Holiday Overload

I never thought that these words would EVER cross my lips, but......I am so sick of food right now! I am thinking salad for the next three weeks, at least!

The Purge

No, I am not talking horror flicks. I am talking the periodic refrigerator purges where you reach way to the back of the refrigerator to find all sorts of things that need to get used up or thrown away. This purge contained all sorts on things from the last couple CSA shares that were relatively foreign to me. Kohlrabi and Celeriac were at the top of the list. I had NO idea what to do with this stuff and most of the online recipes were either roast or mash. I really didn't want to do either since I wasn't sure if I even liked these things. I started with the kohlrabi - I peeled it and gave it a taste - it tasted similar to raw white potato. I could work with that. I peeled the celeriac - whoa - very strong scent of celery. So, with the potato taste and celery smell I naturally thought I would make soup out of this stuff. I had all sorts of other odds and ends laying around that would lend themselves well to soup. What I ended up with was a banging vegetable chowder that I am hoping will freeze well (fingers crossed) so I can enjoy it through the coming winter months. The stuff was seriously delicious and now I am much less intimidated by those strange vegetables. In addition, this soup is easy to make as a vegetarian or even vegan soup with a few simple swaps and omissions. To make more hearty you could add leftover ham, chicken, bacon or any combination of the three!

Creamy Vegetable Chowder

2 TBS bacon fat (can sub veg oil to make vegetarian/vegan)
1 leek sliced
3 cloves garlic peeled
1 medium red onion peeled and cubed
3 small russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 small kohlrabi peeled and cubed
2 small celeriac (celery root) peeled and cubed
1 can chicken stock (can sub vegetable stock to make vegetarian/vegan)
1 can water
1-2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 C half and half (omit to make vegan)
4 oz marscapone cheese (omit to make vegan)
3 ears fresh corn kernels or 1 can corn
3-4 small carrots sliced thin
1 generous cup fresh spinach chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

A bacon fat/vegetable oil to a stock pot over medium heat until hot.
Add garlic, leeks, and red onion and saute until soft.
Add potatoes, kohlrabi, celeriac, water and chicken/vegetable stock, bouillon cubes
Place lid on pot and simmer until vegetables are soft
Once vegetables are soft use an immersion blender to puree until smooth.
Add half and half and marscapone cheese and stir to incorporate fully
Add corn, carrots, and spinach and cook until carrots are soft.
Add salt and pepper to taste
Serve hot.

Holy Sh*t, It Worked!!!

Have you ever had that feeling after cooking up an experiment? This is exactly what happened to me last night. With the onslaught of raw, wet weather that we have been having, I have been cooking some pretty rich dishes; beef stroganoff, Sunday gravy, etc. Hubs declared he wanted something a little lighter and we agreed on a grilled chicken salad of some sort. Then the rains came, and by rain I mean a fucking monsoon! Thunder, lighting, torrential downpours, local flooding; it was horrible. Needless to say, there was no way I was grilling in that. So, I started thinking....what do I have on hand that he likes and will be easy for me to prepare???? hmmmm???? I remembered I had a bunch of homemade pesto in the freezer. Hubs goes gaga for pesto. I also had some plum tomatoes that were starting to shrink so those came in to play. Tomato and pesto go together like bullets and guns. Then, I decided on a casserole to make things easy for me. I started looking at online recipes and discovered that most of the chicken and rice casseroles used quick cooking rice. I only have regular rice so those recipes were out. We had pasta with that Sunday gravy I mentioned so, subbing the rice for pasta wasn't even a consideration. After reviewing a few more recipes I hatched up a plan and I have to tell you, even I was surprised by how well it turned out. I liked it even better a few hours later when it was room temperature (I was nibbling on the rice after my dance class). Here is what I did:

Pesto Chicken and Rice Casserole

2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, filleted in half lengthwise (you should have 4 pieces)
1-2 Cups pesto sauce
2 Tbs chicken base
2 1/4 C water
1 1/2 Cups white rice
1 C half and half
3-4 plum tomatoes sliced 1/4 in thick
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese

To begin add water, chicken base and about 2 Tbs of pesto to a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and add rice. Give a quick stir, put on the lid and turn off the heat. Let stand until water is absorbed. Rice will not be completely cooked through, that is what you want.

