And for dessert.....
So what could be better than a quick Strawberry Cream Cake?!? BH&G yellow cake with a Strawberry Icing Fruit from CK Products and a strawberry whipped cream filling/icing with the same icing fruit.
I bought a few flavors of the icing fruit a while back from someplace online - I don't really recall who (I'm a junkie - I just buy the stuff!!) and, while it's tasty, I have to admit I didn't check for ingredients before I bought. It appears that, after reading the label, no strawberries died in its creation - or at least not very many. It's not your typical "all natural" product by any means... But - it does have a shelf life just short of plutonium, so if I'm in a pinch, it's available!
***edited to add: I threw it out.
Pork Chops Baked with Kasha and Wild Mushrooms
So - what's the Russian word for "WOW! That's really good?!?" Well, according to Babel Fish, it would be 
I'll take their word for it!
I guess you'll have to take my word for it, too - until you make it yourself, that is! This was one yummy dinner!
Back to perusing Please to the Table, and since I had the pork out, I thought I'd look for something new and different. I just happened to have all of the other ingredients in the house, so... it was one of those "meant to be" dinners!
Speaking of pork... I've been buying whole loins lately and cutting them into chops m'self. First, they're a hellava lot less expensive than buying chops, but I can also cut them the way I want them. It makes a big difference when making stuffed pork chops or breaded pork cutlets! It's great to have that versatility. But I digress... (how unusual!!)
It's an extremely easy recipe to prepare, and Kasha is one of my more favorite grains, so... away we go. I think next time I make it I may add some chopped apple or pear to the kasha. It is really, really good the way it is, but I like diced fruit in grains, too. Just another variation on a theme.
The recipe as written is a bit wordy, but I'm copying it the way it's printed, not the way I would write it. (I tend to assume people know to boil a cup of something in a small saucepan...)
Here goes...
- 4 shoulder pork chops, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 2 pounds)
- 1/2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian Paprika
- Salt, to taste
- 2 cups Beef Stock (see Index) or canned broth
- 1 ounce imported dried mushrooms, preferably porcini, well rinsed
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 medium-size onion, chopped
- 1 cup whole kasha (buckwheat)
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 1/3 cup sour cream
1) Rub the pork chops with paprika and salt and set aside.
2) Bring 1 cup of the stock to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Remove from the heat, add the mushrooms, and soak for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms from the soaking liquid, pat dry with paper towels, and set aside. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter and (you guessed it!) set aside.
3) In an heatproof casserole large enough to accommodate the pork chops in one layer, cook the bacon until it renders its fat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the casserole and - are you ready?!? - set aside.
4) Brown the pork chops well on both sides in the bacon drippings, about 15 minutes total. Drain on paper towels.
5) Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the casserole. Sauté the onion in the remaining fat over medium heat until softened and colored, 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms, kasha, and caraway seeds and saute, stirring, for 5 minutes more.
6) Preheat oven to 325F.
7) Combine the reserved mushroom soaking liquid with the remaining stock.
8) Season the kasha mixture with salt and stir in the reserved bacon pieces. Add the liquid and bring to a boil. Arrange the pork chops on top of the kasha and bake, uncovered, until the chops are tender and the kasha has absorbed all the liquid, about 25 minutes. Stir the sour creams into the kasha and serve immediately.
Okay... so I made a bit of fun with the directions. It really was a great dish and I'm sure to make it (or at least a reasonable facsimile) in the future.
And now...
Victor's in the kitchen baking a cake for dessert.
Life is good!
Stuffed Flank Steak
I've said for years that some of the best cooking is just using the ingredients you have on hand. Unless you're really trying to replicate a specific dish or looking for an exact flavor, make do with what you have! Just put things together that you like. My Mom was queen of opening the cabinets and creating dinner - and trusting her instincts when it came to cooking. After all, the very worst thing that could happen would be that it's terrible and you throw it out and call for Pizza.
That being said, I had a flank steak that's been in the freezer for a while, and I wanted to use it up before it became a freezer burn-unit victim. I do try and clear out the freezer once in a while. I have a habit of buying what looks good at the time without a clear picture of what I want to do. It's great to have a stocked freezer (and pantry!) but ya have to use the stuff!
I have been negligent in getting gas for the grill, and I seem to be in a rut when it comes to flank steak. I almost always end up with a variation of my Oriental Flank Steak. I like it a lot, but, at some point, one has to move on... No gas for grilling. I needed an idea. Back to the fridge.
