page 246, as well, thank goodness! It’s OK to eat all the cookies if you eat your fruit – right?

We ended our gourmet dinner with dessert wine and espresso, ready to get together again with some more of Toni’s great recipes!

Seared Tuna with Sweet-Sour Onions

1 large tuna steak (about 1 lb), cut into 3-4 portions
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper (optional)
5 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 Tbs sugar (or to taste)
1 large red onion, cut in wedges
extra-virgin olive oil
several mint leaves, snipped into ribbons

Season the tuna on both side with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt with ¼ cup water. This is the sweet-sour mixture.

In a heavy-bottomed skillet, combine the onion with a little olive oil. Cook over medium-low heat, covered, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the sweet-sour mixture, stirring often as the liquid evaporates and the onions caramelize. Transfer to a bowl.

Wipe the skillet clean. Add 1 Tbs olive oil, and raise the heat to medium. Sear the tuna until well browned. Turn the steaks over, and pile the onions on top. As soon as the second side is browned, reduce the heat and add a little water. Simmer a minute or so for medium rare.

Transfer the tuna to dinner plates. Deglaze the pan by adding a little water, and cook until thickened. Drizzle over the onion-topped steaks. Sprinkle with mint.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

hot chocolate

2010-02-14T22:12:00.003-06:00

Success! After a failed attempt at Emeril's white chocolate pots de creme, I went in search of a new, better recipe written by someone who can complete a sentence coherently and whose catch phrase is an actual phrase, not a single syllable. (So I'm not an Emeril fan. His recipe didn't work.)

Anyway, I googled pots de creme and found a recipe that I liked. Then, I fiddled with it. What resulted was a delicious, rich, make-sink-to-the-bottom-of-the-pool-if-you-don't-wait-at-least-an-hour-or-two dessert.

Hot and sweet is a great combination. (That's why I married Kaytie!) Here, you get the sweet bitterness of dark chocolate, followed by the heat from the cayenne. Plus, you get to feel like Montezuma. If, however, you are a spice weenie, you can leave out the cayenne.

Aztec Pots de Creme

(makes 8)

1 1/3 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup whole milk

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

6 large egg yolks

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300.

Dump the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. I used chocolate chips, but if you have a large chunk, chop it into small chunks.

In another bowl, whisk together the yolks, sugar, cayenne, and a pinch of salt.

Combine the cream, milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Scald the mixture. (Heat over medium high heat until little bubbles form around the edge. Don't bring it all the way to a boil, though.)

Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate, and whisk until well-combined.

Start whisking the yolks, and continue to whisk as you slowly stream in the chocolate. (This is where a buddy might come in handy.)

Pour the mixture through a strainer to remove any chunks of egg that might have formed. (They shouldn't, if you whisk like mad and pour slowly.) Let this sit for 15 minutes.

Get a big baking pan that can hold eight 6-oz creme brulee ramekins and that has sides at least an inch or two high. A turkey-roasting pan worked for me. Line the bottom of the pan with a dish towel.

Divide the chocolate mixture evenly among the eight ramekins. Set them in the pan, on the dish towel. Move the big pan to the middle rack of your oven. Using hot tap water, fill the roasting pan with water so that it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the roasting pan with foil, and poke a couple holes in the foil.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers wobble just a little when you jiggle each ramekin.

Remove the ramekins from the water bath, and cool them on a rack for an hour. Finish cooling them in the fridge for at least three more hours.

Serve with florentine cookies, and garnish with Kahlua whipped cream.

Kahlua Whipped Cream

2 Tbs Splenda (or powdered sugar would probably work)

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

2 Tbs Kahlua

Put your bowl and beater in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

Put the cream and Splenda in the bowl, and whip like mad. You can use a whisk, but an electric mixer is so much easier.

When you've gotten the consistency you desire, gently fold in the Kahlua.

shrimp veracruzana

2010-02-14T21:43:00.003-06:00

Hola!

There is really nothing more satisfying than creating a new dish and serving it to Tott. She is so appreciative! Drew is, too, but he is bound by marriage to like what I do. Tott is not, so when she smacks her lips in approval, I am gratified.

We were digging through my Paula Peck cookbook this weekend when we came across "Red Fish Veracruzana." It sounded wonderful, but it's kind of a pain to get fresh fish around here. It can be done, but it's not cheap or easy. (So many "cheap and easy" jokes could be made right here at either my or Tott's expense; I'll refrain.) Anyway, I decided to make it using shrimp instead. With a few improvisations, it resulted in a dish that I'd serve to real company, not just Tott.

The recipe is quick and relatively light, too. Served with a green salad with some ripe avacado, it was a perfectly wonderful meal.

Shrimp Veracruzana

1 pound of shrimp, heads off, peel on
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 onions, minced
½ onion, not chopped
1 stalk celery, rough chopped
1 lemon
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon basil, chopped
1 tablespoon oregano, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 can crushed tomatoes (or 2 cups of fresh tomatoes, seeded, peeled, and diced)
2 tablespoons tomato puree
½ teaspoon sugar
½ cup white wine (preferably sauvignon blanc)
½ cup green olives, sliced
½ cup black olives, sliced
½ cup cilantro, minced
olive oil
butter

First, peel the shrimp. Do not throw the shrimp peels away. Put them in a small pot with the ½ onion, lemon cut in half, cayenne, and fill with water to cover. Simmer over low heat while chopping other veggies. This is your shrimp stock.

Take a medium saucepan and heat on medium. Add olive oil to coat bottom. Once oil is hot, add peppers, onions, and garlic. Once veggies are soft, add basil, oregano, chili powder, cumin, and bay. Toss and let cook about 2 minutes longer. In those 2 minutes, strain the shrimp stock. Add ½ a cup to the pan of veggies. Add tomatoes, tomato puree, wine, and sugar. You may add hot sauce liberally at this step if you like things caliente.

Cook down until sauce thickens up a bit and comes together–maybe 5-10 minutes on medium heat. Once you’ve tasted the sauce and you like it, add the shrimp. Cook until the moment they all look white/pink on the outside–NO LONGER. Then, immediately take off of the heat and stir in the olives and cilantro. If you are decadent, and I am, swirl in about 2 tablespoons of soft butter at this point, stirring until completely dissolved. Serve atop rice or pasta.

deceptively simple

2010-02-10T07:48:00.001-06:00

Top Ten Reasons This is the Perfect Valentine’s Dessert

10. Everybody loves crème brulee. Everybody.
9. This recipe makes enough for six. Unless you’re a swinger, you’ll have leftovers.
8. You can buy yourself a Valentine’s present – special kitchen gear!
7. Crème brulee looks great by candlelight.
6. Preparing it ahead of time gives you time to shave.
5. Tastes great. ‘Nuf said.
4. Less filling – won’t make you feel too heavy for that midnight dip in the hot tub.
3. Blowtorches are sexy.
2. A fancy dessert like this can make up for any crappy dinner. Finish on a high note.
1. It’s so much easier to do than it looks.

Fuzzy Navel Crème Brulee

2 cups heavy cream
1 Tbs vanilla
1 Tbs orange zest (I used blood oranges, but any orange’ll do)
1 small egg
3 large egg yolks
7 Tbs peach syrup (maple syrup is an okay substitute)
4 Tbs Sugar-in-the-Raw, for topping
6 (4-ounce) brulee molds
1 kitchen torch (not completely necessary, but awesome)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Pour the heavy cream and vanilla into a pan and place over medium heat. Scald the cream by heating it until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan. Remove from the heat.

While cream is heating, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolks, syrup, and orange zest until well blended.

Continue to whisk while slowly pouring the hot cream into the egg mixture and whisk until the mixture is smooth and evenly mixed. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer or through cheesecloth to remove any overcooked eggs and orange zest. (Your next step will be easier if you strain the mixture into a large liquid measuring cup or a bowl with a spout.)

Place the brulee molds on a baking sheet with 1-inch-high sides or in a casserole dish. Fill the molds half-full with the custard and set the sheet in the oven. (It’s much easier to move the sheet with the molds only half-full.) Now, finish filling the molds.

Using hot tap water, pour enough water into the baking sheet (or casserole dish) to reach halfway up the sides of the molds. The water bath will make sure the custard cooks evenly.

Bake about 40 minutes. When finished, the custard should tremble slightly when gently shaken. If it looks like there is any liquid under the skin of the custards, put them back in the oven and shake them every 5 minutes or so until they are ready.

Remove the molds from the water bath and place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate for 2 hours (or for up to 3 days) before serving.

Caramelize the sugar topping right before serving. If there is any condensation on the top of the custard, blot it up carefully with a paper towel. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of the sugar over the top of the custards. Make sure you spread the sugar evenly; if it is too thick or too thin in places, the caramelization will not be even.

Fire up the kitchen torch. Keep it moving as you caramelize the sugar to a deep, liquidy brown. It will harden as soon as you stop torching it.

(If you’ve spent too much on flowers and silk sheets to buy your own kitchen torch, you can caramelize the sugar in the oven. Put the custards on a baking sheet, sprinkle the sugar, and set the oven on broil. When the broiler is hot, place the sheet about 4 inches under the broiler, and heat until the sugar is caramelized. You’re more likely to burn the crème brulee under the broiler, so you must watch the caramelizing closely! They are finished when they are light brown.)

high steaks

2010-02-07T07:40:00.001-06:00

This fire was on purpose. (Not like the oven fire of '08.)

We decided to make a fancy dinner one Saturday night in the recent past. Kaytie made glazed carrots and twice-baked potatoes, and I was in charge of the meat.

Well, in charge of cooking the meat. Kaytie wanted Steak Diane. I, of course, agreed with her. (She’s rarely wrong, especially about food; she always out-orders me at restaurants.) After a bit of research, I combined several recipes and came up with this delicious dish.

By the way, what was for dessert? Fuzzy Navel Creme Brulee! (Coming soon to this very blog!)

Steak Diane

1 lb beef tenderloin, sliced into 8 thin filets
2 Tbs butter, divided
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 Tbs shallot, diced
1 tsp mustard
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup heavy cream
about 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
about 1 oz brandy
red wine (mostly for drinking, but reserve a splash or two)
½ tsp salt, plus salt & pepper to taste

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Melt 1 Tbs butter. Salt & pepper one side of each filet, and place that side down on the hot skillet. Season the upper sides of the filets with salt & pepper as they cook in the skillet for exactly 2 minutes. Flip the filets, cook for 2 minutes on that side, and remove them from the pan.

Turn down the heat to medium, and melt another tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Add mushrooms, shallots, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and ½ tsp salt, and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender.

Add the cream and cook for 2-3 minutes. The sauce will begin to reduce a bit. Use your splashes of red wine if the sauce looks like it is getting too thick or separating.

Stir in the parsley, saving just a little for garnishing on the plate.

Put the meat back in the pan, and squoosh it around briefly in the sauce.

Here’s the fun part! Add the brandy, stir very briefly (once or twice around the pan), and tilt the pan so the sauce gathers at one edge. Light the fumes coming off of the sauce, and let the fire burn itself out. (This is traditionally done at the table. You should definitely have an audience to appreciate how awesome you are.)

Serve immediately, pouring the sauce over the steak and garnishing with parsley.

**NOTE: This method should cook the steaks to medium rare. If you want them more done (though I don’t think you should), just cook them longer on each side.

breakfast pudding

2010-02-02T10:37:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while, Kaytie gets a hankering for pancakes. I make them for her with love, and we always end up with a ton of leftover pancakes. I hate throwing food away, so I started thinking about what I could do with these extra pancakes.

Tah DUM!!

Pancake Bread Pudding

6 cups torn-up pancakes (about 15 pancakes)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 Tbs butter, plus ½ Tbs
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
½ onion, minced finely
6 slices bacon, cooked crispy & crumbled
1 cup pecan pieces

Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat. Melt about half a tablespoon of butter. Add your onions, and sauté slowly, stirring occasionally, until the onions are a golden brown. Oh, and you should salt them when you put them in the pan.

Combine milk, cream, and butter in a small sauce pan. Heat until bubbles begin to form around the edges of the pan. Take the pan off the stove, and pour into a mixing bowl.

In another bowl, as the milk mixture is heating, whisk together the eggs and vanilla.

Now, temper. Ladle a bit of the hot mixture into the eggs, whisking madly. Do one more ladle, whisking madly. Drizzle the egg mixture slowly into the hot milk mixture, whisking constantly. Your forearms will be sore, but this is important, because all of this tempering and whisking will keep the eggs from cooking and curdling.

Tear your pancakes up into small pieces and put them in a third bowl. (If you don’t have enough pancakes, you could substitute some white bread.) Pour the milk & egg mixture over the pancakes. Toss gently to combine. Allow this mixture to cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 325.

When the pancake mixture is cool, stir in the bacon, onions, and pecans.

Butter a baking dish (about 8 by 11). Pour the pancake mixture into the baking dish, spreading evenly, and then put it in a large roasting pan.

Set the roasting pan in the center of the oven, and pour enough hot water into the roasting pan so that the water comes halfway up the sides of the baking dish. (Don’t overfill, or the water might get into your pancake pudding, making it soggy and gross.)

Bake until the pudding firms up and is beginning to turn golden brown, about 30-45 minutes.

Let cool about 10 minutes, and serve with pomegranate syrup (below) or with regular ol’ pancake syrup.

Pomegranate Syrup

½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup water
2 cups pomegranate seeds (1 huge pom, or 2 small)

Bring to a boil, and boil until the seeds burst and the sauce begins to reduce, about 15 minutes. If it seems like it’s taking too long, stick a lid on the pot.

gorgeous goat cheese gougeres

2010-01-29T20:46:00.006-06:00

Tott (in case you are not a regular reader, Tott is "The Official Taste Tester," otherwise known as Bethany, my best friend and gourmand extraordinaire) and I had a "date" tonight. We had talked of grand plans of pot roast and mashed parsnips, but she showed up, and we were both tired and sluggish, and we were just too lazy. (Did you know pot roast takes 4 hours? I get off work at 6. I cannot wait until 10 to eat.)

So, we settled on my French onion soup. Delicious (and perfect for the nasty rainy night), but kind of boring--I mean, I've made it a million times. I wanted to try something new!

I found new. I found new and awesome. I found new and French and delicate and light and creamy and crispy and brown and baked. What I found, my friends, was gougeres.

I have no idea what gougeres are supposed to taste like. I have only been to France once, and it was only a few days, and it was very, very hot and so Drew and I just sat in the hotel room and took cold showers, separately, repeatedly. We did not eat gougeres.

I saw beautiful pictures, however, and lovely descriptions, on the many food blogs I read. Apparently, they are like little puff pastries. So, I decided the try them myself. And they turned out wonderful. Right now, I am biting my lip, trying to restrain myself from going and eating the three I saved for Drew for when he gets off work.

