blogging indecision

i have so many drafts of blog posts saved - the drafts have the pictures of the food, but no text. i'm wavering back and forth, unable to decide whether to continue this blog or not, so i save these drafts... i'm not ready to delete them, but i just can't bring myself to keep posting.

today, i'm making a much-needed decision. no more blogging for me. in case you care, let me tell you the reasons why i've decided to quit my blog.

i'm not a writer by nature, and my posts usually read like a medical journal. after i started this blog, i began reading many, many, many other food blogs. the best ones are the ones that make me lose track of everything around me except what i'm reading - they make me laugh, or they encourage me to try something new in the kitchen, or they're educational without being dry. i suck at writing anything witty or captivating about life and food. really. i do. my posts often bore ME when i read them. the honest truth is that i don't care that i suck at writing, so i haven't spent any amount of time trying to improve my writing. i'd rather do other things in my free time.

which brings me to my next thought... is blogging really the best way to spend my free time? do i want to spend my spare time writing about cooking, or actually COOKING? the reality is that there aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things i want / need to anyway, so i pick and choose. and i choose not to write.

and anyway, i'm sure not adding anything special or unique or funny or interesting to the culinary world through this blog. all i've done in this blog is select a recipe, cook or bake it, and present my opinion of the final result. repeat. there are thousands, literally thousands, of blogs that do this same analysis of recipes. i'm not doing anything different from these other thousands of bloggers.

and this, my friends, brings me to my final issue with this blog - my camera is a piece of sh*t. nothing makes a crappier food blog than crappy pictures. if my writing is crappy, as it is, i could at least have beautiful pictures. that's what i really like looking at when i scroll through my blog anyway - the pictures, not the text. for those of you that weren't aware, it's called food porn in the foodie world. yes, i'm being serious.

so someday when i replace my sh*tty camera, maybe i'll start a flicker or picassa or something album of food porn. when i'm feeling depressed or uninspired, i'll look through my collection of food porn that i created and cheer myself right up. but i just can't do this writing thing. it's not fun like i expected it to be.

on that note, i'll leave you with this picture of tarragon chicken breasts with buttery leeks. yum!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - 4 stars

i realized this spring that i don't think i've ever had rhubarb. i have definitely not cooked it myself, and i have no memories of it from when i was a kid. when rhubarb harvest came around this year, i decided it was time to finally test it out.

i found a pie recipe that called for rhubarb and strawberry. it was really easy to make - i chopped the rhubarb and strawberries and mixed them together in a large bowl with cornstarch, cinnamon, and white and brown sugars. i made the crust from scratch (finally an easy task, now that i've baked enough pies in the last few years). i followed the crust recipe that came with this pie recipe rather than one i've used in the past. this one called for a combo of butter (i used vegan butter sticks) & shortening, rather than just butter. i'm always trying to find a pie crust recipe that isn't all butter because i have to hide the occasionally overpowering margarine flavor. :-)

this crust was AWESOME. i loved the addition of the shortening. it was incredibly fatty, which is a prerequisite for a rich, flaky, delicious crust. i even managed to do a lattice top. it's fairly pretty, especially considering i had NO idea what i was doing! :-)



for those of you who don't know, rhubarb looks like hot pink celery stalks. it's not quite as crunchy as celery, but instead has a denser, more rubbery texture. i sliced the rhubarb into 1/2" thick pieces. however.... when i ate the pie, those little half circle bits of rhubarb looked like kielbasa sausage. it completely grossed me out! the pie tasted wonderful, but i simply could not look at it when i ate it. i know - it's strange, but it just looked nasty to me.

i had the same excess liquid issue as the person who posted the bon appetit recipe for this pie in her blog. however.... i've never NOT had too much liquid in my fruit pies, and someday, when i figure out how to prevent this, i'll write a long post about it. :-)

all in all? five star for crust, five star for flavor, one star for the kielbasa visual. four stars overall. :-) i think i'll make a rhubarb simple syrup or a sorbet next year. anything without whole hunks of rhubarb.

Lattice-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Bon Appetit, April 1997

Oddly enough, despite having a quarter-cup of cornstarch in it, my filling was on the wet side. However, when I came home I read all 134 comments about this recipe on Epicurious.com and found not a single mention of wetness, thus I’ve decided that it was just a freak fruit occurrence or bad measuring on my part, and not worth warning you about. Especially because this was gone in about 4.2 minutes, and I didn’t hear anyone complain.

Serves 8

For crust
3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
10 tablespoons (about) ice water

For filling
3 1/2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices trimmed rhubarb (1 1/2 pounds untrimmed)
1 16-ounce container strawberries, hulled, halved (about 3 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Make crust: Combine flour, sugar and salt in processor. [Alternately, you can use a pastry cutter to make your dough, as I did.] Using on/off turns, cut in shortening and butter until coarse meal forms. Blend in enough ice water 2 tablespoons at a time to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; cut in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap separately in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Make filling: Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Toss gently to blend.

Assemble Pie: Roll out 1 dough disk on floured work surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish [er, I used a metal one and it was just fine]. Trim excess dough, leaving 3/4-inch overhang.

Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Cut into fourteen 1/2-inch-wide strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling. Trim ends of dough strips even with overhang of bottom crust. Fold strip ends and overhang under, pressing to seal. Crimp edges decoratively.

Brush glaze over crust. transfer pie to baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about another 25 minutes. [The original recipe suggested a total baking time of 1 hour and 55 minutes. No joke. Mine was done in just shy of an hour.] Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce - 5 stars

this wonderful recipe came from a blog i've recently mentioned in this post - the blog is www.food-fire.com. i loved everything about it except for the peanut sauce. it didn't pack nearly enough flavor - i modified the heck out of it in order to get to a thicker, more flavorful thai-style peanut sauce.

but the beef was really something to talk about. tender, moist, and more flavorful than any satay style meat-on-a-stick that i've had before. the marinade was simple to make, and mr. katz used an excellent shortcut to give it its special satay flavor - just use red curry paste in the marinade instead of toasting spices and grinding them with kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and other stuff.

i let the beef (i used flank steak) marinate overnight for 24 hours, then threaded it onto skewers and grilled it. i also grilled pineapple slices to have on the side.

since i live so close to uwajimaya, next time, i'll just buy a premade peanut sauce from there to save time.

i can't wait to make this again! five big fat stars.

(note: i did not soak the skewers or double skewer the meat.)

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless sirloin or flank steaks
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 tablespoons lime juice (1 medium lime)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 cup peanut butter
1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Directions

Combine the soy sauce, honey, red curry paste, lime juice, peanut oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, and coriander in a large bowl and whisk well to combine.

