Baked Pasta
It was Victor's turn to make "stuff" for dinner, tonight. His version took an Italian flair - how unusual... :)
He did a baked pasta with Italian sausage, red peppers, peas, and, of course, cheese.
It was perfect Italian Comfort Food. Garlicky toasted baguette on the side... I have to admit, I went back for seconds. And then I had cake.
So shoot me.
Stuff
When I do an off-the-cuff dinner with stuff I already have at home, we usually just call it "stuff." "Stuff" is a dinner that probnably won't be replicated any time soon. It's usually made up of ingredients that may never be in the house in the same quantities, again.
Tonight was such a dinner.
I had a couple of links of hot Italian sausage and a boneless chicken breast. I cooked off a handful of onion and a couple stalks of celery, a green pepper, and some mushrooms. Added the chicken and sausage, and when they were pretty much cooked through, added about a half-cup of red wine. Then a can of diced tomatoes, a can of black beans and a cup of chicken broth. I brought it all to a boil and then added about 3/4 cup of brown rice and a half-teaspoon of Guamanian Boonie Pepper. On went the lid for 45 minutes.
Thick, rich, and yummy. Good for the tummy.
Football Food
We had high hopes for today's Eagles game. Oh well. At least the food came out good.
I started with a couple of potatoes. And my trusty mandoline. I did a waffle-cut on them...
Into the hot (grapeseed) oil they went and within minutes I had crispy chips!
There is absolutely nothing better than homemade potato chips - unless it's homemade tortilla chips. I really do like the freshness. There just is no comparison to bagged chips.
None, at all.
The chips were the supporting cast to the star of the show - chili dogs!
I had been craving these for a while and decided today was the perfect excuse to have them.. I had made the chili a couple of days ago. We were set!
Old-fashioned skin-on hot dogs, ww buns, Happy Hal's Jalapeno Relish, chili, shredded cheese, and diced raw onions - with guacamole on the side.
The food was great. Too bad the game sucked.
Chow Fun
Victor decided to do a chicken stirfry tonight - and am I ever glad that he did. What a fun, flavorful dinner! It was a total clean out the refrigerator dish that could never be quite replicated, but that's okay. I have a picture... :)
The basic was a boneless chicken breast, thin-sliced carrots and celery, cauliflower, broccoli, sliced baby bella mushrooms, Italian green beans, pineapple chunks, and cashews. The sauce was Moores Teriyaki sauce and chili paste. The less-than-authentic noodles were fettuccini.
It was just the perfect combination of flavors and textures. My stomach is really smiling, tonight!
Tomorrow is going to be some fun football food.
Stay tuned.
Black Bean Chili
The weather today called for hot, spicy chili. I answered.
I love chili, but don't really make it all that much. With just the two of us eating it, it just doesn't make sense to cook those big ol' pots of yore - and for me, it's not that easy to make a small pot. I did succeed today, though, in making just enough for dinner, and for chili dogs on Sunday while we watch The Eagles beat Arizona.
Tonight's chili was ready in an hour.
- 8 oz beef, cubed
- 1/2 white onion, chopped
- 1 can (8oz) tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup Sofrito sauce
- 2 tbsp chipotle sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground Guamanian Boonie Pepper
- 3 cans Cuban-style black beans
Top with:
- chopped white onion
- sour cream
- shredded cheese
Brown the onion and beef, add tomato sauce, sofrito sauce, and chipotle sauce. Add chili pepper. Heat through. add bean and simmer.
Top with sour cream, cheese, and onions. Serve with Oyster crackers.
It was just spicy enough, and the perfect meal for a frigid day.
Another Panini
It's a mere 21 or so days after Christmas and I'm already in a rut - a panini rut. I think !'ve made five, six... maybe seven of them since getting the panini maker from Santa. I just love 'em! It combines my two favorite food groups - sandwiches and toast. I'm in heaven!
Tonight's sandwich started with chicken breasts that were pounded and then breaded in - get this - crushed wasabi peas! Yep. And they were really good! A customer told me today that she uses them on salmon. What an idea!
The bread was a new ciabatta bread we're carrying, and the filling was vidalia relish, mixed Italian cheeses, roasted red peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes.
Perfectly gooey and good.
Time to start thinking about the next one...
Leftover Soup
Leftover... Repurposed... whatever the name, the meaning is the same. And what a better way to deal with leftovers than to repurpose them into soup? It's definitely a great winter food fest and exactly what I did tonight.
I had about 3 cups of turkey stock from last Tuesday's roasted turkey breast. I had about 2 cups of pot pie filling left from Friday's pot pies (that were made - in part - with gravy that was left over from a roasted chicken made back on December 30th.) I had my basics covered.
