Easter weekend

Even a kichen disaster couldn't ruin this weekend. The chance of having to work (maybe even on Easter Sunday) killed the plans we had to go out of town. And my sexy husband and I spent the whole weekend by ourselves. It was really nice.

Saturday night we watched a movie and ate smoked salmon pizza on a wonderful homemade crust.


And on Sunday we decided to go all out with our own fondue dinner. We had a cheese Fondue with Chorizo, homemade Foccacia bread, and blanched broccoli and asparagus.




And we had a regular hot oil fondue with bay scallops, lamb, and beer battered mushrooms and onions.



For dessert, we each picked a beautiful single serving dessert from Whole Foods (enter the coffee-making kitchen disaster). And, yes, we did have coffee with them.

The best really bad steaks ever

Last week I made the best really bad steaks ever. And they were really bad steaks. I bought them a while ago, buy-one-get-one-free at Giant Eagle. Then I froze them. The steaks had so much water in them that when I broiled them, my grill pan filled up with water. Um. boiled steaks. Besides that, they were so thin (and of questionable quality) that I couldn't cook them properly...with at least a little pink left inside.

These were not steaks that could stand on their own. Instead, I sliced them thin against the grain and served them with piles of caramelized onions and Gorgonzola sauce. Oh man. They were good.

For the caramelized onions, I used one softball sized onion (I could have used more) with a couple of tablespoons of butter and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, dried thyme, and a bay leaf. Then I cooked them on med-high heat until nicely browned and on medium heat until totally cooked down. It took about 20-30 min.

The Gorgonzola sauce was 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roue. Then I added 1/2 c chicken stock and 1/2 c milk (I used soy milk). After the mixture came to a boil and thickened up nicely, I added a bunch of Gorgonzola cheese. A bit of salt and a bit more pepper, and you're done.

Mmm...wonderful, nasty steaks.

The things we miss.

Before this dinner, I'd never had Shepard's pie before. But I couldn't resist the idea of beef and mushrooms and onions topped with mashed potatoes and blue cheese. I can't know empirically how this one compares with your mom or grandma or local tavern's Shepherd's pie...but I'm guessing it could stand up to anybody's. Check out the recipe here.

This masterpiece was paired with tomato and shrimp salad with horseradish dressing. Okay now, the ingredients for the shrimp and tomato salad are beefsteak tomatoes, shrimp, finely chopped celery, sour cream, juice of 1/2 lemon, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and prepared horseradish. What does that sound like to you? I'll give you another hint...

If you're still at a loss, I'm with you. I didn't get it either, but my sexy husband took one look at it and said, "Oh, shrimp cocktail as a salad!" Oh yeah! When I was making the dressing, I was thinking, "you know, this dressing has all of the ingredients of cocktail sauce minus the ketchup." And that's why it's served on shrimp WITH TOMATOES, you numb-skull. Geez.

Oh well. The salad was really good...and the shepherd's pie was really good...but they were definitely not better together than they were apart. The shrimp salad overpowered the shepherd's pie and left it kinda...well...washed out. If you're going to make these dishes (and I recommend that you do), I'd make them as separate meals. The shrimp salad would make a great salad meal in the summer when you don't want to use the stove or oven.

A really nice pat on the back

It feels really nice when people try stuff I recommend.

Last year...or even before that?...Bittman introduced me to this awesome technique for broiling (check out the link for a video). Basically, you put a cast iron skillet in the oven and heat it up until it's screaming-hot, as hot as your oven will get (mine was 500 degrees...I wonder if this is why my oven broke?). Once it has reached that temperature, you put whatever meat or veggie you are broiling in the screaming-hot skillet and turn the broiler on high. The skillet side sears really nicely because it's screaming hot; the broiler side sears really nicely because it's screaming hot; and the middle actually cooks (but doesn't overcook) because the whole oven is screaming-hot. It works fantastically and produces a lot less smoke then searing steaks on the stove-top. Plus, the actual broiling only takes about 6 minutes for a nice steak, less for fish.

Anyway, just this morning, a good friend from Chicago sent me this picture to tell me that he tried the technique and it worked wonderfully for him as well.

If you have a cast iron skillet or any skillet that can stand 450 or 500 degrees in the oven, you should try it too!:)

My friend from Chicago: "I made a feta-crusted steak for dinner a week or so ago and I used the cast iron skillet in the oven method you told me about a while back. It worked wonderfully. We had a feta feast because it was buy-one-get-one at the store; feta-crusted steak, feta and chedda' mashed potatoes, and a spinach salad with red onions and of course, feta. Anyway, I thought you'd appreciate it."