Trim excess fat and gristle from the beef. Cover the roast with a layer of plastic wrap or wax paper. Use the the flat side of a meat tenderizer or a heavy sauce pan to pound the meat until it it’s about 1/2 inch thick. Slice the meat against the grain into 1/4 x 3 inch strips.

Put the beef in a big Ziploc bag and add the marinade. Seal the bag and turn to coat. Marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge, overnight is much better.

Soak skewers for at least an hour. Set your grill up for a direct cook over very high heat (about 500°F).

Pour the marinade off the beef and into a medium saucepan. Add the peanut butter and coconut milk. Stiring regularly, bring the peanut mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce has reduced by about a third. Remove peanut sauce from heat and keep warm.

Place steak on the skewers. Double skewer the meat so that it will be easier to flip. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through. You want to crispy on the outside and medium on the inside. Serve hot with the peanut sauce.

Big Ass Mushroom Burger - 5 stars

this looks amazing. and i remember it well - it WAS amazing. i didn't really do anything to the beef - just mixed some seasoning salt and pepper into it and formed it into big patties. buy high quality ground beef or ground sirloin, and that is all you will ever need to do. i put a thumb indentation in the center of the patties and tossed them on the grill, preheated to medium high.

note: when grilling burgers, never, ever press down on them with the spatula. the precious meaty juices run out, leaving a dried out patty behind. yuck. instead, indent the center of the raw patties with your thumb when you form them. this will prevent them from turning into the shape of a baseball when they're on the grill.

while the patties were grilling, i sauteed a bunch of sliced crimini mushrooms in some olive oil with garlic and pepper. i sliced up some fresh tomato and onion, tossed the buns on the grill, and flipped the burgers.

when the burgers were close to done, i threw some soy pepperjack cheese on mine, and some ... gouda? regular jack? i can't remember! some sort of non-soy cheese went on tony's. :-)

i assembled them on their toasted buns, and somehow, we managed to eat them in spite of their height. yum!

Cornish Game Hens + Mashed Baby Reds - 5 stars

it has been many, many years since i've eaten baby chickies, and these tasty little guys were on sale at some point. my mom thought we'd enjoy them, so she purchased a package for us. a couple months after i got them, i pulled them out of the freezer and thawed them in the fridge for a few days.

when i took these little guys out of their bags, there was SO MUCH raw chickie juice - much more so than a regular uncooked chicken. ugh! fortunately, i had opened the bags in the sink, so i didn't make too much of a mess.

i found some fancy baby chickie recipes that i tried to decide among, but in the end i was too lazy on the day i cooked my chickies to buy all the ingredients and put the work into it. instead, after rinsing and drying them thoroughly with papertowels, i made a rub out of lemon zest, minced garlic & shallots, salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil. i stuffed it underneath the skin and in the cavity of the little chickie. this part was easy, but the trussing part? not so easy. i don't normally truss my chickens when i roast them whole, so i've never really done it. i think i ended up figuring it out, but you can be the judge:



so... i roasted them for approximately fifty minutes or so at 425f til they were done. i made a big bowl of mashed baby red potatoes and dug in. YUMMY! i believe baby chickies are fattier than regular chickens, so the flavor was great! the zesty rub was perfect, the skin was crisp, the meat juicy. five stars.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - 5 stars

this was the first upside-down cake i've ever made, and it was SO good! wow. it had a really unique (but good!) flavor to it, which was primarily from the ground cardamom that went into the batter. mmmmm.

i made my cake in a cast iron pan, starting on the stove top, finishing in the oven. the first step was to melt butter with brown sugar in the cast iron pan, but.... i didn't have any brown sugar! i did some very quick internet research while the butter was melting, and found out that i could mix some molasses with regular sugar to create brown sugar. there are different ratios depending on whether you are trying to get to light or dark brown sugar or somewhere in the middle. i, of course, did the wrong ratio and was terrified that it'd ruin my cake.

after i melted the butter and caramelized the screwed up brown sugar, i removed the pan from the heat and arranged the pineapple slices in the bottom of the pan. i didn't read the recipe correctly here either, because i was supposed to layer them so that the bottom of one slice overlapped the top of another. oops. the only thing this affected was how the finished cake looked.



i let the pan cool while i prepared the batter. it was easy to assemble, recipe is below. it's from gourmet magazine - i found the recipe on their website. it did not include the baking temperature for the cake though! uh, that's an important piece of information! i left a comment for gourmet though, and it looks like they've since updated the recipe to include the temp - 350f. :-)

i used just shy of 3 teaspoons of cardamom in the batter, and i thought it was perfect. and as far as i could tell, the parts of the recipe that i screwed up didn't affect the finished product at all. it appears that this is quite a forgiving recipe. :-)

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Serves 8

• Active time:30 min
• Start to finish:1 1/2 hr

ADAPTED FROM RICK ELLIS

February 2000

For topping

• 1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

For batter

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 to 3 teaspoons ground cardamom (see cooks' notes)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• 1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons dark rum for sprinkling over cake

• Special equipment:

  a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet

Make topping:

• Cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Sift together flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)
• Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.
• Serve cake just warm or at room temperature.

Cooks’ notes:

• Some of the food editors found 3 teaspoons of cardamom to be too much, but others loved the intense flavor.
• Cake may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Courtesy of gourmet.com

Hoisin Lamb Stirfry - 5 stars

this fantastic stirfry was also out of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. seriously, that cookbook is amazing. the recipes are perfectly written, listing accurate prep & cook times, serving sizes, and whether you must serve the dish right away, or if it will make good leftovers, or both. the ingredients for the dishes are listed in the order that they're added to the dish, and the step-by-step instructions are clear without being excessively wordy. there are notes in the margins that give you hints about the most important part(s) of the recipes, or areas that you can cheat in, or info about the ingredients.

however, i'll stop touting the book now, and write about this phenomenal lamb stirfry. i've never been a big lamb fan - it's always been a bit too... gamey? for my tastes. gamey isn't the right word, but it's the best way that i can come up with to describe the aspect of lamb that i've never cared for. so i researched this today, and i discovered that the sharp "gamey" flavor is caused by lanolin, which is a substance that sheep naturally secrete. the lanolin acts as a waterproofing agent and also has anti-fungal and antibacterial properties to protect the sheep. some breeds of sheep (there is one called Katahdin) have such a delicate coat that requires little shearing, and they produce very, very little of this substance called lanolin. if the sheep is raised well, slaughtered before the age of 1 and the fell is properly removed, or if it is a breed with this special low-lanolin coat, it will have a delicate taste and none of this gamey-ness that i've experienced.

after doing this research, my question is - did i finally happen to buy a cut of lamb better than any i've had before when i made this dish, or have i just never had lamb prepared very well? was this the recipe that i needed to find in order to fall in love with lamb? i plan to make lamb again this week, so i'll find out then!

one note about this recipe - i used fresh water chestnuts, and they were nasty! i've never been a fan of water chestnuts, and using fresh ones didn't change that. next time i make this, i'm skipping the water chestnuts altogether.

