Apricot Pork Chops

Spending the day restoring and reinstalling programs on a new computer doesn't mean we go hungry around here.  Nope.  Not us.  The web will wait  There's food to be consumed!

I do have to admit I did about the easiest meal I could thing of, though!  Pan-fried pork chops (I really do need to get some gas for the grill!) finished in the oven.

Just as they were done, I put the pan back on the stove and added a hefty splash of brandy, cooked it down for a moment, and then added a couple of tablespoons of apricot preserves.  It coated the chops nicely and gave it that sweet and savory flavor I like so well.

The broccolini was steamed and then drizzled with lemon balsamic vinegar and the potatoes were oven-roasted for about 30 minutes (at 375°) with herbs d'Provence and a bit of olive oil.

From start-to-finish, it took about 45 minutes of cutting, prep, and cooking.  Most of it was done in the oven, so I could continually check on file transfers.

I can see variations on this happening for a while!  Soy sauce mixed with those preserves...  Or balsamic vinegar...

Definitely some variations...


Saturday Pasta

I'm a day late with this but I'm dealing with a dying computer.  It's sad.  This is the computer I finally got from Circuit City 2 1/2 years ago after they failed to repair my old computer in a timely manner.  At first, they didn't think that 58 days was unreasonable for them to fix (or, rather, not fix) a computer.  After I launched www.CircuitCity-Sucks.com, they realized it was probably just slightly unreasonable and they finally honored their service contract.

It's been a good friend.  But it's now continually freezing and crashing.  It makes it difficult to get anything done.

So while I was busy making sure everything I needed was backed up onto the external drive, Victor was cooking dinner...  Mini Rigatoni with spare ribs, and veal and pork meat balls.

The meatballs were delicious.  Half ground pork and half ground veal, with bread crumbs, onion, garlic, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and an egg to bind.  Baked in the oven.

The ribs just simmered in the sauce until the meat literally fell off the bones.

Perfection.

Tomorrow it looks like I will be out shopping for a new computer.  And uninstalling and reinstalling all those programs.....

Take-out is sounding better and better.....


Back in the Saddle, Again!

Four days of cleaning, painting, rearranging, tossing, and redoing are over.

We have a new kitchen.  Well...  a newly painted and sparkling clean kitchen.

Our kitchen hadn't been painted since we remodeled 10 years ago.  10 years.  That's a long time for a kitchen to get dingy. And ours was getting dingy.

It's amazing what you don't see when you look at something every day.  But I had started looking and wasn't pleased with what I was seeing.

Actually, dingy was putting it mildly.  I knew it had to get cleaned and painted but Victor hates painting even more than I do.

When I found out he was going to be in Dallas for four days, I started plotting and planning...

Unbeknownst to him, I took a few days off while he was gone...

He took off early Monday morning and I put my plan into action... First was to the grocery store and to the bank for his mother - acting like it was any other Monday.  She has his cell number.  I didn't want her calling him.

I then hit the paint store.

$142.78 later I was on my way home.

Next was to start.  Everything off the walls.  Once the stuff starts coming off the walls, you know how bad it really is...  It was not a pretty sight.  If it was going back up it needed to be washed.  Curtains came down and right into the washer.  And then the furniture had to come out.  And the plants and the stuff.  The fan, the light fixtures, plate covers...

The dog was having a nervous breakdown.  Her food and water bowls were moved to the dining room.

She was not amused.

Everything took two coats.  When we paint together we tag-team.  One does the corners and cutting in, the other works the roller.  It's really different when you're working alone.  Up the ladder, down the ladder, paint brush, roller, paint brush, up the ladder...

I took my time with the painting - two days.

When the painting was done, the real chore began - washing the tile floors.  The only way they would come clean was hand-scrubbing.  They're a stone-look ceramic with a million-and-one indentations that all catch dirt.  They're actually great because they don't show the dirt.  But dayum, they can hold the dirt!  And are they pretty when they're clean!

And then it was time to start putting things back.  Every single thing in the room was washed.  The dishwasher ran non-stop and the big stuff was hand-washed and dried.

I knew I wasn't going to put the same things all back in the same places.  A lot of stuff wasn't going back up, at all.

Like Leslie's mom's picture.  It went from a far wall to a smaller wall above the phone.  I absolutely love the picture and it now has more prominence in the room.  Other things were moved and highlighted.  A perfect example of less is more.

I'm thinking that it may be time to break out the sewing machine and make curtains.  I've done it, before...

