Pasta with fresh tomatoes

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.

Comfort food cravings

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

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.

Brown Rice, chicken and mushroom casserole

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.

Craving

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

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.

Tomatoes

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.

Low-fat mac and cheese

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

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.

Simple, but delicious

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.

Veggie Lasagna

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.

Chicken cacciatore

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.

Product review and meatloaf

One of the main reasons I got into the blogging business was for free stuff. I had visions of housewares vendors sending my knives, pots, pans and all sorts of graft (I'm still waiting All Clad and La Creuset, call me).

But a month and a half ago I received an email from Al at Country's Bob's All Purpose Sauce. He asked if I would be interested in reviewing their product for Zack Can Cook. Never one to turn down free sauce I agreed and cooked my first recipe last night: meatloaf.

Before I started cooking the first thing I did was just taste the sauce so I knew what to expect. It has a spicy smell to it and the taste was somewhere between ketchup and A-1 steak sauce. It was good, a little sweet, but nice.

As for the meatloaf, I have a pretty standard method for making mine and they have a recipe at Country Bob's. You can choose which one you like best. Here's what I did.

1 large onion diced
1 large green pepper diced
1 banana pepper diced (optional)
1 jalapeno diced (optional)
2 cloves of garlic diced
1-pound lean ground beef
1-pound ground pork
1/2 to 3/4 cup of Country Bob's
1 cup of breadcrumbs
2 eggs
salt and pepper

1 cup of Country Bob's for glaze

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Dice all the veggies and place cook in a sautee pan until just about brown, add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Set aside to cool.

In large work bowl combine all the other ingredients, cooled veggies and half a cup of breadcrumbs and mix with your clean hands. Yeah, it's not pretty, but it's the only way to integrate all the ingredients. Depending on the consistency add extra breadcrumbs. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes for all the flavors to combine.

Place the mixture in a roasting pan and form into loaf-like shape. Cook for 45 minutes and the pour some Country Bob's on top and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

The results are a nice, light meatloaf with some good flavor. I think the sauce gave it a sweet and almost smokey flavor. I basically used Country Bob's in place of ketchup, mustard and Worcestershire sauce that I would normally use in my mix.

I still have some Country Bob's next and will use it again. I'm just not sure which recipe I'm going to use.

Chicken noodle soup

Rory came down with a head cold and decided to stay home today. We had no OJ or anything in the house so when I went out to pick that stuff up I also picked up everything for chicken noodle soup. Some celery, onion, carrots, a four plus pound chicken and some egg noodles.

I did a rough chop on all the veggies and four cloves of crushed garlic to a stock pot. I just let them get a little warm in the bottom of the pan and threw the chicken in whole. I filled the pot with water to where the chicken was just covered. I added some salt, pepper, sage, thyme and a couple of bay leaves. I brought it to a boil and then turned the heat down and simmer with the lid on for about an hour. Then I took the lid off and let it cook for another 90 minutes.

I removed the chicken and let it cool for about 30 minutes. I then picked all the meat from the bones and places it back in the pot to cook for another couple of hours, simmering all the way. Right before I was ready to serve I brought it to a boil and added the egg noodles and cooked till the noodles were done.

It turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. The trick is tasting the broth/stock throughout and adjusting the seasoning accordingly. I also skimmed quite a bit of fat off it as well.

Deadlines and other excuses

I have been remiss from updating the blog and my only real excuse is work. Rory and I have been tremendously busy as well, but my failure to update here has been purely work related.

I can't believe how quickly the summer has passed. It's been a lot of fun, we're less than a year out from the wedding now, the White Sox are in first place and I'm enjoying the job I started at the beginning of the year quite a bit.

I've also been enjoying cooking as well, having done a few different things lately. This past Sunday I was hankering for some comfort food and wanted to make the pork roast my mom used to make when I was growing up.

I couldn't find an actual pork roast like she would use so I bought a pork shoulder. I seared the shoulder on all side and then made a paste with about six cloves of garlic and a couple of teaspoons of dried rosemary and salt and pepper. I cooked it at 325 degrees for about three hours. I was worried about it drying out but it turned out really well, very moist.

A little more than a week ago my mom had gone up to Michigan and brought back a bunch of blueberries. Last week I made some muffins and then yesterday I used the rest to make a cobbler.

And yes, I know it's a Rachel Ray recipe and I'm not proud of it but it was damn tasty. Served with a bit of vanilla ice cream it turned out quite well and was pretty simple.

And I have also forgotten to take picture of my latest food porn, sorry about that. I'll try to be better in the future.

What I've been up to and a recipe

I was getting a few more complaints because I haven't been updating lately. It's been a combination of things, work, wedding plans, but I also haven't been cooking anything particularly new or exciting lately.

I really don't think you guys want to hear about me marinating some chicken breasts and serving with grilled onions and mushrooms, kinda boring. Or the very traditional potato salad I made, more or less a version of my mom's, though I did make my own mayo.

One of the biggest problems for me this summer has been no grilling. Our building is still under construction and the back yard is a disaster area. While I could grill out there is I wanted to the place is an obstacle course and I just don't want to deal with climbing over siding and 2 x 4s.

But I do have one newish recipe for you, another version of Pasta Bolognese. I watched Anne Burrell's new Food Network Show "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" and he first show was on Bolognese. Fans of Iron Chef America will recognize Burrell as one of Mario Batalli's sous chefs. Her recipe is interesting and time consuming, but I incorporated some of her techniques into a recipe I made yesterday. As I've discussed in the past, there is no one way to make Bolognese.

