May Be Edible

Philly Steak Salad

2009-01-31T18:42:00.003-05:00

What do you get when you combine healthy salad, great steak, and delicious cheese? A cheese steak salad! I happen to have a freezer full of steaks, so this dish helps me work through them. Though the recipe calls for leftover steak, you can, of course, cook the steak specifically for this salad, as I did. Once cooked, either slice thin or grate your steak. Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook your peppers with the steak and garlic powder for about five minutes. Turn the heat off and smother the still-hot steak and peppers with the shredded mozzarella. While this is melting, split the bag of lettuce between two plates or bowls. Add the cheese-covered steak onto the salads and you're ready to eat!The ingredients for Food Network's Easy Philly Steak Salad are:

one cup of fresh, diced red and green bell peppers
a six to eight ounce steak per person, cooked, sliced or shredded
a quarter teaspoon of garlic powder
one cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
a 10-ounce bag of salad mix

Turkey Taco Meatloaf

2009-01-19T18:55:00.003-05:00

A week or so ago, I made this meatloaf for dinner while Marcella was working late. It's from the Hungry Girl cookbook my mom had an extra copy of. I had never made a meatloaf before, but it seemed easy enough. To start, cook the chopped peppers and onions in a small skillet for three minutes. Then combine them in a large bowl with the ground turkey (a healthy substitute for ground beef), corn, and taco seasoning. In a 9"x5" pan spread out half the mix. You can easily fit two slices of cheddar cheese on top of this, then add the other half of the turkey mixture. Cover that in salsa and bake at 375 for half an hour. After this time has elapsed, top the meatloaf with the shredded cheese and bake it for another fifteen minutes. Done! This much makes a good-sized meal for two with a bit for leftovers.
Turkey Taco Meatloaf ingredients:

one pound of raw, extra-lean ground turkey
two slices of (fat-free, I guess) cheddar cheese
half a cup of shredded cheddar cheese
half a cup of sweet corn kernels
a quarter cup of chopped green bell peppers
a quarter cup of chopped onions
half a cup of salsa
a packet or so of dry taco seasoning

Baked Macaroni and Chile Cornbread

2009-01-12T19:35:00.006-05:00

I know, I know, I know! I managed zero posts in December. December was a busy month for me. Between travel and work and full weekends, I had no time for cooking something fancy. But, dear readers, I will make it up to you. I had planned on stopping the blog after one year, finishing with a bunch of meals in December. That was a bit optimistic. These winter months instill lethargy and a weekly requirement turns a fun task into a chore. I don't want to dread cooking, but when it's an obligation - a self-imposed one even - well...

Anyway, on the 4th of this month, I cooked dinner for Marcella and her mother. I picked two easily baked dishes that were good soul food: baked macaroni and cheese and smoky, chile cornbread. I don't normally try to prepare multiple dishes at a time. My slightly-broken range doesn't accommodate that many pots and skillets and my slightly-unskilled knowledge doesn't accommodate them either. But these two could be pipelined. Start preparing the first, bake it while preparing the second, then bake that when the first is done!

So let's get to work. I started with the baked macaroni and cheese. In a medium pot, I boiled normal elbow macaroni to al dente. Then, in a larger pot, I melted three tablespoons of butter. Add in flour and powdered mustard (see quantities below) and stir these all together. The mustard doesn't come out strong in the taste, but gives a nice color. After five minutes, stir in milk, diced onion, paprika, and a bay leaf (or leave out the bay leaf if you don't want to bother). Simmer these all together for ten minutes (then remove the bay leaf if you added one). Add in an egg (the recipe calls for "tempering" but I have no idea what that is) and nine ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (figure out how much nine ounces is by portioning out a package). Season this with salt and pepper and "fold in" (what?) the macaroni. Once this is all combined, pour it into a two quart casserole dish. Add the other three ounces of cheddar on top. This next part I didn't really quite get right. You're supposed to melt another three tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pan and toss a cup of bread crumbs. Sprinkle these crumbs over the macaroni and cheese in the casserole dish. I don't know if I did it wrong or what, but the top came out un-attached and a little too crunchy. Thoughts? Anyway, bake this in a 350 degree oven for half an hour. The macaroni and cheese was good (but not baked enough?), though I couldn't quite get over the crunchy crumbs...

OK, that was a large paragraph. It's really not too difficult though, I swear. And the cornbread's even easier. Just start cooking this fifteen minutes before the baked macaroni needs to leave the oven. In a 10-inch cast iron pan, starting cooking four strips of large, thick-cut bacon chopped into small bits. Yeah, it's already awesome, isn't it? Before the bacon gets crunchy, remove it to a paper-towel lined plate. In a larger bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a smaller bowl, beat four free range, local eggs (alright, alright, just four large eggs). Whisk in two cups of milk. Add this to the larger bowl. "Fold" in the bacon bits (folding again?), a seeded and minced chipotle chile (just one), and chives, if you like. Pour this batter into your cast iron skillet. Don't even worry about draining the bacon grease. OMG GOOD. Bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Long post is long.

Please note that the cornbread shown above is merely the portion of cornbread that represents Pac-Man.

Ingredients for Baked Macaroni and Cheese:

half a pound of elbow macaroni
three tablespoons of butter
three tablespoons of flour
a tablespoon of powdered mustard
three cups of milk
half a cup of a yellow onion, diced as best you can
a bay leaf (optional)
half a teaspoon of paprika
one large egg
12 total ounces of sharp cheddar, shredded
another three tablespoons of butter (for the crumbs)
a cup of bread crumbs (the crumbs)

Ingredients for Smoky Chile Cornbread:

four strips of thick-cut bacon, chopped
two cups of cornmeal, white or yellow (I chose yellow)
one cup of flour
two tablespoons of sugar
two teaspoons of baking powder
two teaspoons of baking soda
two teaspoons of salt
four large, free range eggs
two cups of milk
a chipotle chile, drained, stemmed, seeded, and minced
two tablespoons of finely chopped chives (if you want)

Mexican Lasagna

2008-11-17T08:37:00.009-05:00

What's with me and baking all of a sudden? First quiche (hi, Lorna!) and now a lasagna. Oh, right. It's the kind of cooking where I can start and then go play WoW. I've been on a bit of a Mexican kick recently and you know my penchant for fusion foods, so this meal fit in nicely. I've never made a lasagna before (and, arguably, I still haven't); this dish is lasagna-like in its preparation. That is, it's alternating layers of meat and veggies, a grain-based intermediary, and cheese. We just swapped the meat and veggies for Mexican-spiced chicken, black beans, and corn. The grain (usually pasta) for flour tortillas. And the cheese for, um, cheese.
To begin, start grilling two pounds of ground chicken (that's a lot of ground chicken) in a large skillet. Season the chicken with chili powder and cumin - to give it that Mexican smell and flavor - and add chopped red onions. Brown the meat for at least five minutes and then add your diced tomatoes, black beans, and corn. Heat this for another two or three minutes, making sure your chicken is well-cooked. The recipe calls for a shallow lasagna pan, but the one I ended up using was really just too large. It doesn't need to be deep, but it's better not to use one so voluminous (you'll see it took a lot of tortillas to cover from corner to corner). Coat the bottom with a little olive oil and then start spooning on your meat (half for two layers). Over the meat add a layer of tortillas - maybe quartered or halved to be more manageable. Over the tortillas add a sprinkling (about a cup) of shredded Cheddar or some other Mexican variety (I still had some left over from the fajita-tortilla soup). Repeat a second time, then bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 425. It really is best eaten hot, so invite friends. Fork through the tortillas and use them to spoon up the chicken. Who needs Taco Bell anyway?
The ingredients for Food Network's Mexican Lasagna are:

two pounds of ground chicken
two tablespoons of chili powder
two teaspoons of ground cumin
half a red onion, chopped
a 15-ounce can of black beans
a 14-ounce cup of fire-roasted tomatoes
a cup of corn kernels
eight (8-inch) flour tortillas (less is OK if cooking in a small pan)
two cups of shredded cheeses (your Mexican favorite)

Hash Brown Quiche

2008-11-10T20:14:00.006-05:00

Quiche, hmm... how to describe it. Quiche is basically an omelet in pie form. It features egg and milk or cream and possibly meats baked into a crust. For this particular variety of quiche, the crust is made ourselves from hash browns. Preparation is relatively simple: make the crust and bake it; make the omelet/egg mixture, pour it in, and bake some more. Making the crust was a little difficult. The three cups of hash browns weren't quite enough to completely fill the bottom of the pie tin. But spread them out as best you can and try to form a little wall around the edges. Bake this in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes or so.A brown, crisp spot began to form where the hash browns were the least concentrated, so that's a fine point to remove it and continue preparation. Don't worry, the whole thing will end up very crusty (and delicious) when we're done. While this is baking, in a bowl mix together the remaining ingredients. The called-for quantity of green onions might be a little much, so don't feel like you have to obey the recipe strictly. Even though I used cubed ham, feel free to add any omelet-like ingredients you may prefer. Bacon is always a good choice (does my blog need a new motto?). Pour this concoction into the crust when you've removed it from the oven, reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another half an hour. It's ready to eat when it's not too soft inside, but don't worry much - it'll solidify more as it cools down. Let sit for a few minutes and enjoy!
Ingredients for the recipe are:

three cups of shredded hash browns (if frozen, thawed)
four tablespoons of butter (half a stick)
three large eggs, beaten
a cup of half-and-half
3/4 cup of cooked, diced ham
1/2 cup of diced green onions
a cup of shredded Cheddar