In the fridge was a pound of bacon, a head of escarole, lots of mushrooms. Stuffed Flank Steak, of course! My stuffing was right in front of me! I chopped 3 slices of the bacon and cooked about half way. Added about 8oz of sliced mushrooms and cooked about half way. Added the escarole, S&P and a shot of garlic powder and cooked until the escarole was really wilted.
While it was cooking away, I butterflied the flank steak. It was still partially frozen, which made for very easy cutting.
I then spread the filling on the steak, rolled up, and tied with kitchen twine. Browned it in the pan and into a 350 oven for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I quartered some baby yukon gold potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil, s&p, and garlic powder, and in the oven they went, too.
Frozen roasted corn from the freezer, and dinner was ready in no time! Start to finish, one hour. And most of the time I was in the office doing other stuff!
Now, I usually make a bread-type of stuffing when I do something like this, but I used the only good bread for the bread pudding last night. I had the other stuff on hand, and I was NOT about to head back to the store - OR - chop up the baguette I brought home from work today. Grocery shopping day is tomorrow, so I can get my Senior Discount! (Don't ask...) ;-)
And there's leftover bread pudding calling my name right now.....
Mac and Cheese
My father hates cheese. My mother, on the other hand, loved it! Any and every kind. From a cow, from a goat, from Mary's Little Lamb, she loved her cheese. Fortunately for us, my father was a fireman, and worked those 24 hour shifts away from home. When he was working, cheese would almost always work its way into the dinner meal.
Growing up Catholic - and we're back in the 50's and '60's here - Friday night dinner when Pop was working would almost always be Macaroni and Cheese. And it never - EVER - came out of a box!!! Her Mac and Cheese was especially good, because it could contain any number of different cheeses! She would save up her little odds and ends pieces, and toss them all into the pot. It was always the same, yet always juuuust a bit different.
It is so simple to make, too. Make a basic white sauce - on the medium/thin side. Add a shot or two of worcestershire sauce and a shot of tabasco. A bit of garlic powder and salt and pepper. Stir in whatever cheeses you have. Tonight I used cheddar, provolone, some manchego, and some gruyere. Mix in your cooked pasta (while I really prefer elbow macaroni, I was out, so I used little raquettes that were on the shelf.) Put into a buttered casserole, top bith buttered bread crumbs, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly and the crumbs have browned nicely.
I've never quite been able to make it as good as Mom's. I think part of it is that she's not around to make it for me anymore. But I think she'd be pleased with tonights result!
Please to The Table
There's a new cookbook gracing our humble abode - Please To The Table The Russian Cookbook. What fun!
Now, I'm an Irish kid from San Francisco. My knowledge of Russian and eastern European foods is pretty much limited to vodka and caviar, so what a treat it is to see so many new foods to try! The book covers everywhere from "The Baltics to Uzbekistan" - and that's quite a lot of food! I mean - they're talking some 6 million square miles! The cuisine - and recipes - are as varied as the people.
In just a quick perusal, I've found dozens of goodies I want to try, but tonight I settled on the Pozharskiye Kotleti or, for the English-speaking amongst us, Chicken Croquettes Pozharsky, for the main reason that I had all the ingredients at home already! That, and I have a very vague recollection of a restaurant I worked in back around 1974/5 that served Chicken and Veal Croquettes with a Mushroom Sauce... The Red Chimney... But I digress...
From the book: "These fluffy, delicate ground chicken and veal croquettes are traditionally accompanied by smothered mushrooms. I often serve Mushrooms sauteed with Madeira alongside." I took the authors advice! They were fantastic!
The recipe makes 12 croquettes. I cooked up 8 - 2 each for dinner and the others for lunch tomorrow - and froze the other 4 uncooked.
I actually ground my own chicken and veal because, well... I have a grinder attachment to the KitchenAid, and I already had both chicken and veal in the freezer - but it wasn't ground! Besides, I haven't used the grinder attachment in a while, and I'm sure it was feeling neglected down there in that bottom cabinet! The croquettes were easy to form, but it was a bit of a challenge dipping them in the egg and then the crumbs - but, I had it down after the first few.
The recipe...
- 3 slices whole wheat bread, crusts removed
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 lb ground chicken breast meat
- 3/4 lb ground veal
- 1 small onion, minced
- 9 tbsp butter, at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 tbsp madeira
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (optional)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 large egg white
- About 1 1/2 cups unflavored fine, dry bread crumbs
- 2 eggs, beaten, for dipping the chicken
- 4 tbsp light vegetable oil
1) Soak the bread slices in the cream for 10 minutes. Squeeze the bread to remove any excess cream. Then discard all but 3 tbsp of the cream.
