Valentine's Stirfry
If you're wondering why there's nothing red in tonight's Valentine Dinner... there was - in the form of Sriracha sauce and chili paste. Tonight's dinner had a kick and a half! Yum!
Victor played chef this evening and took a hint from all those years I was on staff at UCSF. Valentine's Day was always a "heart-healthy" menu day and tonight's dinner played along those lines. Lean beef sauteed with lots of vegetables and whole wheat noodles. Sauce was teriyaki sauce, rice wine, sriracha and chili paste. Spicy.
Chocolate for dessert.
Cheesesteaks
I'm from San Francisco - what do I know from cheesesteak?!? First cheesesteak I ever had was May of 1978 when I was back here with a buddy of mine on a 2-week east coast vacation that included Labor day Weekend at a "Little Summer House" in Cape May. ("Whaddaya mean I can't buy wine on a Sunday? How am I supposed to make the shrimp scampi without wine?!?")
It was the first time I had ever been east and actually set the gears in place for my move to Boston in 1980. But I digress...
I had either a Pat's or a Geno's cheesesteak that trip. I don't remember which it was, but I do remember being a bit underwhelmed. I mean, it was okay, but living at Lake Tahoe, I was heavily into the avocado, tomato, and sprouts on nine-grain bread back in those days.
Fast-forward almost 31 years and I'm in the Philly suburbs making cheesesteaks at home. I'm still heavily into the avocado and tomato and sprouts on nine-grain, but I also have a paninni maker and have learned to appreciate cheesesteaks a lot more. (Still not crazy about either Pat's or Geno's. Jim's on South Street is my personal favorite in the city...)
Tonight's sandwich did what it was supposed to do, but all of a sudden I am craving that avocado, tomato and sprout sandwich - with thick slices of bacon on thick hand-cut slices of homemade 9-grain bread.....
Maybe this weekend.....
Pollo Mexicano
No, we haven't stopped eating... I just seem to be a bit busier than usual and haven't stopped to take any pictures. Sunday, Victor's mom, aunt, and uncle came over and we did several hours of sitting around the table eating.
It was a rare Sunday that I had to work... It was about 10:30am and I had just finished cooking breakfast for the crew when Victor shows up. Nothing unusual. He'll stop by the store now and again when he dares to venture out of the house.
He said that his Aunt Lonnie and Uncle Victor were going to come up for a visit. Yeah!!!
Actually, it was something like "We want to come up and visit your mother." (At our house. Never mind that she doesn't live here...) And "Just coffee. Don't make a fuss." (Never mind that they will be coming up right after church and won't have eaten lunch...)
So Victor heads out to get a ton of deli meats and cheeses, Italian rolls... the rest of the antipasta tray we don't have at home. And a cheesecake.
I arranged to get off early because I really LIKE Lonnie and Vic. They take hours to get here (Uncle Vic is not a speeder...) and walk in with - a pecan praline cheesecake, apple turnovers, and a loaf of some really good bread. No fuss, indeed.
They see the table all set and (while beaming) say "We told you not to make a fuss." Of course, we say "It wasn't a fuss" and everyone sits down and starts talking, laughing - and eating. "Oh no. I'm not really hungry" says Aunt Lonnie as she wolfs down a sandwich. And then it's "No. No cheesecake for me," as Uncle Vic eats his - and she immediately relents with a "just a small piece as she grabs the biggest "small piece" on the platter.
We had a blast.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty much leftovers... I made paninnis with the leftover cold cuts... I'm doing several web sites right now and spending way more time in front of a computer than usual. Oh well. It's fun... But I digress...
Tonight I actually cooked, again.
Chicken breasts lightly sauteed... A half a basket of grape tomatoes tossed in, along with a bit of sofritto sauce, garlic, chipotle powder, cumin powder, and a bit of Mexican oregano. When it was 95% done, I put a couple of thick slices of cheddar cheese on top and popped it under the broiler.
Served atop refried black beans, with brown rice and buttered corn.
Quite the starchy meal - but dayum, it was good!
And leftover cheesecake for dessert.
Nonna comes to dinner
We had Victor's mom over for dinner tonight. When Nonna's over, dinner gets pretty basic. I can't get away with exotic spices or overly-creative concoctions. Nonna likes her food recognizable. She's pushing 83. She's entitled...