Dessert Panini

2008-11-06T19:26:00.004-05:00

In the mood for something sinfully delicious, yet sinfully easy to make? How about this dessert panini? Yeah, I can't think of a more original name and I can't find the original recipe (which I deviated from anyway), but it's delicious and very simple. I did make it on my panini grill, but I suspect any sandwich-grilling solution would work. Let's dive in, shall we?
To start, spread creamy peanut butter (or any other dessert-like spread) over the "insides" of two pieces of white bread (per panini). Quarter a banana in half and then length-wise (like the picture above demonstrates). A whole banana is a lot per panini unless you really dig banana... Put these banana slices on your peanut butter and spread miniature marshmallows all around (they'll kind of stick to the peanut butter). Now for the part that requires coordination: take one half of a panini and, using your mad skillz, flip it on top. You can do this without losing any marshmallows, I swear. Butter a side (or both) and warm up your panini-grilling mechanism. Once it's nice and hot, start cooking each panini (and butter any sides you may have not buttered yet). Grill for only a few minutes (we're not cooking any meats here) and then remove. You should have nice, grilled cheese-looking lines on your paninis. Cover them in a dusting of powdered sugar and then line with chocolate syrup. Diabetes, here we come. Enjoy!
The ingredients are straight-forward:

two slices of white bread per panini
creamy peanut butter (or another sweet spread)
a banana or less per panini
miniature marshmallows (as many as you can manage)
butter (to spread on the outsides of the paninis before grilling)
powdered sugar and chocolate syrup to cover (and help you die faster)

Chicken Fajita-Tortilla Soup

2008-11-02T14:12:00.007-05:00

Sorry, gang. I'm a week late again. This meal was from last Sunday (October 26). Sometime in the near future I'll be cooking for this week. I've been tied up with recurring migraines and carpet installation, so it's been tough to find time to cook for fun. But when I did, I wanted to make some real pleasure food. Rachael Ray (no matter how you feel about her personally) can cook up a tasty meal. This "soup" ranks high on my indulgence meter. It's seasoned chicken with spicy tomatoes and veggies over tortillas with shredded cheese. OMG, delicious.
To start, prepare a bowl with crushed tortillas and shredded cheese (Rachael Ray's recipe called for Pepper Jack or a sharp white, but I used a four-cheese Mexican mix). Then chop up some chicken into bite-sized chunks (I've found that half a pound per person works well) and begin cooking in a large skillet with olive oil. Season the chicken in the pan with coriander, salt, and pepper and cook for three or four minutes. Then add the sliced onion, bell pepper, and jalapeños. Add more salt and pepper and continue cooking for six or seven minutes. The veggies should be crispy at this point. Add your diced tomatoes (I chose pre-jalapeño flavored) and chicken stock and heat through. Then simply ladle this soup in the bowls over the tortillas and cheese. Feel free to add more cheese or crushed chips if you'd like. You should end up with a gooey, delicious mess.
Ingredients list (not from Rachael Ray's book verbatim, but what I used), halved for two:

a pound of thinly-sliced chicken cut into cubes (for two people)
half a tablespoon of ground coriander
half a large onion, sliced
half a green bell pepper (or red if you'd like), sliced
half a jalapeño, sliced
a 14 ounce can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes (seasoned if you'd like)
two cups of chicken stock (or so, eyeball it)
corn tortilla chips
shredded cheese (Pepper Jack or something Mexican)

Marcella's Indonesian Satay

2008-10-24T18:39:00.013-04:00

Satay, if you're not familiar, is a dish of Indonesian origin: meat grilled on a skewer (in that way similar to Japanese yakitori and the well-known shish kebab) with spicy seasonings. The flavor comes from a marinade of sweet soy sauce and finishing with a peanut sauce dip. This particular meal was put together from a number of sources, most of Marcella's selection, and so reflects a unique take on the classic chicken satay. The overall plan is to make a marinade for the chicken, grill the chicken on the skewers, and then cover the chicken in our peanut sauce.
To make the marinade, mix in a bowl a tablespoon of the following ingredients: coriander, salt, sugar, crushed or powdered garlic, vegetable oil, regular soy sauce, and sweet soy sauce (which you may need to get at an Asian market). Toss the chicken, cut into small cubes (probably smaller than you see in these pictures), with this marinade and cover it for 45 minutes to an hour. When the chicken is ready, put a fair number on each skewer (here I chose eight, but you may want more if yours are cut smaller). Grill for about three or four minutes, rotating, grilling, rotating, and then grilling until the insides are well-cooked (this varies depending on how large the pieces of chicken are). To make the peanut sauce, we'll whip together smooth peanut butter with the sweet soy sauce we used in the marinade. Lime can be added to cut the taste and then add hot water until the sauce can be beaten down into something pourable (to smother the satay in) or dippable.
The ingredients for the marinade are a tablespoon each of:

ground coriander
salt
sugar
crushed garlic
vegetable oil
soy sauce
sweet soy sauce

The chicken used were fresh, boneless breasts (think about half a pound per person) on wooden skewers. The peanut sauce was made with:

smooth peanut butter
sweet soy sauce
lime to taste
and hot water to soften the mixture

Lamb with Lemon and Rosemary

2008-10-19T14:44:00.003-04:00

In the mood for a quick dinner, but want something healthy and delicious? Try lamb! This meal can be cooked inside, which is good since it's only around 45 degrees outside (autumn in New York). Grilled lamb is very tender and easy enough to cook. Your kitchen, however, will smell like lamb for days afterwards.
Brush both sides of your lamb choices with lemon juice and season with the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Grill for 4 minutes and flip, cooking for another 4 (for rare). Remove and cover for a few minutes before serving. Marcella and I chose to add baked potatoes to this simple meal. Hmm, I don't have much else to say. Sorry for the delay in posting. Happy cooking!
The ingredients for this lamb (excluding the baked potato) for four people are:

four pieces of lamb (chops, shanks, or shoulders - whatever your preference)
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup of fresh rosemary sprigs
plenty of salt and pepper for seasoning

Apple Strudel

2008-10-09T19:26:00.005-04:00

I am back from my two week trip abroad and I come bearing recipes! This apple strudel was demonstrated in a cooking lesson on our Viking River cruise ship, the Viking Sky. I brought back the recipe and, since it's apple season here in the Northeast, thought I'd try another dessert. Desserts are tough and my past record hasn't been so bright, but maybe this would turn out better with Marcella's assistance! This strudel is prepared in two parts: making (and then rolling) the dough and preparing the stuffing which is wrapped in the dough before baking. Since this takes some explaining, I'll use a few more pictures than usual. Again, I made half the amount the recipe calls for, which the pictures reflect but the quantities listed don't.
Making the dough required some guess work, so I'll just give you my advice. On a smooth surface or bowl, combine 0.75 or so pounds of flour (with two tablespoons of butter and an egg) with just enough water to keep it held together but not enough for it to be sticky. You don't want to see cracks in the dough nor should you have to pull it off your hands as you knead it into a ball. Cover the dough and let sit for 45 minutes.
Start preparing the stuffing by cutting up half a pound of apples (this is about one apple). Combine with raisins, bread crumbs, cinnamon, rum (Marcella recommends Myers's - great for cooking, a little rough for shots), shredded nuts, and sugar. When the dough is ready, spread it out on a cloth or wax paper (aluminum foil like I used is not a smart choice). Push the dough out to the sides in a rough rectangle (also unlike my picture), keeping it as thin as possible without having any holes. Too thick dough at this stage will result in a tough shell at the end (as you'll see I ended up with).
Tough yet? Here's the hard part: you'll want to use the cloth or wax foil to roll the stuffing up in the dough by forming a 'U' and sort of pulleying it around the strudel until it's completely covered. Try and get it something like the picture above (but more attractive). I forgot this step, but you should paint the top with melted butter. Ooops! Bake this at 340 (a European temperature?) for 45 minutes. Make sure you don't bake the cloth (or wax foil?). Remove and serve hot! The Viking Sky team recommends with vanilla rum or vanilla ice cream (you gotta love these folks).
The ingredients as provided to me by the Viking Sky team (thanks, guys, you were fantastic!) is as follows (twice what I used) for the stuffing:

one pound of apples (about two apples, your preference of type, I used McIntosh)
2 oz of raisins
2.5 oz of bread crumbs (plain)
one tablespoon of cinnamon
2 cl of rum (a shot or so, told you it was European)
2 tablespoons of shredded nuts
a half cup of sugar

And for the dough:

1,5 (1.5) pounds of flour
4 tablespoons of melted butter
one or two eggs
water and a pinch of salt (to taste, ha, take it)

Mac and Cheese Lorraine

2008-09-12T21:23:00.005-04:00

Oh, Rachael Ray: when will you learn that we aren't all professional chefs? This meal says "mac and cheese" in it and "lorraine" - in this case that means smoked bacon - so it must be simple and delicious, yes? Well, it's also too complicated for one person to manage easily. So grab your favorite cooking buddy and come along. This meal is three parts: two simple and one difficult. All of these parts can (and should) happen simultaneously, which is why I recommend a cute and capable partner.
The gentleman that I am, I took charge of the pasta and bacon and left the hard part to Marcella. Simply boil your favorite short-cut pasta and a fair quantity of smoked bacon. Remove the bacon from the frying pan or skillet and then add and caramelize the onions (about 10 minutes or so). For the last minute, add the white wine and cook it together or skip this part if you don't have white wine ready. The complex part is the cheese sauce. Melt the butter into a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Oh, and that part is impossible; good luck. After a minute, whisk in the chicken stock and milk. Bring this to a boil, cooking for a few more minutes until thick. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the cheese. Add nutmeg, mustard, and more salt and pepper. When this is finished, mix together the pasta and onions and stir in the sauce. Top each with bacon and enjoy!
The ingredients for Rachael Ray's Mac and Cheese Lorraine are:

a pound of short-cut pasta
a half pound of bacon, chopped up (more bacon is always better)
a tablespoon of olive oil for the pan in which we cook the bacon
two onions (less, if you want, but this much is actually OK), quartered and thinly sliced
a half cup of dry white wine (optional)
two tablespoons of butter
two tablespoons of flour
a cup of chicken stock
a cup of whole milk
two cups of shredded Gruyère (this cheese just keeps showing up, doesn't it?)
a little grated nutmeg
a tablespoon of Dijon mustard