2) In a food processor, combine the bread, cream, chicken, veal, onion, 3 tbsp butter, the egg yolks, Meadeira, dill (if using), and salt and pepper. Process for 3 or 4 pulses until well blended but not pureed. Transfer to a large bowl.
3) Beat the egg white until it holds stiff peaks. Gently fold it into the meat mixture. If the mixture seems too loose to form into croquettes, cover, and refrigerate to firm up, 1 hour.
4) have a bowl of cold water ready. Dip your hands in the cold water to prevent the meat from sticking to your hands. Shape the mixture into 12 oval croquettes.
5) Sprinle the breadcrumbs on a cutting board or other flat surface. Dip the croquettes into the beaten egg, then roll them in the breadcrumbs to coat well.
6) Heat 2 tbsp of the remaining butter and 2 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet. Fry 6 of the croquettes over medium heat until crispy and brown, 12 to 15 minutes. The juices should run clear when a croquette is pierced with a fork. Repeat with the rest of the croquettes, adding more butter and oil as needed. Serve immediately.
Serves 6.
I followed the basic instructions, except I mixed it all by hand, since I actually ground the onion and the soaked bread with the chicken and veal (I LOVE my grinder, I have to USE it more often!!) I also refrigerated it for a couple of hours, because I made it early in the afternoon.
Served with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and the mushroom madeira sauce and it was a pretty good nosh!
Painting and Cooking...
So we finally decided to paint the guest room - and move into it! Not a really big deal, other than the fact that we both hate to paint. But... change is good.
I mention this because, well... that's what kept me from going grocery shopping. And our quick trek to Boston messed up my normal shopping routine...
The nice thing about being a food fanatic, is there is always something to eat in the house! It may take a bit of imagination, but we could easily go a week or two before actually running out of things! So, it was off to the freezer for something quick.
A quick perusal of the freezer and out came a pack of Murray's chicken breasts (these, and the chicken at the Lancaster farmer's market are the only ones I buy!) and a pack of corn tortillas. Tostadas Tonight!!
I cubed the chicken and fried it up with an onion... added some enchilada sauce from the fridge, and let it simmer for a few. Opened a can of refried black beans and heated. Shredded some cheese.
I fried the corn tortillas until nice and crisp, spread on some beans, added the chicken, and topped it all off with the cheese.
It was dinner in under 10 minutes - and then back to painting. Life is good.....
Happy New Year!
What better way to spend New Year's day than with The Mummer's Parade , and the Three F's - Family, Friends, and Food?!?
Today we will be hosting Christmas Redux. A gathering of relatives we don't get to see on Christmas. More presents, more fun, and, of course, more food! This is an easy party for us, because everyone brings stuff! I'm making Hoppin' John (because I can't fathom Pork and Sauerkraut!!)
The basic is...
- 2 cups dried black-eyed peas
- 6 cups water
- 3/4 cup onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped
- 2 lbs ham hocks
- 1 cup rice, uncooked
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Soak peas in the 6 cups water overnight. Transfer to large pot and add onion, celery, and ham hocks. Cook, covered about 45 minutes. Add rice and pepper and simmer about 1 more hour. Remove meat from bones, stir back in. Serve hot.
Naturally, I can't just make the basic! It's rather boring, if truth be told... I start out by chopping up a package of thick-sliced Neiman Ranch bacon, and sauteing it with the onion and celery. I drain the beans and sub 4 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups water. Add the ham hocks and simmer. Then it's a cup of brown rice, pepper, and Louisiana Hot Sauce! Yumlicious!
There's also a turkey breast in the oven. It was from Victor's mom, who received it for Christmas from the place she lives. It had a "Gravy Packet" inside that I opened, smelled, and threw away! OMG! The only smell I got was chemical! I pity the family that actually would use such a travesty! I mean, heck, REAL gravy is just too easy to make! I shudder at the thought of eating that stuff!
I also made a very basic Sausage Bread Dressing, and will be making the Cherry Maple Sausage in Puff Pastryand the Ham and Gorgonzola Won Tons later on... It's going to be an easy kitchen day for us!
Also arriving will be a baked ham, homemeade mac and cheese, salads, pepperoni bread, antipasto platters... Plus stuff I just can't remember right now!
I don't think anyone will walk away hungry.....
And nobody did!
Hors d'oeuvres for 4 or 40?!?
It's no secret that I have no idea how to cook for two - or four, for that matter! I think it's a combination of being raised in a large family, cooking professionally for so many years, and - probably more significantly - I'm just neurotic about running out of food!
