Baked Apples

I remember my mom making these in the winter for dessert. They would bake while we ate dinner and you could smell the aroma as it filled the house.

6 apples
raisins
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Core the apples and peel the very top.

Fill the hole with raisins.
In a small saucepan, heat the water, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until boiling. Pour the sauce over the apples. Bake at 350 for one hour, basting now and then. If you'd like, serve with a bit of cream.

Cinnamon Oranges

I have an orange tree, totally full of delicious oranges right now, so we eat them several times a day. We juice them. We cut them in half and freeze for a treat later (eat them still frozen with a spoon). We make candied orange peels. We add them to fruit smoothies. We eat them plain. And now we eat them with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them. I saw this in one of those fundraiser cookbooks I'm so fond of, because the recipes are those used by "real" people in regular kitchens with lives as busy as the rest of us I imagine.

I keep shaker jar filled with a cinnamon sugar mix in the cupboard, making for easy cinnamon toast among other things. I mix up about 1/2 cup of sugar and a few teaspoons of cinnamon and mix it all up.

Peel a few oranges and chop them up. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Chill. Serve.

Dining to Donate in San Francisco

Juliette Rossant has compiled some events where chefs and restaurants in the SF Bay Area are raising funds for the tsunami victims. Read her superchefblog: Tsunami Update 8: Dining to Donate in San Francisco for details.

Reality TV hits the Cooking Shows

I love watching cooking shows on television, although I don't remember often enough to do it regularly and don't have anything but the most basic cable. I've caught an episode of Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, which was fun. The website has some fun little videos to watch as well. You can always learn so much by watching.

The other day I read in the paper that there was a local thing going on whereby they brought two chefs into someone's private home and they had to cook dinner using only the ingredients that were on hand. The family only had about an hour's notice so there was no last minute shopping going on. Then the family voted on who had made the best tasting dishes.

Now I see that PBS is doing the opposite of that with a reality show called Cooking Under Fire, where contestants cook in a restaurant. So if you like to cook and have a yen to perform in public, they're seeking 12 contestants. You can audition or send in a video tape.

I won't be applying but I might be watching come April.

Is My Blog Burning-- Beans: Pintos, Refried, and How to Use Them

It's time again for Is My Blog Burning. The theme this time is beans, one of my favorite "CheapCooking" foods! I've made Black Bean Soup, Black Bean Mole, Bean and Corn Melange, a white bean and spinach side dish, split pea soup, my favorite Coconut Rice and Red Beans, and even just dressed up some canned beans periodically.


Unfortunately, I'd neglected to note down the IMBB date and only found out about it this morning when I was catching up on my blog reading (as opposed to blog writing). So, it's almost noon and I'm supposed to cook beans! I had read, in Feed Your Family on $10 a Day by Linda Eckhardt, that you can get away with not soaking the beans. I'd done the quick soak method before. (Bring the beans and water to boil, simmer a few minutes, then turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for an hour.) I'd made this recipe before, but decided it was perfect for today's IMMB.



1 pound pinto beans
water
1/4 pound of salt pork or a few slices of bacon
1 onion
1 tablespoon chili powder

Rinse and sort the beans. I repeat this although I've long ago given up the sorting part as I've never yet found any rocks or non-bean material. I do rinse them however. Cover with 2 inches of water. Add a couple of inches of salt pork. (Note: I buy a hunk of this periodically and freeze whatever I have left after slicing up in pieces.) Peel and quarter an onion and add that. Add the chili powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for a few hours, until the beans are soft. Add more water periodically if you need to. Serve these as a soup or just cooked beans as a side dish, as is.



If you don't want a soup, you can make these into refried beans in just a few minutes.

3 cups cooked pinto beans
2 Tbs bacon grease

Heat up the bacon grease in a frying pan and add a few cups of cooked pinto beans. Mash and cook, until somewhat dried.



To make these into the basis for a meal, fry up some tortillas, leaving them flat. Drain on paper towels.

Chop up some lettuce, shred some cheese, make or open some salsa, slice up some avocados, and pile them all on the tortillas.

Easy Red Potatoes

The price of Russet potatoes is pretty hard to beat when I can get them at .79 for a ten pound bag fairly regularly. In the theme of CheapCooking, how can you go wrong? But for the sake of variety, red potatoes are awfully nice now and then and I picked some up today to go with the pot roast. I had already decided not to cook them with the pot roast. I've been less than thrilled with the way potatoes come out in pot roasts, although I love the meat and carrots.