Bacon-Feta Stuffed Chicken

2008-09-02T20:51:00.003-04:00

For the past few weeks, my good friends Katie and Drew McCrory have been staying with me as they prepare to (hopefully) close on their (hopefully) new home. This meal, from the 24th of August, was made by them and, well, I think the pictures speak for just how delicious it was. The directions sound simple, but are not. Slice into the deepest part of your chicken breasts and fill them with feta cheese and bits of bacon. Cooking in a skillet with oil until browned would be simple if the chicken wasn't bulging and falling apart with delicious innards (doesn't the phrase "delicious innards" sound just appetizing?). Katie did a fantastic job keeping the chicken together while flipping to cook the other side. Finish by adding the diced tomatoes. If you have a husband, he should prepare a luscious, Greek salad in the meantime, as Drew did. Since this is one of the best looking meals I've shown here, I'll just shut up now and let you see the pictures. Recipe below.
The ingredients to Taste of Home's (a site they recommend) Bacon-Feta Stuffed Chicken are:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup of crumbled bacon (more is OK, as always)
1/4 cup of crumbled feta (for the chicken alone)
salt and pepper
a tablespoon of vegetable oil
2 cans of diced tomatoes
a tablespoon of dried basil

Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken

2008-08-27T19:03:00.004-04:00

Oh, I'm so lazy. I have been cooking, at least for the weekends I've been in town. This meal was from the 17th of August, sent to me by my mother in a Cook's Illustrated newsletter. I really enjoy sesame-based Asian meals and this was no exception. Cooked in two parts, the sauce itself is the most complicated. The recipe calls for mixing these ingredients in a blender or food processor, but I've yet to acquire either. So in a bowl I mixed peanut butter, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, the rice vinegar, Tabasco, sugar, and some sesame seeds. From the boiling pot (see below), I added tablespoons of water until this sesame oil mixture was soft enough to stir well.
Boil the Asian noodles (yeah right, or spaghetti). In the meantime, spray a cooking sheet with vegetable oil. Place the chicken breasts on the sheet and broil until the chicken is lightly brown (or at least cooked throughout). Once removed from the oven, let the chicken cool and cut it up into smallish pieces. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water. I know, weird right? But this meal is basically served cold. Toss the noodles with the chicken and cover with the sesame oil sauce you made earlier. Then add scallions and shredded carrot and cover with more sesame seeds. Eat!
The ingredients list for Cook's Illustrated's Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken is:

a 1/4 cup or so of sesame seeds
a 1/4 cup of chunky (or smooth) peanut butter
2 garlic cloves (minced or through a garlic press, if you're fancy)
a tablespoon of ginger (fresh or not)
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco)
2 tablespoons of light brown sugar (or regular sugar, really)
a pound and a half of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
a pound of fresh Asian noodles (or spaghetti)
2 tablespoons of actual sesame oil
4 scallions, sliced somehow
a medium carrot, grated

Roasted Peppercorn Turkey Panini

2008-08-03T16:49:00.002-04:00

A few weeks back, my mother and grandmother came to spend the weekend with me. Not one to miss an opportunity, I enlisted them in choosing and helping me fashion a lunch for the three of us. After a long weekend of cleaning and shopping, nothing hits the spot like a delicious, not-exactly-healthy panini. This particular recipe came from a book on cast-iron grilling, but applied equally well to my less antiquarian cooking methods. That is to say, I used a panini grill and not two pieces of ribbed metal. I wonder if George Foreman has a panini grill, as it really is the trendy version of his famous "grilling machines".
I had to highlight the sliced avocado, as it something to behold. These paninis are made in fun sections. For each one, butter a side of its two pieces of multigrain bread (for serious, multigrain actually tastes good here). Prepare a mixture of the mayonnaise, sour cream, chipotle pepper, lime juice and zest, and cilantro. Spread this on the non-buttered side of each slice. Spread the turkey breast between the paninis, laying it along one side each, and then top with the cooked bacon. Put the paninis together and grill them until the cheese has melted, about 7 minutes or so. Once removed from the grill, add the sliced avocado in the middle, slice, and serve. To slice an avocado, by the way, peel it, pull out the core, and then cut length-wise until it's in thin slices, being careful that they don't fall apart. This my mother taught me and she did it fantastically.
The ingredients to make four are as such (please don't sue me):

1/2 cup of mayo
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1 teaspoon of "chopped chipotle chile in adobo"
1 teaspoon of lime juice
1/2 teaspoon of lime zest
1 tablespoon of cilantro (if you want)
2 tablespoons of softened butter (for each side of the paninis)
8 slices (or 2 * n) of whole wheat or multigrain bread
8 slices of provolone cheese
a pound of deli-sliced peppercorn turkey breast
8 slices (or more!) of smoked, cooked bacon
a ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and cut in 1/4" slices

The chilis in adobo sauce you can find in the Hispanic section of your grocery store (did I say that unracistly?). The sliced provolone can be found in your fresh dairy section.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

2008-08-03T15:39:00.004-04:00

This meal came from July 27th. The band and I had just finished our five hour marathon set and we were looking for something simple and guy-friendly to eat. This buffalo chicken recipe was both good man-food and "healthy" because of the salad. No, maybe my logic doesn't hold, but it sure was yummy. Here, now, is something any dude can make on a Sunday.
Preheat your oven to broil. What makes this chicken so delicious is that it wasn't contact-grilled. Put the chicken between two sheets of wax paper and flatten it with a hammer or some other chicken-flattening-device. Then mix together two teaspoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of hot sauce (your preference, but probably not something small like Tabasco sauce). Toss and coat the chicken in this and then place the strips on a baking sheet. Broil until the chicken is done throughout (four to six minutes), turning once half-way. This makes the chicken unbelievably tender and the smell of the hot sauce is fantastic. The salad is straight forward: Romaine, celery, carrots, and scallions. Put the chicken on top and cover with your dressing of choice (the recipe recommended a home-made blue cheese, but we just bought some from the store).
The ingredients for Food Network's buffalo chicken salad are:

16 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper hot sauce (or your preference)
2 teaspoons of olive oil
about 8 cups of Romaine hearts (just buy a bag from the grocery)
4 celery stalks, sliced thin
2 carrots, coarsely grated (or buy a bag of grated carrots: easy)
2 scallions, sliced (if you want)
blue cheese dressing of your choice

Pasta Stir-Fry

2008-08-03T15:19:00.005-04:00

I am so unbelievably behind. This simple meal was from the 20th of July. I'm going to power through it and then through the next so I can catch up. Pasta stir-fry is an easy Italian/Asian blend (and you know my penchant for fused genres). It requires preparing three separate ingredients at once and then mixing them together.
If you can get a friend to help, this will go much easier. We are preparing - at the same time - the pasta, the chicken, and the stir-fried vegetables. Boil the pasta to al dente in salted water and drain when finished. Slice and then cook (or cook and then slice) the chicken. Heat the canola oil in a large skillet or wok adding the onion, red pepper, ginger, and eggplant. Let this cook for a minute and then add the garlic, broccoli, tomatoes, and soy sauce. I love the smell of cooking soy sauce. After a couple more minutes, add the drained pasta and chicken. If you can, aim for the pasta to be finishing the same time as the chicken. That is, right as the vegetables have simmered for a few minutes. Toss this around and cook it for another minute, then serve.The ingredients for this pasta stir-fry ("courtesy" of Food Network's website) are:

a package of linguine (whole-wheat, if you choose)
2 tablespoons of canola oil
a medium onion, sliced
a red bell pepper, also sliced
a 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced (I just used a liberal amount of ginger spice)
half a small eggplant, sliced into small chunks
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
a cup of broccoli florets (if frozen, thawed)
a 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
a chicken breast, cooked and sliced
2 scallions, sliced (for garnish, if you choose)

Ernestine's Japanese Pie

2008-07-17T22:41:00.008-04:00

Ernestine Childress (my grandmother) claims that this recipe isn't hers, but since it's her friend's Japanese friend's recipe, this is a close enough abbreviation. Even though I haven't highlighted one of Tene's recipes before, her influence is present in many, many dishes I've prepared. And, while on vacation home in the Carolinas, she gave me this recipe. I can't honestly tell you what makes this recipe Japanese, but a Google search for "japanese pie" reveals other recipes similar to this one. In any case, here we go with the preparation.
The ingredients list is shown below. Simply combine all ingredients together in a bowl. This makes, basically, a full pie. Feel free to add a little more of the quantity you desire the most, but don't be too concerned about the presence of vinegar in this recipe: it's easily overpowered by the sugar and butter (although it does give us this deep, rich color). The two ingredients you probably don't have handy are coconut and pecans. Both, however, can be picked up in your grocery's baking isle. Unsure what kind of vinegar to use, I just bought some balsamic. After baking, below is how it turned out (while still hot). Once cool, it's easier to cut into pieces, but is very delicious while hot (and can be eaten with a fork).
The ingredients to Ernestine's Japanese pie are as follows:

1 stick of margarine (8 tablespoons) or butter, melted
1/2 cup of coconut
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 egg, beaten
an unbaked pie sheet

Mix the ingredients together and pour into the pie sheet. Bake for 40 minutes at 300 degrees. Eat!

