Chicken, Artichoke, Mushroom

Well, I'm on my own a lot for dinner these days, so I'm trying to remember both quantity (no need to make enough for 2!) and short recipes. I'm crazy busy these days, so quick one pots meals are important. At the same time, I don't want to subsist on frozen things or totally unhealthy things.

So, tonight I was inspired by the chicken defrosted in the fridge and the package of mushrooms threatening to go bad. I decided that they'd go well together, especially with the addition of some artichoke hearts.

I started by sauteing the sliced chicken in evoo until nicely browned. I tossed in a little chopped garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. I didn't worry about cooking the chicken all the way through, but instead put the chicken in a bowl once it was nicely browned. Then I heated a little more evoo and sauted the quartered mushrooms (maybe 4 or 5 medium sized ones). I added a little more garlic, dried oregano, more pepper flakes, and a little salt and let them brown. Once they looked pretty, I tossed in drained quartered artichoke hearts (not the marinated ones, just the regular canned ones). I let everything heat and come together. Then I added back the chicken and heated the whole thing until the chicken was cooked through.

I served this with a slice of toasted sourdough bread.


Notes and Next Time

• this would be good tossed with pasta too
• asparagus or green beans would be good in place of the artichoke hearts
• the red pepper flakes are a good addition
  

Ingredients/Recipe
to serve 1

• 1 chicken breast
• 2 cloves garlic
• red pepper flakes
• mushrooms, 4-5 quartered
• artichoke hearts (1/2 can, not marinated)
• oregano
• s&p
  

Pork Cutlets with Broccoli and Quinoa

We made Pork Cutlets again, since we have a freezer full of pork chops. I won't go through the whole thing again, but I will say I followed some of my previous notes, and things worked out much better: I only cut the pork chops once, then flattened by pounding; I soaked in milk only briefly; and trimmed the fat prior to breading.

For our broccoli, we steamed it in a saute pan, with some water. We like our broccoli on the verge of raw, so we drained it pretty quickand just drizzled a little evoo over it for eating.

As for the quinoa, we cooked it using the standard 2 c water to 1 c quinoa ratio. We added some sun dried tomatoes, with its oil, at the end to try to add some flavor. Unfortunately, the quinoa was a little tough and bitter. Not exactly sure why it happened, but it did.

Notes and Next Time

• We need to play with the quinoa some more to make it better. Not exactly sure how to do that, but we'll see. I really like quinoa, so I'll make it work.
  

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
  
• Broccoli
• Quinoa
• Sun dried Tomato
  

Gnocchi, the follow up

So we had the gnocchi that Peter froze tonight, and they were the absolute best gnocchi he's made thus far! Certainly, I do refer to gnocchi in general as "little pillows of love" among other monikers.But I think the small amount of flour that he added this time really made them tender and delicate. They cooked very quickly, just a minute or two in the boiling water and they floated to the top. We tossed them with homemade sauce and topped with a little freshly grated Parmesan.


Mmmm... too bad there aren't any leftovers!

Tomato Sauce

Tomato sauce was the first thing I ever cooked once I moved out on my own. When I asked my mom how she makes hers, she said that you just cook the tomatoes until they were done. While this is great advice, it's not very helpful, especially when looking for ingredients, ratios, etc. Over time, I picked up some tips from my mom and Grandma, and can consistently cook a pretty good sauce.

In my opinion, the beast sauces start with pork. Sometimes I use a cheap cut, like a pork shoulder, that will be tender and soft after a long simmer (you can't really use something like this if you're trying to make a quick sauce). You can also use any other kind of meat, or veggies, or no 'meat' at all.

I started by browning the meat - in this case, hot Italian sausage - in a little evoo. I used our Les Crueset, which is heavy-bottomed and cast iron, and allows for even, consistent heat. After they browned nicely on all sides, I took them out of the pan and let them rest a little; at this point, they were not cooked all the way through.

In the same pan, I then threw in a bunch of chopped garlic with a little more evoo. I like to cook my spices a little too, so I threw in the oregano, thyme, basil and red pepper for a little bit. Before the garlic or spices got too brown/toasted, I added the tomatoes. I really like the crushed tomatoes, since they don't have many chunks and the juice isn't too thin. I also cleaned out the cans with a little water, which killed three birds (cleaning cans, getting small amount of tomato still in can out, and adding water) with one stone.

[When I was little, I always like my Aunt Nina's sauce more than my mom's or Grandmother's, because it was thicker. So when I started making my own sauce, I was intent on not adding water to thin it out. However, over time, I have come to realize that a little water is needed and the sauce will still thicken up as the water evaporates over the long cooking time.]