Initially, I thought I'd just scrub them and microwave them. Very easy and very good. But then I made the often fatal mistake and thumbing through a few books, including a Cooking Light collection. It called for cooking the quartered potatoes in oil in a frying pan the whole time. I microwaved them until almost done, then fried in olive oil with minced garlic until crisp.

8 medium sized red potatoes, quartered
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 tsp dried parsley

Scrub the potatoes and microwave them in a covered dish until almost cooked. (Poke them with a fork and make sure they're tender.) Heat the oil and fry the garlic a minute until soft, then add the potatoes. Cook, stirring, until browned on all sides, about 10-15 minutes on medium. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with parsley.

Goes great with pot roast!

Pot Roast

I bought a boneless chuck roast a few days ago, thinking about pot roast. It was kind of funny that when I went through my cookbooks and looked up some roast recipes I remembered I noticed I'd always made them in January! (I tend to note in the cookbooks the dates when I first try things and sometimes who was there, as well as whatever I varied.) I read through a few recipes, noted the varying cooking times and temperatures and ingredients. What was in common was the general agreement that a chuck roast was the way to go, being more marbled throughout. And that you wanted to first brown the roast in a Dutch oven with a bit of oil, having salt-and-peppered (or is that salted and peppered?) it first. Then you either removed the roast or not and added a couple of quartered onions, then added some liquids (red wine, cream of mushroom soup, water, beef broth, or some combination) and some flavorings (Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary) and optionally some other vegetables (carrots, celery, peas, potatoes). Remove from the stove, cover, and cook for a few hours. If you like, make some gravy from the sauce. I chose to cook the carrots with the roast and cook some red potatoes separately. I also made biscuits.

Here's what I did for the pot roast:

2-3 pound chuck roast (I used a boneless cross rib roast)
1 Tbs oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 onions, quartered
1 15 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 can of red wine
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 carrots, peeled and cut in 1" chunks
1/4 cup flour
1 cup water

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or a sturdy pan that can go in the oven and has a lid. Trim what fat you can from the roast. Salt and pepper it all over, then put in the pan. Leave at least 5 minutes on a side to really brown it good. Turn and do the same thing. If it's more 3-sided than 2, brown the 3rd side as well.

Remove the roast and add the onions. If the pan is fairly dry, add a bit more oil first. Cook the onions 5-10 minutes, until soft and translucent. Put the roast back in the pot, add the cream of mushroom soup and the can of wine. (Had I thought ahead I might have mixed these together in a small bowl first but it worked out fine that I didn't.) Stir in the Worcestershire.

Cover and put in a 300 degree oven for 2 hours or so. Add the carrots and cook another 45 minutes to an hour. Remove from the oven and put on the stove. Take out the roast and vegetables. Mix together the flour and water and add to the juices. Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes or so while you slice up the roast.

Easy Fruity White Fish

I am on a "pantry challenge" of sorts, trying to use up most of what I've stocked up on previously. January is always a welcome month to cut back on the spending and I'm well-stocked with food, plus have oranges and lemons on the trees and a few leeks left in the garden. I had 3 cod filets in the freezer that I'd picked up at Costco a while back.

Desperation Dinners is one of those cookbooks I refer to over and over again. In fact, I'd loaned it to a friend tonight but when I saw those cod filets in the freezer, I remembered their easy fish recipe we'd all liked so I had to call her up!

3-4 white fish filets (I used cod)
2 Tbs butter
2 tsp lime juice
1/2 a lemon
1/2 a orange
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
bread crumbs--I used Panko (Japanese style) bread crumbs

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the juices and Worcestershire.

Put the fish in a baking dish, skin side down if you are using something with skin. Pour the butter and fruit juice sauce over them, then sprinkle bread crumbs over each piece of fish.

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes, till flaky.

I served the fish with steamed broccoli and baked potatoes, although the kids naturally did the low-carb thing, filling up on fish and then grudgingly eating some broccoli. No matter. I'll chop up the leftover baked potatoes and fry them into hashbrowns tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplants. I love the look of them and the texture and flavor. In Chinese restaurants, I love the garlic, pork, and eggplant dish that I first had 20 years ago. (Hmmm... I should probably try to make that one day.) In the meantime, I satisfy my eggplant craving at home with eggplant Parmesan.

