Steaks and Lentils

The End of Week Seven

It's been another grueling week at the gymnasium. We've been dealing with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, squats, lunges, and every sort of pain-inducing piece of equipment the Marquis de Sade and the Inquisitors have been able to conjure up.  The good news is it seems to be working. I'm down 15 pounds and Victor is down 14. And we're still eating like kings!

It's a flippin' miracle. Or something.

Rumor has it that going to the gym and exercising releases endorphins that make you feel good and reduces the perception of pain. I would like to call bullshit on this rumor. Getting beat up does not take me to my happy place. I'm doing this good-naturedly. I'm not doing it happily. But, happily or not, it's working - and that is what counts. We're both feeling better. We have more energy. Simple tasks are easier. And we're definitely eating better.

It's been a lot of fun refocusing on the basics - and scaling back recipes. This website has been great at tracing our eating habits all the way back to 2005. I shake my head in horror at the portions we were consuming! The real miracle is we didn't weigh twice as much as we did when we started this. I have pretty much always cooked what I wanted when I wanted - without any thought at all to portion size or calories. It was fun, but it certainly wasn't realistic. And most definitely not sustainable.

I'm liking it better this way.

Our celebratory dinner was steaks and lentils with roasted vegetables - and a fried Italian Long Hot pepper on top. These peppers are scorching-hot. I love it! We just cut the stem off and fry them - seeds and all. A pinch of garlic and anchovies towards the end. H.O.T. I'll be making a nice batch of hot sauce next month as they start turning red.

For the lentils, I roasted golden beets, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic - all chopped relatively small - and then mixed them with the cooked lentils. I added a splash of sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and some herbes de Provence and stirred it all together. It was great hot - and will make an excellent cold salad, tomorrow.

We're not suffering in the food department.

Victor will head to the gym tomorrow for a solo trek, and I'll be there Sunday for mine - and then Monday starts Week Eight.

Bring it on!


Apples and Beets

Golden Beets and Apples

Victor started liking beets when he first had roasted golden beets. They were totally different than the canned pickled beets of his youth - they had flavor without vinegar. Golden beets aren't in the market very often - even though they have a long summer-through-fall season - so I grab a couple whenever I see them.

I roasted them in the oven - pan wrapped in foil - for about an hour, and then peeled them. That's pretty much my standard start. From there, anything is possible!

Today, it was cubing them along with an apple and a couple stalks of celery.

I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil, then added some Calvados and put a lid on to steam. Seasoning-wise, I used Penzey's Florida Pepper - their spin on St Augustine spice blend.

I marinated a pork tenderloin in the same spice and Calvados - and then grilled it.

To round out the plate, Victor made a tomato salad - fresh tomatoes, olive oil, basil, garlic, salt & pepper.

The apples and beets really complimented each other - and the celery added a nice texture to balance them. And you just can't get any better than fresh tomatoes from your own yard. They are the highlight of summer!

Since the rains stopped, the tomatoes have been coming in at a rapid pace. I'll be doing another harvest tomorrow. And peppers. We have peppers! I'm leaving the majority of them out there to turn red. I'm making another batch of hot sauce! I do pull in a dozen or so every few days to fry. We have fried peppers on everything!

Another good day at the gym...

Life is good...


Brussels sprouts

Brussels Sprouts and Fennel

Would you think me weird if I told you my most favoritest vegetable in the world is the Brussels Sprout? Of course you would. Actually, you'd just add it to the list of my many weirdnesses.

But it is true. I love those little green cabbagey globes. Even as a kid I loved them - and that was back when the only way they came was in a little square frozen box. My, how times have changed. Now, you can get them fresh and still on the stalk!

On my last trek down to Gentile's I saw some and it was my impulse-buy of the day. Victor is not a huge fan - definitely not as much as I - so I tend to buy them sparingly. What surprised me about buying them was they were pretty big - and I generally go for the smaller ones. As I said... impulse buy.

Another of my favorite vegetables is fennel. It's something that, like carrots, celery, and onions, is always in the house. So what better thing to do than to combine two of my favorites for dinner?!?

I was originally planning chicken thighs with eggplant - since the eggplants are in overdrive mode, right now, but when I opened the 'fridge and saw the brussels sprouts, the wheels started turning. Next thing I knew, there was fennel, red onion, garlic, and brussels sprouts on the counter. A recipe was born!