Goat Cheese Gougeres

1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
3 teaspoons of sugar
6 tablespoons of butter, cut in little pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
5 eggs, beaten (4 eggs set aside in one bowl, and one in another)
8 ounces of goat cheese
black pepper

Put the water, the butter, and the salt and sugar in a little pan. Cover it, put it on high, and bring to a nice rolling bowl. Don't let it boil over, because water with butter in it burns when it boils over. Once it's boiling, add the flour and take off of heat. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it forms a smooth ball pulling away from the pot. You may need to put it back on the heat, but I didn't.

Put the dough in a bowl, and add the 4 beaten eggs a little bit at a time. Stir like heck with a wooden spoon until it's smooth and glossy and gorgeous. Add the goat cheese a little bit at a time, stirring like heck.

Take a cookie sheet, covered in parchment paper. Put little balls of dough on the paper (I scooped mine with a little ice cream scoop. (By the way, I seem to be quite fond of parentheses tonight. Sorry 'bout that.)) Brush with the remaining beaten egg. Sprinkle with fresh cracked black pepper.

Put them in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. Take them out and let them cool a little but then eat them.

(Doing this will result in beautiful, brown, crispy-on-the-outside-but-really-goat-cheese-creamy-on-the-inside gougeres. If you want them less gooey on the inside, poke little holes in them and let the steam escape. Give them a few more minutes in the oven to let them dry out a little on the inside. I like mine gooey, because I do not know any better.)

By the way, I have no idea how to pronounce "gougeres." Tips would be welcome, because right now, I say them like this: gow-jer-eez. I am sure that is incorrect. Please help in the comments if you speak French.

meat's favorite cookie

2010-01-28T07:02:00.000-06:00

Folks at the hunting camp tired of petit fours? Need something to bring to a potluck bachelor party? Is your Marine Corps battalion having a bake sale? Are you hosting a pork-themed dinner party? Not enough protein in your dessert?

Fear not. Your problems are solved. Because cookies were once too healthy, I bring you…

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies!
(makes about 3 ½ dozen)

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
2 Tbs milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
½ cup peanut butter chips (heaping)
9-10 slices bacon

Cook the bacon. You want it as crispy as possible. It’s easiest to do in the oven, I think. Cook at 425 for 15-20 minutes. Once the bacon is crisp and cool, crumble it. (I pulsed mine in the food processor a few times.) You should end up with about a heaping ½ cup.

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine brown sugar, Crisco, milk, and vanilla, and mix well. Stir in the egg.

Add flour, salt, and baking soda, and combine.

Stir in the peanut butter chips and bacon.

Use a spoon to scoop out portions of the cookie dough that are roughly 1 1/2 inch in diameter, and drop them on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9 minutes. (This is the perfect time for my oven to produce soft cookies - you may need to adjust the time by a minute or two.)

Remove cookies from the pan immediately, and cool on a cooling rack.

** I also made a batch using some dark chocolate chips instead of PB chips. They were good (Kaytie preferred them), but I think the peanut butter bacon cookies are best.

uptown cookies

2010-01-26T07:26:00.001-06:00

I set out to make a fancy dessert a few nights ago: pots du crème. I followed Emeril’s recipe, and it was a failure. (Not that the white chocolate pots weren’t delicious – they were. But they didn’t firm up as much as I thought they should.) I could go on and on about my dislike for Emeril and his incoherent babbling, but I’d hate to sound rude…

I was saved, however, by the Florentine cookies that were meant to be served along with the pots. This recipe I did change a little; I added some almond extract and subtracted some vanilla. They’re fantastic, light and crisp - not nearly as rich as the cookies I normally make.

Florentine Cookies

1 stick butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
¼ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup pecans (or pecan pieces)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

Beat in the egg.

Add the vanilla, almond extract, baking soda, and salt. Mix until smooth.

Put the oats and pecans in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Emeril claims you can use a blender for this, too.

Add the pulverized mixture to the creamed mixture, and beat until it’s incorporated.

Drop teaspoonfuls about 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Flatten them a little with your fingers.

Bake for 6 minutes, until golden brown. (In my oven, I baked them for 4 minutes, turned the pan for even heating, and baked them for another 4 minutes.)

NOTE: Only bake about 5 or 6 cookies at a time. Why, you ask? Because of this next step.

After you remove them from the oven, let them cool briefly. While they are still warm, roll them carefully into cookie cigars. I found that sliding a knife under the cookies got them off the parchment paper best, and I could only get 5 or 6 cookies rolled before the rest cooled too much to roll. (Though they taste just fine if they’re flat.)

Cool completely on a wire rack.

who dat? crawfish pasta

2010-01-24T22:38:00.003-06:00

What a game! In case you didn’t know, the Saints are going to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. Who dat! As a graduate of Tulane and a resident of Jackson (where the Saints train in the summer), of course I’m thrilled. In honor of the Saints’ victory, I have created this tasty, easy crawfish (not crayfish) pasta recipe. Perfect thing to serve at your Super Bowl party!
Now, to tell the truth, I was planning on making this pasta tonight, win or lose, because we brought home leftover shrimp and crawfish from the Crawdad Hole last night, and I needed a good way to use them up. Still, it’s nice that it’s a celebratory pasta instead of a consolation pasta, right?

Who Dat? Pasta

4-6 cups of pasta, cooked (I used farfalle)
1 pint heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ cup shredded parmesan
1 link of andouille sausage (or smoked sausage if you can’t get andouille), diced
1 tsp. Tony Chachere’s
1 can whole corn kernels, drained
2 bunches of green onions, sliced very thin
1 package of frozen cooked crawfish tails, defrosted and washed
1 package of frozen deveined & peeled uncooked shrimp, defrosted and washed. (optional)

Heat saucepan to medium. Brown sausage. Add butter. Add garlic once butter is melted. Brown but be careful not to burn. Add cream and Tony’s. Let come to a boil, then reduce heat. Don’t let it boil over! (Okay, so mine boiled over, but it wasn’t the end of the world.) Once it’s reduced by about half, add the corn and parmesan. The parmesan should thicken it up.

If you’re using shrimp, add the shrimp now, and cook until just pink. Then remove sauce from heat, and add the crawfish tails. Let crawdads get warmed through, then pour over pasta. Top with green onions and more parmesan if you like.

soup, soup, beautiful soup!

2010-01-20T22:59:00.002-06:00

Beautiful soup! (apologies to L. Carroll)

So, my most recent post concerns twice-baked potatoes. This recipe take that recipe and says: "Ha! You think you are delicious! I will show you! I am delicious and low-fat-ish! And I will feed an army! Take that, you fool!" Which, honestly, is really an un-called-for level of aggression, but you get the point.

Baked potato and leek soup. This is easy! My recipe, as always, is imprecise, but when I am struck by the mood to create, taking the time to write down measurements is such a drag, man.

Baked potato and leek soup:

4 potatoes
6 leeks
6 slices of turkey bacon, diced
2 cups of baby portabellas, sliced
2 cans of chicken stock (unless you have homemade, in which case, 4 cups homemade chicken stock)
Fake butter in abundance
1 % milk
Fat-free sour cream
Pinch dried sage
1 bay leaf

First, heat the oven to 400. Put 4 Idaho baking potatoes, pierced, in the oven for an hour. In the meantime…

Take a large stock pot. Heat it up to medium high. Add a dash of olive oil, about one tablespoon if you want to be anal about it. Let oil get hot but not smoking. Add diced bacon. Let it get kind of crispy but not burnt. (Is “burnt” a word? I had a Crayon labeled “burnt orange” as a child. Therefore, “burnt” is preferable to “burned” in my book.) Add sliced mushrooms. Saute a few minutes. I think I might have added a dash of Worchester sauce and a sprinkle of sugar, but hey, my memory’s not so hot. Then add the leeks and salt. Saute until soft. Add the chicken stock and herbs.

Ok, so now your potatoes should be close to finished. Once they are, proceed to make somewhat runny mashed potatoes with them and your milk and fake butter (reserve the skins). If you don’t care a fig about fat, make them with real butter and cream. Otherwise, if you, like the rest of us, occasionally cannot fit into your pants, make with margarine of choice and 1% milk.

Once the potatoes are mashed, add to the stock and stir vigorously to incorporate. Add the container of sour cream and stir with even more vigor. Voila! You have potato and leek soup!

The piece de resistance, of course, is topping the soup with fried potato skins. To do so, take the skins of the baked potatoes. Slice them into strips. Take a generous amount of olive oil (1/2 a cup?) and put in a sauté pan. Heat to high heat. Add the strips of skin and fry until very brown. Scoop out and drain on plates lined with paper towel. Season liberally with garlic salt and pepper. Top soup with fried potato skins and, if you are a true gourmand, shred a delicious cheese of your choice and add to the soup before adding the skins.

The TOTT, a true connoisseur of soups, gave this her hearty stamp of approval, as did her disgusting little pug-dogs as they licked drippings off the ground. I hope you concur.

twice-baked is better than half-baked

2010-01-19T23:17:00.003-06:00

Well, hello, gorgeous. It's been such a long, long time. I won't make excuses, but as an apology, let me offer you the easiest, cheapest, most d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s recipe I can think of: truffled twice-baked potatoes.

Drew decided to woo me this past Saturday night with steak Diane; I flirted back with these babies. They are rich, creamy, and so wonderful. Oh, and in case you didn't know, the skin is able to be eaten (and, indeed, is one of the best parts).

My recipe is pretty loose: you need one potato per couple. Let's pretend we're making it for two. Take one Idaho baking potato. Scrub it good. Sprinkle it with some salt. Pierce your potato several times with a fork. Pre-heat your oven to 400. Put your potato in for an hour. Once an hour has passed, remove. Cool for a few minutes, then split with a big knife. Take a fork or a spoon and scoop out the meat from each half into a bowl, being very careful to keep each skin intact.

Take the potato meat and mash it with some cream and some butter. The proportions are really up to you, and dependent upon how big your tater is. I'd guess I used 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 of cream for 1 potato (decadent, I know). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now, I always add 2 drops of truffle oil. Truffles go wonderfully with potatoes (and eggs, incidentally). If you don't have truffle oil, it'll still be good, but truffle oil elevates these to FANCY. You could also add Asiago or Romano or Parmesan to these, either in place of or in addition to the truffle oil.

Anyway, mash up your taters (I just use a fork, but you can use whatever implement makes you happy: ricer, masher, egg beater, what-have-you. I did read once, however, that you want to manipulate the taters as little as possible, or else they get kinda glue-y.) Once you have a tasty mash, fill the shells back with the mashed potatoes. Put a lil' pat of butter in the middle, then put them back in a 250-degree oven for about 20 minutes. For the last two or three minutes, put under the broiler to make the tops nice and brown. Top with chives, chopped scallions, or chopped parsley.

Missed you much! XOXO.

breakfast sandwiches

2010-01-17T14:11:00.003-06:00

We went to church this morning, and when we got home, my lovely wife asked for brunch, crawled in bed, and promptly went back to sleep. (That’s one of the things I admire about Kaytie – she’s a champion sleeper.)

I knew I’d have to make something tasty to tempt her back into the waking world of the afternoon, so I stuck my head in the fridge and got to thinkin’.

Which brings me to a joke I just made up. (Or possibly I heard it a while ago, and now my subconscious has pushed it to the surface. Either way, it makes me laugh.)

What is a frog’s favorite sandwich?

A croque-monsieur!

Sometimes, I’m so funny, it hurts. (Usually, it just hurts other people – I crack myself up. For instance: What do you call a little donkey? A burrito!)

A croque-monsieur is a French sandwich, basically a grilled ham and cheese. A croque-madame has a fried egg on top.

I created a croque-hermaphrodite, I suppose.

It’s a ham and cheese sandwich, soaked in egg and cooked like French toast.

French Toast Croque-Monsieur

sandwich bread
cream cheese
pepper jelly
ham
eggs
milk
salt & pepper
butter

Spread cream cheese on one piece of bread. This is easier to do if you warm the cheese in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

Spread pepper jelly on another piece of bread. (I’m always looking for new uses for pepper jelly. Two years ago, when we actually had a garden, I preserved pounds of peppers as pepper jelly, and I still have way too much in the pantry.)

Use the two pieces of bread to make a sandwich with some ham inside.

Heat up a frying pan or griddle over medium heat, melting a little butter on it.

While the pan is heating, scramble eggs in a wide bowl with a flat bottom, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add a splash of milk as you scramble. (I used 3 eggs to make 2 sandwiches, and I only had a little left over.)

When the butter is bubbling, place the sandwich in the egg mixture, let it soak for a few seconds, and flip it over. Transfer the sandwich to the hot pan. Cook one side and then the other, letting each side brown a little. You can lift a corner of the sandwich to check how brown it is getting.

After the 2 main sides are cooked, I like to cook the crusty edges, too, so there won’t be gooey, uncooked egg on them. I do this by standing the sandwich up on each edge for about 5-10 seconds.

Serve warm. I topped ours with peach syrup that Santa brought me from Woody’s Smokehouse. You could dust yours with a little powdered sugar, or just eat it as it is.

PS- The sandwiches were great. Kaytie woke up, ate half of hers, got full, and went back to sleep. I should have made coffee, too.

slap your mama

2010-01-13T02:11:00.001-06:00

We try to limit desserts at the Christmas party. Not because we don’t like desserts; I love them. We have learned, however, that people don’t eat a lot of sweets at our cocktail parties. So, we just have some small bowls of M&Ms, peanut butter balls, and some sort of cookie.

This year, Kaytie suggested a cranberry and white chocolate cookie. Sounds decadent, no? It is.

This recipe is a riff on the basic chocolate chip cookie. It is also one more reason to keep Butter Flavor Crisco in your pantry.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbs milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecan pieces

Heat oven to 375.

Put Butter Flavor Crisco, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Blend until creamy.

Blend in egg.

Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture, gradually, stirring well as you go.

Stir in orange zest, chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls (about 2 measuring Tbsp.) of dough 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet immediately and cool on a rack.

more party food

2010-01-08T07:02:00.001-06:00

Phyllo cups are great. Not by themselves, of course – they stick to your teeth and barely taste like anything. They are, however, good little vehicles to deliver something delicious.

For the party this year, Kaytie made a shrimp and parmesan stuffing for the phyllo cups. It was creamy, warm, and filling, just what partygoers are looking for on a cold December evening.

I do not have the recipe for the shrimp filling. (We’re not always good about keeping track of what goes into recipes.) I know we boiled shrimp and then chopped it up. A can of corn and some mayonnaise were involved. Green onions, too. And a bunch of parmesan. Probably some salt and pepper. If you’re adventurous, you can probably make the filling with that information. Then, just fill the frozen phyllo cups and cook about 10 minutes according to the directions on the package.

If you are not adventurous, make this corn, crab, and brie dip. It is quite simply awesome. We made it for the 2008 Christmas party. You can serve it as a dip with pita crisps or Fritos, or you can scoop it into phyllo cups and follow the directions on the box for heating them.