In the past, I've fried up a bunch of eggplant at one point, then frozen the slices so I could pull out what I wanted for a sandwich or a small eggplant Parmesan.

enough oil to come to about 1/2" in your pan
1 eggplant, sliced, salted, rinsed, and dried
2 eggs, beaten slightly with 1 Tbs water
flour (3 Tbs for an average-sized eggplant) or bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
marina sauce
mozzarella, sliced thinly, cubed, or grated
grated Parmesan

Slice the eggplant in 1/4" slices. Place a layer in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Place another layer and salt it. Repeat until the slices are all salted. Let sit for 30 minutes or so in your sink. Rinse off and dry.

When you're ready to start cooking the eggplant, heat the oil over medium heat.

In a pie pan or other shallow dish, beat the eggs and water slightly.

In another pie pan or shallow dish, place the flour or bread crumbs and mix in some salt and pepper.

When the oil is hot, use a couple of forks to put each eggplant slice in the egg and then in the flour, and then in the oil. Cook a few minutes, until browned, then turn and brown the other side. Take the slices out of the pan and drain as much oil as possible, then lay on a layer of paper towels.

In a 9x9 pan, place a thin layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of eggplant. Lay or sprinkle some mozzarella and Parmesan, then repeat with another layer of eggplant, sauce, and cheese. Repeat as often as desired.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Notes: I've done this before, skipping the egg and using just flour. I've also fried the eggplant with no flour, but I prefer it with some breading of some kind. I don't really measure the cheese so have a hard time estimating what you might need.

Notes on freezing: If you want to freeze the fried eggplant slices, lay on a cookie sheet and "flash freeze." When the slices are firm, place in a freezer bag or other freezer container.

Easy Spaghetti Sauce from Canned Tomatoes and Sauce

I love a sauce made from fresh tomatoes as much as anyone, but in the winter... I refuse to buy tomatoes in the winter as they're so tasteless and of dubious texture. I grow tomatoes in the summer and would rather do without when they're like cardboard. But canned tomatoes are of decent quality to me. I have a few different sauce recipes I like, some with paste and some without. I typically use the tomato puree as my kids don't like a chunky sauce.

1 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 30 ounce can tomato puree
1 15 ounce tomato sauce
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning mix (this varies depending on the mix you use so taste it!)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup red wine

Heat the oil and saute the onion until soft. Add the garlic and cook a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tomato puree, sauce, sugar, Italian seasoning, red pepper and wine. Simmer 30 minutes or more over very low heat, stirring now and then.

I use this for spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant Parmesan, and pizza.

Fried Chicken, Asparagus, Baked Potato

I had bought real buttermilk recently. (Usually I use the powdered stuff for pancakes and coffee cakes and such.) I had also thawed a whole chicken. I was origanally planning on roasting it whole, but upon spying the buttermilk I remembered a great chicken cutlet recipe with buttermilk and thought I could do something similar with the chicken parts.

I found a good starting point in Cristina Ferrare's Family Entertaining but the plain breadcrumbs didn't do much for me, so I used the mix I posted a few days ago. I also repeated, sort of, my earlier Braised Leek Au Gratin thing with some asparagus. I microaved a few potatoes for a few minutes until just barely starting to soften, then threw them in with the chicken to finish baking.

Buttermilk Half-Fried Chicken

I cut up the chicken into the basic parts, legs, thighs, wings, and breast. I cut the breast in half, then in half again. I saved the back and neck for broth, adding to the bag I had in the freezer.

I soaked the chicken parts in buttermilk and Tabasco sauce for a few hours.

1 cut-up chicken
2 cups buttermilk
a tablespoon or so of Tabasco sauce

In an old pie pan, I mixed up the bread crumbs, roughly:

2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp poultry seasoning

In another pie pan I put:

3 eggs, beaten slightly.

I heated up more oil than I'm used to in a deep dish frying pan, about 1 and 1/2 inches deep. When it was hot (throw some flour in and see if it sizzles)

Dip each piece of chicken into the bread crumbs and roll around, then into the egg, then back into the bread crumbs. Fry the chicken a few minutes until browned and partially done. Pick up the chicken pieces with some tongs and let as much oil as possible drain back into the pan, then put the chicken pieces into a baking dish.

Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes, until done. (Cut into a dark meat piece like a thigh to make sure it's cooked through.)

Asparagus and Parmesan

Trim the asparagus. Some folks think you can snap the asparagus and it will break where it starts to be tough. Simmer the asparagus in a shallow pan until barely done. (Poke a fork through to test.) Drain and if you're not cooking right away (perfectly fine) plunge into cold water. When you're ready to cook it, place in a shallow pan and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or so.

Easy Baked Potatoes

I like my baked potatoes to have a crispy skin. I don't wrap them in foil, butter the skins, or anything. I scrub them, poke them with a fork or a paring knife a few times, and then bake. If I don't have a full hour to bake potatoes, I microwave them a varying amount of time, gauging how much time I have for them to bake.

Braised Leek Gratin

We finally had a few dry days around here so I was able to get out into the yard and begin to get caught up on the gardening chores. The vegetable garden was looking pretty forlorn, as I hadn't even torn out the old tomato plants yet. I got that done, dug up the last of my accidental potatoes (I didn't mean to grow them this year but had evidently left some in the ground last year.). These are the little fingerling potatoes and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet. My leeks are on their last legs but still seem good. I'm not sure how long I can get away with leaving them in the ground before they do something odd or just get too tough to eat. But i harvested a handful of them yesterday, trimmed them up outside where I could just throw the green tops and the root ends into the compost.



I split them in quarters, cutting almost but not quite all the way through, washed them out under running water, and then soaked them in the sink for a bit to get all the dirt out.

1/4 cup butter
4 leeks, trimmed and cleaned and cut in 4" pieces
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup broth (vegetable or chicken) or water
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Heat the butter over a medium heat until melted, add the leeks, and cook 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Add the broth, turn down the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the leeks are tender, stirring now and again.

If there is a lot of liquid at the end, take the cover off and let most of it cook away. You want the leeks to be moist but not swimming in liquid. Put the leeks in a shallow baking dish, sprinkle the cheese over the leeks, and broil a few minutes.

Unfortunately, we were rushing off the friend's house for dinner and I forgot to take a shot of the finished dish. But it went wonderfully with the barbecued salmon he made.

Boston.com / A&E / Food / Food bloggers chronicle their delicious obsessions

Boston.com / A&E / Food / Food bloggers chronicle their delicious obsessions Fun article on food blogs here. Always fun to see people you "know" (or feel like you do!).

Oven Fried Chicken

Rather than buy those packaged flavored crumbs to bake your chicken or pork in, make up your own flavored breadcrumbs. This makes enough to season two chickens, cut into pieces. Mix it up ahead of time and keep in the pantry.

2 cups dried breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning

Place the mix in a paper bag or bowl. Moisten chicken parts with water, yogurt, or milk then cover with the seasoned breadcrumbs. Lay chicken pieces skin-side-up in a baking pan and bake at 350 for an hour.

Quick and Easy Chili

Purists may not like this, but this was my impression of chili until I went to a friend's chili cookoff and saw people cooking with real chunks of meat or no meat even. Some had beans and some didn't. And the fire level! Aye! I couldn't eat much of it, although it looked and tasted delicious. But growing up chili was either something like this below or it came out of a can. (Actually, my mom had something very similar to this that was a baked spaghetti with different seasonings and the addition of chopped green pepper.)

I like to serve this with corn bread and/or rice and a green salad. This is mild but flavorful. If you like it hot and spicy, I'd increase the chili powder and add some Tabasco sauce or red pepper flakes.


1 pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1 15 oz can pureed or diced tomatoes, undrained
1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained
salt and pepper to taste
water if necessary

Condiments:
sour cream
grated cheddar cheese
chopped green onions
salsa

Brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic and then drain off any fat. Add the chili powder, oregano, and cumin. Stir and cook another minute, then add the tomatoes and their juice. Simmer on low uncovered for 10 minutes. Add the kidney beans and simmer another 15 minutes, uncovered, stirring periodically. If it gets to dry at any point, add some water. Season with salt, pepper, Tabasco if you'd like, etc.

Pure comfort food and it's great as leftovers. It also freezes well.

Paper Chef: Chicken with Sauteed Cabbage and Potatoes

My first Paper Chef entry. For those of you who don't know, this is Tomatillo's version of the Iron Chef. Ingredients are posted and you need to cook up something using those ingredients within a certain timeframe. I had a dinner party last night and was not brave enough to experiment on them, so this became my Sunday challenge. (Thank you Owen for extending the deadline for posting to Monday!)