I started by browning the chicken thighs in an oven-proof pan. I took them out of the pan and added diced pancetta, and let it brown nicely, Then I added the sliced brussels sprouts, sliced fennel,  sliced red onion, and a couple of baby potatoes.

I cooked everything down a bit and then added a minced clove of garlic and some salt and pepper. Next was about a half-cup of white wine. I cooked that down a bit, added the chicken thighs back on top, and put it all into a 375°F oven for 30 minutes.

Brussels sprouts and chicken

I have to admit, this came out pretty good. Victor loved it - the brussels sprouts didn't taste like brussels sprouts! The fennel and onion really mellowed them out.

And after way too long only buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I'm back to buying bone-in, skin-on thighs. Not only are they half the price, they're also a lot more flavorful and can be cooked in a lot of different ways.

Like on top of fennel and brussels sprouts...


steaks

The End of Week Six

And there's more good news coming from the boys in Gym Class - we're both down 12 pounds in 6 weeks! We're maintaining a 2-pound per week weight loss - and still eating like Kings! We are pretty psyched!

It is definitely not a walk in the park, though. Our trainer is pushing. And pushing. I was on some damned arm machine this morning and in the middle of my second rep of twenty, my arms just stopped working. I could not push that goddamned thing, again. He was singing encouragement and even assisting, but I had reached the end. On the other hand, I had done more this time - with more weight - than I had the last time I was chained to the implement of torture. Baby steps.

And the baby steps are starting to show in small, subtle ways... It's a little easier bringing the laundry up and down the stairs. Victor spent a few hours gardening, yesterday, and wasn't winded and feeling like crap, afterwards. I walked back from the garage after dropping the car off for its annual inspection and wasn't winded, at all. We're both moving easier.

I wish I had been doing this 20 years ago, but, better late than never, right?!? Right.

Aches and pains, aside, we're feeling pretty good about this. 6 weeks down, 46 weeks to go for this chapter. Totally doable.

Also totally doable was tonight's dinner. I marinated a couple of steaks in red wine, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and a pinch of S&P. Onto the grill. Pretty simple. They were two 6 oz sirloin steaks I cut in half - poor man's tournedos - and we actually each only ate one! It seems we're actually learning to stop eating before we're gorged!

The fun dish was leftover eggplant stuffing from last night. It went into a skillet, got nice and hot, and then I fried a couple of eggs and dropped them on top. Yes, it was a bit of protein overkill, but I felt like celebrating - and ice cream is currently not on the weekly shopping list!

We'll each have a session at the treadmill this weekend, and on Monday - Week Seven begins.

This is going pretty quickly!


stuffed eggplant

Stuffed Eggplant

The eggplants are coming in fast and furious. It's amazing what less rain and more sun will do for a garden! I brought in two this morning - with a lot more out there - and Victor volunteered to make stuffed eggplant for dinner!

I will pretty much never argue when he says he'll cook dinner - I am no fool! (at least in this instance...)

He took the smaller of the two - yes, that's a small eggplant - and created a great clean-out-the-refrigerator stuffing:

  • ground beef
  • mushrooms
  • broccoli
  • shallots
  • bread crumbs
  • tomato sauce
  • hot pepper
  • zucchini
  • parmesan cheese
  • garlic
  • salt & pepper
  • the eggplant inards

He cooked everything, seasoned it to perfection, stuffed the eggplant, and popped it - covered - into a 350°F/180°C oven for about 35 minutes. He uncovered it, added more cheese to the top, and placed it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown and finish off.

The end result was nothing short of perfection! And to make it even better, there's leftover stuffing that will be reworked into tomorrow's dinner!

My stomach is smiling!

And to make it all even better, better, he took the larger eggplant and made Little Grandma's Eggplant Appetizer!

eggplant appetizer

We're set in the food department for a while! It really does not suck to be us!


Tomatoes

Tomato Sauce

It seems the weather has finally started cooperating - we're getting tomatoes! We went out to do some yard cleanup and a bit of harvesting - and the bit of harvesting was 20 pints of tomato sauce - 16 canned and down stairs, 4 in the refrigerator. I can only can 16 pints at a time...

The sauce is just a plain tomato sauce - a bit of red wine and a bit of salt and pepper - but nothing else. We will be able to use it for anything we want!

It was really a simple process - i pureed all of the tomatoes in the blender and then cooked them down a bit...