And all of those beautiful cherry cabinets were cleaned.  Another all-day job.  But it was worth the time.

I must admit my eating habits suffered a bit while I was doing all of this.

The counters and island and every horizontal surface was covered with something.

I had made chili on Sunday and that became my mainstay.  I had chili dogs, chili burgers, chili fries...  a fried ham sandwich at some point - and LOTS of M&M Peanuts.

It was great to actually get into the kitchen tonight and make real food!

Chicken soup.

It was the perfect first real meal.

It's snowing outside...


A Boring Steak Sandwich

Welcome to bachelorhood.  Ugh.

Victor is in Dallas for the week and I'm home painting.  He doesn't know that I'm home painting.

Surprises are fun!

I'm painting the kitchen and dining area - the first time they've been painted since we remodeled almost 10 years ago.

It really didn't look that bad until I started taking things off the walls. Dingy doesn't even begin to describe it.

But with the kitchen torn apart and no one here to cook for, anyway, my eating habits are going straight to the dog.  Hot dogs, that is, although I'll probably go for a chili burger for dinner tonight.  With potato chips.

I did a quick pan-fry of two petite steaks for lunch today.  And Iced Coffee.  I need the caffeine to keep me going.

Painting is pretty unexciting.

Except it's gonna look great when it's done!

A clean, sparkling kitchen to mess up!

Oh joy!


Chili and Corn Sticks

Tonight's dinner is brought to you by a Facebook conversation we had with a friend of ours.  She was looking for a cornbread recipe, I posted Mike's recipe, Victor asked me what we were having for dinner (it wasn't cornbread) and said he would love corn sticks.

How could I refuse?!?  He's leaving before the crack of dawn for Dallas tomorrow.  Besides, it really did sound better than what I was planning - a ground lamb in puff pastry...

And corn sticks require chili because I wasn't doing fried chicken and greens and all that.

Chili.  Yum.  And perfect for the hot dogs and chili burgers I'll be consuming this week.

Perfect.

So out came the corn stick pan. Rumor has it it came out of a school down South Carolina way.  It's cast iron.  Probably made a million corn sticks in its time.  It could probably stand to be re-seasoned one of these days.  It sticks.   But it still makes a damned fine corn stick.   And the beauty of this corn bread is it's flour-free.  Yes, you gluten-intolerant people out there.  You can eat it!

Mike's Corn Bread

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 450°.

  • Two cups self-rising white or yellow cornmeal, or add 3 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt to plain cornmeal
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • One egg, beaten
  • 3 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted fat  (I used bacon fat)
  • 1-1/4 cups buttermilk (or plain milk with 2 tsp vinegar to sour it)
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil to coat pan

Take the 1/4 cup of the vegetable oil and put it in the frying pan.  Turn the pan to coat the bottom and sides well.  Too much is better than not enough.  You should be able to see a shallow pool of oil in the bottom of the pan.  Put pan in oven to heat.

Put dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients all at once and stir to make the batter.

When the oil is HOT! (smoking slightly), pour the batter into the pan and enjoy the sizzle.  Return it to the oven for 20 minutes.  It is done when a knife inserted into the top comes out clean.

Turn out of pan upside-down onto a plate.  Stand and be amazed at the reddish brown crackled crust approximately 1/8” thick covering it.

Just perfect.

I baked the sticks for about 15 minutes.

But before all that, I made the chili.

Pork Chili

  • 1 1/2 lbs cubed pork
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 qt beef broth
  • 1 jar Sofrito sauce
  • 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
  • 2 cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • cheddar cheese
  • sour cream

Brown pork and onions in a splash of oil.  Add spices and cook until very fragrant.  Add broth, scrapte up bits in pan, and then add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until pork is tender.

Top with cheddar cheese and sour cream.

For an unplanned throw-together dinner, this rocked.

The corn sticks were perfectly crunchy on the outside and tender in the center.  They tasted faintly of bacon which complimented the chili perfectly.

The chili was juuuuust smoky-and-spicy enough.  Not too thick, not too thin, and the corn sticks dipped into it perfectly.

And I have enough left over for a couple of good meals this week!

Life is good.


Sunday Breakfast

Victor leaves tomorrow morning for a week in Dallas.  Poor guy.  A week of hotels, maid-service, and room service. Rough.

I thought we both deserved a decent meal today because when he's gone, I tend to live on hot dogs and chili burgers.

I admit it.  Cooking for one is no fun.  It's hard to get creative just for me.  On the other hand, he doesn't really travel very much anymore so it's not like I do this a lot...