Grandma Maroni's Meatballs

2008-06-30T20:32:00.005-04:00

Who is Grandma Maroni? I have no idea. But if you want to use this recipe yourself, just substitute your grandma of choice (but don't use Grandma Ward). There are actually two recipes here: meatballs and a tomato sauce (also Maroni's). You can combine these two with spaghetti for a regular meal or serve the meatballs with a dipping sauce. Since we were having band practice this Sunday (I'll be gone next weekend), I thought I'd just prepare some food for my friends at the same time.
These meatballs are actually easy to make and I used the full quantities in the recipe (which made ~16 moderate-to-large-sized meatballs). Meatballs aren't particularly appetizing to photo and the bottoms were crispier than the pictures show, but they were also quite delicious. Just combine the ingredients listed below in a good-sized mixing bowl, roll into 1 to 2 inch round balls, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Like the recipe says, if they are still too squishy when handling, add more bread crumbs.
The tomato sauce is nothing particularly fancy: it's basically crushed tomatoes combined with sliced garlic and diced onions. I must admit that I prefer my pasta sauce out of a can and without these fresh ingredients. What does that tell you? You can lead a horse to the kitchen but you can't make him cook. The goal, really, was to make something that anyone could enjoy, without being too fanciful or flavor-foreign. In that regard, the meatballs were good "finger" food and could be dipped into the sauce for some extra pasta-y flavor. OK, I promise I'm done with the hyphenated words.
Oh yeah, here are my friends being awesome. From left to right: Peter, Cory, and Jon. By high score, our band is a ranked a little over 300 in the world. And now for the recipes. Grandma Maroni's Meatballs:

1 pound of ground chuck
0.5 cups of bread crumbs
4 large eggs
0.5 cups of milk
3/4 cups of grated Romano cheese
3 ounces of grated onion
1/4 cup of diced garlic
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
0.25 cups of chopped basil

Just combine all these ingredients in a bowl, roll into balls, bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes, and serve. And for Maroni's sauce (I used a quarter of these ingredients):

6 ounces of "good" olive oil (whatever)
12 garlic cloves (!), sliced
1 or 2 onions, diced
2 (!) 28-ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper (1 teaspoon or so each)
1 "large handful julienned fresh basil leaves"

Again, this sauce seems a little much. Just buy a can of Ragu and you'll be fine. ;-)

Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Panini

2008-06-24T20:01:00.006-04:00

OK, OK, OK, it's not really Black Forest ham, I couldn't find any of that, it's just regular deli ham. Proper Black Forest ham (with capital letters) - from the Schwarzwald region in Germany - is cured with a myriad of spices for one to three months. Albanian ham - from the Clifton Park region of New York state - is sold pre-packaged as lunch meat. Anyway, what's with this cookbook's fascination with Gruyère?
Oh, yeah, so... I bought a panini grill. A friend of mine clued me in to a great deal (she stays up late looking for sales on cooking equipment, apparently) and so I thought I'd indulge. Paninis and panini grills have been trendy this past year, but paninis are actually quite delicious and, if you can convince yourself, rather healthy. Alright, before you grammarians start complaining, I know "paninis" is a catachresis, but you're just going to have to deal. "Panino" is the singular and "panini" is the plural; I'm not saying panino.
So back to the sandwich... Between the (rather large) pieces of Italian bread, we've got a spread of Gorgonzola, caramelized onion, Albanian ham, and sliced Gruyère. When we afixed the Gruyère atop the turkey burgers of a weekend prior, we found that this cheese is simply too hard to melt in such a format. In between hot grill presses, it melted fantastically and was absolutely delicious. As the top and bottom of the bread was buttered for this panino (sigh), the grill left absolutely gorgeous marks upon each. Seven minutes, as the recipe commands, is simply too long for such bread (soft, but not crusty). Five would work fine, though maybe it would vary if you used a more gourmet roll (pro tip: pick up some from Panera on your drive home).
And now for the recipe, which serves four (please don't sue me). Adjust your quantities as per your guests:

2 red onions
1 tablespoon of chopped, fresh tarragon (if you choose)
1 tablespoon of chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley (if you choose)
4 tablespoons of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, softened
4 crusty (curmudgeonly?) Italian rolls, sliced horizontally
1 pound of Black Forest (or Albanian) ham, thinly sliced
8 slices Gruyère cheese
misc. quantities of butter, sugar, salt, and pepper as detailed below

We'll want to caramelize the onions first, so melt 2 tablespoons of butter into a cast-iron (or non-stick) skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the sliced onions for two minutes, then reduce heat to low and season with 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper. Sauté for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once removed from heat, you can toss the onions with the tarragon and parsley. Butter both sides of your crusty Italian loaf (that was fun to type) and then combine 2 tablespoons of softened butter with the 2 tablespoons of softened Gorgonzola. Spread the Gorgonzola on the insides of the rolls, layer with the caramlized onion, the ham, and then two slices of Gruyère each. Grill these sandwiches in the panini grill for five to seven minutes and then eat while hot.

Tandoori Chicken Salad

2008-06-16T19:47:00.008-04:00

I had a hard time picking what to cook for this week's meal (last week I was down in NYC at MoCCA and visiting friends). I wanted something simple, but not boring. After much deliberating (debilitating?), I found this recipe for Tandoori chicken salad from Food Network's website. Tandoori chicken is an Indian dish where the chicken is marinaded in a curry-esque yogurt. The meal is simple: make the yogurt marinade, grill the chicken, then add it atop a salad.
The marinade was simple enough: yogurt with Garam masala, ginger, garlic, turmeric, and a minced jalapeño chili. Garam masala is an Indian blend of cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, and other spices. Turmeric is a Southeast Asian spice from the ginger family often used in curries. Thoroughly coating the chicken and grill it along with some of the marinade until there's no remaining pink.

Once finished, add it to a salad of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, scallions, jicama, or your preferred greens. The recipe actually calls for cabbage, radishes, and cilantro, but these aren't really of my preference, so I did without. I had never heard of jicama before; it's, well, a potato/yam-like starchy thing that looks rough from the outside but is very juicy and crunchy on the inside. Without much flavor itself, it absorbs those its paired with. It was actually very delicious!
And now, by popular request, the ingredients and preparation. First, the link to Food Network's recipe: Tandoori Chicken Salad. It looks to be for a limited-time only, so print it now if you want to keep it. The marinade's ingredients are:

1 cup of plain yogurt
2 teaspoons of Garam masala (powder)
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of garlic (minced or powder)
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of salt
a jalapeño chili, minced, if you so choose

Just stir these all together and cover the chicken thoroughly. Keep the chicken marinading while preparing the salad thusly:

shredded iceberg lettuce, as much as you need
shredded red cabbage (I just used a bag of mixed salad greens)
1 cup of sliced radishes, if that's what you're into
2 cups of sliced cucumber
a small bunch of sliced scallions
1 cup of finely chopped cilantro leaves (unless you're Ian)
1.5 cups of diced jicama

Just combine the grilled chicken with the salad vegetables and enjoy! How easy was that?

Gruyère Turkey Burgers

2008-06-03T21:43:00.012-04:00

What do you do when summer arrives and you've spent all winter eating and hibernating? When you've got some extra pounds to lose before beach-bound sunbathing, but you just can't pass up the opportunity to grill out? Try replacing your double-stacked bacon cheeseburger with one of these!
Fresh ground turkey (extra lean) is a great, healthy substitute. Aim for half a pound and cook for five minutes or less per side. Make your patties too large and they won't cook through quick enough. Dry turkey is no good. While the burger is grilling, we'll go ahead and throw on everything else: some sliced mushrooms and sourdough bread to use as a bun. Before the turkey is completely finished, cover it in grated Gruyère and let the cheese melt for a few minutes.
Gruyère is a hard cheese, imported from Switzerland, and is generally expensive and exquisite. Once the cheese has had time to melt, move the turkey burgers onto the sliced pieces of sourdough bread. Cover with the mushrooms and enjoy your healthy alternative to the normal American excess. How easy was that? Fancy!

Ward's Thai Chicken Kabobs

2008-05-25T15:17:00.006-04:00

When I first revealed my idea of combining chicken kabobs with rice and curry to make a Thai dish, I was told, "Kabobs aren't Thai." No, the method of cooking meat skewered with vegetables is not particularly Asian, but that's exactly why I think it's interesting. Coating the chicken in an Asian marinade and then serving atop rice smothered in curry struck me as a great hybrid. What better way to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend than importing some Southeast Asian food and globalizing some American chicken? So I present to you now: Ward's Thai Chicken Kabobs (complete with terrible Photoshop art).

The marinade is created thusly: stir together two tablespoons of sesame oil, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 2 teaspoons of ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper. Thoroughly coat the chicken cut in 1-inch squares and leave them covered until ready to skewer and cook (which we'll do last). For vegetables, I cut up half a red and half a yellow bell pepper and added some sliced pineapple. Another idea to try instead of this marinade is the one from the Thai chicken pizza of a few months back. Be creative!

Prepare the rice with your favorite method. I used two cups of rice (a lot of rice!) with four cups of water. Cook covered and over low heat for fifteen minutes. Feel free to buy another bag of rice and just throw it away. That's how America rolls: screw food shortages in other countries! I wanted to make a yellow curry, but it's damn hard finding curry paste where I live. If you happen to have access to a Southeast Asian friend to help you, please make something authentic! Otherwise, combine 7 ounces of coconut milk with a tablespoon of curry paste and half a teaspoon of curry powder. Feel free to double this quantity if serving more than two. Simmer the curry over low heat for five minutes.

Once the rice and curry are good to go, put the kabobs over a grill of some sort and cook for four or five minutes per side. It can be tough to get the heat into the center of the chicken if the pieces are resting up above the grill, so you may need a few more minutes of rotation. On a plate, pile up a big ol' mess of rice, top with your grilled chicken and vegetables, and cover in the curry. Eat it! If you try this recipe, please let me know how it was and what I can do to improve it. Most of the ingredients listed are pulled from previous/other meals as well as my own (limited) intuition. It can be hard, but try and get all the parts finished at the same time; cold rice and curry do not a great addition make.

