Power Breakfast

My mom told me about this smoothie recipe that Food Network personality Alton Brown likes, so I made a couple of adjustments and plan on using it most days for breakfast.  If you want his original recipe, which uses bananas and does not use protein powder, you can look on foodtv.com and search through his recipes.  I don't like bananas and do like protein, fyi.

Power Smoothie

1/2 c. skim milk

1/2 c. mango/peach juice

1 c. frozen berries

1 scoop your favorite vanilla flavored protein powder

Put all in blender jar and blend till smooth.  I use my stick blender... just put all ingredients in a plastic mug and immerse the blender and blend till smooth.  

This drink has under 400 calories and you can drink on it for an hour-- it makes a lot of smoothie.  Also, it packs a ton of protein and fiber.  And it's delicious!  Great way to start the day.  A couple of days ago I  used blueberry juice, and the drink was just SO BERRY-Y.  Using the mango-peach juice (V8 Fusion brand juice) lightened it up the perfect amount.

Other People's Kitchens Revisited

It looks like a lot of the cooking I'll be doing in the next few months will be in someone else's kitchen.  So, here's more of that. 

After Saturday's full day of seeing the sites and crowds of the big city, Crystal and I went back to her place to see what she had in her kitchen that we could make into a great dinner.  Using a couple of Joy of Cooking recipes as starting points, we made a yummy spaghetti alla carbonara and cute little salmon croquettes with a caper-dill sauce.  

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

1/2 lb. bacon
1 lb. spaghetti
1/3 c. grated cheese (goat or parm are good choices)
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. pasta water
half a bag frozen peas

Boil and drain pasta. Fry bacon, remove bacon when done.  Keep 3 T bacon grease in skillet, add pasta and toss.  Add peas.  Mix eggs, cheese, and pasta water together, then add to pasta.  Stir around over medium until eggs are cooked through.  Stir in crumbled bacon.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with additional grated cheese.

                                                           

It's a bit more difficult to write out how we did the croquettes, because we didn't measure much of what we used.  It pretty much went like this:

We took a large can of salmon and picked out the bones, then added a small can of tuna to make up for the several ounces we lost due to bone tossage.  We added a diced half onion and celery stalk that had been sauteed with a few garlic cloves.  Oh, at the end of the sauteing, I stirred in about 1/2 t. garam masala. Crystal diced a tomato and threw that in, we mixed in a couple of eggs, then added bread crumbs until the mixture was the right consistency to make little patties.  Poured a bit of olive oil in a skillet and browned the patties on each side.  Crystal made the dipping sauce, but I think she took plain yogurt and added capers and dried dill until it tasted great.  This croquette picture is from a google search, but this is pretty much what ours looked like.  But, you know, photographed much more prettily.  

                                                                     

Also, I'm still sick.

:(

Other People's Kitchens

Had a great Valentine's weekend in Fort Wayne. I spent Friday night at Mom's, where she and I had a good time making my current favorite meal... cardamom chicken, saag paneer, and cuke-mint yogurt with pitas. Yum! I forgot to add the salt to the saag paneer, though, so it was not as tasty as it should have been. :(

Saturday morning I had coffee and donuts at Laura's house real quick before she had to go to work; that was a fun way to start a day that ended in a different kitchen-- Aunt Deb's. I went over and made a pasta bake dinner, and she made a salad and a Rachel Ray recipe for garlic bread. And of course we had Uncle Nick's birthday cake, which was sugar cream pie. Although I had my camera in my purse all weekend, I took no pictures. I guess you'll just have to take my word that this following recipe will produce a meal.

Pasta Bake
a box of penne or ziti or whatever pasta you like
one large or two regular jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce
a stick of pepperoni
an onion, chopped
a green pepper, chopped
a hunk of mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350. Boil and drain pasta. Saute veggies in a bit of oil on medium for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Cut up the pepperoni into small, bite-sized chunks. Combine pasta, veggies, and pepperoni in a 9x13 pan, then pour some sauce over and mix the sauce in. Pour in as much sauce as you like, and you can freeze the rest of the sauce, if you have leftover. Cut mozz cheese into slices, and lay on top of the pasta (you can use shredded if you want, but I just like to use the block of mozzarella). Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted. Keep it in 10-15 minutes longer if needed to get it nice and browned, or if you're hungry and don't want to wait anymore, finish it off under the broiler for a minute or two.
(This is a picture I found online when I did a google search for 'pasta bake.' This is pretty much what it looks like when I make it, but this one looks to have ground beef in it instead of pepperoni. Also, the cheese is really piled on in this pic. Tastes good, but I usually don't use quite that much cheese.)