Corn and Crab and Brie Dip

2 packages Alouette creme de brie
1 package cream cheese
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 stick butter
1 can whole kernel yellow corn
1 package fresh lump crabmeat, rinsed and picked over for shells
1 clove of garlic, minced
3/4 bunch green onions, diced
1-2 shakes of Louisiana hot sauce
Salt and pepper

Melt butter. Add garlic and sauté for a couple minutes. Add cream.

Turn heat to high until cream bubbles, then reduce heat and let cream simmer until reduced by half. You have to watch it or it’ll boil over.

Add everything else and stir until all the cheese is melted. Serve hot.

christmas party 09 - heavy hors d'oeuvres

2010-01-05T07:06:00.000-06:00

Kaytie’s boss thought it was hysterical that the invitation to our Christmas cocktail party asserted that we would be serving “heavy” hors d’oeuvres. I’m not exactly sure why; it seems that best way to describe what we do. We like to cook, and people like to eat our food. That’s why we have the party – to show off and bask in praise. (And it’s nice to see all of our friends…)

Anyway, the first couple of years, we did not advertise that the hors d’oeuvres were heavy, so people ate dinner before arriving at the party, and then they ate our food, and then they were uncomfortably full. By printing “heavy hors d’oeuvres” on the invitation, we avoid all of that. People show up hungry and leave happy.

This year, we had several old favorites on the menu. Pumped up jalapeno poppers, venison tenderloin medallions on gorgonzola-horseradish crustini (always a favorite), and truffled devilled eggs (Kaytie’s regular devilled eggs, plus a couple drops of truffle oil).

Kaytie also made a pate mold (see above). This is a secret family recipe that I will not post because the main ingredient is bologna. Bologna, mayonnaise, and pickle relish. I was not a fan of this – it tastes like bologna. Kaytie and Tott both liked it, so we served it.

Kaytie made shrimp toast cups (post coming soon), and I made little pork bites. These were braised pork on Mexican cornbread muffins with a cranberry-balsamic reduction. They tasted good, but the cornbread was a little too dry. We should have spread some butter on the mini muffins.

Braised Pork

6-8 lb pork shoulder, bone-in
12 oz beer
Brine:
10-12 oz molasses
1 ½ cups kosher salt
2 cups orange juice
6 cups water
2-3 bay leaves
4-5 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Rub:
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp garlic salt
1 Tbs ground chipotle peppers (or chili powder)
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs paprika

The night before you want to cook the pork, prepare the brine. Combine the molasses, salt, OJ, water, bay leaves, and Worcestershire sauce, and stir. Trim off any really large pieces of fat from the pork. Immerse the pork shoulder in the brine. (I put it in a large pot and put a stack of dinner plates on top to weight down the meat and keep it under the surface of the brine.) Let it soak in the brine for 8-12 hours, in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 325.

Remove the pork from the brine and pat dry with paper towels.

Mix together the spices for the rub. While wearing latex gloves (this will make the rub stick on the meat, and not on your hands), rub the spices all over the pork shoulder, especially in the crevices.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the pork on all sides, about 3 minutes each side.

Dump the beer into the dutch oven, and cover tightly.

Put it in the oven for 3 ½ to 4 hours, until the meat pulls away from the bone. I use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. The man recommends we cook pork to 160 degrees; I stop cooking around 150. You decide.

Use tongs or forks to pull the meat away from the bone and separate it from the fat. Serve with a balsamic reduction or BBQ sauce.

easy cheesy black-eyed peasy

2010-01-01T13:30:00.004-06:00

Well, here we are. Another New Year's Day. We started this blog a year ago with lists of our resolutions. Some, we were able to check off, and some will be added the list for 2010. I suppose that's the way it goes. (Pretty profound, huh?)

Anyway, let's get down to business. (I've never been one for nostalgia or for waxing poetic.) It's New Year's Day. Time to eat black-eyed peas and watch bowl games.

Cheesy Black-Eyed Pea Dip

approximately 16 oz Velveeta
1 can black-eyed peas, drained
1 small can green chilies, not drained
½ onion, diced (OR 3-4 green onions, sliced, depending on what's in the fridge)
4-5 dashes of Louisiana hot sauce
salt & pepper

If you are using a white or yellow onion, go ahead and sauté it in a little butter over medium heat until the onion is translucent. If you’re using green onions, don’t worry about it.

Cut the Velveeta into large cubes. (This will facilitate the melting process.)

Dump the "cheese" into a microwave-safe bowl, and then dump everything else in the bowl, too.

Heat in the microwave until melted and well-combined. The best way to do this is to heat for a minute, stir, heat for a minute, stir, and so on.

Serve with Fritos.

**I did not use the microwave this morning. I did it the way the pioneers did, in the top of a double boiler. (Kaytie gave me an old-school aluminum double boiler for Christmas, and I was excited to try it out. She also gave me some pink Himalayan salt, which comes in large rocks that have to be scraped on a tiny grater. She’s so cool.)

God bless us, everyone!

2009-12-25T07:06:00.001-06:00

One of the strongest memories from my childhood Christmases is that of my parents making peanut butter balls in the kitchen. Dad would roll the peanut butter mixture into balls, and Mom would dip them in melted chocolate. (Or maybe it was the other way around... I don't recall, but that's not the point anyway.)

Peanut butter balls are delicious. Tott says they're better than sex. What better endorsement could a tiny Christmas treat get??

I always make a double batch of these guys for our Christmas party. (That way, there's enough to snack on before the party, and there's always some left over.) I suppose you could make these at any time of the year, but I'm betting they taste best at Christmas.

Peanut Butter Balls

1 box powdered sugar (I think it's a pound)
1 cup of butter, room temp
1 jar creamy peanut butter (around 12 oz)
8 oz milk chocolate chips
1/4-1/2 bar of parafin wax

Combine the butter and sugar, and beat until smooth. Add peanut butter and keep beating until well blended.

Roll into balls. Smaller balls are better because the chocolate-to-peanut butter ratio is higher. My great grandmother's recipe card instructs us to roll the peanut butter mixture into 1/2-inch balls. I think it is preposterous to think that one might make such small balls. The ones I make are usually about an inch in diameter.

Grate the parafin wax into the top of a double boiler. Add the chocolate, and stir until melted and well combined.

Dip the balls in the chocolate, roll them around for a second with a fork to make sure they're completely covered, and then lift out.

Let the extra chocolate drip off for a moment, and then set on a cookie sheet that has been lined with wax paper.

Cool them in the refrigerator, and store them there. They can be (and always are) set out at a party, but they will soften a bit at room temperature. They're better at fridge temp.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

christmas party 2009

2009-12-20T18:00:00.003-06:00

It's our favorite time of year again. Christmastime! (Actually, it's been Christmastime for a while now, but we've been busy. Hence, a lack of posts.)

We love the movies, the music, the presents, the parties, the drinks, the decor, all of it! Most of all, we love throwing our Christmas party. We start planning the menu around the first of August, and it's a great chance to get compliments on our food and have a great time with all of our friends. (This year was also our chance to show off our new house and all the work we've done on it.)

This year's party was Saturday night, so we have loads of new recipes to share. I'm going to try to space out the posts, though. If I put all of the recipes up at once, you'd start drooling copiously, and too much drool can be hell on a keyboard.

I'll start with the little bowls that we place on virtually every flat surface in the house. We've found that when people are drinking (it is a cocktail party), they like to snack on something salty. So, we give everyone easy access to popcorn, olives, and nuts.

Fancy Olives

Stuffed olives are great, but they're expensive to buy and a pain in the, um, neck to make. Here's a quick and easy way to modify your olives.

Do this 3 or 4 days before you want to serve the olives. Get a jar of green olives from the grocery store. Drain the brine. (Next year, I'll save it in a small pitcher so we can make dirty martinis.) Peel 4-5 garlic cloves and slice them in half lengthwise. Cut two 1/2-inch slices of red onion into quarters. Put the garlic and onions into the drained jar of olives, and shake 'em all about. Fill the jar back up with olive oil, and let it sit in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. Ta da!

Roasted Pecans

These are awesome. 'Nuf said.

24 oz raw pecan halves
3 Tbs butter
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs garlic salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter. Mix in the brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, cayenne, and cinnamon.

Pour the mixture over the pecans, and toss to coat the nuts.

Bake the nuts on a cookie sheet for about 10-12 minutes, until they start to brown.

Remove and drain on paper towels.

Roasted Walnuts

Kaytie also made roasted walnuts, but she went for a different flavor on them.

24 oz raw walnuts
3 Tbs butter
3 tsp garlic salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp ground chipotle pepper
1/8 tsp cumin

Follow the above procedure. Melt the butter. Mix in the garlic salt, cayenne, paprika, chipotle, and cumin.

Pour the mixture over the walnuts, and toss to coat the nuts.

Bake the nuts on a cookie sheet for about 10-12 minutes, until they start to brown.

Remove and drain on paper towels.

**Obviously, you could use either pecans or walnuts for either recipe.

pumped up poppers

2009-11-05T08:14:00.000-06:00

If you're ever at a loss for a party snack, you should definitely make our jalapeno poppers. (Actually, we got the recipe from my sister Sara.) They're delicious, and because they're made with turkey bacon and fat-free cream cheese, they're pretty good for you.

We, of course, have a hard time leaving well enough alone, so Kaytie went looking for a new recipe, which I tweaked when I couldn't find chorizo at the grocery store.

Anyway, this recipe is great. It was a hit at our neighborhood Halloween party, and I'm sure it would be a hit at yours. If you have a little extra time, you should try out these beefed-up (well, sausaged-up) poppers.

Pumped Up Poppers

24 jalapeno peppers
1 lb ground pork sausage
8 oz smoked gouda, grated
1/4 red onion, finely diced
1 block cream cheese at room temp
1 egg
3 Tbs sour cream
salt and pepper
1 pkg turkey bacon, sliced in half

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut the tops off the jalapenos and split them lengthwise. Scrape the seeds and ribs out. This ensures that your poppers will be delicious without being too hot.

Brown the sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drain the fat, and put the sausage in a large mixing bowl.

Add the cheese, onion, egg, sour cream, and cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

Fill the pepper halves with the cheese mixture. Wrap half a slice of bacon around each pepper and secure with a toothpick.

Put the poppers on a rack (like a rack used for cooling cookies) placed on a cookie sheet. (Line the cookie sheet with foil for easy clean-up.)

Bake for about 15 minutes, and then broil for 3-5 minutes to make the bacon crispy. Keep an eye on them while broiling, though, so you don't burn them.

**You're going to have extra filling. You can just buy more jalapenos, or you can experiment with other things, like mushrooms, tomatoes, or bell peppers. These other things could probably be baked for about 15 minutes at 375.

boo!

2009-11-01T10:54:00.005-06:00

We come from crafty stock, which means that we carve pumpkins at Halloween. And when one carves a pumpkin, one is left with a whole mess of pumpkin flesh, goop, and seeds.

Kaytie used the flesh to make some Thai-influenced pumpkin soup. I'm not sure if she'll post about it, as it was a tad on the bland side. (I thought it could do with some bacon...)

And as far as I can tell, the goop is useless and only exists to make eating the pumpkin seeds more difficult.

But the seeds are tasty.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds
salt
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400.

Separate the seeds from the goop. (I couldn’t find an easy way to do this. I tried rinsing them in a colander and floating them in a bowl of water, but it pretty much boiled down to me squeezing them out of the goop and then rinsing them off.)

Boil the seeds. Use about 2 cups of water for every ½ cup of seeds. Add up to 1 Tbs salt for each cup of water used, depending on how salty you like your seeds. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the seeds.

Spread olive oil on a cookie sheet. Spread the seeds out on the sheet in a single layer.

Bake on the top oven rack for 10-20 minutes until the seeds are browned to your satisfaction. Let the pan cool on a rack.

**These are good, but I think I may spice them up a little bit next time. I think I could sprinkle some Greek seasoning or some other seasoned salt on the seeds before baking them.

milk, please

2009-10-22T08:14:00.004-05:00

When I was teaching, I tried to elicit good behavior through a system of awards. Kids could earn tickets, stickers, or points (depending on which year I was teaching) that they could then trade in for privileges or prizes. Basically, I bribed them.

By far, the most coveted prize was a batch of chocolate chip cookies. (I handed them out at the end of my class - let the next teacher deal with the sugar high!) I stumbled onto the recipe on the back of a Butter Flavor Crisco can and made just a couple tweaks. It's the best chocolate chip cookie I've had. Seriously.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

(makes about 4-5 dozen)

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
2 Tbs milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine brown sugar, Crisco, milk, and vanilla, and mix well. Add the egg, and mix well again.

Add flour, salt, and baking soda, and (guess what?!) mix well.

Stir in the chocolate chips. (In the above picture, I used both semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, but normally, I use only semi-sweet chips.)

Use a spoon to scoop out portions of the cookie dough that are roughly 1 1/2 inch in diameter, and drop them on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes. (This is the perfect time for my oven to produce soft cookies - you may need to adjust the time by a minute or two.)

Remove cookies from the pan immediately, and cool on a cooling rack.

**If you don't want to make the entire batch, the cookie dough can be kept in the freezer. You can scoop right onto the cookie sheet and put the cold dough right into the oven.

brunch

2009-10-02T07:27:00.003-05:00

Everyone loves brunch. (That's why I submitted a recipe for Cornbread Cakes Benedict to the Mississippi Magazine contest.)

Though I admit the above picture is not the prettiest, this recipe is a nice alternative to standard brunch egg dishes. We usually eat it as a scramble. Tott had a good idea, though. She made it finger food friendly by making the scramble and then putting it in Fillo cups and melting the cheese on top.

Sausage, Onion, & Apple Scramble

1 package of andouille sausage, sliced
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 or 2 green apples, diced
shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Saute sausage until it begins to brown. Add onions and apples. Sprinkle with spices. Saute until the onions and apples are soft. Drain fat. Serve topped with shredded cheese.

untimely but tasty

2009-10-01T07:20:00.000-05:00

This recipe should have been posted in June. That way, you could enjoy your gin fizz all summer long.

As it is, Kaytie wanted a glass of wine last night. We had none. She would settle for bourbon. Again, we had none. A gin drink, perhaps? Is there tonic in the fridge? Alas, no. Luckily, she's married to a bartender (me). I whipped up a gin fizz.

These drinks should be light and easy to drink, so you can guzzle them by the pool. (I like gin, so I tend to make them on the strong side.)

Gin Fizz

1 - 1.5 oz gin
3 - 4 oz club soda
1/2 tsp Splenda
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Mix over ice.

tired of potato salad

2009-09-29T07:49:00.001-05:00

I know summer officially ended a couple days ago, but I think we have a couple more weeks of barbecue weather. Traditionally, we have sides like potato salad and cole slaw with burgers and other grilled meats, but sometimes a new dish is pleasant.

