Zack Can Cook

Gardening update

2011-06-27T13:35:00.000-05:00


The cherry tomato plant and my giant trees.

The gardening seems to be going pretty well so far. Still too soon for any harvest, except for some herbs, but the plants are growing and nothing has died yet .

The challenge with the garden is the yard gets a lot of shade. As you can somewhat see in the picture to the left, I have two enormous maples trees in the back, which are great because it keeps the yard cooler, but makes the prospect of a successful garden a little iffy.

The plant that doesn't seem to care is the cherry tomatoes. That plant is growing like a weed and is probably already more than four-foot tall and flowering. The other four tomato plants are growing but not that big. One of them was flowering last week but then a storm came through and ripped a couple of limbs off. I also have green and yellow pepper plants that seem healthy but aren't getting that big. I don't know if I'm going to get anything out of them when it's all said and done.

The herbs are thriving on the deck though, everything is very healthy and I should have a nice big pot of basil soon. If the herbs keep up nice I may buy a grow light to keep fresh herbs year-round in the basement.


If you look real close you can see a tiny green pepper.

Cucumber seedlings continue to grow.

Gardening experiment 2011

2011-06-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

Oregano doing well.

As I stated previously, Rory and I moved to the burbs almost a year ago and with the extra time and the help of my parents we put a small garden in this year and I once again am trying some fresh herbs in pots on our second floor deck.

I'm growing rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano and sage in pots on the deck. We get a fair amount of sun up here and so far so good. Some of the plants have been going for a few weeks and seem to be thriving, the oregano especially.

The garden we have is about a 6X4 patch that had previously been dug up, probably used for the same purpose by the previous owners. We have two large trees in the back yard so sun may be a problem, but this one patch seems to get a fair amount. Only time will tell if it's successful.

We planted four regular tomato plants, one cherry tomato plant, a green bell pepper plant and some cucumber seeds. The garden was put in a week ago before we had a monsoon that flooded the entire back yard but everything seems to have survived, though I'll be curious to see if the cucumber seeds end up doing anything.

As had been previously documented, my gardening has not gone well in the past so I'm hoping for the best.

Yeah, I know

2011-06-03T11:03:00.000-05:00

Since it's been ore than four months since my last post I won't bore you all with excuses, other than the fact that I have been tremendously busy, I still need to make time for this. I write better in my day job if I keep this up so I need to do it more.

I have been cooking, oh yes, I've been cooking and I have more than a few recipes to share including the one for the picture Mudslide cake.

It's been almost a year since Rory and I moved too and with that extra time I'm trying to grow a garden this year and hopefully before the end of the year I will be updating with tales of home brewing as well. Stay tuned as they say on TV.

Turducken V

2011-01-31T14:49:00.000-06:00

Yes, that is bacon covering the turducken to keep it moist.

In December Rory and I hosted Turducken V. Those who have been in attendance for all Turducken events received a golden ticket which grandfathers them into all future Turducken's even if they miss a year. It's hard to believe we've been doing this for five years and we don't see any stopping.

It was nice having more space, we had 20+ people, can't remember the exact number since it was more than six weeks ago. I didn't feel on top of everybody there and even though we extended the dining room table with another six foot banquet table it worked out really well and wasn't too cramped.

On the food front, not much was new or different. The exception being that I deboned all the birds myself this year. The past couple of years I had Paulina Meat Market debone the turkey but I didn't feel like paying the premium this year or making the drive so I did it myself. The chicken is easy enough and I'm fairly sure I could do that with my eyes blindfolded, the duck is a little more challenging because it does have an unusual rib cage.

The turkey was like a big chicken, which made it easier to an extent, but getting underneath the back was a pain in the ass. After cleaning off the breasts, legs, thighs I had to take the kitchen shears to the rib cage just to make it easier to get around the back. It also helped that the turkey was a bit frozen, even after four days of sitting in the fridge, made it easier to work with.

Between Turducken and having my mom's family over we probably hosted close to 50 people in December. All said everything went well, there's something about cooking large pieces of meat that all can enjoy.

Mmmm, Ham

2011-01-24T12:07:00.001-06:00

It's been entirely too long and I have no excuse other than apathy and while a deadline for the day job approaches there won't be much more coming. While I'm not a New Year's resolution guy maybe I should have resolved for a post a week, maybe I can make up for it a little coming up.

I did quite a bit of cooking over the holidays. We had Turducken (pics to follow) with more than 20 people and then we had my mom's family over for the holidays with about 24 people attending. Above is a picture of my first ham, a 25+ pound spectacular example of smoked pork goodness. I did very little to it, just adding some cloves and a brown sugar/mustard glaze for the last hour.

But this is an example of the product being great. My dad has been getting these has from "Bert's" a place at Green and Lake streets in Chicago. They only sell commercially a couple of weeks a year and we make sure to always get one for Christmas.

I also did a potato gratin for that party and found an interesting recipe that worked out quite well. I used half gruyère and half swiss to save some money and it turned out quite well. I also doubled (tripled?) the recipe for the crowd we had.

Pies

2010-11-30T10:33:00.000-06:00

The pies I made for Thanksgiving turned out really well. The black bottom bourbon pecan pie was a hit and the other one seemed to tp be well received too. I didn't use that pie crust recipe and I used dark chocolate for the bottom.

Now I'm trying to figure out what cookies to make for turducken. My traditional chocolate chip are a given and I'm probably going to do a rolled sugar cookie since Rory gave me one of my Christmas presents early. But I would like one more and am stuck. Any ideas?

Turducken V

2010-11-29T10:18:00.000-06:00

Turducken V is this weekend. It kinda snuck up on me with Thanksgiving this past weekend, even though Rory and I decorated the house and put a tree up.

I'm making my prep list and figuring out all what I have to do this week. Today I'm heading out and buying the turkey and duck. I figure both will be frozen and the turkey will live in the first all week and I'll put the duck in the fridge Wednesday or so.

I've made my own turducken the last two years and plan on doing it again this year with one change, I'm deboning the turkey myself. I had the fine folks at Paulina meat market do this in the past but now that we moved it's too far to go. It also makes it more economical, while I love the Paulina meat market so, charged a bit more for the turkey than the traditional supermarket. I've also gotten pretty good with the knife and am confident it'll go smoothly.

Pictures and updates throughout the week.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T11:08:00.001-06:00

It may be cliche, but I do love Thanksgiving. Hanging out, eating and drinking, no expectations about gifts, just a good time. We head to the in laws and my family is also invited, which is great because we don't have to split up the holiday.

I'm doing something different this year, pies and bread. I'll be doing a black bottom pecan pie, a regular pecan pie, corn bread and some dinner rolls. The last couple of years I had been making a cauliflower gratin but I wasn't happy with it last year.

This year's recipes are a stretch for me, I've made one pie before in my life and have only made bread once before too, though I do have a bit of experience with pizza dough.

I'm planning on doing most of the prep tomorrow. I'll blind bake the pie shells, make the dough for the rolls and do everything with the cornbread.

The one point of contention is what to use for the pie crust, shortening or butter. There seems to be two camps on this so I'm splitting the difference and using half butter and half shortening.

Thursday morning I'll make the fillings for the pies and bake them off. I'll have the rolls on sheet pans ready to go in the oven before dinner is served so they're nice and piping hot too.

Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures to post later. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

To do: Tiramisu cupcakes

2010-11-09T14:11:00.000-06:00

Far and away, my favorite dessert is tiramisu. I have made a version of it a couple of times and an ice cream version, which is pretty awesome. Rory today sent me this link to tiramisu cupcakes. One day I will make them and they will be awesome.

Pumpkin turtle bread

2010-10-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

An awesome sounding recipe, but again, poorly written. I really might have to try this one though.

A site I like

2010-10-14T10:28:00.000-05:00

Need to give props to another cooking site that's does a good job: Food Babies. If you don't know what a food baby is go to urban dictionary.

They do a nice job and give a good mix of cooking and eating out. I made their banana bread recipe yesterday and it was the best I've ever had (sorry mom). I did the naughty recipe and added some chocolate chips. Really, really good.

Notes on poor recipe writing

2010-10-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since I've posted, time flies when you're on deadline. Sadly I won't be getting any better the next couple of weeks.

I have been cooking but nothing too exciting. The main reason for this post is annoyance. I've been in a cooking rut lately and when I had a few minutes I was looking through the Savuer site to see if there's anything new and exciting when I saw the recipe for a chocolate truffle cake.

A post on my to do list has been my eternal search for a good chocolate cake recipe so this one intrigued me. So I was sad to find it horribly written. But maybe you guys can help me be the judge, maybe I'm n a bad mood or feeling the deadline pressure but I found this recipe really though to get through.

I'm still going to try and make it but come on, writing a recipe isn't that difficult.

Photos

2010-08-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

Pork top loin roast with Mediterranean spices.

I've been taking more picture of the food I've been cooking and have been very happy with how they have turned out. It's a combination of better lighting-- a lot of the pics I've taken have been outside and the lighting in my old kitchen was horrible--and that I've been taking them all with my new 4G iPhone.

The camera on the new device is really great. I had the 3G iPhone previously and the pictures always seemed grainy and you had to hold it very still. I don't know if they put some new image stabilization software in it or what, but I've been very happy with the pictures that I've taken with it. Also, there's no shutter lag, you can hit the button and it takes another shot almost instantly, much better than my point-and-click Canon.

I know this may seem like a shameless plug for Apple--and it kind of is--but I'm happy that I've been able to get more pictures and witht he quality. I might do a video demo in the future using the iPhone to see how that works too. I did a video of our new puppy this week and it turned out great.

Couple of slabs or ribs smoked for five hours with some potatoes in the aluminum foil.

Pasta with fresh tomatoes

2010-08-24T15:01:00.001-05:00

It's August, which sadly means that summer is winding down, but it also means that tomatoes are in season. My topsy-turvy hasn't produced anymore than the two tomatoes I previously mentioned, but some of our new neighbors--thanks Dave and Monica--have been keeping us in a supply of fresh cherry tomatoes.

They brought the first batch over during the pig roast and I decided to do a fresh tomato sauce with some whole wheat pasta. They probably brought over 20 to 30 cherry tomatoes, which I halved and the through into a skillet that already had some olive oil. I added some salt and pepper, about a tablespoon of sugar and about four cloves of diced garlic.

I cooked the pasta to just about al dente, drained and through it in with the tomatoes to finish cooking. I topped with some Parmesan.

Easy, simple and healthy meal and didn't take much longer than 20 minutes. You can make some additions to this too, I was just working with what was handy, you could add a little diced shallot or onion and some basil too. You could also strain to get some of the tomato seeds out to if you so desire.

Pig roast pics (some not for the squeamish)

2010-08-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

The cooker box.

Pig in the brine before roasting. My intent was to get a headless pig but they gave to to me anyway.

Pig on the rack along with the two shoulders.

Pig in the box before putting coals on

After a couple of hours before we flipped it.

Post flip before the skin was crisped.


My dad and I cutting up the beast.

Part of the crowd

Anniversary pig roast

2010-08-16T09:39:00.005-05:00

Needed to make sure people knew what house to go to.

Rory and I celebrated one year of wedded bliss Sunday and to recognize that along with show appreciation for our parents who were so generous with the wedding the previous year we threw a pig roast to celebrate all our anniversaries, which fall in August. My parents are celebrating 40 years in a couple of weeks and Rory's parents celebrated 35 years a week ago.

This party was a long time in the making but last week was hectic to say the least. Everyday there was some prep that had to be done, make the marinara for the backed mostacholi, make the base for the ice cream, churn the ice cream, make the ginger snaps, assemble the ice cream sandwiches, etc., etc.

And then there was the pig. We were using the La Caja China cooking box for the beast. My buddy JR owns one (see here for previous posts) and was kind enough to come over early and help prep and get the beast and get it in the cooker.

I had some issues getting a pig, I could only get 70-pounds or smaller because of the size of the box. One place that I call all last week kept telling me to call back and then on Thursday said they couldn't guarantee anything for me the following day.

I went with another place and ended up paying entirely too much for a much smaller pig than I wanted but I'm writing it off as a learning experience. Since the pig was only around 58 pounds I bought a couple of pork shoulders, about 20 pounds total, and cooked those with the pig.

Since I have a cooler that I could use to bury a small man I decided that I would brine the pig and the shoulders, I uses Ruhlman's 20-1 liquid to salt ratio. I the also added about a pound a half of garlic, 30 bay leaves, 1/4 cup of peppercorns, a gallon of orange juice, half a gallon of pineapple juice and a bunch of cut up lemons and limes. I brined it for about 16 hours.