Once everything is in, I added the s&p and bay leaves and bring the whole pot up to a boil. Once it boils, I turned down the heat to simmer the sauce and added the sausages back in. I usually allow the sauce to simmer anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, depending on how much tomato is used. You will 'know when it's done' from 2 things: 1) the evoo will look cooked and will come to the top and 2) it will taste good.

I make 2 or 3 cans of sauce at a time, which is good for anywhere between 3 and 6 meals. The sauce freezes easily in ziploc bags and keeps for some time.

I used 2 cans of tomatoes for this iteration. We used the sauce for our gnocchi, but have enough for 2 bags in the freezer.

Notes and Next Time

• Taste is most important in determining if the sauce is done. You'll know if it's still raw simply by taste.
• We've been using the hand blender to blend up the sauce occassionally; that's a great technique and makes the sauce taste/feel lighter.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Canned tomatoes (I prefer the crushed tomatoes)
• Spices (thyme, oregano, basil, bay leaves, crushed red pepper)
  
• s&p
  
• evoo
  
  

Marinated Chicken with Soba Noodles

This was a classic 'clean out the fridge night.' We had some chicken breasts lying around, so I tried an experiment by marinating the chicken overnight in some Balsamic Vinaigrette (which we had taking up space in the fridge).

I ended up struggling with side dishes, since we didn't have much for veggies in the fridge. For some reason, I kept thinking of these soba noodles we had in the cupboard; I wanted to dress them in soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds, but that didn't seem to work with the balsamic chicken.

We ended up cutting the chicken in strips and sauteing it with some veggies, then putting in on top of a noodles. It was fine, but certainly not great. I think the marinating of the chicken is a good idea, but the sauce needs to take into account the sides and be a better complement.

Notes and Next Time

• The chicken should be skewered some with a fork to allow the marinade to infiltrate the chicken.
• Soba noodles are good, but I think it would be better paired with Asian-themed marinades and veggies.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Chicken
• Marinade (aka salad dressing)
• Soba noodles
  

Gnocchi

Yesterday, we made stuffed gnocchi, for which we needed to make a basic gnocchi. Kimberly likes to refer to gnocchi as 'little pillows of wonderful;' I agree whole-heartedly.

I usually use leftover mashed potatoes to make gnocchi, but we didn't have any this time, so I needed to start with cooking the potatoes. We used yellow potatoes, cooked whole, then peeled and mashed. I added a little evoo, but not much.

After mashing, I was worried that the potato mixture would be too dry. After consulting our America's Test Kitchen cookbook, my fears were assuaged. As it pointed out, the drier the potatoes, the less flour I would need to add, the lighter the gnocchi would be. This was great, because I've found that when I use leftover mashed potatoes, I always add a ton of flour, and the final product is pretty dense; I am always envious of the light gnocchi at restaurants.

As I added the flour, I certainly didn't add as much as usual, which I think would be good. At first, it wasn't coming together, but as I kneaded the potato-flour mixture, it became a nice and smooth, not unlike a bread dough, but with less bounce.

I then rolled out the dough in a small tube (diameter of a quarter, maybe), then used a fork to cut each little dumpling, maybe half an inch long. I then rolled each gnocchi on the gnocchi-board my aunt in Italy gave me (it's wooden, with grooves in it). It made nice little balls, with grooves, just like in a restaurant.

We didn't end up eating any plain gnocchi, I simply froze them (individually on a sheet pan, then when they froze, put them in a ziploc bag). When we want to eat them, we'll just throw them in a pot of boiling water still frozen; once they float, they'll be ready to eat.



Notes and Next Time

• Any kind of sauce is good for gnocchi: red (tomato), white (cream or butter), pesto, etc. One of the best ways is to simply drizzle nice evoo over the cooked gnocchi, then grate parmigiana over them.
• When we finally cook them, we'll put tasting notes in there.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Yellow potatoes
• Flour
• evoo

Stuffed Gnocchi

When we were in Padova over the summer, we went to a restaurant and had Stuffed Gnocchi; they were amazing. The stuffing seemed to be similar to a ravioli filling. The outside was a green potato dough. The contrast between the green and white was pretty cool. They were served in a white sauce, with arugula and cheese. They were pretty big - like the size of a meatball - so there was only 5 on the plate. We decided to try to replicate them at home.

For the outer dough, we made a standard potato gnocchi (see here). We kept it white; in the end, I wish we had colored it with spinach or tomato, to give the dish some additional color.