I sauteed a diced onion in a bit of olive oil, thenm added one diced boneless, skinless chicken breast. (I didn't have any more turkey. The last went to sandwiches yesterday whilst watching the game.)
I added 2 tablespoons of Thai Yellow Curry Paste, the broth, a can of diced tomatoes in juice, and a can of coconut milk. Next, a cup of uncooked brown rice. Finally, I added the leftover pot pie filling and let the rice cook and the soup simmer.
I was going for a variation of Mulligatawny Soup. I had the flavor profile down. The ingredients were all going to be pulled together with the curry paste and the coconut milk, so I could add just about anything I wanted. Adding a strong base is a great way to pull a few otherwise disconcordant foods together.
I just let it simmer as the rice broke down a bit and added yet another layer of creaminess.
I added a dollup of sour cream more for the picture than the soup, itself. it was rich enough without it, and - unlike my Mulligatawny - it was made without any heavy cream!
We ate it with more of Victor's great French bread from yesterday.
Yum.
Turkey Pot Pie
Oh, the weather outside is frightful...
Downright cold, that is. The weather folks are finally predicting a bit of snow tomorrow. That means warming foods. And Turkey Pot Pie definitely fit the bill tonight.
The turkey from a couple of days ago was calling my name... Turkey leftovers can be a lot of fun or they can be mediocre, at best. I've done both. I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but I wanted it to fit the weather outside. Pot Pies did just that.
And they were easy enough to make - a bit of a clean out the refrigerator dish. I sauteed a half onion with a handful of diced mushrooms, 3 diced carrots, and a couple of stalks of celery. Then one potato, peeled and cubed.
I added about 3 cups of chicken broth and about a cup of leftover turkey gravy. I let it simmer until the veggies were almost done, then added a cup of frozen peas and a couple of cups of cubed turkey.
I thickened it all with a beurre manié and ladled it into ovenproof bowls and covered with a round of puff pastry. Yes, I could have made a lovely pie crust topping, but... I had puff pastry in the freezer and I was feeling lazy. Besides, truth be known, I rarely make pie crusts any more. We have such a good one at work.....
Into a 425° oven for 15 minutes and dinner was served!
It was really, really good. And really, really hot! Even my asbestos-mouth was feeling the heat! Victor finally just took his all out of the bowl right onto the plate.
But it was worth every burnt taste bud! It was even worth the baked-on bowls that may come clean one of these days.
Not sure what tomorrow's dinner is going to be, but Sunday's is Turkey Soup!
And... then we had dessert.
I have said more times than I can remember that I want to east seasonally, I want to eat locally, when possible, and strawberries in January are wrong. So... I bought strawberries in January. They came up from Florida and really do taste good.
Victor had made cupcakes the other night as part of our "If it's portioned properly we might eat a bit less" plan and sliced with just a drizzle of brandy and a teaspoon of sugar, they were perfect. A dollop of crème fraîche and dessert was served.
And I bought strawberries in January...
Empanadas especial
Empanada basically means "to wrap in bread" and that's pretty much what I did tonight. A simple dough, a simple filling, simply fried. A simple dinner, indeed! There are as many "traditional" fillings as there are countries where empanadas can be found, so that pretty much left me free to create my own. I had leftover turkey in the 'fridge, so it was pretty automatic that turkey was going to be a main ingredient! I found the dough recipe online...
Empanada Dough
* 3 cups flour (plus a little more for kneading)
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup cold water
* 1 egg
* 1 egg white
* 1 teaspoon vinegar
* 3 tablespoons shortening (I use lard)
Preparation:
1. In a bowl, beat the water, egg, egg white and vinegar together. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the 3 cups of flour and salt.
3. Cut the shortening into the flour mix with a pastry blender or two butter knives. Make a well in the center of the flour mix and pour the liquid ingredients from the first bowl into the center.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients with a fork until it becomes stiff.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it just until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but never more than 24 hours.
The Filling
- 1 cup diced cooked turkey
- 1/2 jar Happy Hal's Black Bean Bruschetta
- 1/4 cup chipotle sauce
- 1/2 cup diced roasted red pepper
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Mix. That's it. Really. To make empanadas, take dough and divide into 10 pieces. Roll into balls and then roll out to about 6" circles. Fill with a couple of tablespoons of filling. Fold over and crimp edges with a fork to seal. Fry in a bit of hot oil until browned.
These were really a lot of fun - and the filling was about as non-traditional as you can get. It's okay, though, because eating is supposed to be about fun and flavors, not rigid rules. Granted, if I were making these for someone from a country where they are native, I would probably be a bit more exacting, but this is me, Victor, and the stuff already in the house. The food police are not coming over, tonight. I can tell that I'm getting older... Once upon a time, I would have insisted that everything be exact, that ingredients all be authentic. I would have driven myself (and everyone around me) crazy. Not any more. Food Fun. Fun Food.