Stir-Fry of Hoisin Lamb with Cashews and Snow Peas
Serves 3 to 4
20 minutes prep time, 6 minutes stove time
Serve and eat immediately

The Lamb:
1 to 1 1/4 lb tender lamb (lamb steaks are ideal), trimmed of fat and connective tissue, and cut into 1/2-inch by 1-inch chucks.
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dry red or white wine

Vegetables:
One 1-inch piece fresh peeled ginger, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch dice
1/2 cup water chestnuts, quartered or sliced
1 handful snow pea pods, trimmed

Sauce:
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons rice wine or dry white wine

Stir-fry:
3 tablespoons cold-pressed vegetable oil
1/2 cup salted cashews, roughly broken

1. Measure out, cut and group together each section's ingredients: In a bowl, toss the lamb with its seasonings, including the cornstarch and wine, so it is thoroughly coated. Have the ginger and garlic ready to go into the wok, and have the onion, water chestnuts and snow peas piled on a piece of paper towel, ready to go. In a small bowl, blend the sauce ingredients together. With this lineup, the stir-fry will easily come together in a few minutes.
2. Set a 14- to 16-inch wok or a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan over high heat. When it is hot, swirl in 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Add the lamb and stir-fry for 90 seconds. Spread the lamb out as you cook it, so all its sides sear. Immediately remove the lamb to a clean bowl. Wipe out the wok with paper towels.
3. Heat the wok again over high heat. Swirl in the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Stir in the ginger and garlic, and stir until fragrant (maybe 5 seconds), sprinkling with the salt. Immediately add the vegetables. Stir-fry for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Add the sauce mixture, and continue stir-frying for another 90 seconds.
4. Turn the lamb into the wok, and stir-fry for about 10 seconds to heat it through. Stir in the cashews, and turn the mixture into a serving bowl. Serve immediately.

Tamarind Pork Chops - 5 stars

after eating these pork chops, i literally licked the plate. i NEVER do that. never ever. fortunately, i was home alone, with no one to witness my bad manners except the kittens. :-) these pork chops were, without a doubt, the best i'd ever had at this point. wow! the recipe is pulled from one of my new favorite cookbooks (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper). recipe is below, reprinted without permission.

it was an easy dish - i created a glaze for the pork chops out of tamarind concentrate, garlic, and other things which i can't recall at the moment. :-) i preheated my grill pan over medium high, seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper, and grilled them for a few minutes on each side, until they were almost done. i then brushed the tamarind glaze on both sides, grilled for a couple more minutes, and... that was it!

i made mashed baby red potatoes and a green salad to serve with it. perfect!

Tamarind-Glazed Pork Chops
serves 2-4
10 minutes prep time; 5-10 minutes grill time
Best eaten hot off the grill

Glaze:
3 generous tablespoons tamarind concentrate
2 tablespoons ground Aleppo pepper (or other sweet dried chile like ancho)
6 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc nam)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons water, or more as needed

Pork Chops:
4 thin-cut, bone-in pork chops
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil

1. If you are grilling, prepare the grill.
2. In a food processor, puree the tamarind, Aleppo pepper, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and wine. Thin the paste with water as needed to get to the consistency of thick maple syrup. Set it aside.
3. Grill the chops over a medium fire until nicely browned, or alternatively film a large saute pan with olive oil and sear the pork over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes.
4. In the last few minutes of grilling (or searing), baste the chops with the marinade, turning them once to coat on both sides. You want it to bubble and caramelize. Serve the chops with the extra marinade along side.

Shrimp Scampi - 5 stars

i've had quite the run of 5 star meals lately! lucky, lucky me. :) i did have a cataclysmic culinary failure last weekend that involved nearly burning the porch down, so that stopped my parade of fantastic meals. but, we'll not talk about that right now though.

this was the best shrimp scampi i've made to date. i stopped buying frozen shrimp (a.k.a flavorless, tough, shriveled shrimp) awhile ago, and i now buy large, fresh, peeled prawns from the fish counter at uwajimaya. they run around $11/lb, so they're an indulgence, but well worth the price. i bought ~ 1 lb for this dish, rinsed them, patted them dry and tossed them with 1 1/2 tsp Emeril's Essence, which can be found at the bottom of this post.

i put the prawns in the fridge while i prepared the rest of the meal: chopped a couple cloves of garlic, set out four tbsp of cubed unsalted butter, measured out a half cup of dry white wine and a quarter cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice. i also chopped up one tbsp fresh parsley, made a green salad and boiled the linguine.

to assemble the dish, i first preheated one tbsp olive oil + one tbsp of the unsalted butter in a large (12"), heavy duty flat skillet over medium high heat. i added the shrimp and sauteed for a couple minutes. then the garlic went into the pan, which i sauteed for 30 seconds, and then i added the white wine and lemon juice and let it simmer and reduce, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes. i added the remaining 3 tbsp of butter, stirred until it was melted, tossed in the fresh parsley and seasoned with salt and pepper.

i used 8 oz of dried barilla linguine to serve with this - boiled to al dente, which takes around 6 minutes, i believe. it was the perfect amount of linguine for this particular scampi recipe. yummy!

Cedar Planked Filet Mignon & Scallops with Smoky Compound Butter - 5 stars

i stole this recipe from one of my newer favorite blogs, www.food-fire.com. every recipe i have made so far from that blog has been a full mind-blowing five star meal. this one was no different! the only issue i had was with the smoky compound butter - i ate too much of it, and it made me feel really sick. so... yea - nothing wrong with the recipe at all, just me, over-consuming. :-)

i put the cedar plank on a large jelly roll pan, poured water over the top, and placed a heavy bowl on top of the plank to keep it fully submerged in the water. i then marinated the scallops and popped them in the fridge. the smoky compound butter came next. this was the first time i've ever used spanish paprika - i *almost* cheated and used regular paprika, because the spanish version was pricey. but i didn't - and i'm so glad that i didn't! it's a completely different spice than regular paprika. it is earthy and smoky in flavor - mild, not spicy at all, whereas regular paprika just doesn't really have much flavor at all, in my opinion.