Peppercorn Sauce Over Steak

2008-05-12T22:22:00.008-04:00

I must admit, it has been a pleasantly busy weekend - a brief calm before the storm of the coming week. I've had little time to prepare an elaborate dish, so I hope you'll forgive another steak recipe. This time the emphasis is on making a peppercorn sauce to go over your cut of choice. Since this meal is relatively straight-forward, I thought I'd experiment with some cropping and Photoshop touch-ups of my pictures.

What am I trying to hide? Perhaps if I leave the cooking up to the imagination, the results will turn out better. ;-) I jest. The work here is in preparing the sauce. I had to journey to that distant land known as Hannaford to find a shallot; Price Chopper is failing me more and more regularly. Finely chop a tablespoon of shallot, cook in some olive oil, and then add a clove of garlic and two-thirds of a teaspoon of peppercorn. I couldn't find fresh, brine-packed peppercorn, so I simply used McCormick's instead. I've got quite a collection of McCormick seasonings at this point - maybe it's time to invest in a spice rack (or a spice weasel? "BAM!").

Attention span: gone. Now would be the time to add a cup of red wine and (shockingly!) I had none handy. But a cup of chicken stock and half a cup of water will do the trick. Boil ten to fifteen minutes until the sauce has reduced. Strain into a smaller saucepan and melt in two tablespoons of butter along with another two-thirds teaspoon of peppercorn. Keep this warm while grilling your steak. Your sauce will look creamy as above, but too much time over heat will result in the chicken stock thickening out and that's gross (see the final pictures below).

Grill your steak as you would normally. And, when finished, slice thin and cover with the peppercorn sauce. As you can see, mine ended up separating before the steak was finished. Alas, my cooking skills have much improvement to make. But the steak was delicious and the peppercorn quite good nonetheless. Did my cropped photos work? No? Can you tell they're Photoshopped? Here's a hint: the last photo had a fork in it. ;-) God speed and eat well, friends. Ooops, I totally forgot - I won't be around this coming weekend. Cook something for me... and then devour it yourself!

Lindsey's London Broil

2008-05-05T21:23:00.005-04:00

I know not who the eponymous Lindsey is, but I must thank her for an excellent steak. Target has a nice selection of Calphalon cookware, and this past weekend I picked up a rather stylish grill pan. I realize, of course, that a grill pan bought at the start of the warm season is like a snow blower in Georgia. But if it's rainy (or snowy or you suck at grilling), a grill pan is an easy way to fix a steak or burger or seven hot dogs at once.

But you know all this. "Ward, you're just grilling a steak?" you ask. Let me draw you an analogy. If you are at all familiar with Fighting Games, then you are aware of the U-shaped learning curve. When one picks up a Fighter for the first time, it is instinct to "button-mash". That is, to press all the keys at random, hoping for a favorable outcome. Unfortunately (a sign of bad game design?), a new player can go a long way with haphazard technique. Once you decide to learn the game's core mechanics, your win percentage drops considerably. You embark on a longer journey then, to master the simple before mastering the complex. To the naïve, this can seem a step backward. To the cognoscenti, you show dedication.

And here I thought I could get through this whole post without mentioning the meal at all. A London Broil is a top round steak, not dissimilar to a flank steak (and you can safely replace a London Broil with a flank steak, if you so choose). This steak tends to have a distinct grain, but is quite thick. Lindsey's contribution consists of a marinade of olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic, and soy sauce. Delicious! Thoroughly cover the steak(s) and refrigerate them for at least six hours (or overnight, as I did). Thaw well before tossing onto a very hot grill. Cook for five or so minutes on each side. Expect a pink interior, but remember that to a gourmand (why would we care about them?), medium-rare is preferable to medium-well. I like mine medium-well.

Special thanks to Peter for his guest photography! Serve alongside a minimalist salad of baby spinach (I chose an Asiatic Sesame dressing to match the soy sauce in the marinade). This Franciscan Merlot (2004, Napa Valley) was just brilliant: hints of black cherry and not strong enough to overpower the steak. Excellent! 'Til next time, faithful reader. Eat well and enjoy good company!

Skillet Cornbread

2008-04-28T21:04:00.008-04:00

The other day, a friend asked if I knew how to make cornbread. Of course I do! When I was a young girl, my mother and I- oh, no, wait, I'm a guy. Men who leave the South have a different set of skills: grilling, mowing the yard, repairing the, uh, carburetor? OK, let's face it - I have the skill set of a metrosexual 20-something. I can wear slim, designer slacks, choose a fierce bottle of wine, and wire a set of audiophile loudspeakers in two minutes flat. But the goal of this blog is to shatter that glass ceiling in my kitchen, so why not bake some cornbread this weekend? This particular recipe came from Food Network's website (link at the bottom) and was chosen almost entirely because it involved bacon (and, as we know, a meal with bacon is better than a meal without).

The preliminary steps - and those that make this recipe different from other cornbread recipes - is to cook up some bacon, minced garlic, and jalapeños. These will act as the flavor base in the crusty top of the cornbread since we'll be pouring the cornmeal mix right on top of these and their greasy, delicious juices. Cook the garlic and jalapeños until they've softened and the bacon has browned, but remember that we'll be baking them for almost half an hour. To be honest, you're not going to be able to taste the jalapeño if you use less than the recommended four, so don't be squeamish. The taste of the cornbread itself will far overpower the other ingredients unless you get a bite consisting mostly of bacon, and the bacon grease won't absorb the garlic or jalapeno flavoring because it's, well, grease. We Southerners sure know how to eat healthy, amIright?

We see here combined two separate containers. In the first, cornmeal (my only option was Quaker brand; I guess there's not a lot of competition in Albany grocery stores), baking powder, baking soda (they're different, but no one knows how), salt, and pepper. In the second, buttermilk, two eggs lightly beaten (here's an opening for a joke, but my mind is a barren wasteland), and melted butter. Then mix these two together to form the batter we'll be adding straight into the skillet. It may seem like a lot in the bowl, but it should nicely fill a 10" skillet (the one shown is 12", which the ladies prefer [groan]).

The first picture here is the batter in the skillet before baking, the second 25 minutes later (oven at 450). It came out just right. Insert a knife and if it comes out damp or greasy, stick the skillet back in the oven. Technically, this has been prepared upside down and you can flip it over onto a serving plate, but I'd recommend against this. For one, this top is better looking than the crispy bottom (compare pictures three and four, respectively). For two, a cast iron skillet is heavy and you'll never keep the bread intact while flipping. So cut in, serve, and enjoy. I know cornbread is usually eaten with a meal, but I think this is a sufficient enough amount of work for a bachelor.
Food Network's recipe: Skillet Cornbread

Blackened Scallops with Sauvignon Blanc-Lemon Caper Sauce

2008-04-21T20:35:00.007-04:00

I was rather excited about this dish for a number of reasons. On Saturday, some friends and I drove down to an outlet mall outside NYC. They had a Le Creuset store that, while the cookware was unbelievably expensive, sold a book on cast iron cooking I had to pick up. As you've seen, I have a cast iron skillet I've used a few times before, but now I have a good excuse to use it more often. This dish also allowed me to experiment with a new type of seafood, though scallops aren't quite as "hardcore" as some other saltwater meats. And I tried a new photographing technique which I believe has resulted in better pictures. I'll let you be the judge! [The Centrum Performance in the second picture was not part of the ingredients.]

So down to business: the scallops will be seasoned with a combination of garlic powder, cayenne powder, salt, ground pepper, and your favorite selection of seafood grilling seasonings. Thoroughly cover the scallops and, once some butter has melted into your skillet, add the scallops to cook. By the time they've browned on each side (aim for five minutes per), the meat will be nice and tender inside, so remove them and set them aside.

Now for the part I'm not so sure I got right. Deglaze the pan with some of the white wine and lemon juice, stirring in the bits from the bottom of the skillet. Naturally, the cast iron is full of succulent juices and we'll be using the wine to loosen what's cooked down. However, once I did this, my house was full of steam and now smells completely of almost-burnt seafood (seriously, my windows and doors are open as I write this... a whole day later). Add garlic and the capers, melting in some butter, and cook for a few minutes (not long). Pour this concoction over the scallops and serve!

The sauce in the pictures is dark, yes, but not solid. Interestingly, the meal itself was very flavorful, though the meat quite tender and neutral. The seasoning was alright, but the sauce and capers were both strong - the capers like a pickled olive. Overall, I enjoyed this dish, though I wish I could get the smell out of my house. That's all for now. Farewell!

Crab and Corn Chowder with Pasta

2008-04-15T20:42:00.005-04:00

In all fairness, Rachael Ray calls this "Crab and Corn Chowda-Mac", as a mix of New England meals: corn chowder with crab meat and mac and cheese. How New England is mac and cheese? Don't ask. But, I live here now and I'm trying more seafood items, so this seems like a pretty easy way to nail all my goals. A forewarning: the quantity of ingredients used and the temperatures I cooked at rendered the milky chowder-ness gone. I'm not sure how liquid Rachael planned this dish to be, but mine ended up more floury. Enough rambling, on with the cooking!

I don't have a lot of pictures for you this time. This meal was actually quite easy to make. Choose a large type of pasta (I chose rigatoni because it was, well, large) and cook it until al dente. This can happen while you're preparing the chowder itself. Slice up some bacon, an onion, celery ribs, and a small red bell pepper. Put the bacon on first to cook for a few minutes, then add the chopped onion and celery, cook a while longer, then add the bell pepper.

