A Recipe From Mom

UPDATE: Southerners use Hellmann's mayo, but cut back on the lemon juice in this recipe by at least half, since Hellmann's is a vinegary mayo and Cain's is a sweet mayo.

I've been WORKING WORKING WORKING. Last week was a 53 hour week for me. This week should be much more easy going and I'm more or less trapped inside because of the rain. So while Aj cooks his Shrimp With "The Best Shrimp Marinade Ever" I get a second to sit down and blog. The best part is that at the end I am rewarded with grilled shrimp. Sweet.

What I am really here for, though, is to give you a recipe that was my favorite childhood recipe: Chicken Devan. This was the recipe that I asked for when I got to choose dinner. For my birthday, or just a regular weeknight, almost any time I was asked this is what I wanted. And when I moved away to college I kept trying to make it. It just wasn't as good. I went back home and found the old cookbook my mom got the recipe from - it was one of those community cookbooks - a tatty old spiral thing. And I kept making it...but it was never as good as hers. When I moved to New England it started getting worse- almost inedible. I just could NOT figure it out. Finally I had to call my mom and confer with her. Why was it turning out so terrible?! The secret is the mayonnaise.

In the south there is a mayo that my mom uses that you can't get up here (or it is harder to find but I forget the name). Turns out, not all mayonnaise is equal. Miracle Whip is practically a sin against nature. And name brands don't compare. It took me AGES to find the comparable Northern mayo. Turns out it's Cain's mayonnaise. Mayo needs the perfect blind of tang and sweet, and of course it needs to be made with real eggs and oils. So after YEARS (literally) of trying to get this recipe JUST RIGHT....I finally did it. Now it's back on my favorites list and a recipe I would be happy to pass on to family and friends. It's creamy, delicious, easy to make, and just the smell of it makes me happy.

There's one more perk to this recipe: The leftovers are just about better than the dish out of the oven!

It is VITAL that NO ingredients are left out of this or it won't be anywhere near as good.



Chicken Devan

• 3 Chicken breasts - boiled and cubed in small bite-size pieces
• 1 Bag frozen broccoli - cooked/drained
• 1 Can cream of chicken soup (don't skimp, go Campbell's)
• 1 Tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• 1/4 C. Cain's mayonnaise
• Dash cumin
  
• 1/4 C. Italian Breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
  
• 1/4 C. Shredded cheese (Cheddar or another melty/savory cheese)
  

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Layer chicken and broccoli in a 9x9 baking dish
3. Cover with sauce, spreading it around as needed
4. Sprinkle with 1/2 the cheese
5. Mix butter and breadcrumbs together in a small bowl.
6. Sprinkle all breadcrumbs on top and then sprinkle with the remainder of cheese.
7. Bake for 25 minutes.
   

What Does My Garden Grow?

The weather has been beautiful and I've been in high spirits. Sunshine will do that to you. It's like some kind of happiness drug. The downside is that when it's gone you have withdrawal that can't be ignored. Sometimes even coffee doesn't help (That's when you know it's bad).


I've been gardening this year and it's so much fun to watch my plants grow. Some of them I've grown from seedlings...those are my favorites. Yes, I do play favorites. From seeds I grew bellpeppers, green onions, and green beans. I also grew basil but once I put it outside it keeled over and died from too much exposure to happiness. It was a miserable plant anyway. (RIP) I'm also growing some cilantro ...it seems to be doing pretty well, but it's not from good seeds so I'm not crossing my fingers. From the store I bought lettuce (which is growing quite well!), rosemary (I plan to keep this alive perpetually), mint and strawberries. I also plan to buy a tomato plant. Somewhere deep inside myself (not that deep, actually), I know that I'm a ridiculous whitey who is growing vegetables in their front yard with overpriced soil and that I could have bought all of this crap at the grocery store and it would have been A Whole Lot Less Trouble. (As it were) . HOWEVER...that feeling is combated by the hope that these won't just provide me with food, but with happiness and purpose and an excuse to be outside on sunny days.