We got this recipe from Kaytie's grandmother, and we've enjoyed it for several years now.

Radish Salad

1 bag or bunch of radishes
lots of salt
3 green onions
about 1/4 cup vinaigrette

Cut the green tops off of the radishes and rinse the radishes well. Scrub the dirt off.

Slice the radishes so thin that they are transparent. (Though I have done this with a knife, a mandoline makes this job much easier and faster.)

Place the sliced radishes in a bowl in very thin layers, salting generously between each layer. The salt gets the heat out of the radishes. (I'm not sure what that means, but that's what Kaytie's grandmother says, and I know that the radishes are much more palatable once they've been salted.) Cover the bowl and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours.

Dump the radish slices in a colander and rinse well. The salt has done its job and must be washed away.

Slice the green onions and put them in a bowl with the radishes and enough vinaigrette to cover. We use a balsamic vinaigrette from the grocery store, but you can certainly make your own.

Mix and serve.

NOTE: Once the dressing is added, the radishes will begin to turn pink. I'd wait to dress the radishes until right before you serve it. Alternatively, you can let the dressed salad sit overnight and serve a bright pink salad the next day.

P. S. I know there are too many pictures in this post. I don't care.

i'm a believer

2009-09-25T07:29:00.000-05:00

I've never been impressed by asparagus. (Except in Veggie Tales...) I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, when I tasted some asparagus at a potluck thrown by Kaytie's coworkers. It was lemony and crisp. I loved it.

I wanted to give it a try as a side next to some roasted pork tenderloin. It was great - had a nice acidity that set off the pork's sweet balsamic reduction.

Blanched Asparagus with Toasted Almonds

1 bunch of asparagus

juice of 1 lemon

1-2 Tbs butter

slivered almonds

Toast the almonds. I spread them on a small baking sheet and heated them in the toaster oven. Kaytie prefers to toast nuts in a skillet on the stove. Either way, KEEP AN EYE ON THEM. As soon as they start to brown, remove from heat.

Slice the tough bottom ends off the asparagus stalks.

Fill a large skillet with salted water. Bring to a boil.

Drop in all of the asparagus. Simmer until just fork tender (about 3 minutes).

Drain. Return the asparagus to the hot skillet and toss with the butter and lemon juice.

Top with toasted almonds and serve ASAP.

back in the saddle

2009-09-20T23:05:00.003-05:00

There are a lot of projects going on at our new house. (Maybe we'll finish them all by 2012...) Sometimes, my friends volunteer to help with the work. Most of the time, when they hear what I need, they find an excuse to avoid it. Caleb, on the other hand, followed through on his promise to help me put up my metal storage shed. In the rain.

In return, I cooked dinner, and Tallie and Kaytie joined us. Sunday supper lives again! I'd forgotten how great it is to cook a real meal; we've been eating a lot of beans & rice, sandwiches, and take out. I'd also forgotten how much I like to feed people.

I roasted some sweet potatoes and blanched some asparagus (recipe to follow) to go with a roasted pork tenderloin. It was great!

Roasted Pork Tenderloin
(feeds 4-5)

2 pork tenderloins
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 ground chipotle pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
garlic salt

Rinse the tenderloins and trim off the fat and silver skin. Place them in a glass bowl.

Dump the other ingredients (except the garlic salt) in the bowl, too. Goosh everything around so the pork is covered in the marinade. Marinate in the fridge for 8-10 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle the pork with garlic salt. Sear the pork in the skillet, about 30 seconds or a minute on each side. (I used a skillet with low sides, and the splattering oil caught on fire. It was awesome.)

Put the pork in the oven and roast for about 8-10 minutes. I used a remote probe thermometer and took the meat out when the internal temperature was 150-155 degrees.

Let the pork rest for 5 minutes before slicing. While the meat is resting, make the...

Mustard Balsamic Reduction

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp honey

Whisk everything together in a small pot and bring to a boil. Boil until reduced by about half.

Slice the pork into medallions and drizzle with the balsamic reduction.

who needs bisquick?

2009-07-14T14:51:00.006-05:00

Yes, we've been known to keep Bisquick in the house. (I also eat frozen chicken pot pies and mac 'n cheese from a box. What of it?) The biscuits it makes aren't great, but it's nice to have as a pancake mix.

Anyway, Kaytie wanted some pancakes one recent morning, but we were out of Bisquick. No problem, I thought. I can make up some pancakes. And so I did. They were a little too sweet, though that worked in our favor, as we were out of syrup.

While Tyler and Han were in town for my birthday this weekend (Kaytie let me jump out of a plane!), we invited them over for breakfast, and I tweaked my recipe. Here's the final product.

Pancakes
(makes about 18 3-inch pancakes)

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk

Mix all the ingredients together.

Use a 1/3-cup measure to scoop the batter onto a hot pan (over medium heat). After about a minute, when bubbles form in the top, flip the pancake.
Give the pancake about 30 seconds to brown before taking it off the griddle.

Serve hot with lots of butter and syrup.

new digs

2009-06-27T11:43:00.007-05:00

Well, we're finally moved in. Far from settled, though. We've refinished the floors (never again!), and we're almost finished painting the master bedroom. I've cut down more bamboo than I like to remember, and I've just barely made a dent in the overgrown backyard.

On the plus side, we're having a great time with our new hobby: buying furniture that needs to be reupholstered. So far, we've amassed a couch, a loveseat, a club chair, and a chair that we found on the curb in the new neighborhood. (Some reupholsterer is going to make a fortune.) Our most recent acquisition came from a nice family in Madison. We bought a sofa table they'd listed on Craigslist, and they threw in a wingback chair for free! People are so nice.

What better way to say, "Thanks!" than with a nice loaf of bread? Kaytie first made this lemon bread to welcome someone to our previous neighborhood. It's quite tasty. The best thing about this is that it's really more like cake - it just masquerades as bread. It's awesome with vanilla ice cream.

Because I can't leave well enough alone and with a nod to our readers at Hederman Brothers, I added some blueberries. Delicious!

Blueberry Lemon Bread

1 2/3 cup self-rising flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 tsp (packed) lemon zest (or up to 2 Tbs)
½ cup milk
3 oz fresh blueberries (half a cup)

Glaze

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, strained

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 ½ by 4 ½ by 2 ½ loaf pan.

In one bowl, whisk together flour and salt.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer (or your stand-up mixer) beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and lemon zest.

Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture a little at a time, alternating with a little milk.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake about 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven.

Make the glaze: Over low heat, combine the lemon juice and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the glaze is clear.

Loosen the edges of the loaf by running a sharp knife between the bread and the pan. Top with glaze, let bread cool in pan, then remove.

I give up.

2009-05-11T22:59:00.002-05:00

I am in the middle of exam hell, so I haven't posted anything (or cooked anything) in ages. The last time we cooked, we had a fish fry. That night seems like a happy but faint memory as I prepare for my Federal Courts exam on Wednesday. But procrastination is fun, and it's nice to think back to our last Sunday Supper, so here I am posting when I should be studying.

For the fish fry, Daddy brought us about a dozen fresh bass that he caught, and Drew had the pleasant task of filleting them. We soaked them in buttermilk and hot sauce, breaded them, and fried 'em up. We served our tasty fresh fish with corn on the cob, hush puppies, and cole slaw (as pictured unattractively above).

I love cole slaw because it is easy and cheap and refreshing. This is my momma's recipe, and I don't think it can be improved upon. As summer (and oppressive Mississippi humidy) approaches, you could probably use something cool and appetizing to bring to your next cook out or barbeque. So without further ado...

Cole Slaw

1 head of cabbage, chopped fine
3 or 4 carrots, shredded
1 white onion, chopped very fine
Miracle Whip
lots of salt and pepper

Combine the veggies with enough Miracle Whip to be moist but not soggy. Salt. Add pepper very liberally. Let it sit for at least an hour. Serves a bunch of people.

easy dessert

2009-05-09T11:03:00.004-05:00

Often, Lindsey brings a cake to Sunday dinner, but sometimes, we make our own dessert. One recent Sunday, we looked at our available ingredients, grabbed a random cookbook, and settled on pudding cake.

Sounds good, right? Pudding is good, cake is good ... it's a no-brainer. Turns out, it's pretty easy, too.

One note: this cake will never get firm. Don't expect it to. We overcooked the heck out of this cake (didn't seem to hurt it) before finally looking online for a picture of pudding cake. Apparently, this dessert is supposed to be cakey on the top and gooey on the bottom.

One more note: we made this in a cake pan. The recipe gives the option of baking in custard cups or a cake pan. I think it would be prettier if you made individual custard cups because you wouldn't have to scoop the cake of the pan to serve.

Lemon Pudding Cake

(from the Church of the Incarnation's Episcopal Epicure cookbook)

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbs butter

2 tsp lemon zest

3 eggs, separated

3 Tbs all-purpose flour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream the sugar, butter, and lemon zest together. Add 3 egg yolks and beat well. Add the flour, lemon juice, and milk, a little at a time, beating as you go.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold egg whites into the yolk mixture. It won't be smooth. In fact, it will look kind of gross.

Pour batter into buttered custard cups or 7-inch ovenproof dish. Put a larger pan in the oven. Place the cups or dish in the pan, and add water until the water level is halfway up the sides of the cups/dish.

Close the oven and bake until set. That's 30 minutes for cups and 45 minutes for the dish.

We served our with blueberries and whipped cream (well, Cool Whip). Raspberries would probably be good, too.

a moment to boast

2009-05-05T10:11:00.003-05:00

Well, it finally happened. I've been discovered. If you look on page 105 of Mississippi Magazine, you'll find a huge picture of Smoky Eggs Benedict, plus the recipe, plus a little picture of me and a blurb at the bottom. A blurb about me! I'm practically famous.

Why am I on page 105? Because I'm a category finalist! For that honor, I got six Mississippi Magazines in the mail (literally the day after I bought a stack of them at the store - curses!), plus prizes of cookbooks and a Mississippi-shaped cookie cutter. (Whoopee.)

I, of course, would rather be the grand prize winner. That honor, however, went to Peggy's Pound Cake, a recipe that a woman submitted in honor of her mother. (There's a very heart-warming story here.) I quickly scrutinized the recipe and offered scathing criticism, such as the fact that the recipe calls for cake mix! (I conveniently overlooked the fact that the cornbread cakes in my recipe call for cornbread from a mix, too...)

After a couple days of wallowing in sour grapes, I decided to actually try the pound cake. It's delicious. No doubt. I'm not sorry that I lost to Peggy. I mean, just look at that picture. Doesn't it look delicious? I'm not going to give the recipe here, because that doesn't seem fair and because that might violate some copyright law. So, I recommend you go out and buy a Mississippi Magazine (or come pick one up from me - I have loads of them) and cook this cake.

You should try my recipe, too.

updates are coming...

2009-05-03T22:10:00.003-05:00

I promise. We will be posting recipes again soon. We've just been distracted by exams and buying a house and ... well, really, just that. (We've been surviving on Lean Cuisines, mac n cheese, ham sandwiches, and potato chips. Gasp!) My last exam is tomorrow, though, so I'll be able to cook something soon, and I'll post about it ASAP. Poor Kaytie still has two weeks of exams.

P.S. This picture of celery has nothing to do with this post. But it looks nice, doesn't it?

make your own pizza night

2009-04-17T00:20:00.000-05:00

My mother had some true strokes of genius. Case in point: when she noticed that my three little brothers and I were sharing-impaired, she created Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night. Make a little extra dough, and everyone is happy.

The tradition endures to this day. Kaytie first met my brothers on a Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night. Everything was going swimmingly until she pilfered a pepperoni from someone else's pizza, which, of course, violated the entire premise of Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night. (We brothers still aren't very good at sharing.) Tyler has since forgiven her, which is a testament to how much a part of the family Kaytie has become.

I'm just going to give you a recipe for the pizza dough, because I think that pizza toppings are a deeply personal choice. I believe that anything and everything (especially bacon) should be thrown on top of a pizza, creating a pizza slice that sags under the toppings' weight, making a fork necessary. Kaytie, on the other hand, combines toppings deliberately and comes up with much more refined pizzas.

Often what we put on our pizza is simply a function of what we have in the kitchen. (Pizza's flexibility is one of the reasons I like it so much.) While developing this dough recipe, we've tried several combinations of toppings.

Pepperoni, bacon, green & black olives, sauteed onion, feta, and mozzarella with a red pizza sauce.

Bacon, sauteed onion, black olives, roasted garlic, sauteed spinach, pine nuts, and mozzarella with alfredo sauce.

Basil, green & black olives, and sauteed onions with an alfredo sauce.

Pizza Crust
(makes enough for 2 12-inch pizzas)

1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 (1/4-oz) package active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
4 Tbs olive oil (plus a little more)

Stir the yeast into the warm water. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and other spices together in a mixing bowl. Pour in the yeast-water and stir with a wooden spoon. Just when the dough pulls away from the bowl and forms a ball, stop stirring.

Dump 4 Tbs olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to spread the oil all over the sides of the bowl. Use your oiled fingers to move the dough to the oiled bowl, and roll the dough around so it is completely coated by the oil.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for an hour.

Move the bowl to the fridge for 5 or 6 hours.

Thirty minutes before you want to make the pizza, get the dough out of the fridge.

Put a baking stone (or upside-down iron skillet or cookie sheet) on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat the oven to 475.

Pour about 1 Tbs olive oil onto each of two 12-inch pizza pans and spread it around. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a smooth round in the center of a pizza pan. Let the dough sit for 10-15 minutes.

Spread the dough to the edge of the pan, rotating the pan to spread evenly.

Apply toppings.

Cover the pizza loosely with aluminum foil. Place the pan on the baking stone, and cook for 6 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 6-8 minutes more. The edge of the pizza crust should be crispy, and you can use a fork to lift the edge to see that the bottom of the crust is lightly browned.

We prefer to eat pizza sprinkled with salt and Louisiana hot sauce, but you don't have to.

P.S. This dough can be frozen after it has risen in the fridge. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and put it in a plastic container. To thaw, remove the plastic wrap and place the dough-sicle in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for 3-4 hours until it is completely thawed. After freezing, the crust won't be quite as fluffy, but it's still good.

fancy cookies

2009-04-14T10:20:00.001-05:00

Well, I think this is the last installment in the make-up-a-cookie-recipe saga. (Now that Lent is over, I can eat sweets made by anybody.)

I don't have much interesting to say, so I'm not going to waste your time. Because people think of Bananas Foster as a fancy dessert, they will think these cookies are fancy, too.

Bananas Foster Cookies

(makes about 68 cookies)

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mashed banana

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 375. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. (Or grease them.)