Pretty simple so far. The interesting part (and the first part that makes it properly chowder) is to add two tablespoons of flour. This immediately solidifies around the bacon and veggies and results in a stiffer concoction. Adding a cup of stock and a cup of milk will complete the chowderification of our meal. I think, in retrospect, I shouldn't have halved these liquid quantities as I did the majority of Rachael's servings (I'm not feeding four, I'm on a diet). Using a full cup (I used half) of each would have resulted in a far more chowder-like dinner. Anyway, once the milk is bubbling - and, presumably, before it has cooked down - add the crab meat and corn kernels. Heat this through and season with a cup or two of shredded white Cheddar cheese and cayenne pepper.

So, yes, we can observe my real problem. Many pictures of these dishes are turning out unappetizing (I swear they look better in real life). A close flash is necessary to get sharp images, but the flash itself reflects off the often moist food in a terrible way. Turn the flash off and my shaky hands ruin all photos. The proper method of photographing culinary renditions would involve (I suspect) large, indirect lights and a tripod-mounted SLR camera. I, however, do not have a thousand dollars to spend on photographic equipment. Nevertheless, I will do my best to improve future pictures. Oh. Right. The meal. It was actually quite delicious, especially if you enjoy crab meat. Could this meal work without pasta? Certainly. The cheese and bacon add a fantastic flavor (or mask the crab, if that's your thing) and more milk next time would've given us a proper chowder even a native Northerner would be proud of (I'm just faking it). See ya next time!

Montalcino Chicken and Buttered Gnocchi

2008-04-06T18:34:00.008-04:00

This weekend has been such an absolute disaster, I'm rather surprised my house didn't catch fire. I tried my best to pretend like I didn't exist, but how could I neglect you, solitary reader? And so I present a dish near the end of my Rachael Ray cookbook: Montalcino Chicken with Figs and Buttered Gnocchi with Nutmeg. Alas, a more fitting title would be Jacob's Creek Chicken without Figs and Buttered Gnocchi with Nutmeg. Rachael Ray married in Montalcino, Italy and she requests a Rosso di Montalcino red wine for this meal. As you could surmise, I used a Jacob's Creek Shiraz instead. First, the preparatory ingredients:

The well-trained eye will notice the pancetta! Only one grocery in my area carries pancetta and only diced. This recipe actually calls for thick, sliced pancetta, but I'll just have to do without, since I live in hell's northern retreat. Gnocchi (which, as it turns out, no one in the world knows how to pronounce) is an Italian dumpling. When boiled, it's soft and chewy. The two herbs on the cutting board are chives (top) and parsley (bottom). The chicken has been dredged (yep, that's a cooking term) through flour. The meal is cooked in two parts - and simultaneously if you're talented: the chicken and vegetables, and the gnocchi [See why the Oxford comma is necessary? -Ward].

The pancetta is cooked first (and, diced, it cooks fast) then set aside. Grill the chicken on both sides for a few minutes and push to the edge of the skillet to add the sliced onion and crushed garlic. Figs are not in season as I write this, but if they were, or if you were mentally capable enough to remember things, you could add your substitute now. I, however, forgot. Sauté for a few minutes and then add some quantity of wine. Rachael's recipes, when they call for wine, always turn out normal looking. Mine turn out as if I bled all over them (and if you're aware of what I did with scissors Friday, this would not be a bad bet). Once the wine has cooked down, add a bit of chicken stock, the parsley, and "zest of 1 lemon". When you feel that this has been done sufficiently, remove it from heat.

While you're cooking the chicken and vegetables, boil water and add your preferred quantity of gnocchi. Gnocchi will boil quite fast depending on how much you're preparing. Once softened, add it and/or them to a small sauce pan that has been melting butter. Season with the chives and nutmeg and sauté until slightly brown. Once finished, combine the chicken with the pancetta and gnocchi and serve. Delicious! OK, a word of warning before you click on the larger version of this final image: sliced onions cooked in red wine look exactly like earthworms.

Grasshopper Pie

2008-03-30T13:39:00.000-04:00

This pie is made from 100% real grasshoppers. Optionally, replace "real" with "no". My last attempt at a dessert dish met with failure - the likes of which haven't been seen since the latest Bear Stearns board meeting. OK, I'll quit with the terrible jokes. I was fairly sure (and am not convinced otherwise yet) that my bottom oven burner wasn't working. But, as far as this pie is concerned, that wasn't an issue. Ian, my culinarily-inclined friend, shared this recipe with me and it looked so good I couldn't resist ruining it myself.

A grasshopper pie isn't a pie in the traditional sense: it uses crushed Oreos as the primary filler and then a melty, sweet concoction on top. Take 20 Oreos, halve them, and "get rid of" the creme filling. Then crush the Oreos into a particulate homogeneity. Pro tip courtesy of Kaitlyn and Drew: put the Oreos in a closed Ziploc bag and crush them there. Brilliant! Mix these crumbs with some melted butter and pat this down into a regular pie crust. I chose a graham cracker one, but any (even Oreo!) will do. Bake this until it's baked.

That was the tedious part; here's the fun part! Pour a little milk into a sauce pan and melt two dozen marshmallows. The recipe called to mix in creme de menthe and creme de cacao, but I don't speak Chef (and I couldn't find exactly what this referred to), so I substituted with mint chocolate Baileys. [If you're ever unsure what to do, liquor is usually the correct solution (no pun intended). -Ward] "Fold" in some whipped cream (what the hell does this mean?) and then pour the whole mess into the baked Oreo crumb pie.

Freeze this for a few hours and then serve cold! Neat!
Grasshopper Pie

Provençal Vegetable Stew

2008-03-24T20:20:00.000-04:00

Yes, I had to look it up too, but then it's fairly obvious. Provençal implies that it's a dish from Provence, France, meaning Mediterranean. As to how Mediterranean eggplant is, well, I'll leave that up to you to decide. I made this vegetable stew (though it ended up more chili-like) to bring to Allison and Jeremy's for Easter. I tried to pick something simple, since I'd be cooking with the constraint of having to transport it and arrive in time for the meal proper. And it is a fairly straight-forward meal (or side-dish).

What you're seeing is basically all the work. This meal serves "four", and, this time, I decided not to cut the quantities in half. Chop up four garlic cloves, a yellow onion, two celery ribs, a green (or red) bell pepper, and cube an eggplant. I couldn't find button mushrooms, but since I don't know the difference, shiitake worked instead. Sauté the garlic, mushrooms, onions, celery, and peppers together in olive oil (there's something Mediterranean, though, of course, this is a Rachael Ray recipe) for a few minutes. Then add the eggplant and seasoning (rosemary and thyme) and cook until the eggplant is soft.

That is, well, all there is too it. Rachael recommended serving with some crusty French bread, so I bought a baguette at Price Chopper and cut it up to serve along with. I don't have much else to say about this dish. It's good if you like all the ingredients! I guess I'll just post the pictures of the bread since I need to fill out some space. How was your Easter? Good? I'm glad to hear it. Did you eat some ham with your family? Yeah? Some mashed potatoes? Some, uh, rolls? And, uh, greens and stuff? That's cool. So, um, I like your shoes. Are those new? No? Well, they're cool. Oh, you gotta go? Me too, I guess. See ya around.

Bread Pizza with Meat and Mushrooms

2008-03-17T19:40:00.000-04:00

This recipe sounded too yummy not to try. I hope you like mushrooms! To describe it simply, hollow out some bread, layer mushrooms under well-seasoned ground beef, cover with a generous layer of cheese, and broil until melted together. The bread I chose was just a large, Italian loaf freshly baked. I sliced up two large portobello mushroom caps and then sautéed them.

OK, before I get to preparing the meat(s), I'm going to share an embarrassing story. I had wanted to do my grocery shopping Saturday, so I'd have plenty of free time Sunday morning to sleep in/play Smash Brothers. So I pull up at my local Price Chopper, grab a cart, start shopping through the produce section, and then realize I don't have my wallet. Now, I don't know how best to get rid of the items I've accumulated so far, so I unobtrusively start putting back the packaged ones. "Hmm, maybe I don't want this kind of bread. And maybe I... don't need... carrots." For the onion and mushroom caps? "Well, I can kind of just leave my cart here. Maybe I'm wandering to look at... oranges... Run for it!"

So grill up a few strips of bacon (or pancetta, which my Price Chopper still doesn't have) and then add a pound or so of ground beef (it's for two servings... I'm not that much of a glutton). Chop up a yellow onion and a carrot and add them once the beef has started to brown. Add crushed tomatoes, beef broth, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and allspice (which I didn't have because the grocery was sold out). Allspice sounds like deodorant. Anyway, cook these for a little bit longer.

Er, it looks like I forgot to take a picture with the cheese and beef before broiling. Oh well. In the hollowed-out bread, add a layer of mushrooms and then the grilled beef (proportion to your preference). Cover with mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano or whatever you can get close. Broil this (not on the top rack, natch) for a few minutes (not too long, see pictures) and then eat with a fork, knife, and/or fingers. Big thanks to Marcella for her help in preparing. Some things I'd do differently next time include: hollow out the bread further so it ends up crispier and more pizza-like, remember all the seasonings for the meat, and fix the bottom element of my oven (ooops).

Flank Steak Salad

2008-03-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

Wonder of wonders! Two Sunday updates in a row! You'd think I had a crush on you or something (I do). Confession: I'm a big fan of salads... but only if I can put meat on them. I love ordering buffalo chicken salads when they're on menus. But what about this? A steak salad. I mean, c'mon - steak! Now that you're as sold on the idea as I was, let me explain how simple this is: grill a steak, put it on top of a salad. Whew, trivial! Rachael Ray makes things interesting by asking us to make our own marinade, salad dressing, and croutons.

