Cube Steaks and Snowmageddon

02-13-14-cube-steaks

 

The good thing about the power outage last storm was going through the freezer and actually taking inventory of everything in there. Last night some cube steaks came out to be breaded and fried not unlike a chicken-fried steak. Seasoned flour, egg-dip, and bread crumbs, and then browned in a minuscule amount of oil and finished in the oven. I made a simple garlic butter with some fresh garlic and melted butter and drizzled it over the meat for a bit of added flavor. We had a can of creamed corn on the shelf from a corn souffle that was never made so I mixed in some frozen corn and made it reasonably palatable. Mashed sweet potatoes finished it off. Cake for dessert.

The perfect meal to start Snowmageddon. 

Okay. Don't hate me but I really do love all this snow!

And I did say snow - not ice, sleet, or power-outages. Snow. Growing up where it doesn't snow changes ones outlook. We had to go to he snow - it didn't come to us.

My earliest snow memories are from Lake Tahoe not long after the 1960 Winter Olympics. I remember those Olympics well - the first ones I ever saw on TV. I decided right then and there I wanted to be an ice skater and that Christmas I got my very first pair of ice skates!  They weren't the figure skates I lusted after, though, they were hockey skates! I secretly wanted to be Carol Heiss doing fancy spins to music but if I wanted to skate, I was going to have to play Bill Cleary, so I butched myself up, laced up those hockey skates, and became a tolerably-good hockey player.

During the '60s, the family would head up to Tahoe for weekend vacations, always staying at the now-defunct Kent Motel on the South Shore.  And sometime around '65, my mom's best friend from childhood bought a motel - The Villa Del Mar - right on the lake! They had 4 kids of their own and one year we set up a sled run from the top up the hill in their parking lot, down the hill onto the boat deck and into the lake. Very soon there were screaming, laughing, freezing, dripping wet kids running around inside and out. The adults put  the kibosh on us repeating that trick.

10 yeas later I was living up at the lake on the less-developed North Shore, first in a little cabin with my buddy Steve and working at the Old Post Office in Carnelian Bay. Our first winter there we had a burst water pipe and a frozen Niagara Falls from the kitchen through the living room and out the front door. It's amazing what you can deal with in good humor when you're 24 years old.

The following years we moved into the big house with 2 guys I worked with at the Hyatt. I lived there for 4 years with a brief hiatus back to San Francisco in 1978. Boston in late 1980 and Buffalo in 1984. Do you see a snow pattern, here?  My father would just shake his head in amusement when I'd tell him what blizzard-prone place I was moving to next.  His response was he had used his last snow shovel in 1940 and was never picking up another one. And he never did.

Mountain snow is a lot different than city snow and living in a resort where you make your money fleecing the flatlanders with snow activities is a lot different than just another day of having to get to work to pay the mortgage. It was almost always powder at 7000 feet and rare was the heavy wet snow that I see falling outside this morning. I did a lot of skiing in that powder and even digging the car out - we never had a garage at Tahoe - was easy and really took no time, at all. We lived in a snow region and were always prepared to be stuck somewhere for a few days. Lots of food at home and free snow-rooms at the hotel if we were stuck there. And a fully-stocked bar no matter where we were.  We actually threw a few snow parties when the forecast was for numerous feet of snow and could have 20 or more people in the house for a couple of days, eating, drinking, and making merry.

Of course, I'm also remembering being 24 and living the high life with no cares in the world. While mentally I may still be an irresponsible youth, it now hurts when I fall down and it takes longer to get back up. I actually can't afford to be as foolhardy as I once was. I'm not sure if it's wisdom or simple self-preservation, but when the township calls and says winter storm warning, stay off the roads, I don't really question it - I will simply stay off the roads. And I also make sure there's plenty of food in the house and we can survive whatever is thrown at us.

I had a lot of fun in those devil-may-care days and I'm still enjoying the snow, today, albeit with a slightly different attitude.

And it really doesn't matter if it's wisdom or self-preservation that's keeping me in. I'm staying in.

 

 

 


New York, New York

I grew up calling the strip loin steak a New York Steak. The restaurants where I worked had New York steaks on the menu. Not that I bought many in my youth, but it seems to me that at Lou or Phil Lehr's Steakhouse in San Francisco - the scene of a couple of pre-prom dinners -  it was called a New York, as well. The Lehr brothers both had steakhouses and I think they both had a "by the ounce" menu. You chose your steak from a huge refrigerated case and they cut your steak in front of you before cooking it to perfection.  The eyeballs were always bigger than the pocketbook. Not an inexpensive dinner, but always good for a prom. They're both gone, now, but the memory lingers on...