I've also been planting some bulbs and annuals. I don't think the bulbs are going to do as well as I hoped because our house gets very little sunlight (except for outside my bedroom window which appears to get an abundance). My neighbor noticed I had been outside gardening (digging around more like) and brought over some of her "chocolate raspberry irises" --- well aside from being disappointed that I can't eat it and it won't bloom for 2 years... I took her advice and made a flower bed in a sunny spot. I thought it was nice of her to take the time to dig up some of her flower bulbs for me. She's probably trying to make up for that time she gave me the cold shoulder one night when I tried to borrow an egg and she told me to go away. Apparently she thought I was casing her house for robbery and didn't recognize me...She ended up giving me an egg when she realized who I was.


In other exciting news...It's Spring! That means that a lot of great foods are popping up in the wild. Since Aj and I have been trying to learn a little more about the part of the world we live in, and have been trying some camping and foraging and "rugged" skills, we know a little about what is "in season". At a job he was on, Aj found us some morels the other day. They look gross...like brains...and not at all like something you'd pick up and say "Oh man those are totally going to be delicious." Miraculously Aj recognized them from our mycology learning and brought some home in his lunch tupperware. He just wanted to show me for shits and giggles, but when I saw that the SCIENTIFIC NAME of these things was morchella deliciosa I told Aj we were absolutely frying that shit up in some butter and eating it. He was extremely skeptical but let's get our facts straight.

1) There is only one other look-alike morel called a false-morel...it is extremely easy to identify because the stem is not hollow and a true morel's is. Also it isn't poisonous...it will just make your stomach hurt so if you're totally blind and mess up it won't kill you.
2) These mofos are like $30-40 a pound
3) They only grow wild
4) Mushroom hunters search lifetimes for these and don't find them
5) They are ranked in deliciousness only beneath truffles
6) They are only in season 2 weeks out of the year.

It's a damn no-brainer. And I did fry them up. And we did eat them. And they were damn good and caused no gastrointestinal stress whatsoever. Points for us!


Also in season right now are fiddleheads...which are fun. I've never had them before, so we're going to go "fiddleheaddin" (I just made that up, but I'm going to pass it off as something New Englanders do) on Sunday. I'll let you know how that goes. Maybe I'll see if I can't find some fiddlehead recipe in my yankee cookbook.

Well...honestly I was going to give you a recipe that was passed down by my Mom, but I think that will have to wait. I've already blathered enough. So I'll meet you back here and we'll get down with some delicious southern chow.

Trout: Stuffed and Baked with Broccoli

Grilled fish is one of those things that just says "Hey - It's summer time. Live it up." Trout especially reminds me of warm days cruising down the White River in Arkansas catching fish left and right in a canoe with my family. I was never really much for fishing. My dad tried to instill a love for fishing in me from an early age but it never quite caught on. Even now I can't sit still for long periods of time if I'm not DOING something - reading, surfing the internet, knitting...anything. No one ever suggested I bring a book to fishing, so naturally, I hated it and found it excruciatingly boring. I mean really... you expect to take a kid to a lake and have them sit there for hours while they wait for something to bite at the wiggly worm on the hook? Unlikely.

To this day I still don't enjoy fishing...most of the time. But trout fishing holds a special place in my heart. I like how the water is clear and quick and cold and rushing past your canoe carrying you along. I like how the fish bite all the time and you can catch more than you can eat. I like the sun and the family and always being on the move. Not to mention trout tastes quite good. Luckiy for the trout, I don't go fishing. Unluckily, they sell trout at the supermarket sometimes. I had trout on my shopping list when Aj did the grocery shopping, and since "trout" is both singular and plural he wasn't sure whether to get one...or two...or five? And he just got one. Which is obviously not enough for two people. Especially when it's as good as this trout was.


So today after I got back from the gym and planted my strawberries in my new topsy-turvy strawberry planter.... I decided to cook trout for lunch. Trout for One. Trout for Me. Yum! The whole thing came out QUITE delicious and I thought I would share the love with you fine folk.