Mix the wet ingredients (butter, sugars, molasses, egg, vanilla, & banana) together until smooth. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. Mix well. Add the flour and mix again. Fold in the walnuts.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of white sugar. Roll them around, forming 1-inch diameter balls and coating them with sugar. Place them on the cookie sheets, leaving a couple inches between them.

Bake for 8 minutes.

Let the cookies cool for a minute or two on the pan, and them transfer them to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before icing them.

Rum Icing

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 Tbs milk

1 Tbs melted butter

1/2 Tbs dark rum

Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add the wet ingredients. Use a whisk to stir everything together until smooth.

Hold the cookies upside down, and dip the tops in the icing.

Let the icing dry. (It won't be too hard, I promise.) Ta da!

quack, quack

2009-04-07T16:37:00.002-05:00

You know what my favorite kind of meat is? Free meat. It's so nice when someone calls and says, "I just killed a whole bunch of (deer, rabbit, elk, duck). Want some?" The answer is always a resounding "Yes!"

And so, a few Sundays ago, we cooked some of my favorite kind of meat--in this case, free duck killed by my sister's boyfriend Caleb. One of the downsides of free meat, however, is that you don't get to request in what form the meat is given to you. In this case, the breasts had been carefully butchered (for which we were thankful), but the skin and fat had been removed. Not that I blame Caleb: the alternative would be to have left the skin on but to have plucked all the feathers. I've never plucked a duck (say that three times fast!), but I can't imagine that it's a pleasant experience.

The duck breasts, then, looked nothing like the ones you see in a restaurant. My concerns were twofold: first, I couldn't find any recipes for duck breasts without skin, and second, I was worried that they'd be dry and tough. But hey, who's going to let such trivial matters stand in the way of cooking free meat? Certainly not me.

I soaked the breasts in milk for a day (this takes the gaminess out), then I rinsed them and marinated them for half a day. Then Drew grilled them medium-rare, and they turned out lovely. Perhaps a little tougher than restaurant duck breasts, but they had a good flavor. I served them with a sauce made of melted pepper jelly, butter, orange rind, worchestshire sauce, and onion powder.

A word on marinades. I love making marinades because they allow for endless experimentation and creativity. My basic formula is this: 3/4L + 1/4O + H = goodness. L = any type of flavored liquid, including but not limited to fruit juice, vinegar, or booze. O = any type of oil. H = fresh or dried herbs. My marinade for the duck was cranberry-pomegranate juice, olive oil, and rosemary. I used fruit juice in this one because I love duck served with a berry sauce. The best duck dish I've ever had was at the Maple Street Cafe in New Orleans, where I had duck breast in a blueberry-cognac sauce. Scrumptious.

Anyway, I've yet to really give you a recipe, have I? Here's one for the rice that we served with the duck. Arthur called it Persian; I call it good.

Persian Rice
(serves 4-6)

2 cups white rice
4 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup minced green onions
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan and saute garlic over medium heat. Add rice. Add chicken stock, kosher salt, and lemon juice. Cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Once rice absorbs all of the liquid, add the other ingredients. Let sit 5-10 minutes before serving.

puddin'

2009-04-07T15:08:00.004-05:00

Kaytie wanted something special for dessert on Sunday. Not just anything special for dessert -- something in particular. Puddin'.

We found a recipe on seriouseats.com, and I followed it as closely as possible, though I may have cooked the sugar a touch longer than recommended. This resulted in a nice, thick butterscotch pudding with a hint of caramel flavor. I also just realized that I used half the amount of milk. (I doubled the rest of the recipe.) No wonder it was so thick and rich!

Butterscotch Pudding

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs cold water
3 large egg yolks
3 Tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbs molasses
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp dark rum
6 Tbs cold butter, cut into large chunks

Things happen quickly here, so read the whole recipe and prepare your mise-en-place.

Put a mesh strainer over a heatproof bowl next to the stove. Set it aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and yolks until smooth. Whisk in the molasses and salt. Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the milk until the mixture is smooth. Set the bowl aside.

Heat the rest of the milk in the microwave for about two and a half minutes. Get it hot but not boiling, and set it aside.

Dump the sugar in a sauce pan and spread it evenly over the bottom. Sprinkle the water over the sugar so that all of the sugar is moistened. Heat over medium high heat. After a while, the sugar will begin to brown. Once that happens, stir the mixture gently with a wooden spoon until it turns an even, red-amber color.

Slowly pour in about half of the warm milk. (Be careful -- the mixture will bubble like crazy and splatter a little.) Stir vigorously until the sugar is all dissolved. Add the remaining milk, stir, and remove from heat.

Slowly whisk about half of the sugar mixture into the yolk mixture. Pour the sugar-yolk mixture back into the pot with the rest of the sugar mixture, and stir.

Over medium heat, cook the mixture for about 6 minutes while stirring constantly. The foam will calm down, and the mixture will thicken.

Take the pan off the heat, stir in the vanilla and liquor. Immediately pour the puddin' through the strainer. Let the puddin' sit for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally while it cools.

Put the puddin' in a food processor or blender. Turn on the machine, and add the butter chunks, one at a time. Blend until everything is incorporated.

Pour into ramekins and leave in the fridge until completely cool.

We served these topped with Cool Whip in a can. (Don't knock Cool Whip. I love it.)

martini chicken--sauteed, not stirred

2009-04-05T22:31:00.006-05:00

I love to look through old cookbooks, but most of the recipes use the same tried-and-true flavor combinations. Lemon and dill? Check. Tomatoes and basil? Check. Cilantro and lime? Check. And while I'm sure that the recipes are delicious, I'm not often intrigued enough to try them.

But every now and then, I find one that sounds so bizarre, so outlandish, so...well...gross, that I just have to try it.

So it was with Martini Chicken. I discovered the recipe in Paula Peck's Art of Good Cooking (where she calls it Vermouth Chicken). I was lucky enough to discover this awesome cookbook when the Lanier High School library gave away all of its Home Ec collection. I was teaching Art at Lanier at the time, and I greedily grabbed all of the cookbooks I could find. The Art of Good Cooking was the one gem of the bunch. I tried several of Ms. Peck's recipes (and had great success) before I finally decided to (gulp) give the Martini Chicken a try.

The recipe calls for green olives, cinnamon, allspice, vermouth, and cream. Can you see why I my curiosity was piqued?

Well, weird as it may sound, this recipe is to die for. I have made it time and time again, and everyone always loves it. Even people who hate green olives (Doug, Jim) and people who hate cinnamon (Tott) and people who hate chicken (Tott again) love this dish. It was the perfect dish for Sunday Night Supper tonight--slightly unusual but ultimately rich, delicious, and comforting. It's different enough to be a company meal but easy and cheap enough to do on weeknights (or Sunday nights when I'm feeling lazy, natch).

Without further ado...

Martini Chicken (adapted from The Art of Good Cooking)
(serves 6)

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 bunches green onions, minced
1/2 cup dry vermouth
2/3 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sliced green olives
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 300. Put a casserole dish in the oven and let it get hot. Just leave it in there for now--you'll use it later.

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with the salt, allspice, and cinnamon. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Saute the chicken breasts one minute on each side. Take out of the saucepan and stick in the hot casserole dish. Cover and cook at 300 for 8-10 minutes. (Because the heat is so low, these are pretty forgiving...I must admit that I've left mine in there for 15 minutes before and they've been fine.)

While the chicken is in the oven, add the green onions to the saucepan that has the butter and chicken drippings in it. Yum. Saute for two to three minutes on medium high. Then add the vermouth and cream. Cook on high, stirring frequently (and watching with an eagle eye to be sure this doesn't boil over). Let cook until reduced by about half.

Take chicken out, put each breast on a bed of rice, and pour the sauce generously all over. Top with green olives and parsley.

thank you, orange peel

2009-04-02T21:14:00.006-05:00

Every first Thursday of every month, the shops down the street from us stay open late for Fondren After Five. Galleries and stores serve wine and snacks, bands play, and the police block off traffic for a few hours.

Kaytie had a great idea. To promote the blog and get more readers, we should serve food at one of these stores. I talked to Kristin at The Orange Peel, and she was enthustiastic. We picked The Orange Peel because it's a great consignment shop -- great deals on vintage clothing and such. Kaytie loves it.

We had a great time. The food was a hit, and we met lots of interesting people. One lady even asked for our autographs! Does that make us famous?

People loved the food, but they were befuddled as to why exactly we were there. "So, y'all are opening a restaurant?" No.

"You cater?" No. (Well, occasionally. For friends.)

"So, you're not doing this for money?" No.

"Why are you serving food at The Orange Peel?" Because we want you to read our blog. And we want to eventually publish a cookbook.

Okay, time for the food. Follow the links for the recipes...

We made tiny biscuits (of course) with ham and pepper honey, which were a big hit. I had to make carrot cookies because they're awesome. We also made black-eyed pea fritters topped with roasted red pepper coulis, cilantro sour cream, and black olives. I've used this black-eyed pea fritter recipe for my black-eyed benedict, but we changed it slightly for this evening.

Black-Eyed Pea Fritters

2 slices of bacon
1/3 of a red onion, diced small
1/2 cup of green onion, sliced thin
1/2 cup of red bell pepper, diced small
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced fine
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Tony Chachere's creole seasoning
3 cups cooked and drained black-eyed peas
3/4 cup of bread crumbs
2 eggs

Cook the bacon, and set it aside. Use the bacon grease to saute the onion, peppers, and garlic for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Puree (until smooth) 2 cups of black-eyed peas with the eggs in a food processor.

Combine 1 cup whole peas, pureed peas, vegetables, seasonings, crumbled bacon, and bread crumbs in a mixing bowl. Shape into balls that are about the size of a ping pong ball, and flatten them into patties.

Preheat the oven to 300.

I deep-fried my fritters (about 4 minutes at 375 degrees), but you could pan fry them. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan. Brown the ckaes on each side for a couple minutes and put them back on the lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake the fritters for 10 minutes.

Top them with cilantro sour cream (1 bunch cilantro, chopped fine, mixed with 2 cups sour cream), red pepper coulis, and a couple of sliced olives. We served them at room temperature, and they were great!

heretical red beans and rice

2009-03-31T17:26:00.008-05:00

Long time, no blog. Drew has been picking up my slack admirably, but I'm still a bit shame-faced. To compensate, I am going to reveal the secret to my much-beloved red beans and rice.

Are you ready?

The secret is canned beans. Gasp! The horror! I recently told this secret to a friend from Lafayette, Louisiana (who has not sampled my fabulous beans), and she delicately wrinkled her nose and eloquently said, "Yuck."

I know it's unorthodox (and heresy according to some) to use canned beans, but folks, they are delicious, easy, and cheap. I got my recipe from Que Sera Sera, a restaurant here in Jacktown where I once waited tables many moons ago. (Why a Cajun restaurant has a Spanish name, I'll never know. Maybe the owner, Boo Noble, has a thing for Doris Day.) And Que Sera used canned beans. I've taken some liberties with the recipe, but it hasn't protested.

Red Beans and Rice
(serves 3 or so)

1 can of Blue Runner creole style red beans*
1 link andouille sausage (or other spicy smoked sausage), diced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water
Louisiana hot sauce

*(This is SO IMPORTANT. You cannot use plain old kidney beans, or else it will be gross. You can only use Blue Runner. If you can't get Blue Runner, I'm sorry, you cannot make this recipe.)

In a deep saucepan, saute the sausage on medium-high heat until browned. Add all of the vegetables. Salt the vegetables. Add a little oil to the pan if you need it to keep the veggies from sticking. Saute the vegetables until softened but not browned. If you like your beans very spicy, you can add cayenne pepper at this step. Add the beans out of the can. Add the water (you can add more or less depending on your desired consistency). Add the bay leaf, the butter, and hot sauce to taste. Stir. Now cover it, turn the heat to low, and let all the flavors combine and mingle while you make your rice. Once the rice is done, the beans are, too. Serve over the rice.

At Que Sera, you have the option of topping your beans with cheese. This is more heresy, but man, few things on this earth are not improved by the addition of a healthy grating of pepper jack or cheddar cheese. So we serve ours topped with cheese, too.

I hope you can lay your prejudices against canned beans aside and make these beans. I have a lot of affection for this recipe because it was one of the first things I ever cooked for Drew, when we first started dating and neither of us (1) had any money and (2) knew how to cook at all. It still turned out great. Who knows? Maybe the beans convinced Drew to take a chance on me. I hope if you make them that you turn out as lucky.

poking the doughboy

2009-03-22T15:57:00.006-05:00

Flush with pride because my Smoky Eggs Benedict recipe is a finalist in the Mississippi Magizine contest, I have decided to enter the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I'm not expecting to win, but the prize is a million bucks. What do I have to lose?

There are two lists of products that must be used. One item on the lists is brownie mix, and because I have been thinking of stuffed brownies for a while, I decided to see what I could do.

Everyone loves tiny brownies, so I used a mini-muffin pan to make bite-sized treats, and I filled them with peanut butter. My first batch were difficult to remove and kind of fell apart, but I've figured out the trick. Line the muffin pan with foil. It's easiest if you use small pieces that overlap. Then, grease the foil. When the brownies are cool, you can just peel the foil off of them.
Here you go. (I admit, it's a little Sandra Lee-ish, but they do taste good.)

Loaded Brownie Bites

1 box Pillsbury milk chocolate brownie mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, mix together the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk. Beat until smooth.

Combine the brownie mix, eggs, and oil in another bowl. Stir until well-mixed.

Line a mini-muffin tin with foil. Grease the foil with cooking spray.

Put about a teaspoon of the brownie batter in each muffin cup. Then, drop about a half-teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture in each cup. Top each cup off with another teaspoonful of the brownie batter.

Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before peeling the foil off of each brownie bite.

move over, general mills

2009-03-22T14:58:00.008-05:00

Anybody can make their own pancakes or waffles. My friend Katie Rice makes her own cereal. Why? Because she and her husband are too cheap to buy real cereal! I think this is the greatest reason to make your own granola, ever.

Anyway, Katie Rice, adding that many variations are possible, gave me her granola recipe. Sometimes, she crushes some cardamom pods in the liquid ingredients as they are heating. I decided that cardamom smelled like tea, so I left it out. (I do NOT like tea.)

She also said she sometimes adds nuts. (I used pecans because I had them, and I think sliced almonds would be delicious.) Other times, to the dismay of her husband Kyle, she throws in some golden raisins, too. I assume the best time to do this is at the very end, after the granola is cool. If I were more industrious and less knocked out by allergies, I would have used my food dehydrator to make apple chips or dried strawberry slices.

Fresh banana slices also taste great on the granola, but I have found the best way to eat this breakfast. In my fridge, I have a ganache that turned out much runnier than I'd planned. (Equal parts boiling heavy cream and white chocolate chips, stirred until incorporated.) Forget milk. Pour the ganache-sauce over the granola, and presto-chango, you have dessert!

Granola

Preheat the oven to 300.

