Poor Punkin!

Today is the wife's last day off of work, she goes back tomorrow. In honor of that momentous occasion that she is looking forward to so much, it was her turn for a chopped basket, and after the basket I got on Friday, it was definitely payback time. Originally I had planned on hitting her with Fillo dough, but i chose to forego that because there is a certain amount of preparation involved there that just is not workable with our current game format. So she got Pillsbury pizza crust (thin crust), southern style hash brown potatoes, leeks, and 72% cacao dark chocolate. To put it mildly, it was not her day in the kitchen, or anywhere else for that matter. We went to the store to gather her ingredients. While there a lovely gentleman put on a display of these solid stainless surgical steel knives with a lifetime warranty. We bought a set. The guy used one of the knives to cut the head of a hammer, and then cut a tomato. I was sold right there.So we leave the store with all of these goodies, and the new set of knives. As we are loading the car she realizes she forgot fresh parsley...or cilantro. Back in we go, pick those up and back home.

Steak Fajita hash with mole sauce and cheese sticks.

Once home, I helped her get the kitchen all ready to go for her and we go watch an episode of "Triple D". At right about 4, she say she is ready to go and time starts. From there, things kind of went a little awry. About 10 minutes in she found out just how sharp the new knives were, when she reached for something and hit the knife on a mixing bowl. The knife bounced back and cut her finger. The added fun in that is she had been working with hot peppers and had the juice all over her hands. After about 20 minutes, the bleeding stopped and she returned to the kitchen. After several other setbacks, some extra time, and a complete revision of her plan in the middle, we wound up with a very good dinner, the preparation of which I will leave for her to describe. Sadly, she could not even eat it with us at dinner time. Poor Punkin.

Irish Cousins kitchen returns!

I am a little bit behind the times with this post, but here is the news: A few months back Irish Cousins got some new owners, and the new owners decided to bring the kitchen back. The wife and I spend a fair amount of our Saturday nights there singing karaoke (usually pretty well, I might add) with DJ Josh Walters and whatever friends or family happen to show up there. In addition to that, the new owners are in the process of renovating the old corner bar.
Enough about that, let's talk food. Two weeks ago was the first chance I had to sample their food, when we were enjoying some barley sodas and singing our hearts out. The wife decided she was hungry and ordered an antipasto. Holy salad, Batman! It was perhaps the largest bowl of salad I have ever seen. Easily large enough to share. All of the ingredients were crisp and fresh. The red wine vinagrette was a wonderful complement to the meats, cheese and other standard Antipasto components. So 1 good experience. The next time we were there, I ordered their three meat Calzone, I believe the price for that was $10.79. This item is definitely too large for any one person to eat (please do not think I mean that as a bad thing), so if you order this plan to share. It had a wonderful golden crust that was perfectly cooked. The wife thought the sauce was sweet, but I liked it. So there is number 2. Last night, after having eaten early at the graduation party, I realized I was hungry, so I looked over the menu again, and settled on their Guiness Brat. Beer brats are easily towards the top of my list of favorite foods, and Cousins serves their's with a combination of Red cabbage and sauerkraut. It arrived at the table in a basket with a nice sized portion of french fries. The fries were a lovely golden brown color, and while not quite crispy, they had a very nice texture inside and great potato flavor. The Brat on the other hand was nothing short of perfection. the red cabbage - saurkraut mixture was to die for. I am not sure how they prepare the red cabbage, but it was much like sauerkraut, only sweet. When combined with the tanginess of the saurkraut, well that just heightened the senses even more. The Brat itself which is apparently cooked in Guiness with onions, peppers, and cayenne had a nice dark outside, was cooked perfectly through and had a bit of a back end heat to it. It was served on one of the best buns I have had this side of Philadelphia. So if you find yourself in the Lawrence Park area late on a saturday night, or need lunch after a late saturday night of singing and drinking, or any other time, give Irish Cousins a try, They are a three time winner in my book!

On a footnote here, Josh shared a piece of his greek dog pizza with me, and I wish I had ordered that. In the future I will be putting one of those in my face. Pizza crust with greek sauce sliced Smith's hot dogs, and cheddar cheese over top. It was so good it made me mad. WTG Cousins!

Congrats to the graduate!

First things first...Congratulations! You are now a graduate and I am sure the future holds wonderful things for you! I am not using your name here, because there are on occasion some weirdos out here on the internet, but you know who you are.
Second, Thank you to those that commented on this little hobby of mine today. I was actually somewhat surprised that anyone was actually reading this. I appreciate the encouragement and since I know you are out there I will definitely try to be more diligent about updating.
Additionally please feel free to share your own adventures and comments, and if you can figure out how to follow this blog, that would be awesome!

OMG! Really?

