Make It Happen

Cherry Cobbler

I picked up some cherries at the Gwinnett International Farmer's Market ($1.99 / lb! cheap!) last weekend, but never got around to eating them during the week...

So I pitted them & macerated in Kirschvasser and powdered vanilla extract, then made a cobbler.

It's just a basic recipe: 1 Cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup milk; 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder & a half teaspoon of salt, mixed into a batter... pour over 1 stick melted butter in a 9x13 pan and top with a minimum of 2 cups of fruit.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until GBD.

Here's a closer view, so you can - in the words of another cooking friend - "Lust after my food, you cretins" :)

Well, maybe you could if the pictures were better. 

Green Chile Pork & Rice Casserole

Good, relatively cheap & easy work-night dinner:

1 large jar Ortega mild green taco sauce
1 16 oz can mild chopped green chiles

2 lbs. frozen boneless pork (whatever is on sale; I used loin)

1 cup white rice
1 small onion, chopped
ground cumin; ground coriander; seasoned salt; fresh ground black pepper; butter
2 cups grated cheese (I used Kraft’s Mexican 4 cheese blend)

Before leaving for work, mix 1 tsp. each coriander & cumin; rub it over the frozen hunk of pork. Drop into a crock pot, & pour the green taco sauce over it. Set to cook on low for 8 hours.

Upon arriving home, remove pork & chop into small pieces. Set aside. Drain off fat; reserve sauce. Heat oven to 350 degrees (F).

In a saucepan, melt 1 tbsp butter and saute the onion. Once it softens (about 1 minute), add 1 tbsp cumin and 1 tsp. coriander. Stir & cook until fragrant, about another minute. Add the dry rice; stir & cook another 2 minutes over medium low heat. Add 2 cups water; cover & cook 20 minutes.

Spray a 9×9 glass casserole with non-stick spray. Add 2/3 of the cooked rice to the bottom; spreading it evenly. Grind on some black pepper. Add a layer of cheese (about 2/3 of the package).

Combine reserved sauce with the can of green chiles; stir the chopped pork back into the sauce. Add 1 tsp. seasoned salt (I use Lawry’s).

Top the rice with the pork & sauce. Spread evenly. Grind on a little more pepper. Add the remaining rice; again spreading evenly. Top with remaining cheese & bake until center temperature hits 170 (about 30 minutes).

I like that this is relatively easy, cheap, tasty and works for a “work-night” meal.

Catching Up - kinda

Today marks the third day at home, after being gone for 12 of the prior 14 days.

First leg was up to NY (fun before work) and NJ (just work):  my boss, just prior to resigning, asked me to come up to discuss the state of the department and what more my team could contribute, since we're succeeding in our current agenda.  Of course, once he resigned, it quickly turned into a four day swamp of politics, positioning and posturing at its Dilbert-esque best...  The good part was heading up the Saturday before all the meetings began, so I had some time for fun & adventure.  I visited my milliner, so my two winter hats could be properly sized - and managed to order two spring/summer ones while I was at it!  A variety of shopping and a few lovely restaurants capped off the weekend quite nicely.

Home for a day - just long enough to rotate the business clothes out of the suitcase and replace them with casual day wear, before jaunting off to the second leg of the journey:

San Francisco with my older sister & nephew for six days.   My subscription to Zagat's  served us well, as we were able to explore several really good restaurants in between all the shopping and turista stuff we did.

We had a big time - more on that later - but by the time I came home Friday, I was glad to be coming off the road for a bit of rest.

Of course, since I'd been gone, all the houseplants needed watering - and the patio containers all needed to be dead-headed, rotated and tended (I hired the neighbor's children to keep those watered during the trips).  I had no less than eight loads of clothes to wash, and needed to replenish both personal and household stock items - necessitating trips to the bookstore, Harry's Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Tuesday Morning,  Best Buy, Bruster's, Publix and Koger.  With two weeks worth of mail to sort through, stuff to unpack and put away, and the fact I was more than ready to do a little cooking... well, let's just say I'm not ready for Monday even though it's rapidly approaching.   I did manage to make some dark chocolate chunk pecan brownies; some lamb / feta burgers (using my home grown mint, oregano & thyme; served with a lovely galangal scented jasmine rice); and a pair of Enchilada casseroles - one for now, and one for the freezer.  I also managed to finish two books, watch some TV with hubby, catch up with a girlfriend, and walk the yard surveying the frost damage a few times.