1 stick butter, melted
5 cloves
1 Tbs vanilla
2 Tbs water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar

Stirring to combine, heat the above ingredients until everything is melted. Do this over low heat for about 10 minutes to let the cloves flavor the mixture.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup crushed pecans
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl through a strainer to remove the cloves (& optional cardamom pods). Stir until everything's combined.

Spread on a baking sheet and cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

soup for you

2009-03-15T09:51:00.007-05:00

Lately, the weather in Jackson has been a touch on the dreary side. Chilly and rainy - the perfect weather for soup.

It is rare that I have a craving for soup, but one of my favorites is Kaytie's French onion soup. I decided to try it out this week.

I learned two things. First, beef stock is best for this soup. I used a mixture of beef stock and rabbit stock (leftover from when we made rabbit stew). We'd used some different spices in that recipe, like cloves, that were not the best for onion soup. Stick with beef for a hearty soup with delicate flavor.

Second, it is very important to saute the onions until they are a deep, dark brown. I quit when mine were just a golden brown (had to get to work), and the soup was too sweet (probably had something to do with the rabbit stock, too). Be patient, and brown those onions.

Kaytie's French Onion Soup

4 onions, very thinly sliced
2 Tbs butter
3 cans beef stock
dash of Worcestershire sauce
splash of Madeira, red wine, sherry, or sweet vermouth
1 bay leaf
sliced Provolone or Gruyere

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and salt liberally. Saute over medium to medium-low heat for a long time, stirring occasionally to let them brown evenly. Once the onions are deep brown but not scorched, deglaze the pan with a splash of the alcohol. Add the beef broth, bay leaf, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer over low heat, covered, for 20-30 minutes.

Serve topped with cheese, alongside some good crusty bread.

I made a couple baguettes, recipe courtesy of The Bread Bible. (If you haven't bought this cookbook yet, you are really missing out.) I couldn't resist closing with this picture...

back from brooklyn

2009-03-10T22:42:00.010-05:00

So, I haven't cooked anything in the 48 hours since I've been back from my trip to Brooklyn (where I ate Trinidadian food--oxtails--yum!), so instead, I'm offering you a different sort of post today.

One of the things I love about my collection of old cookbooks is the delightful illustrations. I've been meaning to post some for a while, but I was afraid of running afoul of copyright law. (Can you tell I'm in law school?) After consulting with a friend who is an expert in intellectual property, I learned that I can post a group of the illustrations if I offer insightful critical commentary on their artistic merit.Such as, isn't this bunny picture adorable? I just want to squeeze its little tail! (Drew just called me a pervert.) No, seriously, I love the playful humor of these two pictures. The turtle one accompanies a recipe for turtle soup, and the bunny one is for a salad. Both are from the Esquire Cook Book, illustrations by Charmatz. Now, this picture can be found in My Stove is My Castle. (How much do you love the title of this cookbook? It was published in 1956 and has amazing authentic Mexican recipes for ceviche and huevos rancheros.) I cannot tell you why on earth there is a picture of a woman covered in birds in this cookbook, but I like it despite, or perhaps even because, it's such a non sequitur. The illustration is by Jacques Dunham.

This picture is so gorgeous. I love the stylized pen and ink, as well as the repetition of pattern and shapes. It reminds me of my days when I was an art teacher in Quitman County, Mississippi, desperately trying to teach my students the elements of art. This is from A Basque Story Cook Book, from which I cooked my roasted chickens and chickpeas. The illustrator is Marian Ebert. I think I picked this one for two reasons: first, because I love stippling, and second, because I am absolutely repulsed by frogs. This repulsion has spawned an equal fascination--like watching a train wreck, as they say. I can't look away. The detail amazes me. But I promise that I will never cook the Frog Legs Provencal recipe that this picture accompanies. Both the picture and the recipe can be found in The New York Times International Cookbook, illustrations by James J. Spanfeller.

Finally, I leave you with this beautiful picture from The Spice Islands Cookbook, illustrations by Alice Harth. Drew and I love the pictures in this one so much (though unfortunately not the recipes) that we cut them out with a razor and matted and framed them to hang in our kitchen. The style of illustration reminds me of the style of animation in my two favorite animated movies--The Rescuers and Gay Purr-ee. (I love Gay Purr-ee. Newsweek said of it in 1962, "There seems to be an effort to reach a hitherto undiscovered audience - the fey four-year-old of recherche taste.")

In sum, I wish cookbooks were a showcase for artists like they used to be. I promise that should we publish a cookbook, we will fill it with fun, kitschy illustrations. In the meantime, enjoy these instead.

cookies from the garden

2009-03-08T21:22:00.007-05:00

Mom was sneaky. When I was a kid, she used to make brownies with grated zucchini hidden in them. We would never know if her brownies were laden with nasty veggie vitamins or if they were simply safe, empty calories. (Truth be told, the zucchini brownies were good, though it's taken me a while to fully trust desserts.)

I got to thinking this week. Could I disguise a vegetable in a tasty dessert? Might my children one day mistrust my cookies?

The answer is a resounding yes. These carrot cookies (holy cow, they're awesome) are incredibly delicious. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Carrot Cookies

1.5 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup raisins

1.5 cups grated carrots

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix together the butter, sugar, egg, and molasses until smooth. Beat in the soda, allspice, cinnamon, and flour. Stir in the raisins and carrots.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of granulated sugar. Roll the dough into a ball, covering it in sugar as you do so. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. (If you lack parchment paper, just grease the cookie sheet.)

Bake for 9 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before moving the cookies to a cooling rack.

And now for something completely unnecessary...

In keeping with the carrot cake theme, Kaytie had the brillant idea of icing the cookies. Of course! Cookies couldn't possibly be complete unless you turn them into little icing sandwiches.

Okay, the cookies are plenty good by themselves, but they are nice with icing, too.

Cream Cheese Icing

(If you're icing a cake, you probably need to double this recipe.)

1 8-oz block cream cheese, room temp

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 Tbs milk

1/8 tsp almond extract

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth.

In the top of a double boiler, add the milk and chocolate chips. Do this over medium heat. Do not let the water in the bottom boil. Do not let the hot water touch the bottom of the top pan. (I know - it's a lot of rules. They're for your own good.) Stir constantly as the chips melt.

Once the chips are melted and combined with the milk, add the mixture in a steady stream to the cream cheese mixture as you continue beating. Add the almond extract. (You may want to add a little more extract if you like a stronger flavor. Taste as you go.)

Once it's all mixed together, spread a layer on the bottom of a cookie, and top it with another cookie. Ta da!

Iced cookies should be kept in the fridge.

c is for...

2009-03-05T23:08:00.011-06:00

For Lent, I gave up caffeinated drinks and sweets that I haven't made myself. (I'm all about the fine print.) Well, this week, I got a craving for some cookies, and after my success with the billionaire cookies, I decided to make up a new cookie recipe.

I'm pretty pleased with myself. I even took these cookies to work to show off. The apple cinnamon flavor is faint, almost delicate, but not overpowered by the peanut butter. They also kept remarkably well - stayed soft until they were gone.

Apple Cinnamon Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

4 Tbs (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup brown sugar

3 Tbs milk

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1.5 cups self-rising flour

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled & diced fine

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the peanut butter, vanilla, egg, butter, sugar, and milk. Mix until smooth. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the flour and mix well. Finally, fold in the apple bits.

Roll scoops of dough into balls that are about an inch or inch & a half in diameter. Place them on a greased cookie sheet, and use a fork to press them flat, creating the classic criss-cross.

Bake for 10-12 minutes and cool on a rack.

Makes about 52 cookies.

henny & penny are not forgotten

2009-03-04T15:25:00.001-06:00

Sometimes, you should sit back and take stock. No, wait. You should sit back and make stock.

Why?

1. Because it makes you feel like a pioneer.

2. Because it's cheaper than buying a couple gallons of chicken broth.

3. Because it's easy.

4. Because your freezer is too empty.

5. Because rice (or oatmeal) cooked in chicken broth is way better than rice cooked in water.

6. Because it's better than just throwing those bones away.

Our first stock used post-Thanksgiving turkey bones, and we currently have rabbit stock in the freezer. We make chicken stock whenever we have chicken bones laying around.

After Kaytie roasted Henny and Penny, we put the bones in a baggie and tossed them in the freezer. We've also been saving various vegetable leavings (like leek tops and parsley stems), and on Saturday, I finally got fed up with the random bags in the freezer. I made chicken stock.

This is an easy task, and it makes a lot of stock. You need a really big pot. A stock pot. Actually, I use a tamale pot, because the thing is huge. Anyway, put the chicken bones in the pot. Chop 2-3 onions into large chunks and toss them in. Do the same for some carrots and celery. I always peel and cut up a rutabaga, too. (Someone once told me that it was good for stock, and I believed it.)

In case you haven't noticed, this recipe is not going to provide exact directions. You don't need them. Start with the carrots, onions, celery, and rutabaga, and then add anything else that sounds good. Like a couple bay leaves. I'd stay away from salt & pepper. (You can season the stock later, when you're actually cooking with it.) You should probably go easy on strongly flavored stuff, too, like garlic. In this last batch, I threw in some green onions, leeks, parsley, and turnip shavings.

Fill the pot with water so that it covers all of the bones and veggies. Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat to medium or medium-low. Let it simmer, covered, for several hours. You can give it a stir and check the color of the stock every once in a while. When it's as dark as you want, turn off the heat and let it cool. (I probably cooked this one 3-4 hours.)

Strain out the bones and veggies, and, using cheesecloth, skim off the fat that might be floating on the surface. Divide the stock into manageable (2-3 cup) portions (like those Gladware or Ziploc containers), and freeze. When you're ready to use it, you can heat it in the microwave until it's thawed completely.

pasta and gremlins

2009-03-02T23:20:00.007-06:00

Yep, I made pasta from scratch Sunday night. I had a new gadget that I wanted to try.

Actually, it's a used gadget. Every once in a while, my manager Kristina goes through her pantry and makes space by donating her old kitchen stuff to me. Mixing bowls, spatulas, Calphalon pans, and a pasta maker. All of which is greatly appreciated.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure linguini from scratch is much better than dried linguini from the store. It's cool to say the pasta's fresh, though. (I'm also pretty excited about the idea of making flavored pasta, like dessert spaghetti with ice cream meatballs...)

What was notable was the gremolata I made as a condiment for the pasta. (It was Kaytie's idea, but I made it and called it the gremlin, which only I found funny.) It's an Italian thing, and it adds a little citrus zip that is especially nice on a creamy dish. (We use some on a tenderloin tips risotto at work.) It was great on the shrimp pasta, and I'm planning on using the leftovers on Kraft mac and cheese.

Gremolata

1 cup pecans
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 large clove roasted garlic
4 tsp lemon zest
4 tsp chopped basil
4 tsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper

Dump it all in a food processor and pulse until all is well combined and chopped.

skrimp pasta

2009-03-01T21:37:00.004-06:00

Usually Drew and I like to use Sunday nights for trying challenging new recipes, but sometimes it's nice to do something easy for dinner. This shrimp pasta (or skrimp pasta, if you're from the Delta), for example, is simple. Now, Drew did make the pasta from scratch, but that's another post. And it's certainly not necessary for this recipe.

This pasta is easy (as previously stated), delicious, and absolutely terrible for you. There's not much else to say about it. We topped the pasta with a homemade gremolata, which Drew will tell you all about when he tells you about homemade pasta.

Skrimp Pasta

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
1 white onion, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1/8 tsp dried thyme
pinch pepper
1 pint heavy cream
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 10 oz. bag of medium-sized frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt to taste

Defrost the shrimp.

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Increase heat to medium high and add onions. Cook until onions are golden. Add tomatoes, basil, thyme, and pepper. Saute for around 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and blend, either with a stick blender or in small batches in a blender. Once tomato mixture is smooth, add cream while blending but do not blend too long or you'll whip the cream. Put the cream-tomato mixture back on the heat. Turn heat up to high until it comes to a boil. Once it does, turn heat down to low and let simmer until the mixture is reduced by half. Add salt to taste. Then add the shrimp and let shrimp hang out in the sauce until cooked through, 5-7 minutes (at most! It depends upon how hot the sauce is...check the shrimp often because it doesn't take long to overcook them and then they're tough and gross). Add the artichoke hearts. Pour over 1 1/2 pounds of cooked pasta (again, fresh or dried, who cares?) and serve immediately. Let your guests top with gremolata.

savory oatmeal is not gross

2009-02-27T13:43:00.003-06:00

Kaytie and I have developed an interest in recipe contests. Could this be the way we finance our villa in northern Italy? Probably not.

But it's fun to come up with ideas. First, we sent a few recipes in to Mississippi Magazine's annual recipe contest. Then, Kaytie found a Top Chef slash Quaker Oats contest, and the brainstorming began. It could be anything, as long as the recipe involved oatmeal.

Kaytie dismissed my peanut butter-cinnamon apple-cranberry-white chocolate pie with an oatmeal-gingersnap crust idea. She said it was (1) too rich and (2) too expected. I think she was right, but on the second point only.

Kaytie's idea was savory oatmeal, topped with a fried egg and pork debris. (She'd read that oats can be treated like rice or grits.) We haven't worked the kinks out on the pork, but the oatmeal was great with a fried egg.

We made a couple variations. Kaytie did a truffled mushroom and onion oatmeal, which was great. Here's what I did.

Onion & Gouda Ris-oat-o
(I'm so clever.)

1.25 cups oats
3/4 cup liquid (half chicken broth, half water)
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup Gouda, grated
2 Tbs parsley, chopped

Put the liquid, bay leaf, salt, and butter in a pan, and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium, add the oats, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.

This is the point when you could add anything your heart desires. I sauteed red onion in a bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper, then mixed the onion, cheese, and parsley into the oatmeal.

Top it with a fried egg, and have brunch.

red beans from india

2009-02-23T14:18:00.006-06:00

As much as I hate to admit it, I think the internet is pretty cool sometimes. I realize this statement makes me sound old and out of touch. I don't care.

What has finally impressed me is that we were able to trade recipes with someone in India. (That's on the other side of the world. How cool!) Taste & Create is an event where cool people (like us) with food blogs sign up to exchange recipes and blog about it. (I still squirm when using 'blog' as a verb.)

We were paired with Arundathi at My Food Blog. On her site, she has many, many recipes for delicious-looking baked goods, as well as traditional Indian recipes. Kaytie and I finally decided to make rajma - the Indian version of red beans & rice. (Those of you who know us know how much we love Cajun red beans & rice. . . I am avoiding potty humor now. This is not an easy feat for me.)

They were great! Nothing at all like the red beans we normally make, but still a big hit. They were spicy without being too hot and flavorful without being too heavy. We served them over rice with naan and PBR. TOTT brought some mango chutney, which I thought complimented the flavors nicely, though Arthur found it unnecessary. You'll have to decide for yourself.