Potatoes, cabbage, chicken, and lemon. The lemon was easy for me, as I personally think you can add a splash of lemon juice to almost anything. I thought of soup. I often make a soup of chicken broth, cabbage, kale, beans, zuchinni, and so forth that could easily fit the criteria by adding a bit of lemon juice, which improves many soups. Or a stew maybe, with more potato.

Then I thought about stuffed cabbage, typically made with ground beef and rice and I thought I might do up a chicken and potato version of the stuffed cabbage. That is still intriguing to me and I might do it another day.

Then I thought of Colcannon or Bubble and Squeak. A hash of sorts, with potatoes and cabbage. Chicken could be added. I explored a few cookbooks and a few Internet sites and found Ming's Shallot-soy Marinated Chicken with Melted Cabbage. I thought of crossing that with the Bubble & Squeak and skipping the skin on the chicken. I modified the marinade a bit as I prefer using brown sugar with Asian dishes somehow... I don't know why. Does brown sugar have any connection? I think of brown sugar as being an islnd thing... And I changed the proportions a bit.



Chicken with Sauteed Potatoes and Cabbage

5 chicken tenders
1/4 cup brown mustard
2 green onions, chopped
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs lemon juice
3 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs butter
5 potatoes, peeled and diced
salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs oil
1 head cabbage, quarter and sliced in 1/4" pieces
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
red wine vinegar to taste

Marinade for Chicken
In a food processor or blender, mix together the mustard, green onions, vinegars, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Slowly add the oil and mix until well blended. I only used about half of this to marinate the chicken so will need to do something else with the rest. I marinated the chicken tenders for about an hour, but if I'd actually made a decision about what to cook sooner, I would have happily done it all day and think it would have been improved.

Sauteed Potatoes

Peel and dice the potatoes and cook in the butter and oil. Basically, make sauteed potatoes. Remove to a dish when crispy and keep warm.

Sauteed Chicken Tenders
Add another bit of oil and add the chicken tenders. I browned the chicken in the oil and then put in a 400 degree oven to finish cooking while I cooked the cabbage.

Sauteed Cabbage
I added another tablespoon of oil and put in the sliced cabbage, stirring about 10 minutes until softened, seasoning with salt and pepper and lemon juice. If I were to do this again, I'd add some vinegar now. We came up with the need for vinegar at the table so added it then. And a bit more salt.

When the cabbage was softened, I added back the potatoes and made sure everything was heated up. The chicken was done by then. I put the cabbage and potatoes in the serving dish, sliced up the chicken, and put it on top.

In Summary
The kids had seen the sauteed potatoes, a kid-tested favorite, and had been sneaking pieces throughout the cooking session, then ran off to play before they saw the sin of my mixing them with the cabbage. Oh, the groans when they came to the table! Cabbage is a hard one to make kids like somehow. They'll eat it raw, happily, but not cooked, except in soups. From the kids' point of view, the chicken was "really good" but I ruined the potatoes by mixing them with the cabbage. They did eat some, and under no threats other than my standard: A well-balanced dinner merits dessert.

From the adult point of view, it was good. Once the vinegar was added, it was really quite good! And I'm not a big huge fan of cooked cabbage either. I like it more, perhaps, than fish, but it's not really high on "the list."

Perhaps there ought to be a "best of three" competition, where we each make three dishes using the same ingredients and then promote our favorite. Because I'm still curious about doing the stuffed cabbage. Oh--I also considered burritos with sauteed potatoes, cabbage, and chicken with some hoisin sauce. Sort of a mu shu chicken thing.

Beer Marinade for Beef

In coming up with the menu for last night's dinner party, I kept coming back to the hunks-o'-grilled-meat theme, rather than a more normal oven-based menu, given the storms we have been having this weekend. But I did end up barbecuing, first the pork tenderloin and then a top sirloin that had been marinated in this beer based marinade.

I tend to drink beer like Sam Adams or MacTarnahan's, but unlike my theory of cooking with good wine, I do use cheap beer for cooking things like Welsh Rarebit. I keep a few cans up in the cupboard that I use either in cooking or when I want to bring a beer down to the pool.