(i actually made two separate smoky compound butters - one with real butter for tony, and one with saffola unsalted margarine, for myself.)

while the scallops were marinating and the butter was chilling, i prepared the steaks and asparagus. i had some filet mignon tenderloin leftover from christmas, so i cut it into thick steaks, wrapped a piece of bacon around the outside of the steaks & secured with a toothpick. i topped them off with a generous dose of freshly ground sea salt & black pepper. i let them sit at room temp while i prepared the asparagus (chop off the ends, toss them in a baking dish with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper) and turned on the BBQ.

i won't regurgitate the cook portion of the preparation of this meal, because i think dave does a great job of it in the recipe below. however, my steaks must have been a bit thicker than his, or my bbq not as hot as his, because they required a few minutes longer to get to medium rare than dave's recipe suggests. tony likes his steak to be a true rare - bloody, almost raw in the center, so his was fine, but mine did need a few more minutes to get to medium rare.

definitely five stars, just don't eat too much butter!

For the Steaks:

2 beef tenderloin steaks, 1 1/2 inches thick or better
2 slices bacon
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Tightly wrap one slice of bacon around each steak, securing with with a toothpick. Season both sides with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

For the Compound Butter:

1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature, divided in half
1 tablespoon Smoked Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Melt half of the butter and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the spices and mix until until well-combined. Let cool until mostly solid. Add the remaining butter and whisk to combine. Spoon mixture onto a large ramekin, cover with a sheet of waxed paper, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Chili Lime Scallops

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or cayenne pepper
1 lb sea scallops

Whisk lime juice, oil, garlic, chili powder, salt, and cayenne together in small bowl. Add scallops and toss to cover with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate, basting once with marinade, for about 30 minutes.

Asparagus

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed
olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Please the spears on a plate and drizzle with a little oil and vinegar. Turn to coat then sprinkle with salt.

The Cook

The goal is to put everything on the grill at the right time so that it’s all done at once. It’s important to work quickly, so have your mis en place, some warmed plates stacked nearby, and an oven set on low as a backup in case you need to stash a dish that finishes early.

Use a food grade plank that’s been soaked in water for at least an hour. Set your grill up for direct cooking at high heat (about 500°F).

When the grill is up to temperature, put the plank on by itself for about 5 minutes, or until you see the first wisps of smoke coming from the board. Flip the plank over and set it beside the grill with the warm side up.

Sear the steaks for 2-3 minutes on each side. Put the plank back on the grill with the warm side up and move the steaks and the scallops to the plank. Close the lid and cook until the steaks and scallops are right around 120°F internal, about 10-15 minutes.

Add the asparagus to the grill. Leave the lid open and grill for about 5 minutes, turning frequently, until the spears begin to brown and caramelize.

Ideally, the asparagus should be done at the same time the steaks have reached 135°F internal (medium-rare) and the scallops are opaque and have just started to flake a bit. Remove everything to warm plates, top the steaks with a pat of the compound butter, and serve.

Fat Tuesday: Shrimp, Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya - 5 stars

yes, you read the subject of this post correctly: i used shrimp AND chicken AND andouille sausage in my jambalaya! :) hey, it was fat tuesday that week, what can i say!? i spent longer than i care to admit researching jambalaya recipes in order to find one that seemed authentic, used seafood, poultry and pig. and boy, did that research pay off! it was my first time making jambalaya, and this was AMAZING.

the most obnoxious part of the recipe was peeling the shrimp. poor tony has had to listen to many, many rants about my dislike of peeling shrimp. i absolutely hate it! pre-peeled prawns are a bit more expensive, but i've decided my time is much more valuable than the few dollars i save when purchasing unpeeled prawns. additionally, shells are between 5-15% of the total weight when you purchase unpeeled prawns, so i'm not even saving as much money as thought. :-)

i needed shrimp stock for this recipe though, which requires shrimp shells to make. the recipe called for one lb of shrimp, but you really only need the shells from five or six shrimps to make the stock. in the future, i'd buy the 5 or 6 shrimps unpeeled, and the rest pre-peeled. :-)

the recipe was easy, and took maybe an hour and a half (post prawn peeling). i made it in my big dutch oven - starting on the stovetop, finishing in the oven. it was PERFECT. i am sure i've had jambalaya before, but it's never been memorable. this jambalaya had the perfect level of smoky spiciness; it was rich and moist and, well, intense! the flavors of it made my eyes roll back in my head when i took my first bite. in a good way. :-) i found the recipe in this blog.

i didn't make my own worcestershire sauce, and i did double the recipe so that we'd have lots of leftovers.

New Orleans Cuisine Recipe - Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya

Seasoning Mix (1/4 tsp Cayenne, 3/4 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 1/4 tsp Thyme, 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage, 1/4 tsp Dried Basil, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper)

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Diced Andoullie
1/2 Cup Diced Onion
1/2 Cup Diced Bell Pepper
1/2 Cup Diced Celery
1/2 Cup Diced Fresh Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce
3/4 Cup Enriched Long Grain Rice
1 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock with a Shrimp shell infusion (see above)
1 Tbsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp Minced Fresh Garlic
1/2 Cup Diced Chicken (Cooked or raw)
1 1/2 Cup Medium Shrimp (I use Louisiana)
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Italian Parsley
3 Tbsp Finely Sliced Green Onions

Since I'm using Chicken and Shrimp I want my stock to have those flavors, real simple. I heat up the right amount of Chicken Stock and add some raw Shrimp shells to it and simmer for about 15-20 minutes! It gives it a quick little infusion.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper).

In a Cast Iron Dutch Oven, melt the butter over medium heat, add the Andouille and cook until it just starts to brown. Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, cook until the vegetables are tender (nothing smells better than rendering Andouille with the Holy Trinity). Add the diced Tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Add the Tomato Sauce and cook for another minute. Add the Rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the Stock, the remaining Holy Trinity, Seasoning Mix, Worcestershire, and the Garlic. Taste the broth for seasoning, particularly salt. Add the Chicken, stir well and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. After the twenty-five minutes stir in the raw Shrimp, Parsley, and Green Onions, place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the Shrimp are cooked through. Serve with French Bread and your favorite Beer.