For the stuffing, we decided to go with a basic ricotta filling, similar to what we make for ravioli. We mixed some ricotta cheese with egg (to bind it together), some parmigiana cheese, chopped fresh parsley, grated fresh nutmeg, and s&p. We mixed it up, but we felt it was too loose to work properly as a filling, so we added some flour. It helped, but we didn't want to add too much, as it was beginning to change the flavor of the ricotta.

Once we had the two parts, we made little beds of gnocchi. We placed a small dollop of filling it he middle, then tried to close the dough around the cheese. It wasn't easy: the potato was uneven around the stuffing.

As we brought the water to a boil, we made a quick sage butter sauce: heated butter, fresh sage, and chopped spinach. It was really tasty.

We put the dumplings in the boiling water and cooked until they floated. After a test, we noticed they weren't totally cooked, so we let them float in the water for a while to ensure they were cooked through.

In the end, we had a nice facsimile of the the original stuffed gnocchi. There were some small problems, but I think they could be remedied through practice.

Notes and Next Time

• The gnocchi was uneven around the stuffing; we need to find a way to better close the pouches. The potato was a little overwhelming, hiding the flavor of the filling. I think upping the intensity of the filling would also help.
  
• The stuffing was kind of loose, but needed to be thicker. I think if we add shredded mozzarella or parm to the stuffing to help solidify it some. Also, less egg. And if all else fails, some flour or corn starch.
• I would have preferred a sauce with more sauce; the butter tasted good, but there wasn't much 'dressing' for the gnocchi. Maybe a cream sauce would work nicely. Also, I think adding some mushroom would be a nice thing.
  
• Coloring one of the components would make the dish more visually interesting would be good. Spinach, squash/pumpkin, tomato, etc, would be fun to try; depending on the season, you could definitely play with the color combo to reflect the time.
• These would be a fun dinner party food. They're kind of time consuming to make, but with a good color contrast, they are a fun food, with a fun surprise in the middle.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Standard Gnocchi recipe
• Ricotta
• Parmigiana cheese
• Egg
• Whole nutmeg
  
• Parsley
• Butter
• Sage
• Spinach
• s&p

Spiedini [Grilled Lamb]

In my mother's family's village in Italy, they make these things called spiduchi: in the rest if Italy, they call them spiedini. Spiedini is the generic term for small pieces of meat cooked on a grill. Spiduchi are small chunks of lamb, salted, and grilled. They are usually made for feasts and other special occasions; they might be one the best things ever.

We ended up buying a 7# leg of lamb, using the special spiedini cutter to skewer and cut it up, salted it, then grilled it for about 5 minutes over hot coals.

Spiedini are possibly the easiest thing to make (it helps that my aunt and uncle have the special spiedini maker to make the skewering and cutting easy), and super tasty. We probably made about 150-175 skewers, and between the 9 of us, they were being eaten as soon as they came off the grill.

Notes and Next Time

• We don't have the special spiedini maker - it's 1400 miles away - and I'm not sure I want to go through all the skewering and cutting without it. I'm not sure next time will be anytime soon.
• There's really no way to improve on spiduchi. Except to be sure to soak the skewers so they don't burn over the fire.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• Lamb
• Salt
• Grill
  

Enchiladas

Mmmm, enchiladas! I started making these way back in my post-college vegan/vegetarian days and have just kept messing with the recipe ever since. My current take on them involves chicken and green sauce, but they've included tofu, black beans, pork, turkey, various veggies and various sauces over the years.

I start out by sauteing an onion and some peppers until the wilt a bit. I like to use a combination of peppers including red, green, pasillas, and anaheims if I can get them. Canned green peppers will work in a pinch. Then I add the chicken. This time around I marinated the chicken for a while in a mixture of cayenne, paprika, salt, and crushed garlic for extra flavor. I nestle the breasts on top of the onion mixture, add about a half cup of water, and put the lid on the skillet, turned down to low. This way the chicken cooks slowly and seems to be less dry. Once the chicken is just barely cooked through (the whole dish will bake in the oven, so no need for it to be completely done), I pull it from the heat and take the breasts out to cool slightly on a cutting board. Then I shred them using a pair of forks (although I'm sure cutting them in chunks works fine too). So now, we're basically done. The shredded chicken goes back into the pan and mixed with the onions/peppers. Taste the mix for seasoning (salt, pepper, spices) and we're reading for putting it all together!

A while back I discovered the layered enchilada. So much easier than the rolled version, although not quite as pretty. So, to put my enchiladas together, I start with a big baking pan and spray it with cooking spray. Next goes a spoonful of enchilada sauce (I like the canned green one right now). Then a layer of tortillas. On top a layer of the chicken mixture and some cheese (whatever you like, cheddar, jalapeno jack, queso blanco etc). Then a few spoonfuls of enchilada sauce and start the layering over. I rip up tortillas to make an even layer is necessary (just like with lasagna). The top should be tortilla with a generous amount of sauce (so the top layers don't dry out) and topped with cheese to brown.

