Chanukah Part Two

We picked up Lili on Saturday the 19th. She is always hungry when she gets off the plane , so we went to BAngkok Thai. I had the sizzling chicken platter. Rob had pad thai which for him is nothing new and Lili had the spicy basil noodles with beef. It was a great meal. We always have a great time when we are together.

On Sunday we had a great meal of chicken with golden mushrooms and onions along with latkes, and swiss chard sauteed. The chicken dish is easy to make. Take four chicken breasts and brown them in olive oil. Remove them from the pan and then add 2 tbs. of olive oil. Saute 8 ounces of crimini mushrooms and 1 large sliced onion until tender. Add one can of golden mushroom soup and 1 c. of chicken broth and let it simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. You can find the latke recipe in an earlier post. thw swiss chard is steamed/ sauteed in some olive oil and water. Add some slivered almonds and balsamic vinergar. It is awesome.

Sitting at the Lodge

I'm sitting at the lodge at Mt. Rose. Rob and I had planned to ski today but my skis are in Reno and Lili's skis are on top of the car. So I guess I'll catch up on my blogging.

We left San Francisco on the 17th and headed to Reno. Doris was, I believe, ready to have us gone. I can't blame her. We got into Reno after we stopped at Roseville to see Kaaren. We ate at California Burger. I had a mushroom swiss burger and Rob had a carne asada burrito. It was great food. We met our friends Cindy and Jenny at the Terrace Bar at the Peppermill for drinks after we got in. On friday we went and saw Avatar with Tom and Elizabeth and then went to our fav indian restaurant, India Curry and Kebab.

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Lasagna

Rob really likes my lasagna. I don't make it too often because it can be pretty rich and filling. On Saturday we had lasagna.

1 cup of finely chopped celery
1 whole finely chopped onion
1 red pepper finely chopped
4 cloves of minced garlic

Saute this in 4 tbs. of olive oil until soft. Add 1 pound of ground beef and continue cooking until the meat is browned.

Add
2 - 14.5 ounce cans of stewed italian tomatoes
1 small can of tom[o paste
1/4 c. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1-1/2 - 2 tbs. of italian seasoning.

Let simmer for 1 - 2 hours.

1 box no boil lasagna noodles
1 lb. cottage cheese
1 egg
1 lb. of sliced swiss cheese
8 oz. of grated parmesan cheese

In a 9 x 13 pan cover the bottom with a small amount of sauce. Layer with lasagna noodles, a layer of sauce, a layer of cottage cheese, and a layer of swiss cheese. Repeat this three times, and make sure your last layer is noodles. Cover with more sauce and parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375 for 45 - 60 minutes.

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We Just Keep On Cooking

After we went to the doctor on Thursday, it was time for comfort food. I made macaroni and cheese with chantrelles.

8 oz. of chantrelle mushrooms sauteed in 2 tbs. of butter.

3 tbs. of flour
1/4 c. butter.

Melt the butter and add flour creating a roux.

Add two cups milk slowly and stir until thick and almost at a boil.
Then add two cups of sharp cheddar cheese. Take the pan off the heat so that the cheese sauce doesn't break.

Add the liquid from the chantrelles.

Cook 8 oz. of macaroni in boiling, salted water. Cook for three to four minutes. Drain and then add it to the cheese sauce. Take bread crumbs and toss them with butter and then cover the top of the dish before you bake it. Put it in a dish and bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes.

Friday, the first night of chanukah, we had latkes, with steamed swiss chard and a roast chicken. You can check out the labels for my roast chicken recipe. I took the swiss chard and steamed it and added it with balsamic vinegar at the end.

Latkes: 3 potatoes, 1/2 onion, grated. Place this in a piece of cheese cloth and wring out as much liquid as possible. Add 1 tbs. flour and 1 egg. Mix together and form into small little pancakes. Heat some oil in a skillet on med-high and fry up the latkes.

Birthday Dinner

Rob and I went out to dinner on the 7th for my birthday. We had dinner at a little tiny restaurant called Napoli. The Italian food was really good. I had portobello mushroom ravioli. It was quite good. Rob had veal piccata. It was nice.

On Sunday before we had chicken pot pie, I made a little appetizer with the part of the pie crust I didn't need.

Cook 4 oz. of chicken italian sausage -- and then crumble it on to the pie crust with 1/4 c. of tomatoes marinated in balsamic vinegar and 1 oz. of shredded manchego cheese. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until the cheese melts and the pie crust is golden.

On Tuesday, Rob was the chef again, and we had flash cooked tuna. We sauteed some fresh chantrelle mushrooms and cooked some brussel sprouts with sauteed onion and garlic. It was a quick easy, yummy meal.

On Wednesday, we had Leek and Potato Soup with Kielbasa. Wow this was a big winner. It just got better the day after.

2 lbs. red potatoes cut into small pieces
2 huge leeks -- sliced thinly and washed well
1/2 onion sliced thinly
16 oz. kielbasa sliced
3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tbs fresh rosemary pulvarized
salt/pepper
8 c. chicken broth
1 tbs. flour

Cook kielbasa in 1 tbs. olive oil. Remove from the pan and add lek and onion in 2 - 3 tbs. more olive oil until soft. Add potatoes and garlic, and cook five minutes. Add 1 tbs of flour and and let cook for 5 minutes. Add broth and let simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Take a potato masher and then mash 1/4 of the soup. Add back the kielbasa and simmer for ten more minutes. I also used the last of the bulk chicken italian sausage. I made a patty, cooked it and then added it to the soup -- in chunks at the last minute. I would eat this every day. I mean it. Every day.

We had leftovers for lunch, tuna sandwiches with the left over flash cooked tuna. Take a sour dough baguette and cover it with boursin cheese. This is an herb cheese spread. It's really good. Then put on a good bit of romaine leaf, or a mixture of baby greens, add the tuna and you have a great open faced sandwich.

So we've made the middle of the week.

Cooking With A Partner

Rob and I are in San Francisco with his mom.  We are waiting for a procedure and just generally taking care of things.  Because we both have time, we are cooking together.  Doris had her first procedure last Thursday as I mentioned in my last post.

On Friday the 4th, I made chicken soup.  Doris wanted something light and this seemed to fill the bill.
Chicken Soup
1 chicken breast poached in chicken broth.  Shred it when it is cool.
two large carrots cut into rounds
1 onion sliced thinly
1 cup of cooked rice
6 cups of chicken broth
21 seasoning salute, mrs. dash, any one of these kinds of seasoning mixes.

Saute onion and add the carrot,  then add the chicken.  Add the six cups of stock  cook until the carrots are tender and then add the cooked rice.  Let the rice come to temperature an then serve with crusty bread.




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A Continuation

On Saturday we had Dover Sole. Rob was the lead cook on this one. He took the sole which had just come in that day, and sauteed it in olive oil seasoned with garlic. He sauteed some mushrooms and added them as well. It was just lvoely and light. Doris was pleased. We had green beans and red potatoes to accompany. It was nice.

Sunday, the 6th, I made Chicken Pot Pie.

3 red potatoes
2 carrots
2 parsnips

Take the root vegetables and cut them into small dice and then put them in salted water to boil.

8 oz. of mushrooms
1 onion diced
1 zucchini
1 red pepper
2 cloves of garlic

Saute all these vegetables in 1 - 2 tbs. of olive oil.

Cut up one chicken breast in small pieces and add it to the sauteed veggie mixture along with one cup of cooked green beans.

When all the veggie are cooked put them in your dish and add one cup of golden mushroom soup. Put this in a 9 X 13 pan. Cover with two store bought pie crusts. Actually I used one and a half and kept the other half for later. Bake at 400 for 35minutes until the crust is golden and the contents are bubbly.

San Francisco, or really Novato

I'll be posting from San Francisco for awhile. My husband's mother has been diagnosed with a rather rare form of cancer, and we will be here for awhile. Yesterday we were in the city while we waited for her surgery. We spent sometime walking the streets around the hospital while we were waiting and found a couple of good places to eat on Divisidero street. The first was a Hunan place called Yum Yum. It was good. The food was fresh, Rob had fish and I had kung pao chicken. His was great. For dinner we had donburri at a sushi restaurant on Divisidero called Godzilla. Don burri is a kind of rice dish. You get a bowl filled with vinegary sushi rice and it is covered with just about anything. You can get egg don burri, chicken don burri, tuna don burri, seafood don burri. I had the tuna. The rice was covered with lovely thin slices of raw tuna. The ginger was excellent and it was a lot of food.

Today we went back to bring her home and had lunch at a Korean restaurant. I can't remember the name. but it was good.

A New Way To Post

I'm trying this new way to post. We'll see if it works and then I can blog while I am away from my laptop.

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Travel and more Travel

It's been a week since I posted last, and I really haven't done much cooking, actually none to speak of.