Why do I list all this out?  To console myself, really.   I can take some comfort in all that's gotten done - instead of focusing on everything NOT yet done, such as:

• Writing & posting my resume - because with aforesaid boss's resignation, I really can't afford to ignore the handwriting on the wall at work any longer
• Actually taking action on the stack of mail: pay it, file it, shred it but one way or the other - get rid of it
• Picking a realtor & listing the house, even though 60% of me thinks it's going to be another exercise in futility
• Finding that cleverly organized envelope of year end paperwork and getting over to the accountants to file taxes
• Finding stuff to purge that equates in value to the new acquistions made on these two trips

I won't apologize for being driven.  But I do need to be a little nicer to myself about it, and remember that it's really ok to pursue the stuff I want to do - like travel and dine out and read and cook and shop and visit/socialize - the non-fun stuff doesn't ALL have to get done immediately nor must it all be complete before I allow myself to do things that are strictly for my own gratification.  This isn't a "eat your supper before you get dessert" situation - it's my life. 

And I'd much rather spend Sunday evening thinking of all the fun I've had than thinking of all the not-yet-finished "gotta do" items.

Satisfying Saturday

When I got up around 6 a.m. [I know, how decadent of me!]  yesterday, it was raining lightly.   I slipped into my raincoat and walked the yard, applying fertilizer to all the shrubs and annuals.  The rain didn't last long, so I flipped on the sprinkler system to ensure the fertilizer was thoroughly watered in and wouldn't burn the plants.  Though I seldom use the in-ground sprinkler system, it does come in handy at times.   If I were designing and installing one from scratch, though, I'd zone the beds independant of the lawn:  usually, if I water at all, it's for the flower & shrub beds.   

Spent much of the afternoon transplanting again - a half dozen or so blooming annuals; newly acquired; as well as another half dozen existing houseplants.   I'm not finished entirely with the houseplant transfers (everything needs a bigger pot this year!), but it takes all the pleasure out of it if I apply a "rush, must finish" mindset towards the project.  Besides, I wanted to work in time for a bit of cooking...

Pasta with White Clam Sauce [recipe below].   Crostini with goat cheese.  A  couple of garlic-loving friends to share it with.   All in all, a nice low-fuss meal :)

Add in the fact that I found time mid-morning to get to the used book store and restock, and you've got an overall Satisfying [albeit quiet] Saturday.

White Clam Sauce with Pasta

Like most all my recipes, this is in "the order of execution" rather than formal recipe style - and proportions are approximate / adjustable to your taste.  Ingredients are in bold, to make shopping easier.

Put a large sauce pan over low heat and dump in: 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 tbspn. unsalted butter, 1 cup diced sweet onion, 3 tbsp. dried parsley, 1 tbspn. coarse sea salt & 1 tsp. Italian seasoning.  Let it cook very gently, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes translucent.  Add in two large cloves of garlic; peeled and lighly smashed (not pulverized or run through the garlic press).  Optional: add in 1/2 tspn. red pepper flakes.  Let it cook for another 5 minutes or so, and add in 1/2 cup of Pinot Grigio.

Start heating the water for the pasta.   Juice two lemons into the pan containing the onions, and toss the rinds into the pasta water.  Add 2 large peeled (but whole) cloves of garlic to the water, along with 1.5 tbspns of coarse sea salt.  Since the clam sauce is very mild, echoing the flavors in the pasta is a Good Thing.

As the water heats, continue to stir the pan with the onions & garlic occasionally, adding more wine as the sauce reduces.   Once the pasta water comes to a boil, grind fresh black pepper and add another 3 tbspn. of butter into the pan with the onions & garlic.   Add your pasta to the water pot (I used Ziti Rigati last night because it was all I had in quantity) and stir well so it doesn't stick.

Add 2 or 3 cups of  chopped clams to the onions & garlic, along with more wine, if desired, and some of the boiling pasta water.  The amount of liquid needs to just barely cover the solids in the pan.  Turn that pot off, cover & set aside, so the clams get hot, but don't become tough & chewy.

When the pasta is done to your liking, fish out the garlic cloves from the pasta pot and mash them into the clam sauce.  Drain the pasta, discarding the lemon rinds.  Toss the pasta gently with the sauce, adding more black pepper and Parmesan Reggiano to taste.

Adventures in Cuisine: Thai Black Sticky Rice

About a month or so ago, I had lunch with my girlfriend at one of my favorite ethnic lunchtime eateries - and actually managed to save room to try a dessert: Black Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk.  WOW.   It tasted much better than it sounded - and, as usual, my first thought after YUM was, "I wonder if I could make this at home?"

A little Internet research turned up a recipe; a sojourn to Harry's Whole Foods yielded the ingredients. 

Like many recipes, the one I found assumed several steps that weren't necessarily intuitive - so I figured I'd post the full step by step in case anyone else wants to make it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup black glutinous rice (also called Sticky Rice, Chinese Black Rice)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cans coconut milk (NOT Lite; NOT cream of coconut)
• 1 and 1/2 cups water
• 3 eggs
• a little coconut cream (Optional, to serve)
• Nonstick cooking spray

Hardware:

• Crock pot with lid
• 9 x 9 glass baking dish
• foil
• fork, silicone spatula
• measuring cups
• sieve or colander

Rinse the rice thoroughly in a sieve or colander until the water runs mostly clear - tossing & stirring as you rinse.  Set aside to drain.

