Salad-y goodness
I was wandering around the internets when I stumbled upon a
good salad idea. It involves peas and edamame and stuff. I started thinking about my fridge full of leftovers. I have some red onion and tomato that have been marinating in some golden balsamic vinegar and grapeseed oil. I have some leftover edamane and parts of a veggie tray from hockey viewing (go Wild!). I have some asparagus tips that NEED to be used soon. I have cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Let's throw it together! I am going to try to drain the red onion and tomato so that the other items will not meld into the marinade. I will edit the blog and let you know how my lunch is tomorrow....
What!!?? Meatloaf that tastes good?
Brian and I have found it. The elusive meatloaf recipe that actually tastes good. And re heats well for left overs. You would think that with Brian's love for all things meat, he would have developed a good recipe years ago, but we didn't try meatloaf until that smooth talkin' Alton Brown beamed his recipe in our grubby little hands. (note - we wash our hands before preparing food.) We don't really change from his
recipe except for a few items.
Replace the onion with
Penzey's dried mince onion.
Replace the pepper with
Penzey's dried red and green pepper.
We like Penzey's. They keep us in onion and bell peppers when we don't have fresh.
As for in the glaze, we use
Garlic Tabasco.
And finally, instead of making a large loaf of this meatloaf, we divide it into
smaller loaf pans for maximum glazing surface area and crust.
Make this with
Alton's Stove top Mac-n-cheese!
Vegatarian Irish Stew?
Has the world gone mad? We were making a traditional Irish Stew, Brown Butter Irish Soda bread and got some nice Irish Cheddar. Then we came across the interesting challenge. My dear brother and his friends don't eat red meat! And they were staying at my house! What do you do in that situation?
Concentrate on your
vegetables. And have a secret
ingredient.
I like to use a pressure cooker when I am making stew the same day that I am eating it. It makes everything nice and falling apart, as all good stews should be like. My first step was to prep all the veggies. I had 5 lbs of
potatoes. I used three different
potatoes because that is what I had: Russets, red and
yukon gold. I chopped up one onion and one half leek. I thinly sliced 4 garlic cloves using a truffle slicer. (Remember that scene from
Goodfellas where they are all in
prison so they had extra time to use a razor blade to slice the garlic? yeah, I got a truffle slicer.) Grab a two pound bag of baby carrots (or slice them your self) and a few pub style cans of Stout. My secret
ingredient was a pinch of
black salt. I used it because I was looking to add a bit
umami flavor to the stew, as there was no meat in it. I guess someone could use mushrooms, but I don't use them, so I didn't know how to sub them for meat.
Putting it all together.
In the bottom of the pressure cooker, put two tablespoons of butter and a little oil. When the butter is melted, add the garlic. Watch the garlic carefully, because the thin
pieces will burn if you are not careful. After the garlic becomes golden, add the onion and saute. Add the pinch of black salt here. After the onions soften, add the
potatoes, carrots, and leeks. Then add the Stout. Add enough so the veggies are just covered with the stout. Bring to a simmer. Then follow the directions on your pressure cooker. I claim no
responsibility for you and your pressure cooker. Pressure cook for about half an hour. We start the time after the pressure indicator is going. After the time is up, safely
de pressurize and enjoy!
Customize your cupcakes!
Cupcakes are so hot right now. Everywhere I look there are gourmet cupcakes. This is an easy thing to do for the home cook. A few dramatic garnishes and, voila! super fancy cupcakes. This last weekend, I made two different cupcakes, Smores and HOT cakes.
S'mores - Bake some chocolate cupcakes. When they come out of the oven, place a piece of chocolate on top. I took chocolate squares and broke them into triangles. I stuck the tip of the triangle into the hot cupcake so it would melt just a little bit. Let the cupcakes cool. Really. Frozen would even be good. Take a jar of marshmallow fluff and scoop it on top of each cupcake. It is best to grease the bowl AND back of the spoon that you are using to do this. After your marshmallow fluff is on top, you can throw on a few mini marshmallows. Take out your Brulee torch and toast the tops. Of course, be careful of the cupcake papers. They catch on fire. Top each cupcake with a piece of gram cracker. Warn people that the cupcakes are messy.
