Butternut Squash Gratin
After torrential rains and wind, this morning, it is a balmy 70° outside. We went from a storm of biblical proportions to blue skies - on November 1st. Thank goodness global warming is only a liberal myth.
The weather may not say it but the calendar is calling for fall - and that means apples, pears, and butternut squash. I decided to work on a gratin that could possibly adorn the Thanksgiving table, this year. I actually have no problem dropping a completely new and untested recipe on a crowd - it works or it doesn't, ya like it or ya don't - but it's also fun to serve something you know is going to work. I wasn't thinking Thanksgiving when I started, but after eating it, I thought it could work with a few revisions...
What I did was thinly-slice about a pound of butternut squash, 1 apple, and 1 pear and layered them in a casserole with salt, pepper, rubbed sage, and gorgonzola cheese. I poured about a cup and a half of heavy cream over it, covered it all, and then baked it at 350° for about an hour.
The concept is good, but it's more sweet than savory. I need to up the cheese and sage, maybe add paper-thin sliced onions, and cut way back on the cream. That being said, all three of us all but licked our plates - it was really good the way it came out, but I still think I'd like to see it a bit more savory.
I did a homemade cranberry sauce to go along with it. We have LOTS of Cranberry Sauce recipes on the site. Choose one or twelve...
In the meantime, I'll work on the gratin and get back to ya!
Veggie Gratin
I really admire people who can get dinner on the table using a butter knife and a spoon. I'm not one of them.
Not totally true - I've cooked a few meals in ill-equipped kitchens - but I really want the proper tool for the job. It just makes things so much easier.
Case in point: I really ♥ my mandoline. It truly is one of the best kitchen tools around. They look a bit pricey, but they really do last forever. You buy one once. That's it. Thin-sliced apples for desserts, strips of zucchini to wrap around scallops... waffle-cut potatoes... the possibilities are endless.
For this, I used it to slice matchstick slices of potatoes and thin slices of carrots for a simple potato and vegetable dish.
Potato Vegetable Gratin
- 1 large russet potato, matchstick-sliced
- 3 carrots, thin-sliced
- 1 small bell pepper, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- small onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 4 tbsp butter
Saute onion, celery, and garlic until limp. Add to potatoes, carrots, mascarpone, egg, sat and pepper. Mix everything well and place into a buttered pie plate or casserole. Top with panko breadcrumbs mixed with butter.
Bake at 350° until cooked through and top is nicely browned - about 40 minutes.
Crispy-crunchy goodness atop yummy potatoes and vegetables.
Use sour cream in place of the mascarpone, switch out the veggies... It's actually a good clean-out-the-refrigerator dish. Use up those tupperware containers before they become science projects!
As always, have fun with it!
Raspberry Chipotle Mustard
The mustard shelf in the 'fridge has been looking a bit bleak. At any given moment I can have 6 or 8 different mustards in there. Basic yellow, spicy brown, and a host of other flavors and styles. I like my mustard. There's only 4 in there right now...
I bought a couple of pounds of mustard seeds back in June and have made a couple of different types. The first one I made was a beer mustard that so totally sucked I threw it all out. I then made an Irish Whiskey mustard that rocked.
I made another batch of the Irish Whiskey and gave it all away.
Time to make some more.
This time, I thought a raspberry chipotle would be fun.
They're two flavors that mix well together - that sweet and smoky-savory combination that I tend to enjoy. Add the spicy heat of fresh mustard and it's a definite winner!
Raspberry Chipotle Mustard
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
- 1/2 cup brown mustard seeds
- 1 cup raspberry vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp chipotle powder
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Place mustard seeds, water, vinegar, and chipotle powder in a bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let sit at room temperature about 2 days.
Blend mixture in a blender with the brown sugar and salt until smooth.
Smokin' Spicy!
I can see more than a couple of uses for this one - besides the obvious sandwich and burger scenarios. Maybe mixed with some cranberry sauce on a pork tenderloin...
Hmmmmmmmmm.....
Peppers
The peppers are suddenly multiplying, outside. What started off as a pretty dismal season has finally turned fruitful. I had enough to can and Victor had enough to make pepper bread.
Pepper Bread. It's one of those things that is just fantastic in its simplicity. It bursts with flavor - and the spicier the peppers, the better the bread. Even Nonna likes it.
Pepper Bread
- 2 cups peppers
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Slice peppers lengthwise and fry in olive oil until limp. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside and cool.
Mix yeast and water in mixing bowl. Add flour, salt, and olive oil and mix about 3 minutes.
Scrape down bowl and mix, adding the last 1/2 cup flour, as necessary, until dough is smooth and silken.
Roll into a ball and let rest 10 minutes.
Roll into a rectangle about 15" x 8". Spread cooled peppers on dough.
Roll tightly and place on sheet pan.
