Beef & Mushroom Risotto
This was going to be Butternut Squash Risotto. At least, that's what I was thinking earlier, today. As with many recipe ideas I have, it morphed into something completely different.
It was also a combination of things I had and time we're going to have this weekend, since I'm going to be working both Saturday and Sunday. I had mushrooms and a small piece of thinly-sliced beef that was just taking up room in the freezer and that lovely butternut squash will make a great soup that Victor can pull together, tomorrow.
Two meals taken care of and we can figure out Sunday, later.
We really didn't worry about meals and meal-times before we moved Nonna in with us, but we've had to get more regimented about time and ingredients. Oh well... It comes with the territory.
Risotto is still one of the easiest things a person can make.
Beef and Mushroom Risotto
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 oz mushrooms, chopped
- 3/4 lb beef, cut into small thin strips
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups hot beef broth
- 1 cup shredded pecorini romano cheese
- salt and pepper, to taste
Saute beef in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Saute until vegetables are limp. Add rice and cook about 1 minute. Add wine and cook, stirring often, until it is absorbed.
Begin to add broth by the ladle, stirring continually. Continue adding ladles of broth as the last one is absorbed, until rice is just tender.
At this point, stir in cheese.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Voila! It's done!
The basic recipe is there - just switch out the meat, the type of broth, the vegetables... Make it with whatever and however.
It's guaranteed to be good!
Dinner Rolls
I am soooooo bummed!
Today was a great Sunday - totally relaxing. I got up early, did a bit of grocery shopping, and then came home to play a bit in the kitchen. I had two things I wanted to do, today - bake some dinner rolls and come up with a recipe using farro for work.
I kinda knew what I wanted to do with both ideas, but, especially with the farro, I also wanted to chronicle it so I could actually replicate it.
Enter the camera.
I snapped pictures of the dough-making process for the rolls. I took pictures of the dough proofing, resting, rolling into little balls and placing them in the muffin tins. I took pictures of them all proofed and ready to go into the oven. I took pictures when they came out, on the cooking rack, and, finally, in a basket on the table, butter at the ready.
I did the same for the farro. Sauteing the onion and pancetta, adding the broth and pumpkin, how it looked coming out of the oven right before topping it with the cheese. The final product in the pan and then on the plate.
Everything looked great.
After an early Sunday dinner, I headed into the office, put the chip into the card reader, and... nothing. No pictures. No step-by-step recreations of all the things I did today. A little message stating the memory card contained no images. Did I mention I was bummed? Hell. I was pissed.
Who knew memory cards would lose their ability to memorize? Certainly not I. But, it appears, this one did. I tried another card - the one that came with the camera - and it worked. Alas, my computer wouldn't read it. Victor said he had an extra card and went to get it. You know how someone is being helpful and you're not being reciprocally nice? Yeah, I had my cranky pants on. While I was grumbling, he just ordered two more cards so we would both have a backup.
So... I ended up being able to take one picture of the finished rolls - only because we didn't eat all 12 of them.
Back when we lived in San Francisco one of the PBS cooking shows we'd watch was the Bread Monk. I've baked more than a few loaves of bread in my day, but I liked his basic style - and he generally had a good tip or two about things. I remembered a recipe for a corn roll and set out to see about replicating them...
Honey Corn Rolls
adapted from The Bread Monk
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup yellow cornmeal
- 2 ½ cups unbleached bread flour (I used Italian "00")
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
In a medium size bowl, dissolve yeast in milk and allow to proof for about 5 minutes.
Stir in egg, honey, salt, and cornmeal and mis well. Add the flour and mix until smooth.
Add the oil and beat until it is fully incorporated. Continue kneading with the mixer for about 6 to 8 minutes, or as needed to make a smooth and elastic dough that is only slightly sticky.
Sightly oil the surface of the dough and place in a clean, dry bowl. Cover with a dry cloth and let rise about an hour or until doubled. Punch the dough down and briefly knead.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into balls. Place balls into the cups of a lightly greased muffin tin.
Cover and let rise for about an hour until nearly doubled.
Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 15-16 minutes or until browned.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving warm.
What's nice about these rolls is they're light and flavorful, but they also have a nice little crunch because of the cornmeal. It's a bit of the unexpected. I really do like them - and they're really simple to make.
The farro? It was really good and will make a great demo at work. It's based on an idea from Ina Garten. Too bad I don't have a picture...
Farro with Pumpkin and Pancetta
- 1 4oz carton Pancetta
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 pkg farro
- 1 qt chicken broth
- 1 bag diced pumpkin
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 375°.