Sourdough Tomato & Basil Bruschetta - 5 stars

this is actually from valentine's day as well! this was my contribution as an afternoon snack to the food for the day. :-)

normally, i take a loaf of french bread and slice it crosswise into 1/2-3/4" thick slices for bruschetta. i saw a picture of a bruschetta that took a loaf of sourdough and cut it lengthwise (as i did in the picture above). it looked so tasty that i decided to try it out. and it was very good! the huge hunks of bread did make it much more difficult to eat, so if you're making bruschetta for a crowd, it's better to slice it crosswise into 1/2" thick slices.

however, if i made this for tony and myself again, i'd still slice it lengthwise as i did for the picture here. just brush a bit of olive oil on it, rub it with a garlic clove, and sprinkle sea salt on the cut side of the bread. i toasted it in the oven this time, but next time, i'd throw it on the grill face down for a few minutes instead. yum!

for the topping, i used approximately 8 roma tomatoes. i sliced the tops off the tomatoes and cut them in half lengthwise. i scooped out the flesh, and then chopped them into 3/8" hunks. i then diced half of a sweet white onion and who knows how many garlic cloves. probably 5 or 6. :-) for the basil, i picked all the leaves off the stems and stacked them in a couple piles. i had ~15 basil leaves. once they were stacked in piles, i rolled them up like a sleeping bag, and thin sliced the rolls, cutting parallel to the center stem of the basil leaf. that's how to get the pretty slivers of basil throughout the bruschetta topping.

i combined the tomatoes, diced onion, garlic and basil in a large bowl. i drizzled a healthy amount (healthy being a good few tablespoons, not healthy as in a very small amount) of olive oil over the mixture, and then added fresh ground sea salt and black pepper. i piled the mixture on top of the toasted bread, and voila! a fantastic afternoon snack.

Moroccan Tomato Soup with Couscous - 4 stars

first, let me say that i can't believe i didn't publish a single post in all of march. wow! i cooked & ate plenty in march, and now have a month's worth of catching up to do.

this soup is from my new year's resolution cookbook, Made in Morocco. it was a simple, quick recipe, with few ingredients. i used high quality canned tomatoes in it because fresh tomatoes are so flavorless right now. it tasted great, but i let it simmer too long after adding the couscous - the couscous swelled and lost its crunch. the flavor was still great though.

i had grilled cheese & onion sandwiches AND a salad with the soup - yummy, but way too much food. :)

(i'll add the recipe later - it's in a cookbook at home)

Valentine's Day - 5 stars! :-)

for valentine's day this year, tony made ME dinner. what a treat! :-) panko-crusted pork chops, loaded baked potato, and framboise lambic. it was SO good, and quite filling! thank you, my valentine!

Portobello Mushroom Burger - 4 stars

this was QUITE a yummy treat. i'd rate it five stars, except that i was still starving after eating it. i'm totally a carnivore, i'll be honest. :-) i believe i had potato chips and a small salad with it. if i made this again, i'd make a bigger salad with extra protein ingredients, like garbanzo beans and avocado and some bacon, to go with the burger. or i could make sweet potato fries... mmmmm....

anyway - it was a really easy meal, and the jumbo kaiser rolls were perfect with it. there wasn't quite enough marinade for my mushroom caps, so i'd increase it by 1/2 next time. doubling it would be too much.

enjoy!

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons brown spicy mustard
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 4 portobello mushroom caps
• 4 slices Gouda cheese
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 4 hamburger rolls
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 4 leaves butter lettuce
• 1 tomato, sliced

Directions

Combine marinade ingredients. Place caps into a baking dish and pour marinade over top. Use a brush to make sure all caps are covered with the marinade. Set aside and let marinate up to 2 hours.

Remove the portobellos from marinade (do not discard marinade) and place gill side down on a preheated gas, electric or charcoal grill over medium-high heat. Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side. Top each cap with cheese 2 minutes to melt before they are finished grilling.

In a medium bowl combine 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons of the marinade.

Spread the flavored mayonnaise onto each bun and top with portobellos. Serve with sliced onion, lettuce and tomato.

Courtesy of foodnetwork.com

Chicken with Snake Beans and Thai Basil - 5 stars

this is one of my most favorite thai dishes to make. it always tastes incredibly fresh and healthy, and it's really quite simple to make.

i may have talked about this before, but i'm going to say it again anyway. :-) one of the most important things to do that will make your stir-fry a tasty success is to prep all your ingredients before you even begin cooking. if you look at the recipe below, there's only a minute or two between each addition of ingredients, which means you wouldn't have time to chop them up as you go. i normally read through the recipe as i prep all the ingredients, and combine the ones that are added at the same time into a bowl. i line up all my ingredient bowls by the stove in the order that they're going to be added to the dish. then when i'm actually stir-frying, i just dump the right bowl of stuff into the wok at the right time and toss the empty bowls into the sink.

here is a picture from a couple years ago when my friend suraj and i made an incredible thai feast. as you can see, our prep bowls are all lined up and ready to be stir-fried together. :)



i doubled this chicken recipe so that we'd have lots of leftovers. to make it, i chopped up a couple pounds of chicken breast, stir-fried it in batches until lightly browned, and removed it from the wok. i then stir-fried together crushed garlic, sliced green onion, sliced snake beans and red chili pepper for a minute. then came some fresh basil and mint, and a mixture of fish sauce, oyster sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and water, cooked for another minute or two, and voila! all done. i served it with steamed rice. here it is in the wok. mmmmmmm. so fresh and tasty!




Chicken with Thai Basil
(Gai paht bai graproa)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

(I doubled these quantities below to make what you see in the above picture.)

1/4 c peanut oil
1 lb chicken breast fillets, cut into thin strips
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
5 oz snake beans, trimmed and cut into 5 cm lengths
2 small fresh red chillies, thinly sliced
3/4 c tightly packed fresh thai basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon grated palm sugar
fresh thai basil, extra, to garnish

1. heat a wok over high heat, add 1 tbsp of the oil and swirl to coat. cook the chicken in batches for 3-5 minutes each batch, or until lightly browned and almost cooked - add more oil if needed. remove from the wok.

2. heat the remaining oil. add the garlic, onion, snake beans and chilli, and stir-fry for 1 minute, or until onion is tender. return the chicken to the work.

3. toss in the basil and mint, then add the combined fish sauce, oyster sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and 2 tablespoons of water and cook for 1 minute. garnish with the extra basil and serve with jasmine rice.