Tonight's recognizable dinner was chicken parmesan. Thin chicken cutlets breaded and fried, topped with marinara Victor made earlier today, and some fresh mozzarealla and parmesan. Into the oven 'till the cheese melts.
We also had manicotti stuffed with ricotta... And overcooked peas. And a nice salad.
I love it when she comes over because she's here and gone in no-time at all. We work out the timing so she can eat dinner and be back in time for Bingo or Pokeno or whatever they're playing. And she always gets a big ol' doggie bag of goodies to take with her.
And dessert is calling.....
It's all about the picture...
One of the key ingredients of writing a food blog is posting pictures of the food. One can wax poetically about lighter-than-air cake or the tangy contrasts in a sauce, but it is the pictures that really showcase the meal.
This morning's fritatta is a case in point.
This was a true clean-out-the-refrigerator-fritatta. Everything in it was a leftover at some point. A quarter of an onion in a baggie, dying broccoli, 2 really small steamed potatoes, a small piece of ham, a piece of bell pepper. The last 2 slices (each) of asiago and provolone cheeses.
But pulled together with olive oil, eggs, and garlic, they all had one more moment of gastronomic glory. Nothing wasted.
But back to the picture...
The fritatta tasted even better than the picture suggests, but the picture doesn't necessarily show the whole story...
As I said... It's all about the picture...
Stuffed Pork Chops and Cloudberries
Finally! I did something with a pork chop other than cook it with pears and red onions! This time it was pistachios. And Stuffing. And Polenta. And Arugula.
I had leftover dressing from the other night, so I reworked it a bit. I added some chopped pistachios, a handful of mixed dried berries and raisins and made a deep slit into the chop. I stuffed it with the aforementioned dressing, rolled it in even more crushed pistachios, and into a 350° oven it went for about 35 minutes.
Meanwhile, I made a creamy polenta with milk and leftover asiago cheese, and cooked up a bag of arugula in olive oil and a splash of lemon juice. Dinner took about 45 minutes to make. 35 minutes of that time were out of the kitchen doing other things...
Victor was in doing the cleanup (we have a great system; I cook, Victor cleans. Victor cooks, Victor cleans) and next thing I know, the mixer is mixing away. Victor is redirtying the kitchen - making a cream roll. I came in just in time to see him rolling the sponge cake in a powdered sugar sprinkled kitchen towel. It cooled quickly (it's winter. House is not that warm.) He took cloudberry preserves and whipped it into heavy cream for a great light filling.
It was light, it was rich, it was decadent and sooo flavorful.
And he cleaned up the kitchen, again.
...and ended as soup
It's freakin' freezin' outside. Cold. Disgustingly cold. I need soup cold.
Yesterday's chicken carcass went into a pot with 2 quarts of chicken broth. I boiled it down a bit, pulled out the chicken and picked it off the bones.
Into the pot went a hanful of angelhair pasta - broken in half - a couple of chopped carrots, some celery, peas, Italian green beans, and spinach. (It's great clean out the vegetable bin and freezer of those little bits and pieces stuff.)
Cooked it all down a bit more, ladled it into bowls, grated some fresh parmesan on top, and called it dinner!
It started with a chicken...
I had a nice, whole, organic chicken. There are a bazillion and one ways to prepare a chicken, but I thought roasting it would be the easiest - and quickest.
I rubbed it with olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper, put a halved lemon in the cavity, stuck a thermometer in it (set at 145°) and into a 350° oven it went.
Then I made a simple bread dressing. It's nigh on impossible to make a tiny amount of dressing, but I did try. And while reaching for the potatoes for mashed potatoes, I saw a sweet potato that needed some love. It got cubed and baked with some maple syrup, mace, and cinnamon. And roasted chicken and mashed potatoes means gravy. And one needs a vegetable...
Next thing I knew, we had dinner for a dozen people. Okay. I exaggerate a bit - but we definitely had more than I planned - or really needed.
It really was nice, though. The kitchen was toasty warm, the house smelled of Thanksgiving, and the dog was just beside herself, knowing she was going to get some good table-scraps, tonight!
And she did.
Leftovers are wrapped and away. Victor has lunch and I have the foundation for another meal - soup, stew, pot pies... I dunno... But odds are pretty good I'll be posting it. :)
Oh - and my disclaimer: The USDA recommends cooking poultry to an internal temperature of 165°. I tend to cook mine a bit less. I usually pull it out at 145° and it goes up another 10 degrees while sitting. That's me, but I am also not feeding small children, the elderly, or other people at high risk or with compromised immune systems. I also don't buy mega-factory chicken. Once in a while the thigh is a bit underdone and I just nuke it for a minute or two.
