Gourmandery

Monday, September 10, 2007

So it’s taken a while for me to determine that we needed a set plan for meals during the week with our nutso schedule. Mondays and Fridays I cook since I work at home. Wednesdays are crock pot days since I’m at the office. We’ll have small group starting up in a few weeks, which will mean there’s no time for cooking. It’s got to be ready to eat when I get home. Tuesdays and Thursdays are leftover days.

I was going through the meat bin in the freezer the other day, planning this week’s meals, when I noticed the package of spareribs. Out they came along with stew beef. Beef stew in the crock pot is the Wednesday plan. This meant the ribs were either for tonight or Friday. Since Beau bought corn on the cob that we wanted to eat up, we had the ribs with the corn tonight.

I remembered seeing a recipe for ribs in my latest mag from Cooking Club of America (yes, I’m a member - life member, no less). In it they suggested grilling the rack of ribs standing on end - in a circle like a crown roast. This way the meat can self-baste and won’t burn because of the flame.

I made the rub in their recipe, although I don’t have smoked paprika, so I thought I’d toast it in a saute pan for a few minutes. I don’t know if that did anything except smell up my house. I took another look in my spice rack to see what I could use to supplement to get that smokey flavor and found some mesquite grill seasoning mix. I added about 1-2 tsp to the rub mixture.

I was working still when Beau started up the grill. Unbeknownst to me he got the rack on the grill before I could remind him about the rub. They had been on there for about 10 minutes when I pulled them off and rubbed in the seasonings. Fortunately, it stuck well. I rolled it back into the crown and put it back on the grill.

I then grabbed two russet potatoes, scrubbed them, wrapped them in foil and put them in with the ribs on the grill.

The plan was to grill the corn, too, but we have a small grill and there would have been no room at the point when the corn needed to go on. The ribs would have been laid out with the BBQ sauce. So I put the ears (still with husks on) in the oven to roast.

Let me tell you - that was one delicious meal. I can’t wait for the leftovers tomorrow. We have ribs and corn leftover and Beau can put two potatoes in the oven well enough (actually, he makes the best baked potatoes - he slathers them with olive oil and salt before baking). It’s a myth that you want the meat to fall off the bones - you want the meat to pull away from the bones easily when you tug on it. Our ribs were cooked perfectly - the meat was tender and pulled off the bones easily. And tasted scrumptious.

It was good, if messy, dinner. *satisfied sigh*

Monday, September 03, 2007

We went to the 11am service yesterday for a change and then to lunch with my parents afterwards. We went to Texas de Brazil (annoying music on page warning), which is new at the mall.

We love churrascaria. It was excellent. The only complaint I had was that they only offer feijoada at dinner.

Jesse was in the stroller and I was hoping he’d nap while we were there, but he likes to see what’s going on and started to fuss. So we got a highchair for him and when he still continued to fuss I fed him a little of the garlic mashed potatoes we had - he enjoyed them. And I also tried to give him small pieces of chicken. With no teeth he struggles with the chewing. He would suck on the chicken for a while to get the good flavor off and then spit out the mauled pieces. We also had fried bananas on the table, which I fed to him, too - he loved the bananas, of course.

It was a good meal and fun to be out with my parents again - we haven’t done that in a long time. I think we’ll be going back for Mom’s birthday next month - I know I can’t wait! It was yummy.

Monday, August 27, 2007

I found a pork roast in the freezer and pulled it out to thaw yesterday. This morning that puppy was put into the crockpot with McCormick’s Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork seasoning packet and the recipe ingredients on the back of the packet (ketchup, brown sugar, apple juice (because it called for cider vinegar and we didn’t have that on hand).

It’s been cooking since about 7:30am. At about 4:00pm, I’ll go shred the pork and then leave it simmering until dinner time. I plan to roast some diced Yukon gold potatoes and steam some veggies to go with the pork. Can’t wait for dinner!

Last week, I made the Italian Herb Chicken and it was pretty good, but I used boneless breasts and they were a wee bit dry. I think next time I’ll do it with bone-in pieces because I think it’ll do better.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I don’t have enough for a long post, so I’ll jumble up the random things rolling around the ole grey matter.

1. One The Lot is a disappointment in reality TV. A program that had great promise turned out to be incredibly lame. What’s a shame is that the aspiring filmmakers all had incredible creativity and talent. Of the three finalists, my favorite is Will. I love his humble and earnest personality and I love the endearing charm of the movies that he made for the contest. Second place goes to Adam, who’s Army Guy was truly inventive, a little bit creepy, and hilarious. Honorable Mention to Jason’s Sweet, which I really liked, too.