Deep Dish Pizza - 5 stars

this was the most exciting meal i've made in a while. i came up with the idea to make deep dish pizza on a monday, planned it for that saturday, and then waited anxiously all week long for saturday to arrive. :-) i was just as excited for this as i was for making my thanksgiving and christmas meals!

i didn't own any deep dish pizza pans, so i decided to take the plunge and buy some cast iron pans. i bought a 12" skillet and a 10 1/2" skillet. (amazon had a special going on, so i also ended up with 5 qt cast iron pot and lid, and a bamboo steamer :) ) the brand of the cast iron is lodge logic - they're really affordable, so honestly, i was worried about the quality of them. they are awesome though! i don't cook with cast iron every day, so i'm hoping they'll last for a long time too. they also come pre-seasoned, which is fantastic.

i built these pizzas from scratch. i had to make two - one for tony with his regular cheese, and one for me and my soy cheese. the first step was to make the dough. this was fairly easy, once i figured out that kneading this dough does not require me to mash it into the countertop, but rather to gently knead it until it was elastic and smooth. i think i've kneaded dough a total of three times in my entire life. this time it ended up being a success, and it was quite satisfying to create this ball of pizza dough from some flour, yeast, water and salt.

i let it rise in the oven for a couple hours - it more than doubled in size!

while the dough was rising, i made the sauce. i sauteed one diced red onion, a few minced cloves of garlic, fennel seed, red pepper flakes, fresh oregano, dried basil, salt, and black pepper together for a few minutes, then dumped a 28 oz can of diced tomato into the pan. i let this simmer uncovered for about a half hour, stirring occasionally. i also mushed up the diced tomato chunks so that the sauce would be a bit smoother.

i split the dough in half, brushed my cast iron skillets with a bit of vegetable oil, and pressed each dough half into them.



then came the toppings, in the following order:

mozzarella cheese
red onion slivers
pepperoni
crisp hunks of italian sausage
a bit of crumbly bacon
sliced button mushrooms
roasted red bell pepper
the pizza sauce
parmesan

yes... you read that correctly - the sauce goes on TOP of all of the other toppings in a deep dish pizza. mmmmm. tony also added capers to his.



i didn't feel like we had enough sauce though. i like a really saucy pizza, and the amount i made just didn't allow for that. i'd double the sauce recipe next time.

i baked these for ~ 30 minutes at 450f. WOW! they were absolutely amazing! i've only had deep dish once, when i was in chicago for work, and this tasted so similar. the crust was soft and flaky, and the whole pizza slice actually stayed together, which i didn't expect! making this was such a pleasant way to spend my saturday afternoon / evening!

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza Dough:

• 11/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)
• 1 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus 2 teaspoons to grease bowl
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the semolina, 1/2 cup of the oil, and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still slightly sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes. Oil a large mixing bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil.

Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Divide into 2 equal portions and use as directed.

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza Sauce & Pizza Baking Instructions:

· 2 tablespoons olive oil

· 1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic

· 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil

· 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

· 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

· 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

· 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, coarsely crushed

· 1 tablespoon dry red wine

· 1 teaspoon sugar

· Pizza toppings of your choice: mozzarella, parmesan, pepperoni, mushroom, bell pepper, red onion, sun-dried tomato, olives, etc.

Directions

While the dough is rising, make the tomato sauce. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the herbs, seeds, salt, and black and red peppers, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, wine and sugar, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely before using.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Oil 2 seasoned 12-inch round deep-dish pizza pans with the extra-virgin olive oil. Press 1 piece of dough into each pan, pressing to the edge and stretching about 1 1/2 inches up the sides. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Layer the mozzarella cheese all over the bottom of the pies. Top each with half of the pepperoni, mushrooms, bell pepper rings, onions, black olives and sausage. Ladle the sauce evenly over each pizza and top with Parmesan.

Bake until the top is golden and the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and serve hot.

New Year's Resolution + Honeycomb Pancakes - 4 stars

i'm trying a different new year's resolution this year. last year, i vowed to go to the optometrist and the dentist. i did both, though we won't talk about how many of the previous years i didn't do either! :)

this year, i decided i would pick out a type of cuisine, buy a cookbook, and cook my way through it. outside of excessively cheesy recipes, i MUST cook every recipe from the book by the end of this year. i vacillated between lebanese cuisine and moroccan cuisine, and settled on moroccan. i then had to decide between two different moroccan cookbooks:

Made in Morocco
by Julie LeClerc and John Bougeno


Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco
by Paula Wolfert

the reviews for Made in Morocco said it was a good cookbook, but not as authentic as Paula Wolfert's. i decided to try out Paula's. um... not the best idea. it's TOO authentic. i am not ready for that kind of authenticity. the "meat salad" recipes call for animal brains. the tangine recipes called for at least three whole chickens, or ten pounds of lamb. all of the recipes from Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco make massive amounts of food, look quite complicated and often require ingredients that would be extremely difficult for me to obtain.

i want to actually be successful with my new year's resolution, so i took another look at Made in Morocco. it seemed more appropriate for me, so i ordered it. it's fantastic! it has a ton of history and cultural information, and the recipes are much more practical. i'm really excited about working my way through it.

so... i made my first meal on saturday morning from this cookbook. the name of the recipe is honeycomb pancakes. to make them, i dissolved a packet of yeast in warm water, added a teaspoon of sugar, and then combined it with semolina flour, regular flour, one egg, salt, a bit of vanilla extract, and some tepid water. i was supposed to let the batter sit for at least an hour, but i was hungry. i only waited a half hour. bad idea - i'll explain why later.

to cook these pancakes, i warmed a nonstick pan over medium heat, brushed some vegetable oil on the bottom, and put a scoop of the batter in the pan. i did not flip the pancakes; instead, i let them cook until the bottom was golden brown and the top was solid and fluffy and full of holes. well - i got small holes in them, but they didn't end up nearly as fluffy as they should have because i didn't wait the full hour before cooking. i hate when i'm impatient! :)

they were really good though. they had a grittier texture than regular pancakes because of the semolina flour, and they were not sweet either. i served them with honey and butter, and they were just fantastic. i also had some amazing uli's fresh andouille sausage on the side. how un-moroccan of me! :-)

please email me if you would like the recipe - it's at home in my cookbook, so i can't add it right now.