Basically, get some fresh, crisp bread (sliced is convenient), brush some olive oil on a few pieces, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toast until crispy, rub with crushed garlic, then slice into one inch square chunks. I recommend munching on the leftover crusts as you cook. Delicious. This recipe calls for making two other liquidy mixtures: the marinade and the salad dressing. Following the recipe's quantities, my horseradish salad dressing was skimpy and I have no good pictures of it. It's made by whisking together horseradish (which you can get prepared in a can), Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and olive oil (and sour cream, if you're so inclined).

The marinade was much better. As you can see above, it's combined olive oil, thinly sliced garlic, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and a little thyme. I coated the flank steak (about 12 ounces) and let it marinade for a few minutes before warming up my iron skillet. Oh man, I suck at indoor grilling (and, arguably, outdoor grilling). The flank steak gave off sooo much smoke (I mean, it is 16 square inches of marinaded meat straight onto a cast iron frying pan). I'm a little concerned, now, that none of my smoke detectors went off (Cyndie, ignore this last sentence, please). Ten minutes - two open doors, three open windows, and the ceiling fans on high - later and the steak was ready.

The steak turned out very flavorful (I loved the marinade) but borderline rare, which isn't quite my preference. I may postpone other grilling-based dishes until Spring (so, like, May). Thinly slice the steak against the grain and lay it on top of your salad. Oh yeah, the salad (I almost forgot): baby spinach with arugula. Even though arugula sounds like a variety of spider, it's a leaf not unlike spinach itself. In fact, it's so not unlike it, I think I bought spinach again instead of arugula. Price Chopper, you lied to me!

Toss the salad (hehe) together with the steak, croutons, and dressing and you're finished! Man, I used way too many exclamation marks in this post. Screw that! Anyway, it was quite good. Steaks and salads for the win!

Thai Chicken Pizza

2008-03-02T15:21:00.001-05:00

Look at you, lucky reader, getting an update on Sunday. My friend Jackson was up from Memphis this past week and joined me Saturday night for some food, drink, and Blade Runner. Because I can't think of a more entertaining Saturday night than cooking (not a sarcastic statement actually), I selected a fun-looking recipe of Rachael Ray's: Thai chicken pizza.

Here's how it works: bake a pizza normally, except replace the pizza sauce with duck sauce and the cheese with provolone and add a red pepper (or green or yellow). The chicken was grilled in a marinade of soy sauce (Price Chopper didn't carry tamari), olive oil, and peanut butter. As you can see by the pictures below, my stove-top method failed to cook the middle of the chicken. So Jackson and I chopped it up and kept grilling it in smaller segments. This worked out just fine. Once the pizza has baked and the chicken is cooked and thinly sliced, add the toppings: cucumbers (in honey and cider vinegar), scallions, bean sprouts, and crushed roasted peanuts.

So yeah, the chicken did turn out better than the pictures above, and looked quite delectable on top of the pizza itself (which turned out awesome). All together, each slice carried a number of fantastic flavors. The duck sauce worked really well as a replacement for pizza sauce and the cucumbers were also delicious. With a simple 12" pie, less (or thinner) chicken would have worked better, perhaps with more marinade. Anyway, it was fun. The kitchen was an absolute mess afterwards, which, when you get right down to it, is only a sign that you've done things right.

Slow-Cooker Veggie Chili

2008-02-25T20:00:00.000-05:00

This is a recipe my mother sent me out of Southern Living. Now, I realize that I made chili a couple weeks ago, but this chili is prepared basically as opposite as possible from that turkey chili. And anyway, it's healthy and good for you so shut up. A note before we get started: I don't own a lot of fancy kitchen equipment, but I've had a "slow-cooker" a.k.a. "crock pot" since college. They're great. You put your ingredients in, turn it on, walk away, and come back eight-odd hours later.

So yeah, the differences between this chili and vegetable soup are, well, minor. I suppose vegetable soup is generally made with ground beef and veggie chili is... not. Anyway, just grab a whole bunch of your favorite, most flavorful vegetables, chop or dice them, sauté them a little bit, and then dump them in the crock pot. I included most of what the recipe requested (aside from what I either couldn't find or simply forgot): carrot, celery, onion, squash, and mushrooms. Season with chili powder (duh), dried basil, and pepper (I used fresh ground red pepper). I halved all the ingredients for this recipe since my mother said it made enough to feed her entire town.

In the crock pot, combined these veggies with the tomato sauce, juice, and a can of diced tomatoes (jalapeño for me, please). Add a couple cans of your beans of choice (I chose pinto and black beans) and corn if you don't forget like I did. I added a liberal dash of Tabasco because it's chili and chili's supposed to be hot. Set the crock pot on low, play Rock Band for eight hours, eat dinner, ???, profit!

Slow-Cooker Veggie Chili

Peanut Butter Cups in the Blanket

2008-02-22T19:15:00.000-05:00

OK, let's get it out of the way: this dessert dish ended in abject failure. But at least it was a chance for me to use the word "abject". I hope you'll pardon my tardiness. This week turned out busier than I expected and I had wanted to redo this dessert to give you some better pictures. However, I will just admit defeat and describe what went wrong.

There are two basic components here: the chocolate and peanut butter and the puff pastries. "Puff pastry sheets" are the kind of thing I'm embarrassed to say aloud. They're thin sheets of pastry ready for baking. The idea of this dessert is to make Reese's knock-offs and bake them inside the pastries in mini muffin tins. Sounds good in theory, a little complicated in practice.

Here's problem number one: the recipe calls for a ridiculously large quantity of chocolate and peanut butter mixture. If you only want to make a mini muffin tin full (that's 9 or 12), you may as well cut this part of the recipe in half. Or, I suppose, use normal-sized muffin pans, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, it took some work to get those chocolate "baking chips" to a melted state and that's because what you're seeing is one pound of chocolate. You only need half a pound here (two thirds of one of those bags). Similarly, cut the peanut butter concoction by 50%.

Anyway, fill a mini muffin tin with alternating "layers" of chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate, and peanut butter and let them semi-harden in the fridge. Let the pastry sheets thaw and mold them into the shapes of another (or the same) tin. And here's problem number two: these sheets, when cut into ninths (which are even smaller than the recipe requests), are way too big for the tin's trays. You'll see the results of this problem when they come out of the oven below:

The edges of the pastries where they emerge around the tin are excellently fluffy. The chocolate and peanut butter (and marshmallows, yum!) were also well cooked. Unfortunately, the pastry sheets that overlapped in between the recesses were hardly cooked at all (neither were the bottoms). Ewww. Obviously, only the middles and the tops were baked evenly. The sheets were too large and/or the muffin tin too small. How can we rectify this? Well, maybe use a smallish regular muffin pan, cut the pastry sheets into smaller squares, and/or bake for even longer (put the marshmallows on a few minutes into the baking?). I would have liked to try these changes, but, alas, my job didn't not agree with my desires. Here's to wishing you better luck!
Food Network's Recipe: Peanut Butter Cups in the Blanket

Turkey Chili

2008-02-05T20:47:00.001-05:00

Ah, Super Bowl Sunday. What other day sends everyone to the supermarket in the morning, to their friends' homes in the afternoon, and drunkenly to the interstate that night? Though I had plans to do basically the same thing, this party would interfere with my Sunday cooking. Or would it?! A quick trip to Food Network's website revealed a simple chili recipe I could bring with me to ~~poison~~ feed my friends!

The trip to Price Chopper was not without incident. I nearly got in seven accidents on the way and the store was absolutely packed. I was surprised to find ground turkey already packaged for me and Goya's chiles chipotles was a great way to get a chili pepper with its own adobo sauce. But when looking for kidney beans, I came across giant hole left in the canned vegetable section. As I stared at the markèd absence, a large woman rolled up and, ninjaing two of the last three cans, said, "Not a good day to be looking for kidney beans". Chuckling - and pretending like I knew what the hell she was talking about - I replied, "It sure is". Pause. "I wonder why". She looked at me, exasperated. "Chili," she said, in a voice that let me know my ruse had been exposed for the sham it was. All hopes of pretending to know something about cooking evaporated like the weight she wished she could lose.

Anyway, this cooking thing is getting easier. Chop up some garlic and onions, sauté in olive oil, and add some spices. Smells great. Add the chili and tomato paste, ground turkey, kidney beans, and crush the whole tomatoes. Let cook. Eat. Win. OK, I didn't mention my challenge this Sunday. Jeremy called at 2pm to say that we were getting together at 5. I immediately bolt to buy ingredients, get home and start cooking, and throw the chili into my crock pot to transport down to Delmar. I remembered, then, that I had neglected to take a picture of the finished meal before putting the crock pot in the floor of my car. That photo turned out less than appetizing so I'll spare you.

However, the chili was really great. I made some more tonight, ate half, and bottled the rest for lunch this week. Fuck yeah, bitches. Ooops, sorry. On my mother's suggestion, combining the chili with Fritos and shredded cheese (sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack jalapeño) was a fantastically delicious and healthy(!) dish. Well, I won't be home next Sunday to cook. I'll be spending the weekend in and around sunny San Francisco. Maybe I'll post some photos and stories from my trip? Maybe I'll ignore you because I'm tired and lazy? Maybe both!

Seared Tuna Steak on White Beans and Stuff

2008-01-27T19:48:00.000-05:00

OK, it's actually seared tuna steak(s) on white beans and grape tomatoes and garlic chips but that was too long a title. As is my goal here, I wanted to try something new each week. This week it's seafood's turn. Confession: I hate seafood. I'm such a picky eater. But I'm working on changing that. The main course then is a tuna steak tastily seared. As an exciting side note: this is the first week where I actually needed only the express lane at Price Chopper to pick up my ingredients. Win! In addition, I'm trying out a "new" camera. So I hope you can handle fewer but better photos.

The first step was to slice up some garlic thin into chips and throw 'em on a skillet to brown over EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). After a few minutes, remove and replace with half an onion sliced and celery diced with red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Having done this kind of preparation on (almost?) every meal so far, this was now easy and fun. I like big knives. Cool!

