Chili

Mmmmm, chili. Nothing's better on a cold day, and we certainly have plenty of those here. I'm a big fan of this type of one-pot meal that takes a few hours to cook slowly on the stove.

I start by browning meat (if it's not veggie). This time I browned the turkey in canola oil in our large Le Creuset pot and seasoned with s & p. Then I add in the spices. I remember reading once upon a time that spices had better flavor if they were allowed to toast lightly. I add cumin, chili powder, paprika, cayenne, thyme, and any other chili type spices I have on hand (I used to add chile de arbol (wicked hot) but I've long used that one up and can't find it out here. Ditto the ground poblano spice). I don't measure any of these, but use more paprika and chili powder than cayenne. Sometimes I add a bit of cinnamon too. Next comes an onion, chopped and some garlic. If I have some roasted peppers in the freezer those go in too, if not some canned green chilies (don't get the jalapeños by accident!). I like to add fresh peppers too, if they aren't ridiculously expensive. Red, green, poblano, jalapeño... whatever's easy.

Cook until the onions soften and everything looks a bit tender. Now's the time to check the spices a bit, maybe add a bit more salt and pepper. I add about a cup of water and a can of tomatoes. Sometimes I use the Ro-tel (they come extra spicy!) but remember to reduce the spices. Otherwise just a can of chopped tomatoes is fine.

Now we wait. And stew. I lower the heat to barely a bubble and let it sit until it's about 20 minutes until dinner. Now's the time to stir in the beans. I'm a big fan of the traditional red, but Peter will eat just about any type, black, white, pinto. One or two cans depending on how many leftovers we'll want and how spicy the mix is (since the beans will dilute it a bit). I often use the bean juice too, since I buy the low-salt beans it's not too salty and seems to thicken up the chili a bit.

Now is also the time to make cornbread, for which I use Mom's recipe that was inspired by her mom, Bert's southern style cornbread.

I think chili tastes best the next day, slowly reheated with maybe a spoonful or two of water to thin it back out.


Notes and Next Time

• we should make more vegetarian chili.
  
• the leftovers that I added frozen sweet corn to were very nice
• lime is a good addition, stirred in right at the end
• can always thicken thin chili with cornmeal or cornstarch made into a paste with water
• good toppings are avocado, cheese, gr onion, lime, corn chips, salsa, fresh tomato
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• turkey/pork/elk/etc
• onion
• garlic
• peppers (fresh, canned, roasted)
• spices (cumin, chili powder, thyme, cayenne etc)
• tomatoes (canned)
• beans (canned; kidney, black, white, pinto etc)
  

Split Chicken with Roasted Potatoes

We've been experimenting with buying and cooking whole chickens instead of buying the store rotisserie chickens. It gives us better control of what goes on the chicken, it's cheaper, and it turns out that it's a lot easier that I originally thought. We never had good luck with cooking the chicken whole, but we've found that splitting the chicken prior to cooking works significantly better.

On the recommendation of Cook's Illustrated, I brine the bird. Since it's not so big, I just threw the bird in a large pasta pot with about 1/2 C of salt, a couple cloves of garlic and a couple t of thyme, then covered with water. I let it sit about 1 - 1-1/2 hour in the brine. After pulling it out and wiping it down with paper towels, I cut out the spine and cracked the breastbone (so it would lie flatter in the roasting pan). To help dry the bird, I put a drying rack on a sheet pan with the chicken on top, then the whole set-up into the fridge for the rest of the day.

For the potatoes, I peeled and cut about 5 medium sized reds into 1/4 - 1/2 inch slices. I also julienned half of a sweet onion. I tossed everything in a bowl with s&p and evoo.

I then lined the bottom portion of a 2-piece broiling pan with foil, sprayed with PAM, and layered the potatoes. The split chicken was put on the top portion of the broiling pan, and the whole thing replaced on top of the potatoes.

The whole set-up was cooked in a 500 oven for about an hour. At the half-way point, the chicken was rotated. We used a thermometer to make sure the chicken gets to temp.

Notes and Next Time

• Having the potatoes and chicken all cooking in one pan and finished at the same time is really nice.
• The chicken comes out nice and moist, due to the brining.
  