1 12-oz can or bottle of beer
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tsp (or more) chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin

You can chop everything up or put it in the food processor with the beer and liquefy it. Put it in a glass container or plastic zippered bag with the steak and marinade in the refrigerator a few hours, turning occasionally.

This was not a strong marinade but I think provided a bit of flavor. It was hard for me to tell, actually. I meant to taste it but the sight of the chimichurri sauce made me lose my senses and I instantly put a bunch on my steak. And once you taste that, you have to have more.

Avocados and Guacamole

Avocado prices have dropped and I am planning on going avocado crazy for a bit as I love them. My youngest likes to eat them with just a spoon and we both like them on turkey sandwiches. Toast and avocado spread on it like butter is a great breakfast. Sliced avocados in burritos or with tacos or enchiladas are also wonderful. But guacamole has to be an absolute favorite. It changes a bit every time I make it of course. I have no idea how authentic my versions are but they taste great. Last night I did it this way:

1 avocado
1 Tbs lime juice (or lemon in a pinch, but I like the lime better)
1 Tbs minced onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Mush it all up with a fork and serve.

Min

Chimichurri Sauce for Gus

I had some friends over for dinner tonight. We ended up with 4 adults and 6 kids, ages almost-3 to 13. The menu was:

Salsa, Guacamole, and Chips for nibblies beforehand
Pork Tenderloin
Sirloin (barbecued)
Pasta with Ricotta
Oven Fried Potatoes with garlic, cumin, and paprika
Baked Green Beans
Delicious Spinach Salad from a friend
Chimichurri Sauce
Red Velvet Cake

The chimichurri sauce was the hit of the night and I promised I'd post the recipe, so here you go, Gus!

1 cup fresh parsley leaves
4 - 5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbs lemon juice, roughly
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes

Rinse the parsley and pick out the stems. Dry or shake off the excess water, then put it all in your food processor bowl. Mince it up. Add the garlic and pulse again until minced. Add the oil, lemon juice, and red pepper. (If you like it spicy, add more red pepper. This was not at all hot with this ratio.)

Serve with sliced steak.

I saw a few variations of chimichurri sauce. Some had jalapenos, some had vinegar instead of lemon juice. A few had oregano as well as parsley. Some had cayenne instead of the red pepper flakes. Most recipes I tend to experiment a bit with, but this one is so good my only question is much garlic to add. The cloves I had tonight were huge (but not elephant garlic) so I only used 4. I probably would have used 6-8 normal sized one. Many of the recipes had salt and pepper as well, but to me it tasted great without the salt.

The Bloggies

The Bloggies are here again--with a new category for food blogs. Go vote for your favorite blogs in many categories.

Poached Salmon in Soy Sauce Marinade

I do really try sometimes, but I'm just not a fish lover. However, both my girls somehow love fish and salmon in particular. I know it's good for you. I try to buy the wild salmon which is not "CheapCooking" unless you consider your long-term health costs! But it's strange to try to cook something you don't really like. And it's not an active DISlike; it's just that there is always something else I'd rather eat. I find the best way for me to enjoy it is to bury it in something like the Tomato-Mango Salsa my mother taught me to make or even my own version with peaches. In all honesty however, I could just sit and eat the salsas with a spoon and be just as happy, if not quite as healthy.


So tonight I pulled out a few books, including Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way and Pam Anderson's Cook Smart. Well actually I pulled out a few more but those were the two I used as inspiration tonight. Two things caught my eye. First they both recommended very similar cooking methods as one of the best ways to do salmon: baking in a low oven (Jacques says 200 and Pam says 250) for a long time (Jacques says 1 hour and Pam says 45 minutes). I didn't have that much time if I was going to marinate the filets but I want to try that later. They also both had very similar marinades with some of my favorite ingredients: soy sauce and brown sugar. Jacques called for mirin and Pam used rice vinegar. Jacques used Tabasco sauce and Pam used red pepper flakes. So tart, soy, sweet, and hot all together basically. It's only recently that I've begun using my "pattern recognition" skills in cooking, something I use in my software design work all the time. The instantiation I used tonight was basically:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 green onions, sliced
a few dashes of Tabasco sauce

Marinade the salmon in this for a few minutes up to hours. I did about 40 minutes, which was long enough to get the flavor in the there. I didn't have time to do the long low bake and didn't feel like barbecuing in the rain, so I ended up poaching the salmon in the marinade basically. I put the salmon in the pan, dumped in the marinade, brought it to a high simmer, covered it, and cooked until done, probably about 5 minutes for the pieces I had. They flaked with a fork so I considered them done. But remember, I don't really like fish so how can I tell?