Put the sugar & water in the crockpot and stir until dissolved.  Rinse off the lid of the canned coconut milk (for some reason, they're usually more filthy than other cans).  Dump one can's worth of milk into the crockpot, using your spatula to get out all the creamy goodness.  Stir all the liquids together until combined, and add the drained rinsed rice.  Stir again, then cover and let it cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove the lid, turn off the heat, and stir gently with a fork.  Let it sit about an hour to cool down. 

Turn the oven on to 350.  Apply a light coat of  nonstick spray to the 9x9 dish.  Crack the three eggs into the dish and whisk them with your fork until completely combined.  Rinse the second can of coconut milk off and add half of it to the eggs; whisk well with your fork until completely blended.  Using your spatula, scrape the rice out of the crockpot and into the dish with the egg/milk mixture.  Stir it all together gently until well combined - no streaks of liquid or lumps of stuck together rice.  Cover the dish with foil, and bake in the oven 30 minutes.

When it's done, let it cool at least 30 minutes.  Put a serving into a bowl & top with a little more coconut milk - or if you're feeling especially decadent, use Cream of Coconut.

Lamb 'n Lentils

About a month or so ago, Publix had whole legs of lamb on sale.  I had the butcher divide the leg up into two roasts and then three shank sections (after all, what am I gonna do with an entire leg at once?!).  I put most of it in the freezer - and today, I pulled out the shank pieces to make Lamb 'n Lentil stew. 

Around lunchtime, I put about 5 cups of water on to simmer and added the frozen lamb shank pieces (skin removed) with two tablespoons of Herbes de Provence, 2/3 cup frozen chopped onion, a bay leaf and 2 tsp. kosher salt.  After it'd been on a low simmer for 2.5 hours, I added a whole garlic clove and simmered another hour.  Since it's uncovered the whole time, I expect to end up with about 2.5 cups of rich broth... and will add water as needed to ensure it is so.

Next step will be to take the meat out and chop it; discarding the bones and straining the broth.  I'll then add some diced carrot, more onion, more Herbes du Provence and a cup or so of the french du Puy lentils.  In about 30 to 45 minutes, I should have a pretty darn tasty supper!

I plan to serve it with a little roasted garlic bread - the kind where the roasted garlic is in the dough, not spread as a topping on plain bread.

There are just some days where I like fixing things that go low & slow - allowing me to basically ignore the dish except for a few minutes in the initial prep and final stages; requiring only cursory monitoring.

Chili

I made some chili around New Years and a few people asked for the recipe, so I figured I'd post it:

My chili recipe is more of a "blend certain stuff till it tastes good" than a specific scientifically measured construction, but here's an approximation:

2 parts ground chuck; 1 part ground buffalo or pork (we used pork this time and a total of 4 lbs. of meat)
2 large sweet onions, diced
Fresh garlic, minced (I think we ended up with about 6 to 8 cloves in there)
Mild Chili Powder (maybe a half cup?)
Cumin (probably 2 tbsp)
ground coriander (about 2 tsp.)
ground ancho pepper (1 tbsp)
ground chipotle pepper (1 1/2 tsp)
2 dried pasilla chilis; snipped into small bits and take out any seeds.
Worchestershire Sauce (couple of tablespoons)
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 cans diced tomatos (32 oz size)
1 can tomato sauce (16 oz)
1 sm. can tomato paste
1 10 oz. can tomatos with mild green chilis

The technique is key, and it goes like this:
Put the meat in a heavy dutch oven / large pot; sprinkle with about a tsp. of kosher salt and 1 tbsp. chili powder.  Brown, stirring often, over medium heat until mostly not pink any more but not really cooked; drain off into a colander but reserve 3 tbsp. of the grease.  Set the meat aside and put the reserved grease back into the pot.  Add the diced onion, cook until translucent and add about half of the spices above EXCEPT not the cocoa.  Stir and cook until it smells so good you want to sneeze.

Dump in half the diced tomatos and scrape up any stuck bits from the bottom of the pan now that you have liquid in the pot.  Add the meat back in, and the rest of the tomatos; stir thoroughly.  Add in half of what is left of the rest of the seasoning - again, EXCEPT the cocoa. You should now have a total of about 2/3 of the seasonings in the pot. Turn to medium low and let it simmer at least an hour; longer is better.  Wait a minimum of an hour, then taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.  Add the cocoa at this point.  Cook at least 15 minutes before tasting for seasoning again. 