I'm not sure when I even became aware of the numerous different names for the cut - strip steak, sirloin strip, Kansas City steak, club steak - to name but a few, but regardless of what it is called, my mind sees New York. It just is. And I also see Ernie, the butcher at the Hyatt in Cambridge when I worked there in the early '80s. I learned more about quality beef from him than anyone else. He would come out of his butcher area when a shipment of meat arrived and wordlessly go through, check, and accept or reject pieces. It was classic the way he could wither someone with a look. I was the receiving manager when I first met him and even though I had cut and cooked a bazillion steaks by 1980, I hadn't really purchased them. I really learned a lot from him.

It was a definite impulse-buy when I saw the package of them at the store the other day, but they just looked right.  The fact that they were on sale pretty much clinched the deal. They still weren't cheap, but they were affordable.

Quality means simplicity, so they only got salt and pepper before going on the grill. They didn't require anything else after coming off the grill, either. Ernie would have been proud.

I had some cheese that needed using up, so cheesy scalloped potatoes were a natural addition. I made them slightly different, this time - I heated the milk and started with only half the cheese. And I cooked them a lot longer.

I do have to admit that they came out pretty stellar. I used  red leister, havarti, and gorgonzola cheeses in the dish, but about 6 or more ounces of any cheese or cheese combination would work. Use what you have in the 'fridge. It's how I make mac & cheese, as well.

Scalloped Potatoes TJRecipes.com Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

  • 6-8 oz freshly-grated flavorful cheese - any combination
  • 2 lbs potatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 cups milk
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter oven-proof baking dish. Mix cheeses and set aside.
Layer half of potatoes in pdish. Sprinkle with flour. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter and dust with salt and pepper. Sprinkle half of cheese mixture over. Top with remaining potatoes, dust with salt & pepper, and dot with butter. Save remaining cheese for later.

Bring milk to simmer and pour over potatoes.. Cover tightly with foil and bake about an hour. Remove from oven and sprinkle with reserved cheese. Return to oven uncovered and bake about 45 more minutes or until cheese is crusty-golden-brown.

I hardly ever peel potatoes - I see no need to and I like the skins - so peel or not as you desire.

And having nothing to do with dinner tonight, I roasted a bunch of plum tomatoes from our yard.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes TJRecipes.com Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

I sliced them in half, laid them out on a sheet pan, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt & pepper, and then roasted them at 350° for about an hour. When they came out, I placed them in a container and added more olive oil.

They have a  really awesome concentrated tomato flavor and the oil will be great for salads or other drizzling.

 


Steaks and Fresh Mozzarella

07-08-13-steaks

 

Victor made homemade mozzarella on Saturday. O.M.G. It's too wonderful to even begin to describe!

And while it takes a bit of finesse, it's not as difficult as it seems. Which is good, because I already want more!

He's been doing really good with his cheese-making - goat cheese and ricotta in the past couple of weeks - but this one was the trickiest, to date. And he nailed it!

07-08-13-fresh-mozzarella

 

The two biggest no-nos are that you can't use ultra-pasteurized milk and you can't use Junket rennet. You're making cheese - go for the quality. We bought organic whole milk and used organic goat milk for the chevre.  You're taking the time to do it - so do it right.

You need a good thermometer and rubber gloves. Clean rubber gloves - not the ones you use for scrubbing floors and stuff.

There are a lot of recipes for making mozzarella on the web,  and most of them are pretty similar. This is an adaption of a few of them.

Okay... start!

Fresh Mozzarella

  • 1 1/4 cups water, divided
  • 1 1/2 tsp citric acid
  • 1/4 rennet tablet or 1/4 tsp liquid rennet (NOT Junket rennet)
  • 1 gallon whole milk, NOT ultra-pasteurized
  • 1 tsp kosher salt

Prepare the Citric Acid and Rennet:

Measure out 1 cup of water and stir in the citric acid until dissolved. In a separate cup, measure out 1/4 cup of water and stir in the rennet until dissolved.

Warm the Milk:

Pour the milk into the pot. Stir in the citric acid solution. Set the pot over medium-high heat and warm to 90°, stirring gently.

Add the Rennet:

Remove the pot from heat and gently stir in the rennet solution. Count to 30. Stop stirring, cover the pot, and let it sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.

Cut the Curds:

After five minutes, the milk should have set, and it should look and feel like soft silken tofu. If it is still liquidy, re-cover the pot and let it sit for another five minutes. Once the milk has set, cut it into uniform curds: make several parallel cuts vertically through the curds and then several parallel cuts horizontally, creating a grid-like pattern. Make sure your knife reaches all the way to the bottom of the pan.