A Brunch of Fun

This is another variation on a recipe from the Noble Pig website. It's a very easy and fun way to bring something completely new to breakfast.



There's no real recipe per se, it's just a bunch of stuff thrown together and put in the oven until done. Well, I guess that's what a recipe is. Anyway, the basic ingredients are: dinner rolls (about the size of your fist, maybe a bit bigger), eggs, cream or half and half, cheese, herbs, salmon, and anything else you want to use. I first cut across the top of the roll to make the top straight, to make a little bread-lid. Then I cut a circle in the top of the roll and dug out the bread that filled the circle. Leave a thin layer of bread in the bottom of the roll... I guess you could say this has become a bread bowl. In one case we put the salmon on the bottom of the bread bowl then put the egg on top, and in the other case we put the egg in first then topped with shredded cheese and herbs. In both cases I put about a teaspoon of half and half or cream in with the egg, which added a wonderful, well, creaminess to the egg. Also in both cases I put salt and pepper on the egg. The egg took longer to cook when it was on top of the salmon-- it took about 30 minutes in a 350 oven. I put foil over the roll after about 20 minutes so the bread wouldn't burn. In the one with the egg, cheese, and herbs I took it out at about the 20 minute mark-- had I taken it out at about 17 minutes the yolk probably would've been a bit runny (I don't like that, but if you do, take it out at 15-17 minutes).

Big Ol' Butt

Man do I love pork when it's done right. But that's the trick, innit? Doing it right. I was quite intent on finding an exemplary pork roast recipe, so when I saw this recipe by food scientist Shirley Corriher, I knew I was in for a good dinner. Of course living in the sticks as I do makes it difficult to find specific things sometimes. Like, I went to Walmart, no pork butt, and no butcher counter at which to inquire. Went to Kroger, no pork butt, also no meat counter, but a guy in a white coat who told me the only pork butts they had were these gigantic 15 pound monstrosities. Finally broke down and went to the expensive store, and they not only had a meat counter, but pork butts in normal-sized packages. If you talked to me that day, you know all I did was complain about the unavailability of pork butt. Anyway, I bought at 6 lb. butt and cut off a couple of pounds before cooking. Sorry if this is too talky... I'm home alone tonight and on my second glass of wine!

Piece o' Heaven Pork Butt
4 lb. pork butt (trim as much fat as possible)
1/3 c. Worcestershire sauce
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. apple juice
1/2 t. salt
a bit of pepper

Put an oven rack just below center and preheat oven to 400. Place roast in a roasting pan that is just a smidge bigger than the meat. Spoon Worchestershire sauce over all sides of the roast, then use a spoon to press brown sugar into all sides of the roast. Pour apple juice into bottom of roasting pan, making sure not to pour the juice on the meat. Cover pan, and put into oven, immediately reduce heat to 200 degrees and don't open the oven for 5 hours. At 5 hours, take roast out and if it easily pulls apart it's done. If not, put it in another 30 minutes. Check again. Repeat this until it easily pulls apart (my roast was ready at he 5 hour mark). Remove the meat to a large bowl, toss bone, then add salt and pepper to pan juices. Mix up and pour over meat. Yummy!!


Garlic Spinach
2 10 oz. bags of spinach (or 20 oz. loose leaf spinach)
a bit of cooking oil
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 t. salt
3/4 t. pepper
1 T. butter
lemon

Clean and dry Spinach (it's ok if there's a bit of water still on spinach). In a large, deep pot, coat bottom with extra virgin olive oil (it has a high smoke point) and saute garlic for a couple of minutes on medium. Add all the spinach as well as the salt and pepper, mix around, then cover for a couple of minutes so the spinach can steam. Uncover, stir around, turn heat to high and stir for about a minute, until it's all wilted. Lift the spinach and garlic out with a slotted spoon into a bowl and pour any accumulated water out of the bowl. Add the butter and stir around until it's melted, then squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the spinach. Serve immediately.