This morning was cheddar cheese omelettes, bacon, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Fresh-squeezed.  What a difference.  And yes, it took me three more minutes than just opening up a carton, but...  what a difference.

There's no fancy, expensive juicer involved that has to be assembled/unclogged/reassembled/washed/assembled/ad nauseam... I have my grandmothers green-tinted glass juicer that's much older than I am.  No assembly or clogging - and it goes right into the dishwasher.  You can buy newer models for 5 bucks.  Or at Goodwill for two bits.

Whole wheat English muffins and Sicilian blood orange marmalade finished the meal.

And me.


Chocolate Cake

 

I'm a few days late with this one, but the cake was so good I thought I'd get it up here...

I don't use a lot of cake mixes but I do like to keep one on the shelf for those moments when I want a semi-instantaneous dessert.  I shy away from the national brands and their unnatural ingredients.  If I'm going to be a slug, I at least want to be a reasonably healthy slug.

Another thing I do is use 8" cake pans for layer cakes.

Most of the cake pans one finds at the grocery store or home store are 9" pans.  An 8" pan makes a higher layer that is much easier to split for additional fillings - and it makes a more impressive-looking finished cake.  Much more "bakery" professional.

And we do eat with our eyes...

Chocolate cake just screams for a berry filling and raspberry jam is a natural companion.  But another berry good companion is the raspberry's cousin, boysenberry.

Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry, and a loganberry.  Loganberries are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.  It's a raspberry/blackberry/raspberry/blackberry.

And it makes a great jam!

Putting the cake together is simple.  Split the layers, spread the jam, and ice.

And here's a layer-splitting hint: To get an evenly-sliced layer, use dental floss!

Yes.  Dental floss.  Simply wrap the floss around the cake layer where you want it sliced and pull.  The floss slices right through the cake with no muss and no fuss. Just keep the two ends even as you pull.

Simple.


Chicken Soup and Focaccia

It was 9° outside when I left for work this morning.  Nine.  That's one number.  A single digit.

C-O-L-D.

Okay...  Maybe not as cold as those of you on the tundra - or up there chipping ice from the Great Lakes - but nine degrees is really cold for this California boy.

Really cold.

Really cold is soup weather.  And Victor made really good soup and really good focaccia to warm me up when I got home today.

The soup was a fairly traditional chicken soup, but it had a fun twist...  eggs!

The pastina box had a variation for "Egg Drop Soup" that sounded fun.  After removing the soup from the heat, stir in a beaten egg, stirring with a fork in one direction.  Voila!  It worked!

It added that little bit of fun that every meal should have.

And it was hot and filling, rich and flavorful,  and just wonderful.

Along with the soup was a sheet of focaccia!

The focaccia recipe is the basic pizza dough from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.  It is so simple, but works for pizza, focaccia, bread sticks...

Better Homes and Gardens Pizza Dough

Ingredients

  • 2-3/4  to 3-1/4 cups  all-purpose flour
  • 1  pkg.  active dry yeast
  • 1/2  tsp.  salt
  • 1  cup  warm water (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F)
  • 2  Tbsp.  cooking oil or olive oil

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine 1-1/4 cups of the flour, the yeast, and salt; add warm water and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

2.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Lightly grease a large bowl; place dough in bowl and cover with a damp towel (make sure the towel does not touch the dough). Let dough rise in a warm place until double in size (30 minutes).

3.  Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 16x12-inch rectangle. Place in a greased 16x12x1-inch baking pan.  Let rise 20 minutes.

4. Top with toppings of choice and bake at 375° about 25 minutes.

Victor topped it with some of the fried peppers I did a few days ago along with a healthy dose of parmesan cheese.

The nice thing about the focaccia - other than the fantastic taste - is the oven warmed up the kitchen nicely.

Did I mention it's been cold outside?!?


Guinness Burgers

I saw this recipe months ago on the Qui, Chef food blog and started salivating right away!  It had everything - Guinness, bacon, onions, horseradish... all worked into a burger.  It sounded great.

Last night I finally decided I was going to  make them and got out the beef and the Guinness to marinate over night.

What a waste of good Guinness!

The flavor was there. but the texture was just horrible.  Where the author stated it had  "...a soft, melt in your mouth texture of a veal meatloaf" I found it to be mushy and reminiscent of  Gerber Jr baby-food.  (I do have to admit that I didn't use locally-raised grass-fed ground beef, but it wasn't cheapo 75% supermarket stuff, either.)