The rice was brown jasmine rice that I added a couple of tablespoons of sofrito sauce to the cooking water. Not exactly traditional, either, but dayum, it was good! A smiling stomach and leftovers for lunches. Life is good!
Turkey
I was doing the weekly shopping yesterday and lo and behold, the local grocery store was selling bone-in whole turkey breasts for 59¢ a pound! All-natural, minimally processed, not full of crap, fresh breasts. I bought two - one for the oven and one for the freezer. For less than 10 bucks I have LOTS of dinners, lunches, sandwiches, and snacks!
We postponed a dinner date with a friend tonight because of the icy weather, so into the oven this little guy went! 8 pounds of joy!
I've cooked a bazillion turkeys in my life and always just eyeballed them, did the poke, the leg-movement, the clear-running juices and usually ended up with a pretty good bird... but ever since I got my first digital thermometer some 10 years ago, I rely on it. And I have had perfect turkeys every time!
Rule number one is NOT to overcook them! Those websites and places that say to cook the bird to 180° are a sure recipe for failure. You are guaranteed a dried-out bird. No two ways about it. If you pull the bird out of the oven at 155° and let it sit for at least 15 minutes, it will continue cooking to 165° and you will have a perfect, moist turkey - every time!
So time to start working on some new turkey recipes. We have lots!
Sunday Brunch
Today was our Annual Christmas Get-Together with Linda and David. Linda and Victor have known each other since grammar school. Ours was the first house Linda ever handled as a new real estate agent. And they both love food like we do.
And they love to talk like we do... six conversations going on simultaneously. They're great fun.
We started off with coffee and lox and bagels, cream cheese, onions, tomatoes, capers... The basics...
We consumed our requisite amount of appetizers while I was busy pulling the main course together. Of course, everyone stayed in the kitchen. We didn't even bother trying to move them out to the living room. They're definitely kitchen-friends. We were talking about designing our "dream home" and figured all we really needed was a big kitchen, a bed and a bath. Really. And if I had the money, I'd do some serious wall-rearranging...
The most wasted space in our house is the dining room. It's too small to be of any real use. Knock down a couple of walls, relocate a stairway... Piece of cake. But I digress...
We're all chatting away and I'm cooking away. Actually, at this point I was merely poaching eggs and trying to pull it all together...
The main course was our version the Eggs Benedict we had at Maverick in San Francisco this past November. Andouille Sausage and Langostinos with a jalapeño hollandaise. Downright good!
This is what putting four plates together simultaneously looks like!
(I want a bigger kitchen for my birthday.) The plate was finished off as the last time with cubed fried potatoes. It works. What can I say?
The finishing touch was individual Panettone Bread Puddings.
This was out-of-this-world-good! I make a lot of bread pudding, but this one was over the top!
- 1 large loaf panettone, cut into cubes
- 8 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
Preheat oven to 350°.
Butter 6 individual 10 oz souffle cups (or a 9x13 pan.) Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, and sugar to blend and then add bread cubes. Press the bread cubes gently to submerge.
Let stand for 30 minutes, occasionally pressing the bread cubes into the liquid.
Spoon into prepared cups, filling to rim. (An ice cream scoop works well.)
Place filled cups into a deep-rimmed pan and add boiling water to fill about halfway up side of cups.
Bake until the pudding puffs and is set in the center, about 55 minutes. If using 9x13 pan, omit water bath and bake about 45-55 minutes.
It really came out good!
And here are Linda and David enjoying dessert!
We finally retired to the living room and opened presents!
Our next big meal together will be in at their house in July for my and Linda's birthdays. More presents!! And more good food!
Happy New Year
New Year's Breakfast! What a treat. And it is a treat because there's not going to be a lot of these happening in 2009.
It's time to get serious about a bit of weight-loss. I was doing really good until I stopped smoking - and then the weight just piled on. My portion sizes piled on. A lot of clothes just flat-out don't fit anymore, and I'll be damned if I'm going out and buying a new wardrobe!
The plan is to actually just eat smaller portions. I spent too many years working in Nutrition and Dietetics to know that "diets" don't work. We won't be buying "lite" foods. We won't be buying "lowfat" foods. We will eat REAL food - just less of it. And we'll make smarter choices when it comes to meals. That, and I have to slow down on eating at work. It's rough cooking and serving food all day and not constantly munching, but those calories really add up.
One pound a week would be perfect for me.
Starting January 6th. I still have one brunch and one lunch where I'm going for it! :)