Also prepared polenta that night, about which I'm not blogging. It was ok, but I think the next time I make it I'll do better. It was a bit over-cooked, I think... not creamy enough. It was pretty good, though, and quite pretty, especially next to that vibrant spinach. It's basically cornmeal mixed with water and/or milk with a bit of cheese or herbs or whatever you want.

That pork was so tender and flavorful and had a crispy crust-- yum! And it made the best hash ever, for real. The next time I make that pork roast maybe I'll use it all for hash, that's how good the hash was. Hash recipe is in the blog entry "Christmas Take One." I cannot stress enough how good this is in hash.

Very Bad, But So Good

Well. These are freaking great, I think. They are chock-full of sugar and not light on the butter, but man are they good. I found this on a website called the Noble Pig, and made a few changes (she used all regular, white flour and a bit more sugar). We had them for breakfast this morning with coffee, which seems to be the perfect way to enjoy these delicious treats.

Cinnamuffins
1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cinnamon
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. veg oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 c. milk
12 t. jelly/jam

for topping
2-3 T. melted butter
1/3 c. sugar mixed with 1 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350, spray PAM in muffin tins. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, stir together. In a smaller bowl, combine sugar, oil, egg, and milk. Stir wet stuff into dry stuff until just mixed. Fill greased muffin tin cups each half full. Put 1 t. jam on top, then cover the jam with remaining batter-- each muffin cup should be about 3/4 full. Make sure to cover the jam well, or it will leak out during baking. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes. When done baking, remove muffins from tin and (as soon as you can hold them without burning your fingers) dip the top of each in melted butter then into the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Do the dipping while they are hot, though, so the sugar gets all melty.

Salsa, Guac, and Leftovers

During Mexican Fiesta week a few weeks ago I made a yummy Pork-Black Bean Stew which made a ton of food. We ate it for several days, and I put a good amount in the freezer. Last night's dinner was made from that left over, thawed out stew. Took some soft taco sized flour tortillas, stuffed them with the stew, folded them up, sprinkled shredded cheese on top, then baked at 350 for 20 minutes. Threw a little chopped cilantro on top. Good stuff!
The more, well, fun part of dinner was making the pico and guacamole for the side. I know everyone thinks they do everything the right way, but I really think my way of doing guac is pretty good. First off I make pico...

Pico de Gallo
6 roma tomatoes, diced (I don't like seeds, so I also de-seed)
1/2 onion, diced
juice from 1/4 to 1/2 lime, depending on how much you like lime
1 jalapeno pepper, diced, seeds removed
2-3 T cilantro, chopped
salt to taste

Mix it all up and let sit an hour or two before serving. When you first make it don't put in the jalapeno seeds (where the heat is), but mix some in a bit at a time until your desired heat level is attained. Also, a bunch of tomatoes like this will need salt, so don't be shy with the shaker.

Once you have your pico, take a ripe avocado or two, scoop the flesh out and mash it up, then add a few spoonfuls of pico and maybe a little extra lime juice and cilantro, if you like those things. I was watching Rick Bayliss right before I made my guac, and he too was making guac. He said make it a couple of hours before serving, so the flavors and blend well. Of course, when you put it in the fridge, press some plastic wrap right down on the guac so no air can reach it and turn it brown. Of course, if it does turn brown, it's ok to just mix the brown in with the rest and eat it.

Carry-in Query

I got an email from a loyal reader today (doesn't that sound better than saying 'my aunt emailed?') asking if I had any ideas for a side dish to take to a dinner at her kid's middle school. It is kinda a good question... normal side dishes we eat at home are straight from the oven or microwave, but in a situation like this, where lots of people are bringing lots of food to set on a long table, of course your green bean casserole or whatever will be cold and gross by the time it is eaten. So, here are some ideas for food that does not require cooking or warmth to be delicious.


Quick-n-Easy Salad
one head lettuce, chopped or torn in bite-sized pieces
1 bunch green onions, chopped
8 oz. shredded mozzerella cheese
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
Combine all in a large bowl, right before serving toss with favorite Italian dressing.... currently I really really like this Kraft dressing called Tuscan House Italian or something like that... it has Tuscan in the name.

That salad is so simple and basic, but is really delicious. I took it for Christmas to Phil's dad's and it got a lot of compliments.