Ok so now that I am through catching up over the past week, tonight was my turn for a basket again. Dear spouse and children, Not funny! I get my basket today and the ingredients are as follows: A giant spiral sliced ham (one of my favorite things), Shiner Bock beer (another of my favorite things), Kale (WTF?) and ...Triple Berry Newtons (you know, like fig newtons but with berries instead of figs). I stared at the ingredients at a complete loss as to how to make any of them work together. First thought? Ham sandwich with kale chips and a glass of beer and Newtons for dessert. But, no, alas I will rack my brain and figure out some way to actually cook with these things. On the way out the door I am thinking breakfast for dinner, ham, eggs, some kind of berry newton french toast? Would that even work? We get to the store, and after a haircut for the wife and I (she said I got extra time to think, but I actually was not thinking about the basket at all) We begin the shopping. I am still at this point thinking breakfast and wandering aimlessly trying to figure out what to do when I find myself standing in front of sliced turkey breast when the clouds part and a ray of sunlight shines down and all things become clear to me. A few months ago a new restaurant opened in our town called Cheddar's and they serve a Monte Cristo sandwich, however instead of maple syrup on the side they serve theirs with raspberry preserves on the side. Inspired by this I made this sandwich at home a few months ago and it was a hit. I pick up the turkey, Swiss cheese from the deli counter, Sourdough bread from the bakery, some strawberry-blackberry preserves (thank you Smuckers), and I have a plan. I also grab potatoes, and red beets for a side dish that has also just dawned on me. I complete the shopping trip with some fresh blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. The menu played out like this:
Beer battered Monte Cristo
Homemade potato, beet and kale chips
Triple berry custard crisp
At 3:30 I begin prepping the kitchen for the challenge of cooking all of this in 1 hour. It is at this point that everything begins going wrong. Part of the food processor is missing. I go looking for it everywhere, and wouldn't you know it, it is in the last place that I look. Know why? Because once I found it I stopped looking. Then I pull out the deep fryer, excited to use it for only the second time in the 5 or 6 years we have owned it. It is filthy. It was never cleaned after the last time it was used, So i have to break it down into all of its components and scrub it down. Just as I finish that, I realize I have no idea where the cord for it is. I still don't. So, I have to deep fry the old fashioned way, in pots on the stove. Good times!
Finally at 4:41 I begin my cooking time which is supposed to be an hour. I will save you the nail biting and tell you now I did not finish in time. Not really even close. Not much went right in the kitchen today. Really it was all of the deep frying that did me in. Part of that may have been that i was using Canola oil which I do not think is real ideal for deep frying, and the other part I think is that the stove is just not as good as a deep fryer.
Anyway the first thing I did was begin the crisp, because I had to bake it, so it had to go in first. I got oil on the stove heating up then got my berries into the baking dish. 2 pints of raspberries, 1 pint of blueberries, and 1 pint of blackberries. I sprinkled one cup of Splenda sugar substitute (you may recall the wife is watching what she eats) 3 eggs, and 3/4 cups of milk. I mix it all thoroughly and throw it into the oven at 375, and set the timer for 20 minutes. 1 whole carton of newtons get obliterated in the food processor. Into a mixing bowl they go, and I add about 2 cups of oatmeal. My youngest son was "assisting" me today, playing Sous Chef, and I ask him to melt some butter for me, which he does, and then he dumps it all into my crumble/crisp. I am mixing it with my hands and I realize it is way to moist, so I add more oatmeal, some flour...time is ticking here. Eventually I just drop gobs of this oatmeal newton cement mixture onto the berries and hop for the best, throw it back in the oven thinking 15 more minutes and that will be done. I forgot to set the timer here though...
Between the berries going in and the crumble debacle, I slice beets on the mandolin, or at least on the little $10 mandolin gadget we picked up today that is like a mandolin and I am putting those into the first pot of oil to make my beet chips. A lot of color comes out of the beets into the oil and I realize I should have done the potatoes first because now the oil will discolor the potatoes. So I grab another pot and put oil in it and get it heating. After twenty minutes sitting in hot oil, the beets are still not crisp or even browning. At about 25 minutes I take them out anyway, thinking maybe they will crisp up while they drain, so I remove them from the oil onto paper towels to drain. I drop my first potatoes into the other pot at about the same time, then the second batch of beets go in. The oil erupts when they go in this time which I take to be a good sign. Then the crumble. You will recall, I still have to pull off a beer battered sandwich at some point here too.
I made my batter with 6 eggs, 2 cups of flour, and one bottle of beer whisked together. I then whisked in about 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. That may sound like an odd combination, but a traditional Monte Cristo is made with French Toast. I threw some butter into a large skillet, then took two slices of sourdough, put a slice of the ham, a slice of turkey, and two slices of baby swiss in between and then dipped the whole sandwich into the batter then onto the skillet. In a small saucepan I put some of the strawberry-blackberry preserves and heated that up, adding just enough water to melt the preserves into a berry syrup to dip the sandwich into.
The end result, the first meal was plated at about 6:05, and the last was closer to 6:30. The overall presentation looked nice as you will see in the picture. The sandwich was amazing, although very rich and heavy. The chips looked nice, although some of the kale chips got over done which is actually kind of interesting because once they turn brown they will just about disintegrate in your fingers, but the later batches I took out quicker while still green and the girls loved them. The beet chips never really crisped up, but the sweet of the beets with the sea salt ground over them was fantastic, and the potato chips were also wonderful, although varied in crispness from batch to batch. The most amazing part, the triple berry crisp that I forgot about did not burn, and was wonderfully tart, I just wish I had remembered to buy vanilla ice cream.