HOT cakes - Make white or vanilla cupcakes. When mixing in the sugar, add about 1 tbs of cinnamon. (if you are using a cake mix, mix it into the dry ingredients) Bake. Cool. Mix the glaze. 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of cayenne. Mix the dry ingredients 1-2 tablespoons milk and a table spoon of vanilla. Start with less liquid, otherwise you will end up with too thin of glaze. You can add red food coloring if you would like to let people know that this is hot. Put the cupcakes upside down on a foil lined jelly roll sheet and scoop the glaze over the top. The glaze will be messy. Place a few cinnamon candies on the top. After about 15 minutes, the glaze will set. Move the cupcakes to a plate and enjoy!
What ideas do you have to fancy up cupcakes?
Whew, I have been gone for a while. The holidays (plus my birthday) have kept me from posting here. I know I promised information about leftover turkey, but now that will have to wait.
For Christmas, I received a bread machine. Along with this machine, Brian has discovered the love of making bread using just the mixer. So far, I have not made a loaf of bread in the machine that I love. Some are ok, but really, only one has turned out pretty good so far. On the other hand, Brian has been baking up a storm using that stand mixer.
Standing Mixer breads
*Cinnamon swirl bread (no raisins!)
Wild Rice Bread
*Alton Brown recipe that has been altered to include herbs
bagels
French loaf
Italian loaf
Hawaii Sweet Bread
*Ones we have transcribed to email to people if they wish.
So my question to you: What recipes have you been successful with in a bread machine? I am looking for the perfect everyday bread recipe for the machine.
turkey turkey turkey
Everyone is currently all a-fluster about thanksgiving. Granted, it is one of the last politically correct holidays in this season. Happy Thanksgiving is much less critical than Merry Christmas. Heaven forbid that one makes a Christmas Ham or Turkey, but everyone can stuff themselves to their delight when eating a Thanksgiving bird. And then watch Lion's football (or rather, watch the Lions lose at football.) Any way, I don't have recipes today, just a run down of the Thanksgiving menu over at the Jamesview house.
-Soup. not sure what kind yet.
-Turkey, lots of turkey. A 18-20 lb bird plus parts
-Two kinds of stuffing. Brian's no-celery stuffing and my apple stuffing. Brian's will be in the bird.
-Fightin' carrots
-mashed bourbon sweet potatoes.... so tasty.
-Heart-attack mashed potatoes. Altered slightly from the original recipe
-Peas.
-something else that I am forgetting
-rolls
Desserts
-Pumpkin pie
-Apple cherry pie
other proposed desserts
-ginger-vanilla bean creme brules
-chocolate pots de creme with white chocolate whipped cream
-toffee cheesecake with caramel sauce
-white chocolate and Turkish coffee parfaits
Next up: Too much turkey? Turkey leftovers, hold the bread.
Edit:
Soup - corn chowder
Apple Cherry pie turned into cobbler
cancelled white chocolate and Turkish coffee parfaits.
mmm, salad
Brian and I have been making a salad that we derived from a recipe card from Nordstroms. It is really good and you should try it.
Buy these:
Mixed greens (whatever you like)
CraisinsNuts (walnuts, pecans, pinenuts, or other tree nut)
blue cheese
Bartlett pears
Girard's Champagne Dressing
Throw your washed greens in a bowl. It doesn't matter exactly what type of greens that you have. Make sure you like them and are tasty to you. Sprinkle the Craisins over the top of the greens to cover the top. Do the same with the Blue cheese. The blue cheese that you choose will depend on your tastes as well. Get an expensive one if you like blue cheese. If you don't, just grab a crumbled blue cheese from your cooler near the butter at the store. Take the nuts and toast them. To toast, spread them over your tray and slide in a 400 degree oven until the nuts start to turn. Do not leave the nuts. They will turn on you real fast. Be sure to let them cool off and throw 'em in the bowl. The pears should be julieanne and put in lime or lemon juice so they don't turn brown. Throw those in the bowl. You don't have to to necessarily toss the salad because if you do, the nuts will just end up on the bottom of the bowl. Let each salad eater but their own dressing on; it will keep the leaves from getting soggy.
Brian says, after leaning over and reading my write up, that the mix of greens matter. He says that Arugula and Romaine are necessary in the mix. I maintain that mixed greens do not include iceberg lettuce because it isn't green. Therefore, use a mixed green.