If only my sexy husband liked feta....

Seeking balance

The next recipe my sexy husband and I decided to try from Rachel Ray's cookbook was BBQ spiced chicken, salsa salad, and pumpkin-chipotle polenta. My sexy husband doesn't completely agree, but, to me, this dinner was the perfect balance. With lean chicken, fresh veggies, and pumpkin/corn this meal struck a classic nutritional balance. It also had the perfect balance of textures: meaty/chewy, mushy, and crunchy. Additionally, the flavors complimented really well. I thought that the three parts of the meat were better together than they would have been separately.

I totally loved this meal....everything about it...how the lime in the salad ran into the spicy chicken polenta...how the BBQ rub flavored the meat why better than any BBQ sauce. I just loved it.

Check out the recipes here: BBQ Spiced Chicken, Salsa Salad, and Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta

The version in my cookbook didn't include the pineapple in the the salad. That's the only difference.

Oh! And, by the way, if I hurry I really can make everything in close to 30 min.

when stuff goes wrong

I apologize for my absence. I've had a lot to write about...a fantastic northern Italian cream spaghetti with beans I made a couple of days before my dad came (see the recipe here)...my dad's visit (and how my oven broke the night before while I was making the granola and I had to change my plan and make this awesome braised salmon on Saturday night)...some really good veggie enchiladas I made for my mother-in-law's birthday...and the awesome authentic Hawaiian menu I planned for my mother's-in-law's family gathering last weekend (they do a different ethnic theme every year and incorporate different traditions and menus). But I can't post any pictures because my home computer is broken. I promise to catch up someday...but it won't be soon. This is the Christmas season, after all. Merry Christmas!
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Oh...and to my aunt...Tyler Florance (of the food network) recommended this mini-menu for Christmas parties, and I immediately thought of you (I'm pretty sure you could use a good chicken stock with a little vinegar for the sauce instead of white wine if you want).

Center-cut tenderloin roast (fillet Mignon as a roast) with blender Bearnaise sauce
Bacon and brussels sprout hash

I'd add a soup of some kind...maybe a creamed winter squash soup (instead of the traditional sugared up yams)...some rolls...and a salad...and call it a feast.

I don't know if I can help you with the cookies...I have no patience for cookies...but I do really like baking refrigerator crescent rolls with a bit of dark chocolate in it for parties. That always goes over really well.

I hope that helps.

Lucky me

My sexy husband made me dinner. Fried chicken with thyme, rosemary, and real Parmesan cheese served on top of pasta with a vodka cream sauce with asparagus covered a lemon mint cream sauce. Lucky me!

45 min turkey

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year...but if I was, and I was roasting a turkey, I would do it this way. Don't worry. It's not deep-fried. Oh please won't someone try it and tell me how it goes? Please?

Pantry pot pie

There are a few things that I always, or at least almost always, have on hand: onions, potatoes, carrots, and frozen peas. Add some stuff I happened to have this time...turnips and cabbage...and you have yourself a really yummy vegetable pot pie.

I started with Mark Bittman's pie crust from "How to Cook Everything":


1 1/8 c flour
1 stick unsalted butter (since I only had salted butter on hand, I used that and nixed the salt)
1/8 t salt


Whirl in the food processor until the texture of corn meal (about 10-15 sec).

Dump out into a bowl and add 4 Tbsp cold water. Use a spatula to bring everything together the best you can and then dump onto plastic wrap. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap, and put into a flat ball. It will be REALLY crumbly...it might not even hold together well. That's okay. It will be the most flaky pie crust you've ever had. Put into the freezer for 10 min and then roll out between the plastic wrap. Turn out into pie crust. If yours falls apart like mine always does, just patch it up. No big deal.


To make a double crust pie, do the above twice.


For the filling, I chopped up a medium onion, a hand full of baby carrots (that's what I had), a potato, a turnip, a bit of cabbage, and about a half handful of chopped herbs. I also included some thawed frozen peas. For the sauce, I sauteed about 1 1/2 T butter with 2 T flour and some red pepper flakes. Then I added 1 c chicken stock and somewhere between 1/2 and 1 c half and half and cooked the mixture until it thickened.

Of course, the sauce and filling goes in between the pie crusts. I vaguely remember that maybe I was supposed to cook one crust for a bit before I filled it, but I didn't. I cooked the whole thing for an 50 min at 350 degrees and then an additional 15 min at 425 degrees until the top was nicely browned (thank you, butter!).