So without further ado...

Baked Stuffed Trout with Broccoli for One

• 1 Trout
• 5-6 Green Onions/Scallions, chopped into small pieces
  
• 1/4 C. Italian breadcrumbs
• 1 Tsp. dried or fresh garlic (I used sliced dried)
• 1 Tbsp. butter
  
• 1 Head of broccoli, cut into florets
  
• Salt
• Olive oil

1. The trout should be gutted. Make sure you rinse off the whole thing in warm water, even if it was gutted at the supermarket. You want the trout to have a fresh, light taste.
2. Smear the inside of the trout with butter.
   
3. Combine the scallions, breadcrumbs, and garlic and mix well. Stuff liberally into the trout.
4. Put the trout into a bread loaf pan and surround with broccoli.
5. Sprinkle liberally with salt and drizzle lightly with olive oil
6. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Lightly cover with tin foil and bake at 375°F for 10-15 minutes. Fish is ready when it flakes and can be easily removed from the bone with a fork. If your fish is frozen at the start it might take longer to bake.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

So the time has come (the walrus said) to go back to eating healthier. I've been carried away these past few months with things that are just not good for me. Casseroles and pastas with heavy cream and loads of cheese, loads of oils and butters too. Until a week ago I hadn't even been to the gym in 5 months! That's pretty bad. And I'm not typically one to call myself fat or be down on my eating choices but my clothes are getting a lot tighter and I could use the health-boost of eating right.

That being said I've got myself on a 5 meal a day routine. You're laughing I know BUT I think most of our problems come from eating 1) the wrong foods 2) too much of the wrong foods 3) too often. I always snack. Always munching on something or other. I think as a culture we can get to a fine line between boredom and hunger, which is just twisted. SO I've got myself eating breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, and dinner. And I think that's just fine.

One of the foods I came up with for my lunches is a buffalo chicken salad. I haven't seen a buffalo chicken salad that isn't fried and drenched in bleu cheese dressing ...which is disturbing. So I made my own version. It's pretty tasty and not too spicy for my sensibilities. Easy to pack in the morning. Easy to eat. Healthy.


But before I give you the recipe I'd like to post a few other recipes that I made today that I discovered on this amazing new website that my cousin sent me called foodgawker- Their tagline is "Feed your eyes" and for anyone who loves beautiful photos of delicious food, prepare to be overwhelmed and in love! This website completed my life (OK so maybe that's a little dramatic, but it definitely is awesome.)

Here's what I made today:

• Asian Glazed Drumsticks - This recipe was great! The cook time was longer than it said but I think that's because I used a dutch oven instead of a large saucepan. Chicken was nicely spicy and really flavorful. You've gotta have rice with this!
• Chocolate Pudding Cookies with Mini Robin's Eggs - I know I just said I was on a diet but I just fell in love with these when I saw them - and when Aj asked me to get some "keebler knockoffs of girl scout cookies" at the grocery store I thought "I can do better than that." and decided to make these. I ate two of them and boy are they YUMMY! Tell you what though, there is no "Chopping" those hard-shelled robin's eggs...more like smashing with the flat of your knife. You don't know how many of those little punks rolled onto the floor as I tried to chop them up.
• Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes - Mostly I just thought it was amazing that you could mix a can of pineapple and a box of cake mix and it turns into delicious muffins. Awesome. These are SO good. I didn't use any frosting. Just ate them straight. Best part? Low in calories and fat with no frosting! YUMMMMM.

I also made a fresh batch of Pico de Gallo and grabbed some Crystal Light Lemonade mix at the grocery and put some limes and mildly crushed mint into my cup....Amazing.