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Linguini with Spicy Red Clam Sauce - 3 stars

this was a really easy 20 minute weeknight meal. it was decent, but it could have been better if i invested more time & money. if you have more time, say 40-45 minutes, make this dish instead.

nonetheless, this dish worked well for the needs-to-be-cheap-and-easy circumstances that i was in the day i made it. i used fresh linguine, which was quite yummy, and for the sauce, i used some canned clams, canned diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and a few teaspoons of fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, and basil). i had my normal spinach salad on the side.

i don't think i'll make this again though. i'd make either the spaghetti vongole that i linked to above, or i'd sub in ground beef or sausage for the clams in this recipe.

however, if you'd like to try it........ the recipe is:

1 (9-ounce) package fresh linguine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 (6.5-ounce) cans minced clams, undrained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is lightly browned. Stir in tomato paste and tomatoes; cook 4 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Stir in clams; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, basil, and oregano. Serve with pasta.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup pasta and about 1 cup sauce)

CALORIES 292 (17% from fat); FAT 5.4g (sat 0.5g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.8g); IRON 3.9mg; CHOLESTEROL 17mg; CALCIUM 47mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.1g; SODIUM 806mg; PROTEIN 15.5g; FIBER 3.6g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2007

Cobb Salad - 5 stars

before i met tony, i had no idea there was such a thing as "cobb salad dressing." every restaurant i'd ever ordered it at served it with either vinaigrette, bleu cheese, or ranch. a few months after we started dating, tony suggested i make cobb salad with "REAL cobb dressing." i did some research, and i found a fantastic recipe for cobb salad dressing. mmmmm.

this is a simple dish to assemble - for the salad, i used green leaf this time. i normally use romaine, but i had just used it for caesar, and i wanted to have a good lettuce variety in the week. :-) i topped it with sections of crisp bacon, chunks of avocado, halved cherry tomatos, slices of hardboiled eggs, red onion slivers, and grilled chicken breast. tony's is on the left - i put a pile of gorgonzola crumbles in the center of his.

the dressing is super easy! i minced one shallot and whisked it together with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and one tablespoon of sherry vinegar. in a separate measuring cup, i combined 1/3c walnut oil & 1/2c vegetable oil. i slowly whisked the oil mixture into the shallot/mustard/vinegar mixture, and seasoned it with some sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. it has a dark tone from all the balsamic vinegar - see below. the dressing is thick and has a fantastic tang, and it tastes really decadent to me - it's the walnut oil that gives it that extra rich flavor. yum!

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs - 4 stars

hahaha. the picture of this meal makes me laugh. :-) i was SO hungry; i ate half my plate before i remembered to take a picture. fortunately.... the half that i ate was just steamed asparagus with balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. nothing too special or difficult to prepare.

the chicken thighs weren't difficult to prepare either, but they sure were something special!! :) the recipe was super easy - mix a bunch of dry spices in a big bowl, dump the package of chicken thighs in the bowl, toss it around to coat all the thighs evenly with the spices, and put it under the broiler in your oven - five minutes on each side. while they're broiling, you mix together a bit of honey and some apple cider vinegar. after the five minutes on each side, brush the honey mixture on one side of the thighs, broil for one minute, turn over, brush the mixture on the other side, broil for one minute. done! :)

the thighs were really, really tasty. i've gotten in the habit lately of just doing a dry spice rub and pan frying thighs in a bit of olive oil. easy, always good, but i feel lazy not trying anything new. :) happily, this new thigh dish was quite a success.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs)

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• Cooking spray
• 6 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Courtesy of Cooking Light

Stuffed Baked Potato + Caesar Salad - 4 stars

happiness! :-) that's what this meal was. i made my classic caesar salad, with just bacon this time - no shrimp or steak. :) tony did have parmesan cheese on his. we also baked potatoes in the oven - approximately an hour and a half at 350f for these. that's mine in the picture, topped with soy cheddar and sour cream, green onions, more bacon, and some fresh cracked black pepper. clearly not a lot of fancy cooking involved for this meal! it was totally satisfying - i was quite full after eating it all. you may look at this picture and think that the meal is missing something - the big steak that is normally had with baked potato & caesar salad! but really... can you imagine eating a steak in addition to this huge stuffed potato and caesar salad? i think not. (though i have done it before... i'll be honest!)

yum yum yum. i left it at four stars because although it was sooo good, and sooo satisfying, and sooo easy and absolutely something i'll eat again and again and again, it wasn't mind-blowing or extraordinary to me.

Beef Stirfry with(out) Gai Larn (Chinese Broccoli) - 2 stars

and here is meal #3 from the week of hellishly time consuming meals. this was supposed to take less than a half hour, and ended up being over an hour!

the dish is supposed to be made with fresh rice noodles and gai larn (chinese broccoli). there were many problems with making this dish:

1. i had purchased the fresh rice noodles a couple days before i made this, thinking they'd be just fine... oh no. i soaked them in hot water to try to separate them - they just dissolved into mush. they weren't close to the expiration date on the package, but they were far from fresh anyway. gross! so i cooked up some dry rice noodles that i had in the cupboard.

2. i had broccoli rabe and regular broccoli crowns - no gai larn. here's a little broccoli education for you:




on the top left is regular broccoli, top right is broccoli rabe, and on the bottom is gai larn. when i was buying the ingredients for this, my friend amy accidentally grabbed regular broccoli for me. i didn't realize it til i was home - and the store that i went to later in the week only had broccoli rabe. i purchased it, thinking it'd be close enough to chinese broccoli... only while i was chopping it up to add it to the dish did i remember that i've cooked broccoli rabe before, and i do not like it. in my opinion, it's really, really bitter and tough, and the amount of work that's required to make it palatable is not worth it.

in the end, i tossed the broccoli rabe, just used the regular broccoli, and it was fine. however... the last problem...

3. the dish called for a substantial amount (1/2 cup) of kecap manis, which is a thick, dark, sweet soy sauce. i had some in the refrigerator, but apparently never bothered to look at the label. in EACH SERVING of the kecap manis, there were 200 calories and 85% of my daily sodium intake (2 tsp or 1 tbsp is the serving size - i can't remember which). that is disgusting, and so unhealthy. no one needs to eat that much salt. the calorie part... well, that's not as surprising because it's a sweet soy sauce, so the sugar content adds most of those calories to it. i look at labels on everything i buy because of the whole lactose intolerance thing, so i'm not sure how i missed this one. i tossed the kecap manis bottle (i think - if not, i'll throw it away tonight :) ). i've only found one brand (ABC is the name) that makes it, so unless i find another lower sodium, healthier version, i'll not be cooking with it again.

so... to assemble the dish, i sauteed everything together according to the recipe. i cut the salt with a lot of lime juice, which the recipe did not call for. in the end, it didn't taste too bad - but only because of the lime juice. without it, it was just a pile of sickly salty noodles with some beef and broccoli.

i strongly considered throwing the whole thing out half way through the process, but i just couldn't bring myself to waste that much. instead, i tried to keep my portion small and avoid the leftovers. i didn't want tony to have to eat anything that unhealthy either, but he seemed to like it just fine.

i'd like to try cooking with gai larn sometime, so i'll have to find a different recipe in my Wok Cookbook that uses it. and that doesn't use kecap manis. :)

Chicken Enchiladas - 5 stars

these were by far the best enchiladas i have ever made! and there is no dairy in the dish above! :) (i made a separate dish for tony with real dairy though.)

the only thing that was bad was that it took longer than i expected to assemble and bake the enchiladas. this was meal # 2 from the stressful week of time consuming meals.