• We've been having a problem with the bottom of the potatoes burning. Maybe if we cut the potatoes a little thicker or maybe flipping/rotating them at the halfway point will be better. I think the flipping will be better, since we've already started cutting them thicker than originally, and that hasn't worked.
• The chicken skin isn't crisping, despite an EVOO massage. Butter may be better.
• The onion, although a nice idea, worked out poorly. They all burned to the point of inedible. If I could figure out a way to make bigger pieces, it might work. The only thing I can think of is thick rings, but that doesn't solve the problem of the thinness of each onion layer.
• The brine could probably be done the night before, and the chicken left in the fridge for the whole next day. I might cover it with some cheesecloth or something similar in that case.
• The chicken carcass will be used to make stock in the future.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• One whole chicken, about 5#, brined
  
• Red potatoes
• Onion
• s&p
• evoo

Pumpkin Pie and Cinnamon Ice Cream

For our Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to make a pumpkin pie, which has become my 'thing' to make, with cinnamon ice cream. I was inspired to make the ice cream by a local restaurant, where Kimberly got pumpkin pancakes topped with cinnamon whip cream; Kimberly's mom also has a hand-crank ice cream maker, which you need to make ice cream.

I used a pumpkin pie recipe that I've used for the past 4 years and has proven to be a winner. Its best with real, mashed pumpkin, but I'm lazy and used canned pumpkin this year. I also use store bought crust because, again, I'm lazy, and par baked it before adding the filling. I baked it for 10 minutes with beans (to keep the crust from bubbling) then for another 5 without. After it cooled, I filled with the pumpkin mixture and baked. It took a little over an hour. The pie came out great, but the crust was a little over cooked. I like it when the top of the pie cracks, but it didn't this year.

As for the ice cream, this was my first foray into ice cream making , so I pretty much followed the recipe, except that I added a cinnamon stick while the mixture was cooling. I let it cool overnight in the fridge. And it doesn't say in the recipe, but I added the heavy cream right before churning.

I have to say, the ice cream came out pretty awesome. The cinnamon went perfect with the pie. It was smooth, soft, and creamy. Overall, an excellent decision. I will definitely make more ice cream in the future.

I think the combo worked really well and I think it went over well with the crowd. Unfortunately, there was Marionberry Jesus pie, which is maybe the best thing you can have for Thanksgiving dessert, so the pumpkin pie was overshadowed. But the ice cream was still popular.

Notes and Next Time

• I've made the pie a few times, and I really like it. I have messed with the ratio of white to brown sugar in the past. going anywhere between all white to 1/2:1/2. I haven't ever taken notes, but I think the 1/2 white: 1/2 brown ratio makes the best pie.
• I didn't do it this year, as I was feeling lazy, but cooking and mashing my own pumpkin definitely makes the best pie. I did that the first time I made this recipe and it was by far the best.
• The crust was overcooked. I think just the initial 10 minute par bake would have been fine. Or covering the outside crust with tin foil would have been better.
  
• The vanilla bean was awesome. I will use it as much as I can in the future.
• Using the cinnamon stick was also a nice touch. I think I should have used it from the start, and maybe used less ground. If I cooked both types, I think it may be strong. However, as I did it, it was excellent, so maybe the ground and stick method was good.

Ingredients/Recipe

Pumpkin Pie - I found this a long time ago on-line somewhere, but I don't remember where. My mom uses it as well.

• 2 c. cooked and mashed pumpkin
• 1 c. sugar (I have tried 1/2 c white and 1/2 c. brown sugar in the past)
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 1 T vanilla
• 1+ t nutmeg
• 1+ t Cinnamon
• 1/2 t fresh lemon juice

Mix ingredients well and pour in pie crust.
cook ~ 1 hour @ 350 until the mix stops jiggling.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

I pretty much used this from foodnetwork.com, but modified it slightly with this from epicurious.com, as above.

Stuffed Peppers

Thursday night, I decided to experiment with Stuffed Peppers. This is something that I've always enjoyed eating when other have made them, but have never been able to successfully reproduce on my own. Something always seems to be off.

The inspiration for trying to make them this time was about half a pound of ground pork and some raw tomato sauce leftover from pizza night. It was taking up room in the fridge and needed to be eaten. Kimberly suggested the stuffed peppers, so I went for it.

The first step was buying 4 kind-of-large green peppers, with a wide base so they would stand up in the oven.

I consulted our Cook's Illustrated cookbook for their recipe; I mostly used it as a guide, but the 2 things I used directly were pre-steaming/boiling the peppers and cooking rice in the style of pasta (by this, I mean boiling it in an excessive amount of water then draining, rather than doing the 2-to-1 water to rice ration for 'perfect' rice cooking). Additionally, I was going to use bread crumbs as a binder for my stuffing, but decided to use the rice instead, at the suggestion of Kimberly and of the cookbook.

For the peppers, I cut off and cleaned the tops (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 an inch), then floated them in a big pot of boiling water until they started softening. Once I removed them from the water, I cooked the rice in the same water for about 15 minutes, until tender, then drained.