Oh yeah. Flour with butter...with veggies with butter and flour and cream. :) I have a weakness for pot pie, and this was the best one I've ever had.





Just look at this flaky crust!


I served it with an extra portion of salad to make me feel better.

Breaking the routine

I hate routines. Some people fear change. I need change. Without enough recipe variety I get the food doldrums, and, for me, the food doldrums quickly turn into the real doldrums. After all, if I can't get excited about food, there probably isn't really much that I can get excited about, and what is life without a little excitment?

So, how, you may ask, does a person who repeats recipes more than a few times a year only in a handful of rare instances get the food doldrums? I don't know. But lately I feel like I'm recycling all of the same stuff over and over. Maybe it's not the exact same meal but it's the same flavors and cooking techniques (I would be a terrible ethnic cook. I have an Asian stir-fry a few times a year and think it's same-old, same-old).

In an effort to introduce a little excitement, I'm going to attempt to cook some new stuff--recipes I've never tried that (hopefully) introduce some new flavors. But I gotta tell you, when I looked through my cookbook almost every recipe that stood out to me required the use of my broken oven (which may be the true impetus for my food doldrums).

Recipe #1 was recommended to me by a co-worker: tomato-basil feta turkey burgers. The "recipe" is very simple. But (believe it or not) I don't make real meat burgers very often, and I'm not sure I've ever used ground turkey (I fear lean meat. I have this idea that lean meat is too easy to dry out).


So...here it is: tomato-basil feta turkey burgers with smoked paprika (you can read Mark Bittmans' column from last week for this idea) aoili.

Around 1 lb ground turkey
1/2 container tomato-basil feta (I got mine at Giant Eagle)

Mix. Cook like a burger. I didn't think the turkey would shrink up because it's really lean, but it actually did. My burgers lost so much water, I felt like I was simmering them (my friend warned me about this).

Serve with smoked paprika aoili (a generous 1/3-1/2 cup mayo with 1 grated clove of garlic, a splash of lemon juice, and a healthy dose of smoked paprika) and lettace.


These were really good. I highly recommend them. I would make them for company. My sexy husband loved them (even though he dislikes feta). But were they different enough, inspired enough, to get me out of my doldrums? Not really...but almost! However, even if you don't try the turkey burgers, try the smoked paprika in something... anything... just smell it. It smells inspired. Perhaps it will be enough to get you out of your food doldrums.

BBQ chicken week

This is one of those weeks...when nothing I make seems really that interesting. I may not be recycling lots of recipes, but I feel like I'm recycling flavors a lot. My budget make-up week is nearing an end, and what have I made? Well, let's see. Last Thursday, I made the gingery chicken and I rice for my grandparents with greenbean with carmelized onions. Friday I made the above pictured bbq chicken (the key to good bbq chicken, by the way, is wating until the chicken is half-cooked before you put the bbq sauce on it. That way, the sugary sauce doesn't burn up before the chicken is done. Then after, you put the sauce on, you turn and baste it frequently. I promise, it will taste like bbq even though you didn't marinate it.) with acorn squash and leftover chicken and rice. Saturday...oh my goodness!....we had bbq chicken again! No, wait. The chicken with acorn squash WAS Saturday. What was Friday? I don't even remember. Sunday, we ate at the fam's. Monday I went shopping until late, called my sexy husband to see what he wanted to eat...bbq chicken and mac and cheese. Yes. Really.
Man, oh, man. I had been craving bbq flavor, but I need to try something else. This is getting out of hand!

A visit from the long lost grandparents

My grandparents came to visit me last night.

I love my grandparents, and I know they love me. But I don't see them/speak with time/hear from or about them very often. When I was a kid we would travel to Maine every summer and spend a month or so at my grandparents' very rustic and secluded cabin on a lake. Since I'm the only girl in my generation of family, I would set up a small dome tent on the porch in this sort of fenced off area. It was worth sleeping on wood. It was my own space. No one was allowed in without my permission. Every day I would sweep out my tent and tie the window flaps back like real curtains. Then I would have my cousins "over" to play cards, but they had to take their shoes off at the door. The cabin didn't have electricity or plumbing. It had an outhouse that my grandma called the "Patrick Henry." It also had a gas stove and an elaborate ice box with 3 doors that my grandma would fill with ice from the trading post down the road. Every day my grandma and I had toast for breakfast, toasted in the broiler with one side burned and the other side completely white. The last time I went to the cabin I was a looking forward to my senior year of high school.