2. I went to Wegmans for a huge shop of groceries on Sunday. I mean huge to the point of needing one of their Helping Hands dudes and an extra cart. It was my first ever 2 cart shopping event - the check out dude said, “You’re a mom!” which explains it all, I guess. It’s a longer trip now, but well worth it when you can get corn on the cob for $.25/ear. I bought 4. I should have bought more.

Anyhoo, I wanted to grill them, but we haven’t hooked the propane tank up to the grill again yet and it’s been too blessed hot to grill lately. So I decided to roast them in their husks. I trimmed loose husks and the stems so that there wasn’t anything that could burn in the oven. I put them in a 350F degree oven for 20 minutes then put in the salmon we were eating with the corn for an additional 15 minutes. Both were done at the same time and both were delicious (I highly recommend Wegmans brand marinades - the one I used for the salmon was their Citrus Dill marinade and it was yummy. Actually, I can recommend Wegmans brand anything - it’s the best generic brand out there.). The corn was tender and super sweet - we added just a touch of “butter” (in the form of Smart Balance spray). I’m tempted to go buy more.

3. I finished listening to Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline this morning on my way to work. It is her typical legal thriller with a good story that kept my interest, intriguing characters, snappy dialogue, etc. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

4. My mother and I are going to check out the International Gem and Jewelry Show this weekend. I’m interested in seeing what’s it’s all about and how folks display their wares. I plan to take notes for my own display at the trunk show next month. And I’m interested in finding new vendors for beads, findings, and other supplies. I’m ready to start making more jewelry - I’ve sold a few more pieces and need to build my stock back up for the trunk show and for the holidays. Christmas is just around the corner, people!

That’s about it for now. I think I covered eveything.

Monday, July 23, 2007

I’m happy with the chosen Next Food Network Star.

I quibble with the finale because it was basically a recap show with a Survivor-like post-competition interview with the contestants and judges. No challenge for the finalists at all. It was merely a vote by the people at the end. Seems a shame - I like that last season we got a taste of what the finalists shows might be like if they were picked. I would have liked to see an Amy show and a Rory show in the final episode.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Beau got a gas grill for Father’s Day. He put it together on Monday and we fired it up to reheat some steaks - not the best but we needed to eat up the leftovers. Last night was the true test of our grilling skillz and we both were very happy with the results.

First, I prepped Paula Deen’s Grilled Potatoes. Instead of her House seasoning, I used Veggie Magic, of course. They turned out really well and were delicious.

However, the cedar plank salmon was to die for. I marinaded the salmon in Wegmans’ Lemon and Garlic marinade - sorry for the lack of linkage; Wegmans website doesn’t allow non-members to view the online store for some reason. After soaking the plank for about 2 hours, I placed the salmon on it and then put it on the grill. 20 minutes later we had wonderfully tender, moist, and smokey salmon. Yum-my.

I also steamed fresh broccoli.

All in all a tasty meal that we plan to repeat with ECD and Holly come to visit for the July 4th weekend.

Next up on the grill is most likely some kind of chicken idea - maybe tomorrow night.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

My secret ingredient to well seasoned food is Paul Prudhomme‘s Magic seasonings. I use Poultry Magic and Seafood Magic the most. I also use Meat Magic on the rare occasions that we eat beef. I’ve been tempted to buy Vegetable Magic because I’m not a huge fan of Mrs. Dash, although that’s what I use on veggies sometimes.

In the grocery store all I could get were these small little bottles of the Magic stuff, so I thought I’d check the website to see if they sold larger bottles of the Magic online. They do! Commercial size cans of Magic!

I ordered the 4-pack case: 24 oz cans of Poultry Magic, Seafood Magic, Vegetable Magic, and Fajita Magic.

(I just noticed he sells Gumbo Filé - I should have ordered some of that, too.)

Anyway, the order arrived today and man, those canisters are HUGE! I don’t think I’ll be buying any Magic for quite a while. Now I need to find someplace to store them.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

This recipe in its original form is delicious. This time I used the Spicy Peanut Bake exclusively. I must confess that I did make a change, as I usually do. We didn’t have yams/sweet potatoes so I used russets instead and they tasted very good. And I plan to tweak it a bit more the next time I do it because there was a lot of tasty sauce in the bottom of the pot that went to waste. I plan to substitute jasmine rice for the potatoes. And I plan to marinate the chicken in the first three ingredients overnight before putting everything in the pot for cooking.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Today is crockpot cooking day. I thought I’d try making the crockpot peanut chicken recipe I found at the website for A Taste of Thai. But I was missing a couple key ingredients. Undeterred, I decided to experiment with my own recipe. It has been simmering away in the crockpot for the past several hours - I’ll let you know how it turns out later.