The kids loved it and one has already called dibs on the rest of mine (I ate less than half what they did, but that might have something to do with the great carne asada soft tacos I had for lunch, out with a friend!). She plans on making a sandwich of it, as a friend of hers had brought salmon on whole wheat bread for lunch today and she traded something for a bite.

I cannot remember what I thought of as a great lunch to take to school when I was a kid, but I can guarantee that a salmon sandwich was not on the list. I actually liked PB&J sandwiches, but neither of my kids will eat them. One will eat peanut butter in celery or peanut butter on white bread but jelly does not enter into the equation. The other is in middle school and thinks a pastrami sandwich is about as cool as you can get, although in elementary school she thought it was fun to take leftover ribs, soup, chili, etc. but apparently that does not "do" when you're 13. She'll scarf it up at home on the weekends though. She'll also eat tuna likes it's going out of style (tuna melts and soup being a favorite of hers) but will not pack that because it's "gross" to pack a tuna sandwich. Turkey or pastrami. And today she took a ham sandwich from the leftover ham.

Anyway, if you like salmon this is probably very good. And if you don't like salmon, cover it with one of the salsas.

Crockpot Rump Roast for French Dip Sandwiches

Dinner tonight:

French Dip Sandwiches
Stir-fried vegetables
Salad with Green Goddess dressing

I have a good French dip recipe, which when I searched for just now I realized I had never posted... But when I was at the grocery store they had the little packets of au jus powder stuff on sale and I decided to try it. I have to say, the flavor was actually better in my earlier recipe, but this was good. Just not great. And I'd guess the earlier version was cheaper, even with this stuff on sale. It had a bunch of soy sauce in it, as I recall.

3 pound or so rump roast or something similar
garlic powder
onion powder
salt and pepper
1 packet au jus sauce
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups or more beef broth

Put the roast in the crockpot and sprinkle with garlic powder, onion, powder, salt and pepper. Mix together the au jus powder and wine and pour over the roast. Add beef broth until it's covering most of the roast.

I cooked on high for 6 hours. I'd guess you could cook on low for 10 hours and it would be good as well. I took the roast out and sliced it as thinly as possible, then put it back in the broth until dinner.

Put slices of the roast on a French roll and serve with a small bowl of the juices.

Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables

I had a mish-mash of bits of vegetables left tonight so decided to do something with them all. I sliced them in what looked to be sizes that would cook in about the same amount of time and cooked them in a bit of butter and olive oil. When they were softened a bit, I added some chopped garlic, dried parsley, and seasoned salt. Delicious! Roughly, it was:

1 yellow zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced thinly.
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 carrot, peeled, quarter lengthwise and sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbs butter
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp (?) dried parsley
1/4 tsp (?) Lawry's seasoned salt

I might add some other herbs the next time, maybe some thyme or oregano. And a diced tomato would have been great had it been summer. Barring that, perhaps a can of diced tomatoes.

Tomorrow I may throw the leftovers in the bit of beef broth from the rump roast tonight and make up a bit of beef veggie soup.

Green Goddess Dressing

I felt like a creamy sort of salad dressing tonight, but not the ubiquitous Ranch and I didn't have much in the house in terms of blue cheese or anything. In thumbing through old cookbooks, I ran across a recipe for Green Goddess dressing that sounded good. I'd heard of it before but I don't think I've ever tasted. Not being an anchovy person, I left those out, as well as anchovy paste and I used red wine vinegar and some dried tarragon rather than tarragon vinegar. The 1:1 ratio of sour cream and mayonnaise is the same one I use for potato salad. It's a nice combination.

For the salad, I chopped up a head of green lettuce, opened a can of water-packed quartered artichoke hearts, and sliced up some black olives. The dressing was mixed up in a blender until smooth, although I had to keep poking at it. Perhaps a bit more vinegar would have been in order.

1/4 cup dried parsley
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
the green tops of 4 green onions, about 4" is what I used
2 Tbs wine vinegar
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp sugar

Blend until smooth and chill until serving time. If you like anchovies, the original recipe called for 1 Tbs anchovy paste. If you like anchovy paste, my MIL put it in the olio e alio pasta I served this with, but I left it out of there as well.