Bake at 400° about 25-30 minutes.
And while that was cooling, I cut peppers.
Hot Pickled Peppers
- 6 lbs hot peppers
- 6 cups distilled white vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 tsp kosher salt
Wash and cut peppers to desired size. (I made rings. )
Pack peppers into mason jars leaving about 1/2″ headroom.
Combine and heat sugar, salt, vinegar, and water. Bring to boil and then simmer about 5-6 minutes.
Pour over peppers, leaving the same 1/2″ headroom.
Wipe rims of jars, top with lids and rings.
Process in a boiling water bath about 10 minutes.
And, because we needed something to eat with the pepper bread, I made soup.
Beef, spicy andouille sausage, lots of veggies and elbow macaroni.
We're eating good.
Pork Tenderloin and Faux Rice-A-Roni
Rice-A-Roni, The San Francisco Treat! ™
I have heard that jingle more times than I could ever possibly count! Hearing the clang of a cable car bell immediately brings the jingle to mind. Good ol' Golden Grain Macaroni Company. Rice-A-Roni is now owned by Quaker Oats which is owned by Pepsi. The San Francisco Treat is headquartered in Purchase, NY.
How sad.
Growing up in San Francisco, I rarely - if ever - actually ate Rice-A-Roni. My mom made her own faux-rice-a-roni dishes all the time by just breaking up spaghetti noodles and adding it to rice. She'd saute the rice and spaghetti in a bit of butter, add water, a bouillon cube and some chopped [fill-in-the-blank] and we'd have a tasty side dish with Sunday Chicken or whatever. Mama was an inventive cook.
Fast-forward a few years and I'm still making variations on a rice-a-roni theme...
Tonight, it was rice, broken up spaghetti, and a bit of onion. I sauteed about 3 ounces of broken spaghetti with 3/4 cup rice and then added 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, a pinch of poultry seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper. I brought it to a boil, and then covered it and let it simmer on low for about 20 minutes. My own treat.
The rest of the meal was just as simple.
I cut a pork tenderloin into medallions and browned them in a skillet. I added a bit of homemade BBQ sauce and a splash of chicken broth and let them simmer until done. Green beans.
Done.
Back in the late '60s, I actually knew the grandson of the founder of Golden Grain Macaroni - he and his lovely wife lived up the street from Pirro's Pizzeria where I spent my time spinning pizzas and making every management mistake a young manager could make.
Small world.
New York, New York
I grew up calling the strip loin steak a New York Steak. The restaurants where I worked had New York steaks on the menu. Not that I bought many in my youth, but it seems to me that at Lou or Phil Lehr's Steakhouse in San Francisco - the scene of a couple of pre-prom dinners - it was called a New York, as well. The Lehr brothers both had steakhouses and I think they both had a "by the ounce" menu. You chose your steak from a huge refrigerated case and they cut your steak in front of you before cooking it to perfection. The eyeballs were always bigger than the pocketbook. Not an inexpensive dinner, but always good for a prom. They're both gone, now, but the memory lingers on...
I'm not sure when I even became aware of the numerous different names for the cut - strip steak, sirloin strip, Kansas City steak, club steak - to name but a few, but regardless of what it is called, my mind sees New York. It just is. And I also see Ernie, the butcher at the Hyatt in Cambridge when I worked there in the early '80s. I learned more about quality beef from him than anyone else. He would come out of his butcher area when a shipment of meat arrived and wordlessly go through, check, and accept or reject pieces. It was classic the way he could wither someone with a look. I was the receiving manager when I first met him and even though I had cut and cooked a bazillion steaks by 1980, I hadn't really purchased them. I really learned a lot from him.
It was a definite impulse-buy when I saw the package of them at the store the other day, but they just looked right. The fact that they were on sale pretty much clinched the deal. They still weren't cheap, but they were affordable.
Quality means simplicity, so they only got salt and pepper before going on the grill. They didn't require anything else after coming off the grill, either. Ernie would have been proud.
I had some cheese that needed using up, so cheesy scalloped potatoes were a natural addition. I made them slightly different, this time - I heated the milk and started with only half the cheese. And I cooked them a lot longer.
I do have to admit that they came out pretty stellar. I used red leister, havarti, and gorgonzola cheeses in the dish, but about 6 or more ounces of any cheese or cheese combination would work. Use what you have in the 'fridge. It's how I make mac & cheese, as well.
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
- 6-8 oz freshly-grated flavorful cheese - any combination
- 2 lbs potatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cups milk
- salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter oven-proof baking dish. Mix cheeses and set aside.
Layer half of potatoes in pdish. Sprinkle with flour. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter and dust with salt and pepper. Sprinkle half of cheese mixture over. Top with remaining potatoes, dust with salt & pepper, and dot with butter. Save remaining cheese for later.Bring milk to simmer and pour over potatoes.. Cover tightly with foil and bake about an hour. Remove from oven and sprinkle with reserved cheese. Return to oven uncovered and bake about 45 more minutes or until cheese is crusty-golden-brown.