You'll know it's "done" when a) the meat is completely tender and the sauce is thick b) it smells so good you just can't wait any longer to eat it (grin).  You can add in tabasco sauce and/or more chipotle if you want a hotter chili.

Adding the seasoning in batches spread out over the cooking instead of all at once gives more depth of flavor, I think, because the spices seem to change based on how long they've been on the heat and how long in the acid from the tomatos.  I could be all wet here, but that's been my experience. 

Cornbread Recipe

For those of you who wanted the recipe, here it is... note that it's in "the order you work" format rather than a traditional cookbook layout, so you may get best results by reading it through a couple of times before beginning.

Cornbread (enough for a 12" skilletful):

Put 2 cups plain stoneground yellow cornmeal in a medium large mixing bowl.  Mix in 1 cup whole buttermilk; let stand about an hour.  This softens & hydrates the meal so it's not dry & grainy when you cook it.  If you use regular (not stoneground) meal you can skip this step, but IME the extra flavor and better texture you get with stoneground makes this worth doing.  If you let it sit over an hour, put it in the refrigerator; but you'll then need to bring it back to room temperature before continuing.

Preheat oven to 375 - 400 degrees (hotter = crunchier crusts; I usually stick with 375 when using my convection oven but YMMV)

After it's stood, mix in another cup of buttermilk and another cup or so of meal.  Add about 2/3 cup of mayonaise and two eggs; mix until thoroughly blended.  Consistency should be a little heavier than pancake batter - just barely pulling away from the side of the bowl as you stir, but still very "pourable".

Heat up 3 big tablespoons of bacon drippings in an iron skillet until it is very, very hot - popping but not quite smoking.   If you don't have any bacon drippings, you can substitute Crisco shortening, but the flavor won't be quite as good.

Stir 1/4 tsp. baking SODA into the batter.  Add 1/2 tsp. baking POWDER; stir well and pour into the hot skillet.  Slide it into the preheated oven & bake approx. 30 - 45 minutes (start checking it at the 30 minute mark).  It's done when the edges are pulled away from the skillet and a  toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Yummy Add Ins (just add one or all to the batter as you like):

Grated cheddar (about 3/4 cup)
diced green chilis (well drained if canned)
2/3 cup defrosted but not cooked frozen corn kernels

New Year's Day Dining

New Year's Day Menu

Breakfast

Steel cut oatmeal with dried blueberries; coffee

Midday Snacks

Humbolt Fog cheese on bagel crisps; spinach & artichoke hummus; pistachio nuts; marinated mussel salad

Meal

Standing Rib Roast; baked potato casserole made with bacon, cheese, black pepper & cream; french cut green beans sauteed in garlic; yeast rolls

I figured, why not start the year off with a fully planned day of foods I really like - rather than the usual day of finding something as I get hungry?  Since both the breakfast and main meal will be very hearty, all I'll need is an assortment of nibblies for the rest of the day - no need for a third meal.    I've had enough ham, collards and peas over the past week - I'd rather have a complete departure from the traditional NYD menu at this point.  I'm such a rebel.

Wine Pairing Dinner

This past Sunday,  I went to a wine tasting / dinner at a (semi) local restaurant with one of my very closest friends and her beau; we had such a good time we went ahead & reserved for next month's event.

I really enjoyed the fundamental premise: taste a variety of wines from a specific vintner - accompanied by dishes meant to pair well with the wine being served.  Both the Chef and the wine company representative gave brief discussions on each course, which made it even more interesting.

I won't be purchasing any of the wines from this month's purveyor: Francis Coppola wineries.  While not undrinkable, there was nothing remarkable - and the most the company representative could do was tell 'star stories' of his close working relationship with the famous director.  Really - what has that got to do with making wines?  Tell me about the weather the year it was bottled, and how it influenced the end product.  Or educate me on the merits of this vineyard vs. your other locations when it comes to this particular grape.  Give me something of interest to listen to that relates to the subject at hand - because if I wanted to learn that Mr. Coppola has been in Germany the past few years working on a film, I'd read a movie industry publishment.

The food, though, was well worth returning for - and the Chef discussed things like where the scallops came from, and why that location was best; how he came up with the recipe and what ideas he tried & discarded before getting this version to his satisfaction.  I very much enjoyed that - and the service was attentive but not intrusive.  So props to the Chef (also the owner) and I'm looking forward to next month!

Menu this month

Scallops in Sherry Cream Sauce - paired with Chardonnay

Pesto Filled Gnocchi - paired with Pinot Noir

Pasta alla Sofia (named for the chef's new baby; an eggplant/ricotta/tomato/basil sauce over linguine - YUM) - paired with Claret

Chicken Dolcetto (chicken breast topped with duck; tomato and mozzarella; served over caramelized macerated cherries & shallots) - paired with Zinfandel

Tiramisu -served with a dry Pinot Rose