As I said, it did have flavor, but the texture.....  ugh.

Performing my root cause analysis afterward, there were a few places where I probably erred.  To begin with, I probably didn't drain the beef well enough at the beginning.  I used a mesh strainer and did my squeezing, but the beef was loose from the beginning.  I probably should have squeezed it more.

I also think the egg hindered - not helped.  After adding the other ingredients, the mixture was reasonably substantial.  The egg made it really loose, again.  Were I to try this again, I would either omit the egg entirely, or just use the yolk.  And bread crumbs instead of flour...

And I really should have paid attention to the things the writer said...  the clues were all there - I just didn't pay attention.

Oh...  I also didn't make the compound butter.  I didn't think they needed butter on top, and, it would not have improved the texture.

Guinness Burgers

from: http://www.ouichefnetwork.com

Adapted from:  "Guinness - An official celebration of 250 remarkable years"

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound locally raised, grass fed ground beef
  • 2/3 cup Guinness Stout
  • 1 red onion, finely diced
  • 4 bacon slices, finely diced
  • 1 teaspoon creamed horseradish
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 rosemary sprig
  • 2/3 cup salted butter, softened
  • 1 garlic clove finely minced
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method:

1. The night before you want to make these, lay the ground beef out is a shallow dish and cover with the Guinness.  Using your hands, massage the Guinness into the meat, cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

2. When ready to form the burgers, saute the onion and bacon in a skillet until the onion is lightly browned and the bacon is crisped to your liking.  Pour the mix into a fine mesh seive to drain away any excess bacon fat and set aside to cool.

3. Lift the beef out of the marinade and gently squeeze any excess Guinness from the meat.  Place the meat in a large bowl, add the onion bacon mixture, the horseradish, egg and paprika.  Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the flour over.  Using your hands, mix together well.   Divide the mix into 4 equal portions and form into round patties, about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Carefully lay the patties on a non-stick baking sheet and top with plastic film.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, and up to 6 hours to firm up.

4. While the burgers are chilling, finely mince the fresh rosemary leaves, and combine in a small bowl with the soft butter and minced garlic.  Mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and form a sausage shaped piece of the compound butter on top, about 1 1/2 inched in diameter.  Roll the butter into a log inside the wrap, and freeze for 20 minutes to set.

5. When ready to cook the burgers, lightly oil a cast iron (or non-stick) frying pan.  Heat over a medium-high flame until just beginning to smoke, add the burgers and cook for a bout 5 minutes on each side, until well browned on the outside.  Because the Guinness stains the meat, a medium-rare burger will not be rosy pink inside, so you will need to go by feel to know when they are done.  The burgers should resist slightly in the center (and not be too mushy), when cooked to medium rare.

6. Serve immediately topped with a pat of the rosemary garlic butter.

Serves 4


Pork, Peppers, and Pasta

Let's see...

Change the peppers from green to red, the polenta to pasta, the pork chops to pork strips, and it's just like the dinner we had the other night!

Okay.  Not quite.

But it does show how changing a few things can totally change the dish.  And that, I think, is really a big part of how I cook in the first place.

The mind works in mysterious ways, and my mind - especially when it comes to putting food together - is definitely one of the more mysterious.  I read a recipe and I'm immediately changing things as I'm going down the list.  Changing ingredients, changing cooking methods...   A recipe for a salad can become a soup without any effort, at all.

There are just so many different combinations of things that it's difficult to say that this one is "it."  At any given moment, any number of things could be "it."  And with very few exceptions, it's why I rarely ever make the same thing twice - or at least, twice the exact same way!

I'm sure it drives Victor crazy at times.

I could be asked by two different people within 60 seconds what to do with a pork tenderloin and odds are I would come up with two vastly different ideas.

Ideas.

Precise ingredients, measurements, cooking times and/or temperatures elude me.  As many who have read this blog over the years can attest, I'm horrible at writing recipes.  I'm good at giving ideas.  Not that good at telling you how to precisely execute them.

I guess I kinda figure that you're supposed to take the idea and make it your own, too.

Making something for the two of us is different than you making it for the two - or six - of you.

Funny, though, because I have done menu and recipe development professionally and was very good at it.  But when you get me out of a professional kitchen, I just don't have the same focus.  Of course, there's also the part about someone else paying for everything and paying me, as well.

I can focus really well for the right salary!

So tonight I had a couple of boneless pork chops.  We had chops a couple of nights ago so I wanted something a bit different.

I also had three red bell peppers.

And lots of pasta.