Again, that's me. Your miliage may vary.
Pappardelle and Puff Pastry
I got to spend the day getting my Health Department recertification. Oh joy. I find classes like this painful because they really are geared towards the lowest common denominator. That, and they really do try and cram too much stuff into 8 hours - which pretty much leaves most folks downright confused at the end. The reality is - it's all common sense. Sadly, that's the one attribute many people are lacking, today. What the heck. I'm good for another five years... maybe by then I'll either hit the lottery or be retired.....
Since I didn't get home until an hour later than usual - and the lukewarm pizza we had for our 'working lunch' hadn't quite done it for me, I decided something quick was needed for dinner. In the 'fridge, we had the leftover sauce from a couple of days ago. I had some pretty big chunks of sausage and pork in it, so I hit it with the immersion blender and made a thick ragu. (Naturally, I re-heated it to 165° for the required amount of time.) I then cooked up a pack of egg pappardelle, grated a bit of cheese on top, made a few slices of garlic bread, and dinner was served in about 20 minutes.
And then I decided we needed dessert.
5 granny smith apples and a box of puff pastry...
I peeled and cored the apples and added the juice of a lemon.
Into a skillet, I added a tablespoon of butter, and then the apples. Next, was a half cup of sugar, and some cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, allspice, and ginger. I thought, what the hell. It was a bit of spice overkill, but they were all there. (Besides, I didn't use a lot of a lot of any of them.) I could have gotten by with any one, I'm sure.
When it was getting all hot and bubbly, I added about a half a cup of heavy cream and then thickened it with a teaspoon of cornstarch.
Into a puff pastry lined pan, another sheet on top.
I brushed it with egg, added the little leaves, and sprinkled the top with turbinado sugar. Into a 425° oven for 20 minutes.
It was a definite winner.
And let's see... I have 2 hours to bring the temperature down to 70° and then another 4 hours to have it at a maximum of 41°...
Pork Scallops
I found an old copy of Cooking Light magazine (actually several years old!) and was skimming through when I caught a recipe for a pork tenderloin and spinach, arugula, sweet potatoes, roasted garlic... The concept sounded pretty good, but the recipe itself wasn't quite what I was in the mood for. But it intrigued me...
I was shopping all over town today - I started by taking Victor's mom to her favorite Acme because her car is still in the shop. It's not my favorite store (and I really prefer shopping by myself) so after dropping her off at her home, I headed to the local PathMark. I spent a goodly amount of time shopping, gossiping with the employees (and one of my neighbors works there) drinking coffee and seeing what looked good this week. I then headed to work to pick up a couple more things. Car loaded down, I headed home with lots of groceries and several ideas...
I had a full pork loin that I had picked up, so I first cut it into nice, thick chops and took the smaller pieces to pound for scallopine. The chops were vacuum-packed for the freezer and dinner was started.
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup brown rice
- pinch cinnamon
- salt and pepper
- 1 bag arugula
I diced the onion and into a skillet with the butter and mushrooms. When they were pretty well cooked, I added everything but the arugula. Brought to a boil, covered, and simmered for about 35 minutes. I stirred in the arugula and let it all wilt.
In the meantime, I floured the pork scallops and sauteed them in a bit of butter and olive oil.
When everything was done, the sweet potato/rice/arugula mixture went onto the center of the plate, and the pork scallops on top.
It was really good.
Burgers, Dogs, and Soup
Yes, we're still eating. I've even taken a few photos. I just haven't made the time to come in and share.
Super Bowl luncheon was burgers. Victor went pretty boring with his - assiago cheese, pickles, and screaming yellow mustard.
I was feeling a bit more adventurous... Pickles, alfalfa sprouts, red onion, hot German mustard, mayonnaise, catsup, and assiago cheese. And the last of mom's potato salad.
It was a classic stuff oozing out and running down the arms burger. Perfection.
Saturday night, Victor made a great soup - roasted garlic, white bean and sweet potato. I couldn't tell you all the things in it - there was also some bacon - but dayum, it was good.
And today for lunch I made hot dogs. Dietz & Watson old-fashioned skin-on hot dogs, with hot and sweet mustard, diced red onion, and lots of Happy Hal's Jalapeno Relish. On a whole wheat bun.
Yum.