Thanks for a successful Sunday night meal, Arundathi!

Rajma

2 cans Red Kidney Beans

5-6 Spicy Green Chiles, slit lengthwise and seeded

2 Onions, diced

5-6 cloves Garlic, chopped

2" piece of Ginger, minced

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1/8 tsp Turmeric

1 tbsp Garam Masala

In a food processor, grind the ginger and garlic together with a little bit of water and set aside. Puree the tomatoes in the food processor and set aside.

Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and saute very well until browned. Add the salt, turmeric, ginger & garlic paste, and garam masala, and continue sauteing until it begins to smell fragrant (about 2-3 minutes).

Add the cooked beans with 2 cups of warm water. Keep stirring and squashing the beans a little bit. (I used a stick blender, a little too enthusiastically. I wish I'd left the beans a little less squashed.) Continue to stir until the curry thickens (about 7-8 minutes).

Here, you can add a pinch of amchur powder. (Luckily, this step is optional, because I couldn't find this spice.) Add the tomato paste and let the curry come to a boil. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for 7-8 minutes, until the curry thickens.

after-the-cardiologist cookies

2009-02-20T12:33:00.008-06:00

Well, I got home from the cardiologist yesterday (I have a clean bill of health, by the way), and I wanted cookies. Something delicious and sweet and accompanied by milk.

Kaytie makes fun of me because I have a massive sweet tooth, and I am irresistibly drawn to the most ridiculously overblown desserts that usually make my stomach hurt. (I recently purchased "Chocolate Seduction" ice cream, and I have had several stomachaches already.) I think what frustrates Kaytie most is that I always know when I'm going to feel sick, but I eat the dessert anyway. I'm a little stubborn.

Anyway, I wanted cookies, so I threw these together. They're fairly light and thin, a little crispy on the edges but chewy throughout. Yum. I do not, however, recommend eating (or even making - the temptation will be too great) these cookies unless you have a large quantity of milk on hand.
Billionaire Cookies
(I call these Billionaire Cookies because, like billionaires, they're rich. And they fly around in their own private jets. And have butlers. And golden toilets. I could keep going...)

1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup Nutella
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 Tbs self-rising flour
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine everything but the white chocolate chips in a bowl and stir well. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Roll the cookie dough into balls that are roughly an inch in diameter. Place them on a greased cookie sheet and press them flat. Leave about 2-3 inches between them; they'll spread.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving the cookies to a cooling rack.

Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies.

guest blogger: The TOTT!

2009-02-19T19:22:00.004-06:00

Hi this is Tott. Kaytie has generously allowed me to "guest blog" so that I can rave about my all- time favorite food...soup. Seriously, I could eat soup for every meal, every single one. And tops on my list of soups is Tomato Basil Soup.

Kaytie and I did this ridiculous "cleanse" where we didn't eat anything for ten days and only drank a water/lemon/cayenne pepper/molasses mixture. Needless to say, it was hell. The entire time all I craved was tomato basil soup, so Kaytie was nice enough to create this fabulous recipe for me when it was all over. It puts all the tomato basil soup in this town to shame. And as an added bonus, it is easy enough that even I can make it, and I am not the world's best cook...best eater in the world, maybe. Especially when it comes to this soup. So make and enjoy!

Tomato Basil Soup

1 onion, diced
3 slices of bacon, diced
1 really big can of diced tomatoes (not drained)
1 ½ cups of cream
½ can beef broth
¼ cup basil, chopped
1 bay leaf
½ cup shredded parmesan

Melt a small amount of butter or olive oil in a large stock pot. Add onion and salt. Add bacon. Saute onion and bacon until bacon gets crispy and onion is golden. Add can of tomatoes, beef broth, ½ of the basil, and the bay leaf. Stir until everything gets hot. Add cream and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes or so. Fish out the bay leaf. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth. (This step is optional—if you don’t blend it, it will just be more rustic). Add parmesan and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with remaining basil or green onions and serve.

better late than never

2009-02-17T23:05:00.004-06:00

Okay, you've seen this dish before. Still beautiful.

This was the well-planned Valentine's brunch that I made for Kaytie. Never mind that brunch was served at 2 pm. It looked good, and, thanks to Kaytie's hollandaise, it was delicious.

This is a take-off on the Black-Eyed Benedict. Of course, I thought I could make it better. I think I did. (How could the addition of cornbread not improve something?)

Southern Style Eggs Benedict

Cornbread Cakes

(makes 7 3-inch cakes)

3 slices turkey bacon

1 Tbs olive oil

1/4 red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 green onions, sliced thin

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp creole seasoning

1 cup black-eyed peas, cooked and drained

1 pkg cornbread mix, prepared according to package directions

3 eggs

salt & pepper

Cook the turkey bacon in the olive oil until crispy. (If you're using real bacon, omit the olive oil.) Set the bacon aside to drain on paper towels.

In the leftover oil, saute the peppers, onions, and garlic for about 5 minutes. Season the veggies with salt and pepper as they cook. Set them aside to cool.

Crumble the prepared cornbread into a food processor, and add the eggs. Puree until smooth. (You could probably also do this in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon - just crumble and stir well.)

Combine the cornbread mixture, veggies, crumbled bacon, black-eyed peas, and spices in a mixing bowl. Stir well.

Shape the cakes on a lightly greased baking sheet. I used an egg ring that I got from the Everyday Gourmet to make perfectly round cakes about 3 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch tall. Put the cakes in the fridge for about half an hour to make them a little firmer.

Preheat the oven to 300.

Fry the cakes in olive oil in a saute pan until browned on both sides. Return the cakes to the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Top each cake with a poached egg (see here for methods) and chipotle hollandaise.

procrastination & pepto-bismol petit fours

2009-02-16T21:11:00.007-06:00

Tott says I should blog about my failures so that people will like me more. Well, witness the most hideous petit fours in the world, made tonight while I was in a fit of procrastination and denial. Unfortunately, the pictures do not really show just how bright pink and goopy they really were. They truly looked like they were doused in Pepto. The bright side is, they were so ugly that they made me laugh, and I really needed a laugh today.

Once I master these (and master them I will) I will post a recipe. But for now, you can just revel in your schadenfreude.

But don't revel too long. . .for behold, I give you chocolate-coated marshmallows.
While they are a little Sandra Lee-ish for my taste (in that they are a little overly precious, not that they are semi-homemade; I assure you that these are fully-homemade), I forgive them because of how well they photographed. See?

Drew and I made these together Valentine's night, because we had experienced quite enough excitement for the weekend, thank you. Okay, here's how you can make them, too:

Chocolate-Coated Marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallows

(Warning: You need a stand mixer to make these. But what a good excuse for getting one if you haven't already! We were blessed enough to get one from my in-laws. )

3 packets of unflavored gelatin
1 cup of ice cold water, divided into 2 halves
1 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
Pam

Put the gelatin in the stand mixer along with ½ a cup of the water. Let it sit. Now combine the rest of the water, the sugar, the corn syrup, and the salt in a pan. Stir it, turn the heat up to medium high, cover, and let it cook about 4 minutes. Then uncover and clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees, then immediately take off the burner.

Put the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, then turn the mixer on low. While the mixer’s running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl. Once all of the syrup’s in, turn up the speed to high. Whip it about 12 minutes—you will be amazed because it will start to really look like marshmallow cream! Add the almond extract during the last minute of whipping.

Put the mixture in a pan that’s been sprayed with Pam and sprinkled with the sugar and cornstarch. Let it sit uncovered overnight. The next day, you can take a heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut out shapes. Then you dip them in more powdered sugar and cornstarch. Then you are ready for chocolate!

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

2 cups white chocolate
2 drops red food coloring
Sprinkles
Marshmallows

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, then spread on top of the marshmallows like icing. Sprinkle with sprinkles and let harden.

These are for those with a serious sweet tooth, because they are tooth-achingly sweet. We got the idea to make homemade marshmallows because of Molly's article in Bon Appetit on the subject. You should make them, too, because people are amazed by homemade marshmallows, even though they're so easy. People think you're magic--until they see your hideous petit fours.

of all the eggs i've poached before...

2009-02-14T17:27:00.004-06:00

I love gear. Camping gear, tools, kitchen gadgets... So, when I decided to make a new eggs benedict-inspired dish for Kaytie, I made a trip to the Everyday Gourmet to pick up some gadgets. I got some egg rings to use in making black eyed pea-cornbread cakes, and some silicone egg poaching molds.

I was going to just get a silicone muffin tin and cut it into individual cups. (This is what we do at Amerigo.) I was distracted, however, by these little green cups that were designed for poaching eggs. I tried them out this morning.

Poaching eggs is pretty straightforward. I used the method described in the black-eyed benedict post, except that I put the eggs in the silicone molds. I was not impressed. It took the whites too long to firm up, and that made the yolks too hard. It worked better when I covered the pan with a lid, but that also pushed the molds onto the bottom of the pan. I'll try these again, but with a deeper pan and more water. Until then, I prefer just dumping the eggs into the water.

after-the-hospital hollandaise

2009-02-14T16:41:00.005-06:00

Let's focus on the positive for a moment: this picture that my husband took is beautiful, isn't it? And the brunch we had today was lovely. And I have learned the secret of hollandaise sauce, which I am willing to share with you. All very nice things.

But I can't lie: I am still a little shaken and dazed from having taken Drew to the emergency room last night. Don't worry, he's fine now, or at least, he feels fine now. We don't know what exactly made him...what to even call it...pass out? faint? have a seizure? a spell? Let's call it a spell. Anyway, we don't know what caused the spell, but it was terrifying.

So I was a little surprised to wake up this morning to Drew busily putting eggs benedict together. Surprised, but oh, so grateful. And not just for the brunch.

He enlisted my help in making the hollandaise for the eggs benedict. He's submitting the eggs benedict recipe to a contest, and he decided that the earlier hollandaise recipe is just too darned difficult. We looked in the Joy of Cooking and saw that there are all sorts of short-cut recipes for hollandaise, and so I modified one and tried it out.

This one is made in a blender, and man, it's really easy. (Don't feel bad; I watched Top Chef this week and Chef Eric Ripert admitted that his restaurant makes their hollandaise in a blender, too.)

Chipotle Hollandaise

3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon ground dried chipotles
pinch cayenne

First, get some dried chipotles (we found ours at Rainbow Grocery). Put them in a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. If you don't have a spice grinder, then I bet you could substitute ground red pepper or, better yet, smoked paprika.

Put the yolks and lemon juice and salt and cayenne in the blender, but don't turn it on yet. Put your stick of butter into a microwave-safe liquid measuring cup along with 1/4 teaspoon of the ground dried chipotles. Zap it for between 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, or until butter is melted and bubbly and quite hot. Watch it to make sure it doesn't foam over the cup into your microwave, 'cause that would be a serious mess.

As soon as butter is hot, turn on the blender on high and pour the butter in a small stream while the blender is running. Then it's done, and you serve it immediately. Seriously. It's that easy, and it's so good. It's not as bright yellow as the original, but I just don't care when you compare the taste and texture.

Take your hollandaise, pour it over your eggs benedict, and thank God for the people you love. Happy Valentine's Day.

be very, very quiet...

2009-02-09T23:56:00.005-06:00

I made bunny stew last night. I have a new theory. You know how the offal movement has become the new big thing? I think that the wild game movement is on the horizon. And I am its general.

My father provided us with three wild rabbits that he shot last weekend. As previously discussed, my mother thinks all game (and, for that matter, most meat) is disgusting. As my father doesn't cook, that means that we get all of his bounty.

I'd had rabbit before, but I'd never cooked it. I read that you can treat it like chicken, and that gave me comfort. Without further ado, here's what we did:

Stew de la Bunnie

First, soak 3 cleaned and skinned rabbits in buttermilk for at least 1 day, preferably 2. After soaking rabbits, rinse well and put in a bowl. Add 1 bottle of wheat beer, 2 cups of apple cider vinegar, and enough salad oil to cover. Add 3 tablespoons onion powder, 1 tablespoon juniper berries, 1 tablespoon peppercorns, 3-5 bay leaves, 5 cloves, 1 teaspoon allspice, 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, and a pinch of salt. Marinate at least 1 day, but no more than 2.

Now, it's stew time. Butcher your rabbit into pieces. (This does not have to be pretty, because you're going to take the meat off the bone later). Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a big, deep pot. Salt and pepper the pieces, and brown on both sides. Remove and reserve. Add 6-8 pieces of chopped bacon. Brown. Add 5 chopped onions, 1 bag of chopped baby carrots, 2 bunches of chopped celery, and 5 smashed cloves of garlic. Saute until all the veggies are soft. Add 1 cup of dried currants. Then add 1 cup of dry white vermouth and the juice of 1 lemon. Add in spices as the alcohol cooks off. Add 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, 1/2 tablespoon juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 pinch of allspice, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, 1 teaspoon mixed peppercorns, and 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Once alcohol has cooked off, add rabbit back in and add 7 cans of chicken broth (or enough to cover). Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook around 30 minutes and then check on your rabbit pieces. If not cooked through, cook longer.

Once rabbit pieces are cooked through but not tough, remove from the broth. Strain your broth and reserve. Let one person remove the rabbit meat from the bone and chop while the other person makes a roux of about 1/4 cup of flour & 1/4 cup of butter. Combine butter and flour over medium-low heat and cook around 4 minutes, stirring constantly. When roux looks blonde and thick (like me!), add about half of the stock to the roux, a little at a time, stirring constantly so that it stays smooth. Let it simmer for maybe 10 minutes.

To serve, add rabbit back to this gravy-type sauce, add parsley, and serve over white rice.

(If you are anti-eating-bunny, then you could do this exact recipe with chicken thighs. But just know that the game train is leaving the station with or without you.)

pleasantly peasanty

2009-02-09T22:03:00.008-06:00

Last night, we fixed some rabbits that Kaytie's dad brought us. (Kaytie will fill you in as soon as she can.) With rabbit as a main dish, (and the obligatory carrots - what else to serve with rabbit?) we needed some good rustic sides, which I was only too happy to provide.

The most exciting thing I learned yesterday was that beets are beautiful (look at all the pics!!). I will cook with them again and again, if only for the aesthetic experience. It's a bonus that they're delicious, too.

I've only ever had pickled beets (on hamburgers - yum), but the Joy of Cooking said beets could be baked like potatoes. I figured that they would also perform well if I roasted them. They did.

Roasted Beets

beets (5-6 medium beets made 4 servings)

4-5 sprigs fresh rosemary

kosher salt

roughly 1 tsp paprika

2-3 Tbs oil

Skin and dice the beets into 1-inch cubes. Behold their beauty, but beware their staining capacity. Toss them with the rosemary, paprika, oil, and a liberal amount of salt. I probably used about a tablespoon or two.

Roast the beets on a baking sheet in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are fork-tender. Behold their beauty and enjoy.