Cook the Curds:

Place the pot back on the stove over medium heat and warm the curds to 105°F. Stir slowly as the curds warm, but try not to break them up too much. The curds will eventually clump together and separate more completely from the yellow whey.

Remove the Curds from Heat and Stir:

Remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring gently for another 5 minutes.

Separate the Curds from the Whey:

Ladle the curds into a strainer set over a bowl to catch the whey.

Heat the curds:

Warm a large pot of water to just below boiling (about 190°).  Set the strainer into the pot so the curds are submerged in the hot water. Let the curds sit for about five minutes. Wearing rubber gloves, fold the curds under the water and check their internal temperature. If it has not reached 135°F, let the curds sit for another few minutes until it does. The curds need to reach this temperature in order to stretch properly.

Stretch and Shape the Mozzarella:

Sprinkle the salt over the cheese and squish it with your fingers to incorporate. Using both hands, stretch and fold the curds repeatedly. It will start to tighten, become firm, and take on a glossy sheen. When this happens, you are ready to shape the mozzarella. You can make one large or several smaller balls. Just don't over-work it.

Store the finished cheese:

Place the mozzarella balls in slightly salted water or whey. Keep refrigerated and use within a week.

This is such a treat. When we get back from vacation and the tomatoes are in full production, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this!

Yumlicious!

The steaks were covered in the Peach BBQ Sauce I made yesterday. Fresh corn on the cob...

We're doing well...

 


Braised Leeks and Beef Tips

06-05-13-braised-leeks-and-beef-1

 

I picked up a bunch of leeks at the produce market on Monday. They were an impulse-buy - as was just about everything I bought that day. The only problem with impulse-buying perishable items is - they're perishable. I have to quickly figure out what I'm doing with this stuff because I'll be damned if I'll let anything go bad or throw anything away.

Leeks are one of those things I really don't use a lot of. I usually have to have an idea in mind before I buy them, but they looked good and the price was right... into the cart they went.

Tonight, I had a plan... Grilled Beef Tips and Braised Leeks. Braising is simplicity, itself. It's nothing more than putting something in a pan, turning on the heat, adding a splash of liquid, and putting a lid on it.

Really. That simple.

The liquid of choice tonight was a nice sherry - never cook with anything you wouldn't drink. And I do have to say it came out quite well. I really do like layering food and beef on a bed of leeks really was a fun idea.

The potatoes were coated with olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper, before going into a 375° oven for about 20 minutes. The green beans - also bounty from Monday - were simply steamed and drizzled with butter. The beef was seasoned with one of the Kansas City Steak Seasonings Victor received. A nice dry rub with a lot of flavor and not a lot of BBQ.

Braised Leeks

  • 6 leeks
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup sherry
  • juice form 1/2 lemon
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cut off the roots and cut up the leek about 6" - through the pale green and before the tougher dark green.  Slice lengthwise in quarters and soak in cold water to remove any grit.

Melt butter in a small saute pan and add leeks. Saute a few minutes and then add 1/4 cup sherry. Put a lid on the pan, reduce heat, and cook about 5 minutes, or until leeks are tender.

Add lemon juice and season with S&P to taste.

Really simple. Really flavorful. And it works really well with belgian endive, too.


Hamburger Steaks with Mushroom Gravy

04-23-13-beef-and-mushrooms

We've survived 48 hours without an oven, but not having that clock is driving me nuts. I can't believe how often I looked at that clock - it seems like it must have been every time I walked into the kitchen. Note to self: make sure new oven has a clock.

We've been doing our online looking, but we'll have to actually walk into the store to see what we finally get. It's funny, but I've been doing online comparisons and will put 4 similar items on the screen and then call Victor over to pick out the one he likes best. Every time, he has picked the one I like best, as well. What a shock, eh?!? It never ceases to amaze me at how similar our tastes are - at least for the important stuff.

I also think it's funny that 12 years ago we were adamant that we didn't want granite and stainless steel in the kitchen. And now we're going to have granite and stainless steel in the kitchen! What a difference a decade makes.

So our stove-top dinner tonight started out on the grill. I made simple hamburger steaks - salt, pepper, garlic powder - and grilled them. I made a simple mushroom gravy by sauteing baby bella mushrooms in a bit of butter, and after they were browned added about a cup of coffee. Coffee was my mom's secret ingredient in stews and soups and gravies and the like. Then went a couple cups of beef broth and then I thickened it with flour and water. Rich and silky-smooth. Not that I really worry about lumps in the gravy, but it's always nice when they don't appear. I put the steaks into the gravy and let it all simmer for about 20 minutes.