For the stuffing, I sauted the diced pepper tops, half a diced onion, and a couple cloves of diced garlic in a few drops of evoo and some s&p, until starting to soften . Then I added the previously cooked ground pork (maybe 1/2 #) and the left over raw tomato sauce ('crushed' can tomato, about 1/2 c). I let the mix warm through, then added the cooked rice and a few handfuls of shredded cheese (I think it was a 'Mexican' blend). I also added some spices - I think basil, thyme, and oregano, and a couple pinches of cayenne pepper for a kick. s&p to taste.

I stuffed each pepper until it was overflowing - it turns out that we had the perfect amount for the four peppers. I topped each with another pinch of cheese, then cooked in a 9x9 oven pan at 350 for about 30 minutes. We increased the heat to about 400 for the last ew minutes to try to crisp the top of the stuffing, but I don't know if this worked or not. (I've seen the stuffed peppers topped with the cut off tops, but I think I prefer the pepper tops cooked into the stuffing).

I have to say, they came out really good, surprisingly so. The stuffing was hot throughout and perfectly seasoned, something I'm not great at judging. The top of the stuffing and cheese was nice and browned, with the melted cheese in the middle just gooey enough. And the peppers were perfectly cooked - I was worried the pre-boil would make them too soft. We each had one and then split a third. This was a good amount. And it leaves one for lunch on Friday.

Notes and Next time

• I will definetly do the pre-boil on the peppers again.
  
• I also think that cooking the ground meat (maybe turkey, but the prok was good) with the pepper and onion might be nice; but it does seem like this is a good 'clean-out-the-fridge' meal, so that might not be an option.
  
• I think it was a good idea to NOT cook the tomato sauce before adding it to the stuffing mix.
• We could use any cheese, depending on what's left in the fridge.
  
• I really liked the rice in the stuffing, but it would be interesting to see how the bread crumbs work. Although, every time I've used bread crumbs in the past, it's turned out poorly. Maybe I shouldn't be so stubborn and just go with what works.

Ingredients/Recipe

• 1/2 # of ground pork/italian sausage
• 1/2 c rice, cooked in pasta style
  
• 4 green bell peppers, kind of large
  
• onion (half to whole, depending on size)
  
• couple cloves of garlic (to taste)
• raw tomato sauce (crushed from a can), maybe 1/2 c
• spices, to taste
• s&p, to taste
• cheese, shredded

Pizza

On Tuesday, I made pizza. We haven't been able to find any dough at the local supermarket (no TJ's or good bakeries in town here), so I've been making my own pizza dough. I enjoy making yeast doughs, and have been keeping a journal to help me improve my dough. I think I've come pretty close to mastering the pizza dough (unfortunately, the bread dough, while similar, has not yielded similarly good results yet).

I like the dough recipe from Caprial and John's Kitchen. I usually use only about 1/2 T of yeast, because I find the whole 1 T gives too fast a rise. I also use a lot of black pepper, with a coarse hnad grind in my mortar and pestle - it really gives the crust a nice taste.

I proof the yeast in a separate bowl, then use a food processor to do the initial mix of all the ingredients. I have found the the two most indispensable ingredients are the EVOO and the salt. Obviously the salt is essential for taste. I find the EVOO really gives the dough a soft, smooth texture. I usually finish the dough with about 5 minutes of hand kneading, until done.

I do the first rise in the oven. It usually takes about an hour (it was taking about 20 minutes with the full 1 T of yeast, which made for not very good dough). I then usually punch it down, cut into quarters, wrap in EVOO-covered plastic wrap, then refrigerate. The fridge retards the second rise until I'm ready for it. (I actually don't think the second rise is very important for pizza dough, but that's just me).

I take the dough out 15-20 minutes before I want to cook it, and gently flatten it. I don't push too hard at this time, because I don't want to tear the dough. After the dough has warmed some, I finish shaping it into about 10-12 inch rounds.

For our toppings we used 'crushed' canned tomatoes (uncooked), bulk Italian sausage (pre-cooked), sliced black olives, and shredded cheese (we had some pizza blend, which is mozzarella, cheddar, and some parmigiana).

We like to use our cast-iron skillet to cook our pizza, since we don't have a stone - it usually gives a nice crunchy crust. We use corn meal on the pan to keep the dough from sticking, which I think also helps with the crust development. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes in a 400+ degree oven for a good crust to develop and the cheese to become nice and bubbly. Optimally, we would have a 500+ degree oven, but our cheap-o over doesn't like such high temperatures.

