Hobo Packs

Grilled out with the rest of America for Memorial Day. I cooked some Shrimp and Mussel hobo packs, recipe from this month's Food and Wine. Honestly, they were just ok. The mussels especially weren't that great. Hmm. There's nothing wrong with the recipe per se. It's simple and has potential, but I don't think it was worth it for the cost.

BBQ Country Style Ribs

Don't be frightened, but every once in a while I buy that meat in the grocery store that's been marked way way down, often some odd cut and generally about to be too old to legally sell. Hey - we're broke! Well, that's where I found these boneless country style ribs. They looked fine, I've just never cooked them before, or, for that matter, I don't think I've eaten them before.

So, after looking around online for a recipe, I found one that looked decent for bone-in Country style ribs, and just modified the cooking time. They tasted pretty good, and Drew cooked some kickass baked beans and cole slaw to go with them.

I love summer.

Spaghetti with Arugula Walnut Pesto, Sausage and Tomatoes

Here's an idea for a quick pasta dinner that tastes great and looks pretty. I had a craving for spaghetti and a lot of great ingredients in the house to use up. First - some pesto. I had a full package of arugula that sat around for about a week hoping to get used in a salad but instead was forgotten about. So, I toasted a handful of walnuts and put those, the arugula, 2 cloves of garlic and some parmesan in the food processor. After combining I added in olive oil until I had a good pesto consistency. Next, while I cooked the spaghetti, I combined some Italian sausage with breadcrumbs and formed medium-sized-meatballs. I browned them on all sides, and then poured in about a cup to a cup and half of chicken broth, a handful of cherry tomatoes and put the lid on the skillet. I let these cook on medium low heat about 10 minutes until the sausage was cooked through.

Finally, I drained the pasta, tossed it with the pesto, and topped with the sausage and wilted tomatoes (the broth had cooked almost competely out of the pan at this point). Quick, easy and very tasty.

White Bean, Ham and Kale Soup

I'm dealing with a lot of leftover ham from our Christmas ham, so last night I made an easy and tasty soup from the bone and some chopped up pieces of meat. It was simple and most of that time I was laying on the couch while it simmered away. Uh, rather I was, um, doing my taxes. I served it with corn muffins.

White Bean, Ham and Kale Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium to small yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 ham bone plus 1.5 cup diced ham (about 3/4-inch pieces)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can great northern beans
3 cups chicken stock
2 cup fresh kale, cut into strips

Heat oil over medium heat. Saute onions and celery about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add ham and bone, stirring for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, beans and chicken stock, stir and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 35-45 minutes. Stir in kale. Cook for 5 minutes. Serves 4.

Shrimp and White Bean Salad

It's probably a little summery, but who cares! Last night we had a cold white bean salad and a couple of shrimp skewers with some pancetta sprinkled on top. It was tasty and relatively light (except for the pancetta of course). It also only took under 30 minutes to make the entire meal. We had it with a nice bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.

Here's the recipe:

1 medium can white beans (canellini, great northern, etc)
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
dozen calamata olives, pitted and hlaved
one celery rib, washed and finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

20 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
olive oil
half a lemon

3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, roughly chopped

Drain beans in a strainer, and run water over them to get rid of as much of the juice as possible. Transfer to a bowl and mix well with the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat ridged side of grill pan over medium heat. Skewer shrimp (I put about 4-6 on each skewer). Brush each skewer with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice on top. Grill each skewer 3-5 minutes per side, until pink and cooked through.

While shrimp cooks, heat 2 tbspn olive oil in small pan or skillet. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Add pancetta and cook until pancetta is just starting to get crispy.

Plate skewers and white bean salad and sprinkle pancetta/garlic on top. Serves 2.

Easy comfort food

Too tired from cooking all day at work, for dinner I made a simple meal of mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and pork chops in an apple cider sauce. Here's the chops recipe:

2 boneless pork chops (they were about 5 oz. each)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 tspn sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup apple cider
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F. Heat oil in skillet over medium to high heat until hot but not smoking. Brown pork chops on one side only. Transfer chops, browned sides up, to baking dish. Bake chops until cooked thru, about 20 minutes.

While chops cook, melt butter over medium heat in same skillet. Once foam subsides, add onion, sugar and salt, stirring occassionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add cider and vinegar, boil, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and liquid has become a glaze. About 15 minutes. Pour onions and glaze over chops.

This recipe is almost exactly a recipe from Epicurious, though they called for smoked bone-in chops (didn't have those) and said the glaze would form in 10 minutes. It took at least another 5 for me.

It was very tasty, quick and easy.

They can't all be successes

Harumph. I tried to use up some squash, mushrooms and sausage recently, with limited success. I won't bore you a long recipe, because i just son't think it tasted that good. Scooped the seeds out of the squash, stuffed the halves with either sausage or herbed goat cheese. Same with the mushroom caps. Sprinkled parsley on top. Won't be wasting good produce and Italian sausage this way again.

1st try on a spinach experiment

Two days ago I cooked a pork shoulder that had been deboned, butterflied, rubbed with onions, garlic, fennel, salt, pepper, rolled up and tied with string. After a few hours in the oven it was crispy on the outside and delicious on the inside. I sliced it and put it on ciabatta bread. On the side I served pickled red onions: sliced a large red onion, put it in a jar, sprinkled some peppercorns over the top, and filled the jar with apple cider vinegar.