While the rice is steeping, marinade the chicken breasts in the remaining pesto sauce. I just throw everything into a ziploc bag and mush it all around to ensure everything is well coated.

At this point, you can let the chicken and the rice hang out as long as you want until it's ready to get cooking. I left mine for a couple hours.

When ready to assemble, preheat your over to 350F. Spray the inside of a casserole dish with oil. You want your dish to be large enough to lay the breasts out flat. It is ok if they are squished together as long as they are not layered on top of each other.

Give your partially cooked rice a stir and spread on the bottom of the casserole dish. Pour half and half over rice. Next top the rice with your marinated chicken breast pieces. Top those with a layer of sliced tomatoes. Place the lid on the casserole dish and bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Remove the casserole from the oven and remove the lid. Cover the surface of the casserole with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until cheese is all melted. If you want to brown the cheese you can hit it with the broiler after it melts but it is not necessary. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

For the record, I did contemplate taking a picture of this for the blog, but it was a white casserole dish covered with white cheese. Not much to look at. Once it was on my plate, I was too busy shoving it into my face hole to take any pictures. Again, it's a casserole and not very photogenic anyway. Just trust me when I say it was yummy even if it wasn't super pretty.

Falling for Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year and not just because it means my birthday. Those, I don't look forward to quite as much as I used to. What I do look forward to it the cool crisp air, the changing colors of the foliage, Halloween and the return of hearty (albeit fattening) comfort food! Soups, and stews, and casseroles, oh my! Inevitable there is a swarm of pumpkin spice this and pumpkin spice that, but, for me, the real flavor of the season is APPLE! This is the time of year when the orchards are bursting with a myriad of apple varieties. I am still trying to figure out the best combination for my maple whiskey caramel apple pie but generally my go to apple for everything is McIntosh. This apple, to me, has the best apple flavor, but in pie it cooks away to nothing. In cake, however, it is PERFECT! This recipe came from the food blog, The Cozy Apron, run by Ingrid Beers. I encourage you to check it out. She has many wonderful things to eat on there. The only tweak I made was to add a little nutmeg.

Apple Cake (adapted from The Cozy Apron)

Ingredients:
7 medium-small apples, unpeeled (Ingrid uses Gala, I used McIntosh)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided use
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sour Cream Drizzle Ingredients:
4 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:
Prepare the cake: preheat the oven to 350°, and mist a bundt pan, or similar style cake pan, with cooking spray.

Prepare two bowls, and begin by grating the unpeeled gala apples (using a box grater onto) a work surface; then, take a handfuls of the grated apples, and squeeze as much of the juice out of them into one of the bowls as possible, and place the squeezed-out apples into the other bowl; repeat the process until all the grated apples have been squeezed of their juice, and set them aside for a moment.

Strain the squeezed-out juice, and set it aside for a moment. (You will need a total of 3/4 cup of juice for the recipe, so if your apples yield more than that, feel free to drink the rest!)

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and ground cinnamon, and whisk to aerate and blend; set aside for a moment.

To a large bowl, add the 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, the granulated sugar, the eggs and the vanilla, and with a hand mixer, beat those ingredients on low for about 2 minutes until fluffy; next, add in the melted butter, and continue to mix for another 30 seconds or so, until incorporated.

To the sugar/egg/butter mixture, add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, and carefully mix that until incorporated; add another 1/3, and mix to incorporate, then the final 1/3 and again mix to incorporate well.

Finally, add the grated apples into the batter along with about 6 tablespoons (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of the reserved apple juice squeezed from the grated apples, and fold that in with a spatula until well blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for about 50-55 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean; allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 5-10 minutes.

While the cake bakes, prepare your sour cream drizzle: in a small bowl, carefully combine the sour cream and the powdered sugar with a whisk until smooth, adding 1-2 tablespoons of water to reach your desired consistency; keep in fridge until ready to glaze your cake.

Prepare your apple “syrup”: combine the remainder of the reserved apple juice (roughly 1/2 cup) with the remaining 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in a small sauce pan, and allow it to very gently simmer for a few minutes until glossy and reduced by almost half.

