Steak Lovers Unite!

Now forgive whatever parts of this post doesn't make sense and/or are offensive, as I have had some wine and cannot be held responsible for what I type. Today I finally managed to get to the grocery store, and I picked up some stuff for a "fancier" type of dinner. You know the filet that comes prepackaged with the bacon wrapped around it that you don't want to buy but you do because your grocery store doesn't have any other kind of filet? And you're thinking as you buy it "Oh god. What did they do to this meat. Why is this filet so cheap?" Well that's what was for dinner! I've succumbed to the ease of this prepackaged filet many times in the past months. It's not that terrible, but let me advise that you don't eat it often. It's probably like tuna fish...not toxic... in small quantities.

Anyway, though. I use a recipe out of my Williams Sonoma cookbook that I talked about in this post and usually I just use their quick method for cooking filet mignon but this time I decided to make the recipe... kinda. Let's get this straight... I'm not LAZY exactly but when it comes to marinating steaks in bone marrow juice for 6 hours... well let's just say both "ew" and "I have better things to do." I am just not really going to sit around poking bone marrow out of cow bones...not to mention then I'd have to buy cow bones and who knows what kind of look the cashier would give you. Just not for me. I'm not that crazy yet.

Anyway, I was able to put together a really delicious meal in about 40 minutes. Would have taken less time if I had more than 2 operational stove top eyes to work with... Damn you 1950s kitchen! You are funkyretroawesome and yet you suck. We had long grain wild rice, wheat rolls, filet mignon with "bordelaise" sauce, and garlic asparagus. Delicious! (Anyone else see filet mignon and say in their head "mig-non" for giggles? Ok, good.)

For the long grain wild rice I opt for Carolina brand - it's cheap (under $1 per package) and has a great flavor. For the rolls, I had some pre-baked frozen rolls that you just pop in the toaster oven for 12 minutes and they are crusty and very tasty. In this instance, I used Rhodes rolls out of the frozen aisle. The asparagus was fresh, and always tastes better with fresh garlic, though I used bottled minced garlic. And the filet was tender and delicious with the quick'n'easy "bordelaise" sauce. Below are the recipes for the asparagus and the filet, and this recipe serves 2.

Filets Mignons with "Bordelaise" Sauce and Garlic Asparagus

• 1 Package pre-bacon-wrapped filet mignons (2 Filets)
• Olive oil
• 1/2 Tsp beef bouillon concentrate (I use "Better than Bouillon" brand) combined with 1/4 C. water
  
• 1 Medium shallot, minced
• 3/4 C. Red Wine (I use a Michigan wine, Grand Traverse - best red wine for people who don't like red wine.)
• Butter, unsalted, unsoftened
  
• Pinch of Thyme (dried OK)
• 1 Dried bay leaf
• Salt and pepper
• Asparagus 1/2 bunch
  
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Remove the filet from its packaging and pat it dry with paper towels. Rub it lightly with olive oil on both sides and let it sit.
   
3. In a shallow skillet, melt 1/2 tbsp butter and add shallots, cooking until translucent about 5 minutes.
   
4. Add the wine, thyme, and bay leaf and simmer uncovered until it's reduced by 3/4ths about 12 minutes.
5. In the mean time, heat about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, and sautee the garlic lightly. Add the asparagus, and cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, and medium heat until the asparagus is cooked but still slightly crisp, about 10 minutes, tossing regularly to keep the asparagus from burning.
   
6. If you have a double oven, place the asparagus in the oven that is not on. If not, place it (skillet and all if possible) in the microwave and close the door.
7. At this time, when the wine mixture is reduced, add the 1/4th cup of beef bouillon and let it continue to simmer uncovered.
   
8. Heat a well seasoned cast-iron skillet over high heat until very hot. Return to the filet and coat it lightly in fresh cracked pepper and salt. Place it in the skillet, and cook on one side 2 1/2 minutes. Flip and cook 2 1/2 minutes on the other side.
   