In an oven-roof pan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onion and pancetta and cook until onion is translucent and pancetta begins to brown.
Add the farro, thyme, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Stir in the cubed pumpkin, cover, and bake for about 20 minutes, until the squash and farro are tender.
Sprinkle the parmesan on top and bake uncovered for about 10 minutes - until the pumpkin is tender, and the cheese has melted.
I used a Le Creuset pan and it worked - and looked - great.
Jakes Wayback Burgers
Ever have one of those kitchen-disaster days where it's better just to walk away than try and fix it? That was me, earlier this evening.
A few months back, our dog, Cybil, stopped eating. Since she was a total chow-hound prior to this, we took her to the vet, where we learned she had kidney failure... At 12 years of age, she's getting old. They put her on a special renal diet - that she promptly refused to eat. They changed the diet and she ate for a few days - and then quit, again. After another vet visit, they said it was okay for us to just cook for her. I've written enough renal diets in my life that cooking a renal diet for a dog really wasn't that difficult.
For quite a while, she was pigging down on the beef and chicken stews I was making - and then, a few days ago, she decided she was getting tired of them, as well. This, of course, was right after I had make a beef and pasta and rice dish with about 5 pounds of beef. Being that I can be the cheapest SOB on the planet, sometimes, I packaged it up and put it in the freezer - I sure as hell wasn't throwing it out. She's back to eating regular canned dog food and loving every bit of it. Go figure.
Last night, I pulled a container out to rework as a stew for us for tonight's dinner. Heck, I can rework just about anything. It was still pretty frozen when I went to start dinner, so into the microwave it went for a few minutes. It was still icy, but I put it in the pot on the stove.
Well... that was my intent, anyway... What I actually did was get part of it into the pot and the rest of it all over the stove - under the grates, all over the burners... A real mess. My first thought was no wonder the dog won't eat this crap and I threw it all away. All of it - including the two other containers in the freezer. What I didn't do, however, was curse, yell, or otherwise lose my temper. I mean, a couple of expletives did come out under my breath, but definitely not the string I'm capable of. I was actually quite proud of myself.
Victor came walking in after I had cleaned everything up and was getting ready to thaw some chip steaks for a quick Swiss steak dinner when I semi-laughingly relayed my story.
He said "I'll go get sandwiches."
As if I need another reason to love the guy... he just knows the perfect thing to say at just the perfect time.
And in moments he was off to Jake's Wayback Burgers. We're pretty equi-distant from both Jake's and Five Guys. We've become Jake's fans over Five Guys... Good burgers, good service, and less expensive, to boot. Victor came back with a chipotle burger and a bacon burger for us, and a plain cheeseburger for Nonna - and lots of fries.
We split the burgers so we could both have a half of each and enjoyed every not-overly-greasy bite.
And clean-up was a snap.
In the meantime, the puppy girl is eating and we don't have to cook for her. We'll see what next week brings, but I know what she won't be getting...
Roasted Vegetable Soup with Coca Cola Country Ham
Coca Cola?!? In MY house?!? Has the End of Times come and gone?!?
Well... not quite. It was a recipe ingredient. Really. And it was an imported Mexican Coke - made with sugar.
I drink maybe three Cokes a year. All from Mexico from an ice-cold bottle. Even if high fructose corn syrup was a healthy alternative to sugar, I wouldn't drink American Coca Cola. It's too damned sweet. The Mexican Coke made with sugar really is a fun and refreshing beverage. Three times a year.
I used to love Coke, Dr. Pepper, Bireley's Orange soda... Working in restaurants at a young age, I had a pretty much endless supply of it. But as I got older - and they changed the sweetener to HFCS - I lost my taste for it. Today, plain seltzer is my carbonated beverage of choice.
But we had country ham in the 'fridge compliments of Ann and Julie, and the label gave a recipe for fried ham in cola. I had to go for it. There's a world of difference between a country ham and a city ham. City hams - the ham you find at the supermarket, bone-in, boneless, spiral cut, etc., are a wet-cured ham, giving the meat a mild, tender and juicy flavor. Country hams, on the other hand, are dry-cured. They're rubbed with salt and seasonings, then smoked and aged for anywhere from a few months to several years. They're salty, chewy, and more intensely-flavored.
The simple recipe called for half cola and half water in a skillet, and then to fry the ham in it for a few minutes per side. More braising than frying, but who am I to argue?
It came out pretty damned good. The Coke added sweetness and the water leeched out a bit of the salt. It was chewy and really flavorful. I put pieces on buttered baguette and dipped it into the soup for a fun-flavor-combination.
The Soup...