Tuesday, Rob and I left for San Francisco, drove to Reno, but stopped in Winnemucca and had chinese food at a good restaurant there. Made it in and left the next morning to go to Doris' house in Novato. We ate an old time San Rafael restaurant called San Rafael Joe's, kind of an American-Italian place. I had halibut. I've been eating a lot more fish lately, and the halibut was good.

Thursday, of course was Thanksgiving, I thought I was going to make pies to take to Fran and Phil's, but we stopped in Auburn and picked up a pecan and a marionberry pie at Ikeda's. They make great pies, and I just didn't have the time. The pies were outstanding. I did make a brussels sprouts side dish. I sauteed the brussell sprouts in olive oil until tender and then added chopped pecans, dried cranberries, and blue cheese. It was yummy. Non-brussell sprout eaters ate it too.

Friday, Rob, Lili and I went into the city and had chinese food in China Town at a place called The House of Nanking. It was okay, but not outstanding. We went to the movies and saw Pirate Radio. I highly recommend it. So funny. We got soup and stuff for grilled cheese sandwiches and that's what we had at home after the movie.

Saturday, Rob's cousin Phil and his wife Fran came to Novato to see Doris. She has been ill and didn't want to come to Thanksgiving. We had three kinds of breads, walnut, banana nut,and challah, along with bagels, lochs, and cream cheese. Easy to do.

We left Novato and drove to Reno Saturday night and then had dinner at India Curry and Kebab. We really enjoyed it. We had tikka masala salmon and murg dagwala tandorri. I love Indian food. Sunday, we ate at Peg's Glorious Ham and Eggs. Rob had a salmon omelet and I had salmon fish tacos. Yum. We got home late and had Pizza.

Today, I'm not feeling so well. I have a mild fever and a pretty good back ache. So Rob is bringing me Caldo de Pollo from Sergio's Mexican restaurant. It's the best.

We are leaving on Wednesday for San Francisco as Doris is having surgery on her gall bladder on Thursday.

ZA!

Well, even though it was late, Rob had a hankering for Pizza. So, that's what I made.

Pizza Dough

1/2 c hot water
1 tsp. yeast
a pinch of sugar
1 tbs. of olive oil
3/4 tsp of kosher salt
1 1/3 c flour.

Mix the water, yeast and sugar together and wait for the yeast to bloom. Add the olive oil, the kosher salt, and the flour. Knead for a few minutes and then put the dough covered in a warm place to rise.

Toppings: Anything you want. Last night: pizza dough goes onto pizza stone. Olive oil goes on dough, three chopped pepperoncini peppers, and two small tomatoes chopped go on top of that. A layer of parmesan cheese. Once sliced onion sauteed, one orange, red, green, or yellow bell pepper sliced sauteed, 1 can of sliced olives, and two heaping teaspoons of garlic, sauteed and put on top of parm layer. Layer of mozzarella, layer of parm. Cooking spray sprayed on the top. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes or until the crust is crisp and the cheese is goldeny brown. (I don't think there is such a word as goldeny, but i like it anyway.) Oh, and on one half of the pizza, I put anchovies. Rob likes anchovies. I do too, but not on pizza.

Refrigerator Soup

Thursday Rob went to Wendover and I ordered a pizza. I just didn't have any energy, so a great veggie pizza from the Blind Onion was in order. Montse and I shared, she got the crust and we had a great evening.

On Friday we had Shabbat supper with the Jewish Community. It was a very small supper this time. Only three families. Pam brought salmon with sun dried tomatoes and basil on a bed of citrus. Barb and Herb brought salad and apricot pie for dessert. I made challah (duh!, I always make challah.) and a rice dish that I got from the November 2009 issue of The Food Network Magazine. This rice dish is so easy and so great. I doubled the recipe because I was feeding eight and not our.

You need two cups of cooked rice.
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped scallions
1 4 oz can of diced green chilies
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
and cayenne pepper or smoky paprika.

Spray with nonstick cooking spray or olive oil the bottom of a small casserole dish. Take about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and sprinkle it in the pan, then in a bowl mix together the rice, sour cream (I used plain yogurt), the cheddar cheese and the scallions, along with the cayenne pepper or smoky paprika. I used the smoky paprika. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put it on top of the Parmesan cheese and then cover the dish with Parmesan cheese to make a great crust. I then spray the nonstick cooking spray onto the Parmesan and it helps it crisp. Bake in a 450 oven for about 20 minutes.

There was not a scoop left. Not one. I was upset. I wanted to take some home.

On Saturday, Rob and I lazed around because it's Shabbat and the wind was blowing about 200 miles an hour. It was the perfect day for soup. So hence the title refrigerator soup. I used what I had.

One and a half boxes of chicken broth, 2 cups of homemade stock, and 1 chicken bouillon cube.

One onion, 1 heaping tsp of garlic, two carrots, 8 ounces of mushrooms, the center of a celery bunch (four or five stalks with as many leaves as you can chop up into the soup), one potato, salt and pepper and Mexican noodles. You've seen them, they look like broken spaghetti noodles in a bag. Oh, and olive oil.

Now, put some olive oil in your soup pot and get it hot, add the onion, which has been chopped and the garlic. Saute until it is translucent. Add the chopped celery. Chop it fine, so it cooks quickly. Then add the carrots, I grate them, it makes them cook faster. I do the same with the potato, and then I add the mushrooms which have been sliced, a little salt, because I have added the bouillon cube, and a good grind of pepper. I bring this all to a boil, and then add two big handfuls of noodles. I cook the soup until the noodles are cooked and all the vegetables are soft.

I served it with multi-grain bread.

Today, we had leftover beans and rice for lunch. Not sure what we will have for dinner, it's getting pretty late, and I'm not sure how much I want to cook. Let you know tomorrow.

Beans and Rice and Doug

It's a continuation of the goose saga from yesterday and a friend who eats a good amount of food.

I made the oca amb peres yesterday, it was okay, but the goose was a little tough, I talked to my friend Dave and used his advice in serving the goose as an appetizer last night. I bought some whole wheat Carr crackers, and sliced the duck very thinly. I heated up the left over sauce and put both on the cracker. It was great. I could really eat it, there was no goose after taste. Thanks, Dave.

Now, Doug can be a bit of a picky eater, not too bad, but large quantities are a good thing also. I made beans and rice.

I took a one pound bag of black beans and left them to soak over night. I cooked them for 40 minutes in 10 cups of water until they were sort of soft. While this was happening, I took one large chopped onion, 1 container of grape tomatoes,each little tomato cut into quarters, and 2 tsps of chopped garlic and sauteed them in olive oil until they were soft, I added one small can of diced green chiles, and 1 tsp of chili powder, 1 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of smoky paprika, salt and pepper to taste, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

I then drained all but 1 cup of water from the beans, added the onion mixture, and 5 cups of chicken stock. I brought this to a quick boil and then turned it down as low as I could and still have it simmer. I cooked it for five hours. I served it with white rice and cornbread.


What a wonderful meal, and Rob was thrilled with the Oca Appetizers.

Oca Amb Peres

Last night I cooked the goose breast that Rob took from the goose he shot on Saturday. I'll be honest, I don't care for goose. It's about ten times darker than the dark meat on turkey, and I don't like dark meat on turkey. Right after Rob shot it, we tried just a little bit, and it wasn't bad. Certainly not something I'd want to eat on a daily basis, but every once in a while is okay. It's really rich, you couldn't eat it the same way you eat chicken or turkey.

There is a Spanish dish called oca con peras, or in catalan oca amb peres that Rob has always wanted to try, but we're never in Spain during goose season.

This recipe is meant for a whole goose that has been cut into pieces, but again, I used two really large breasts.

Salt and pepper the pieces and then brown them in some olive oil in a pan. When they are nicely browned remove them from the pan. Add one finely chopped onion and two small tomatoes finely chopped, saute them, until they are almost carmelized. Return the goose to the pan. Add 2/3 cup of wine, a dash of cinnamon and enough chicken broth to cover the goose pieces. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes, then add 3 pears that have been peeled, cored, and sliced. While this is simmering again for about 10 minutes, take 1/2 piece of stale bread, 10 almonds, and 2 tsps of chopped garlic. Grind it in your food processor until it is fine. Add it to the liquid and let it simmer for about 15 minutes more. This is a great sauce. Unforunately, I overcooked the goose.

I asked my friend Dave, who is a big time cooker of game, and he said to serve it cold shave really thin as an appetizer on crackers or bread with the sauce warmed up on it. Sounds like that's what we'll do with the other left over breast. So appetizers tonite. Along with black bean, meatless chili and cornbread, with a salad.

Dinner Was a Disaster

I used a recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine, Everyday Food. It's called Chicken, Lemon, and dill with orzo. Not good. I don't believe it was Martha's fault, or anyone at the magazine's fault for that matter, but ick. I must admit, I did cook it a little long, but still....

