S'mores

A childhood favorite, s'mores, a contraction of "some more." Graham crackers, chocolate, and roasted marshmallows.

I brought the fire pit out this evening, the first time for the year. Our weather has been too cool and wet until now. Our fair opened today and with the fireworks they shoot off tonight, it seemed like good timing. We lit the fire when we lit the barbecue for burgers. By the time we were ready for dessert, the coals were ready for roasting marshmallows.

There's always an "intellectual" discussion about the relative merits of coals versus flames. The girls are all for flames, not appreciating the slow roasting of the perfect marshmallow, tinted evenly brown, soft inside and slightly crisp outside. One girl is happy to catch her marshmallow on fire, letting it burn until the outside is blackened then blowing it out. Sometimes she eats the whole thing then and there. Other times, she eats only the outer cooked skin, peeling it off and popping it into her mouth, then roasting the new outer layer.

Me, I go for the slow roast, holding the skewered marshmallow over coals only (no flames!), turning it until it's evenly browned on the outside and melted and soft on the inside. For the perfect S'more, don't buy the big huge chocolate bars because the chocolate is too thick. Use the regular sized bars and break off a square and lay it on half a graham cracker. Take another cracker and lay the marshmallow in between the two crackers, pressing down and pulling out the skewer, leaving the marshmallow to partially melt the chocolate and its pressed against it. Squeeze down a bit, to cause the marshmallow to spread out over the whole half cracker, hopefully taking a bit of chocolate with it.

mm....

If you're not into graham crackers, you can always just eat the creme de la creme, sticking a bit of chocolate directly inside the roasted marshmallow and then popping the whole thing into your mouth. The taste of the sweet, hot, cold is great. Adding the crunch of the cracker to contrast against the smooth marshmallow is the ultimate for me--but your mileage may vary.

Springtime Cake

As much as I cook mostly from scratch, I will admit to picking up cake mixes when they go on sale for $1 or less. The kids can easily whip up a cake with them, the flavor is good, and to me the price is reasonable at $1. Plain cakes get a bit boring and predictable however and there are some fun recipes that start with a cake mix but will leave any guests begging for the recipe. Here's one with mandarin oranges and pineapples in it that is moist and looks quite special with its mound of white frosting. The fruit adds a lot of moistness and flavor.

For the cake:

1 box yellow cake mix
10 oz can mandarin oranges, undrained
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil

Beat all the ingredients together on high for 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl now and then. Bake as directed.

Cool the cake completely before frosting it or you'll end up with a huge mess!

For the frosting:

15 oz can crushed pineapple
9 oz container whipped topping (like Cool Whip)
small box (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding

Mix the frosting ingredients together on medium until well blended, about 2 minutes. Spread it over the cake. Refrigerate the cake if you're not serving immediately.

How do you run out of rice at a Japanese restaurant?

My daughter graduated from 8th grade this week. I was going to take her out to dinner to celebrate and she wanted her dad and stepmom to come too, so we all went together. She chose one of those "hana" type Japanese restaurants, where you pay for the cooking show as well as the food. What the heck, I figured, although I hadn't been to one in 20 years. Her dad's taken her there for a few celebrations and she enjoys it.

The first thought that things were not going well was when we were still standing and waiting for our table, 20 minutes after the reservation. The second clue was when we weren't seated until 30 minutes later. But the final clincher was when the guy is doing the knife thing and spinning the egg around, flipping it up and down, breaking it open on the griddle (for lack of a more accurate term) and then frantically looking around for the rice. He whispers to the woman putting something else on the tray and she whispers back and scurries into the kitchen. The egg's finished cooking but the rice that was destined to become fried rice is still missing. He cleans the grill off and starts on the vegetables, periodically gesturing and whispering, then smiling apologetically at us.

The food we got was excellent. Between us, there was two kinds of steak, shrimp, and calamari. But rice would have been nice with it! We decided it must be the low-carb hana style of cooking. They offered us desserts or more drinks in exchange so a measly single scoop of green tea ice cream was served up all around.