As is likely true of most grandparents, mine haven't changed much over the years. My grandma still eats toast, fat free small curd cottage cheese, fruit, skim milk, and the same powdered drink mix for breakfast every day. My grandpa, though normally very quiet, still likes to tell stories and jokes in the evening.

My grandma has had food controlled diabetes for over 30 years, and she has been on the same extremely particular, and perhaps outdated, diabetic diet for every single day of those 30-some-odd-years. Cooking for her is a challenge (for someone like me who would feel slighted if my grandma had to whip out her own food to meet her needs). She is very particular. Peas, beans, corn, rice, potatoes= starch. Meat, nuts= protein. Thinking ahead, I was pretty sure she eats something from every food group at every meal, and I know she has to eat each meal during a particular window of time which means that I have to have the dinner ready fast. On top of all that, my grandparents eat very bland food (my grandma recently told me that a friend of hers made the best chili, and it was so easy! 1 can tomato soup, 1 lb ground beef, 1 can kidney beans, and 1 tsp chili powder- yuck!). At first I thought that a chicken/rice/veg. soup would be perfect. Good-- but not especially packed with bold flavors. Then I was worried that soup would make it impossible for my grandma to get the exact right ratios. Okay...so a roast? I could cook a roast in the crock pot insuring that dinner is ready during "the window" and allowing her to choose the ratio of protein to veg to starch. But grandma also has cholesterol problems, so I don't think she eats much red meat.

Perhaps not surprisingly to you... his timing was impeccable...a settled on Mark Bittman's recipe for this week. It's a whole chicken boiled in salted water with garlic and ginger. As described in the recipe, I then made rice with onions and ginger and the stock from the chicken and served the chicken, shredded, over the rice. After conferencing with my mom, I decided to serve it with green beans (grandma doesn't eat much salad). Meat--starch--veg. Mom said she might bring her own milk, cottage cheese, and bananas. If she needed something else, I'd have to go to the store.

I made the chicken the night before, so all I'd have to do is make the rice and green beans.

Success! The only thing I changed is I didn't make the dipping sauce. I put some grated ginger in the rice instead. I don't like my ginger too overpowering, so I only used about 1/4 t. (Oh! And grandma brought her own milk and cottage cheese. We had plain strawberries for "dessert" cause that's what they do.)

This served more than 4...that's for sure!

On Rachel Ray

I know. She's annoying. But she actually does make really good food, and her show is on when I get home from work...besides that, the concept is quite cool. She makes a whole meal "from start to finish" including all of the chopping and baking and pulling things out of the cupboard and refrigerator during the 30 min show. So...if I were as good a multi-tasker as she is...I should be able to make the "delicious and healthy" meal in 30 min too (though it would probably take me a bit longer).

I started watching her show last year...in spite of her. Her use of the made-up terms like "yum-o" and "E.V.O.O" (extra virgin olive oil...watch out, Rachel Ray brand EVOO is available at Meijers) and her over-excitement drove me crazy. But I like food and making food, so I watched and made a few of the recipes.

I don't watch her show as much as I used to (I don't get home from work as early, and she uses a lot of reruns), but I've changed my mind about Rachel Ray. I think she's a lot like me. She really genuinely enjoys cooking and talking to people about food (even though she's an untrained cook). When she comes up with a recipe that really is great she gets a little too excited (maybe because she's still suprising herself), and she really wants you to try it and like it...so she lets words like "yum-o" and "D-lish" slip. Who can blame her? I mean, seriously, what untrained chef wouldn't be excited if she came up with a great meal like Indian Spiced Chick Pea and Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup, Spiced Lamb Chops with Peppers and Onions and Garlic-Mint Couscous that the average at-home cook could make in around 30 minutes?

My favorite meal from Rachel Ray:

Baked Fish Dugler-ini and Angel Hair Pasta

with Green Beans with (carmalized) Onion

Traditional Picnic Food

Now that I've started this blog, I've been waiting and waiting for an occasion to write about. And I thought I had my chance: my younger brother's birthday. I usually go up to Toledo where he lives and cook for him for his birthday. This year he asked me to come up and cook a BBQ for his friends. Cool. My brother, Steve, is 23, and enjoys a good time. He and his friends spend a lot of time at bars (though, they don't usually go for dinner) and hangout...which also never includes food. However, this BBQ was to be held at my mom's house...so it would most definitely only include food and limeaide.