Here’s what I did:

1 packet each from Peanut Sauce Mix and Spicy Peanut Bake
1 can coconut milk
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 medium onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 sweet potatoes, washed and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 Tbsp oil, divided
Salt and pepper
About 5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions:
1 Pour 1 inner envelope Peanut Sauce Mix, half of the coconut milk, and garlic into crock pot. Mix well.
2 Layer with onion slices and then with sweet potatoes. Brush sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Top vegetables with chicken and brush with remaining tablespoon oil. Lightly salt and pepper. Pour in the rest of the coconut milk.
3 Sprinkle chicken with 1 inner envelope of Spicy Peanut Bake Mix. Cover with lid and cook 4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low.
4 Serve chicken with accumulated juices.

I plan to make jasmine rice to serve with the chicken and I’ll make some other veggie for me since I’m not a fan of sweet potatoes.

[UPDATE (6:15 pm)]: It was OK - the chicken was a bit bland; Beau liked the sweet potatoes. I’m going to tweak it some, but we both think it’s worth repeating.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Completely unrelated side note, Beau just took Jesse into the nursery to change his diaper after feeding him a bottle. I’m enjoying listening to them talk* to each other through the monitor.

* Beau does the talking; Jesse does the cooing.

OK, back to the topic of Thai cooking. I like Thai food, but we’re on a budget so I’ve been wanting to figure out how to make things at home. While at Wegmans on Sunday, I spent some time inspecting the A Taste of Thai seasoning packets and bottles of sauce. I knew I wanted Pad Thai, but I wanted to try some other things, too. I bought the Chicken and Rice Seasoning - the packet promised a one pot meal in 30 minutes and that is exactly what we got. It was delicious! I also bought the Peanut Sauce Mix and a packet of something spicier that I’m not finding on their website found it - Spicy Peanut Bake.

It’s tempting to try one again tonight, but I don’t want to wear out our enthusiasm for the flavors, so I’m probably going to do salmon instead. That also depends on how the afternoon goes work-wise.

If you like Thai food but have been nervous to try making it at home, give these seasoning packets and sauces a try.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

This is quickly becoming a cooking blog.

The corned beef turned out really well yesterday and shall become a Speaks family tradition for all future St. Patrick’s days. Although, as Marmie mentioned last night, maybe I can try my hand at other traditional Irish meals to come up with a repertoire of St. Patrick’s day dinners. At least I know the corned beef is a winner.

Next up comes chicken gumbo. I had a great recipe from my culinary school days, but I can’t find it. So a quick hunt at FoodTV.com got me Rachael Ray’s recipe, which sounds similar enough to what I remember that I’m going to try it. I plan to put that together today for reheating tomorrow in the crock pot while I’m working.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Since I was pregnant last St. Patrick’s day, I didn’t feel inclined to cook anything, much less the traditional corned beef and cabbage for my husband of Irish descent. This year I am taking on the challenge. I’ve found a recipe that sounds good and is done in the crock pot.

Can you tell I’m loving my crock pot? I am. Because it’s the easiest cooking out there.

Anyway, I plan to set that thing to cooking on Saturday morning so that the dinner is ready for consuming after church on Saturday evening. This will be my first time eating the traditional dinner and I’m kind of looking forward to it.

I think when Tartan Day comes, I’ll try my hand at something Scottish. No, not haggis, about which I agree with Charlie Mackenzie from So I Married An Axe Murderer, “No, I think it’s repellent in every way. In fact, I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare.”

Monday, March 12, 2007

I thought I’d post the recipe for the yeast rolls we’ve been making lately. I made them yesterday using some oat flour and they turned out tasty, too.

Here’s the original recipe as published in the breadmaker user guide.

Butter-Rich Roll and Bread Dough

Add ingredients into the breadmaker pan in the following order:

1 cup water
1 large egg
3-1/4 cups bread flour
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp dry milk
1/4 cup butter
1-1/2 tsp Active Dry yeast

Follow the steps for making dough in your breadmaker. When the breadmaker has finished the dough, remove it from the pan. Cut the dough into quarters and then each quarter into 6 pieces. Shape each into a ball. Place each ball about 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover and alow to rise for about 40 minutes to 1 hour (I turn on the oven to the lowest setting before I shape the balls. When the sheet is full, I turn off the oven and place the pan in the warmed oven. The rise then only takes about 15-20 minutes. Brush with egg glaze, if desired. Bake in a 375 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Here’s Beau’s modified list of ingredients - remember to add them to the pan in the order listed.