Another side dish I like to make is an Antipasto Pasta Salad. Corkscrew pasta mixed with chunked pepperoni (at the Walmart deli counter if they cut it at thickness 4, it will be good for cutting into chunks), chunked muenster cheese, sliced olives, and I think adding a bunch of chives, cut in about 1" lengths, really makes this salad. Again, toss in favorite Italian dressing.


A quick but different dip tray: hummus, pita chips, and sliced or baby carrots.

Really Great Kale Pasta

Kale is one of those super healthy superfoods, and this is a fun way to eat this leafy green. I know the bacon and the brie significantly detract from the goodness of the kale, but whatcha gonna do? This tastes really incredible, and is kind of a treat around here. When we buy kale we use most of it in healthy soups, so this is our reward for being good.

Pasta with Brie and Kale
4 slices bacon
1 c. skim milk
1 T. flour
1 onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
6 oz. brie cheese, chunked, rind off
1/2 box whole wheat penne
about 10 leaves of kale, coarsely chopped


Fry bacon, set aside. Boil and drain pasta, set aside. Put about 1/2 T bacon grease in a second pan to saute kale with 1/2 the garlic. Saute kale and garlic about 10 minutes on medium, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, keep just a bit of the bacon grease in the first pan and saute onion and remaining garlic for about 5-7 minutes over medium. Keep on medium, add milk and deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add flour and cheese, stir till melted and bubbling. Add a little salt and some pepper, then add kale, pasta, and top with crumbled bacon. Serve!
I think this would be good with a hearty white wine, like a full, medium oaked Chardonnay, or maybe Vignoles.

Smoked Turkey Soup

It seems like a lot of the stuff I make is rather time consuming. This one takes a few hours, but very little work is required-- most of the time is just waiting. My favorite part of this soup is that it tastes really really good but is really really healthy. Sometimes I see smoked turkey legs at grocery stores, sometimes I don't; usually if I'm at a store that's got them in stock I'll pick up one or two to freeze for future use. They taste remarkably like smokey ham.

Smoked Turkey Soup
To make broth:
1 smoked turkey leg
1 carrot, cut in quarters
1 stick celery, cut in quarters
1 onion, quartered
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns

Put all in big soup pot and cover with water. I left the end knob of the leg uncovered by water, but the rest was submerged. Bring to boil then cover and simmer for about an hour and a half. Remove and set aside turkey leg, and remove and discard veggies and spices. I used my hand strainer to remove veggies and spices, you also could use a colander and strain the broth into a different big bowl or pot. Cover and put broth outside to cool for a couple of hours. Once leg is cool, remove meat from bone, cut into bite-sized pieces, and put in fridge. Bring broth inside and skim the fat off the top.

To make soup:
1 c. rinsed lentils
3-4 carrots, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
1 onion, chopped
10-12 stems of kale, leaves only (not stem or spine), well-rinsed and cut into bite-sized pieces
S and P

Bring broth to boil, then add lentils and a pinch or two of salt and some pepper, reduce to simmer and cover. If the lentils are green or split black, cook about 12 minutes. If the lentils are red/orange or split black without skins, cook about 7 minutes. While broth is coming to boil, saute carrot, celery, and onion in olive oil in a skillet on medium-- this will take about 10 minutes. Remove veggies from heat when they are mostly tender. After the 12 or 7 minutes of lentil-simmering, add the sauteed veggies, kale, and the cut up turkey leg, continue to simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, 10-15 minutes. Test a lentil at 10 minutes... if it seems too firm, continue cooking and test again in a few minutes. Soup is ready when lentils are tender.
I used split black lentils, and as soon as I poured the lentils in the broth got all dark. I guess the black skins gave me dark soup. Still tastes great, though!

Cardamom Clementine Cookies

Well duh, we really like cardamom around here, so why not put it in cookies? I love these cookies; they taste super good with coffee or tea. These cookies have browned butter in them... I don't know if I browned it right, because it didn't look brown, but I cooked it until it got little bubbles, and they taste great.

C-C Cookies
1 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. clementine zest (or orange zest)
1/2 t. ground cardamom
2 T. milk
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. powdered sugar blended with 1/2 t. ground cardamom

Melt butter in saucepan over medium. Cook, constantly stirring and watching, till just golden brown and starting to bubble. Immediately pour into medium mixing bowl and put in the fridge for 30 minutes to overnight.