Tomato sauce

Whenever I break out the big blue pot, I always think of Macbeth... Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and caldron bubble. The pressure canner is just slightly larger - double the pleasure, double the fun... I think I'll stop, now...

tomato sauce

I'm thinking this will be making some good soups and stews, this winter...

 


Put an Egg On It

Put an Egg On It

Last night's pasta with an egg on top! How could life be better - or easier?!? We're both feeling a bit beat up after our gym experiences this week, so an easy dinner was definitely in the cards. Our trainer has upped the ante, so to speak.

It truly amazes me that things that look as if they should be pretty easy are actually difficult as hell when you have to keep doing them over-and-over-and-over again. But... that's why we're paying him the big bucks - to eventually make things easier in the long run.

Not complaining. Really. I am feeling better.

That's a good thing!

 


Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio

Victor mentioned a couple of days ago that he wanted to make some fresh pasta. Any time he wants to make pasta, I'm eating. End of discussion.

We were watching Lidia last night and she made a dish with mushrooms and chestnuts that really looked good - except neither of us are really all that crazy about chestnuts. It's more of a texture thing than anything else. I'll eat them in something small, but for dinner?!? There are other things we both like better. We talked about what we could do to the dish, and we both said "fennel" simultaneously. It's moments like that where we know we belong together!

And then Victor said he was cooking dinner, tonight!

He has the pasta-making down to a science. It's just perfection. And the tagliatelle he made tonight really was perfection! It was light and delicate, yet perfectly firm.

The pasta recipe is very simple.

Fresh Pasta

  • 1 cup tipo '00' flour
  • 1/3 cup semolina flour
  • 2 eggs
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tbsp water - maybe

Mix flour, salt, and eggs in food processor until fully combined. Knead on a floured board until smooth, adding a drop or two of additional water, if needed.

Fresh pasta

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then roll out using pasta machine. You can roll this with a rolling pin, but a pasta roller is so much easier!

Fresh pasta

Lightly dust and then fold the pasta strips.

Fresh pasta

And then cut to desired width.

Fresh pasta

Unfold and place on a floured sheet pan.

Fresh pasta

Cook in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Then add to sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes.

The mushroom and fennel sauce was also something easy to put together.

Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio

adapted from Lidia Bastianich

ingredients

  • olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 2 shallots, finely chopped
  • 1/2 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
  • 1 lb mixed mushrooms
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • pinch crushed red pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup white wine

instructions

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil and throw in the the garlic, then the shallots and fennel. Cook and stir until almost tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, thyme, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes.

Uncover, and increase the heat to reduce away the liquid in the pan, cooking about 2 minutes.

Make a space in the pan, and add the tomato paste. Cook and stir the paste in that spot until it toasts and darkens a shade or two, about 2 minutes, then stir into the mushrooms.

Add the wine and then about 2 cups pasta water. Simmer about 15 minutes and then uncover and increase heat to reduce the sauce, if necessary.

Add the pasta and stir and cook until the pasta is fully coated and cooked.

Serve with freshly grated pecorino.

This was one of those gastronomic heaven moments. Every single thing about this dish was right. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the mushrooms had a rich, meaty flavor, the fennel added a perfect sweetness in the background.

Victor cooked all of the pasta, thinking that half of it couldn't possibly be enough. We now have dinner for tomorrow night - and we'll put an egg on top!

 


https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/secondi/spiedini-di-pollo-fagioli-e-albicocche/

Spiedini di Pollo, Fagioli, e Prugne

I get a daily email from La Cucina Italiana magazine - in Italian. It always has lots of recipes - also in Italian. My web browser automatically translates to English, but we all know how web translators can butcher a language. I think it's especially true with recipes. There's a nuance with cooking terminology that they just can't always get - they're still a bit too literal. Fortunately, I know how to cook and rarely follow recipes, anyway.

One recipe that I saw a few days ago caught my eye - Spiedini di Pollo, Fagioli, e Albicocche - Skewers of Chicken, Beans, and Apricots. I decided it was a must-try, even before reading the recipe. I'm an apricot fiend, so anything with apricots is sure to grab my attention.

Skewers of Chicken, Beans, and Apricots

INGREDIENTS

  • 400 g a chicken breast
  • 200 g chicken sausage
  • 200 g boiled borlotti beans
  • 80 g dry white wine
  • 2 fresh apricots
  • a yellow pepper
  • a red pepper
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • garlic
  • salt

For the recipe of chicken, bean and apricot skewers, reduce the chicken breast and large-sized sausage and cut the peppers into squares. Put the chicken and sausage meat dice in 4 wooden skewers alternating with the yellow and red pepper squares.