Beau’s Yeast Rolls

1 cup water
4 Tbsp rice milk
1 large egg
3-1/4 cups bread flour
2 tsp wheat gluten
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter-flavored Crisco
1-1/2 tsp Active Dry yeast

He can’t tolerate the milk products, so he’s replaced them. When I made them yesterday, I used 2 cups of the bread flour, 1-1/4 cup of oat flour, I used oat milk instead of rice milk.

Enjoy.

[LATER]: I was trying to type this post when Jesse needed immediate attention - hello, first cold! As a result, I forgot that I planned to also post about my pot roast yesterday.

I broke out the crock pot again for the pot roast, aiming for a one pot meal to go with the rolls I planned to make. So I chopped up some onions, carrots, celery, and red potatoes to add to the pot with the roast. Over all of that, I sprinkled a packet of Lipton onion and mushroom soup mix and added about 2 cups of chicken stock (I didn’t have beef stock handy and I wanted something other than just water, although water would have been fine). I started the crock pot at high for the first hour and then lowered for the next 7 hours. The meat was beautifully tender and the veggies delicious, although I think that next time I may add them after I lower the heat so that the carrots and potatoes don’t get quite so soft. And I might add peas later, too. Anyway, it was easy and turned out great.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

I’ll try to give a more exact recipe for the non-dairy “cream of mushroom soup” that I made the other day. The measurements are a guess and the soup was not creamy enough to be a classic cream of soup. But the flavor was there and I plan to tweak it some in the future to get it more how I want.

Jen’s Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp margarine + 1 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp flour
2 small onions, diced
1 Tbsp minced garlic (I use the jarred stuff or two cloves fresh)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 small cans of button mushrooms, fully drained
1 large can of mushroom stems and pieces, keep the liquid
2 tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup rice milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the margarine and olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. When the margarine is mostly melted, add the flour and whisk to form a paste. Continue whisking until the paste is a golden color then add the onions. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent then add the garlic. Add the stock slowly, whisking to smooth out the paste, preventing lumps. Allow the sauce to thicken and add the mushrooms (including the liquid from the one can) and thyme. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the rice milk and simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Season to taste with salt and pepper to finish.

I think I’m going to try adding some red wine to it next time to add a richer flavor (I’ll add it at the front end, before the stock to cook down the alcohol - more like a classic wine reduction sauce) and I’m going to let the sauce get thicker before I add the mushrooms and extra liquid. I want a more concentrated soup for that chicken recipe. But this soup will be good as is if you like to eat mushroom soup. However, I’d probably opt for adding fresh mushrooms instead of the stems and pieces for a nicer presentation.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Beau’s Sis came to see Jesse yesterday, so I fixed a lunch for us to enjoy together. And I just realized that we never took any pictures of her with him - I’m sorry I forgot about doing that!

Anyhoo, I wanted to make my mother’s no fail chicken recipe, but it calls for cream of mushroom soup. Beau’s milk allergy prohibits cream of anything soups, so I had to figure out a way to make this chicken without milk. I’m learning to make a lot of things that call for milk without milk - it’s been fun trying to think of ways to modify my old recipes. I managed it with the mushroom soup and the chicken turned out perfectly.

For the mushroom soup, I made a roux (I used a combination of olive oil and Smart Balance with flour) to which I added onions and garlic, sauteing them until soft, and then adding chicken stock to start a sauce. When that thickened, I added canned mushrooms (draining half of the juice and using the other half for flavor) and about 2 tsp of dried thyme. I let that simmer for about 20 minutes - it thickened a bit more - and then I added a small amount of oat milk (or you could use rice milk), mostly for richness than for flavor, and I let that simmer about 15-20 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and you have a nice mushroom soup.

For the chicken, I placed two packages of chicken thighs (with skin and bones) into my crock pot (Mom bakes her chicken for 3 hours, but I didn’t want to do that with the tending to the baby and not knowing exactly what time Beau’s Sis was going to arrive). I then sprinkled 2 packets of Lipton onion soup mix over the chicken and poured the soup into the pot as well. I started it on the high setting and then lowered it after 3 hours. The chicken was perfect, tender enough to fall off the bone.

The difference between mine and Mom’s is that she uses the condensed canned soup, which is much thicker than my soup turned out to be. And my soup thinned out as the chicken fat and juices rendered into the crock pot. Mom’s resulting sauce is heartier than mine, so I need to work on a thicker soup mix, but the flavors were exactly the same. And I can’t tell you any measurements since I didn’t measure anything in the soup, except the cans of mushrooms.

I served it with rice and veggies. Beau also made roll dough, so we had some of those fabulous rolls that we had a few weeks ago, too. It was a delicious meal, if I do say so myself. And we have plenty of leftovers. Yummy!

[UPDATED (5:15 pm)]: Mom’s actual recipe is in the comments.