Lizzie's basket

Chopped basket number 4 in our house went to the daughter unit. We gave her boneless pork loin chops, Cheez-it crackers, Dr. Pepper, and brown rice. While I am not 100 percent clear on the cooking process, I will leave it to her to elaborate if she chooses, she made us Cheez-it breaded pork chops with a spicy Dr. Pepper sauce, cheesy rice and a tossed salad with cheez-its for croutons. She also made blueberry smoothies (don't tell her, but I hate smoothies). Overall it was a success. The Cheez-its on the salad were actually delish! The pork chops were good as well, although, some were a little underdone, but considering it was the first time she has ever cooked pork chops, I would say she did well. Awesome Job Liz!

Dirty Rice!

In recent years I have learned that on occasion I am a fan of Cajun cuisine. Not all Cajun cuisine, but some of it works for me. Jambalaya for one...I love it. Sadly the spouse is not as fond of it as I. I have never tried Gumbo, someday I will get up the gumption to try it (get it? Gumbo/gumption? ok nvm back to the story.) but for me the big turnoff is the okra. I cannot really explain it, but okra just makes me gag. just thnking of it really makes me a little icky. But I digress. Last week, as we got towards the end of our monthly fundage, we needed to make use of a couple of pounds of ground round in the freezer. I remember having the Army's version of dirty rice a time or two and I always kind of liked it, a nice simple hearty meal. For those that have never had it, it really boils down to this (oh look! another food pun) rice with onions garlic peppers and ground beef. So off to the store I went armed with the knowledge that we literally had beans to get by on for the week, So I bought a bag of brown rice, some poblanos (have I mentioned before how wonderful poblanos are?) and some lovely concentrated soup base made by Knorr which came in a nice 4 pack for under $4.00. Home I went excited by how thrifty I had been at the store and ready to do some serious grubbing. Upon arrival at our domocile I gathered my ingredients as follows:

2 lbs Ground Round (80/20)
Garlic of course, I use quite a lot, but for this i used minced garlic from a jar.
1 Spanish onion (love Vidalias, but I did not want a really sweet onion for this)
2 Poblano peppers (ask for them by name)
Approximately 2 tbsp of olive oil (I never measure the oil in the pan)
2 of the small cups of that lovely Knorr beef soup base or concentrated broth...I will look it up and post it later
4 cups of water
4 cups of brown rice

So the actual preparation of the dish is fairly simple. First into the pan with some olive oil and get it heating. Chop your vegetables to your liking, but in dirty rice, at least any that I have ever eaten, they are fairly finely chopped, which is what I did. Onion and garlic always go in first, as they take the longest to really sweat out the flavors you want. While they are sweating in the pan you can dice up the poblanos. Hint: When using poblanos, if you remove the seeds and the placenta (the lighter green ribs inside) you will get a more mild flavor, leaving the seeds and placenta will result in more heat. When the onions begin to brown some stir in the peppers. This is also the appropriate time to add some salt, black pepper, white pepper and either crushed or ground red pepper to the mix. Do not be afraid to taste your cooking and adjust as needed. Also remember at this point, you want some strong flavors because the beef and the rice will be absorbing it as we progress from here. Once the peppers are tender, add the beef and brown it right in with the vegetables. Some people would choose to remove the veggies before browning the meat, but you want all of that flaver to get into the beef as it cooks. Now comes a dilemma, Drain the meat or not? Well for me, no. The grease, while it is of course not real healthy, now contains a lot of flavor, and you lose some of it if you drain it off, but if you are a health nut, on a diet, or just bothered by somewhat greasy food, by all means drain it away. At this point, add the beef soup base, all of the rice and water, and mix well. bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover it and heed my words here...leave it alone for the next 50 minutes. I was very worried that with my pans it would burn so after about 35 minutes I opened it. The result was my rice was a tad underdone. Set the heat to low and trust that it will work out and leave it be for the 50 minutes.
Please bear in mind that this is not minute rice, but whole grain brown rice. Trust me, it is better.
The end result, aside from the slightly underdone rice was a delicious meal that did not cost us more than $10 and fed our whole family with plenty left for lunch the day after.

The kid wants to play too!

So after the wife and I had fairly successful bouts of chopped! at home, The older two kids informed us that they would like to play too. I must admit I was a little nervous about having to eat something one of my children cooked, but I was outvoted and they were allowed into the "competition". The oldest got his first basket, and the ingredients were flank steak, fresh pasta (linguini), whiskey and rainier cherries. Since he recently turned 21 we thought he would enjoy the whiskey part. I have asked him to post on here and explain his undertaking, but he assures me that will not happen. Suffice it to say I was pleasantly surprised by the flavors he was actually able to develop. He made the linguini and a nice tomato based sauce that had the rainier cherries and whiskey in it, but neither of them overpowered the sauce and he cut the flank steak into strips and added it to the sauce. Our only real critique was the flank steak was a little tough, as flank steak will be in most preparations. He also prepared us a libation on the side using cola flavored vodka and the cherries, which tasted a lot like a flat cherry coke. All in all a nice surprise. Good job Son!