I hardly ever peel potatoes - I see no need to and I like the skins - so peel or not as you desire.
And having nothing to do with dinner tonight, I roasted a bunch of plum tomatoes from our yard.
I sliced them in half, laid them out on a sheet pan, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt & pepper, and then roasted them at 350° for about an hour. When they came out, I placed them in a container and added more olive oil.
They have a really awesome concentrated tomato flavor and the oil will be great for salads or other drizzling.
Stuffed Chicken and Lentils
I picked up a yellow and a green zucchini the other day just because they looked really good. Unfortunately, zucchini is not Victor's favorite vegetable. It's not that he dislikes it, it's more that he just thinks there are better options out there. So I decided to turn them into something a bit more fun than zucchini coins.
I've made a lentil dish with fennel a few times so I thought I'd do something along those lines - sauteed diced vegetables mixed into cooked lentils. It came out pretty good - if I do say so, m'self! And bein' that both Victor and Nonna ate everything up, I'd say they agreed!
Lentils and Squash
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 1 green zucchini, diced
- 1 yellow zucchini, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 cup plum tomatoes, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 cups broth
- fresh herbs
- salt and pepper, to taste
Cook lentils in broth until done - about 20 minutes, or so. Set aside.
Dice vegetables in a fairly uniform size. Starting with onions and carrots, saute in a bit of olive oil until they begin to soften. Add garlic and then zucchinis and tomatoes. Cook until zucchini softens and tomatoes begin to break down.
Mince fresh herbs - basil, oregano, parsley, thyme - whatever you have on hand - and stir into pot. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, to taste.
This is one of those dishes that can take any number of variations. Any vegetables will work.
Sitting atop the lentils tonight was a stuffed chicken breast.
I had about a cup of chicken left from the beer can chicken the other night so I minced it with a bit of gorgonzola, a bit of havarti, one long hot pepper, and a bit of S&P.
I pounded some thin-sliced chicken breasts and placed them in a muffin tin. I added the stuffing, folded over the tops, and placed them in a 350° oven for 30 minutes. I topped them with a bit of mango and chipotle sauce I picked up at Cost Plus when we were in Oregon.
I really miss Cost Plus. We used to shop there regularly when we lived in San Francisco - the original store at the wharf was way cool back in the day - and a lot of our furniture came from there. They closed the store closest to us in Wilmington, DE and I'll be damned if I'm driving 150 miles to Maryland just to spend money. I'll get my fix when I'm on the west coast.
In the meantime, I have a few jars of the sauce in the cupboard - along with a few other goodies that found their way into the suitcase...
More meals to come.
Pork Chops and Peach Salsa
Everything but the pork chop is courtesy of my shopping trip to Gentile's on Monday. We started off with white sweet potatoes - mashed with butter and sour cream. Basic and good.
Fresh spinach cooked in a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of garlic. How could it be bad? And then a simple peach salsa with fresh peaches, jalapeños, green onions, and cilantro. Oops. I lied. The cilantro came from the garden.
The pork chop was pan-seared then finished off in the oven. Perfectly tender. All of the various flavors worked well...
And now for another flavor - fresh figs.
I have an idea for a roasted fig over ice cream.
I'll be back!
Tri-Tips and KC BBQ
Weather-wise, today was a perfect day. Warm enough to have windows open, cool enough not to die while working in the yard. I was indoors cooking up a storm, Victor was outside making the yard beautiful. The perfect delegation of duties.
While Victor was mowing and trimming, I went grocery shopping, made potato salad for tomorrow, slow-cooked a rack of ribs - also for tomorrow, made a tortellini salad for tonight, baked a polenta pound cake and made a fresh cherry and key lime sauce to top it with, and cut up a tri-tip roast into steaks and liberally covered them with KC Rib Doctor Seasoning - one of Victor's birthday gifts.
All-in-all, I think I did well.
The seasoning was just what thew Rib Doctor ordered! I used it on the ribs that slow-cooked in the oven for several hours today - I'll finish them on the grill tomorrow - and on the steaks. It's pretty darn good. I'm definitely enjoying this gift!
It's funny that I usually eschew spice blends because I have so many herbs and spices in the cupboard, and then I have a million-and-one exceptions - like regional-type blends, ethnic blends, and I always have French herbs and herbs d'Provence... Italian seasoning... Oh, wait - I can count them under "ethnic blends."
At least I'm consistent in my inconsistencies.
The tortellini salad was a throw-together...
- Cheese tortellini
- fresh peas
- roasted red pepper
- sun-dried tomatoes
- sliced black olives
- mayonnaise
- basil
- oregano
- parsley
- garlic powder
- salt and pepper
Mix. Chill. Eat.