Which brings me to last night... Our dear friends David and Linda were over last night. They only live an hour away, but we seem to only see each other twice a year - once at Christmas - our house - and once in July - their house. We chat on the phone, email, etc., but never really seem to find the time to get together more often. Dumb.
We decided that since we all love hors d'oeuvres - and since we usually fill up on hors d'oeuvres before dinner - we would just do a meal of hors d'oeuvres! An endless supply of small, tasty foods. Tim Tapas. Dineen Dim Sum. Lots of finger foods! I had a slight plan formulating in my mind for what to serve, but it all came together while shopping.
David loves little cocktail weenies, but Linda never buys them, so... #1 was
**Cocktail Weenies in a honey mustard sauce. (1/2 cup Bone Suckin' Mustard and 1/2 cup honey.)
**BBQ Meatballs - Small meaballs glazed in BBQ Sauce.
**Gorgonzola Torte - store bought from TJ's
**Shrimp in garlic butter and parsley - Rock shrimp sauteed in butter and LOTS of garlic and a handful of chopped parsley thrown in at the last minute.
**Baked Brie with apricots and almonds - Brie covered in Apricot Sauce with almonds
**Paper wrapped chicken although this time around, I used chix breasts, chopped almonds, soy sauce, sesame oil, and green onions - a quick version, because it was a spur-of-the-moment-I-don't-have-enough-food addition.
**8-bone rack of lamb - the little chops make a perfect hors d'oeuvre!
**Lox on pumpernickel with a dill cream cheese and caramalized red onion - Whipped cream cheese with dill, worcester sauce, and a pinch of garlic spread on the bread, topped with lox, and then topped with caramalized red onions (once available at TJ's - I bought 10 jars when I found out they were being discontinued!)
**Pork sausage with cherries and maple syrup, mushrooms and leeks in puff pastry REALLY Easy - and yummy!!
And for dessert...
**Profiteroles with fudge sauce - soooo easy to make!! and...
LOTS **cookies and candy.
Needless to say, we had LOTS of food - and just enough leftovers for lunch today! (For four, but we're growing boys - we'll eat it all!)
The only time I really thought about taking pictures was when I was frying the paper Wrapped Chicken - and I couldn't run out of the room to get the camera, with boiling oil on the stove!
I really do have to think about pictures more.....
Cooking, Baking, Work, and Christmas
Oy vey, it's been busy! It seems I've been spending an inordinate amount of time running around, but have I really accomplished anything?!? When I stop and think, I guess I've done a lot - but there just seems like so much more to do....
I got presents and packages in the mail (THREE trips to the post office!!!), presents wrapped and under the tree... more cookie dough made... shovelled snow... and dinner every night...
Victor was back in San Francisco for 3 days, so the culinary offerings at home were a bit stark. I just don't feel like making wonderful meals just for myself. Chili burgers with lots of cheese suffice! (I was on a hot dog kick for quite a while, but I can't always find good, old-fashioned, skin-on hot dogs around here!)
I did make a pretty good pot roast Wednesday that was dinner two nights in a row. There's still a bit more in the 'fridge.
The major cookie-baking day will be tomorrow... We are soooooo behind. Oh well. On the other hand, what's Christmas without a few panic attacks?!? ;-)
Off to work...
Dungeness Crab
Start with 30 pounds of fresh Dungeness Crab, minutes off the boat (THANK YOU, NICK!!) add fresh, hand-made ravioli from The Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market , add Family and Friends, and a good time is assured!
We flew to San Francisco over the weekend to visit my dad (I'm a San Francisco Native who moved east!) and my sister Eileen decided that since Crab Season just started, we should do a crab feed Saturday. Her best friend Renee's son Nick works down on the piers, and was able to score 30 pounds of fresh crab for us at a ridiculously low price. (It really helps to be a native San Franciscan!) It was a really quick trip - we flew in Friday morning and flew out Sunday morning. Not even enough time to get a proper jet-lag!
Victor and I headed down to the Ferry Building early Saturday morning (more on that later!!) to do a bit of shopping and see what we could find to compliment the feast, when we came upon a vendor selling fresh hand-made pastas. He had a dozen different varieties, and every one looked better than the last, but we decided on Arugula, Pear, and Goat Cheese Ravioli, Porcini Mushroom Ravioli, and 3 Cheese Tortellini. They were a great choice!
There's just nothing better than fresh crab slathered in butter and garlic (keep it simple!) along with crusty San Francisco Sourdough, and fresh pastas with a fresh sauce! Victor - the resident Italian - made a fresh tomato sauce that complimented all the pastas. His original plan was to make three sauces, but... one simple sauce sufficed quite nicely!