Heat oven to 350, combine cooled butter and sugar, beat with mixer on medium till well mixed. Add egg yolk, vanilla, 1/2 t. ground cardamom, citrus zest, and milk, mix. Change speed to low and slowly add flour, beat until fully incorporated. Dough will be crumbly, but should be easy to press into balls. Shape into 1" balls, place 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 11-13 minutes, until starting to get golden on top. Cookies will have some cracks in them. Immediately remove, cool a minute, then roll, while quite warm, in the powdered sugar/cardamom blend. Set on wire rack. Roll in sugar mixture again when cool. Store in single layers separated by wax or parchment paper in a loosely covered container.

Darling Clementines

If you were with me during my Parisian vacation last year, or if you just heard me talk about it, this dessert might sound familiar. One of my favorite things to do is order a unique-sounding dessert, eat it, love it, then go home and try to re-create it. When I was in Raleigh last year for my birthday we had this INCREDIBLE, exotic dessert at a Lebanese restaurant, and I feel my interpretation is pretty close to the delightful original. I'll blog about that soon. This blog is about a very simple dessert I loved in Paris. I don't know what to call it, though. If anyone reads this, feel free to come up with a name for this dessert and that's what I'll call it.

Clementine Dessert
1 c. grapefruit juice
1 T. honey
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1/2 whole star anise
clementines (one or more per person)
whole star anise (one per serving)

Combine juice and honey, microwave 30 seconds or so till the honey melts and can be incorporated. Add cinnamon stick, cloves, and the half star anise, sit in fridge for a couple of hours so flavors can combine. When it's time to serve, peel and section a clementine (or two, if you're hungry) per person, arrange in a little ramekin or small bowl. Add a whole star anise in the middle for decoration, then drizzle enough of the flavored juice to cover the fruit about halfway. Bon appetit!

My Current Favorite Meal

We like this so much around here, we had it two nights in a row. We served it to a friend Monday night and made another batch on Tuesday for dinner, and it will last for lunch today and probably lunch tomorrow! Yay! If you ever come to my house to eat, this is probably the dinner I would make (unless you don't want to eat Indian food, then I'd probably make lasagna).

One thing I like about blogging about this meal: I've already typed out the recipe for two of the three dishes. The chicken recipe is in the 'Cardamom, anyone' entry, and the yogurt dip is in 'Indian Food, etc.' The saag paneer (spinach and cheese), however, has a lot of steps. Totally totally worth taking all the steps, because this is about my favorite thing I've ever cooked. This dish is usually made solely with spinach, but we really like using mustard greens with the spinach. If mustard greens don't do it for you, just use all spinach.

Saag Paneer
2 T. cooking oil
1 medium onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
4 slices ginger (each 2" x 1" x 1/8"), chopped
2 t. Bin bhuna hua garam masala (recipe to follow)
1/2 t. ground tumeric
2 T. tomato paste
8 oz. fresh spinach (stems removed), well-cleaned and coarsely chopped
8 oz. fresh mustard greens (stems removed), well-cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 t. salt
1 lb. paneer (get it in the freezer at the international grocery or make it (blog entry 'Indian Food, etc')), cubed and pan-fried (directions to follow)
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 t. Punjabi garam masala (recipe to follow)

Heat oil in large skillet on medium. Add onion, garlic, and ginger, stir fry 8-10 minutes, till onion starts to brown. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the tumeric and the Bin bhuna hua garam masala (the heat from the onion will lightly cook the spices). Transfer the mixture into your blender, add tomato paste and 1/4 c. water. Puree, scraping the sides. Return the paste to the skillet. Pour 3/4 c. water into the blender and give it a quick whirl to wash it out- pour that in the skillet, too. Place skillet on medium again. Pile handfuls of the greens into the skillet, cover it, and let the steam wilt them. Mix them into the puree, add more greens, cover, wilt, etc, until all the greens are incorporated-- about 10 minutes. Once all greens are added cover the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens are starting to break down and the mixture is olive green, about 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to blender, puree, scraping sides, return to skillet over medium. Stir in salt, paneer cubes, cream, and Punjabi garam masala. simmer covered about 5 minutes, till the cheese and cream have warmed through. Serve with pita bread or rice or alone.