For the tuna, heat another large skillet. Once it's good and hot, throw the tuna on for a couple minutes to sear one side. I've never cooked tuna before, so this was pretty much all done on faith. Flipping it and turning the heat down to medium, you're supposed to cook from five to seven minutes longer depending on how rare you prefer (not very?). Here's a neat little step: this required the use of an aluminum foil tent over the tuna to keep the heat in. It worked; the tuna was cooked very nicely through with both top and bottom seared beautifully. Nifty!

While all that's going on, I added some chicken broth to the onion/celery mix. Confession #2: white wine could work in addition, but for some reason even I don't understand, I passed. The cannellini (white) beans are added with the grape tomatoes. My grandmother said grape tomatoes are interchangeable with cherry tomatoes, but I have no idea what either tastes like (picky, I told you) so I just bought a box of the grape variety. Lightly boiling these ingredients until they're all soft, I removed them from heat as I removed the tuna. It's worth noting (or is common sense) that simply removing the meat and skillet from heat does not mean it stops cooking. The tuna went from medium to well-done while I was finishing up the veggies.

Put the tuna on top of the beans and tomatoes on a plate and - voilà- instant sophistication. The resulting combination of foods was intense. For me, a lot of new flavors going on. The tuna was surprisingly good, though, like I said, I think I cooked it more well than medium or rare. The beans and sliced garlic were also excellent. I think I'm beginning to like onions and garlic now. Interesting. The grape tomatoes were super soft, exploding sweet juices into your mouth... it was kinda gay. Overall, I can't say as this was my favorite meal, but there were some new taste experiences and, well, you ought to try everything once (and most things twice).

Smoky Black Bean and Rice Stoup

2008-01-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

I assumed that "stoup" was a real cooking term that I just didn't know, but it looks like it's an invention of Rachael Ray's - a portmanteau of "stew" and "soup". (Full disclosure: it's also a real word with (possibly) a completely different meaning.) Rachael described this meal as "chop, drop, and open", which seemed like a nice break from my more complicated dish of last week. And, since I had experimented with other black bean soups the previous week, I'd like to see what a real version tasted like.

It was easy to lay everything out at the start. I picked up some Worcestershire and Tabasco along with coriander to supplement my seasonings. Chopping up celery, half an onion, and some garlic, I left these out on the cutting board. The recipe called for bay leaf, but I had no idea what that was until later (it's a spice? I was looking with the fresh greens). I measured out half a cup of frozen corn kernels and half a cup of rice to add along with the chicken broth, tomato sauce, diced fire-roasted tomatoes, and black beans.

I sliced up some bacon and started cooking it in the pot. After a few minutes, I added the celery, onion, and garlic. After these had simmered together, the corn and black beans were added. I poured in half the beans' can and its juices and then (on Rachael's recommendation) smashed the rest together to achieve a more paste-like consistency. I then seasoned this concoction with the Worcestershire, Tabasco, coriander, cumin, and chili powder. The smell now coming off the stove was to die for!

Next to go in was the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and chicken broth (I told you this was a simple recipe!). The pot was nearing capacity now and, adding the final ingredient - rice, I left it to simmer for ten minutes. I halved the ingredients for this meal so as not to make way more than I'd eat (even though soup will store well). As such, I decreased the final recommended cooking time for this last step. The rice came out not as soft as probably intended, but OK nonetheless. Jeremy and Allison bravely volunteered to join me again for dinner before watching Blade Runner. Here's to hoping they're still alive to read this!

Steak with Corn Relish and Smashed Spuds

2008-01-14T18:02:00.002-05:00

I wasn't as excited, beforehand, to make this dish as I had been for the drunken pasta; though, I suppose, any dish that involves red wine in its preparation gets immediate bonus points. Nevertheless, the heart of this week's recipe is the corn relish. Served on top of the steak, the two are accompanied by (what are basically) mashed potatoes. But since preparing these three items offered three distinct chances for something new, I thought it would be a good second attempt.

The three dishes are prepared, cooked, and served mostly independent of each other. This made it easy to lay out all the ingredients and photo them separately. First, the steak (with its seasoning) in its cast-iron skillet. Second, the onion, garlic, scallions, cilantro, corn, chicken broth, and new spices for the relish. And third, a bag of red boiling potatoes and some cheese (not pictured) to mash in.

On the advice of my friends, I tried Hannaford instead of Price Chopper and (though it had a smaller selection) found that it had a larger variety of goods (including that mysterious pancetta from last week!). Once the individual ingredients were assembled (it took two trips to Hannaford, two to Price Chopper, one to Target, and one to Marshalls... don't ask), I started slicing up the vegetables before anything else. This had proved to be a hassle when rushed last week, and - since I had no time constraints this time - I took it slow. The only person waiting on the food was me, and I'm hardly important.

Putting the potatoes on to boil, I started sauteeing the chopped garlic cloves, onion, and scallions. Confession: the scallions were meant to go into the potatoes but I didn't pick up on this until later (the inclusion must've struck me as silly at the time I started cooking). Spicing these with chili powder, ground cumin, sugar, salt, and pepper left the room with a fantastic aroma (though short-lived, the steak took care of that).

Now I seasoned the steak and threw it onto the stove-top in its skillet (pre-heated with EVOO). I left the steak for "last" since, though the three dishes all cook at the same time, I figured that the meat needed more watching and attention. As the steak was grilling, I added the chicken broth and corn to the pan with the vegetables (now golden). Flipping the steak after five minutes revealed exactly how messy grilling on a stove-top is: oil had sizzled its way all over the rest of the flat surface. What a mess! I assume Rachael Ray never had to clean up after herself on her show (where's my cleaning crew and/or small dog?).

The steak, however, turned out fantastic. These pictures do not do it justice. The corn relish was also very tasty when served on top of the steak. I must say, I enjoyed those dishes far more than the pasta from the previous week. The potatoes, however, were poorly neglected. Now lacking their scallions (and cream cheese, which I "purposely" left out), I added some grated cheddar which melted in and (though I'm sure it was fine) didn't look too appetizing. Maybe I should have skinned the potatoes first (I've been told the skin adds fiber, though?). Anyway, here's the result: a delicious meal and an absolute mess. The savory steak left its oily patina and I'll just thank the cooking gods (Alton Brown and Rachael Ray?) for surface stoves and Windex!

Drunken Tuscan Pasta

2008-01-09T21:15:00.001-05:00

For my first dish of the year, I thought I'd try something that Rachael Ray was kind enough to put a picture of in her book Express Lane Meals: drunken Tuscan pasta. It's just pasta, right? With some extra veggies thrown in? How hard can it be?

Well, when you're starting from zero (zero knowledge and zero preparedness), it's very hard. And expensive. I had to buy a number of ingredients: rosemary (I bought both the "spice" kind and fresh sprigs), portobello mushrooms (pre-sliced, thank you very much), nutmeg, red pepper "flakes", garlic (not knowing what a clove was, I bought three bulbs), spinach, two bottles of red Chianti (I couldn't find Rosso di Montalcino), a couple bottles of EVOO, spaghetti (I couldn't find perciatelli), bacon (what is pancetta?), and Reggianito Parmesan cheese.

For the record, Price Chopper has a horrible selection. Wherever Rachael Ray actually shops for her ingredients, it is most certainly not in the Northeast. Though there was a nice selection of Tuscan wines in my local liquor store, none were Rosso di Montalcino. I purchased two Chiantis instead (one for cooking with, one for drinking). They were both excellent. Price Chopper didn't have any perciatelli either (spaghetti was a recommended substitute) and the cheese requested was only available in one container. I still don't know what pancetta is, but the bacon was awesome.

A note about preparation: I think only one of my large stove-top burners works. But when I tried boiling the red wine/water mix, it seemed to heat OK. I poured the bottle of Chianti into a large pot, added some random amount of water and, once it was boiling, dropped a pound of spaghetti into it. For future reference: half the wine and half the pasta (or less) would be perfectly sufficient. The pasta came out very red, unlike the pictures in Rachael's book.

The pasta boiled very fast and I had to set it aside as I started simmering the vegetables together. With a couple tablespoons of EVOO, I chopped up some bacon and cooked it on a large, stainless-steel skillet. Once it was cooked (and it cooked exponentially: not at all and then very much), I transferred it to a plate to be mixed in later. Into the remaining grease/EVOO mixture, I added the mushrooms and rosemary (forgetting to chop them, ooops). Cooking a little bit (the mushrooms showed no sign of state transition), I moved them to the side of the skillet. I had to keep the temperature down very low on this pan, as a side note. Once Jeremy and Allison arrived (my victims!), I was shown how to cut up garlic cloves (and what the cloves actually were). Adding to these some ground red pepper, I mixed the mushrooms, garlic, and bacon together and, tearing up spinach leaves, tossed them about briefly before turning off the stove top. Here, I must point out, I "forgot" two steps. The pasta cooked so quickly that I had to drain it a number of minutes before. As such, I could not add any of its starchy liquid to this pan. I then forgot to add the cheese (ooops, again).

Mixing the drained pasta with what I had browned in the pan, it was clear that I had far too much pasta for the amount of greens I had thrown together. Nevertheless, I mixed a portion of spaghetti together and divvied it out onto three plates.

My guests were all very polite and told me it was quite delicious. All I know is, I devoured my plate and I don't even like mushrooms or garlic. Mmm. In retrospect, the ratio of greens to pasta was too low. A pound of spaghetti is a lot of spaghetti. And, even though I don't like mushrooms, anything cooked in bacon grease is fantastic. All-in-all, I learned a lot, I have some great ideas for how to do this better, I'm eager to try again, and I will soon have a stocked kitchen and pantry. Win!