The cooker box works great. You place the pig in this rack and just let it cook, adding charcoal every hour. Once it hits 160 degrees you flip it over to crisp up the skin. All told it took a little more than three hours to cook all the food and it turned out great. The meat was moist and tasted good, but I wasn't getting a whole lot of citrus. I cut out the tenderloins and sliced them up and they were like butter, literally feels like it was melting in your mouth. I don't know if there's another way I would cook a pig other than using the La Caja China.

All told we probably had more than 60 people here, probably close to 70. While the food was great and while I'm not ruling out another pig roast I doubt we'll be doing a party of that magnitude again. It was stressful ... two days later I still feel like I'm recovering.

I'll be doing future posts on some of the sides and hopefully posting some pictures later in the week as well.

Thanks to my parents and sister for all the help as well as Rory's parents and brothers for their assistance as well and another shout out to JR for all the help with the piggy. For all those who attended thanks for coming and bringing food and making it a great time.

Roasted pepper and corn salsa/relish

2010-08-02T07:40:00.004-05:00

Since the move to the burbs I have been taking advantage of the Skokie farmer's market. I never really got to any in the city because Rory and I were never up early enough to hit them.

The Skokie market is pretty small, I was hoping they would have someone selling fresh eggs and locally-produced meats but no dice. The produce options are pretty great though. A couple of weeks ago Rory's family came over and I cooked some corn on the grill and made a fresh blueberry cobbler. This week my folks are coming over and I bought some Red Haven peaches for peach cobbler.

I also wanted to try and make my own salsa so I bought just about everything for it at the farmer's market Sunday and was very happy with how it turned out.

6 ears of corn husked
2-red bell peppers
1-orange bell pepper
1/2-large red onion diced
Juice from two limes
1-TBLSP olive oil
1-TSP ancho chili pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Prepare your grill for medium low heat.

Roast peppers on the grill over direct heat until they start to turn black and blister. After black and peeling place the pepper in a brown paper back and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Meanwhile take husked corn and place directly over the heat. Watch the corn carefully, a little color is a good thing but you don't want the corn to get too black. It took me a good 10-15 minutes to get the corn where I wanted but the charcoal was pretty low heat. I was being cautious because I hadn't cooked corn on the grill like this before.

After the corn is done set aside and start working on the pepper, peeling the skin off and then removing the seeds and dicing with the red onion. Place the corn on an end in a shallow bowl and remove the kernels with a sharp knife. I used a technique similar to what was described here.

Add the corn to the pepper and onion along with the lime juice and ancho pepper. Taste and salt and pepper to your taste.

I had purchased some tomatoes to put in here too but they weren't quite ripe enough so I didn't use them. This is probably more of a relish than a salsa but it turned out great. The fresh ingredients really popped and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. I could have added a little more heat to it but that would have been about it. And there's always next time. Also, everything except for the limes were purchased at the farmer's market using locally produced ingredients.

Gardening update

2010-07-21T08:44:00.003-05:00

Well, the basil has germinated and is starting to peak through the soil. Sadly, I haven't had the same luck with the chives and oregano, nothing peaking through and I feel it might be a lost cause.

On the tomato front my first one is ready for harvest. I'm hoping to get enough for a batch of marinara, they're plum tomatoes, so we'll see how it goes.

Still grillin'

2010-07-16T10:01:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week I smoked some more ribs. I was able to control the heat a little better and they had a much more smokey flavor, even with just three hours on the grill. They probably could have gone another hour or so. They had a good bite but it could have been better.

I also used my own rub on these, a combination of cumin, coriander, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne and smoked paprika. This time around I didn't keep track of the proportions for the rub, just kinda threw it together and tasted it until I thought it was good. I'll try to be better next time.

I'm trying to figure out what to cook this weekend. Nothing jumps to mind. Any suggestions?

Herb Garden Part Deux

2010-07-09T12:21:00.003-05:00

Basil, chives and oregano (from left to right)

Because I truly am a glutton for punishment I am making another attempt at an herb garden. It's been more than two years since my last debacle and I am bound and determined to grow some fresh herbs.

Rory gave me this very nice herb garden for Christmas and I just planted everything. I haven't grown anything from seed since I was in grade school so that has me a little concerned, but I'm going to give these a week or so before I go out and buy some plants.

Next year I hope to plant something of a real garden with a couple of tomato plants and other things, we just got into the place a little late this year. Though I do have a topsy turvy going right now, which my parents started, and it's got a few little tomatoes coming in.

Pork Belly

2010-07-07T10:25:00.004-05:00

I am loving shopping at some of these smaller grocery stores in Skokie/Lincolnwood. I went to the Market Place on Oakton yesterday and say this one-pound piece of pork belly for a couple of bucks.

But here's the problem, I have no idea what to do with it. I cut a small strip off it yesterday and use it it some carbonara and it worked pretty well. The recipes I glances at all have me braising it and anyone in Chicago knows it's too hot to cook anything inside right now.

I'm thinking about smoking it and using it as bacon. Anybody have other thoughts?

Smoking

2010-07-06T09:50:00.006-05:00

Friday I decided to do a little experiment with smoking. I bought a small slab or ribs and a turkey leg and did the low and slow thing. Controlling the heat is the biggest challenge, trying to keep it between 225 and 275 is tough and requires a lot of monitoring.

I used lump charcoal and hickory wood chunks. Everything cooked for about three hours. The turkey leg had a good flavor but the smoke really made the skin tough and impossible to eat. The ribs had that great texture but not as much smoke as I would have liked. I'm sure another our or so would have helped. I also want to get some apple wood, I hear that's a bit better.

Why a turkey leg? Lincolnwood produce sells them, and it was like $2.50. It had also been years since I had one.

Rory was amused at the turkey leg so she had to grab a photo.

I'm back ... most likely

2010-07-02T12:35:00.002-05:00

Rory and I are getting settled into our new home and we're loving it. Yes, it's the suburbs but the space is awesome and the kitchen and back yard are awesome.

We've been here a little more than three weeks and I've been grilling at least three times a week. Burgers, chicken, hot dogs, pork chops, and a pork rib roast. Lincolnwood Produce is only a couple of blocks away and I've been doing a lot of shopping there. They have a sale on pork ribs so I may try to do a little smoking this afternoon and see how they come out.

I have a lot more counter space in the new kitchen, but a lack of outlets, and the stove is very nice. It has a fifth burner with a griddle and a temperature controlled warming drawer.

I still have a list of posts to do but will hopefully be bring you all some pictures of the BBQ I'm doing.

Been bad (and it's not going to get any better)

2010-05-03T12:33:00.004-05:00

Yeah, I know it's been almost two months since I last posted and while I have been cooking and still have a list of a dozen blog topics my day job has gotten in the way of my blogging and what free time I have has been taken up with preparing for a move.

Most of you know that Rory and I are moving to Skokie next month. I'm excited for my new larger kitchen and back yard. I am hoping to experiment with some smoking of pork shoulder and other such fun treats which will bring a whole new aspect to the blog.

In the meantime, sorry. I don't think I'll be posting much between now and the end of June. By then we'll be full into grilling season and I can't wait.

Also want to give a shout out to the Chicago Food Snob on Chicago Now. I like what he's doing and how he writes, check him out.

Homemade ravioli

2010-03-07T16:03:00.003-06:00

So I decided to up the ante with the pasta maker and make my own ravioli. It was for my mom's birthday and figured an Italian feast with a pasta course would be appropriate.

I used this as the basis for my recipe, bacon and mushrooms, how could you go wrong?

I made fresh ricotta and just add some salt, pepper and parmesan cheese for the filling. I also didn't make the ravioli completely by hand, my sister got me a press for my birthday, by the way it works awesome, you just need to make sure to flour it quite a bit.

They turned out awesome, really flavorful little bites and the sauce was excellent. I can't wait to experiment some more with it and some different flavors.

Dinner for mom

2010-02-22T11:04:00.003-06:00

It's my mom's birthday Wednesday so Rory and I are having the family over for dinner next Saturday. I've been swamped at work because of my deadline and hadn't had much time to think of a menu. While I was initially considering a porchetta, it's off for now. We need to look at a house before dinner and I won't have time to roast the beast so I'm holding off for now.

But I'm still going with an Italian theme, relying heavily on the Marcella Hazan cookbook my sister got me for my birthday. I'll also be doing my first fresh ravioli, which should be fun.

I didn't necessarily mean for this to become an Italian feast but it is appropriate. My mom cooked Italian food the entire time I was growing up because that's what her mom cooked. The Bologense I cook is based on my great grandmother's recipe.

The other thing I'm excited about it the focaccia, or more specifically the crecentina, I'm going to serve with the meal. It's basically a bread with bacon.

I am once again making a pork themed meal and when I was looking for stuff to make that recipe popped out at me.

On tap is the crecentina, ravioli, drunken pork roast, brocoli and parmesan, potatoes with mushrooms. My sister is making a chocolate cake and I'm making tiramisu ice cream.

Truffles

2010-02-17T16:37:00.002-06:00

Deadlines are still keeping me down, but I wanted to do a quick post on this series David Lebovitz did on truffles. He went truffle hunting in France, then to the market and finally to a reseller. I enjoyed reading about it quite a bit.

I was lucky enough to have my first truffle experience last fall at Alinea. They had just gotten their white truffles in and were offering simple preparations of a risotto and a fresh parpadella, or was it a linguine, anyway it doesn't matter.

The smell was out of this world, as Lebovitz describes it's earthy and pungent and just awesome. Not that truffles are an ingredient I will ever cook with -- I don't even have any truffle oil -- but I did enjoy the experience.

Pork braised in milk

2010-02-14T13:54:00.004-06:00

As I said in my last post, my sister gave me The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. As I paged through it I was intrigued by the pork braised on milk recipe. I had seen a similar, maybe the same, recipe mentioned on the Savuer Web site awhile back and decided to give it a shot. It was also incredible easy, requiring just four ingredients, salt, pepper, pork and milk. But I also know it wouldn't be good for my Jewish friends.

Now I've done my fair share of braises in the past, you basically brown the meat, add some aromatics and liquor and simmer. I like the technique because it's pretty easy and makes the house smell really good. Hazan called for a pork rack, a cut that I don't' have easy access too, but she said it could also be done with a pork shoulder, which is what I used.

Her recipe had this braise be a bit more involved than I'm use to. It started with the typical salt and pepper of the meat followed by a quick sear on all sides. Then she had you slowly add the whole milk. she said add 1.5 cups, I did a little more, probably two cups because the piece of pork was a bit bigger, 3.5 pounds, whereas she used one that was 2.5.

Now adding this much milk only brought the milk about half way up the piece of pork, which is what the recipe more or less said. Hazan said you should move the pork around during the process, also adding more milk as some of it cooks off. Also, at various time you should have the lid of the pan slight ajar whereas at other times have it fully on.

This is why it's a more complex braise than others I've done. Typically you brown the meat, add the veggies, add the liquid, bring to a boil, cover turn the heat down and let cook.

All told it cooked about three hours and I used about three cups of milk. The end result was really good. The pork turned out moist and rich wit a complex flavor. I cooked the remaining milk down, removed some of the fat and it made a nice sauce.

On Tap:

I'll be doing some baking next week for Kevin and Katie's showers, Rory's cousin. Mexican wedding cookies, brownies and the crack cookies are on the menu. I've made two changes to the crack cookies recipe too, I now put a little bit of French sea salt on the top before putting them in the oven and add a Starbuck's VIA to the batter when mixing it up.

Toys

2010-02-08T12:05:00.005-06:00

No more using the ironing board for drying fresh pasta.

It was my birthday over the weekend and I was lucky to receive some fun cooking toys.

Rory got me a chef's mat, it may seem silly, but it's a mat you put on the floor where you stand when cooking. We registered for one before the wedding but nobody got it for us. It'll be nice for hose marathon days I spend cooking by the stove.

My sister got me a ravioli maker, some parmesan raggiano and Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I haven't gotten very far into the cookbook, done some browsing, but it looks quite good. I've been looking for some new sauces and hopefully this will help. My first recipe may be the pork loin braised in milk, looks tasty.

I'm also excited about the ravioli maker, should be fun to try out. It got good reviews on Amazon so I'm hoping it works out well.

My folks also got me a pasta drying rack and a creme brulee torch. No more using the ironing board to dry pasta.