Once the cake is baked and has slightly cooled in the pan for about 15 minutes, carefully turn it out onto a wire rack, and poke a few holes with the wooden skewer into the top of it; pour the apple syrup/reduction over the turned-out cake very slowly, allowing it to absorb into the cake, but don’t worry if it doesn’t completely absorb—it will continue to do so as the cake cools. (I just pour the syrup over the hot cake while it is still in the pan - less chance for a big mess. I use a plastic knife to VERY GENTLY pull the cake away from the sides a bit to let the syrup run down. Then I turn the cake out when it's cooled and all the syrup is absorbed)

Once the cake is completely cooled, pour over the sour cream drizzle, allow to set, and serve!

Ode to Summer

So, yesterday my poor hubs was not feeling well. After a lovely long holiday weekend in New Hampshire/Maine he returned to work with a case of the trots. Poor guy. He requested a meatless dinner, which is not something he ever does but since our vacation entailed a lot of meat laden meals, I was more than happy to oblige. I had a ton of tomatoes from the garden so I knew exactly what to make. This dish takes a little bit of time to make but the process is largely hands off so it is really easy and it just screams of summer. It was a perfect light meal for my hubby's restless tummy.

Angel Hair Pasta with Summer Squash and Tomato Confit

1-2 lbs cherry tomatoes

4 (or more) cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 Cup olive oil

generous pinch of salt

zest of 1 lemon

1 summer squash (green or fellow), grated

1 lb angel hair pasta (cappelini)

3/4 Cup grated paremsan or romano cheese

3-4 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

Preheat oven to 300F

Place tomatoes and garlic cloves in a roasting pan

Add salt and lemon zest

Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat

Bake for 1 hour, let cool

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta

Cook pasta halfway and add grated squash, cook another minute

Drain pasta and squash and return to pot.

Add tomatoes and juices to the pasta and finish cooking over low heat until pasta is done.

Remove from heat and stir in fresh basil and parmesan/romano cheese. 

Serve hot with fresh bread and/or a salad

NOTE: I tried making this with the regular, full-sized tomatoes from my garden and it did not compare. There was too much water and seeds and not enough pulp. The resulting confit was a watery, seedy disappointment so stick to the cherry and plum varieties.

SMOKIN'

I bought my husband an entry level smoker for Christmas and the weather has finally warmed up enough for us to use it. For our first foray we decided to try smoking something relatively easy - Meatloaf. On a recent work trip to upstate New York my husband had tried some and was eager to see if we could make something as good at home. I think that we did. I used my standard meatloaf recipe that uses stuffing mix. I have made countless meatloaves in my day using a myriad of recipes and, to date, that stuffing recipe is still my favorite. To shake things up a bit and use up stuff in the fridge we wrapped this meatloaf in speck and then basted it with barbecue sauce. After about 2 hours in the smoker we blasted in it a 400 degree over for about 20 minutes to crust up the outside. Definitely a good idea. The resulting meatloaf was fabulous! Although, I do think the speck kept a lot of smoke flavor from permeating the meat. I will have to try is again sans speck to see how the flavors change. I found it to be just smokey enough.

Stuff I have cooked.

So, I have been falling really far behind with posting new things. I still don 't have time but here are some pictures of what I have made in the hopes I will get to the recipes before I forget them, lol.


Something Italian (Probably Chicken)  Stuffed and Wrapped in Prosciutto (Sorry, I have no idea what I did here, lol!)

 French Meat Pie - My Take on it Anyway.

Husband Liked It!

 Bacon Wrapped Lasagna Florentine

Sweet Endings

Have you ever seen the crescent roll apple dumplings recipe online? I have had them bookmarked for quite a while. They have been favorable reviewed on several food blogs as well. Some calling them, "to die for". Quite frankly, unless you are on death row, I don't think ANY food is good enough to die for, especially one made with canned crescent rolls and soda. A few weeks ago I was planning a nice dinner and wanted a fast and easy dessert to end the meal. I don't remember what all happened but what DIDN'T happen was dessert so the ingredients I had bought ended up just hanging around my kitchen. Yesterday, I noticed the apple I had bought was starting to show signs of it's age and, rather than waste it, I made the darn dessert. It was tasty, especially served with vanilla ice cream, and it was super fast and easy to make. I would recommend buying the largest apple you can find for this recipe because the smaller slices seemed to get lost in the dough. I would even go so far as to recommend getting 6 slices out of your apple instead of 8, as specified in the recipe, to ensure that you get a good dose of apple flavor. I also read that you can use splenda and diet soda int he recipe if you want to trim some calories. I used diet soda and real sugar in my preparation and it tasted just fine to me. It didn't knock my socks off, nor was it remotely, "to die for" but it was good. Would I make it again? Sure, I would. Fast, easy, and tasty always works for me!