I woke up Sunday morning in a panic. Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic, but I did want to make some bread for dinner, and I hadn't started any dough rising the day before. I went straight to The Bread Bible. Beer bread could be made quickly and allowed to rise while I was at work. I had to change the recipe slightly to allow for what I had on hand, but it turned out great. It did not taste like beer, and it was a denser bread, good for slicing for sandwiches or for use as a vehicle for butter.

Beer Bread

(from The Bread Bible)

1.25 tsp instant yeast

1 Tbs sugar (the recipe called for malt powder or sugar)

13.5 ounces (just under 2.5 c) all-purpose flour (the recipe called for bread flour)

1 ounce (3 Tbs + 1 tsp) whole wheat flour

9 fluid ounces dark beer (I used Sam Adams Honey Porter)

1.25 tsp salt

Briefly whisk the yeast, sugar, wheat flour, and all but 2 Tbs. all-purpose flour together in the bowl of a stand-up mixer. Add the beer (it's easier to measure if it's flat and room temp - to hurry this along, microwave it for about 30 seconds), and use the dough hook to knead the dough on low speed for about a minute. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 20 minutes.

Add the salt. Use the dough hook to knead the dough on medium speed for 7 minutes. The dough should pull away from the bowl. It if doesn't, add a little more of the leftover flour. The dough should be smooth and not too sticky. Turn the dough into a lightly greased bowl. Grease the top of the dough, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise for about 2 hours, until it doubles. I left mine for about 5 hours, and it tripled in size. No problem.

Preheat the oven to 450 an hour before baking. Allow a baking stone to heat as well, on the next to lowest shelf. On the lowest shelf, put a baking sheet of cake pan.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape it into a ball about 5 inches across and 2.5 inches thick. Set the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover it loosely with greased plastic wrap, and let it rise for about 1.5 hours.

Slash the top of the bread with a sharp knife. Set the baking sheet on the baking stone and drop 1/2 a cup of ice cubes in the hot baking sheet that you earlier put on the lowest rack in the oven. Shut the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes. Drop the heat to 400 degrees and continue baking for 30 to 40 minutes, until the bread is golden brown. Our oven tends to cook hot, and my bread was done in 20 minutes. Let the bread cool on a rack.

ugly yet tasty chicken nuggets

2009-02-05T22:37:00.009-06:00

I have been a little quiet about the Super Bowl party. I am a little sheepish. I made a few things, and they were pretty good, but they were no andouille corn dogs.*

*(They are "corn dogs," NOT "corny dogs." 'Cause "corny dogs" just sounds silly.)

Well, okay, so the chicken nuggets were really good. They certainly all got eaten. I used this recipe as a starting point. I took two packages of chicken thighs, trimmed them up (I'm saving the fat for making homemade schmaltz one of these days), and marinated them in something similar to the original recipe--lime juice, soy sauce, rum. I added honey and sriracha (Thai hot red chili and garlic sauce). I should've let them marinate longer--if I could do this over again, I'd let them sit over night. Then I dredged the bite-sized pieces in flour and added them to the much-beloved and over-worked deep fryer.

Yeah, so they turned out hideous, which I'm sure is my fault and not the fault of the lovely lady who authored the original recipe. I have no idea why they look like little fried turds, but it didn't stop the crowd from devouring them. Drew says it's because I used dark meat, but everyone knows dark meat is the best. Especially because you can cook it to death and it won't dry out. It's like buying insurance.

But what are chicken nuggets without dipping sauce? This is what I am slightly proud of. I took some leftover blue cheese butter from the Christmas party (what? it's not like it goes bad) and mixed it with mayonnaise, buttermilk, and more sriracha. I think that if I had to recreate this without the leftovers, I'd do it like this:

1 cup mayo
3 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 small package of cheap crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons sriracha
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 cup buttermilk (maybe less)
salt & pepper

Blend all together until smooth. I'd mix the butter and mayo together first, then add everything else a little bit at a time, because I am really not sure about the proportions at all. Wow, what a helpful recipe, huh? Look, the important thing is that these flavors together rock, and they really rock with fried chicken. So take away the lesson and do with it what you will.

the obligatory super bowl party: fun with a fryer

2009-02-02T12:46:00.009-06:00

Sunday night. Super Bowl. Of course, we had to have some people over.

When I think of football food, I think of starch and meat and grease and calories. We had Rotel Dip (in Texas, we call it queso), Kaytie made sour cream and triple onion dip, I made a pan of King Arthur brownies, and Bethany made chili, all of which were great game-day staples.

Arthur just got back from Baton Rouge, where he had a field day in a seafood market. He showed up last night with crawfish boudin, hog's head cheese, and alligator nuggets, which he fried in our deep fryer.

Mmmm, deep fryer. I think I would eat cardboard or shoe leather if it were dipped in batter and deep fried. Mom gave us her old fryer when she decided it was not conducive to a healthy lifestyle. We don't use it enough, but I figured Super Bowl Sunday would be the perfect occasion.

The first task was potato chips for the onion dip. (Two Christmases back, we made sweet potato chips, seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg, covered with melted marshmallows.) No problem. Martin became the chip master, dropping them one by one, stirring to keep them from clumping, and seasoning them with Tony Chachere's. (Use a light hand; Tony's heavy on the salt.) Martin's verdict: just buy potato chips next time.

Next, we dropped Kaytie's chicken-thigh nuggets, which she served with a delicious buttermilk sauce. Arthur took a turn for his alligator nuggets, served with Chris's buffalo sauce.

We finished off with the tour de force: andouille corny dogs. (There's a long-standing debate in my house. Kaytie says they're corn dogs, but I grew up calling them corny dogs. I've done a little research. Though the origin of the corn-coated dog is less than definite, most people credit Fletcher's Corny Dogs, sold at the Texas State Fair since around 1940. I rest my case.)

Kaytie mixed the batter, I dipped the dogs, and Eleanor dipped the dogs after I deep-fried my index finger along with the first dog. Eleanor used tongs, which, in hindsight, as I type with my middle finger, is an idea that I heartily endorse.

Andouille Corny Dogs

(using Alton Brown's batter)

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cayenne powder

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & finely minced

1 8.5-ounce can creamed corn

1/3 cup onion, grated

1.5 cups buttermilk

cornstarch, for dredging

2.25 lbs andouille sausage (or any smoked meat links)

corn oil

Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder & soda, and cayenne in a medium bowl. Add the jalapeno, corn, onion, and buttermilk. Mix just enough to get the batter together. There will be lumps. Let the batter rest for about 10 minutes while you prepare the sausage and the deep fryer.

We used about a gallon of corn oil in our fryer. Alton recommends peanut oil, but peanut oil is expensive, and all you need is an oil with a high smoke point. Heat the oil to 375 degrees.

Cut the links into 2-3 inch pieces, and stab each piece with a chopstick. (You could use bamboo skewers, but this is a great way to use all of those wooden disposable chopsticks you've been saving from sushi takeout.)

Dredge the sausage in the cornstarch, lightly coating it. This will help the batter stick. Dip the dog in the batter, twirling to ensure sufficient coverage. (If you're using longer dogs, pour the batter in a drinking glass, and dip the dog vertically.) Transfer the dipped dog immediately to the hot oil, and fry to a beautiful golden brown. Drain for a couple minutes on paper towels.

Use caution before eating - they'll be hot.

We only used about 1.5 pounds of andouille, so there was plenty of batter left over, and the oil was still hot. Well, one thing led to another, and hush puppies were born. They were excellent, less dense than I normally expect from hush puppies, and if I ever have a fish fry, I'll be serving these.

mixing memories of momma with indian flatbread

2009-01-31T15:11:00.026-06:00

My mother really loathes cooking. This is something I don't understand at all, because she likes eating. Now, you might think, wait a minute, everyone likes eating. Not so. Some people (people who are generally not my friends) eat just because they have to. I taught with a couple named Eric and Melissa that were like this. They were nice people, but they lived off of hot dogs. (Really--they told me once that their monthly grocery bill was $50! I spend more than that in a week.) The kicker is that they were really thin. Why? Because they just didn't care enough about what they were eating to stuff themselves with it.

Anyway, so I understand why people like Eric and Melissa don't get into cooking, but my mother? She loves good food, yet she sees the kitchen as a prison. Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe because Drew doesn't expect me to have dinner on the table waiting for him every night, I can enjoy cooking.

Now, just to say that Momma doesn't like cooking doesn't mean that she can't make some things well. When my sister was asked by her preschool teacher what her favorite meal my mother made was, she proudly answered, "My Momma makes the best sandwiches!" And she did--she made all kinds of interesting sandwiches--cream cheese and jelly, for example. And this brings us to today's first recipe: egg salad.

My egg salad recipe is, of course, more complicated than my mother's, because I can't ever seem to make something simply. So I'll tell you how she made it, and how I changed it, and you can do it the way you want.

Egg Salad

6 eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 piece of Laughing Cow garlic & herb cheese

1/2 teaspoon mustard

squeeze of fresh lemon juice

black olives

green onions, chopped

Put the eggs in small pan and cover them with cold water. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. Then, uncover and drain, and put the eggs in a bowl of cold water. When they're cool, peel them. Then chop them up fine. Momma has a special tool for this that I covet and hope she leaves me in her will.

While the eggs are cooling, you can make the mayonnaise sauce. Now, my mother just mixed the mayo and the mustard and the eggs and that was that--egg salad. I mixed the mayo and mustard and the lemon juice and the Laughing Cow cheese (in fact, I blended them all together with my immersion blender because I love that thing). Then I mixed that into the eggs and topped with black olives and green onions. I have to say, I like mine a little better, but it is more of a pain to make.

Now, what to eat the egg salad on? Wheat Thins, Triscuits, sandwich bread, pita bread: all good options. However, I had none of these. I didn't want to eat it by itself, so I had to make something. I needed a quick, easy bread, because I am not the baker of the family. I found the perfect solution--naan!
Naan is Indian flat bread. It's kind of like pita bread but moister and chewier. This recipe is so simple, and it was very good with egg salad, though definitely not what my mother would have served egg salad on. It made a lot, too, so I can bring some to Tott, who is gradually recovering from something akin to the plague.

Naan Bread

1 1/2 cups warm (not hot) water

1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon cumin powder
3 cups flour, plus some for kneading

Combine the water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes until foamy on top.
In a separate bowl, mix salt, spices, and flour together. Mix with a wooden spoon, then turn out onto a well-floured counter top. Knead dough into a tight ball. Put dough in a well oiled bowl and cover with a damp towel. Put the bowl in a warm place and let rise for about 30 minutes. It won't rise much, so don't worry. Divide up the dough into little balls and roll into circles about 1/8 of an inch thick. Grease a frying pan (I used olive oil, but you could use Pam--I wouldn't use butter because it might burn) and get the pan nice and hot. Put 1 or 2 naan in the pan at a time, and grill for about 2 minutes per side. The thinner you roll the naan, the puffier they get.

fusion tabouli

2009-01-31T13:15:00.005-06:00

After making kibbee, we had a bunch of soaked bulgur wheat left over. What better way to use it than making tabouli?

I, however, have a confession to make. I've never much cared for tabouli. I really only eat it spooned lightly over a pita spread with hummus. Also, I don't remember exactly what Mom puts in her tabouli. So, I made tabouli with extras. It turned out tasty, light and fresh, and the edamame adds a nice crunch. Good enough to eat on its own.

Tabouli with Extras

(don't know what to serve your vegetarian friend? make this!)

about 2 cups of washed and soaked bulgur wheat

1 bunch of parsley, chopped fine (I used the food processor)

1/4 of a red onion, diced fine

1 cup of edamame (removed from the pods)

1 can of diced tomatoes, drained

about 1 tsp of kosher salt

about 2 Tbs of salad oil

lemon juice to taste

Drain the tomatoes extremely well. I dumped them in a colander and, like the hokey-pokey, shook them all about. Tomato juice was all over the sink, but I wanted these suckers to be as dry as possible. (Note: tomatoes from the garden would be better, but, because this is January, our garden is barren.)

Combine the parsley, bulgur, onion, edamame, and tomatoes in a bowl. Come to think of it, just put everything in the bowl, except for the lemon juice. (Olive oil would probably be better than salad oil, but you work with what you've got. I also added a little white pepper.)

Give it a good stir to get everything mixed together, and then begin adding the lemon juice, stirring and tasting as you go. Once you get enough juice, the flavor will be nice and bright.

one from the vault: game day food

2009-01-28T00:21:00.012-06:00

This post wasn't inspired by something I cooked today. No, it was something I read.

The Recipe Girl is hosting a game-day snack contest, and I have the perfect recipe, though it wasn't specifically developed for a football game.

At our Christmas party this past year, we served creole-inspired food. One of the favorites was a play on my sister Sara's jalapeno poppers. We decided to stuff the peppers with a jambalaya mixture, and it was delicious.

Jambalaya-Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers
(a Kaytie & Drew original)

Jambalaya Stuffing:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1 chopped jalapeno
½ cup chopped celery
Salt and cayenne pepper
4 bay leaves
2 cups of canned chopped tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 can Rotel
1 lb. andouille sausage, diced small
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 cup white rice
1 ¾ cup chicken stock
1 cup chopped green onions

In a big pan, heat the oil. When hot, add the onion, peppers, and celery. Season with salt and cayenne. Saute the veggies for about 5 minutes, or until wilted. Add the sausage and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, Rotel, and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes. Stir in the rice and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the stock. Season with salt and cayenne. Bring liquid to boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook 25 to 30 minutes covered. Stir in green onions.

(Please note: you can eat the jambalaya now, if you wish.)

Poppers:

25 jalapenos, cut in half and seeds scraped out
1 package of turkey bacon
Toothpicks
Jambalaya
1 package of cream cheese

Mix the jambalaya with the cream cheese. Fill the jalapeno halves with the jambalaya and cream cheese mixture. Wrap ½ a piece of turkey bacon around each half and secure with a toothpick. Bake in oven, on a rack on a cookie sheet, for 10-15 minutes at 350 then broil for a couple minutes until bacon is crispy. Watch the poppers closely while broiling.

!BONUS RECIPE: The Original Poppers!

jalapenos (get a lot - they'll go quickly)

turkey bacon, cut in half

fat-free cream cheese

Cut the tops off the jalapenos and split them lengthwise. Scrape the seeds and ribs out. Spread the cream cheese in the hollowed-out peppers, and wrap each pepper in half a slice of turkey bacon. Secure the bacon by sticking a toothpick through the popper.

Put the poppers on a rack (like a rack used for cooling cookies) placed on a cookie sheet. (Line the cookie sheet with foil for easy clean-up.) Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, and then broil for 3-5 minutes to make the bacon crispy. Keep an eye on them while broiling, though, so you don't burn them. Salt the poppers lightly before serving.

These are delicious and actually good for you. Like vitamins.