These garam masalas contain similar ingredients, but the Punjabi one is toasted, so the spices have different flavors. The Punjabi garam masala is like a finishing spice. If it's added at the beginning of a recipe the flavors get lost; every recipe I've used this spice blend in tastes way better the day it's made.

Punjabi Garam Masala
1 T. coriander seeds
1 t. cumin seeds
1 t. whole cloves
1/2 t. black peppercorns
1/2 t. cardamom seeds
3 cinnamon sticks, broken up
3 bay leaves

Preheat skillet over med-high. Add all ingredients, toast and shake the pan every few seconds until the coriander and cumin turn reddish brown, the cloves, peppercorns and cardamom turn ash-black, and the bay leaves get brittle and crinkly, about 2 minutes. Immediately transfer to plate to cool. Once they are cool to the touch, grind in coffee grinder. Yum! It smells so great!


Bin Bhuna Hua Garam Masala
2 T. coriander seeds
1 t. cumin seeds
1 t. black peppercorns
1/2 t. whole cloves
1/2 t. cardamom seeds
2 dried bay leaves
3-4 dried cayenne chiles (or 1 t. ground red pepper)

Combine all in coffee grinder and grind up.


Pan-fried Paneer
Take your paneer and cut it into cubes. Put some oil or butter in a non stick skillet on medium, put cubes of cheese in. Check periodically, turn cubes when the bottoms appear golden-brown. I don't usually brown on all eight sides, but I brown on most of the sides. Place on paper towels to drain, then set aside until it's time to add them. I usually start the cheese browning process when I start the onions, then the cheese will be done by the time it's time to add.

Dinner at Dad's

Back in Indianapolis, back in the guest bedroom at Dad's. They had some wild salmon in the freezer, so I offered to cook it if they didn't mind sharing. Dad liked the sound of this recipe that the Barefoot Contessa did on her show, but there were lots of specialty ingredients in her recipe, so we did a little improvisation. Since this is improvised, I can't give exact measurements... Also, Mollie made the teriyaki rice, so I'll let her blog about that if she wants to.

Panko-Teriyaki Salmon
salmon fillet or two
bottled teriyaki marinade or sauce
a box of panko crumbs

Line a baking pan with foil. Preheat oven to 500. Place fish, skin side down, on foil. Brush or spoon sauce over fish. Liberally cover fish with panko, then soak all of the panko with more sauce. Let sit 15 minutes. Bake for about 12 minutes per 1 inch thickness-- this fish was about an inch thick, so I left it in for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cover tightly with foil, let sit 15 minutes.


Stovetop Brussel Sprouts
brussel sprouts, cut in half
olive oil
grated parmesan
panko crumbs
salt and pepper

Use an appropriately sized non-stick skillet, drizzle with olive oil, place brussel sprouts in single layer. Cover and set to medium for about 5 minutes, until the sprouts start to brown a little on the bottom. Uncover, raise heat to med-high, sprinkle with salt and pepper, move the sprouts around to brown them further. After about 5 minutes eat a sprout. If it's tender, it's done. If not, cook until tender. When done, turn heat off, sprinkle with parmesan and panko. Let sit a minute or two so the cheese can melt. These were rather small sprouts; large sprouts will take a few more minutes.

Asian Ribs and Stir Fried Veg

I'm leaving town again for a couple of days, so I wanted to make a meal that would produce plenty of leftovers. I found a recipe for slow cooking Asian BBQ spare ribs that sounded good, but had a hard time finding spare ribs around here, so I got short ribs. The marinade/ sauce/ whatever in this recipe is really good, and I think next time I would use a chuck or shoulder roast-- I wasn't super impressed with the short ribs.

Asian BBQ in the Slow Cooker
4- 41/2 lb. short ribs or a pot roast
1/3 c. beef broth
1/3 c. soy sauce
3 green onions, sliced thin
1 T. brown sugar
2 T. garlic, chopped
2 T. fresh ginger, chopped
black pepper
a jalapeno, sliced (more, if you like it hot)
1 T. cornstarch (possibly)
1 t. sesame oil
2 t. sesame seeds, toasted

Put the meat in the slow cooker, mix broth, soy sauce, onions, sugar, garlic, ginger, pepper, and jalapeno and pour over the meat. Cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 3 1/2-4 hours. When done, remove meat from sauce, and if the meat has bones, remove bones. Keep meat warm. Pour sauce into a sauce pan and boil to thicken, add cornstarch water (take 1 T. cornstarch and add 2 T. water to create thickening agent) if needed. When thickening the sauce, add the sesame oil. When sauce is desired consistency, pour over meat, and top with toasted sesame seeds. Serve over rice, because the sauce is great with rice.