Heat a little oil and 2 cloves of peeled garlic in a large pan, and cook the skewers for 5 'each side, drizzling with the wine halfway through cooking. Remove the frying pan and season the beans with the apricots in pieces for 10 minutes, sprinkling them with a little water. Lightly salt the skewers and serve with the beans and apricots.

I changed the recipe around a bit...

The local Wegmans didn't have any apricots, today, and a single yellow pepper was $2.69. I'm doing a produce run down to Gentile's tomorrow, but that didn't help me, today. I bought a couple of over-priced plums, instead. No apricots. I know it's the end of the season, but...

You'll note that the recipe calls for 200gr - 7 ounces - of boiled borlotti beans. Borlotti beans are cranberry beans - a nice nutty, creamy bean. In theory, one could just boil them and toss them with a bit of olive oil - and that's probably how the recipe intended them - but I decided I wanted something a bit more flavorful. I cooked them with ham, a bit of bell pepper, and shallots - and a healthy splash of red wine - along with smoked paprika and garlic. There's enough left over for a side with lunch, tomorrow...

The skewers were a chicken breast, bell pepper, and a zucchini - no need for sausage on top of chicken breast. (My, how times have changed!)

I did cook them in the skillet as the recipe stated - and added the white wine halfway through. What I didn't do was add the plums to the beans. I tossed them into the skillet after taking out the skewers and served them atop the beans - not mixed in.

All-in-all?!? A really good meal.

Other than soaking and cooking the beans, it was a quick to put together dinner. We'll probably have variations for years to come!

 


Pasta

Eggplant Three Ways

The eggplants are coming in fast and furious. That means the brain has to get working - I can only eat so much caponata. Coming up with ideas for food is fun - and making several of those ideas is even more fun!

Idea the first is frying up cutlets.

Idea the second is a tomato and eggplant sauce - using tomatoes from the yard.

Idea the third is a pork and eggplant meatball.

The end result was Idea the second and Idea the third becoming dinner. Idea the first was portioned and frozen.

I put two eggplants into the oven at 350°F/180°C for about 90 minutes. The other one I peeled and sliced.

The cutlets:

Nothing unusual, here... flour, egg, breadcrumbs, fry.

Eggplant Cutlets

I added Penzey's Tuscan Sunset spice blend to the bread crumbs. It's an Italian herb blend that works well in place of the more traditional Italian Seasoning.

Into the skillet...

Eggplant Cutlets

Onto a sheet pan, and then into the freezer. When they were solid, I portion-packed them and back to the freezer they went.

Next, we have the Tomato and Eggplant Sauce...

A very basic sauce. Into the blender went chopped tomatoes - unpeeled - along with garlic and one lone hot pepper. Into the pot went olive oil and chopped onion, and then the tomato puree - along with a cup of red wine - Sangiovese, if anyone's keeping track.

Next went the roasted eggplant that I scraped out of its shell. Salt, pepper, more of the Penzey's Tuscan Sunset... and the soaking liquid from assorted dried mushrooms I used in the meatballs. I then let it simmer and thicken. The single pepper really knocked it up a notch! Just enough spice to be interesting! It came out pretty good.

Eggplant Tomato Sauce

And then the Pork and Eggplant Meatballs...

These came out really good. They are more eggplant than pork - not a traditional meatball - but they have a great flavor! The texture is a lot lighter than a traditional meatball and the flavor is outstanding!

Pork and Eggplant Meatballs

Pork and Eggplant Meatballs

  • 1 eggplant, roasted
  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 1 oz assorted dried muchrooms
  • 3 cups bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • parsley
  • mint
  • oregano
  • 2 oz freshly grated Locatelli/pecorino
  • salt and pepper

Rehydrate mushrooms. Set aside.

Puree eggplant, onion, garlic, and fresh herbs in food processor. Add mushrooms and process.

In large bowl, mix ground pork with eggplant mixture. Add breadcrumbs and mix well. Add grated cheese. Add eggs, salt, and pepper, and mix well.

Use a scoop to make meatballs and roll with dampened hands to smooth.

Bake at 425°F/220°C for about 20 minutes. Place under broiler for a few minutes to brown more, if desired.