Fried rice

2010-02-03T10:00:00.003-06:00

I love eggs. Scrambled, poached, over easy, hard boiled, sunny side up, it doesn't matter. An egg on top of a burger is one of my favorite things so when I saw this Bittman/Vongerichten recipe I was a little excited. A sunny side egg on top of fried rice? Where do I sign up?

Now this isn't for everyone. I was raised in a family where an egg yolk was a cherished thing to sop up with some toasts, sausage, bacon, etc. But I know some who think the site of a runny yolk is disgusting. One the Publican menu they have fries serves with an egg sunny side up. To me this is a little bit of heaven but for others it would make them gag.

This is my take on the fried rice recipe linked above. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand and wanted some extra protein so I added a chicken breast to the mix. I also used brown rice, steamed one cup, instead of white rice.

I did a quick marinade of the sliced chicken breast, couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, some rice wine vinegar, a good size shallot chopped along with a couple of cloved of garlic. I wanted some heat too so I added about a teaspoon of red pepper flake and about a tablespoon of srircha.

I let that marinate, about an hour, while the brown rice steamed and added it a pan over high heat to do a quick sear and cook. Depending on how you cut up the chicken it should only take a few minutes to cook. Then add the cooked rice and mix together. I probably cooked for around five minutes.

After I added the rice to the chicken I started cooking my egg in a separate frying pan. I was very happy with his this turned out, it had some nice heat, but not too much and was pretty easy to do. I was also happy with how the picture turned out.

Porchetta

2010-02-02T11:48:00.003-06:00

Savuer posted it's porchetta recipe from the magazine, you can find the link here.

It's an intimidating recipe. Leaving the plastic wrap on and the baking soda to crisp the skin, a lot of techniques I've never used before.

I haven't ruled it out though, I need to swing by the Peoria Meat Market to see what the pork belly will cost me before I make a final decision.

A pork aside, had brunch at the Publican Sunday and was very impressed. The maple braised bacon was a dream, a nice salty/sweet bite of porky goodness. And they made a mimosa with a heffe weiss and OJ that really blew me away as well. I've been for dinner too and while the Publican isn't cheap it's worth a try, great beer and excellent food.

SousVide at home

2010-02-01T15:14:00.001-06:00

I have no intention of buying this but I am damn intrigued. The one thing lacking from the review is the time it takes to cook items.

If he's right we'll all have these in a few years.

Comfort food cravings

2010-02-01T11:28:00.006-06:00

My hankering for comfort food it at an all-time high.

It's stress, I'm on deadline for the spring issue of the magazine and have too much work to do and not enough time. I'm also incapable of writing for more than eight hours a day and the 10 minutes I'm going to spend on this post is probably a mistake.

But alas, I need to vent, or maybe get some help. What I really want is tuna noodle casserole that I wrote about a couple of years ago. As I said back then, this is not a healthy recipe. Even if I use whole wheat egg noodles, 2% milk -- I refuse to cook with skim milk -- and the low-fat velvetta it's still not healthy at all.

Anybody have suggestion on how to make this a bit more healthy? I could always go with the low-fact mac and cheese but any help would be appreciated.

Lasagna

2010-01-29T07:53:00.003-06:00

The last couple of years the day before Thanksgiving Rory and I have been having a few friends over for dinner. This year I decided to make lasagna, but with a marinara since there would be some vegetarians in attendance.

Making a marinara isn't difficult, nor is boiling some water and putting together a typical lasagna, but I decided to go the extra mile and this is one of those posts where some may call me a crazy person. I decided I would also make my own ricotta -- easier than I thought -- as well as my own spinach pasta. The marinara would be made with tomatoes from my parents garden, which I wrote about here.

So this could be a post with four recipes instead I'm going to focus on the ricotta and the pasta.

Making your own ricotta is pretty easy, a gallon of whole milk, some patience and a little vinegar are all you need. I followed the instructions from Stephanie Izard's Web site on how to do it. My main issues was having a pot big enough for the whole gallon of milk. I have a larger pot but it's a cheap, thin aluminum stock pot I use to make soup. I was worried about scorching the bottom of the pot and instead use my dutch oven, which you can see from the picture above was filled to the top.

You get the temperature of the milk to 190 degrees and then you add the vinegar. The curds start to separate at this point and you let it sit for awhile and then you strain through cheese cloth. All in all pretty easy, but it doesn't make a lot, as you can see below.

I wasn't necessarily impressed at this point, but you could tell the difference in the final product. In the lasagna the ricotta was so light and had an excellent texture.

I also made my own spinach pasta, which I don't have any picture of nor do I have any of the final product. This recipe is from the kitchen aid cookbook that came with the attachments.

1 10-oz. package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 TBLSP water
4 large eggs
4 cups sifted AP flour.

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix with paddle attachment for about a minute. Switch to dough hook and mix for a few more minutes and then knead by hand for one to two minutes.

Let dough sit for at least an hour if not longer. Run it through pasta machine according to the manufacturers instructions.

After all was said and done this was a nice a light lasagna, something I would do again. I alternated layers of ricotta with sauce and mozzarella.

Prep list

2010-01-21T08:59:00.005-06:00

Rory and I are hosting a couple of friends for dinner Saturday. I'm not doing anything too complex, salad, pork tenderloin with with a couple of sides and dessert. The meal is taken mainly from the Ad Hoc cookbook.

And while this meal is pretty simple, I find myself, for the first time, writing a prep list. Now whenever I go to the grocery store I have a list, I can't think of a time in the last couple of years where I haven't had a list when I went to the store, it just makes me more efficient. But for this meal, because of some of the little complexities, I find myself making sure that I take care of some of the little things too.

Most of the recipes are pretty simple but there are a few things I need to do in advance. I'm doing this smashed roasted potatoes, which call for garlic confit, and these torn croutons, which need the oil from the confit but I need to do it ahead of time.

Then there's the brine for the pork and the custard for the ice cream and we can't forget the brownies, but should I make them the day before or the day of?

Today:
Shop
Make garlic confit
Make custard for ice cream
Make brine for pork

Friday:
Churn ice cream (maybe, I might wait till Saturday)
Make brownies

Saturday:
Brine pork
Do everything else

Ok, looking at it now maybe I didn't have to write it all out and I'm probably going to have to work on the last day a bit, but still interesting to see the process.

Roast chicken with root vegetables

2010-01-13T11:02:00.005-06:00

The picture didn't turn out that great, but the chicken was quite good, even though it was missing some skin around the breast, bad shopping on my part.

I threw some turnips in there for the first time with the potato and carrot was was underwhelmed. The turnip had a texture that didn't work for me. This was a basic roast chicken, though I used a quarter of the butter, and I didn't preheat the cast iron pan.

It all cooked in a 425 degree oven for about an hour. While the chicken was resting I cooked the veggies a bit more in the pan to get some more color on them. I'll do it again, I forgot how much I like roast carrots, they had a great flavor that just really popped.

This recipe was inspired from the Ad Hoc cookbook.

Struggling with Porchetta

2010-01-12T11:47:00.003-06:00

Last spring I was lucky to attend Cochon 555 where I for the first time had porchetta. This lovely pork tenderloin wrapped in pork belly was a first for me. Also around the same time a friend of a friend made one and documented it with pictures on Facebook.

I've been mulling making my own ever since and then I get the latest copy of Savuer and it is listed in the magazine's top 100 along with a recipe.

Now the assemble of this doesn't scare me, not after putting together my own turducken, it's more the cost and size or the beast. The recipe, not available online, calls for 12 to 14 pounds of pork belly and says it feeds 10 to 12.

I'm still considering it for my mom's birthday at the end of February. It's going to be a fun meal, I'm making my own ravioli for a pasta course and am still considering the porchetta, any thoughts?

Ad Hoc pork brine

2010-01-11T10:39:00.004-06:00

I was given a couple of cook books for Christmas, Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc and Michael Ruhlman's Ratio. I was very excited to dig into both of them, Ratio seems like an easy way to remember how to cook just about anything whereas Ad Hoc just seemed to have some great recipes.

My plan is to post more about these books as I use them, but I did already use the pork bring recipe from Ad Hoc. I wanted to make Rory and I something nice to eat before heading out New Year's Eve and found some nice bone-in pork chop at the store.

My luck with pork brines in the past had been hit or miss but mostly miss. I really hadn't cared fot the flavor or didn't really notice it enough to care with some past recipes I had tried. This one was different though.

1/4 cup plus 2 TBLS honey
12 bay leaves
3 large rosemary sprigs
1/2 bunch thyme
1/2 cup of garlic cloves, crushed
2 TBLS black peppercorns
1 cup of kosher sale
8 cups of water

The cookbook recupe call for combning all ingridents in a large pit and bring to a boil and then cooling. I did that, but only added half the water., As soon as the salt and everything was disolved I added the remaining cold water. You don't have to wait as long to add the meat this way. Also, I hadn't planned well so I needed to get the chops in there sooner rather than later.

I decided to do this last minute so I didn't have any rosemary and used dried thyme. I bring the chops for about seven hours and the results were spectacular. They had a great flavor and were really juicy. You probably don't want to bring them for much longer than eight hours, according tot he book.

I seared the chops in a hot cast iron pan and then put them in a 350 degree oven for another 15 minutes to finidh cooking. These chops were pretty thick so if you get thinner ones you might not have to finish in the oven.

Brown Rice, chicken and mushroom casserole

2010-01-07T10:30:00.003-06:00

We're going to get anywhere from six to 12 inches of snow in the next day or so in Chicago. After that the temps are going to plunge and we'll be enjoying some sub-zero wind chills.

Typically the only good thing about this type of weather is the food I want to cook. There's a reason the comfort food tag is one of the largest on this site. Casseroles and stews and some of my favorite things to make, but since we're trying to watch the diet once again I can't have free reign like I once did.

But I have found some health alternatives that can fill that need. I saw this chicken and rice recipe awhile back and have made it a couple of times and it's quite good, though I have made a few changes.

I don't use any cream and instead use no-fat sour cream. I have to say no-fat sour cream is pretty nasty stuff on its own but mixed in as an ingredient it works well.

I also substituted brown rice for the white rice. And because of this last part it takes about an hour to cook in the oven.

The results are a tasty and not-all-together unhealthy meal. Do I still want tuna casserole with velvetta, chicken and dumplings and other bad things, such as the beef stew with cheddar cobbler topping? Yes, but it's all about will power and maybe a cheat dinner at some point next month.

Turducken Part Three: Revenge of fowl

2010-01-06T10:12:00.007-06:00

So I've been badly neglecting the blog with no really good excuse. Work was busy, and there were the holidays but I need to be better about keeping the four people who visit here better updated.

I probably have close to half a dozen posts from last year to catch you all up on, but I'll start with turducken, which was a little more than a month ago.

We had 21 this year for the feast in which I once again made my own bird(s). It is the last one in our apartment as well as the house hunting in the suburbs had begun in earnest. It'll be curious to see how this evolves next year. I like it being a sit down dinner and one of the things we're looking for in a house is a large dining room. Now 21 people is tight just about anywhere you go but with more room may expand next year.

Everything went pretty smoothly this year, especially compared to last year. Putting it together was pretty easy, I deboned the chicken and duck myself but ordered the turkey deboned from Paulina Meat Market.

I also made mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin and tiramisu ice creams. The latter two deserve their own posts, which will happen soon.

Another edition to the turducken was a wedding goft from Rory's college friends, a kegerator. We started out with a five-gallon keg of Two Brother's Ebel Weiss and then switched it out with a five-gallon keg of Two Brother's Domaine Dupage. I'm becoming a huge fan of Two Brother's brewery and may have to make a road trip out there soon.

Now for the food porn and hoping to be a better blogger in 2010.

Whole wheat pasta

2009-11-13T10:08:00.003-06:00

Thanks again to Matt and Alisha for the pasta maker. I made my first batch this week and it turned out pretty good. Though making pasta may seem simple and only require a handful of ingredients, it's the technique that take a bit of time.

3.5 cups of whole wheat flour
2 TSP water
4 eggs
Pinch of salt

That may seem simple enough but it's not. You add all those ingredients to the mixing bowl but then you have to add water or flour based on how the dough comes together. I probably spent a good 15 minutes just making sure the dough was correct, a process that hopefully won't take me as long next time.

And that's just the star, after getting the dough right you need to cut it into smaller pieces and starting feeding it though the machine, considering one batch of dough is cut into six or seven pieces that all need to be separately it though the pasta maker it's time consuming. I easily spent more than an hour from start to finish on this alone.