Well without further ado...
Buffalo Chicken Salad

• 1 Rotisserie chicken, skin removed and meat chopped/shredded
• 1/4 C. diced red onion
• 1 C. diced celery stalks
• 1 Tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 Tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 C. Frank's Red Hot sauce
• 2-4 Tbsp. mayo depending on tastes
• Leafy lettuce and romaine lettuce, torn into edible size pieces
  

1. Mix the first 7 ingredients
2. Top the lettuce mixture with 1/2 cup of chicken mixture.
   

Spring and Pico de Gallo

Spring is technically here, but it is just starting to feel like it. Only a few days after spring officially began we got a few inches of snow. Thanks, New England! But it's finally starting to warm up and I'm totally in the Spring Mood. Cleaning, cooking, feeling more alive and active!

When I went grocery shopping this week I made sure to do it early in the morning - the later you wait the more packed the grocery store is (no matter if it's Tuesday or Friday...) and I hate the jostle of carts and the absolute ineptitude with which people park their carts and asses in the middle of the aisle while they look at cream cheese varieties and granola bars. Since grocery shopping can be a severe stress on my life (mostly due to the magnitude of people who shop at the same grocery store I do) I have been making a list of exactly what I need for a week of recipes. That, of course, cuts out impulse buying and makes my shopping much cheaper, but it also makes it so much faster and easier.


On my grocery list were ingredients for Pico de Gallo, something my dad used to make when spring and summer started coming around. If you asked me to define fresh with food, this would be my answer. The tang of cilantro, the crunch of onions and the soft fresh tomatoes just scream YAY in your mouth. Paired with tortilla chips (baked tostitos anyone?) or couscous you get a real treat you can use in tons of ways.

There are a lot of recipes for Pico out there, but the one I swear by is so simple it hurts. Next time you're in the mood for something fresh and healthy, go for this!

Papa's Pico

• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 1/2 Bunch cilantro
• 3/4 Small red onion
• 1 Small jalapeno pepper
• Salt to taste

1. Cut the tomatoes into thirds and remove the seeds/innards. Cut the tomatoes by hand into small chunks (I promise it's better to cut this stuff by hand).
2. Dice the red onion.
3. Finely chop the cilantro leaves (not stems.)
   
4. PUT ON GLOVES and cut and de-seed the Jalapeno. If you do this with your hands they will burn for hours. So don't.
5. Mix all the ingredients together and salt to taste (I like salt so I add a lot of sea salt).

Enjoy!

Cheeses and What I Know About Them

There are few things in life that can make even the worst day a little better. Cheese happens to be one of them. Cheese can change your everyday foods - and almost always for the better. There is a reason that there is such thing as a "Cheese plate" and a "Cheese and Wine tasting". Cheese is fabulous. Of course, if you're lactose intolerant...well... I'm sorry. Funny story. Did you know many lactose intolerant people BECOME lactose intolerant in their adult life because they eat too much dairy? That's the world's way of saying LISTEN ... I know cheese is FUCKING DELICIOUS but chill out and don't eat so much.

So here is the little bit I know about cheese at this point in my life and career as a home cook. I hope these descriptions help you make wise cheese decisions when faced with an array of cheeses you can't even pronounce.


Gruyere: (Prounounced GROO-YAIR). Origin: 1795–1805; after Gruyère district in Switzerland where the cheese is made. This cheese is a new discovery for me. A recipe from my new-used Yankee cookbook called for it...and I try to trust recipes when they name particular cheeses. This cheese has a deliciously mild and milky taste. It's a harder cheese. It's absolutely perfect with wheat thins, and would go great next to grapes or possibly apples. Sprinkled on top of a baked casserole or quiche it becomes richly flavorful. A revelation for me...cheese wise.

Creme Fraiche: (Prounounced: KREM FRESH) Origin: French for "fresh cream." I was supposed to get Fontina cheese for one of my recipes and for whatever reason I was just like "Oh. Yeah. Creme Fraiche, Totally... that's what I need." Turns out...it wasn't. But it was an AWESOME mistake. This cheese is still in its fresh, squishy creamy form. It makes any dish you might normally add milk into...well, delicious! Creamy pasta sauces, mashed potatoes, even sugared with a little strawberry on a bagel? Sure why not!