Fresh corn with lots of butter.
And there's still that polenta pound cake for later on.
Holiday weekends totally rock!
Pork Tenderloin and Lentils
Over the winter I had stocked up on lentils and rice. I bought several pounds of black beluga lentils, lentils du puy, black japonica rice, and a few other slightly offbeat whole-grain rices from Lundberg. I really like the various white rices, but I also really like the nuttier whole-grain varieties.
I've been a bit loathe to break out some of the things Nonna wouldn't really recognize, but I thought I'd give the black lentils a try, tonight. And I'm glad I did - they were a success!
I could tell when she sat down she wasn't sure about them, but she's been a real trooper when it comes to trying things. She did, declared them good, and then ate a hefty portion of them!
Lentils are really good for you and have lots of fiber, protein, folic acid, c and b vitamins, amino acids, trace minerals... I remember a million years ago when my grandmother's doctor told her to eat a small amount of lentils every day. Even back in the Dark Ages, the benefits were known.
So fast-forward a bit and we have black beluga lentils. They're called beluga because they resemble beluga caviar. They cook up like lentilles du puy - French green lentils - of which I also have several pounds. I'm hoping to make many lentil salads this spring and summer, but in the meantime, a hot lentil dish is the perfect accompaniment to dinner! The recipe will work for any hardy lentil.
Black Lentils
- 1 cup lentils
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 cups water or broth
- pinch salt and pepper
Saute onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil. When vegetables are wilted, add lentils and broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer, covered, about 25 minutes, or until tender. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
The pork tenderloin was marinated in a bit of soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, and garlic, and then grilled. I topped it with some Apricot Pepper Jelly I made back in September. I still have a few jars left.
And I did let Nonna know that she's free to ask for or suggest things for dinner, as well. I am always open to suggestions or ideas. She smiled and said she couldn't think of anything right off the bat but would let me know if she did. Then she said I was doing pretty good.
I'll take it.
Chicken Marsala and Potato Pancakes
Leftover smashed potatoes are a good thing. Especially when Victor has a plan...
His plan was potato pancakes. I loves me some potato pancakes! They really are the perfect way to use up leftover potatoes. And using up leftover potatoes is the only time I ever think to make them. They probably wouldn't come out as good if I cooked the potatoes and did them on purpose. Some things are just like that.
The potato pancakes are pretty basic - an egg, some flour, herbs and spices, as desired. He took them one step farther tonight, though - he breaded them with breadcrumbs. Brilliant.
The chicken marsala was another quick throw-together.
I sliced two chicken breasts width-wise and then lightly pounded them. I dredged them in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and a bit of sage.
I sauteed mushrooms and then sauteed the chicken in a bit of olive oil and butter. I added a good splash of marsala and let it cook down. Next went some chicken broth and I let it simmer a bit and then thickened it with a bit of cornstarch.
Frozen chopped spinach finished the plate.
This one had it all. Fork-tender chicken scallops, creamy-crunchy potatoes, and Popeye's favorite vegetable.
And there's more of that yummy cake coming up later...
Panini and Potatoes
Last night I roasted a chicken in honor of Julia Child's 100th Birthday, tomorrow. I'm still doing physical therapy, and between it and work tomorrow, I really wouldn't have had the time I wanted tomorrow and still eat at a decent hour. I figured Julia would understand.
I thought a simple roasted chicken would be the best tribute to her. It's one of the easiest and most intimidating of dishes. Easy, because what's difficult about putting a chicken in the oven? Intimidating, because they rarely come out as planned.
But this is about the leftovers. My tome to Roast Chicken is tomorrow...
With chicken in the 'fridge, sandwiches were my first choice - but not just any sandwich... grilled panini loaded with all sorts of fun things! I mean, would you expect a plain ol' chicken sandwich with mayo on squishy white bread?!? Not that I don't have a place in my heart for turkey and squishy white bread sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving, but that's still a few months away...
These panini started with a Tuscan pane. If you're gonna go Italian, go Italian, right?!? Then came a sharp imported provolone. Atop that went slices of fresh tomatoes from our garden. Next was the aforementioned chicken, topped with fried peppers, also from the garden. Next was a Locatelli with peppercorns, and then the final slice of bread. Both slices were liberally (I love the word Liberal) doused with olive oil and placed on the panini maker.
Meanwhile, I made Italian potato pancakes. I got this idea from La Cucina Italiana. I've been making potato pancakes for as long as I can remember, but these were really, really simple. They were just mashed potatoes - with nothing added - mixed with shredded provolone cheese, salt, pepper, and minced fresh basil. I formed them into patties and cooked them on a griddle with just enough olive oil to keep them from sticking.
The perfect leftover meal.