You need to run each piece through the maker multiple times, one the first setting along you probably need to run it through about five times. It's less after that as you get the pasta thinner, but still a process. Again, having done it once I'm hoping it won't take me as long next time. I was making fettuccine this time and had it on the five setting for thinness, which was a bit too thin, next time I'll stop on five.

After you get the pasta to the desired thinness you have to swap out attachments and put the pasta cutter on. This was easy enough, though I did have some clumping when I had it sitting in the bowl. I did toss it with a little bit of flour but maybe a bowl wasn't the right conveyance for fresh pasta, maybe a platter would be better? If anybody has any advice I would welcome it.

Overall, it turned out ok. I didn't help that I overcooked the pasta slightly. The directions said two minutes but I probably could have yanked it after 90 seconds. I'm looking forward to making some stuffed pastas and some spinich pasta for lasagna.

I served this with some marinara that I made awhile back.

Excuses

2009-11-09T12:36:00.002-06:00

So it's been awhile since a post and it may be a bit longer. I have a few posts to write up but haven't had time. The last deadline for the day job was brutal. I then took off for DC for the better part of a week and was then off to Cancun for my honeymoon.

Now I'm back in the office today but may be leaving on Saturday for Paris, France for six days. I should hear from the boss in a little bit on what he's deciding to do.

So that means no posts for awhile and there's so much to do. The fall/winter are two of my favorite times of the year to cook and I just don't know when I'm going to have time. I also have new toys to play with. I was the lucky recipient of a pasta maker, which I am still hoping to take for a whirl at some point this week

There's also some ice cream recipes, the dinner at Alinea and I'm sure half a dozen other that I'm forgetting about.

Oops

2009-10-12T10:00:00.004-05:00

So I missed week one of the cooking challenge, which I thought might happen. Rory and I headed up to Michigan yesterday to see my grandfather, hit a couple of wineries and hang out with the family. we also hit an apple orchard where they had freshly made apple cider doughnuts (picture above). They were still warm when you brought them.

The secret ingredients were apples, basil and olives. In all honesty it's probably best that I missed this one, Rory can't stand olives. I would have most likely done something with pork and apples, it's a natural pairing and I actually did something earlier in the week with those two. My side would have involved the olives and basil and apples. Maybe a couscous? Or make a pesto with the basil and include the olives?

I'll admit, I'm having trouble figuring out where the olives belong. Then again, I could have done a roast chicken with an apple, basil and olive stuffing, though that does seem kinda weak.

But my question is, do all three ingredients have to be center stage? I'll be curious to see what wins.

Meanwhile, my deadline is almost over and I have a backlog of posts to write. Should be doing them soon.

Cooking challenge

2009-10-08T09:49:00.002-05:00

So the Red Eye and Stephanie Izard are having a contest where someone can win the change to cook with her at the next Wandering Goat dinner.

The challenge is to cook a meal for four people with three secret ingredient within 24 hour of the ingredients being posted. While I have plans each of the next three Sundays, I'm going to see what I can whip up. I wonder if the ingredients will be seasonable or just weird.

Here's hoping I don't forget about.

Craving

2009-10-02T07:49:00.002-05:00

I'm craving a burger. A big, juicy burger.

I'm thinking grilled onions and mushrooms, some bacon and good cheddar cheese topped with a fried egg maybe on a pretzel roll. Is this healthy? Not at all but I still might make it for lunch.

Table 52

2009-09-28T09:44:00.003-05:00

I don't typically write about restaurant meals here, but I know a lot of people are interested in the dinner Rory and I had at Table 52 and figured it was easier to do a blog post.

Table 52 is Art Smith's first restaurant. I'm a Smith fan and when he opened the restaurant a little more than a year ago (I think) I wanted to check it out. Time passed and when I found a bunch of Visa gift cards I thought it would be a nice treat to go for a nice dinner. I made the reservation back in July for this past Sunday. I wanted to do a Sunday because it's the only night they do fried chicken.

Rory and I show up at the Gold Coast restaurant and are greeted by a very friendly member of the staff. The hostess sat us immediately and a server brought us two deviled eggs for the amuse bouche followed by a large goat cheese biscuit for us to split. The deviled egg was awesome, had a nice salty bite but was also creamy. There was a crunchy garnish as well that added a nice bite. The biscuit was still warm, light and tasty, the goat cheese was not overpowering and added a nice flavor.

For the entrees I ordered the fried chicken that came with au gratin potatoes. Rory order the hog chop with potato waffle. We also spilt a side of the three cheese macaroni and ordered a bottle of pinot noir, can't remember what but it was quite nice.

One of the reasons I don't write about the restaurants I visit is that I don't think I can do the food justice with my words. Because all I can say about the entrees at Table 52 is phenomenal.

The fried chicken was tender and moist and perfectly seasoned. I wonder if they brine or marinate beforehand but I've never had friend chicken like this before. The coating was perfect, not too heavy and not too light. The potatoes were also awesome, creamy and perfectly cooked. There was something in them that gave it a bit of tang but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Rory's hog chop was a new preparation that they had just put on the menu that evening. The large chop was obviously brined and was full of flavor and had a nice pepper bite at the end. It came with a apple puree where the sweetness nicely worked with the savory side of the chip. The potato waffles were also very good. What they did here is take some sort of potato puree and then put it in a waffle maker, which was genius.

Rory and I have gone out for a few really good meals but I had never seen her this excited afterward. She kept saying that she wanted to email Art Smith and tell him how much she loved the meal and how everything got better with each bite.

The three cheese macaroni was also exceptional. It came in a big bowl that has been put in the wood burning stove and has cheese melted all down the side. It was a nice creamy bit that was full of flavor.

For dessert we spilt the 12-layer chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It too was exceptional.

And then Rory promptly rolled me out of the restaurant because I was stuffed and couldn't move.

Table 52 isn't cheap, though we went all out, at around $200 with tip for both if us. It would have been a lot cheaper if we didn't get the wine, but you're still looking at a good chunk of change, but I would highly recommend it for a special occasion.

Mmmmm, pork

2009-09-16T11:30:00.002-05:00

So the last two times I've been to Dominck's I've noticed pork is on sale, or at least some pork is on sale for 99 cents a pound.

Last Friday I bought what was probably six or seven pounds of country ribs for and yesterday I bough a 4.5 pound pork shoulder roast. Now I know this isn't tenderloin and these cuts require a little bit more work, but it's worth it.

I took half the country ribs and froze them and with the other half I seared them and then cooked them in a basic tomato sauce: onions, garlic, oregano, thyme, red wine etc. Let them cook in the sauce for a few hours and then serve with some steamed brown rice.

I'm going to use a spice rub on the pork shoulder and slow cook it in the oven, probably 275-300 degrees for a few hours.

For $10 I'm getting four good meals, yeah, the cooking takes longer, but there's no reason it can't be done.

Tomatoes

2009-09-15T09:56:00.006-05:00

Before roasting

There was a bumper crop of tomatoes at Ma and Pa Martin's farm this year so I brought home a good five to 10 pounds. I am not a fan of raw tomatoes so I decided I was going to roast them and then make a sauce.

I removed the stems, cut them in half and took out the seeds. I places them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzled with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic. I placed them in a 250 degree oven for two and a half hours.

Just before I was getting ready to take them out of the oven I diced an onion, some celery, carrot and garlic and started to sautee over medium heat in a dutch oven with a some olive oil until clear.

After taking the tomatoes out of the oven they went right into the dutch oven. I mixed them up a bit, turned the heat down and covered for about 90 minutes. Then I took the stick blender and pureed everything together.

The result was a nice, rich marinara that had some deep flavors. I'm not sure if I'm going to serve it just some pasta or use it as a base for another sauce.

Spinach and goat cheese tartlets

2009-09-14T12:21:00.005-05:00

I'm not a big fan of making appetizers, unless it involves make one big portion of something and then simply cutting it down into smaller portions. It's often too much work for too little reward. But this Saturday I made an exception. Rory and I were having a few friends over before heading to a Joe and Sean's wedding and we wanted to make a couple of appetizers.

The Food Network magazine had this recipe for some spinach and goat cheese tartlets and they sounded too good to pass up. Also, since I had never worked with phyllo before I thought this was a good change to try something different.

The phyllo was as much of a pain in the ass as I feared. It was tearing and just not an easy material to work with. Luckily Rory was around to help me out, as she has prior experience. Still I manged to make the little cups and they turned out well.

The filling was also very good. Yes, it's a lot of ingredients but they have a nice deep, complex flavor. You could taste the lemon, the vinegar and the richness of the goat cheese and all it all lead to a satisfying bite.Rory also made her veggie pizza, her signature dish.

Low-fat mac and cheese

2009-09-09T09:35:00.003-05:00

I'm a sucker for macaroni and cheese, it's one of my favorite things. While I have made a handful of fancy versions, I will sometimes crave the Kraft blue box stuff as well.

The main problem being mac and cheese typically isn't that good for you, so when I saw this recipe in the latest Food Network magazine I was intrigued. I made a couple of changes from the original recipe, I used a combination of sharp cheddar cheese and parmesano reggiano instead of mostly muenster. I also used whole wheat elbow pasta instead of shells.

The cauliflower did add a really nice texture to the cheese sauce and a little bit of sweetness which was a good contrast to the sharpness of the cheddar. This recipe has a lot of potential, you could add a little Canadian bacon for some protein or maybe some spinach or other vegetables and keep is veggie friendly. I might make this for turducken this year for the vegetarians in attendance.

And yes, I need to start taking more pictures, will try to remember.

Pasta sauce

2009-09-02T11:41:00.003-05:00

I had a serious craving for pasta this week and decided to to make Bolognese, well sort of. There is no one way to make Bolognese, the one thing that can be agreed upon is there's tomatoes, onions, herbs and meat, some use pork other use beef. Whether to use wine, milk and some other permutations depends on who you talk to.

I wanted to do something a little different than my usual sauce. My first thought was to use Italian sausage add some beef short ribs, sear them and then let them cook in the tomato sauce with the other goodies. But the short ribs looked like crap and pork was on sale so I decided to go with a two-pound pork roast.

I did a little salt and pepper, seared it about four or five minutes a side and then removed it from the dutch oven. Then I cooked the onions and everything else like usual. After adding the tomato sauce I place the pork back in the pot and let it cook for a couple of hours.

Then I took it out of the oven and let it cool/rest for a bit. I was hoping to shred it and put it back in the pot, but it wasn't at the shredding point so I sliced it and then cut it into stripes and then added it back to the sauce.

It was excellent, the pork had the great tomato, garlic flavor and added some heft to the sauce. I hadn't made sauce like this since last year and it was a nice treat. I tossed the sauce with a whole wheat spaggeti and grated some fresh parm over the top. Alas, I forgot to take a picture.

Cinnamon ice cream

2009-08-31T10:53:00.002-05:00

The ice cream experiences are going extremely well and friends are making requests (mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream are the two most popular). I made my first custard-based ice cream last week, a cinnamon ice cream, this again is from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

1 cup of whole milk
3.4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Ten three-inch cinnamon sticks broken up
2 cups of heavy cream
5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon and one cup of the cream in a saucepan. Once warm remove from heat and let steep for about an hour.

Rewarm the mixture and remove the cinnamon sticks. Add remaining cup of cream to a separate bowl in an ice bath.

In separate bowl whisk egg yolks. Add portion of warm milk mixture to eggs yolks whisking constantly. Add warm egg yolks to milk mixture and stir constantly until it coats the back of a spatula.

Pour through strainer into cup of cream in ice bath and stir until cool. Once cool store in fridge and make according to ice cream makers instructions.

This was an excellent ice cream, good flavor and a texture like I've never tasted before. I may be ruined for store bought ice cream.

Chocolate raspberry ice cream

2009-08-25T10:39:00.003-05:00

The ice cream maker might be a very dangerous toy. Made my first batch last night and all I can say is wow. I made one of the easier recipes and it had a richness and depth that I haven't had with store bought ice cream in a long time if ever. I'm almost afraid of what the more complex, richer recipes will bring.

This recipe if from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

1.5 cups of heavy cream
5 TBLSP of unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder,
2/3 cups of sugar
2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries (I used frozen because the fresh ones at the store looked like crap).

Whisk together, the cream, cocoa powder and sugar in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a full boil and then remove from heat and add raspberries, let sit for 10 minutes.

Add mixture to a food processor or blender (I used a blender) and puree. Optional: then press the mixture through a strainer to get rid of some of the seeds.