So anyway,

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 lb. chicken tenderloins, cut into one inch pieces (i used turkey tenderloins)
1 pound orzo
2 cups crumbled feta (4 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill (I hate dill, I used Italian seasoning, about 2 tablespoons.)
2 tsps finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Preheat oven to 400. In a saucepan, bring broth, 3/4 cup water, butter, salt, and pepper to a boil. Combine chicken, orzo, feta dill, lemon zest and juice in a 3-quart baking dish. Pour broth mixture over orzo and stir once to incorporate. Bake until orzo is tender and cooking liquid is creamy. 40 minutes. (This is my problem, I cooked it way too long, because I had to tutor.) I cooked mine at 300 closer to 80 minutes. When I took it out and put the Parmesan cheese on it, it was just beige and mushy.

So I thought I'd try to spice it up a little bit, I stirred it all up, hoping that if the orzo was exposed to air it would be less mushy. It worked a little bit, but not really, so then, I chopped up some tomatoes finely, added some salt to get the juices flowing and sprinkled them with a little bit of goat cheese over the top. Still not great, not much flavor, and well, not much flavor. Bland. Really, really bland. Plus, it says it makes six servings. It sure does for linebackers for the Kansas City Chiefs. I served it with green beans and multigrain bread. Thank goodness for the green beans and bread.

Anyway, not one I will try again.

Dinner the Rest of the Week

Tuesday, I didn't want any kind of lasagna for dinner, we had one left over pan, which after dinner on Wednesday, made it's way in individual portions to the freezer. But on Tuesday, I wanted something warm and easy. (Did I mention, we don't have a heater? Our furnace went out while I was gone, and we just got the repair man to fix it on Friday. The coil on the gas valve went out and they have to replace it, tomorrow, Monday.) Any way, I made soup. Eight cups of chicken broth, 1/4 pound of dried ravioli, I get the trader joe kind, and then I added 1 package of chopped frozen spinach, and 1/4 c. parmesan cheese along with one tablespoon of chopped garlic. Let it simmer for 30 minutes or so. We had this with some left over challah. It was really good.

Wednesday, as I mentioned before, I didn't have school and we layed around all day, because I was tired from Monday, and had leftover lasagna with challah and a salad.

Thursday I cooked fish. Took some of the ling cod that Rob caught in August and encrusted it in pepper, garlic, and chopped basil. I cooked it in the broiler for about 12 minutes and it was very moist and tasty. I also took an acorn squash, brushed it with olive oil, placed the flesh side down on a cookie sheet and baked it at 400 for about an hour. I had a can of crescent rolls in the fridge, so I sauteed six mushrooms, 1 onion, 1 tsp of chopped garlic, and 2 tomatoes chopped finely in olive oil.

I left the rolls, which are in triangles together and then placed a good two tablespoons of filling along with 1 tbs. of goat cheese on the rectangle and then folded it into a square, crimped the edges with a fork and then baked at 400 for 8 minutes to 12 minutes, until they were golden. These were yummy. So that was dinner for Thursday.

Friday, we went out to Biltoki with Jeff and Nayil. Basque food. I got Halibut. It was really good, but so much, I took home a whole Halibut steak in a doggy bag. Rob got the family style, so he brought home two lamb steaks, basque chicken, and meatballs.

Saturday, Rob went hunting and brought home a goose. He breasted this one out and we'll have oca amb peres on Tuesday, this week. It's an interesting catalan dish. I'll tell you more on Wednesday. But, he invited some friends to go out to dinner, so we went to Misty's, at the Red Lion, it's kind of a posher place, but the food wasn't as good as normal. I ordered Mediterranean pasta, it was supposed to have sauteed artichoke hearts, carrot, onion, and some kalamata olives in it. It was brown gloop over fettucine noodles. It tasted okay, but looked horrible. Rob had halibut and he said his was over cooked.

Tonight, I wanted to use up as many leftovers as possible, I get tired of them. I cut up the meatballs, because we are never sure if they have pork in them, and gave them to Montse, who has cracked the pad on her left foot while she was hunting, and is limping. She deserved a treat.

Then I took the lamb steak, (Rob ate one for lunch today before he went hunting, as well as the rest of the acorn squash from Thursday's dinner) along with the Halibut steak and put them into a 400 degree oven to warm up. I cooked two large yukon gold potatoes in the microwave for 12 minutes, and then peeled them, mashed them with 1/3 c. plain yogurt, and 1/4 c. parmesan cheese. I then sauteed the same mixture that I filled the crescent rolls with on Thursday and poured it over the mashed potatoes. I got some pencil thin asparagus and roasted it with some olive oil and kosher salt in the oven while I warmed the lamb and the fish.

That was dinner tonight. I've got the rest of the week planned out, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Longer Than Tomorrow!

I blogged on Tuesday about all I did while I was in Kansas with my parents. Well, not all I did, but I discussed the food I cooked. I got home Sunday, after a trip to Costco for food for the Cross Country banquet on Monday. I headed over to the Catholic church started cooking sometime around 9:30. I was contracted to make lasagna, salad, bread, and dessert for 120.

I started off making the bread, so it would have time to rise. A simple recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook for dinner rolls. I had trouble getting it to rise and would use a different recipe next time, but the rolls seemed to go all right, there weren't any left.

I took 15 pounds of ground beef and cooked it down, drained it, and added, six chopped onions, 12 red peppers, 6 tablespoons of chopped garlic, 1 cup of sugar, 6 small cans of tomato paste, 3 - 6 lb cans of crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and 1/2 c. of italian seasoning. I let it simmer for quite a while. Adjusted the salt and pepper and then started to put the lasagna pans together.

Before I started layering, I mixed four 48 ounce containers of small curd cottage cheese with 8 eggs.

I also used three - three pound packages of sliced swiss cheese, and five 12 ounce bags of parmesan cheese.

Ladle some of the sauce on the bottom of the pan, and then put down four oven-ready lasagna noodles, cover with more sauce, cottage cheese mixture, and then five slices of swiss cheese, placed strategically. Noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, swiss cheese, same thing again. Cover the top with a layer of sauce and then sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Bake in a 375 degree oven for an hour covered with tin foil. Let set before you cut, so it stays together.

Romaine, chopped up with parmesan cheese and dressing of choice. Cinnamon bars for dessert.

Mom has made cinnamon-coffee bars for years. We had them all the time growing up. It's a really simple recipe.

1/4 c. shortening,
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg.

Cream this together and then add

1/2 cup strong hot coffee.

Sift together

1-1/2 cup of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

Mix with the liquid ingredients and then add 1/2 c. chopped nuts. I like pecans the best.

Put into a 9 x 13 sheet pan, and bake for 18 - 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

While they are still hot, glaze them with 3/4 c. powdered sugar,
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbs. of milk mixed together. This was a hit.



So, that's what I had for dinner on Monday. It went over very well. I'd do it again.

Traveling

I'm back from traveling. Actually, I was back on Sunday, but I had a marathon day yesterday making lasagna for 120 people.

I went to my parents' house in Abilene, Kansas for a few days, left Rob and the dog to fend for themselves. You'd have thought I'd been gone for ten years when I returned.

I didn't do much cooking while I was at my parents. Lots of bread that's for sure. I made challah and multigrain bread. I've been looking and I've not put the recipe for either of these on the blog yet, so here goes.

Challah. (This recipe is adapted from Shabbat Shalom, a great Jewish Cookbook.)

4-1/2 tsps of yeast,
1 cup of hot water,
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
4.5 to 5 cups of flour.

Place the yeast and hot water and 1 tsp of the sugar into a large bowl, mix, and let the yeast bloom. Then add the canola oil, sugar, honey, and the eggs. Mix completely and then add the flour a cup at a time. When the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl take it out and knead it.

Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl for about and hour or until it's double. Divide the dough into two equal halves, and then divide each of these halves into thirds. Make ropes with these thirds and braid the bread. You will have two loaves. Make an egg was and brush both loaves, sprinkle with sesame seeds and then let the dough rise again for about an hour. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.


Multigrain bread,

2 cups water
3/4 cup multigrain cereal
1/3 cup molasses
1 tbs butter
2 tsps salt

1 tbs yeast
1/2 cup hot water
2 tsp. sugar

4 - 4.5 cups of flour.

Bring water to a boil and add the cereal, cook until the cereal has absorbed most of the water. Take off the heat and add the molasses, butter and salt.

In a bowl, add the yeast, 1/2 cup of hot water and the sugar, let the yeast bloom and then add the cooled cereal mixture. Finally add the flour one cup at a time, until it is all incorporated. This will be a really sticky dough.

Put it in an oiled bowl and let it rise for at least an hour until doubled in size. Take it out, punch it down, knead it, and then divide in half. Create two loaf shapes, snip two slits in the top for decoration and let rise again for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

I'll get into lasagna tomorrow.

I Love the Crockpot

Life just seems to get crazier and crazier and the crockpot was invented by a genius.