I sliced the pork chops into strips and sauteed them in a splash of olive oil.  I added half an onion, and the three peppers, sliced into strips.  And a clove of garlic, minced.

I added one 15oz can of diced tomatoes in juice, brought everything to a boil, covered the pan, reduced the heat to simmer, and let it all stew for about 90 minutes.  Added a bit of salt and pepper.

Served over pasta.

I thought of adding a bit of cayenne or chili flakes but decided against it at the last minute.  The peppers were really sweet and they worked well as they were.  Some spice would have been nice, but tonight it was unnecessary.

Italian seasoning, fresh basil or other herbs, all sorts of things could go into this.

See?!?  Always thinking of a different way to do something.

I think it's cooking ADD.


Chicken, Arugula, and Pear Sandwich

The inspiration for tonight's dinner came from a container of Paola's Arugula Pesto.  One of my most favorite customers brought it in for me today.  I was psyched!

A million-and-one ideas started formulating, but a chicken sandwich on ciabatta rose to the top like cream on the milk of my youth.  Once there, it was just a matter of what else was going between the slices of bread.

Sandwiches are wonderful things.  There is just no end to the variety and amount of ingredients one can use - or ways to put them together.  Hot, cold, grilled, pressed, open-faced, triple-decker, or even deep fried like a Monte Cristo.  And every variation has a bread variation, as well.  The possibilities really are endless.

And with just a little imagination, you can elevate the humble sandwich to rock-star status!

Tonight's variation on a theme started out with a single chicken breast sliced thin.  I sauteed it with a handful of sliced mushrooms, a bit of garlic powder, salt, and pepper and set it aside.

I sliced the ciabatta in half lengthwise and spread mayonnaise on the bottom.  On top of the mayo went a thinly-sliced d'anjou pear.  Oh yeah!  I used my mandoline and sliced it paper-thin and layered it all over the bread.

Next came the chicken and mushrooms.

On the top half of the bread I spread the arugula pesto and then topped it with fontina cheese.  I placed it under the broiler to melt it a bit.

When it was done, I added a handful of fresh arugula to the sandwich, and placed the cheesy top on top.

It worked.

On every level.

The star of the show really was the pears.  They added a sweetness that really balanced the pepperiness of the arugula and pesto and I swear, made me smile at every bite.  If you don't have a mandoline, consider asking for one for your next birthday or other gift-receiving event.  Add one to your bridal registry.  They really are a great tool.

The arugula pesto was also really nice.  It had a great balance of flavors.  I can see a few more dishes utilizing it.

The wheels are already turning.....


Pork and Peppers

The inspiration for dinner tonight was a huge display of peppers I saw at the grocery store, today.  Well...  a big container of fried peppers was what I first thought of when I saw them.  The inspiration for dinner came while I was frying them.

We have fried peppers in the refrigerator about 6 months out of the year.  The cubanelles and long hots come into season and either Victor or I am frying up a storm.  And hacking and coughing with tears streaming.  Cubanelles are sweet, but long hots are - hot.  Ya get a good whiff of them cooking and it's all over.  Good ventilation is a must.

I have to admit that I never wear gloves when dealing with hot peppers.  There have been a few times in my life that I definitely should not have rubbed my eyes or touched things, but for the most part I just try and be careful.

Frying peppers is easy.  Slice and clean - and be careful with the hots - and then fry in a bit of olive oil.  I start off high and then go low.  It takes about 30 minutes to get them just right.  I may add a bit of garlic towards the end, sometimes a bit of sugar.

I put them into a tupperware-type container and just let them sit in the 'fridge.  The longer they sit, the better they get.  The sweets take on some heat and the hot ones mellow.

They're perfect on sandwiches, chopped into egg salad, put into omelettes, burgers...  you name it.

Tonight they went atop breaded pork chops.

The bread crumbs were from dried out baguettes.  I added cayenne pepper, pico de gallo spice, Mexican oregano, salt, and pepper.  The chops were first dredged in flour, then into egg, and then the seasoned crumbs.  I browned them on the stove and finished them in a 350° oven.

The sweet potato bed was fun.

I decided they should continue that Mexican-ish flavor.    I still have a couple of small jars of Bronco Bob's Roasted Mango Chipotle Sauce I pick up at Cost Plus every time I'm home, so one of them went into the mashed sweet potatoes.  (They have a Raspberry Chipotle that is also fun!)

It added just the right amount of smoky flavor.  They definitely weren't your typical Thanksgiving Sweets!

They were good.