Also, my spinach experiment. I wanted to make some sort of spinach cakes. I sauteed some minced onion and garlic, then added some thawed chopped frozen spinach, and cooked it for just a few minutes. In a bowl I mixed mascarpone cheese with the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper. I mixed this with the spnach and formed little patties out of the mixture. I coated the patties in homemade bread crumbs. Then I put them in the fridge to solidify a little. A couple of hours later, I pulled them out and fried them in vegetable oil. Unfortunately, they fell apart a little in the oil. However, they did taste pretty good. Couple of thoughts about next time: Instead of just doing breadcrumbs, I could try a flour, egg, breadcrumbs thing. Also, I could try freezing them before frying them, or refrigerating or freezing them before coating them in the breadcrumbs. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them, because I am going to try this concept again.

Chowder in the Summer

Last night I made a corn and fish chowder that was particularly tasty. Some may think its weird to make a warm soup in the middle of the warm Kentucky summer, but I think its the perfect time to cook the season's sweet sweet corn and fresh seafood.

I started by cooking some strips of pancetta in a large pot. When they were cooked and crispy, I removed them from the pot and left them sitting on a paper towel. I added a diced onion and a couple of minced shallots to the pot with the pancetta fat. Once they softened, I added about a cup and a half to two cups of chicken stock (I would have used seafood stock, but didn't have any on hand), about a cup and a half to two cups of white wine, 7-8 small red potatoes diced into 1/2 inch pieces, and the corn from two ears. This cooked for about 20 minutes. I stirred it occassionally, scraping the bottom to get any brown bits from the pancetta. Next, with the potatoes almost done, I added the fish - 1 lb of cod filets cut into 1-inch pieces. I also salted it just to taste. About 5 minutes later, I stirred in 1/3 cup cream. This cooked for another 2-3 minutes. Then I added about an 1/8 a teaspoon of black pepper and a dash of cayenne. After spooning this into our bowls, I spinkled the pancetta bits and a little fresh parsley on top of each serving. We ate this with some leftover crusty bread to dip into the soup. Even I thought it tasted delicious!

Yummy Pork, Yucky Rice

So, the past couple of days have had some cooking successes and some cooking duds. The successes were the dishes I made for our Fourth of July get-together. I made a grilled pork loin with a peach chutney (still trying to use up those peaches) and a tomato tart. First, we put the marinated loin on the grill. It got pretty black and crispy on the outside, and after 25 minutes and after taking its temp repeately we thought it was done. Then we cut into it and it was clearly not, so we stuck it in the oven. Took another 45 minutes there, but when it came it was perfectly cooked. The chutney was our really ripe peaches with lots of Indian spices - a great compliment to the pork.

The tomato tart was a homemade pastry crust that, just before serving, I layered with sliced red and yellow tomatoes, homemade arugula pesto, and fresh mozzarella. Well, it wasn't quite as good as it has been before and I cite two problems: One, I LOVE garlic, don't get me wrong, but there was an insane amount of garlic in my arugula pesto - sadly overwhelming. Two, I should have had more cheese, for another layer. But, all in all, the Fourth was a success, and I was very thankful for the delectable dishes my friends brought.

And now to my complete failure the next night. Obviously I tweak recipes I get from cookbooks or the Internet or cookbooks all the time based on what I can find, afford, and personal tastes. But I guess when a recipe specifically says not to substitute something I should listen to that. I made a dish from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer - Shrimp and Black Rice Salad with Vietnamese Dressing. She clearly states not to substitute wild rice for the black rice, but I couldn't find black rice, and I thought, 'oh, I'm sure it'll be fine.' Nope. It sucked. You shouldn't have to work this hard to eat. The dressing was yummy, the shrimp was fine, the rice was crappy. Chew, chew, chew. chew. chew. Pretty miserable.

I'm tired

So, after a long day at work yesterday I am too tired to try and be clever. And I didn't cook at all last night, just laid on the couch with a gin and tonic and ..can't even remember what I ate. Oh ya, leftovers from work. BUT, the night before I made a yummy pasta dish we like from the Epicurious website - Campanelle with Sausage and Beans. Lots of roasted garlic, beans, a little grated cheese and cooking it for quite a while give it a nice thick flavorful sauce. I use a bit more sausage than they called for, and next time I might make it half mild Italian, half hot italian, just for a little more heat. But it was very yummy and we're still munching on those leftovers.

Chops and Spoonbread

The most successful thing in our garden right now is our sage, and I guess I should actually start using some of what's out there instead of letting it stay and look pretty. Last night Drew seared some pork chops with sage, salt and pepper, then threw in a bottle of beer and let them marinate, and cooked some yummy spinach with lots of onion and garlic. I made the Cheddar Corn spoonbread from The New American Cheese cookbook. I've made it before and it's been a hit repeatedly, but for some reason this time it was overwhelmingly salty. Also, the recipe calls for using only two egg whites, I used three, and I felt like the texture was the best its ever been. Next time I'll leave out the salt and keep the third egg white. Of course, the saltiness didn't keep me from eating it cold out of its dish on the couch this morning.

A Plethora of Hotdogs

My first post! This blog is mainly for me to keep a record of what I cooked, what recipes I used, how I changed them, and what did and didn't work. If anyone else happens to enjoy it, fabulous!

At the last minute on Derby Day we panicked and thought we didn't have enough fried chicken. So, we ran out and got a few packages of hotdogs. They weren't touched and have been frozen as I figure out ways to use them that aren't too disgusting. I'm kind of sad that this is the first entry on the blog, since it's nothing special, but tonight I used them in one of our regular dishes: hotdogs cooked in beer and sauerkraut and potato pancakes with sour cream. Totally simple, totally bad for you yummy dish. And I toast the hot dog bun in the oven just beforehand.