Friday, Rob and I went to the Star for dinner, our favorite Basque restaurant and had baked lamb and halibut respectively. Great meal. On Saturday Rob went on an overnite hunting trip with his friend Irineo, in hopes of getting Irineo's deer. No luck unfortunately, but Rob came home on Sunday with a goose. So Saturday, I had left over stir fry from Thursday night.

Veggie Stir-fry. Two yellow or red bell peppers sliced into strips, 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms, 1 bunch of asparagus cut into bite size pieces, one red onion cut into slices, 1 tbs of minced ginger and 1 tbs of minced garlic, canola oil, soy sauce, chicken broth, and rice-wine vinegar. Get your wok or pan really, really hot. Smoking hot and then add the peppers and onions to the canola oil. Add the garlic and ginger and then the asparagus, add the mushrooms last. When the veggies look crisp cooked add your soy sauce, chicken broth, and rice-wine vinegar to taste. Let it thicken up just a minute or two and serve with rice.

I also stir fried some green beans and chopped garlic and that was the second dish. It was pretty good.

I made dipped pretzel sticks for Halloween. Really easy. Take almond bark in whatever flavor you want, melt it, dip the pretzels in and then cover them with sprinkles of the season.

Sunday, as I said before, Rob came home with a goose. He cleaned it and plucked it and it is in the fridge awaiting something. But I'll put it in the freezer today since I'm leaving to go to Kansas tomorrow. Rob got home from hunting and neither one of us were really interested in cooking anything, so it was a hunt through the cabinet and eat what you wanted night. I didn't eat anything, not hungry. Rob had a pear apple and dried fruit and nuts.

On Sunday, I took a venison roast out of the freezer to thaw, and that's where the crockpot comes into play. Yesterday about 4:00 I put seared the venison roast in a pan with some olive oil, after I had drenched it in lemon pepper. I cut up three potatoes and put them on the bottom of the crock pot, along with about five carrots cut up, and 4 ounces of mushrooms quartered. I then lay the roast on top of the potatoes and put about 8 ounces of green beans on top of the roast. I deglazed the pan that I had seared the roast in, with some beef stock and put in two cups to the crockpot. I put it on high, and left it alone. At 6:30 I came home and turned it onto low for an hour and then we had this really great, easy meal. I took the juice thickened it with some corn starch and we were ready. Yum!

A Whole Week

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have tried to type this blog. This is the third time. It seems that every time I get close to the end, I hit the wrong button and it deletes the whole damn thing. It would be all right if it were a short little blog, but it's taken me twenty minutes each time to type what I want to say and then I lose it all.

It's been a week since I blogged last. Over a week, so here goes.

Thursday: Leftovers. I'm sick to death of leftovers. I've got to start making smaller casseroles so I don't have to keep eating them over and over again.

Friday: Biltoki: We went to one of the Basque restaurants in town this weekend. We had the special which means a ton of food. Rob had cod and I had basque chicken, with soup, salad, fries, green beans, spaghetti, and beans. It's an immense amount of food. Rob's friend Tom was here to go hunting for deer over the weekend and they both got one. More on that later.

Saturday: I went to dinner at David's. His friend Tara was there and she is a vegan so we had an assortment of vegetables and spaghetti sauce over vegan meatballs. Is that an oxymoron? Anyway, it was good. I made my famous pear tart and David returned the pan to Rob on Monday, so he had eaten the last half by himself.

Sunday: Rob came in about 1:30 and we butchered his deer. It was a good sized deer and we got a lot of meat. About 7:30 we went to dinner at The Blind Onion and had a big caesar salad and then a greek pizza. It was really good.

Monday: Rob was not feeling well all day, and came home from work. I made him an easy meal of chicken, rice, green beans, and sauteed onions. Nothing fancy, nothing easy, but definitely tasted good.

Tuesday: I made sausage all evening. Three different kinds. The first kind was just regular breakfast sausage. 3 lbs of venison, 1/2 lb of beef suet, 1 tbs. of pepper, 1 tbs of red pepper flakes, 1 tbs of kosher salt. 3 tbs of rubbed sage, all mixed together. I divided it into 1/2 pound portions and put it in the freezer. The second type was rosemary, sun-dried tomato. I took two pounds of meat, 1/4 lb of beef suet, 3 tbs. of dried rosemary, 10 sun-dried tomatoes diced finely, 3 tbs. of garlic, and 1 tbs of kosher salt, 1 tbs. of black pepper. Divided it into 1/2 pound portions. Third type was definitely the best. Pear/Goat Cheese. 2 lbs of venison, 1/4 lb of beef suet, 1 whole pear diced finely, 5 tbs of crumbled goat cheese, 1 tbs of lemon pepper, 1 tbs of kosher salt. Divided into 1/2 lb. portions.

For dinner we had some of the pear/goat cheese sausage. It was great, if I do say so myself. We also had soup with greens, this is a wonderful recipe. 3 cloves of chopped garlic, 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, and 1 tbs of olive oil. saute the garlic and red pepper flake for about 1 minute,and then add two or three chopped italian sausages. Brown the sausage and then add 5 cups of chicken broth, and one package of thawed frozen spinach along with 2 tbs of grated parmesan cheese or a parmesan cheese rind. Let this simmer for about 15 minutes. Add 2 cans of white beans and let this cook for about 10 minutes more. Serve with a little parmesan cheese.

I could make this once a week and Rob would eat it all the time.

Wednesday: Leftover soup with greens and leftover pizza.

Thursday: Not sure what we will do for dinner tonite. Neither Rob nor I have to work tomorrow. It's Nevada Day and we get the day off. Usually we are travelling to Reno to see Lili. She has a big weekend at school this time, so we decided to stay home. This is the first time we've stayed home for a long time. I have to figure out what to do for Halloween. I saw a really cool pretzel stick dipped in different kinds of chocolate with sprinkles. I may do this for my treats with Halloween tomorrow.

Sorry this was a huge book. I'll do a better job of finishing these up daily instead of waiting to do it once a week.

A Rut, a Big Ugly Rut

I feel like I'm in a rut, a big ugly one. WE had leftovers for dinnner last night. Rob had leftover shepherd's pie, and I had leftover fish pie. I'll tell you what, the wedding was over and I packed on the pounds. I have gained six or eight pounds and none of my clothes fit the way I want them too. I've got to start exercising again, and work on that dreaded portion control. Walking the dog a mile twice a day just isn't cutting it anymore.

It was so cold when I walked the dog today, that I think soup is going to be the ticket. I'm not sure what kind, but soup definitely, with garlic bread.

Rob and I are off to Salt Lake City tomorrow so that we can see various doctors. Found out last night that Rob's mom may have the "c" word. She works at the hospital where she had the tests done, so she pulled her own chart and the radioactive dye that they use targeted the cancer cells. She has some "blips" in her lungs and in her gall bladder. It was so lucky that she fell and had the x-rays, that showed the spots, so early. She'll let us know when she gets the word from her doctor as to what will happen next. Realize this isn't about food, but needed to vent.

Fish Pie

Yup. After some deliberation, it was fish pie. I took a recipe from Jamie Oliver and tweaked it a little bit, because I didn't have potatoes and I didn't want to use a hard boiled egg in anything.

So, it was a pound of leftover fish that I had, salmon, cod, and tuna along with assorted other things, that made a good pie. Although, Rob wasn't that excited about it.

I sauteed one yellow onion, 1 carrot and two stalks of celery in olive oil. When they were soft, I added 1 cup of no-fat half and half, when that had just come to a boil, I took it off the heat and added 1 tbsp of dijon mustard, the juice of one lemon, and a handful of chopped parsley, along with two handfuls of graded cheddar cheese.

Then in a casserole pan I put the fish, along with a thawed package of frozen spinach and mixed it with the veg mixture. I used a ready-made pie crust, covered the top and baked it at 450 for 25 minutes.

I served it with left over yellow beets. It was good, or so I thought.

It Was a Set Up!

Friiday was typical for us. We celebrated shabbat and then decided to go out to dinner with Jeff and Nayil to Machi's. I had the spicy shrimp linguini, minus the shrimp, add chicken. You know shell fish is traif. We went for a drink afterwards to celebrate our friend Harry's birthday. It was fun.

Saturday, Rob invited two people he knows to come over so he could set them up. Katie and David. I wasn't sure what to have, because David is a really healthy eater. He cycles 50 or 60 or sometimes 100- miles in a day, so I thought I ought to not do something layered in fat. And Katie is studying to be a nutritionist, so I really didn't want to show that we don't eat healthy.

I decided on fish after a long discussion with Rob. We had mixed grill, salmon, tuna, and cod. We cooked it on the grill, but I should have done it earlier, because by the time we had dinner, it was dark and hard to see the grill. I had gone to the store to figure out what kind of veg to have, and decided on these great golden beets. They were from the organic side of the store, a little more expensive than regular beets, but they were not at all messy. My hands didn't turn pink or yellow for that matter when I was peeling them. I cooked them in some water until they were tender and then added about 2 tbs of shredded mint leaves. The mint really added to the flavor.