9. Transfer the whole skillet into the oven and cook 3 minutes for rare, and 5 minutes for medium. If you like it really well done, you probably shouldn't be eating filet.
10. In the mean time, while the filet finishes, continue to stir and simmer down your sauce. Let it cool for a few minutes. When the filet comes out of the oven and/or the sauce has cooled a bit, take 1/2 tbsp chilled butter and mix it in until it melts - this will thicken the sauce a bit.
    
11. On the serving plate, pour the sauce over the filet, and serve the asparagus and other sides together. They all blend well with the "bordelaise" sauce.
    

Spring...Summer... AUTUMN!

Hmm. I just realized how odd the word Autumn looks. Well... That aside, autumn is my favorite season. In the South, I loved spring because it brought the dead world back to life, and the blooms were amazing and the weather was even better, but in New England, it's autumn that has stolen my heart.

New England autumn is absolutely stunning. With so many deciduous trees, and lots of rain, the colors in the fall are absolutely magical. From late September to October and slightly into November, the leaves catch fire in yellows and oranges and reds. But it's not even the trees that get me so excited. New England comes together as a community in the fall. There are pumpkin festivals and hot Yankee soups in fresh bread bowls and tours of cemeteries in Salem and best of all, there are apples. Autumn is apple harvest in New England, and I absolutely adore the U-Pick apple orchards all over the state. Every year since I've moved up here, Aj and I go to the orchards at least once or twice. We're learning the different types of apples. What's best for pies, baked apples, caramel apples, eating, storing through the winter.... It's a past time that a lot of people up here take for granted, but being from the outside I can see the pure magic of it. I can't wait to do all of these things with my children some day.



The trees haven't really started to change just yet, and the apple orchards will operate until late October, but I am already in the autumn mood. I can't help but think of hot spiced cider and caramel apples and pies. Yum! Here is a recipe that I think is good for fall nights. The original recipe called for ricotta cheese, but I substituted marscapone in a pinch. It's good either way.

Spaghetti with Sweet Potatoes and Marscapone

• 12 Oz. Spaghetti (about 3/4 box)
• 2 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 2 Small sweet potatoes, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
• Sea/Kosher salt & cracked black pepper
• 2 Shallots, sliced thin
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 Cup marscapone or 1-2 dollops per plate

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. I like to cook mine a few minutes longer because I think Al Dente is Italian for "gross."
   
2. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before you drain the pasta.
3. Meanwhile in a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the potatoes, pepper and salt (to taste) and cook, covered, stirring every few minutes for 10 minutes.
4. Add the shallots and rosemary and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender about 3-5 minutes longer.
5. Toss the drained pasta with the potato mixture, Parmesan, and the reserved cooking water. Top with a dollop of marscapone.
   

Pork, Pork, Pork!

There was a time, once, when pork was not something I liked... at all. Needless to say, those days are gone. In fact, after I went through the menu for this week I realized 3 out of 4 dishes included pork. The thing is, pork comes in so many forms it's hard to keep track! Between prosciutto and pancetta and pork chops and loin.... The thing about pork, though, is that it can have a lot of different flavors and that makes it enjoyably versatile.

So far, the two recipes I've made out of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook are really good and will be made again. Our favorite of the two was definitely Fettuccine With Vegetables and Prosciutto. It had a very mild flavor and tasted very fresh. I have to wonder if these recipes made it into the newer edition of the cookbook. The great thing about this cookbook is that it tells you whether the meal is fast, low fat (and includes nutritional counts) and the instructions are quite concise and easy to follow. Plus there is an abundance of photos, which we all know quickly converts me to a cookbook.

Last night, we had Rosemary Porkchop Skillet which was surprisingly quick and easy, though I think that the pork was a bit over-done. (Most likely due to my ridiculous stovetop that knows only two settings -- hot as hell and off) Then later in the night I had some friends coming over for dessert and a chat. I didn't want to go buy a dessert so I figured I would make something I had all the ingredients for. I chose this Crockpot Chocolate Mud Cake recipe. It was a real winner - simple to make, and perfectly hot and delicious when it came time to eat. I served it up with vanilla bean ice cream and it was a big success. I did have to do some research on Dutch-processed Cocoa versus Unsweetened Cocoa and luckily I was able to substitute Unsweetened Cocoa for the Dutch-processed. I imagine it also helped the mellow sweetness that I used milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. The cake was floating on a sea of melty chocolate sauce. This recipe will definitely be going into my favorite-recipes cookbook. If you decide to make this recipe - put a papertowel under the glass lid of your crock pot before you start cooking. It doesn't affect the cake at all but prevents the condensation from dripping onto your cake as you remove the lid or check to see if the cake is ready.