Pillsbury Crescent Roll Apple Dumplings (Click title to be magically transported to the original recipe)

Ingredients

2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls

2 green apples (Granny Smith or Golden Delicious)

1 1/2 cups butter, melted

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup (6 oz) lemon-lime carbonated beverage (Sprite, 7-Up, Mountain Dew)

Heat oven to 350° F. Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray

Separate 2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls at perforations to make 16 triangles.

Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices.

Place 1 apple slice on shortest side of each dough triangle. Starting with shortest side of triangle, roll to opposite point enclosing apple slice; arrange in pan.

In medium bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups melted butter, 1 cup packed light brown sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Pour mixture evenly over dumplings.

Pour 3/4 cup (6 oz) lemon-lime carbonated beverage in center and along edges of pan. (Do not pour on top of dumplings.)

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and thoroughly baked. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Thank Heavens it's Over!

The holidays that is. Every year seems to be more and more stressful. Money is tighter, the (step) kids are impossible to shop for, and we can never agree on the dinner menu. Somehow, we managed to pull it all together and survive another Christmas. If I had my way (and tons of money), I would spend Christmas someplace warm and remote just to escape the frenzy of it all. But since I can't afford Christmas travel, here I sit in the awful cold of the northeast U.S.. Actually I exaggerate a bit. I do enjoy having the family together and watching the kids open their gifts. It's just really exhausting. I cooked for two days straight to prep everything for this years holiday meal. Since we were trying out some new things, I even did some test runs in the weeks leading up to the holiday to be sure the new recipes didn't suck (they didn't). It all started when the hubs proclaimed that he did not want prime rib for dinner this year. He wanted ham instead. Here is the thing. I don't really care for ham. I don't hate it but I don't really love it either. Hubs doesn't like it nearly as much as he claims to either. He will eat it for dinner. Make a few sandwiches out of the leftovers and then never touch it again, leaving me with all sorts of leftover ham to contend with. Anything I make out of the leftovers, like ham salad or pea soup, he won't eat so it either end up giving it or throwing it away. Ridiculous, right? So, as a compromise, I made a stuffed pork loin this year. I was inspired by a crown roast of pork I saw being prepared on the Chew while in the waiting room at my doctors office. I figured that I could do something similar, albeit less dramatic, with the huge ass pork loin I had in my freezer. I mean, it is basically the same cut of meat, just without the bones and far less expensive. Preparing the actual roast is pretty straight forward - Just butterfly, stuff, roll, tie and bake. It was the stuffing and the sauce that made the meal special. Everyone was surprised at how well all of the flavors came together. Who knows, maybe I will make it again next year. If I do maybe I will remember to take a picture.....or not, lol.

Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing for Pork

1 roll sausage (not hot)
2 stalks of celery, chopped fine
1/2 onion, diced
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 bag cranberries, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs Bells poultry seasoning
2 Tbs parsley
1/2 Tbs ground sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 bag dry cornbread stuffing
2-3 Cups chicken broth
salt and pepper

In a large pot brown sausage with celery and onions until cooked. Add garlic and cook another minute.
Add cranberries and sugar and continue to cook over med-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add cornbread stuffing and seasonings. Stir to combine.
Add broth to desired consistency.
Adjust seasonings if needed and salt and pepper to taste

Creamy Mustard Sage Sauce
2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs flour
1/2 Cup apple cider
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground sage
 2 Cups cream
salt and pepper

Over low heat melt butter and flour to create a roux
Add apple cider, mustard and sage to a sauce pan and whisk together until fully blended.
Add cream
Slowly heat mixture, stirring frequently until it reaches desired consistency.
Adjust seasonings to taste
Remove from heat and serve