I bought some dutch yellow potatoes and cooked them. And created smashed potatoes. I sauteed about 1 tbs of chopped garlic along with 2 stalks of rosemary and then added 1/3 c soy milk and 1/4 c of greek yogurt, to the potatoes. They turned out okay.

I lucked out on the other vegetable. Katie likes green beans, they are her favorite. So I sauteed an onion and a tomatoe and then added the green beans to the pan along with 1/4 c of water and put the lid on it to let the beans steam. It was great.

So that was dinner. Not too bad, everybody seemed to like it, and hopefully David and Katie hit it off with one another.

Sunday, I wanted to use up the leftover potatoes and the green beans, so I made shepherd's pie. I had a pound of ground turkey, because we don't eat a lot of beef. I sauteed one onion, two carrots, and two stalks of celery that had been finely chopped in 2 tbs. of olive oil. I then added ground turkey and cooked it until it was done, I added about eight ounces of chopped mushrooms and the left over green beans. Probably about a cup and 1/2. I added a package of powdered turkey gravy and 1/2 c. water and let it cook for just a few more minutes.

When everything was cooked through and hot, I put it in a casserole dish and then added the mashed potatoes from last night. I dotted it with two tablespoons of butter and put it in a 400 degree oven to cook for 30 minutes. Rob liked it, and I thought it was yummy.

Not sure what we'll have tonite, but something with leftover fish. Maybe fish pie.

Soup and a Sandwich?

Last night was my crazy night of the week. I tutor until 7:30 and I also had a board meeting last night. I put bieroch in the freezer from last week, so I pulled them out and heated them in the microwave. I guess that's the sandwich part.

For a soup, I took 2 heads of garlic that had been finally diced and sweated them in about 1 tbs of olive oil. When it was soft, I added 8 cups of chicken broth and a bundle of rosemary, a bay leaf, thyme, and oregano. I let this simmer for 40 minutes. I shut it off and left it until I got home, and then added one bunch of broccolini, or broccoli would work also. I cut the broccolini up and added 8 ounces of small dried ravioli to the soup and brought it to a boil. When the ravioli was cooked, it was ready.

It was really yummy.

Stuffed Peppers

Yeah! Rob's trial was postponed. The defense attorney has the flu. So, I made stuffed peppers yesterday. I got some great red, yellow, and orange peppers at Costco when we were in Reno last weekend. I don't like the green ones, they are too bitter in stuffed peppers.

I chop up the leftover tops and use them in the stuffing. So, to make six stuffed peppers, I use the leftover tops, one small diced yellow onion, 1 clove of garlic chopped and 3/4 lb. of ground meat. Saute all the veggies until they are soft and pretty, add some salt and pepper and then the meat. I then added the left over rice from last night. About a cup and 1/2. Add 1 tbs of fresh thyme and a good grind of lemon pepper.

I bake the peppers at 425 before I stuff them for about 25 minutes. It makes them softer. Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture and then use 1-14.5 ounce can of tomato puree and 1/2 a jar of spaghetti sauce and pour that over the peppers. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

They are great with a loaf of nice hot bread.

Fish

We had salmon for dinner last night. Not too long ago we went to Costco and bought some marinated salmon filets. They are quite good. They are easy to cook as you just take them out of the package and broil them.

I made two side dishes to go with them. Trader Joe's in Reno, one of my favorite stores has this brown rice medley, that has brown rice, radish seeds and black barley in it. You cook 1 cup with 2.5 cups of water or stock, I used chicken broth and then added five sauteed artichoke hearts, one small diced onion, and 2 cloves of garlic that had been minced. This really added to the grains.

I had some asparagus in the refrigerator, so I cut it up and sauteed it in one tbs of olive oil with some mushrooms and one diced tomato. I added a little chicken broth at the end to help it steam and covered it.

When I plated the dish, I put the salmon down on the plate and then covered it with some of the mushrooms and tomatoes from the asparagus.

This was good, and pretty low in fat. I'll make the rice dish this way again.

A Fast Weekend, and a Crazy Week

We were in Reno this weekend. We had a visit with Lili which was great and a quick trip. Rob and I left on Friday around 4:30 and headed to Reno. We picked up Lili at 9:15 at our friends, Walter and Cindy's, house. Of course we couldn't do things quickly we had to have a couple of glasses of wine and then it was 11:15. We went into Reno and had dinner. Lili ate with Walter and Cindy, Rob and I had In and Out Burger. Lili had some too because she is always hungry. In and Out has to be the best fast food hamburger by a chain after Sonic. At least that's my opinion.

Saturday we got up and had croissants at a little coffe place and bakery called Franz's Bakestube which is German for bakery. For lunch we went to our little Indian restaurant and had the buffet. It was great. Dinner was around eight and we ate sushi. It wasn't my first choice, but Rob had a hankering for good sushi, so away we went. We did all you can eat.

Sunday, we had croissants again at Pete's and then Lili got on the plane to San Jose. Rob and I spent an hour at the fabric store so that I can get some purses made and then we ate Vietnamese. It was a weekend of Asian food.

Last night we got home late and I made pasta with olive oil, garlic and romano cheese. It was good and easy. Guess what? I'm having it for leftovers today.

This week is crazy for Rob, he has a jury trial, which always puts him in a difficult mood. So, we'll do lots of food at home this week and get him things for lunch, since he doesn't have a lot of time to eat. I'm thinking stuffed peppers for dinner one night, and fish is always good. I think we will have salmon for dinner tonight with asparagus and some kind of a starch, rice or something. I'll let you know tomorrow what happened.

Leftovers

We had leftovers for dinner last night. Too much pasta from the night before, and soup from Monday, bieroch from Tuesday, so, it was leftover night. Leftovers are a great thing. Although I take entirely too many with me too have for lunch. When that happens I don't really want to have leftovers at all in the evenings. So, I put the bieroch in the freezer and we had the soup and leftover pasta for dinner.

Easy for me, and an early night.

Pasta

I tutored last night until 7:30. My big tutoring job cancelled, so I had time to make some dinner before I went to my 6:30 tutoring gig. I'm trying to clean out the freezer because Rob got a deer tag, and we could get some really good venison in the freezer in the next month.

In August one of my girlfriends brought over two of the biggest zucchini I had ever seen. There was no way I could use it all for stir fry, so I grated it and put it in the freezer. I also had two errant chicken breasts sitting in the freezer door, so I used them. Two weeks ago I had to pull my tomato plants out of the ground and hang them in the garage. It's been pretty cold at night. Yesterday I pulled all the tomatoes off the vines, green or no and brought them in. I used up all the ripe tomatos I had, we're going to be gone this weekend, so I'll have some more ripe by the time we get back.

I cut up about 5 or six medium sized tomatoes into small dice. I took one red onion and chopped it into small dice as well, and pulled the jar of minced garlic out of the fridge. I sauteed the onion with 1 tbs of chopped garlic in 2 tbs of olive oil. When the onions were soft I added the tomatoes. I sauteed them until everything was a sweet smelling paste. I added about 1/4 cup of chicken broth, 1 tsp of fresh rosemary, 1 tsp of fresh thyme, and 1 tbs of fresh basil. My herbs are going great guns in the house. It's wonderful to be able to use them. Add a little S and P and you are good to go.

I sliced the chicken breasts really thin and sauteed them in the pan I had cooked the tomato mixture in. I also added abourt 3/4 cup of the shredded zucchini and sauteed it until the chicken was cooked through.

I had a package of pennette pasta. The little penne. I boiled up about 3/4 of the package with some salt and olive oil.

I grated about 1.5 cups of aged edam cheese. I didn't have any romano so I used what I had.

In an eight or nine inch round casserole pan, or an eight inch square pan, put a layer of the tomato sauce. Add a layer of penne, a layer of the chicken and zucchini mixture and a layer of cheese. Repeat. Finish the dish with a layer of cheese.

I put the dish in the oven on 325 for an hour. It went into the oven right before I left to tutor and it came out an ahour later when I got home. The timing was perfect.

Rob had two helpings, so it must have been good. I served it with salad and some challah. I need to make some new challah today for shabbat tomorrow. Even though we are going to Reno to see Lili I still need challah. I'm thinking tonite will be leftovers, but I'm just not sure.

It's October, Time for Bieroch

I had to have them yesterday, the wonderful warm, fresh baked smell of bieroch. When I was growing up as a kid, my mom made the most wonderful bieroch. If you don't know what a bieroch is, you've had a deprived life.

I've taken my mom's recipe and tweaked it a little, but it's still great. To make the dough, take 5 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt and mix it together. Add, 1 tsp of yeast to 2 tbs. of water and let the yeast bloom, then add 1 and 1/2 cup of warm milk, 8 tbs of melted butter and two beaten eggs to the yeast mixture, add this to the flour and mix. Knead it and let it rise, just like any other bread dough.