Stir Fry Broccoli and Red Pepper
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 red pepper, sliced
2 T. cooking oil
4 T. stir fry sauce
2 t. toasted sesame seeds

Heat oil over medium-high, add vegetables. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning. Add sauce, keep stirring for about 2 minutes. Top with extra toasted sesame seeds.


Toasted Sesame Seeds
Pour some sesame seeds in a skillet. Heat on medium, shaking the pan often to move the seeds around. When they're fragrant, they're done. It takes 5-7 minutes. Sesame seeds, like nuts, are way better when toasted.

Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of my favorite things to make, because it's a great and yummy way to clean out the fridge. I had extra white rice from the pork and black bean stew last week, there was about 3/4 of a green pepper left over from the Mexican rice, and I had just a little fresh ginger left in the fridge from Indian food a couple of weeks ago. Of course there's always garlic, onion, egg, and soy sauce around here. Sometimes if I have extra pork loin or cooked chicken or beef I'll throw those in, too, but this time I had no meat leftovers.

Fried Rice
2 c. leftover rice
2 eggs
2 T. cooking oil
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
a sliver of ginger, chopped
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 T. sriracha sauce or 1 t. crushed red pepper

Scramble eggs, then set aside. Pour oil in med-high skillet, when it's hot, add onion and pepper. Saute about 5 mintues, until they soften. Add garlic and ginger and saute another minute. Add rice, egg, soy sauce and hot sauce/ red pepper. Let rice get a little crusty on the bottom, then turn rice over so the other side can brown.

We had some Trader Joe's Chicken Curry Sticks (or something like that) in the freezer, so we had those next to the rice. A very quick dinner.

The Wonderful Walnut

For some reason yesterday I got to thinking about this pasta dish. It's from the back of the walnut bag, and it's really good. I think I just made it one day because I wanted to use the rest of the walnuts I had and I had all the other ingredients in my kitchen, so I thought, 'why not?' I can't wait for the basil to be abundant again so I can make this. Actually, I bet it would be pretty good with parsley substituted for the basil. There's nothing like basil, of course, but fresh parsley is pretty great (and way cheaper).


Pasta with Walnut Cream Sauce
12 oz fettuccine (or pasta of choice)
2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
4-5 cloves minced garlic
3 T. milk
3 T. sour cream
1/2 c. parmesan, grated
1/2 c. chopped fresh basil (or parsley)

Prepare pasta. In skillet, heat oil on medium, add walnuts and garlic, saute 3-5 minutes. Add milk, sour cream, cheese, S and P. Stir until thickened. Add basil, combine with pasta.


And another way to use butternut squash. It kinda tastes like pumpkin bread... in fact I think I took a recipe for pumpkin bread and just used squash instead. And toasting the walnuts before using make them extra yummy.

Butternut Squash Bread

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 c. pureed or mashed up squash that's been cooked/roasted
1/2 c. cooking oil
2 eggs
1/4 c. water
1/2 t. each: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg
1/2 c. toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, salt, sugar, soda.
In a separate bowl, mix spices with squash, then add oil, eggs, water.
Combine all, add nuts.
Bake in greased and floured bread pan 50-60 minutes. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Fideo Soup

Fideo Soup
5 T. cooking oil
10 oz. vermicelli
5 t. Tex Mex spice
1/2 c. green pepper, diced
1 c. onion, diced
2 c. chicken broth
2 c. water
1/2 c. tomato sauce

Heat oil in large saucepan on medium, add noodles and stir till golden, about 5 minutes. Add spice mix and diced veggies, stir a couple of minutes. Add broth, water, and tomato sauce, let simmer about 10 mintues. Serve.

Our conclusion on this: it's kinda like Mexican ramen noodles. This recipe did not make a whole lot of broth and there wasn't a whole lot of flavor. I think I will look around for other fideo soup recipes that might be a little more like that great fideo soup they served at La Michoacan, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas.