I then places the mixture into an ice bath to hep cool it down. For this type of ice cream this is another optional step. At this point you could just place in a container in the fridge and let cool down completely.

I let it sit in the fridge for about three hours before churning. It took a little more than 10 minutes before it was ready and at that point it was the consistency of soft serve and you could eat it then. I placed it in an air tight container and put it in the freezer for about 45 minutes to firm up a bit more. This made a small batch, enough for two or three people.

Ice Cream

2009-08-24T11:51:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned, we received the ice cream maker attachment to the KitchenAid mixer so last Friday I stared looking online for recipes, which I found a bit frustrating.

The base for many ice creams is called a creme anglaise, which is basically different types of dairy, sugar and eggs heated and mixed, of what some may call a custard. There are many, many different version as I found out. I was getting annoyed so I decided to spend some of the $50 in Borders gift cards I had and bought The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. I read his blog quite a bit and find his recipes pretty easy to follow and the book is no different.

So, on tap this week is a chocolate, rasberry ice cream along with a orange popsicle ice cream. These are both "Philadelphia-style" ice creams, no egg yolks and no creme anglaise, trying to start slowly and see then step it up. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Brown Rice side dish (veggie friendly)

2009-08-21T09:31:00.004-05:00

So with the South Beach diet I have started experimenting with different foods, such as brown rice. This brown rice side dish I made last night was probably the best offering I've had so far and part of it was a mistake. I was originally cooking the criminis as a side for the pork chops but I felt the brown rice was lacking some oomph so I added the mushrooms which gave it a good depth of flavor. You could use stock instead of water here too, but Bittman and Ruhlman have convinced me to stop using the box stock from the store.

But here's the problem, the only thing I really measured out when I made this last night was the brown rice, everything else is an approximate of what I did. You have to play with the water to get it right, if you've cooked risotto before you'll be fine. I cooked this in a 5.5 quart dutch oven, hopefully it will work for you.

2 TBLSP butter
1 medium onion diced
5 cloves of garlic, diced
1.5 cups of brown rice
Boiling water
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms quartered
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Boil water and add dried mushrooms to rehydrate.

Place dutch oven over medium heat add butter and melt. Add two-thirds of the diced onion and cook until clear, 5-7 minutes, and then add rehydrated dried mushrooms. Add garlic, cook for another minute or two and then add brown rice. Store to coat with butter, onions and garlic for two to four minutes. Add enough water to cover everything and stir.

Cook until some of the water is absorbed and then add some more, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover for 10-20 minutes checking at least twice to give a stir. This is the hardest part, but if anything be cautious and check more frequently, it will take longer to cook but you won't have to worry about it sticking or having too much liquid.

In a cast iron pan over medium high heat add a little olive oil and then add remaining onion. After a minute or so add the quartered crimini mushrooms and some black pepper. Cook until they have a nice color and add salt, set aside over low heat to keep warm.

After rice is cooked (you need to taste it), add Parmesan and stir to combine. Add mushrooms and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed (I add a little salt and pepper throughout the entire cooking process, not just at the end).

No, I haven't died ...

2009-08-20T12:39:00.003-05:00

I just got married (the four of you regular reader of course know this). That and work had kept me away from my lovely side project which I have been neglecting terribly this summer.

I received some really new fun toys though, some All Clad cookware and an ice cream machine is on the way, so I should be starting the cooking machine up again very soon. There's still a couple of months of grilling left.

Above I posted some food porn, a couple of chicken I BBQ'd awhile back and never got around to posting about. I did a typical compound butter and placed the chickens over indirect heat until they were done. I threw some extra fresh sage and lemon into the cavity of the birds too to keep them from drying out.

Long overdue South Beach update

2009-07-02T09:42:00.003-05:00

For the past couple of months it's been tough to strictly adhere to the South Beach diet, but I've tried to stick with it's basic concepts. I haven't updated my weight status since mid-April and in that time I've dropped another seven pounds, which brings the total loss to 32.

I don't think that's all bad considering I had a trip to New Orleans and Las Vegas in there where the diet pretty much went out the window.

It's been easy to stick to the basic concept because I don't keep food in the house that doesn't fit into the diet. I've had potatoes in the house once since Jan. 1 and other than some whole wheat hamburger of hot dog buns no bread in the house. I've gotten to the point where if I eat a lot of carbs I end up feeling all bloated and crappy.

The fact that I'm working out like a maniac hasn't hurt either. I'm running seven miles a week and doing weights twice a week.

Guiness cupcakes with a twist

2009-05-30T14:27:00.002-05:00

I'm on a bit of a cupcake making jag and did some again, this time for John's 30th birthday. When I asked Rory which ones I should make she said Guinness cupcakes because they have beer in them and we'll be drinking beer at John and Ruth's.

I had made them once before, a recipe from my sister, but I couldn't find that one so I just did a quick Yahoo search. I thought this recipe looked good so I went with it. I went with sour cream over yogurt and I used the cream cheese frosting from Paula Dean that I had made for the red velvet cupcakes, though I halved the recipe.

I also did one other little thing. I had some chocolate ganache left over from when I did the vanilla cupcakes. I had been meaning to make truffles, but instead I took some of the ganache and put it in the center of each of the cupcakes.

The end results were really, really good. Nice moist cake with good texture and a nice pop of dark chocolate. I would say they're the best cupcakes I've ever made.

Another take on chicken cacciatore

2009-05-27T10:24:00.002-05:00

Purists will get all over me for calling this chicken cacciatore, but it's the inspiration for this recipe. It's not very seasonal, more of a fall/winter dish, but I made it last night for the second time and it's a tasty, somewhat healthy meal.

Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
2-pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts cubed (you can also use thighs for a less health alternative)
1-large onion, diced
1-red bell pepper
1-green bell pepper
1/2-pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (I like crimini)
1-TSP thyme
1-TSP oregano
1-TSP sage
3-cloves garlic, diced
2-cups brown rice
8-ounce can of chopped tomatoes (I think, medium sized can)
1-cup dry white wine
2-cups chicken stock
1-small can of tomato paste

Heat dutch oven over medium high heat, add oil. Salt and pepper chicken and add to pot, cook until just about done, five minutes or so, remove and set aside.

Add chopped vegetables and cook, stirring every couple of minutes, for about 15 minutes or so until onion are clear and mushrooms are coked. Add chicken back to the pot and add spices, cook for two to three minutes.

Add brown rice and cook for another two to three minutes. Add wine, chicken stock, and tomatoes (not tomato paste), bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 30 minutes. Check to see if rice if done, if not let cook for another five minutes or so. Once rice is just about done add tomato paste and combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

Cochon 555 roundup

2009-05-26T10:44:00.006-05:00

What's better than free pig? Yeah, not a whole lot.

Sunday I was lucky enough to attend Cochon 555 at the Drake. The event intends to raise awareness for heritage breed pigs and Farms for City Kids. Since it was the Drake I suited up even though I wanted to wear my pig t-shirt.

Walking into the room it was set up like something out of Top Chef with each of the five chefs having stations setup around the room. Before digging in I walked around and got a feel for what was going on. I also ran into Ed, who writes Cooking and Eating in Chicago. We had a nice chat about writing and food.

My first stop was Bluprint and Sam Burman. I first sipped on a Bacon Manhattan that had bacon-infused whiskey, nice and tasty. But then there was the most unusual thing I had all day, Bacon Cotton Candy (picture above). It was served on a piece of bacon and quite tasty, sweet yet salty.

My next stop was the Bristol and Chris Pandel. They had a porchetta sandwich (a reoccuring theme) that was excellent. They also were deep frying some little dougnnut things that had bits of pork in the center that were really good, though looking through my notes I forgot to write it down.

The Signature Room and Patrick Sheerin went Asian with their pork preperation. They also did 12-hour cooked porchetta but with some soy and other Asian themes. It was very nice. Sheerin's miso-cured pork belly was also excellent and had great flavor (picture above).

Graham Elliot Bowles had a very Southern tinge to his food. The pork belly pasty has the lightest and most delicate crust I've ever tasted, really, really good. He also had a pulled pork sandwich on a little biscuit with cole slaw (picture below) that may have been the best thing I has the entire time there. It was so rich I don't think I could have eaten a real sized sandwich like it.

The best thing at the paramount Room from Stephen Dunne was the hog's head broth. Very strong flavors with asparagus was exceptional and rich.

The food overall was very good, though a bit too much head cheese and some other weird stuff that I just don't have the stomach for at this point. I tried some headcheese but the texture just throws me off.

Hopefully a year from now Rory and I will be getting ready to move into out own home and I'll be preparing for my very own pig roast. I can't wait.

Wedding beer

2009-05-19T09:44:00.003-05:00

We sampled the beer we're making for the wedding on Sunday. Rory's Uncle Joe has quite the home brew setup in his basement. My dad and I went down there in February and made a heffe weizen and a saison.

I guess Joe had tasted the saison earlier in the week and didn't care for it to the extent he bought another kit to make something else in case it didn't turn out.

But on Sunday it tasted fine to me. It started out nice and clean and then had a little bit of a bitter aftertaste. I thought it was pretty good and Joe said it would continue to mature in the less than three months we have till the wedding.

The heffe weizen was excellent. It has a nice crisp clean taste which will be perfect for what will most likely be a hot day in August.

Home brewing is something I would like to take up when I get a house where I can store the beer, but in the meantime Joe has said I could use his facilities any time I want. I'm seriously considering a home brew for Turducken in December.

Vanilla cupcakes

2009-05-18T15:44:00.004-05:00

It was my buddy Ben's birthday this past weekend and he asked someone to make a cake. I obliged with some cupcakes.

I asked my sister, the cupcake queen, if she could recommend a yellow cupcake recipe and she referred to the Amy Sedaris recipe that I found on Epicurious. The only change I made was cooking them at 350 instead of 375 to avoid the "hockey puck" issue that was discussed in the comments.

I also did a ganache instead of butter cream. I'm a big fan of the ganache and it's a whole lot easier to work with than anything else.

9 ounces dark chocolate chips
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum

Place cream in a saucepan over medium heat, add sugra and rum, mix until sugar is disolved. Bring to just about a boil and pour hot cream over chcolcate and whisk the two together until smooth.

Let cool for abot 30 to 45 minutes and dip the top of the cupcakes into the ganache and set aside.

Everybody at the party seemed to enjoy them. They were moist and had a good texture but not a lot of flavor, but then again yellow cake doesn't taste like a whole lot anyway.

It has begun ...

2009-05-18T15:35:00.004-05:00

The first wedding shower held by Rory's mom's friends was Sunday. Not everything was for me, but we did do more than all right. I finally got my espresso maker and some long-needed baking gear and a rolling pin, a piece of kitchen gear I've been wanting for the past 15 months but had been forbidden from buying. Of course when we were selecting what to bring home and what to leave at Rory's parents the rolling pin was an item left behind.

The tube loaf, and spring form pans were all needed. The other item I'm excited about is the Nordic ware waffle pancake pan from Williams Sonoma. I was ready to register for a waffle maker but saw the pan and thought it was a little more fun.

Woo Hoo Free Pork!

2009-05-15T16:24:00.003-05:00

Sitting at my desk, minding my own business when an email from the folks at Foodbuzsz come through. First three to respond to the email win a ticket to this dinner:

COCHON 555 - Chicago
“5 Pigs, 5 Chefs, 5 Winemakers”

A group of top Chicago chefs will each prepare a heritage breed hog from head to toe for this competition. Cochon 555 is the only national chef competition promoting heritage pigs and breed diversity. Guests and professional judges will determine a winner based on creative, classic preparation and overall best flavor. The winner will be crowned the “Prince of Porc”. In addition, five family-owned wineries will showcase their wines.

WHO: Taste Network presents
Patrick Sheerin, The Signature Room at the 95th

Chris Pandel, The Bristol

Graham Elliot Bowles, Graham Elliot Restaurant

Sam Burman, Bluprint

Stephen Dunne, VOLO / Paramount Room

Wineries: Chase Cellars, Vision Cellars, Van Duzer Vineyards, Patz & Hall and August West

So next Sunday I will have the pleasure of eating one hell of a meal. I typicall don't blog about meals I eat out, but I will about this one.

Lemon, thyme cream sauce

2009-04-29T19:58:00.003-05:00

First off, this is nowhere near South Beach friendly. The fine folks over at Foodbuzz were giving away pasta so I decided to try some. They sent over some Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti (ravioli) and I decided to make a nice cream sauce.