It was going to be a roasted cauliflower soup, but when I opened the vegetable bin, I found bits and pieces of this-and-that that needed using up. Roasted Vegetable Soup was born.
Broccoli, carrots, onion, cauliflower, garlic, and mushrooms were drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted at 425° for about 30 minutes. Into a pot they went with a cup of white wine, water, a carton of vegetable broth, and herbs d'Provence. When it all cooked down nice and mushy, I hit it with the immersion blender and 2 cups of heavy cream.
It simmered away for a bit and dinner was served!
I vacuum-sealed the remaining ham and placed it in the freezer. I'm thinking that some of it is going to grace the Thanksgiving Table in some way and I definitely see a Bean Soup in our near future...
This is gonna be fun!
Thanks, Ann & Julie!
Corned Beef Hash and Poached Eggs
One of my (many) guilty pleasures in life is Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash.
I know... I know... For all the espousing I do on eating well, opening a can of corned beef hash seems pretty bad. Oh well. I've always liked corned beef hash and when I see it on a diner menu will almost always go for it for breakfast. Such is life.
My father would cook up corned beef hash now and again for breakfast with eggs fried in what seemed like an inch of oil. The man definitely had a way with food. He'd fry eggs that were actually crispy around the edges and brew the cheapest damned coffee on the planet - and we'd be lined up for more. Drinking bottomless cups of Lady Lee coffee - bought ground in 3-pound cans - and waiting for the next pot to brew.
Definitely good memories.
Victor had actually made a comment about corned beef hash a few days ago, and when I was at the store today, I grabbed some with the thought of making it for Sunday Lunch since he had made pumpkin scones for Sunday Breakfast.
Asking Nonna if she wanted corned beef hash and poached eggs for lunch was another who's on first conversation... After a few minutes, she finally said yes, although the look on her face was more of a puzzled what are we having for lunch?!?
It's always an adventure...
Perfectly-poached eggs atop crispy-fried hash. It was good. Real good.
And Nonna cleaned her plate. as well.
Pumpkin Soup and Panini
I made a Pumpkin Soup at work all week, so it was only fitting that I make more Pumpkin Soup at home, right?!? I mean, 'tis the season, and all...
Nonna has decided she doesn't like pumpkin, so... as long as we don't tell her it's pumpkin, she'll eat it. But... since she doesn't care for spicy, either, I made her a beef and barley sour and went all out on the heat with ours. Sometimes it's just easier to cook two meals...
I embellished the work recipe and made it heartier with roasted butternut squash and black beans. It was a winner.
Coconut Pumpkin Soup with Sriracha
- 1 ctn Pumpkin Soup
- 1 can Pumpkin
- 1 can Coconut Milk
- 1 can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 small butternut squash - peeled, cubed, and roasted
- 2 tbsp Sriracha Sauce – or to taste
Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan and simmer until hot. Check for seasoning and add salt & pepper, as desired.
Really simple.
The panini were prosciutto, asiago, and apricot jam on Tuscan Pane...
More simplicity.
The weather is starting to cooperate with soups and stews. More to come...
Fun Food with Old Friends
We had dear friends stop by for an all-too-brief overnight visit.
The fun thing about overnight visits is being able to just sit and talk without having to look at a clock. Not that any of us really drink very much, but nor is there need for a designated driver. It's just sit back and relax.
I had to work, so Victor got the meal together. Bruschetta for starters with wine, and then tomato salad - with the last of the tomatoes from our garden - and lasagne.
Neither Ann nor Julie are large-portion eaters, so Victor actually scaled back his lasagne to a manageable size. A remarkable feat, considering how we usually do things.
We started off with a simple bruschetta.
Toasted baguettes with roasted red pepper, basil, and shredded cheese started the evening - along with wine, of course.
And then we sat down to a tomato salad.
Simple tomatoes with olive oil hand-carried from Sicily. Basil, salt, and pepper. You don't need anything else.
And then... The Lasagne.
The dish was layered with sauce, pasta, cheeses – mozzarella, provolone, asiago, parmesan, romano, and ricotta – pasta, sauce, sausage, more cheese more pasta, more sauce… Stunning in its simplicity, yet screaming with flavor. He does good lasagne.
Trying to keep with the small-portion mind-set, I did dessert crespelles. A crespelle is an Italian version of a crêpe. Made slightly different, yet, definitely the same concept. I decided to do an Italian take on a Crêpe Suzette - using an Arancello liqueur we brought back from Sicily.
I made the crespelle, and then, into a skillet, I added a pat of butter and then a couple shots of the arancello. I cooked it down a bit then added the juice of two oranges, boiled that down, a bit, then about a quarter-cup of heavy cream and some thin strips of orange zest.