We ended up with about 4 10-inch pizzas. We had one plain cheese, one cheese with oregano, one cheese and sausage, and one cheese, sausage, and olives. This is usually good for 2 meals for us.

It's really east to make your own pizza at home, especially if your supermarket or local bakery sells dough. It makes me sad that such craptastic places like Dominoes and Pizza Hut stay in business. I have to thank my mom for always making pizza at home and never subjecting us to those craptastic chains (the first time I ate Pizza Hut, I didn't eat the pizza).

Notes and Next Time

• I think freezing the dough at the 'refrigeration' point would be a good option. This way you could pull the dough whenever you want; unfortunately at this point I can't make dough without eating it right away. Some day, I will make 2 or 3 batches, and freeze it.
• I noticed that I used less flour than in previous attempts. The weather has become really dry here, and I think that affected the ratio.
• I really wish I had a stand mixer with a dough hook sometimes. The food processor is fine, but sometimes the dough is hard to get out. But I think I will never give up the final hand knead - it's really satisfying.

Ingredients/Recipe

• Caprial's Pizza Dough Recipe, with modifications:
  
• about 1/2 T yeast, to slow the rise
• greater than 1 t black pepper, for added crust flavor (I hand grind the pepper ina mortar and pestle, which makes it coarser and adds more flavor, I think)
• proof the yeast in a separate bowl
• hand knead for the last 5 minutes or so, until 'done'
  

Pork Cutlets with Asparagus and Cous Cous

We're really big fans of cutlets, but we usually use chicken. Recently, we've been experimenting with the pork. Living in Iowa, we have access to some really pretty pork product. Using our Cook's Illustrated cookbook, we've been able to avoid drying out pork chops and tenderloins - I can guarantee you'll see some reviews of those foods at some future point in this here space.

Our local grocery store has been selling really nice looking boneless pork chops in bulk recently (I think they're called boneless loin chops and they look like tenderloin cuts, as they have the silver skin on the edges; I'll verify next time I'm at the store). We usually buy a bunch when on sale and freeze them individually; this way they thaw in just a few hours.

At regular width, the pork takes a while to cook and usually dries out (or the bread crumbs burn, if we're trying to fry). So in order to get the pork thin enough, I usually pound them out (I don't have a meat tenderizer hammer-thingy, so I use the bottom of a wine bottle, which works well).

This time, I tried slicing the pork in half, length-wise, while they were still frozen to thin them out. After they thawed, I pounded them out again - this worked great. The slicing helped them thaw faster. I was able to get them pretty thin much easier with the pounding, resulting in a moist, tender cutlet that cooked pretty quick.

For our cutlets, we like to use bread crumbs. Sometimes we buy the 'Italian' bread crumbs at the store, then 'fix' them at home with spices - this works fine. But I really like to make my own bread crumbs - it's a great way to use up that old stale bread and is easy in the food processor. Making our own bread crumbs also allows us to better control the salt and seasonings, which is nice as well.

After slicing, we soaked the pork in milk for a bit, then dredged in bread crumbs, and cooked over medium heat in a little EVOO in our cast iron skillet (I LOVE our cast iron skillet and use it all the time for stove top and over cooking - it's seasoned well enough at this point that it's non stick). I had a little trouble with the heat control, since the pork:bread ratio was a little off; I think too much soaking allowed too much bread to stick. By the third cutlet, we had the heat right, and the cutlets were coming out golden brown; each cutlets takes only maybe 2-4 minutes, with the first side cooking in a 2:1 ratio (2 minutes on the front side, flip, 1 additional minute on back side).

For our sides, we made couscous, which has to be one of the easiest grains to make in the world, as well as one of my favorites: boil one part water, add one part couscous, cover, wait 5 minutes, fluff, and serve.

The asparagus at the store also looked really nice, so we decided to go with that as well. We decided to cook it in the broiler with a drizzle of EVOO and some chopped garlic. We usually steam the asparagus, but I think broiling was far superior for flavor, as some of the tips charred a little bit and gave it a great flavor. This took maybe 5 minutes as well.

Except for a little prep time on the cutlets, this is a really nice quick meal for a week night. If you wanted to, you could probably cook the cutlets in the oven, but I would worry about drying them out. I like the frying of the cutlet, but I can understand the health concerns.

Notes and Next Time

• When thin slicing the pork, don't make them too thin. Use the pounding process to give them the proper thinness.
  