Then the bill came, but the credit card receipt was $5 and some cents off from the first receipt. It turns out that was the two orders of fried rice we didn't get. It was nice they decided not to charge us extra. ;)

A high priced meal in my book but a fun evening in my daughter's book, I'm sure. In a true "CheapCooking" fashion, she saved some of her steak for lunch tomorrow, planning ahead.

Oh, and the table next to us got rice just as we were paying the bill. I'm still totally befuddled about how you could run out of rice. It comes with every bloody meal at this place. It's not like some folks are choosing potatoes or pasta instead!

Thanks to USA Today

Just wanted to acknowledge that CheapCooking.com (the mother site of this blog) was chosen as a "hot site" by USA Today. Lots of traffic on the main site today, plus 40 new subscribers to the newsletter.

Sauteed Onions

Whenever I barbecue a steak, I always saute some onions to go with it. This is so easy to do but adds so much flavor! Peel the onion, cut it in half, then cut those halves into slices. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan over a medium-low heat. You want to cook the onion slowly. There's almost nothing worse than the smell of burned onions so watch the heat! On the other hand, if you have it too low it will take forever, although they will still taste good.

Stir the onions periodically. I like to season with a bit of garlic salt. Sometimes I add minced garlic but usually I've got enough other dishes to deal with that I "cheat" with the garlic salt. But they're also good with plain salt or even unsalted. If they get softened before your steak or burger is ready, just turn the heat way way down (or even off) and let them sit.

If you're making burritos, follow the same general directions but add in some sliced red and green peppers and definitely add the minced garlic.

You could also use these to top a baked potato, which I usually make to go with the steak. Sometimes I almost think I could just eat the baked potato and sauteed onions, as long as I had butter and sour cream on that potato with the onions. But what tastes best is a bite with a bit of everything: steak, potato, onions, butter, and sour cream. Mmmmmm!

Soy-Mustard Marinade for Pork

While at the grocery store looking over the meats, three butchers were ganging up on another butcher.
"You don't barbecue pork chops?"
"No. I mean, I never have. I just cook them on the stove."
"You have NEVER barbecued pork chops?"
"No. Why? I mean, I just learned to fry them in a frying pan."
"Oh my. I don't know. I think we're going to have to revoke your butcher status."

It got me thinking. I've been guilty of sauteing pork chops for quite some time. I do have a great way of cooking them, always moist and good, which I got out of Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I also have a good recipe for Applesauce Porkchops. When I need the chops to sit for a while in the oven and still be good, I like this baked chop recipe. But I couldn't remember the last time I barbecued them somehow!

The first thing I think about when I'm barbecuing is marinating, somehow. I was going to make my old standby marinade for pork tenderloin, even though I was cooking pork chops last night. But I didn't have any fresh ginger so I added some Dijon mustard instead and a few chopped scallions. Mmmmm. Delicious! The msstard added just a hint of a bite.

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup (?) Dijon mustard
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs oil
2-3 green onions, sliced

I marinated the bone-in pork chops all day in this, turning the bag a few times.

Got a hot fire going on the grill and then turned over the actual cooking to a guest. I think he did about 5 minutes on each side, then turned the grill off for a few more minutes. They were perfect! Flavorful. Tender. Delicious.

Marinated Chicken Thighs

Shopping the sales these days and chicken thighs (or legs) were on sale for 99 cents a pound. I picked up a package this afternoon, as well as some other meats of which I might write later this week if I do anything interesting. Life has been busy and I've not been experimenting, but relying on tried and true recipes. Those seem less interesting to write about, but I remind myself that my original goal with this blog was just to record what I cooked for a year and help me find those recipes again!

I marinated the chicken thighs in:

1 cup Italian dressing (your own homemade or store-bought)
1/2 cup white wine
3 garlic cloves, crushed and minced

Then I barbecued them (about 25 minutes), having finally refilled my propane tank. Note to self: NEVER try to fill a propane tank on Memorial Day weekend. It ain't gonna happen.

Served with rice, cooked carrots, and garlic bread.

I actually bought the "max pack" of thighs and marinated the whole bunch. Only cooked half of them tonight, so I threw the rest in the freezer.