To make the filling, brown 1 to 1.5 lbs of ground meat. I use turkey, but you could easily use ground beef, chicken, etc. Dice one large onion and 1 head of cabbage into fine dice and then add them with 2 tsps of chopped garlic to the meat. Cook it until everything is soft. Take it off the heat and add 1/4 lb of grated cheddar cheese and 2 tbs of dijon mustard. Mix it all together and then make your bieroch.

Divide your dough into 12 balls, roll them out, or in my case mash them out and then put a good heaping large spoonful of filling into the middle. Seal them up and put them into a 425 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

I served them with the left over soup from Monday. It was a great and hearty meal.

It's cold here and I don't like it!

I got up this morning and walked the dog. It was cold, I mean really cold, like in the 20's cold. It was that way yesterday too. It's not supposed to be this cold in October. I am really worrying about November, January, March. Yick! So, when I got home from tutoring last night, I decided I wanted to have something warm. I made red lentil soup.

1 onion chopped, 1 carrot chopped, 3 cloves of garlic chopped, and 1/2 tsp of chopped ginger. Saute this in olive oil. Add six cups of water, or broth and 1 can of coconut milk. 1 cup of red lentils and 1/2 cup of uncooked rice. Add 1/2 tsp of celery salt, fresh ground black pepper, 1 tbs of brown sugar and 1 bay leaf and let it simmer for 20 minutes or unitl the lentils are falling apart and the rice is cooked.

Serve it with chopped cilantro, lime, and scallions. I made flat bread, naan, to go with it.

Mix 1 tsp of yeast with 1/2 cup of warm water, add a little pinch of sugar so the yeast has some food. Let it proof for about 10 minutes and then add 1 tbs of olive oil, 3/4 tsp of salt and 1 and 1/3 cup of flour. Mix it together and let it rise for about thirty minutes. Divide it into four pieces and create flat round pieces of bread like pita bread. Heat up a skillet or grill pan, cover it with olive oil and then cook your bread. You want it to be golden with little bits of brown burned on it. This is really yummy with the soup. I could have eaten four bowls all by myself. This is a really healhty dish too. That's always good.

The Weekend

I always feel like a cooking slug during the weekend. I do a pretty good job during the week, but the weekend hits and I'm tired. I should cook more because I have the time, but I just haven't been lately. Friday, we went out with our friends Nayil and Jeff. We had planned to have a drink at the Stray Dog, a local pub, but it was Octoberfest and the German polka music was more than any of us could stand. We went to a local bar/restaurant called Machi's. Rob and I had our first date at Machi's. The food is good, but the menu is really limited. Rob had prime rib and I had chicken parmesana. It was good, but it wasn't really what I wanted, and there are lots of things on the menu that Rob and I can't eat, like shellfish and port. It's a bummer.

Saturday, we had a teacher union function at one of the bars, called Muley's. They serve pub food, so I knew Rob wouldn't want to eat there. He thinks pub food is synonomous with fattening. Maybe he's right. Anyway, we had a few appetizers, a beer and then headed back to Elko. By this time it was 9 and we were both pretty hungry. We went to a local chinese restaurant called Monkey Sun and of course our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.

We took home three dishes, when two would have worked. Rob speaks what he calls "restaurant chinese." This restaurant chinese got us extra helpings of the dishes we ordered. We had Sauteed Tofu in Garlic Sauce, Kao Pung Chicken, and Beef Chow Fun. I'll be eating all this chinese for lunch leftovers for a week, I swear.

Sunday we were supposed to go to some friends for brunch. I made a pear tart to take, but my stomach became so upset because of a head ache, that I had to cancel. I couldn't drive the car without feeling like I was going to throw up. It was awful.

Anyway, I made this tart. I used a pecan crust. You make a pretty simple pie crust, 1 and 1/2 cups flour with 2 tbsp of powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt and whisk. Add 1/2 cup of cold butter cut into chunks and 4 tbs of shortening cut into chunks. Cut this into the flour with your pastry cutter and then add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Sprinkle 3 - 4 tbs of cold water, one at a time around the edge of the dough and work it in with a fork until you have a nice ball of dough. Gather it into a ball and put it in the fridge for an hour.

Cut up a bunch of pears and sprinkle them with lemon juice so they don't get brown. I used about even medium pears. I sliced them thin. Take 1/3 cup of apricot preserves and 2 tbs of water and microwave them for one minute. When you've rolled out your crust and put it in the tart pan, brush the bottom of the crust with the apricot mixture and then layer it with the pears. Brush the pears with some more of the apricot mixture and then put it in the oven for about 50 minutes at 375. It was really good. Rob had two pieces right away.

I didn't cook much of anything else the rest of the day. We had left over chinese.

 

How do you spell Boulliabase?

I know that is not the way to spell bouillabaisse. Is this the way, spell checker said it was anyway. I made bouillabaisse last night. It was yummy. Rob has wanted me to make this for ever. Here goes. 1 onion finely chopped, 1 fennel bulb thinly sliced, 1 stalk of celery thinly sliced, 1 leek washed, and thinly sliced, and 2 - 3 cloves of minced garlic. Saute all this in 3 tbs of olive oil.

You also need fish broth, I used the kitchen basics brand of seafood broth. It's really good because it's not overly fishy. 7 and 1/2 cups of this. Along with the seafood broth add 2 pinches of saffron. This makes the dish this wonderful golden color. Add salt and pepper to taste and a bouquet garni of rosemary, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, whatever herbs you want. Bring this to a boil.


Then add ten ounces each of any three kinds of fish that you like. I used tuna, mahi mahi, and cod. Cut the fish into 2 inch chunks. Drop the heat to a simmer and simmer the fish for 10 to 15 minutes. No longer or the fish will break up and be over done and the soup will get all cloudy.

I served it with baguette that had been slathered with melted butter and chopped garlic, with a sprinkling of romano cheese on the top. I put it in a 500 degree oven for about 5 minutes and it was so good dunked in the soup broth.

This was the easiest soup to make.

Dinner Out

We had dinner out last night. We have a sushi restaurant in Elko. I know, who would think that Elko would have a sushi restaurant, but in typical Elko style it's a sushi restaurant that took over an italian restaurant, and to keep all the old loyal customers they still have italian dishes on the menu. For instance, Sausage and Gorgonzola Gnocchi, who has gnocchi at a sushi restaurant? Go figure, anyway, I had a big bowl of Thom Kha Soup last night.

We went out to dinner because I tutored until 7:30 and just didn't want to fix dinner. I like Thom Kha Soup. It's a coconut milk based soup with chicken and rice and other good stuff. I'm going to try to deconstruct it one of these days and make my own. I think I can make it better. Ooooo. I set myself up for a challenge.

I'm not sure what we'll have for dinner tonight, but it will be something warm. It is 25 degrees right now.

I'm going to make some kind of dessert with pears. Because we had a hard freeze last night all my friends were picking their fruit to save it. I have an entire bowl of pears, so I think I'll make a pear tart for dessert.

Rob has been after me to make a fish soup that our friend Shannon makes, so I just found the recipe in my emails and I may try it. We'll see how I feel.

Can You Empty the Refrigerator?

I did my best last night to use up stuff from the refrigerator and from the big meals we had this weekend. I had leftover chicken from the break-the-fast meal along with leftover crescent roll dough. Some left over mushrooms and veggies were in the fridge and freezer as well.

I sauteed about 3 carrots, cut into rounds, added one medium onion diced,and 1 tsp of chopped garlic in 1 tbs of olive oil. I then added the last of the green beans from the garden. We are supposed to get a hard 21 degree freeze tonight, so I thought I had better pick the last of them. I also added eight ounces of chopped mushrooms, and 1 cup of frozen peas. I added one cup of white rice and about 1 and 1/2 cup of the chicken chopped into chunks. To this I added one cup of gravy, (you know, the powdered mix, that you just add water to?)

If there had been cream of mushroom or chicken soup in the cupboard I would have used that instead.

I put all of this into a casserole pan and then covered it with one of the tubes of leftover cresent roll dough. I baked it for about 15 minutes and we had a nice hot chicken pie.

A Mixed Bag

We were in Reno for Yom Kippur this last weekend with our daughter Lili. It might sound funny to write about a holiday where you are fasting on a food blog, but it really is pertinent. We had dinner with our friends Walter and Cindy at a Thai restaurant, Bangkok Cuisine. We love it there. The food is wonderful. I had pumpkin curry. I think I could eat it every day. Lili had spicy basil noodles. They were wonderful too. Rob had steamed Salmon and complained that his portion was entirely too small.

We decided on Saturday when we were shopping at Costco that we would have roast chicken for dinner before Yom Kippur. You need a really good dinner before you fast. You don't get as hungry as early that way.