• I like trimming the silver skin on the edges: it can be tough to chew and can hinder the pounding.
• Don't soak the pork in milk (or egg) too long. I think just a quick soak to give them some moisture is good. The pork seemed to absorb a lot of milk in the 2 hour soak we gave them, resulting in a lot of bread sticking. The bread:cutlet ration was too high; the breading needs to be thinner. The fineness of the breda crumbs may have had an impact on this as well.
  
• I was worried the cutlets would be tough, but I think the pounding/soaking helped to keep them tender.
• A squirt of lemon may have been a nice touch, but we didn't have any on hand.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Boneless, skinless pork tenderloin 'chops', maybe 1/2 # each
  
• Bread crumbs, fixed to your liking
• Milk, or egg, for soaking
• EVOO for cooking and garnish
  
• Asparagus
• Garlic, chopped
• Couscous
  

Chicken and Dumplings

Mmmm, Chicken and Dumplings. It sounds filling, homey, and winter-y to me. I like one pot meals like this that can be made in steps, reheated, or pulled from the freezer. I'm not sure if Peter has noted, but we're really not recipe people. I imagine we both get this from our moms, who also really aren't recipe people. In fact, my mom (hi Mom!) is famous for saying things like "So, I used the Bon Appetit recipe. Except, well, I used chicken instead of pork. And I didn't have green peppers so I used broccoli. And I didn't want to add the white vinegar so I added wine and I had some extra mushrooms. And I used...." You see what I'm saying. I like recipes and I love reading food books. But they're mostly inspiration instead of rules.

Anyway, we've been trying to save money and use our food well (instead of throwing away old onions and things) so we have a couple big zippy bags in the freezer that we toss the old stuff in. Peter likes to make roasted chickens, so we'll often have the bones. I also toss the tops and bits of onions, carrots, celery, etc in. Especially since we've been traveling, all the produce goes into the freezer instead of coming home to limp carrots and moldy onions. We also toss the rinds of parmigana in (that stuff is GOLD here, can't waste it!).

So, I started this meal by pulling the broth bag out of the freezer. Since it was Sunday, I was mostly home working and had plenty of time to watch the pot and make the house smell good. Of course, I could also have pulled pre-made broth from the freezer (if I had any on hand) or used the canned stuff- which isn't all that bad.

After the broth was done, strained, and left to rest in the fridge, I started our actual meal. I chopped carrot, celery, onion, and garlic and let them saute in evoo in our Le Creuset (one of the best cooking implements we received as wedding presents!). After they softened and smelled nice, I tossed in a few bay leaves, thyme, and s&p. Then I sprinkled flour on top to make a roux. If you aren't a roux person, you need to become one because it's fantastic and means you can use less cream and even Peter won't know! I stir the whole mess and let it cook until the flour is no longer white. I want it to blend into the veggies and turn a light beige color. After the flour cooks (maybe 2 minutes?) it's time to add the liquid. I added plenty of broth (since the dumplings need to absorb liquid later in the recipe), until the Le Crueset was half full. As for the chicken... since I wasn't starting from a whole chicken, and I didn't have any left over cooked chicken in the fridge, I used a couple of breasts and poached then in the chicken broth I made earlier. Once cooked, I took them out and cut into large bites.

So, at this point we have the veggies cooked, the chicken resting on the side, basically it just needs to get put together! I adapted a dumpling recipe from Cooks Illustrated and Betty Crocker. I used whole milk instead of cream as well as flour, baking powder, and salt. Pretty simple. I stirred the mess together and it was like really thick muffin mix. I added the diced chicken to the pot, stirred in a couple handfuls of frozen peas, and spooned the batter on top. The recipes said to let it simmer from 15-20 minutes, which I did with the temp on low and the lid firmly in place.

It made plenty- enough for two hungry people and leftovers. We sat down to a hearty meal on a cold night.


Notes and Next Time

• I think I used too many peas, we both noticed that it was a little sweet. The Cooks recipe called for sherry, which might have added enough acid. Next time I'll probably still use peas, but fewer, and maybe stir in a little lemon juice at the end.
• I definitely didn't cook the dumplings long enough. Some were fine, but all of the larger ones were still damp in the middle instead of being fluffy and dry like biscuits.
• This recipe just reinforces to me the value in making broth. I can grade papers and do all sorts of things and neglect the pot but homemade is so much tastier and cheaper (since I don't buy anything just to make broth, it's all leftovers). Having the freezer bags is so handy, and keeps us from having horrible surprises in the fridge.
• Peter thinks that the dumplings could have used a bit more salt. Since I used kosher not table salt as the recipe called for, this is definitely possible. I don't remember.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• broth
• carrot
• celery
• onion
• bay
• thyme
• chicken
• peas
• flour
• baking powder
• milk
• s&p