The thing that most intrigues me about her recipe was pureing the mirepoix. One of the things that has always frustrated me was not getting a fine enough dice on my celery and carrots, but using the food processor took care of that. Instead of using ground round I also decided to use Italian sausage. The main reason was because I think it tastes better and I had it in the house and didn't have to leave.

She cooked the crap out of it, and while I have cooked my sauce for four hours before, I only cooked this for about three. I have to say it had a nice texture and a deep, robust flavor. I may keep the puree and incorporate that into my recipe from now on and experiment with some different kinds of meat. Maybe throw a beef short rib or two in there or even some pork. The combinations when it some to this sort of stuff are truely endless.

The one thing I can't wait to do, but will sadly have to wait awhile, it make my own pasta. I've beeen watching way too much Iron Chef and can't wait to get the pasta maker attachement to my KitchenAid mixer.

Pasta Bolognese

This is one of my favorite things to make. It's a family recipe handed down from my great grandmother on my mom's side. My mom watched my grandmother make it and I wated my mother make it. That said, I experimented with this recipe a bit, and it's not completely true to the family recipe. That I'll post on another day.

Also, one of the most important ingredients in this recipe is the Italian sausage. Surprisingly, I have found that the Jewel brand is pretty reliable. I'm not a fan of the Dominick's and as I found out this time the Johnsonville isn't that great. I won't be using it again. Here's what I did this weekend:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1 large carrot diced
4 cloves or garlic diced
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 package of Italian sausage
1 29-ounce can of plain tomato sauce
2+ cups of dry red wine
1 Tbsp: Oregano, rosemary, red pepper flake, basil, thyme salt and pepper.
1 bay leaf
Sugar to taste

Heat dutch oven or stock pot with oil. Add diced veggies, except for garlic and cook until transparent. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. If veggies are stick at all add a little red wine to deglaze the pan. Add ground beef and Italian sausage until brown. Again, if necessary deglaze with red wine.

Add tomato sauce and red wine. Let cook for a few minutes and add spices. Cook with lid on for at least an hour, remove lid and let cook for at least another hour or however long you want. Be sure to taste the sauce throughout the cooking process and add spices accordingly. As it cooks up the acid from the tomatoes will increase, add sugar to counteract. All my spices are estimates on the cautious side. Add more as it cooks up and to taste. Add a little grated Parmesan before serving.

I like to serve this sauce with a thin spaghetti or vermicelli, but you can use just about any type of pasta. I hate the way this picture turned out as well, the presentation sucks, but I 'm posting it anyway. The lighting sucks in my kitchen, does anybody have any tips of how to take picture of food?

Roast chicken

This is the recipe that turned me into a Bittman disciple. I received How to Cook Everything for Christmas 2006. As I reviewed the book that morning I saw the roast chicken recipe and scoffed. I didn't think it would work, but I was wrong. I've made a couple of minor changes to this, but nothing too difficult.

Here's what you need.

1 whole chicken
1 stick of butter (softened)
2 good-sized cloves of garlic
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
Special equipment needed: cast iron skillet big enough to hold chicken

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place empty cast iron skillet in the oven. You want to get the skillet screaming hot, so leave it in there for 20 to 30 minutes before you're ready to put the chicken in.

Meanwhile take the softened butter, garlic, salt and pepper and place it in a blender or food processor and mix. With your hands remove the skin from the chicken, but don't remove it completely. You're making room to place the butter/garlic mixture between the skin and meat of the bird (this is not a job for the dainty, it gets real messy pretty quick). After you're done with that take a bit more salt and pepper and sprinkle on the top of the chicken.

Place chicken in the skillet and let cook for 60 to 70 minutes. After an hour you'll want to check and see where you're at, but you want to cook until you hit an internal temp of 180 degrees. I used the wireless meat thermometer last night and it worked like a charm.

Now when I first read that recipe I didn't think there was a way in hell that the chicken would be cooked, or if it was cooked it would be dry as dust. But I was wrong, this give you some of the most tender bird I've ever had. You can experiment with the butter mixture as well adding different herbs and spices.

I sometimes also make some pan gravy with the juices let over in the pan. If necessary add some water and then gradually add flour while stirring constantly. It's good stuff.

(And I finally remembered to take a picture.)

Tuna casserole

This past week I was yearning for some true comfort food. I was trying to figure out what I wanted and decided on the tuna casserole my mother used to make for us. She would only make it on nights when my dad was working late because he couldn't stand it. But I remember it being one of my all-time favorites. It's also pretty simple, but not good for you at all.

3 TBLSP butter
3 TBLSP flour
3 cups of milk
Half a brick of Velvetta cheese (I believe that's half a pound)
1 pound of egg noodles
2 cans of tuna in water
1 cup of crumpled potato chips

Bring water to boil for the egg noodles. Preheat the oven to 350 deggrees.

In a sauce pan melt the butter and then add the flour to make a roux. Gradually add the milk while mixing with a whisk. One the milk had been combined with the roux starting ass the Velvetta. I slice it up and slowly added it making sure it was mixed propely. Add a bit of salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles until al dente, not quite done. Darin the noodles and put into a mixing bowl. Drain the tuna and add to the egg noodles. Pour the cheese and combine.

Place the mixture into a casserole dish and cover with crushed potato chips. Bake for 30 minutes.

There is a similar version of this that's done with rice instead of egg noodles, but I can't remember if you cook the rice before (I would think you would) and as soon as my mom gets home I'll find out and post an update. Again. I forgot to take a picture, but will try to remember starting with anything I'm cooking this week.