In other news, my garden is growing! Here is a photo of my first "harvest" (though I did already have my other head of lettuce). My green beans got too much rain and a lot of the nitrogen was flushed out of the soil, so I'm trying to nurse them back to health with some Miracle-gro. I think it's working, but it's hard to say. Luckily I took the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" approach this year and I also have a green bean plant in my in-ground garden as well as my container garden. That one is quite healthy but needs a trellis to grow on.


And take a look at my herbs! The basil plant is a new one, though I am please to say that the one I had written off as dead and decrepit has now made a full recovery and has been re-potted. It's quite persistent! (the one in the small pot on the side) Also growing in my garden this year are strawberries, bellpeppers, green onions, and roma and cherry tomatoes. We've also made a planter in the front yard filled with Impatients and Begonias, and dressed up the side of the driveway with some Day Lillies and ..some other perennial I don't remember the name of. And we've planted and mulched the flower beds and trimmed all the bushes. We're actively trying to intimidate our neighbors by our yard. It's awesome. The only bad thing is that the birch tree in our front yard consistently loses leaves almost as soon as it starts making them. We don't know what's up with this thing but it drives us crazy. It's like perpetual Fall here.


We're happy with our yard this year and so happy to have the "birch circle" as we call it, finished. It's been haunting us with its unfinished-ness since March.

Here's the recipe for Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - it was quick, mild and delightful. It's fast and low fat.

Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto

• 8 Oz. dried fettuccine, broken in half
• 1 Pound fresh asparagus, bias-sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 Roma tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
• 3 Oz (a little less than 1/4th a pound) of Prosciutto cut into thin strips
• 1/3 C. grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook fettuccine according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook and stir asparagus in hot oil for 4 minutes or until nearly tender. Sprinkle asparagus liberally with salt. Add tomatoes and prosciutto and cook about 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Add asparagus mixture to fettuccine and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
   

What's on the Menu...

As usual, work has been insane. This humorous article on Why Your Used Book Store Clerk Hates You only scratches the surface of why I REALLY have some rough days at work sometimes. Among the non-mentioned is that you would assume that people coming into book stores could read - read signs, read price tags, read signs saying what is down what aisle.... But Alas, A surprising number of customers who seem to be shopping at my book store are merely buying for pretense because it is QUITE CLEAR that they are illiterate and dumb and GOD FORBID we move something in the store because using your EYES to look ten feet is more effort than you can put in. We know, we know.

But my days aren't filled entirely with wacky customers and their inane questions...they're also filled with the fun of unpacking and shelving and ordering books. And that's the part I love. However, sometimes I need a break. And next week is going to be a nice 40-ish hour week where I get out early enough to cook dinner not just once but FOUR NIGHTS next week! That feels nearly impossible right now, but it is written (so it shall be done).

Indeed my shopping list and menu for the week are created and ready for the hated trip to the grocery store tomorrow. At work I picked up yet another cookbook. I'm always telling myself I won't buy more cookbooks but how can I resist Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook with great photos and information on canning and preserving and all kinds of helpful cooking tips for just $1.50! The answer is that I can't. And that's why it's on my kitchen table!

So here's what is on my menu for the week:

Monday: Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - Looks simple and delicious! Involves asparagus and Roma tomatoes.
Tuesday: Rosemary Porkchop Skillet - Finally an interesting way to use that butternut squash on my counter....and to use some rosemary from my garden!
Wednesday: Out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
Thursday: Pork with Fennel and Pancetta - Aj is making this... supposed to be quick and easy, but I have to figure out a way to cut down on the fat.
Friday: Spinach and Feta Quiche - It's been a while since we had this and it makes great leftovers for work on Saturday.

I will hopefully also have time to post the successful recipes! Tomorrow is either salt-crusted grilled trout, or trout amandine. Also let it be known that amandine should not be so close to almondine since it involves almonds it is wholly confusing. Those damn French.