I started coming up with ideas right away. Maybe a bar food menu with grilled wings, potato wedges and pretzels with beer cheese... Or maybe he'd want something light and summery like BLT's on baguettes with watermelon and potato salad. So I called him up and asked him what he wanted. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Really? Not even hamburgers and brat's?...just hot dogs and hamburgers? Yes. "His friends won't care." Okay, so traditional picnic food (sometimes I forget that a lot of people really just like the classics). I wasn't sure how adventurous his friends are so I kept it to simple guy food with some small twists.
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Blackened hamburgers
(I couldn't bring myself to make hot dogs...sorry)
For every one pound of meat, I add 1 small finely chopped onion and about a Tbsp of steak sauce (for extra juiciness). I like to make big, thick patties ( about 3 per pound). Then I coat the patties in a mixture of black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and mustard powder. I try to grill them medium-medium well. I don't want to get sick , but I don't want to eat hockey pucks either. The key in cooking them is to get a nice sear on the spices. If the heat is to low and the spices sort of bake in, the burger is WAY too spicy. If the spices "blacken" a bit without totally charring, the flavor is fantastic!

If you really want to have some fun, grill some fresh pineapple for these burgers and serve them with teriyaki sauce. Oh man!

Taco Salad
(Mark's favorite salad. I usually make it as a main dish.)
1 pound hamburger meat, browned and seasoned like taco meat (I use chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. You can also use one of those taco seasoning packets)
1 head lettuce, chopped (something that is really nice and crisp)
1 large tomato, chopped
1 package shredded cheese
1/2 bag of Doritos, broken up
Italian salad dressing to taste

Mix it all up. I wait to put in the wet stuff and the chips until just before serving so it doesn't get all mushy.

Hormel Chili Cheese Dip
(This is my most requested party food outside of Welsh Rarebit, and it's so easy I find it embarrassing to admit that I "make" it)
3 cans Hormel Chili (This is a canned chili product. I prefer the texture of the vegetarian.)
2 blocks cream cheese

Melt everything together in the microwave, and serve with tortilla chips
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As it turns out, Steve's friends aren't used to eating at their BBQ's, I guess. Because none of them came hungry. In fact, none of his friends, except his girlfriend and one other guy, even ventured into the house to be tempted by the food (our family had finished eating when they came). Oh well. Steve really appreciated it anyway. And, my mom's husband Matt loved it. He ate two heaping plates full.

My occasions

As you may have guessed from the description, this blog is going to be about food.

At least for me, food needs to be truly economical (contrary to what the food network might say, $10 a plate is not economical when you're serving a bunch of people), impressive to the average person, and perfect for the occasion. That's what I like best, occasion cooking (usually I try to keep it safe while getting people to try new things that they would naturally love).

For instance, earlier this summer I had to cook for Mark (my husband), his fam, and Chad (his best friend). They were going to be working all day on an extensive new brick patio at Mark's parent's house, so they needed something hardy. But Mark's mom warned me that Dad doesn't like to take long breaks while he is focused on a task, so it couldn't take a long time to eat. Mark likes meat (I'm sure Chad does too). To Mark "hardy" means meat. Mark's family would prefer not to eat meat (they are mostly vegetarian). In fact, hardy for them might mean a huge salad with beans. So what do I serve?

As you can see, the blog will really be about my life and the events of my life but also the food I cook to go along with those events and those people who will be eating it.

In case you are wondering, after hours of thought (cause that's what I do) I decided to serve pasties (savory hand pies.) and a basic greens salad. The pasties were perfect, if I do say so myself.

I used this recipe only I used half whole wheat, half white flour. I also doubled the recipe...it made almost 30...we ate them all (5 adults, 2 kids). I was hoping to have leftovers because I know that they freeze well, and my oven is out of order (I made them at the fam's house). Oh well. Everyone was very hungry.
Instead of rolling out all the dough really thin, the recipe recommended rolling the dough thick (1/2 inch) and cutting 2 1/2 inch circles (I don't have cookie cutters so I used a small juice glass) and then rolling them thin one by one as you fill them. That method worked really well for me (and I'm terrible at rolling out dough). It also helped that the dough isn't crumbly and delicate like normal pastry dough...it has baking powder in it, and you actually kneed it.

I filled some with leftovers of corned beef and cabbage (with potatoes and carrots) that I had at a Irish pub the night before and some with potatoes, carrots, and turnips (raw with half a small onion, minced and salt and pepper...no liquid). I liked the vegetarian ones best. The turnips gave them a really good flavor. In short, they were fantastic...not as much work as I was expecting... very economical (1 potato, 1 turnip, and 1 carrot made almost a whole batch)...and very impressive. I'll have to make these again when my oven get's fixed (it's been broken since March).