Gouda: (Pronounced: GOO-DUH) Origin: Named after Gouda, a city in the North East of the Netherlands, where it originated. I must be honest: I've only ever had Smoked Gouda. So perhaps my judgement is a little skewed. Smoked Gouda, at least, is a rich cheese. It's mildly soft, similar to Gruyere, and pairs really well with crackers. I imagine, in its regular form, it would pair extremely well with fruits as well. But I'm not sure what else I'd use it in. This website suggests using an aged Gouda in Mac & Cheese, scalloped potatoes or on a pizza. Come to think of it I've definitely seen a lot of Gouda Mac & Cheese recipes. Perhaps worth a try?

Romano & Parmesan: (Pronounced: ROH-MAH-NO and PARM-UH-ZAHN (not PARM-EH-JAHN) Origins: Romano - Roman, Parmesan - from Parma, Italy. Both are dry Italian cheeses with strong flavors. Romano is made with sheep's milk, and Parmesan is made from skim cow's milk. Both are absolutely perfect in cheese sauces or with pastas or sprinkled on salads. Everyone is familiar with Parmesan cheese, but give its friend Romano a try next time you're doing an Italian dish.

Cheddar: (Pronounced: CHED-ER) Origin: 1655–65; named after Cheddar, village in Somersetshire, England, where it was first made. You're thinking "Oh. Cool. Cheddar, I totally know Cheddar." But do you? There are so many different varieties of Cheddar! Go to your basic cheese aisle in any grocery store. There's Mild, Sharp, Extra Sharp, White... Where do you start? Which one is the best? What if your recipe just wants CHEDDAR and doesn't specify what kind!? Oh God! Well, take it from me. MOST Cheddar cheeses are totally delicious and you really can't go wrong. The only one I take exception to is mild Cheddar. I don't like it. It seems to try to have the flavor of a full Cheddar, but fails miserably and just ends up halfway there and milky. Bleh. My genuinely favorite cheddar is made by Cabot and is Seriously Sharp White Cheddar. I have to warn you this is a STRONG cheese. But it makes an amazing topping for spaghetti, or a delicious grilled cheese between hearty wheat slices. It's great on crackers, or even in cubes by itself! This cheese can sucker punch just about any other cheese in a fight. Oh yeah.

Havarti: (Pronounced: HUH-VAR-TEE) Origin: 1957-62; < Havarthigard, farm in Denmark. Havarti is a cow's milk cheese. It's a mid-range cheese. Not too mild, not too strong. It is my number one "Cracker cheese". You can get all kinds of variants of this cheese. Dill is my favorite, but the garlic variant is good too and I'm sure there's others that are delicious. This cheese is also a sandwich cheese, so you can get it at your deli. Put cubes of this in piping hot tomato soup, or in a grilled panini-style sandwich. Or just eat it on crackers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Chèvre: (Pronounced: CHEV-RUH) Origin: from French chèvre meaning goat. This is a really broad term and it is essentially any cheese made from goat's milk. HOLY EW you think? No way! This stuff is SO delicious you can barely stop eating it even though you know you've had like...5 servings. This cheese is super soft and goes well with almost any flavor. It's mild and creamy. My best experience with Chèvre is a blueberry variant on Triscuits. I am not sure how else to use Chèvre, but aside from telling me how it's healthier than cow cheese with fewer calories (awesome), this website suggests using it in place of sour cream on your baked potato (ok!) or in lasagna.

Cream Cheese: (Pronounced: Do your best) Origin: Probably France or England since those have the earliest references..but no one knows for sure as far as I gather. Everyone knows cream cheese. Everyone loves it. Everyone sits puts way more than 2 tbsp on their bagels. Try this, though: mix it in mashed potatoes, smother a baguette and toast it with some chives, mix it with marshmallow fluff and eat it with strawberries! The possibilities with cream cheese are endless. And it's delicious. 'Nuff said.