And then it was time to put dinner together. I looked on the bucatini package and it stated that a portion was 2 ounces. Two Ounces. Really?!? C'mon. A half-box is barely enough for two. Four people is a whole box with another one sitting there just in case. But... I broke out my trusty scale and weighed out two portions.

Seriously. That's supposed to be enough for two people. I shook my head in disbelief and decided I was going to cook exactly 2 portions just to prove how ludicrous that portion size is.

It appears it's not really that ludicrous. Having three meatballs definitely helped, but 2 ounces of pasta with a good sauce can satisfy. It didn't stuff me by any stretch of the imagination, but part of this whole routine is not to eat until you're stuffed - and I'm not clamoring for more, either!

So... I learned another thing, today. If I keep it up, one day I might actually be smart. Or, at least, thinner.

 

 

 

 


Fresh Bread

The End of Week Five

We're both down ten pounds! What a way to go!

It's pretty crazy. I feel good - sore, but good. I honestly never saw myself as a person who would go to a gym - let alone semi-enjoy it! It's rather amazing how 1) difficult it is and 2) easy it is. I know that's a complete contradiction, but it's strangely true.

Our trainer has figured us out in these five weeks. He's now pushing harder, making us do more difficult tasks with more repetitions - but the more we do them the easier they finally become - until he drops the next bombshell and picks up the pace. I am just no good at doing dumbbells over my head. He has me doing dumbbells over my head. My arms feel like they want to fall off and refuse to lift that damned thing one more time - and he tells me I only have five more to go. I'd call him a cruel, heartless man if it wasn't for the encouragement he also continually gives. He's an encouraging cruel, heartless man - and we're down ten pounds because he's giving us the motivation to succeed.

Ten Pounds! I'm pretty psyched!

You've noticed that we most certainly are not depriving ourselves in the food department. Desserts are pretty much off the table but we're getting by really well with fresh fruit. And the cakes and pies and cookies will be back, but probably not with the frequency they once were. This is the new normal for us - and it's not bad, at all.

Another thing I've pretty much knocked off is bread at dinner every night - although we're still eating bread and we often have sandwiches for lunch. I've missed my bread-baking, so I decided I'd bake some, today - a nice Five-Grain with Walnuts from Carol Field. It has a little bit of everything in it. I didn't feel like transcribing the entire recipe, so the link above will take you to the recipe on Google Books.

But I did take pictures of the process... This is mixing the five flours and the walnuts... white flour, sprouted wheat flour, rice flour, rye flour, and oat flour.

5-grain bread

Mixed and out of the Kitchen-Aid... Slightly sticky. You want a bit of a wetter dough for sandwich bread.

Rolled into a ball and into a pan for the first rise. It's 90°F/32°C outside with really high humidity - perfect for Mother Nature's All-Natural Proofing Box.

And then after a mere hour...

Loaves formed and back out to Mother Nature's All-Natural Proofing Box for the final rise. I left them out for an hour - I really should have pulled them in after about 30 minutes because they over-proofed, a bit and then fell a bit as I put them into the oven.

But... they still came out great. I took one loaf and cut it in half and gave it to two neighbors - because I didn't want two loaves of bread in the house. We have great neighbors - directly next door is a young couple with two really cute girls who are very skeptical of Blanche, and the other side of them are two sisters probably 20 years older than us. We have a fun time with all of them and they said I could make too much bread any time!

And as a side note...

Dinner tonight was leftover Jambalaya with a fried egg on top.

Without bread. That's for lunch!

Added on Saturday:

Here's Lunch!

Egg Sandwich

Victor just said I never have to buy bread, again...

 

 

 

 


Jambalaya

Almost Jambalaya

I did a bit of a 'fridge clean-out for dinner, tonight. These are fun dinners because they're usually good and probably won't be replicated anytime soon.  I seem to do this a lot with Jambalaya - I never quite have what I need, but if I have andouille sausage, it's just a matter of putting stuff in a pot.

Tonight's pot started with carrots, celery, and radishes - all chopped fine. Then it was a single andouille sausage and a small steak that had been in the freezer too long to grill, but not so long to toss. Red wine. Beef broth. Several tomatoes from the garden. A hot pepper from the garden. A can of black beans. 6 shrimp. Rice. I was going to add some shallots instead of onions and forgot them. I didn't have any bell peppers, but, dinner went on without them.

It was a dish that - as is normal for me - continued to grow as I found more things to toss in. I did reasonable portions and we have lunch, tomorrow.

Still watching the portions. Life is good.