i used the leftover shredded chicken from the taco soup meal to make these. i sauteed some red onion and garlic, then added a can of stewed tomatoes, a cup of frozen corn kernels (thawed), a can of chopped green chiles, a couple chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, and some cumin and sea salt. once that was all simmered together, i added the chicken to the pan.

i tried something new when assembling these enchiladas. i like to use corn tortillas in my enchiladas, if possible, because flour have so many more calories and grams o' fat - and they're so much more processed than corn. in the past, however, the corn tortillas always cracked, and they tasted dry. when i made these enchiladas, i warmed the tortillas up first, dipped them in the enchilada sauce, put the shredded chicken filling in them, and rolled them up. warming the tortillas up and dipping them in the sauce completely changed the dish for the better! and only one or two of the tortillas cracked out of the 20 or so that i rolled.

to finish it off, i dumped a can of green enchilada sauce over the top, covered that with shredded cheese and popped them in the oven until they were gooey and bubbling.

instead of making guacamole or pico de gallo to serve with them, i made a combo of the two - hunks of avocado, red onion, fresh tomato and fresh cilantro tossed with some sea salt and fresh lime juice. i shredded some iceberg lettuce and had that on the side as well. soooo good!

the recipe that i based this off of is below, just in case you would like to make something similar. :)

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast
• Salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Mexican Spice Blend
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 5 canned whole green chiles, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 4 canned chipotle chiles, seeded and minced
• 1 (28-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 16 corn tortillas
• 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar and Jack cheeses
• Garnish: chopped cilantro leaves, chopped scallions, sour cream, chopped tomatoes

Directions

Coat large saute pan with oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown chicken over medium heat, allow 7 minutes each side or until no longer pink. Sprinkle chicken with cumin, garlic powder and Mexican spices before turning. Remove chicken to a platter, allow to cool.

Saute onion and garlic in chicken drippings until tender. Add corn and chiles. Stir well to combine. Add canned tomatoes, saute 1 minute.

Pull chicken breasts apart by hand into shredded strips. Add shredded chicken to saute pan, combine with vegetables. Dust the mixture with flour to help set.

Microwave tortillas on high for 30 seconds. This softens them and makes them more pliable. Coat the bottom of 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans with a ladle of enchilada sauce. Using a large shallow bowl, dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce to lightly coat. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture in each tortilla. Fold over filling, place 8 enchiladas in each pan with seam side down. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven until cheese melts. Garnish with cilantro, scallion, sour cream and chopped tomatoes before serving. Serve with Spanish rice and beans.

(Courtesy of Tyler Florence)

Roast Pork & Butternut Squash - 4 stars

this tasted much better than it looks in the picture, i promise. :)

this was a frustrating meal, but it was almost worth it. it was also part of a week of EXTREMELY frustrating meals - by wednesday, i said that i hate cooking and food and didn't want anything else to do with it for awhile. :) every meal i made last week took at least a half hour longer than i expected, which meant i wasn't eating until well after 8 o'clock. on week nights, that's just too late for me.

the preparation of this meal wasn't difficult at all though. i had a big pork butt roast that had been on sale at uwajimaya, so i just rubbed a dry bengal masala spice rub all over the outside of it. that rub is made with garam masala (which is a mixture of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cardamom) brown sugar, kosher salt, granulated garlic, dried chives, smoked paprika, chipotle. it's by tom douglas, part of a group of rubs called Rub with Love. i would highly recommend trying any of them if you find them at the grocery store. they are worth the cost.

i seared the roast on all sides in a heavy skillet, and then popped it in the oven. i'm not sure why i thought it would only need to roast for 30 minutes (i think it was a four or five pound roast!), but it took well over an hour. during this time, i made my spinach salad, ate it, and also roasted some wedges of peeled butternut squash with a bit of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt.

the pork roast came out really well. it was moist and rich in flavor, and the rub had carmelized on the outside of it. i LOVE butternut squash, and the simplicity of the way that i cooked it really allowed it to shine.

all in all - great, simple meal to have, but definitely takes over an hour for cooking time. i will remember this next time i'm dumb enough to think i can cook a 4-5 lb roast in 30 minutes. :)

Mexican Tortilla Soup - 3 stars

i made this soup for the first time on a sunday, about a week and a half ago. i've been craving this for awhile - i haven't ordered it from a restaurant, because i'm wary of what dairy might be lurking in the soup base, so i finally took the time to make it from scratch.

i started by making the chicken broth myself. it looked so good! i put the chicken in the stock pot, added carrot, celery, onion, turnip, garlic, fresh thyme, and bay leaves. i filled the water just to the top of the chicken and let it simmer for a couple hours. but... it was really bland and watery when it was done! every article i've ever read has raved about the flavors of homemade chicken broth, and they've claimed that once you make it, you'll never want to go back to store-bought. i didn't find this to be the case AT ALL. i'll have to research this more before i make chicken broth again.

the good thing about making the chicken broth is that there was tons of cooked, shredded chicken at my disposal. i used some in this meal, and the rest to make enchiladas (i'll write about those later).

anyway - to make the tortilla soup base, i sauteed onion, garlic, jalapeno and fresh tomato together for 15 minutes, added the chicken broth and simmered for another 20 minutes. when i sampled the chicken broth and realized it was flavorless, i decided that this soup was going to be flavorless as well if i didn't add something extra, beyond what's listed above, to the pot. at this point, i couldn't tell you what i dumped in there. cumin, chile powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder? who knows. i kept adding different spices until it was close to something palatable.

so while my soup base simmered, i fried up the corn tortilla strips to go on top of the soup. these were the best part of the whole meal, in my opinion. :-) i cut corn tortillas into strips, fried them in oil, and drained them on papertowels. while they were still hot, i sprinkled some emeril's essence that i had mixed up a couple weeks ago over them. mmmmmmm. yummmy. i snacked on them quite a bit. :-)

once everything was ready, i ladled the soup base into my bowl, added the shredded chicken to the bowl, and topped it with fresh avocado, cilantro, sour cream (soy for me!), and the fried tortilla strips.

it was a solid meal! it was filling, fairly tasty, had a nice kick to it without being too spicy... but i just wasn't a fan of the soup base part of it. i think i put too many dried herbs in it (resulting in an almost gritty texture from all the herbs), and ended up overcompensating for the initial lack of flavor. i'd try the whole thing all over again, but using a different chicken stock and soup base recipe. :)

oh, and we had spinach salad with sliced strawberries, pineapple, pomegranate and white onion on the side. the salad was fantastic.