Chicken Parmesan

Dinner tonight was:

Chicken Parmesan
Green salad with Green Goddess dressing
Angel hair pasta with olio e alio
some leftover cauliflower with cheese sauce

This is somewhat similar to the chicken cutlets my ex MIL taught me to make but they're baked rather than fried, so require a lot less last-minute attention. And of course anything with Worcestershire catches my attention!

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or equivalent chicken tenders
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or probably a couple of minced garlic cloves)
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup dried parsley

Mix together the butter, garlic powder, Dijon, and Worcestershire in a dish. (I typically use old pie pans for this.)

Mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and parsley together in another.

Dip the chicken in the butter, then in the bread crumbs, then place in a buttered or greased 9x9 or so pan. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until done through.

Corn Cake with Sour Cream or Yogurt

I've made this Fannie Farmer recipe a few time in the past month. Prior to this I'd always followed the corn bread recipe here with a 3/4 cup cornmeal to 1 cup flour ratio, regular milk, 1 egg, and some bacon grease or shortening.

This one has 2 eggs, a ratio of 1:1 of the corn meal and flour, sour cream rather than milk, and melted butter. The first time I followed the recipe as far as the ingredients went but baked it at a lower temperature for a bit longer. This time, I had no sour cream so used plain yogurt instead and I swear it tasted just as good as the first time! A while back I'd made up some pancakes that called for buttermilk or sour cream or plain yogurt so I figured they were pretty interchangeable.

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
4 Tbs sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 salt
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (or buttermilk?)
4 Tbs melted butter (or other fat)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ones together in a separate bowl, then combine them quickly and mix lightly. Bake in a greased 9x9 pan for 20 minutes.

Collard Greens

I tried to do what I read is the traditional Southern New Year's dinner. I did not grow up eating many leafy greens other than spinach, chard, and I think maybe beet greens now and then and I doubt my mother ever cooked anything with salt pork or a ham hock! I do use both now and then, mainly when I'm making split pea soup. I had a bit of salt pork left in the freezer. (I use either so seldom that I freeze whatever's left.) I bought the bag of washed and cut collard greens and followed the recipe on the bag of the back with a few variations.

4 cups water
a hunk of salt pork or a ham hock
1 Tbs seasoned salt
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 Tbs onion flakes
3 Tbs vinegar
3 Tbs sugar

I cooked the salt pork in the water with the salt, garlic and onion flakes for about 40 minutes, then added the vinegar, sugar, and collard greens and simmered another 40 minutes. I realized later I was meant to serve the vinegar and sugar with the greens rather than in the water, at least according to one recipe. I still thought they tasted pretty good, but what do I know? I also read later that I was to serve them in a bowl with the "pot liquor" and dip the corn bread into it...but again, I'm obviously a Yankee so I just served the greens drained and we put butter and honey on the corn bread!

A friend used to always put a big of vinegar in a bowl of beans when he ate them. I suppose that was a similar thing. I can't remember even putting vinegar on anything other than fish and chips when I was growing up, as far as serving it at the table. My mom did a lot of pickled things though, which I've always loved, including beets, cucumbers, and even carrots sticks soaked in the leftover dill pickle juice.

The vinegar cooked down this way was hardly noticeable and perhaps the collard greens would taste even better served with the sugar and vinegar at the table. Still, greens are healthy and I'm open to trying new things. I thought these were good. My youngest was a trooper and ate the bit I put on her plate but told me she didn't really like them. I suppose the rest will show up in a soup.

Applesauce glaze for baked ham

I baked a half a ham shank for New Year's dinner, going with the southern tradition of collard greens, cornbread, and blackeyed peas as well. I've basically been happy with every ham I've baked and the only changes I make are with the different glazes. The maple syrup/brown sugar/mustard glaze is delicious but I felt like trying something new. I saw one with apricot jam and mustard that nearly got me, but then I saw this applesauce one in the Mennonite cookbook I have.

1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp prepared mustard

Bake the ham as per the directions. For the partially baked ham I had it was 20 minutes per pound. 30 minutes before it was done I pulled it out and put the glaze on it. In the past, I've not done this but this time I had seen that in some recipes you cut off the hard 'skin' or rind and some of the fat before baking so I did that. I think the flavor of the glaze got more into the ham that way and it was still plenty moist and delicious.