So, I put the chickens in to roast. 425 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours. Wash the chicken, clean the inside really well, make sure you get out all the liver and kidneys and heart, and neck. I've never done it, but I've been told people have roasted it in the bird. I stuff my chicken with a half an onion and a half a lemon. Then I tie the bird up. I used to leave the legs open and I had the worst time trying to get it to cook. This is the best way, truss it up. Now, you can use kitchen string, but I saw my butcher do this and it makes so much sense. Take the skin at the back of the bird, right near the opening, and make a slit in it large enough to take the end of the opposite leg through it. Do the same to the other side. Rub the chicken with olive oil all over, this helps the crust brown. I have when I want a particularly juicy breast taken pats of butter and put them between the skin and the breast meat, but I didn't today. Season it with salt and pepper. Roast. Use a meat thermometer. 170 at least.

When I put the chickens in the roasting pan, I usually put them on a rack, but because it was a strange kitchen, I didn't have one that fit my pan. I cut up about 10 red potatoes and put them on the bottom of the pan after I had tossed them in 2 tbs of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Then I sat my two chickens on top of the potatoes. This way the chickens get a lift away from the bottom of the pan, and the potatoes get a good soak in all the chicken juices.

I was a little worried about the chickens, I cooked two, because it was a strange oven and I didn't have a meat thermometer, but they came out great.

We also had chicken soup. Usually I would have used homemade stock made from the chicken carcasses I have stuck in the freezer, but again we were away from home, so I used good ole Swanson's Chicken Broth from the aseptic container. I love this broth. I added carrots and some sliced onion and let it simmer for about twenty minutes. I then added kreplach. Kreplach are a Jewish ravioli. I took one chicken breast and poached it. I cut it up and put it through the food processor with one-half sauteed onion and 1 tsp of sauteed garlic. Mix it with one egg and that is the filling for your kreplach. You can make your own pasta dough, but I didn't have time so I used the square won ton wrappers you can get in the vegetable section of the grocery store. Put about one teaspoon of the filling into the corner of the square, wet the sides of the pasta, fold it in half and then crimp with a fork.

This was a great soup. Really nice and light.

We also had green beans with tomatoes and onion. I saute about two tomatoes and one half onion in 1 tbs of olive oil. I then add my cleaned green beans with 1/4 cup water and let them simmer or steam in the pan until the green beans are crisp-tender.

The final accompaniment was white rice cooked with some of the broth from the soup. We were saving the potatoes for the next day when we could break the fast.

The meal was really good, so good. We ate a lot, but I think it helped get us through the next day.

We broke the fast at 4:00 on Monday. That's really early, but we had to put Lili on the plane at 6:50, and she had to eat before she got in the air. We carved the bird, warmed up the potatoes and cooked some brussel sprouts in the leftover juice from the chickens.

I made some mushroom turnovers. So simple. I took 8 ounces of mushrooms, 1 tbs of garlic and 1/2 onion and sauteed it in olive oil. I rolled out two cans of crescent rolls and cut out circles with a tea cup. I spread one tsp of cream cheese on each circle and then dolloped on 1 tsp of filling, folded the circle in half and then put them into a 375 degree oven for about 12 minutes. They were so yummy. The cream cheese is a nice surprise when all you are really expecting is mushroom.

So we had the mushroom turnovers and pickled herring with green onions for an appetizer, and then we dug into the rest of the meal. It was so good!, as Rob would say.

After we put Lili on the plane we stopped and got a quick coffee and headed on down the road to Elko. We were both a little peckish when we got home so we cut up a baguette, some manchego cheese, a little extra aged edam, and a tomato and had a lovely snack. I guess it's really not good to eat at midnight, but sometimes you just have to.

This Week In Food

Doesn't that title sound like a Dan Rather,or Walter Kronkite moment? It does to me. We went with Doug to dinner and it was a fast day on Monday. I had a chili cheese burger, that looked like a big brown mess on my plate. Not great, I ate the meat and it was good. The chili, not so much.

Tuesday, Rob had class and we had fish when he got home. We got some marinated fish at Costco and it was really good. Salmon with rice and brocollini. Not a very interesting meal, but it was good.

Wednesday, we had left over chicken from Sunday with a baked potato and brussel sprouts. I love brussel sprouts when they are sauted in olive oil and garlic. That's the only way to eat it.

Thursday, I wasn't feeling so great, so I made a quick pasta dish when Rob came home from the office late. I cooked some capellini and then added fresh tomatoes, black olives, artichokes, and mushrooms, with romano cheese. It wasn't bad. Rob liked it.

Yesterday we drove to Reno, and by the time we got in, it was 8:30. We found this great Indian restaurant, called Indian Kabab and Curry. We had Aloo Chapote and Tandoori Chicken. Really yummy. The garlic naan bread is to die for.

Tonite, I don't know what we are doing for dinner. We are supposed to meet our friends Walter and Cindy for dinnner. Who knows? It will probably be good.

A Weekend Without Cooking

I don't very often have a weekend without cooking, but it happened this weekend. Friday I made six more loaves of challah for Rosh Hashana services. They were great, and went over well. They want the recipe. To give it, or not? So, after Friday services we got veggie pizza from the Blind Onion, which is five minutes from the townhouse in Reno. No cooking. Blind Onion has pretty darn good pizza. We had a caesar salad and were good to go. After services on Saturday, we went home and had leftover pizza and a nap. We went out to dinner with Tom and ElizaBeth to Whole Foods in the evening, and had a great time. Sunday, we did a quick shop and came back to Elko. I guess you could say I did a little cooking, heating actually. We got a roast chicken from Raley's, made stove top stuffing, and had rice with gravy. I steamed some brussel sprouts and that was dinner.

Tonight we are going to JR's with our friend Doug, so I'll cook, Tuesday and Wednesday. Rob is off to Jackpot on Thursday for court and then we are headed back to Reno to get Lili and have Yom Kippur services on Friday. This weekend, I'll be doing some cooking.

Venison Osso Bucco

In my last post I mentioned that I am in the process of cleaning out the freezer. So, I pulled out some venison shanks and some venison meat and put it in an osso bucco. I browned the shanks and the meat and then sauted two sliced onion, and one carrot,chopped finely. I added 1 and 1/2 cups of crushed tomatoes and 2 tsps of garlic along with 1 cup of white wine and 2 cups of beef broth. From their I added a bay leaf, lemon rind, rosemarry, and thyme from the garden. I adapted this recipe from "The Complete Meat Cookbook." You put the shanks back into the pan and then put them in a 325 degree oven for an hour or two, turning the meat every so often.

I'm going to serve it with some polenta and brocollini. Hopefully it will be good.

Didn't get the challah made this evening, will have to do it tomorrow morning.

WOW -- It's Been a Week -- What Have I Done?

It's been a week since I've posted and a mixed bag as to what I've cooked and what I haven't.

On Friday, the 11th, Rob and I went to our friend David's house for dinner. We try to get him over to our house, but he just seems to like to entertain at his place. David made Mexican food. We had venison and beef tacos, as well as chicken tacos. He made black beans with corn and red onions and also rice. Bruce and Lisa were at dinner and brought some killer guacamole. I brought a plum cake, that I thought was not going to work while it was in the oven. The recipe called for an 8 inch round cake pan. That's what I used, and it bubbled over to the point, I lost probably a quarter of the cake to the baking sheet I put under the cake pan. The cake turned out well. Lot's of nice lemon and plumb flavor, but not a recipe I will probably use again.

Since it was Friday I also made challah. Two loaves. We kept one and I took one over to David's.

I did not cook on the 12th either. We went to the wine walk. This is a promotion by the downtown business association to get people into their stores. You pay 18 dollars for a wine glass and then follow a map around to the different stores and you get a taste of the different wines each shop is hosting. You can quickly get drunk doing this. It doesn't help if you start at the downtown wine bar with a big glass of some lovely red wine. The businesses also have little snacks, so you can try out the food, the wine, and have a really good time with all the people you know that you see downtown. After all that wine we knew we had to eat something so our group, which had started out with four and had grown to ten moved to Sergio's a mexican restaurant in the downtown area. I had the half chicken quesadilla. It filled my plate, who know's how big the whole quesadilla is. It would have to be enough to feed like, I dont' know, a family of seven. Afterwards, we went to a Mexican bakery in town and looked over the pan dulce. Rob and I bought a couple of croissants to eat with our coffee the next morning, before tennis.

While we were at the wine walk, Rob made plans to play tennis with Nayil and Jeff, two of his good friends on Sunday. I invited them both for dinner after the tennis match and we had a great time. I wasn't sure what to fix, because I was all Mexican fooded out. No more Mexican, at least for a day, anyway. So after a quick trip to the grocery store, I fixed stuffed chicken breasts, potato gratin, and green beans.