Bake at 350 until bubbly, brown, and the center is hot. Anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on the number of layers and size of the pan! Tasty topped with lime, cilantro and served with spanish rice and/or beans.


Notes and Next Time

• it's nice to add mushrooms, corn, black olives, or beans to the filling mix.
• tempeh might be nice too

Ingredients/Recipe

• chicken (maybe 2-3 breasts for 2 pans)
• onion
• peppers (green, red, etc)
• garlic
• spices
• enchilada sauce (at least 2 15 oz cans)
• cheese
  
• garnishes
  

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
  

Skillet Chicken and Sauce

A while ago, PEter signed us up to be testers for America's Test Kitchen (publishers of Cook's Illustrated, our absolutely favorite cooking magazine). We've gotten recipes for a few weeks now, but life has either gotten in the way or the recipe just didn't sound exciting. Not so this week. Their recipe (which we are not supposed to cut and paste for you so we'll provide our "improvements") was for a skillet cooked chicken with a vermouth-dijon sauce. This sounded like something we'd actually eat and we added the ingredients to our grocery list today.

The recipe involves cooked chicken parts (with skin and bone) on the stove top and then making a sauce to serve on the side.

First you rinse and pat fry your chicken parts (Peter cut up our whole chicken because he's cool like that). Heat oil (a couple Tbsp) in skillet and add parts skin side down. Cook until browned WITHOUT TOUCHING. We suck at this part. Flip, add 1/4 cup H2O and cover until cooked (155 for white, 170 for dark). Once each piece is done, pull it to a plate. Once all the pieces are cooked, drain your pan completely of all H2O and oil (don't wipe the pan). Add the parts back and crank the heat so that the skin recrisps. Cook them until crispy (another 3 minutes or so). Then, pull them and tent with foil.

Now it's time fo the pan sauce. We could barely restrain ourselves, this sauce tasted so good. So even if you don't want to make the chicken, you REALLY need to make this sauce. So, drain your pan again, and add the shallot (1 shallot minced). Cook until shallot is nice and wilty. Then, add the broth, (1/2-3/4 cup), vermouth (use dry or extra dry, 1/2 cup or so), dijon mustard (a Tbsp) and cook at high until it reduces by at least half. Once the sauce has thickened, remove from heat, stir in the drippings from the chicken, stir in 2 Tbsp butter and a few Tbsp chopped parsley.

Serve chicken with sauce poured around it (if you pour the sauce over the chicken, you'll make the skin soggy again).

We served this with rice pilaf and broiled broccoli.

If you do nothing else- MAKE THE SAUCE!!! YUMMMMMMMM


Notes and Next Time

• 
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• whole chicken cut up or chicken parts (with bones and skin)
• veg oil
• S & P
• dijon mustard
• vermouth
• chicken broth
• parsley, chopped
• shallot, minced
• butter

What We're Eating - About Us

What We're Eating is a group discussion about food, cooking, and eating. We love to cook and talk about food, wine, and other gastronomic topics. But most importantly, we like to eat: good food, bad food (I'm looking at you corn dog), new food, weird food, pretty much anything.

In this space, we hope to provide inspiration and be inspired by our fellow collaborators for simple, everyday meals and complicated, fancy meals. We also hope to make our meals better through discussion and suggestions from collaborators and outside commenters.

This space will probably not be updated regularly, but more sporadically depending on the rate of home cooking and number of contributors. We hope to add new recipes and to revisit old recipes to see if we've improved.

Feel free to browse around: we'll tag all our posts based on major ingredients (chicken, potato, etc) and type of cuisine (Italian, one-pot, etc) and list them under the cookbook on the side bar.

We also have listed some outside inspiration in the side bar. We've listed some cookbooks/chefs we admire and hope to emulate. We also have some of our favorite cooking novels/non-fiction. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments section.

Please join in under the comments (Diners) section if you have any thoughts on any of the meals we discuss.

We hope you might find some inspiration for your home kitchen.

Some Notes on our Shorthand Symbols

#: pounds. We don't distinguish between by-weight or by-volume, although I guess we probably should, especially in baking.

T: Tablespoon

t: teaspoon

c: cup

evoo: Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I use this a lot, almost exclusively. Until a few years ago, I didn't know there was any other kind of oil.

Temperatures will always be in Fahrenheit, since we live in the US, and we will generally not specify the word degrees; if it's a 3-digit number, it's probably an oven or internal meat temperature.