Also, this (somewhat thankfully) ends Mexican Fiesta week. We are looking forward to returning to a more vegetable-heavy menu.

Mexican Rice

When I lived in Las Vegas there was this chain of Mexican grocery stores that carried THE BEST chips and salsa in the entire world. The salsa was homemade and the chips were thin and crisp. Every time we had a carry-in at work this woman named Karen would bring these chips and salsa, and they was always the first things I went for. We have a little Mexican grocery here in Murphysboro so I thought I would see if they had good homemade salsa. Uhhh, no. Everything I picked up was either very dusty or expired (one jar I picked up had expired in 2008) or both. I bought a bag of rice, though, just to try something, and that's the rice I used for this. The package says it's extra fluffy, and I guess it was.


Mexican Rice
4 c. chicken broth
8 oz. tomato sauce
3 T. cooking oil
2 c. uncooked rice
2 T. Tex Mex spice
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/4 c. green pepper, chopped

In a saucepan, heat chicken broth and tomato sauce till hot. Add oil and rice to a large skillet. Saute rice over medium until golden. Stir in Tex Mex spice, add veggies and cook for a couple of minutes. Add rice mixture to broth mixture and bring to simmer. Turn heat to med-low, cover and cook 20 minutes. Unlid, stir around. Almost all liquid should be absorbed. If not, cover again and leave on burner another 5 minutes. Remove from heat for 5 minutes, keep covered. Serve.

After the 20 minute cooking time the rice looked way too liquid-y, but after stirring it around it looked a lot closer to normal. I kinda played this rice making by ear... the directions I just wrote out are not exactly the directions in the recipe I used. I let this cook about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for. It tasted really great, though... there was this little hint of smokiness... did it come from toasting the spice mix, maybe, or toasting the rice?

Cheese Enchiladas

Cheese enchiladas sound like the simplest thing to make... take a tortilla, fill it with cheese, cover it with sauce, bake. Well, that's pretty much what we did here, but it took a lot of time and effort. I made the enchilada sauce from scratch. It tasted really good, and I really like knowing what my food is made of-- you know canned enchilada sauce has preservatives or additives. It took a little effort, but I think it was worth it. These enchiladas were delicious. Way better than most enchiladas at most Mexican restaurants. I guess it's quality of ingredients that makes these better than cheap-o restaurants. There's a Mexican restaurant around here that uses, I swear, canned spaghetti sauce as it's enchilada sauce. Or maybe just canned tomato sauce... I don't plan on going back to make a conclusive decision. Anyway, we had the enchiladas with homemade Mexican rice, which also took a bit of effort, but was really good. Again, I appreciate knowing exactly what's in my food, which is why this homemade rice is worth the effort.

Enchilada Sauce
8 T. flour
8 T. butter or chicken or pork drippings (next time I'll be using cooking oil to see if that works)
3 T. TexMex spice (recipe to follow)
2 T. chili powder
3 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. water
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 T. creamy peanut butter

Add flour and butter/drippings/oil to a heavy skillet. Brown for 5 mintues over medium. Add TexMex spice, stirring on med-low for a couple of minutes. Add chili powder and mix another minute or two. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, and water, bring heat to medium. Stir and scrape and with spatula, working out the lumps in the mixture. Add peanut butter and bring to a light simmer, keep at light simmer for about 10 minutes. If you want it thicker, let it simmer a bit longer.

Tex Mex Spice
3 T. plus 2 t. cumin
3 T. granulated garlic or garlic powder
2 T. salt
1 T. black pepper

This spice mix could also be used to season roast veggies or season meat for tacos or taco salad.


Ok, now we can make...
Cheese Enchiladas
4 c. enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas, warmed in microwave so they are pliable
3 c. shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack)
1 c. chopped onion

Preheat oven to 350. Dip each corn tortilla into enchilada sauce, stack on plate. Fill each with 2 heaping tablespoons of cheese and 1 tablespoon onion. Roll, place in 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake 12-15 mintues.

This was kinda messy to make, but that made it fun. Also, the onions in this were incredible. If you dislike onions I guess you could omit them, but they were so tasty and kinda crunchy. Also, I got the corn tortillas from the International Grocery. Does that matter? I don't know, but they were very good; we think better than corn tortillas from Walmart. This is long enough for today. I'll get into the rice tomorrow.