I have to say, this was awesome. It may be that I haven't eaten real fat food in a few months but this hit on all levels. It as cream and had a good bite to it. This would work with any pasta but complimented the mushrooms really well.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium shallot diced
1/2 TSP dried thyme
1.5 cups of heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Salt and pepper to taste
I package Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

Bring a pot to of salted water to a boil.

In a saute pan over medium heat melt butter. Add shallots and cook until clear. Add cream, simmer and reduce for four to five minutes. Add lemon juice, stir, add cheese stir. Turn heat to low.

Add Agnolotti to boiling water and cook for four minutes, add to pan with cream sauce and serve.

An awfully good burger

2009-04-28T10:21:00.002-05:00

With the weather finally turning decent in Chicago, Rory and I decided to grill a couple of weekends ago. For the first grilling of the season we decided to go simple: burgers.

Now some people may say you need to do all sort of things for a good burger. And it's true, sometimes special ingredients can make some difference. But for a really tasty burger you really only need three things.

First is the beef. You need fat so it doesn't dry out so use an 80/20 mix.

Second and third: salt and pepper.

I bought a little more than a pound of ground beef added a good amount of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, mixed it up, and formed three patties.

I cooked it over charcoal for 3 to four minutes a side, added some nice sharp cheddar cheese, grilled onions and crimini mushrooms on a toasted bun and that's it.

The burger would have been just as good without the onion, mushrooms and cheese. The key is the fat in the beef and not overcooking it. I'm craving one right now just thinking about it.

Red velvet cupcakes

2009-04-27T12:14:00.003-05:00

Did some baking this weekend, first time I had done any since the holidays. It was Sarah's birthday and she requested baked goods

I did make Paula Deen's red velvet cupcakes and frosting, though with a couple of changes. When I saw this recipe I noticed the 334 comments and reviews. This seemed like a lot to me. I look at recipes all the time online and often look at the comments to see if the recipe needs to be tweaked in any way.

The comments for the recipe were so different, people either loved or hated the recipe. There were also a couple of modifications that I incorporated into the recipe I made.

Instead of using one teaspoon of coco powder I used two tablespoons, one teaspoon didn't seem like nearly enough, and in reality they still could have used more. I also only used one cup of vegetable oil and upped the buttermilk to 1.5 cups.

The frosting concerned me (see post below) but it was really good. By far it was the best frosting I've ever made. The only problem was I could have easily halved the recipe and still had plenty of frosting for the cupcakes. I ended up tossing a lot of it.

Rory and people at the party said the cupcakes were really good, though I was a little disapointed. I didn't think they had a really good flavor and I they were a little dry.

Frosting

2009-04-20T15:59:00.004-05:00

I still consider myself new to the whole baking experience, but I'm getting the hang of it. The one area where I have had numerous issues though is frosting for cupcakes and cakes (ganache being the one expception but that's also idiot proof). I've probably tried to make half a dozen and every time I tossed them.

Well, it's Sarah's birthday Saturday and I was asked to bake. I'm going to make the double chocolate chip cookies with the sea salt and some red velvet cupcakes. My sister, a cupcake goddess, suggested I look at Paula Dean's recipe for red velvet cupcakes.

The recipe for the cupcakes seems pretty straightforward, though I am going to maake some of the substitutions recommended in the comments.

But then I looked at the recipe for the frosting and I was blown away. One pound of cream cheese, two sticks of butter and FOUR CUPS of powdered sugar. Holy crap, that's a lot of fat and sugar. When I was making frosting before I wasn't putting anywhere near that much powdered sugar in them, maybe that was my problem all along.

Simple, but delicious

2009-04-20T11:54:00.005-05:00

Sunday evening we had Kate, Jay and their two boys over for dinner. Hanks is four-years old and Charlie is about seven-month old. While I knew I didn't have to worry about Charlie I wanted something that Hank would be able to enjoy as well as the adults.

I opted for roast chicken, asparagus and mashed potatoes and a very simple but nice dessert. I've made all the meals before and have posted on them, except for the dessert, though I did a couple of things differently.

For the chicken I did a really nice compound butter. I diced two medium shallots along with about a teaspoon of thyme, a tablespoon of ground sage and freshly ground black pepper and probably two tablespoons of salt. I know it sounds like a lot of salt but you need it. I combined all those with about a stick and a half of room-temperature butter.

I took the butter and rubbed it under the skin of the chicken along with some in the cavity and on top. I then took some sea salt and pepper and put that on the skin as well.

The mashed potatoes I make are simple. Peeled red potatoes cooked in boiling water. drain and add butter, salt, pepper and fat-free sour cream and mash.

The asparagus was cooked in a frying pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

The meal was good, even Hank seemed to enjoy eating a fair amount of asparagus, which surprised me.

The dessert was fun and easy. The recipe was based off a recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I used fresh berries instead of frozen and added a couple of other changes. Here's what I did.

6 oz Blueberries
6 oz Blackberries
6 oz Raspberries
1 TBL fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
6 TBL sugar
1 cup of AP flour
1 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP baking soda
1/8 TSP salt
2 TBL unsalted butter melted
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/8 TSP ground cinanamon
1/2 TSP ground nutmeg

In a frying pan over medium heat cook berries, water, lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of sugar until thick.

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter and buttermilk until thick dough forms. After berries have reduced make dicide dough into six dumplings and place over cooked berries.

In a small container cmbine one tablespoon sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle over dumplings. Lower heat to medium low, cover pan and cook for about 15 minutes. Serve warm over vanilla ice cream.

Food unboxing

2009-04-16T11:21:00.006-05:00

This morning I'm working away when there's a knock on my door and it's the FedEx guy with a box that says "Perishable Keep Refrigerated."

What could it possibly be? Oh yeah, I signed up for some free pasta from my new publisher.

Now the question is what to do with it? Wild mushroom ravioli ... something simple .. something clean ... looks like I have some thinking to do.

Update

2009-04-16T11:13:00.002-05:00

So I've been neglecting the blog because work has been extremely busy. But I'm just about through the summer issue and life will turn to some resemblance of normalcy, except for the fact that I'm getting married in less than four months.

Until then I hope to do some updates along with a few grilling recipes, something I wasn't able to do last year for the lack of a back yard.

South Beach and workout continue to go well, I've lost 25 pounds since Jan. 5. I would love to lose 10 more before the wedding, but I have a week in New Orleans and a handful of baseball games standing in my way.

Also, I should probably address this. I really don't want to egg him on any more then necessary but in the future I'll be referring to him as The Novice.

I feel like chicken tonight

2009-03-26T17:13:00.002-05:00

When I went to Dominick's last night they had the huge Perdue stuffer chickens on sale. I bought a beast of a bird for $7. Already made the compound butter, some lemon zest, salt, pepper, thyme and sage, and will stuff it with some carrots, the lemon and a shallot or two.

Before South Beach I would roast a chicken at least twice a month if not more frequently. It's a good, simple meal and I am way too excited about cooking. In case you haven't seen it before here is the recipe and technique I use for roasting chicken.

Simple but tasty eggs

2009-03-25T12:32:00.002-05:00

This one isn't too exciting, but it tasted really good this morning. One reason may be is that we've primarily been using fake eggs, not egg beaters but the egg substitutes with lower fat and cholesterol, and not real eggs. We're running low so this morning I used some real eggs.

2 slices of bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 eggs, beaten
freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes and salt to taste
1 TBSLP freshly grated parmesan regiano

Cook bacon in skillet over medium high heat until just crispy, drain all but a tsp of fat, add red bell pepper. Cook for about three minutes. reduce heat to medium/medium low.

Meanwhile beat eggs and add spices. Pour eggs into pan and cook until done. Grate some cheese on top.

I don't know what it was but this tasted awesome this morning. The flavors really kicked.

Marinating chicken

2009-03-19T11:58:00.003-05:00

One of the many perks of working from home is that I can do household stuff during the day (wait, is this really a perk?), such as marinating chicken. It only takes a couple of minutes for three some chicken breasts into a freezer bag along with some ingredients and then let them soak up the flavor as the progresses.

I've gotten away from marinating the last couple of years, with no real explanation. But with the South Beach diet calling for a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breasts I have been trying to get back to it.

Right now I have some chicken soaking in an Asian themed marinade. Here's what I did:

4-boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3-cloves of garlic
1.5 TSP fresh grated ginger
Juice form 1/2 a lemon
2 TBLSP sesame oil
3 TBLSP soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a freezer bag, mix around. This will end up marinating for around nine hours. I'll either bake them of sear and then bake, not quite sure which yet.

Please leave any good, simple marinades in the comments.

South Beach chicken jambalaya

2009-03-12T12:19:00.002-05:00

The South Beach diet continues to go well, I am down 20 pounds from when we started on Jan. 5. There have also been a few more cheat meals thrown in here and there, earlier this week I was at a conference in Orlando and as much as I might have want to adhere to the diet it was tough. Rory and I are going to back to phase one of the diet in April to try and kick start out metabolism again.

The recipes from the South Beach cookbook have been good as well. My main complaint is that they lack complexity and can be fairly one note. When I cook, especially a one pot meal, I like to get layered flavors. You get this by cooking this different ingredients an different times and adding everything together.

Now some of this is my fault. I've been following the recipes too closely and not my instincts. this recipe for instance, I could add a couple of ingredients, some regular onion and celery and cook that with the green pepper, and that wouldn't impact the calorie count much.

Here's the recipe and what I'm going to do when I make it next time.

2 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 bell pepper, chopped
1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup of whole-grain quick cooking brown rice
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning or cayenne pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 14-ounce can dived tomatoes
salt and pepper

Heat one tablespoon of oil in large pan or dutch oven over medium high heat, add chopped vegetables and cook until clear, about five minutes.

Salt and pepper chicken add to pot and cook, stirring often. After about three minutes add garlic and cajun seasoning, cook for two more minutes. Add rice stir and cook for two minutes add chicken stock and tomatoes.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, cooking for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Registering for the wedding

2009-03-11T12:10:00.004-05:00

Rory, myself and our mothers went and registered for the wedding Saturday. If I hadn't have been hungover it probably would have been fine, (the random waves of nausea made it a challenge at times). That said, it still went off without a hitch. Rory and I had looked at stuff online ahead of time to make sure we were on the same page and we were (I am a very lucky man).

Bed, Bath, Beyond was the first stop and we were there for three hours. All told I think we registered for more than 350 items, from china and Waterford crystal to napkin rings. I really didn't think I would care much about the china pattern, but we're both really excited about the pattern we picked out.

We spent less time at Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma. At all three place I registered for a number of cooking tools. I'm looking for all new baking tools and pans from Bed Bath Beyond and registered for a bunch of All Clad cookware at Williams Sonoma. After the All Clad pots and pans the other ridiculous thing I registered for was a 7 1/4 quart dutch over from La Creuset. I have no idea of whether or not anyone will buy it for us but it couldn't hurt.

There was one purchase made Saturday. Williams Sonoma was the last stop and I was going to register for a couple of new knives. I have a nice set of Henkels but didn't have a boning knife or a large serrated knife. I was scanning the boning knife and the price popped up at $20.99. I looked at the price in the display and it said it was on sale for $76.99. I asked the staff there and they said it was $20 and if I really wanted it I should buy it then and there, too good of a deal to pass up for an eight-inch boning knife so I did. Also, when I went online to check the registry it was still listed and there it was $129.99.

Otherwise, more posts to come this week and some new and different recipes. I was in Orlando earlier this week and am making the grocery list, trying to figure out what to cook.

Another mac and cheese recipe

2009-03-04T12:36:00.000-06:00

I want to make very badly.

Turkey Swedish meatballs

2009-03-03T16:11:00.003-06:00

Most of this recipe is from the South Beach cookbook, but I made a couple of changes. This was a nice tasty and hearty meal, especially for the weather we've been having in Chicago lately.

1 pound ground turkey
1 shallot diced
1/2 tsp Allspice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 egg
1.5 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 tbsp no-fat sour cream
1 package whole wheat egg noodles

Combine the turkey, shallot, spices and egg in mixing bowl and combine with your hands. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes up to 2 hours to let the flavors have a change to combine.

Boil water in large pot for noodles.

Take the turkey and form into meatballs, I got around 18. Place a non-stick skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil, let warm and then add meatballs. Cook for three or four minutes and then flip them over with some tongs. Cook for another three to four minutes, occasionally moving the pan to make sure they're getting cooked.

Add noodles to boiling water and cook according to directions on package.

Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon to another dish and cover with aluminum foil. Add chicken stock to pan and reduce, you can add some thyme or sage at this point if you want. Place heat on low and add sour cream, combine. Taste and see if it need any salt or other seasoning.
Place meatballs back into sauce and mix.

Serve meatballs on top of noodles with a side salad or steamed vegetable.

Feta and cauliflower frittata

2009-02-25T09:19:00.002-06:00

Frittata is a fun word to say. Come on now, say it aloud with me now frittata. Yes, sometimes I can act like a nine year old, what's it to you?

Now a confession ... I have a subscription to the Food Network magazine. Yeah, I know. The really scary thing, it's not bad, it's actually pretty good. I thought I was signing up to get the first issue for free but clicked something wrong and the next thing I know I got a bill for $15. Instead of fighting it I just paid it.

I've made a couple of recipes out of the second issue, this frittata recipe I've made a couple of times because it's really good, easy and relatively South Beach friendly. Two changes I made were not adding as much milk and adding a little bit of diced shallot after the cauliflower has been cooking awhile.

Yeah, I know 10 eggs is a lot, but you're not eating the whole thing. It serves four and make a great breakfast the next day too. Plus it is fun to say frittata.

Where to start?

2009-02-24T10:21:00.005-06:00

I feel that I have been so neglectful of the blog I don't know where to start in catching everyone up on what I've been cooking. The deadlines for my last issues have really dragged out to the point where I have little time to work on the next one. But I still want to let people know what's been cooking.

I have been cooking a lot, nothing too complex, but new stuff nonetheless. The diet is working, I've dropped a total of 18 pounds since we started on Jan. 5. There was one cheat weekend in there and Saturday we're visiting the Three Floyds Brew Pub for dinner and that's a meal I'm not going to skimp on.

One of the more interesting meals I made were some South Beach pancakes.

1/2 cup of old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup of low-fat cottage cheese
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of nutmeg

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor until smooth. Cook like regular pancakes

I was skeptical of this recipe but they turned out really good. I was expecting some weird texture, but they were really good.

Veggie Lasagna

2009-02-17T12:27:00.004-06:00

I am enjoying cooking South Beach quite a bit, but the recipe aren't all that complex, I haven't felt all that challenged. So when I saw the Vegetable Lasagna recipe in Savuer I had to do it.

I tweaked this recipe a bit, using whole wheat lasagna noodles, which I cooked, fat-free condensed milk (Thanks Erika!) and less butter. I also substituted portabello/crimini for the shitake because two pounds of those would have cost me almost $40 versus $10 for the portabello/crimini. Here's the ingredient list.

6 tbsp. unsalted butter
12 sun-dried tomatoes
2 shallot, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1⁄2 cup flour
5 cups no-fat condensed milk
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 lbs. portabello mushrooms, stemmed, quartered
1 lbs crimini, sliced (yes, I know portabello and crimini are the same, I used some really big ones and some smaller ones with this recipe)
1⁄2 lb. spinach, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. chopped oregano
1 tbsp. chopped thyme
1 tbsp. chopped rosemary
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 cups dry red wine
5 cups whole canned tomatoes, crushed
1 lb. Whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 1⁄2 cups grated grana padano
2 1⁄2 cups grated fontina

I switched things around a bit and made the tomato sauce first. I cooked the mushrooms in batches as to not overcrowd the pan so they were sauteed and not steamed. I added a shallot to the tomato sauce as well to give a little extra flavor. Once I had everything in the pot it seemed kind of dry so I added a cup or two of red wine and let it cook with everything.

The other reason I made the tomato sauce first was because I had never made a béchamel. I know the tomato sauce could cook for awhile and hold, I was so sure about the béchamel. The sauce came together pretty easily, thickening pretty quickly. I had to put a few pinches of salt in here to tone down the sweetness, but in all honestly I didn't know what to expect.

Other than cooking the noodles, you can follow the Savuer recipe the rest of the way, except before you place it in the oven, you might want to put some foil down, some of the liquid pushed out of the lasagna and was dripping on to the bottom of the oven. Since my mom has made her fair share of lasagnas in the past I knew this trick and prevented too much smoke.

The end result was fantastic. I haven't cooked anything this good or different in awhile. I wasn't sure how the béchamel would work with the tomato sauce and cheese but it had this depth of flavor that I haven't really tasted before. The only problem is Rory and I have a whole pan of this sitting in the fridge and we'll be eating it all week. This is definitely something I will make for a dinner party in the future. Also, while I did try to watch the calories in this, it's still not all that healthy, lot's of cheese, but it's better than the original recipe.

Random notes

2009-02-17T12:14:00.003-06:00

The last couple of week have been pretty hectic and I haven't been able to post. Trying to get two issue of a magazine closed at the same time keeps me busy. Socially, life has been busy as well and with less than six months to the wedding the weekends are going to be more and more jam packed. I just found out every weekend in June is pretty much booked.

Other things going on:

Still doing South Beach and it's going well. The weekend of Feb. 6 was a cheat weekend because of the birthday so I didn't get on the scale last week. Got on today and dropped two pounds from Feb. 3. Future mother-in-law gave me a new South Beach cookbook for my birthday with some really good recipes, which I am long overdue in blogging about. I see myself pretty much sticking with South Beach until the wedding with more cheats being allowed as we get closer.
We'll be registering for the wedding on March 7. Bed, Bath, Beyond, Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Macy's are where we're going. Trying to know it all out at once might be tough, but I think it's doable. I'll be looking over the Alton Brown kitchen gear book before we go to figure oout exaclty what we want/need.
Also received The Flavor Bible for my birthday from my mom. It's pretty intense, but I like it.
Thad and Erika have me a couple of MFK Fisher books for my brithday as well, can't wait to dig into them.

On tap

2009-01-28T11:07:00.002-06:00

Neither of these recipes are strictly South Beach but they are healthier than the alternative, except for maybe the bechamel.

The Super Bowl calls for chicken wings and when Bittman posted these recipes I felt like it was a no brainer. The flavors intrigue me and should really pop. Plus they are baked and not deep fried so that should be something.

This vegetable lasagne from Savuer is the other I'm going to make, but this is dependent on me finding some whole wheat lasagna noodles. I am a little skeptical about not cooking the noodles first, it's a fairly complex recipe and I would hate for it to not turn out for that reason alone. Not sure when I'm going to make this one, since it is involved, and we have a busy weekend ahead of us.

Food news and notes

2009-01-26T08:18:00.004-06:00

I neglected to get on the scale this morning, part forgetfulness, part I didn't behave myself this weekend. On Friday, however, I was down another two pounds for a total of 14 pounds down.

While I have been sticking very closely with South Beach Phase One, no carbs and no sugar, the one exception I have allowed myself is beer and I was out Friday and Saturday night drinking. I also had a hot dog on Saturday and on Sunday we ordered a pizza from Homemade Pizza Co., but it did have a whole wheat crust.

Saturday my dad and I also started brewing beer for the wedding. Rory's Uncle Joe had quite the home brew setup in his basement. We brewed a saison and a heffe weizen. I know that might not seem appropriate for the weather outside now, but in August both will be great.

We've brewed beer once before down at the Beverly Arts Brewing Center, but we definitely got a better idea of what to do this time.

I should be posting some more of what I'm cooking for South Beach, but a lot of it isn't very exciting. This week I took some chicken breasts, pounded them pretty flat, added thyme, salt and pepper some prosciutto and low-fat mozzarella, and rolled them up. I pan cooked them for about 8 minutes total and then put them in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes to finish the cooking. They were good, but they needed a sauce.

I've found a couple of new food Web sites last week that I'm exploring as well. I really enjoy this sites voice. E.L.'s writing can be a bit dense at times, but I really like the site.

Looking at his site lead me to Foodbuzz. I signed up for an account, it's kind of like Facebook for foodies but I need to explore the site a bit more, which won't be happening soon because I have a real job deadline hanging over my head.

South Beach update

2009-01-19T11:55:00.003-06:00

I'm down another four pounds from last week bringing the total lost to 12 pounds. Not as much as I would have hoped, but I do feel good. I didn't work out at all last week either. The combination of cold and not wanting to lose my parking spot kept me from the gym last week.

But it's a new week and I'm going today. As I said last week, I'm sticking with phase one of south beach until Feb. 7. Phase one is no carbs or sugar. After that I'll start to incorporate other things into the diet.

I did make a couple of interesting things last week, and it's questionable as to whether one of these is strictly South Beach. I laid some boneless, skinless chicken breasts on some plastic wrap, added some salt, pepper, oregano, grated Parmesan and a piece if prosciutto and the flattened it out. I pan fired it in a little olive oil and it was tasty.

Then yesterday at Dominick's they had some pismos (sp?), uncut beef tenderloin. I bought a 2.5 pound one ($15 a pound, I probably got ripped off) because I had been wanting to try and butcher one of these myself. I got three petite filets, a chateaubriand and some chain meat (Ed says this makes the best philly steak sandwiches). I'll probably make this later in the week.

South Beach report: week one

2009-01-12T10:57:00.002-06:00

It's been a week since Rory and I started South Beach and I've lost a little more than eight pounds. Rory expected me to lose more but even though it's just eight pounds I have to say I feel good. I should have measured my waist last week because I feel like I've lost some girth around the middle.

I'm not going to lie, the diet hasn't been easy. A couple of days last week I got real cranky and was craving a big plate of pasta. And I have cheated, I had a few beers Friday and Saturday, but that's been about it othere than a crouton or two that was in my salad when we went out.

The food is pretty simple to cook, lean protein with veggies and no carbs. Next week I could start incorporating some whole wheat into the diet if I want, but I think I'm going to stick with this until my birthday, Feb. 7. The plan is to go to the Hop Leaf for dinner and then meet a bunch of friends out for drinks.

Also by the point I should be pretty tired of cooking the food. There are only so many thing you can do with a chicken breast unless it's wrapped in bacon. Though I did cook some mahi mahi last week, a first. I just marinated it for a bit in some olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and then pan cooked it. A little lemon juice and it was quite tasty.

Excellent advice from Bittman

2009-01-07T15:13:00.003-06:00

Mark Bittman's New York Times column today offers nothing but great advice for the home cook. Print it out, keep it, hold on to it forever.

I already do a few of these things, Parmigiano-Reggiano is the undisputed kind of cheese, and I keep some in the house at all times even though it is a little pricey.

But I think the best tip of the lot is about the stock. I don't use boulion cubs, nothing but salt, but I sadly to use a lot of canned or carton stock and I hate it. But making stock is a pain in the ass for little reward. His advice to just throw an onion, carrot, and celery stalk into some water and let it simmer for a little bit is great stuff and I'm going to start doing it as soon as I can.

The only one I would take issue with is the bread crumbs. I guess I could make a batch and hold on to them, but it seems like such a pain.

Bacon fat

2009-01-07T10:37:00.003-06:00

I got the latest issue of Savuer in the mail today, which makes me sad because I won't be able to cook anything from it for awhile.

There was one particular article that resonated with me, cooking with bacon fat. Sadly, the article isn't posted online. It talked about how bacon fat was used by the poor in the south and frowned upon by others in the 1800s.

I'm guilty of using bacon fat probably a bit too often (hence the South Beach diet now). If I would cook up bacon in the morning and forget to clean my cast iron skillet I'm not above using some of that fat to cook whatever I may be making that evening. It adds a flavor like nothing other than duck fat.

If you have a chance pick up this issue of Savuer, it's a good one aimed at the home cook. I really enjoyed the article on essential pots and pans too.

South Beach recipe: savory chicken

2009-01-06T10:43:00.004-06:00

Made dinner for Rory and I last night, pretty simple. If anything is going to bug me about this diet it's the simplicity of the recipes. I know this is by design, but at least I'll get a chance to cook some sea food and some red meat, which I don't do very often. Here's what I did last night:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Olive Oil
1 large shallot diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
1/2 cup of low-sodium chicken stock
salt and pepper

Just take some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Put some olive oil in a skillet and get it nice and hot. Cook on one side for about five minutes and flip over. Add diced shallot and garlic coook for about a minute and add chicken stock. Cover and cook for another five to 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked all the way through. Raise heat and reduce stock. Serve with a bit of the stock, onion and garlic sauce on top.

South Beach: day one

2009-01-05T11:14:00.003-06:00

So Rory and I started the South Beach diet today. This is my first attempt to really diet so it should be interesting.

Rory has done this diet before so I am leaning on her to tell me what to do. I have cooked South Beach recipes before and they're pretty good. They basically call for lean proteins, which I can do, it just takes a little extra care in preparing.