I placed each crespelle into the pan, covered it with the sauce and folded then into quarters. Onto the plate with a bit more sauce on top. It came out a bit like an orange creamsicle.
Early morning pumpkin rolls and they were in the car and on their way.
Way too short of a visit - not even 18 hours - but we had a grand time, nonetheless.
And promises to have a longer visit really soon!
A New Look
The fun thing about dabbling in web design is coming up with new ideas. The bad thing about dabbling in web design is never quite being satisfied with your latest new idea.
Today, I'm satisfied.
I had reworked the site over the past couple of weeks, but I wasn't totally happy with it. I liked the layout and the general look, but it just wasn't quite right. And then, this afternoon, Victor came in and showed me a few pictures he had just taken.
One - of a single fork - blew me away. The look I wanted was sitting there in that singularly-stunning picture!
I just knew it.
I knew I needed to crop it to fit the screen and not be hidden behind the text and when I imported it into an image the size I needed, it fit like a glove.
Perfection!
So now the question is... how long will I be able to leave well enough alone?!?
We shall see...
A Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce
I rarely mention my work when writing the blog because I really do like that separation of work-life and home-life. It's my personal separation of Church and State.
Once in a while, however, the two do come together - Thursday was a perfect case in point. Several times a year we do an employee meeting and Flyer Tasting so the staff can get an idea of the products we're going to be highlighting in the upcoming Fearless Flyer™. The actual tastings can come in various forms, from informal a few products at a time in the break room to more elaborate spreads with 30 or more products being sampled. Thursday was the latter.
Our kitchen set-up at work is aimed towards continually making small quantities of things throughout the coarse of the day. It's perfect for offering samples of things - everything is always fresh, nothing is sitting around. It is not, however, conducive to getting the equivalent of Thanksgiving Dinner for 80 people prepared in a timely manner.
So Elizabeth and I bring things home to prepare. It is just so much easier to mass-produce items at home. And Victor is always there to help clean up!
I brought home chickens and pot roasts - and a couple dozen boxes of breads, bars, scones, and rolls to bake. I accomplished in 4 hours what would have taken me 16 at work.
The fun part was having Nonna keep coming into the kitchen and just not quite grasping why I was making and baking such vast quantities of food - and that I was going to be leaving again to go back to work after already working all day.
Now... because I'm all about all things pumpkin, I think my favorite was the Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce. It was a wing-it recipe that really came out good.
Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 ctn Pumpkin Soup
- 1 can Pumpkin
- 2 bags diced pumpkin
- 1 btl Enchilada sauce
- 2 cans Diced Green Chiles
- 1 jar Roasted Red Peppers, diced
- 1/2 tsp Chipotle Powder
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Saute onion is a small amount of oil until translucent. Add chipotle powder and saute briefly. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the diced pumpkin is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.
Serve with ravioli or your favorite pasta.
I served Victor's and my dinners with grilled andouille sausage. Nonna had an Italian sausage and tomato sauce 'cuz she doesn't care for pumpkin or spice.
The tasting was a hit and dinner the following night was a hit at home.
Crespelle con funghi e carne macinata di manzo
That sounds a lot fancier than hamburger and mushrooms in crepes, but, that's essentially what we had. Crespella is what we - and the French - call a crêpe. The same concept, anyway. The flour-to-egg ratio is a bit different, but the end result is the same - a thin pancake filled with yummy stuff.
I've been thinking about crespella for a few days, now, and finally decided today was the perfect time to whip them up. I was off, I had gone to physical therapy early, and I had grocery-shopped yesterday. I pretty much had a free day...
Now... crêpes or crestella take no time at all to make. Maybe 90 seconds a piece. maybe. It's probably less, but I've never bothered to time it. It helps to have a nice crêpe pan, but a small skillet works in a pinch.
We've had this pan - it's Calphalon - for 20 years. Victor may have had it longer. I think it was part of the dowry. It is the best damned crespelle pan this side of Rome.
Crespelle
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 to 1 1/4 cup water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Crack the eggs over the flour and whisk them in. Add salt and whisk in water until smooth.
Heat your pan until hot and brush with melted butter. Pour 1/4 cup batter into the pan and swirl to completely coat. Cook until pale golden and crespelle is dry on top. Place on plate and continue until all the batter has been used.
Fill with your favorite sweet or savory filling.
I do not flip my crespelle or crêpes. I really see no reason to if you cook them until the top is dry.
The filling was a throw-together of ground beef, mushrooms, and onions. I added some beef broth and thickened it with flour.
No-brainer simple.