Crockpot Japanese Curry

There are a few absolutely great reasons to break out your crockpot no matter the time of year. The first reason is obviously that it's ridiculously convenient - throw a bunch of things in a pot and end up with a (typically) delicious dish! The second reason is that it's one-pot cleanup. The third reason is that you prep it in the morning and come home to a ready-to-eat meal. The final reason is that it puts off minimal heat. And while you may think that's not a big deal, when you have a 1950s oven that brings your kitchen to a toasty 85 degrees every time you turn it on...well...you start to think "What can I make that DOESN'T involve the oven?"

Now, with life in the South, central air conditioning is a staple of life - just like an ice maker in your fridge. In the South, every drink is iced and every building you enter is literally FREEZING. You take sweaters to the movies and restaurants even though its 100 degrees outside and you'll be damned if you don't take a sweater to the refrigerator section of the grocery store. Here in New England, things are a little different. Central AC is a novelty. Most stores only have it on half heartedly. New Englanders believe in a "comfort" level of acceptable cool. Southerners believe in turning your house/establishment into Antartica during the summer months. Because let's face it - it's HOT outside and the last thing you want is to go inside and be HOT in there too.

The first months of a New England summer are a stragetic battle. How long can you go before you have to install your window-AC units, and do you really need to install ALL of them, or can you just get away with one or two until July? How hot do you let your house get before you muster the energy to install an AC unit you're going to have to take out in 3 months? For Aj and I, we installed the first AC unit in our bedroom when the indoor temperature hit 85 (Without the oven on) and the second unit that goes in our kitchen window? Today. June 20th.

We have 2 window units to cool our entire upstairs of 3 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, hall and kitchen. Why do we suffer through this, you ask? The answer is simple: old buildings and no choice. Not only does our house have ancient kitchen appliances, it also has old pipes, windows, and no central AC. And since you Southerners all had your houses built with AC in the first place (Because what kind of jackass builds a home in the South with no AC?) you don't have these worries. But tons of the houses up here were built when they were still delivering ice on trucks. And really...there's only a few days in the year where heatstroke can be a real issue up here. The rest of the time Northerners just putt around bitching about how hot it is (which is increasingly irksome as I had to listen to them also bitch about how cold it was, as if the same thing didn't happen every year). Not me, though! I'll bitch when it's 85 in my house but not when it's 101 outside. Because that's just it: I'm OUTSIDE. My house? That's man-made and should be chilled to whatever temperature I want so bitching is fair game.

So naturally with two window units to cool my entire upstairs (and nothing to cool the downstairs), I generally have been trying to NOT use the oven. Or if I must, I try to use the mini bottom oven because it's better insulated and ...well...smaller. So today I decided to try something new: Japanese curry in the crock pot. And it was definitely a good choice! Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of Japanese curry (Chicken Tatsuya Curry) - it's mild, flavorful and slightly sweet. It's become a real comfort food for Aj and myself. So try this recipe out because it's different, and extremely easy, and extremely yummy!

Crockpot Japanese Curry (Pork)

• 1 Package of boneless porkchops (I used thin-cut) with the fat trimmed off and cut into small 1/4 inch cubes
• Approximately 3/4 lb baby carrots
• 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
  
• 1 XL box (about 8 oz) Japanese curry roux. I used TopValu curry which is a store-brand I got when in Japan, so it's unlikely you can find that here, but any Japanese curry roux would be fine. Available now at almost all Wal-Marts and some Market Basket grocery stores, but please support your local Asian market!
• 32 Oz (or slightly less) of chicken broth
• 2 cups cooked rice (I use my rice cooker and set an automatic timer to be finished by the time I want to eat)
  

1. Heat up 1 cup of the chicken broth to near boiling and put it in a measuring cup.
2. Add the curry roux and mix until it dissolves.
3. Put the curry roux mixture, the rest of the chicken broth, the potatoes, carrots and diced porkchop into the crock pot and turn it on low.
4. Cook for about 7 hours.

Whether it's a cold winter night or a hot summer day this stuff is irresistible!

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.