The crowd included Eileen and Mike and their son Sean, my brother Mike and Debbie, with their kids Bill and Katie, and Bill's friend Nick (another Nick!) my sister Judy, with her son Justin, and her daughter Jennifer, with 5 year old Tommy, Renee and Tim - parents of Nick our Crab provider) and last, but not least, my crab-hating father. We started eating early - and continued eating well into the night. Judy supplied a decadent Chocolate Cake for dessert, and a good time was had by all!
On a side note... Friday morning, upon arrival, we went up to the rental car counter to pick up our car. Chatting with the woman behind the counter, she handed me a map of the city. I laughed and handed it back, saying I was born and raised in the city. She immediately replied in thrue San Franciscan fashion "What School?" (All San Franciscans immediately ask 'what school' - meaning high school.) I said Lincoln, she said she went to Star of the Sea. Year? '69. She knew my ex-sister-in-law and all sorts of girls I know and knew! We talked about mutual friends, et al, as the line grew behind us. I miss San Francisco!
Sunday Breakfast...
Sunday Breakfast has to be one of my greatest delights. Fresh coffee brewing, a leisurely perusal of the newspapers, and an abundance of breakfasty ideas, it's the perfect way to start/end the week. However, I work on Sundays. Of course that doesn't stop me from wanting - or cooking - breakfast. I just cook for about twenty instead of two. Sunday Breakfast at work is a tradition I wholeheartedly endorse - even if I have to do the cooking! It's a great way to start off one of the busier days of the retail work week!
Today's gastronomical delight was Pumpkin Pancakes with a Pumpkin and Walnut Crème Fraîche. I took a box of Baking mix, a box of Pumpkin Bread Mix, 1 can of pumpkin, 6 eggs and a quart of milk for the Pancakes. The topping was 2 containers of crème fraîche, a jar of pumpkin butter, and about a cup of chopped walnuts. On the side there was fresh pineapple with toasted coconut ribbons and sprinkled with turbinado sugar. Yummy.
I didn't get to read the paper, but I did have the freshly brewed ultra dark Sumatra coffee...
Born to Cook or Born to Eat?
With apologies to Shakespeare, That is the question...
In my years (and in my job) I've met many people of both categories. Some folks can't wait to get into the kitchen and start creating! They take great delight at new foods, new recipes, or in ways to make old recipes new again. And then there are those who won't go near a kitchen to make a cup of coffee, and if they can't microwave it, don't want to know about it.
Being of the first persuasion, I must admit I don't quite understand the latter. But in my job, I have to figure out ways to bridge the gap. And that means coming up with recipes that are easy enough for the most culinarily-challenged amongst us, but also exciting enough for those who actually know their way around the kitchen. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes not so...
Working with my partner-in-culinary-crime, Ruth, is the best! Ruth has the common-sense approach to food that I sometimes lack. I can spend half the day creating something. Ruth has two growing boys who want to eat dinner before the 11 o'clock news comes on. I've learned a lot about how to cut steps and simplify things from her. There was a time in my life where, if I was making a tuna sandwich, I'd have to start off by baking the bread and making the mayonnaise! I've gotten better over the years, but I still want to eat as fresh and unprocessed as possible.
If you pick up a copy of Gourmet magazine, you will generally see things like "1/4 cup (1 oz) bittersweet (agridulce) pimentón de la Vera (smoked Spanish paprika; available at La Tienda; tienda.com)" Right off the bat it sounds intimidating. Now, a true food-o-phile might make that trek to find that one special paprika, because, well, it is unique and tasty. But gosh and by golly, you can make the dish with the paprika in your cupboard! No, it's not going to be exactly the same, but I can pretty much guarantee it will be pretty darn good! It's a matter of using what you have and not being afraid to to substitute one thing for another. It's also not being afraid to make a mistake! The absolute worse thing that can happen is you throw it out and call for pizza.
Which leads me back to the recipes we create for work. If you browse through the recipe lists, you'll find a lot of reasonably simple-to-produce items. Many of them started out much more complicated, and any of them can be enhanced to fit your mood, budget, or cupboard offerings. Ingredients can be upgraded, and even the simple act of using a special plate or bowl for serving - people do eat with their eyes, after all - can have a great impact on how something is received.
Many (okay, most!) of us do not have the luxury of being able to spend hours in the kitchen every day, but that doesn't mean our meals have to come out of an overly-processed box. A little bit of imagination can turn anyone into a competent cook. A lot of imagination can turn you into a great one!