Simple white rice and overcooked broccoli finished the plate. I really do have to start cooking two sets of vegetables - or just start buying frozen and not worry about it.

Three more days and we get to go shopping for some new appliances.

Happy Birthday, indeed!


Burgers and Tater Tots

04-16-13-burgers-a

 

I am fond of saying an organic Pop Tart is still a nutritionally-unsound Pop Tart.

And an all-natural tater tot is still an over-processed potato product. Tonight, Nonna and I had burgers and over-processed potato product. And fresh tomatoes with mozzarella and basil. And organic catsup.

I'm still working on Nonna's likes-and-dislikes, and tater tots are pretty inoffensive. I actually think my problem is that I'm over-thinking menus and meals. I used to just go into the kitchen and make things - and never had a problem. I just kinda figured that whatever I did would work. Lately, I've been spending more time wondering whether she would like something or not and second-guessing myself with the yeah-or-nay thoughts. I think I probably just need to start cooking again and not think about it. Of course, that's easier said, than done.

The reality is, she's eaten everything I've made with the exception of the asparagus. Time to get creative, again.

In the meantime, I've found out that she likes hot dogs almost as much as I do.

We're getting along just fine...


Ravioli and Other Italian Dishes

03-18-13-ravioli

It's been a while since I sat down and wrote a blog post. It's not that we stopped eating - perish the thought! It's just that life has a way of catching up once in a while.

Right after my last post, we decided it was time to ask Victor's mom to move in with us. She's pushing 87, and just not as quick on her feet as she used to be.

We brought her over for a few days to get used to the idea and see how she liked being pampered and waited on hand-and-foot.

03-09-13-ronies

We cooked her 'ronies and meat sauce, and chicken cutlets with a nice salad...

03-10-13-chicken-cutlet

I started cooking and made several things that were portioned and frozen for quick lunches... Onion soup, breaded chicken strips, pasta sauce...  A big fruit salad. Things that Victor could quickly prepare even with his phone headset on.

She had her quarterly Dr appointment coming up, so she said she'd make a decision after seeing him. We went in to see  her primary care Dr, he decided she wasn't doing as well as she should, and he sent us over to the hospital for tests. That was a 4-day stay that pretty much determined she should come live with us. They released her to a rehab facility for some physical therapy to get her legs working better, and we went to work.

Our normally boring, quiet lives got really busy, really fast. Moving mom in with us entailed more than just putting her in the guest room. The guest room needed to be transformed into her room. We had to empty out our furniture to fit in hers. The basement I cleaned so well got really full, really fast. I'm going to have to get down there and organize, again. One of these days.

03-18-13-nonnas-room

And closet space. Thank goodness we had just done a closet clean-out! We're still a little cramped, but we'll sort it all out.

There's a million-and-one details that need attending when you undertake something like this - and more things become apparent halfway through others. Fortunately, we have plenty of family support with Victor's brother and sister, and our neighbor is a geriatric social worker with one of the better services in town. We're getting the in-home visits set up as soon as we learn just what she's going to need. The paperwork has already been started.

So this past week, more meals have been taken standing up in the kitchen, than at any time since we moved here. Saturday - the day we were supposed to have dear friends arriving for a 4-day birthday bash - saw us with the first meal I had cooked in a week - Beef Braised in Guinness. I added potatoes to it this time to make it a one-pot meal.

03-17-13-beef-braised-in-guinness

And then it was early to bed and early to rise to move more furniture.

So meals are going to be changing a bit. I know mom's likes and dislikes pretty well, and will be catering towards some simpler menu items. The foods will be fresh, flavorful, and plentiful.

She deserves only the best.


New York, New York

02-26-13-steaks

 

Once upon a time, a strip steak was called a New York steak. It was a reference to Delmonico's in NYC - even though a "Delmonico" steak was actually a ribeye.  The eye of the ribeye, to be exact. I'm not sure how a strip steak became the New York reference, but it's always been an expensive quality cut and New York is known as an expensive quality town... The restaurants and hotels I worked in always called them New York steaks - probably to justify the expense - and I did work at some expensive places.

So tonight I grilled a couple of New York Strip Steaks. Properly rare.

And I caramelized onions to top them. Very simply, sliced onions slow-fried in butter with a bit of salt and pepper. Unbelievably good.

The accoutrements were fresh brussels sprouts sliced thin and fried in a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper and twice-baked potatoes stuffed with sour cream and cheese.

It was good. Enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

Later on... a bit of Pumpkin Cake.

Let the rain and wind begin.