I already had my fake eggs with turkey bacon for breakfast and my mid-morning snack of a cheese stick. I'll make lunch in a little bit. I think working from home will make this diet a lot easier than if I had to go to an office.

I am curious as to how the diet is going to impact my workouts. While my attendance at the gym has been less than stellar the last couple of weeks I am getting back to it this week.

Holiday news and notes

2008-12-29T10:11:00.002-06:00

It was a great Christmas season with the family. With the wedding coming up I was prohibited for asking for any cooking stuff, but I did get a couple of cookbooks, an Art Smith book and Alton Brown's book on kitchen equipment. We also got a bunch of wine stuff from Rory's brothers girlfriend Mary.

My mom sort of broke the rules and ordered me a bamboo salt holder for the counter top. It was two compartments, one of which I'm using for Kosher salt and the other I'm using for Pacific sea salt. It's really quite nice and I would post a picture of it if I had an Internet connection at home (DSL is down).

I will attempt to post more in the New Year (a resolution, maybe?). Especially since I agreed to do South Beach with Rory for at least a month. This will be my first attempt at a specific diet and I'm hoping it goes will.

Happy New Year everyone.

Kitchen space

2008-12-16T09:52:00.003-06:00

I have to say I am very fortunate to have a fairly large kitchen. Bittman wrote a column about tiny kitchens and how it shouldn't impact the end result. Before Rory and I moved in together I had a small kitchen with a two or three feet of counter space and that's about it.

In all honesty, when Rory and I get our own place I'll be lucky to have a kitchen as nice as we have now. Other than out oven acting up (and it's now fixed) it's really a great space. I get awesome heat out of the burners and there are granite counter tops. There could always be more cabinet and counter space, and the lighting could be better but in reality we're pretty good. We'll probably be lucky to have a kitchen as nice as we have wherever we move after we're married.

But I have to agree, all you need is a working stove, oven, some pots and pans and a good knife. I complain about some of my gear now, and in all honesty can't wait to register for some high-end pots and pans, but I could get by with what I have.

Turducken: the results

2008-12-14T11:24:00.006-06:00

Well, I did it and it turned out great. It wasn't easy and there was a minor disaster, but the end results were better than I could have expected. The results were a moist and tasty meat that has great flavor.

The hardest part I thought was going to be putting it together, but that was pretty easy. I deboned the duck and chicken myself without an issue. I had picked up the deboned turkey from Paulina Meat Market on Wednesday. The butcher gave me the bones, and I made a stock which turned out great for the gravy.

The turkey was a little more than 25 pounds before being deboned. After assembling the beast with some stuffing the result was a huge. I used more of a traditional stuffing, some celery, onion, sage, salt and pepper. I have a pretty big roasting pan, but there was no way this was going to fit in there. Luckily I had a disposable pan from something or other and it barely fit in there. In order to way the frankenbird I had to pull Rory's scale out of the bathroom, it weighed in at 24.8 pounds.
I placed some bacon on top of it and covered it with foil and put it in around 1 pm pn Friday, hoping it would be done by 7 pm. The one issue I know would pop up. There wasn't a whole lot of space in the pan and I knew we would get quite a bit of liquid so I would have to keep an eye on that. And this is where there was a minor disaster.

A little after 7 pm I was checking the temp of the bird and getting some liquid out when some spilled on the bottom of the stove. This caused smoke, a lot of smoke, more smoke than I have ever seen outside a fire. It may have been fine if some of the guests hadn't already arrived, but we made it though with only two calls from the landlord asking if I was burning down the building. Not to be too overdramatic, but this was just about the biggest kitchen disaster I have ever had and I was freaking out and smelling smoke the rest of the night even though the guests saiid it wasn't that bad.

But the smoke passed and the birds finished cooking. All told it took more than eight hours to cook to an internal temp of 170 degrees. I let it rest for about 25 minutes before carving. The way I carved it I got the coolest picture. You can clearly see al three layers of meat in the picture below and I think it's cool as hell.If I do this again there are a few things I would do differently, more importantly I would get a smaller turkey, 20 pounds max. I would also put a little more stuffing in the bird. I would put it in about an hour earlier and make sure I had a big enough roasting pan no matter what.

I'm doing it

2008-12-03T09:59:00.004-06:00

I'm making my own turducken. I'll debone to duck and the chicken myself, but I ordered a debonded turkey from Paulina Meat Market.

I'll pick up the turkey next Wednesday and put it all together Thursday afternoon with the help of Charlie. The turducken has always scared Rory to some extend and having her help me put it together would probably be a bad idea. I'm going more traditional with the stuffing, i.e. onions, celery, sage, than Cajun.

It won't be as pretty as the one I get from Cajun Grocer, I'll split the turkey down the breast and sew it up. but it will hopefully be just as tasty. I will be sure to keep everyone updated here to let you all know how it goes.

Also, my apologies for not posting more, I don't have any great excuses. I have actually cooked a handful of new things lately but just haven't been writing as much. It might have to do with the stack of 15 contributed pieces sitting on my desk that need to be edited.

Also, Thanksgiving was good. My mom, dad and sister joined the future in laws up in Evanston. I made the Cauliflower Gratin that I mad last year and it was a lot of fun.

Cookies

2008-11-24T12:30:00.003-06:00

I know we aren't even through Thanksgiving yet, but I'm trying to plan December and want to do some baking. I'm going to make my usual chocolate chips cookies and chocolate crinkles but am wondering what else I should make?

So please leave your suggestions, links to recipes would be helpful too, in the comments. Cookies with raisins will automatically be disqualified because I think raisins suck.

Apple Pie

2008-11-24T12:02:00.002-06:00

I realized one of my bad cooking habits this week. When looking for a recipe I tend to look at the ingredients and not read the instructions. It's a habit I need to get out of because it sometimes gets me in trouble, such as with the apple pie recipe.

My main criteria when looking for this recipe were simple ingredients. I didn't want to half a dozen obscure spices or liquids (Sorry Alton, your apple pie recipe looked great, but I didn't feel like buying Apple Jack, four different type of apples and other ingredients I would have a hard time using in the future).

So when I saw the recipe at Savuer I was psyched, seemed pretty simple, and since I was making my first pie simple is what I wanted. I went out and bought all the ingredients and was exited at the prospect of putting it all together.

Saturday morning I look at the recipe and realize that I'm making a hell of a big pie. instead of using your typical pie plate I was using a 9 by 13 inch pan. Don't ask me why the dozen apples and six lemons didn't tip me off, but they didn't. I can be a bit slow sometimes. The main problem being that I was cooking this for five and thought it would mostly be gone and now I still half a pan of apple pie.

So I started out making the pie dough and it went well at the start. I cut the shortening into the dough and added the milk. All seemed well as I put it in the fridge to rest.

Next up were the apples. Since I am forbidden to buy any kitchen gear until after the wedding I was on my own peeling, slicing and coring the apples. This was quite a bit of work.

I let the dough rest for about 90 minutes. I started rolling it out and had some issued, it was too dry and crumbly. Rory suggested adding milk, which worked perfectly. Since I don't own a rolling pin I used a wine bottle to roll the dough. Again, kind of a pain in the ass. Also, getting the dough into the big pan was a challenge, but with Rory's help we got through it.

The end result was good, a bit too lemony, so the vanilla ice cream worked well at cutting the acidity. I will make this recipe again, but not until after I have the proper equipment. A real rolling pin and apple corer/slicer would have cut the prep time in half.

Soup and sandwich

2008-11-18T09:01:00.003-06:00

I've made chicken noodle soup a number of times, but last night was my first attempt at a creamy soup. It came as a request from Rory's former coworker Kristy so here you go.

Kristy wanted me to make a beer, cheese soup. It sounded good to me so I started looking for a recipe. I was surprised that nothing really looked good out there. Though my many searches I finally found this potato soup with blue cheese recipe. Rory's not a fan of blue cheese, but I figured I would use this recipe as a base and make some changes to it. I also did my version of a Cuban sandwich. Here's what I did.

8 slices of bacon cut into half inch pieces
2 leeks diced, just the white and light green parts
1 medium onion diced
2 carrots diced
2 stalks of celery diced
3 cloves of garlic diced
3 good sized baking potatoes peeled and cubed
1 bottle of Shiner Bock
1 32-ounce container of chicken stock
1/2 a pound of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (Don't buy the stuff in the dariy case of this, you need some good quality cheese in order for this to really work)
1/2 cup cream

Salt white pepper and black pepper for seasoning

Special equipment: Blender or immersion blender

Chop the bacon and cook in a heavy bottom pan until crispy over medium high heat. Remove and drain all but but a couple of tablespoons of the fat. Add all the veggies except for the garlic. Cook until just caramelizing, about 15 minutes, add garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Add potatoes, beer and chicken stock and cook partially covered for about 20 minutes, over medium heat, until potatoes are fork tender. Start adding the cheese a little at a time stirring to make sure it doesn't clump.

This is the point where depending on your equipment you may have to do a couple of things. I used my immersion blender to get a nice puree on the soup. It was so very easy. If you don't have one you'll want to start working in batches to puree the soup in a blender.

After the soup of pureed add the cream and mix. Serve garnished with the bacon.

Thoughout the process while the soup if cooking you'll want to be tasting to adjust the seasoning.

I was pretty happy with the end result, but there are a couple of things I will do differently next time. I thought the Shiner Bock would work well, but I couldn't really taste it. Next time I'll probably use a stout. Also, you need to use good quality cheese. I did, but it could have been sharper to give it more zing.

I also did my version of a Cuban sandwich. Dominick's didn't have roast pork so I did it with ham and chicken breast. I bought some French bread, places a couple of pickle slices, mayo and yellow mustard along with some Swiss chesse, chicken and ham. I put a little butter on the outisde of the bread and placed it in my prehreated 12-inch non-stick pan. I has also heated my 10-inch cast iron pan and just placed it on top to get the pressed sandwich effect, I think it worked out pretty well.

Also, I have been negligent in my photo taking. The lighting in my kitchen sucks and just seems to make the food look unappetizing. I need to make a light box.

The week ahead

2008-11-17T10:12:00.002-06:00

So I have a plan for what's to come this next week. I didn't make the soup on Friday but that's on tap for this evening. I also saw a duck recipe that I think I'm going to do on Wednesday.

I also owe a post on the cupcakes I made. I'm cooking dinner for my folks on Sunday, short ribs, but I'm going to experiment with the dessert, maybe my first pie.

Chicken cacciatore

2008-11-17T09:51:00.002-06:00

This is one of my favorite childhood recipes, I would always ask my mom to make it for me on my birthday ever year. And even though she's given me the recipe I've never been able to recreate it. Though after years of tinkering I've managed to come up with something that is very similar and just as tasty.

For those of you who don't know chicken cacciatore, it's always been described as a "hunter's meal" in every cook book I've read. Its basically a whole chicken, cut up, and then braised in wine, tomato sauce and veggies. Here's what I did.

Olive oil
1 whole chicken cut into eight pieces.
1 large green pepper cut into strips
1 large red pepper cut into strips
1 large onion diced.
1 pound of mushrooms sliced
1 TBSLP thyme
1 TBSLP oregano
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic diced
1 large can (14 ounces I think) of chopped tomatoes
2 or so cups of dry white wine
1 Bay leaf

Salt and pepper

Heat large, heavy bottom pot over medium high heat, add olive oil.

Butcher the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Place in plan skin side down and brown. Make sure not to crowd the chicken, work in batches if your pot isn't big enough. Cook for six to 10 minutes. remove chicken and set aside.

Add peppers, onion and sliced mushroom to the pot and cook until just starting to brown. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't stick. Right as the rest of the veggies are truning brown add garlic and cook for another minute or two. If you're having a probem with everything sticking add a little white wine to deglaze the pan.

Put chicken back in the pot and add the liquids. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add spices and dried mushrooms. Do not rehydrate the mushroom before adding it to the pot. They add a nice earthy taste to the stew.

Try to keep at a low simmer. Cover and cook for at least an hour, two hours is better but you can cook for as long as three hours. Depending on how you like your sauce about a hald hour before your ready to eat you might want to remove the chicken and crank up the heat to let it reduce for awhile.

I serve this with some steamed rice, but you could also use pasta if you want.

News and notes

2008-11-14T12:17:00.002-06:00

I have a few posts in the hopper, I just haven't been terribly motivated to write them up, been kind of busy. I made chicken cacciatore and cupcakes that both deserve posts.

I'm also doing a request tonight, beer, potato and cheese soup (your welcome Kristy).