We came up with a great dessert idea using them and will be trying it out on our house guests in a couple of weeks.
What fun!
Summer Salads and Wedding Bells
Summertime... and the livin' is easy... Oh. Wait. It's Fall. September 28th. Debbie's birthday. And it's 84° outside. I'm more used to weather like this at home than I am here in Pennsylvania. It's been a wild year of strange weather, but, right now, I'll take it. It means another day of salads - something we didn't really have as many of this season as we have in the past.
I think it started because we didn't have a very good tomato crop this year. Bringing scores of tomatoes into the house on a regular basis more or less forces the issue. Fewer tomatoes means more grilling. I don't know why, it just does.
I mentioned Debbie's birthday. It's also her and Mike's 29th anniversary!
29 years ago I had both a cigarette AND champagne in my hand. I was also much thinner and had a red beard. My, how times have changed.
The wedding was great. I made their wedding cake in my parent's kitchen. I had moved home from Buffalo about a month before and was staying with the folks until my apartment was ready, so the cake was my contribution. To say that it was a challenge would be an understatement. How my mother cooked all of those fabulous meals in that dinky kitchen with no counter space will always be a mystery to me. The only place I had to work was the dining room table - which had to also be utilized for actually eating meals. And did I mention that my mother didn't appreciate people making huge messes in her kitchen?
Plus, I hated the cake. A standard tiered cake has a 4" difference from tier to tier. Top tier 6", next tier 10", next, 14" and a bottom tier of 18". My bottom tier was 16" because I couldn't get an 18" pan in the oven. It was unbalanced. It looked horrible. To me. I am usually my own worst critic and I was definitely critical of this cake.
No wonder I got drunk at the reception!
It's funny because 29 years later, I now know many ways I could have fixed things - displayed a 3-tiered cake and had the 4th in the kitchen for quick cutting, if necessary. Set the third tier right on the bottom cake without separators to minimize the visual disparity and create a larger base for the remaining tiers. Better yet, found a better kitchen to bake the cakes in the first place.
It's amazing what a bit of age and experience can do.
But, cake or no, they've survived two kids and 29 years. A pretty good accomplishment.
Happy Birthday, Deb, and Happy Anniversary to both of you!
:::Edited to add a picture of The Cake that Mike posted:::
Birthday Beef Stew
We always get to choose what we want for our birthday dinner, and Cybil is no exception.
11 years ago, today, she chose us to be her forever family at the Chester County SPCA. I remember driving home after doing the paperwork, paying the fees, promising to get her spayed... She needed a forever name. Her temporary shelter name was Sparkle. She had been picked up as a stray, so no one knew what her first name had been, and Sparkle just wasn't gpoing to cut it.
We bandied a few names around, and all of a sudden we hit upon CYBIL. Cybil Shepherd. She agreed, and that was that.
She made herself right at home, immediately. We brought her out back to play ball - the basic dog-and-people game - but she never quite grasped the concept of giving the ball back. She never has, either. Ball, to her, is throw me the ball and I'll just keep it, thankyouverymuch. Any sort of "fetch" game has been the same. She will go run and get whatever it is you throw, but the then decides that you gave it to her so she doesn't have to give it back. Very one-sided games.
But what she lacks in ability to play dog games, she has more than made up for in her general playfulness. She loves to just play.
And then, one day quite recently, we realized she's become an old dog. She still has her spark and still has her playfulness, but she also has some pretty rough arthritis in her hind legs that makes it difficult for her to get up, and, she has renal failure. She's running on about 25% of her kidneys.
Definitely not what we wanted or needed to hear.
It's been hard watching her the past couple of months and even more difficult as she loses interest in food. She's on a special renal diet she barely likes, so her Vet has told us to go ahead and cook for her. We have medications to help bind phosphorus, so, just about anything is okay - within reason, of course.
So... tonight she got her beef stew! It's always been one of her favorites and it's actually pretty healthy! She cleaned up her bowl and licked the porcelain clean, wagging her tail all the while. It was a joy to see her eat so well.
Come to think of it, Nonna pretty much cleaned her bowl, as well. Maybe my beef stew has magical properties...
We don't know how many birthdays she has left with us, but we do know that every day is going to be just like a birthday, from here on out. We've spoiled her rotten and she's spoiled us. It really is the least we can do.
And as for a recipe, tonight?!? I don't have a recipe for stew. It's stew. You just make it. I always add a cup or so of coffee because my mother always added a cup or so of coffee. Sometimes I'll add some wine instead of coffee, but it pretty much depends on my mood.
It's stew. You just make it.
And when it's birthday stew, you make a lot so there's plenty of leftovers for the birthday puppy!