American Cheese: Origin: AMERICA! So the sad part is that American Cheese is not even, by FDA standards, real cheese. BUT when its creamy processed goodness is overflowing from your grilled cheese and turkey in the skillet, or dripping down the sides of your juicy AMERICAN burger...you just think to your self...My country tis of thee...Sweet land of American Cheese...of thee I sing! Then you know it's alright.

Brie: (Pronounced: BREE) Origin: France, from Brie. Brie is a soft cheese a little bit like cream cheese except richer in flavor and matured, so that it doesn't need to be eaten fresh like cream cheese does. It's famous for being paired with wines and fruits (hey, nothing wrong with that!) but works in more or less the same way cream cheese might work. Spread it on anything. Toast it. Make fondue. Yum. Just don't try to make cheesecake with it...I don't think that would turn out too well for anyone (especially not your test subjects).

Well that's MOST of my world of cheese at this point. There is still a lot to learn, and believe me, I'm pursuing with reckless abandon.

As an interesting sidenote: Google Cheese in Google Images and 70% of the photos are Mac & Cheese.

The Road to Becoming a Yankee Chef?

At work I came across two cookbooks I felt I needed to get. The first is Favorite New England Recipes, compiled by Yankee Magazine's "Lady Editors" and it's original publication date was 1972, though the version I got was from 1990. (Still..can you believe that was 21 years ago?) I thought to myself that it was perfect for me and for this blog! The recipes seem to be characterized by simplicity, with very few ingredients. Often quite contrary to any deeply flavored Southern dish.

There is quite a variety of recipes from "Jellied Chicken Pate" (You can bet I will NOT be making this) to "Yankee Chicken Hash" and "Fried Cucumbers" (hmm...) to "Yankee Christmas Pudding" and a LOT more. This cookbook is PACKED with interesting recipes. Many of them are fish-centric and use mostly ingredients able to be grown in the north (Excluding spices). I think this is great.

When I first moved to New England I had never had, or had an interest in tasting New England Clam Chowder. When I went to a dinner at Silo's Steak House (RIP) in Merrimack, NH and was served Clam Chowder as an appetizer (Set menu..I didn't choose it) ... Well, I was blown away. It was amazing. Creamy and flavorful, with perfectly cooked clams (which I am starting to appreciate...at least when they are in other things or deep fried). Since then I've been a connoisseur of New England Clam Chowder and have tried it at many restaurants. There are two types of NECC, one of which I like and the other I find gross. There is the thick NECC... that's the worst. It's the kind you get at chain restaurants and out of a can. It's not fresh. It's full of potato chunks and overcooked clam. The kind I do love is thin, creamy and all of the ingredients are fresh and the clams are perfectly cooked. No one element is predominant the flavors are a perfect harmony. This is the kind of NECC I am dying to learn to make. To be honest, I haven't even attempted to make NECC...because I am afraid of what I will do to it. I want a tried and true and perfect recipe. I have a feeling I will have to experiment in the end, though.

The other cookbook I got was The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook. The thing I like most about this one is that every single recipe has a picture. A lot of times I'm flipping through cookbooks and I see a recipe and think "That COULD be good...I wonder what it looks like." Most of the time I'm about 75% more willing to try a recipe at random (meaning I'm not looking for a recipe for that particular dish) if it has a picture.

I've already seen some dishes in this book that I really want to make. I have read a few reviews that the recipes can be bland, though. Luckily I've got a pantry of Penzeys Spices to supplement if needed. For anyone who is not familiar with their spices I highly recommend them. Their best are their "blends" that can bump a dish to the next notch with almost no effort. I'd strongly recommend the Bicentennial Rub for rotisserie chicken, and Pork Chop Seasoning for delicious pork chops with no effort. And of course they have GREAT flake sea salt for cheap.

I've been pretty busy at work and without a lot of time to cook. Earlier in the week I made some portabella mushroom and guacamole sandwiches that turned out well, and a couple of meals we make when we don't have the energy to cook, such as angel hair and spaghetti with turkey kielbasa, or shake and bake chicken wings. Hopefully soon I'll have time to do some exploratory cooking.