 


Meat and Potatoes

02-18-13-beef

 

The whole reason for making the dinner rolls today was I wanted roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans for dinner. The menu demands dinner rolls. Dinner rolls demand roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans.

I started off with a petite filet roast and seasoned it with Hunter's Recipe Classic Montreal Steak seasoning. Great stuff. Great flavor.

I did a quick broil - less than 15 minutes total - and it came out perfectly medium-rare.

I french-cut the green beans and after steaming, just did a quick saute in a bit of butter, salt and pepper. The potatoes were mashed with sour cream, and the gravy was pan juices, red wine, mushrooms, and beef stock.

It was a relatively simple meal to put together, but I did manage to dirty four pots. Not a record by any means, but not bad for a Monday...

And there's cake for dessert...


Stuffed Peppers

02-04-13-stuffed-peppers

 

I wanted to make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce and I had a hankerin' for stuffed peppers. I decided to do both.

Spaghetti sauce may be the easiest thing in the world to make. I'm surprised at how many people never make it and at how popular jarred sauce is. I mean... the jarred sauce tastes... jarred. Yet, when you look at the shelf-upon-shelf of sauces at the grocery store, I am clearly in the minority.

Folks speak of the convenience of jarred sauce. I make big batches of sauce and freeze it in convenient containers. And I don't have to think about the sugar, sodium, dehydrated onions, and lord knows what else they have put in the stuff. I like being able to pronounce the things I eat.

For this batch of sauce, I had ground beef and Italian sausage, so I used some of each and saved a bit of each for the pepper filling.

The sauce was onions, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, olive oil, red wine, ground beef, Italian sausage, Greek oregano, basil, rosemary, tomato paste, ground tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, and pepper.

This was a wintertime simmer sauce. As soon as fresh tomatoes are on the vine, and fresh herbs in the garden, a sauce can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta.

The peppers were a bit less traditional. I cooked up some whole-grain rice and then added minced onion, minced garlic, minced celery, and minced carrot, and mixed it with the beef and sausage. S&P and some Italian seasoning finished them off. I didn't use any binders, bread crumbs, egg... none of that stuff. I put a bit of sauce in the bottom of the dish and into the 350° oven they went - covered - for about 40 minutes. Off came the cover and on went some grated cheese.

Victor had leftover peppers for lunch and six containers of sauce went into the freezer.

Take that, Ragu!


Bachelor Food

01-21-13-chili-burger

 

Victor is off having dinner with friends in Dallas. He's in Dallas until late Thursday, so I'm doing my annual Chili-Fest. At least this time around I made the chili instead of opening cans. It's a quick and easy meal and that's really all I'm looking for this week - quick and easy. No complicated five-pot dinners.

As I have said many times, I hate cooking for myself.  It's just not fun. I make the mess and then have to clean up the mess. There's no one to share with. There's no How was your day or Do you know what your dog did today?!?

I'm cuing up Warren Zevon's Poor Poor Pitiful Me...

And, of course, I have my project.

It's still a secret.

More on that, later...


Filet Stroganoff

01-09-13-filet-stroganoff

My impulse-buy of the week was a 5 1/2 lb tenderloin roast on Monday. There was a huge refrigerated bin of them, marked down from their original $20-something a pound to $8-something a pound. I looked through them and found one I liked for a mere $40.00. I picked it up, put it back, picked it up, put it back, picked it up and kept walking. It was a bit steep but I figured I'd be getting numerous meals from it. I brought it home and cut it into 8 steaks plus steak tips for another meal. $8 per meal is still not cheap, but that's what impulse buys are all about. Plus it was completely trimmed - no waste. At the original $120 I wouldn't have even stopped to look.

It was less expensive than the lobster for the risotto.

So... wanting a steak but not wanting any ol' steak got the gastronomic mind working. I remembered a beef stroganoff idea from Gourmet magazine using steaks instead of strips of beef. A meal was born.

I pan-seared the steaks in a bit of olive oil and set them off to the side.

Into the pan went a pat of butter and 8 ounces of sliced baby bella mushrooms. I browned them well and then added a quarter-cup of brandy. I cooked it down and then added a cup of beef broth and cooked it down to about a half-cup.

Into this, I added a 16oz container of sour cream, a sprinkling of garlic powder, and salt and pepper.

I cooked off some wide egg noodles and mixed the sauce with them. Onto the plate they went, the steak on top, and a bit of sauce on top of that.

Peas on the side.

The steaks were good. Really good. It was a simple meal that dirtied four pans and made an ever-so-slight mess on the stove. I won't mention the "oops" I made stirring the sauce and sending a sauce-covered mushroom halfway across the kitchen.

It's a gift I have. Just ask Victor.