The stuffed chicken breasts were pretty easy. I sauted one onion that I had diced in really small dice along with two cloves of garlic. I added a package of chopped frozen spinach after it had been thawed and drained. Really squeeze all the liquid out of it or you will have a runny mess. I then added about 1/2 cup of mexican cheese, it doesn't melt too much, so you have a nice textural play in the food.

Pound the chicken breasts flat. I butterfly them and then pound them between wax paper with a meat tenderizer. Once they are flattened put about two tablespoons of the spinach mixture on the breast, spread it all over the breast. Roll up the chicken breast and tie it with some kitchen string into a little bundle.

Put approximately 2 tbs of olive oil in a big pan. I made five chicken breasts, one for each of us and then one for my lunch the next day. Heat the oil and then cook the breasts until they are golden brown on all sides. They may not be cooked all the way through, but that's okay. You are going to cook them again in the sauce that you make for them.

To make the sauce take about 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken stock, (I make my own from the Friday shabbat chicken.) and deglaze the pan you cooked the chicken in. Scrape all the bits of chickeny goodness that is there. Once the stock is boiling take 1 tbs and mix it with 1 tbs of cornstarch, and mix the cornstarch mixture back into the stock. It should start to thicken almost immediately. Put the chicken breasts back in along with any juices that have settled on the plate while they rest, and cook them for another 5 - 10 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through. Add a little bit of salt and pepper to the sauce and then serve the chicken breasts on a plate with the sauce drizzled over them.

To make the potatoes gratin, peel four medium sized russet potatoes and slice them thin. Oil the bottom of a small casserole dish and lay 1/2 of your potatoes in layers in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of your chicken stock and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, along with 1/2 of a sauteed onion. Slice the onion and saute it. Repeat the procedure with the rest of the potatoes, the other half of the onion and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese to cover all the potatoes and the onion. Put it in the oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. So, do these first before you make the chicken.

Green beans, are green beans. Snap them and put them in the microwave covered with 1/2 inch of water. Cook for about seven minutes.

I loved this dinner. What great flavors. Nayil and Jeff cleaned their plates and came back for seconds on potatoes.

On Monday, I wanted fish. Rob will eat fish anyway he can get his hands on it, so I knew this would be a good meal. This summer Rob and his friend Tom went on a fishing trip in the Pacific. They caught a huge mess of cod, so I thawed two pieces of this wonderful fish in the refrigerator and we ate like kings.

I sauted one small onion and two small tomatoes diced in olive oil. Cook it down until it is one wonderful sauce, oh, add two to three cloves of garlic also. At this point, Rob took over and cooked the fish. He added a couple of bay leaves, some chicken stock, and some 21 seasoning salute from Trader Joe's. While he was cooking the fish, I cut up two small zucchini, chopped the tops off a bunch of asparagus spears, and diced a tomato. I sauted all of this in olive oil, just until the zucchini was cooked, don't cook it until it is mushy. It's better with just a little crunch. We ate this with rice. Cook your rice 1 to 2. One cup rice, two cups liquid. I used chicken stock. I never time my rice, I just cook it until there are little dimples showing in the top of the rice. It was a truly lovely meal. I love cooking with Rob. It's a lot of fun for both of us.

On Tuesday, Rob teaches class until late. So, I took the opportunity and made six loaves of round challah for Rosh Hashana this weekend. I have six more loaves to make which I will do when I get home from school today. Because I had made so much bread, I wasn't that excited about cooking dinner. We had a half a loaf of ciabatta from Trader Joe's that we needed to use up. Rob hates wasting food, and I hate hearing about it, so I used that as the crust for a pizza. I grated cheddar cheese onto the bread, about 1/4 cup for each half. I browned some hamburger that I had in the freezer. I'm trying to use up things in the freezer, because Rob will be hunting and bringing home venison to fill the freezer in about a month. I sauted a small onion, chopped up a couple of small tomatoes from the garden, halved some kalamata olives, and sliced up some artichoke hearts and put that all on top of the cheddar cheese. I sprinkled romano cheese over the top, and sprinkled some olive oil on top of that. I baked it for 20 minutes until the cheese was melted and that was dinner.

Last night we had leftovers. It was open house at school and then we went for a drink afterward, and I didn't want to cook. Leftover pizza to the rescue.

Now I think I'm up to date. I'll blog tomorrow with the venison dish I'm making for tonight. Oh, and the six loaves of challah.

I Love Cooking Magazines

I don't know how often I have been saved by cooking magazines. One of my favorites is FOOD by the Martha Stewart people. I used one of their recipes tonight. I like to create my own, but this one was really good. Thai Beef over Coconut Rice. So simple, yet excellently done. The recipe is in this month's issue. I highly recommend it. I only subscribe to three cooking magazines: Cook's Illustrated, FOOD, and Savuer. All three are worth every penny. They give me a really different perspective on cooking and eating. You can't ask for anything better. Tomorrow we are going out for dinner to a friend's house. Some nights its really good not to cook, although I do have to make a dessert. We'll see what takes my fancy tomorrow. I have to bake challah tomorrow also. It's Friday!!!

Late, Late Night Supper

It was late last night when we had dinner. Really late, 11:00 pm late. We don't normally eat so late, but after about a gazillion meetings and nonsense it was 11:00. I hate eating that late, so I tried to make something light. Pasta agliolio. I guess that's how you spell it. Take some angel hair pasta and boil it in water with some olive oil and some salt. When it's done, run it under cold water, put it back in the pan with somemore olive oil and some chopped garlic. Whatever amount your heart desires. Now, to Rob's pasta I added sun dried tomatoes. He like them, I can take or leave them, and some pecorino romano cheese. Only pecorino romano. Parmesan is okay, but pecorino romano is fantastico. To mine, just the romano. what a fine dinner. Light, easy and not too unhealthy.

Hash for Dinner

Monday, we had those great Salmon burgers for dinner, but we had three patties left over for last night, Tuesday, the 8th. After one of those phone calls with Rob discussing what to have for dinner, I decided on Salmon Hash.

Now, I love potatoes, Rob says they are my first love. Who knows, maybe he's right, but they really aren't bad for you, if you don't put a lot of stuff on them. So, I put a potato in the microwave for about 4 minutes. You don't want it completely cooked, because you want to be able to grate it. After it is par-cooked, grate it along with half a zucchini. Press the water out of this mixture with your hands or in a cheese cloth. Mix both with 1 beaten egg and salt and pepper to taste, along with 1/2 grated onion. Put about 2 tbs of olive oil on a griddle and make three to four patties with the potato/zucchini mixture. Fry the patties until they are golden and then flip to the other side.

While they are cooking take the three leftover salmon patties and cut them into dice. Slice a medium onion and 8 ounces of mushrooms thinly. I went to the garden again and pulled a tomato from the vine. Dice this. Saute the onion in 1 tbs of olive oil along with two cloves of chopped garlic. When the onions are translucent add the mushrooms and cook them down until they release their water. Add the tomato and the diced salmon patties. Cook this mixture until the salmon is warm.

Now, take one or two of those great potato/zucchini fritters you've made and put them on a plate. Top with the hash. I gave Rob a plate and his comment was "That's really much too big a portion." But in the end, he said it was so good, that he couldn't stop eating it. The plate was empty. What an easy recipe. I'll definitely make Salmon Hash again.

Last NIght, September 7

Last night, my husband Rob and I came home from Reno and needed a quick dinner. We had been to the grocery store Trader Joe's before we made the drive and we bought their really great salmon burgers. By the time we hit the house the burgers were almost thawed and had to be used. There are five burgers in a package so we cooked all five on an enameled grill pan. Just three minutes per side.

We had no hamburger buns, but we did have some great sour dough bread from the Truckee River Sourdough Company. Rob cut up the bread, we put some wonderful dijon mustard on the bread. Both sides is best. I sliced a nice bit of manchego cheese. This is probably one of the best cheeses you will ever run across and if you go to Spain you must try it.

I took an onion from the garden, sliced it thin, two green peppers that were starting to turn red and a small tomato from the garden and diced it. I sauted it in some olive oil until the onions were translucent and the peppers soft.

We put that atop the Salmon burgers and topped the whole thing with one of those great slices of Manchego. On went the sour dough bread and we were feasting like kings. The whole thing took probably 15 minutes. Don't forget there were three Salmon burgers left over for tonite.

That's Just It!

I get asked this question all the time. Those of you who have kids, you know it, they want to know. No surprises, they can gird their loins, and be prepared for whatever it is you are going to fix. Or, do you ask the question, "What would you like for supper?". And this is the answer you get, "I don't know. What sounds good to you?" To which you want to reply, "If something sounded good to me, I wouldn't be asking you what you want for dinner." But, you don't. You come up with something, anything. It's great if you can find something easy, but usually that's not the case. It's a production. A big production.

So, I'm going to spend the next month or two or three trying to make it not a big production, let's use what's in the refrigerator, plan more than 30 minutes in advance and try to take the production out of food.

Here goes!!!!!!