Monday, January 2, 2012

Where do you go at 4:30 in the morning for good coffee, when you really don't want to run the grinder?  That's my question lately - for some reason about one or two nights a week I can't sleep. 

I also have lost most of my interest in cooking at night, baking, and generally eating.  God I sound depressed.  What the heck is with me?

Monday, October 3, 2011

Back into the grove of Posting...Sort of...

All right, so I'm terrible about blogging.  My other blogs agree, they don't see updates nearly often enough either.  But! I am still making an effort.

Today's topic - Freezing!

So, you've made a giant batch of lasanga, spaghetti, stew, pie, or other.  You and your sweetie won't go through all of it before it goes bad, but you don't know how to make it taste right unless you make a huge batch.  What to do with all the leftovers?  Well, before you call five friends over for dinner (which is an acceptable way to use up leftovers, but that's a different blog post), consider your freezer.  If, like me, you love to cook, and always (well, almost always) find yourself with a meal for six when you're cooking for two.  Solution?  Foodsaver, glass jars, and a little bit of canning knowledge - there are lots of tutorials out there for how to can properly, I'll let you look those up.  But canning your own spaghetti sauce means that in the middle of winter when you can't get decent tomatoes you can still have excellent lasanga.  Just saying.

Freezing is the art of knowing what things you cook will freeze and thaw well.  Pastas do well, but gnocchi doesn't (unless you have a deep freeze, which I do).  Most pastries do well if you freeze them before you cook them, some pies do fine baked and then frozen after they've cooled completely.  Cake freezes well, but whipped cream frostings don't.  Creamcheese or butter frostings freeze fine.  Cooked meats don't do as well as raw meats, but can be frozen if packed in enough liquid.  Soups do well if they aren't cream based - cream based soups will separate unless you use a deep freezer. 

A lot of this, you might guess, I've learned from trial and error.  Some of it is found online, and some cookbooks have little notes that say if thier recipies "freeze beautifully".  Remember the important things about freezing:

1.  Labels - with the name, date, and type of food.  (Martin's Special Sauce  10.21.2010  Red Pasta Sauce)
2.  When freezing liquids, make sure to freeze them in serving portions.  I use extra large muffin cups to freeze single servings of soups, then bag them into gallon ziplocks in my chest freezer. 
3.  Organize!  Keep newer things in the back, use up the older stuff quickly, don't let anything stay in your freezer for more than three years - I usually try to use up everything in two, if I can manage.  If I can't, I need to stop shopping. 

One thing that has been handy for me - and my husband - is an inventory on top of the freezer.   Wet erase markers work well, and every now and again a quick re-inventory on paper and a little bleach to clean up stained sections works great. 

Most of my friends ask, so I thought I would post here what's in my chest freezer all the time.  There are a few pantry staples that you can always find in my chest freezer, almost any time you open it. 

1.  Two whole chickens. I never know when I'm going to want to roast a bird.  Especially since I've learned how to properly broil a chicken in 30 minutes.
2.  A sack of individual yeast packets.  (I buy yeast in bricks from Costco, then use my Foodsaver to make small packages that I freeze.  A brick costs about the same as a little jar from the grocery store, and makes about 100 times more uses of yeast.)
3.  4 lbs of butter.  I never want to run out of butter.  Ever.
4.  A spare bag of coffee beans.  My husband never wants me to run out of coffee.  Ever-ever.
5.  The breakfast sandwiches hubby likes.
6.  2 Beef Roasts
7.  2 Pork Shoulders
8.  2 London Broils
9.  Vodka
10. Goldshlager
11. Phyllo Dough
12. Puff Pastry
13. Frozen Corn
14. Frozen Spinach
15. One Chicken Carcass - at least - for soup making.
16. One bag of frozen pre-cooked grilled chicken strips

Those are the usuals.  Sometimes there are a few pork ribs in there, or lamb chops I found on sale, or a turkey breast, or something else interesting.  The bottom drawer usually has stacks of frozen leftovers - I think I'm down to a bag of frozen lentil soup blocks.  I need to re-inventory.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Great Magazine for Resources

Okay, so I've been digging through my cookbook shelf to share a few ideas that I love, and realized that I have a small pile of magazines that I reference almost weekly.  Since I reference them so often in my kitchen, I should share them here!

Cooks!

I reference this magazine at least once a week for interesting recipies, cool product reviews, and great hints and tricks.  Everytime I see a new one at the store I pick it up - probably should get a subscription, just haven't done it yet. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Okay, so much for updating regularly

Life got crazy - so here I am again, finding time to update, and finding that life doesn't really get less hectic.  Starting again.


So cooking for two is still a challenge.  Usually I end up cooking for eight, freezing some, and enjoying leftovers for a week of whatever thing I made. 

This week - Sloppy Joes

I won't freeze any of this, we'll go through it too fast. 

The trick I've learned to making a prime sloppy joe is three fold -

1.  Don't cook it on high heat - slowly bring flavors together.  If you can make it in less than an hour, you're not getting the full benefit of all the flavor.

2.  Frank's Red Hot.  Just a little at the 3/4 done point, kicks it up a notch while bringing out the sweetness in the onions.

3.  No sugar necessary.  My Dad doesn't think you can make sloppy joes without adding brown sugar, or commercially prepared bbq sauce.  The tomato is sweet enough, if you give it time to really develop.

Note: Ingredients are only mildly important to the recipie - I've done this with ground beef or turkey, onions or not, extra garlic or not, with or without the tomato paste - it all depends on a few key ingredients and thier proportions to the tomato. 

1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. chili or chipolte powder
1 lbs. ground beef (or turkey)
2 Tbsp. worcestshire sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tsps. Frank's Red Hot Sauce
Pepper / Salt


For this version, start with 1 medium onion.  Which then requires a quick word on onions.  In the days of my grandparents, a large onion was about the size of a baseball, a medium onion about a third smaller and a small onion about the size of a golf ball.  Now at the store a large onion is softball sized, a medium onion is baseball sized and a small onion about 1/3 again the size of a golf ball.  I'm using the old measurement, so look for an onion about 3" in diameter or so.  My grocery store sells onions this size in net bags by the dozen.  Finely dice the onion - no piece should be bigger than 1/4" on a side, smaller is fine.  I usually just drop my onion cut in quarters with 4 cloves of garlic into my mini food processor, and then I'm careful to not pulse it too much - if you get liquid, drain it off.

Get a large skillet with high sides out, at least 10" (Mine is 14" with 3" sides).  Heat one tablespoon each of butter and olive oil in the pan over medium heat until it starts to smell nutty.  The olive oil will fortify the butter and prevent burning.  Once it starts to smell nutty, add the onions and garlic and a small sprinkle of kosher salt.  If it makes sizzling noises, the heat is too high, turn it down a notch or two.  Stir your onions and garlic in the butter/oil until well coated.  Cover, and set a timer for two minutes.  Stir, cover, set timer for two minutes.  Continue until onions are translucent and soft.  If they start to carmelize, turn heat to low and stir every minute or so.  Add chili powder, wait 30 seconds until fragrant.

Once onions are done, turn heat back to medium and add ground beef.  Cook until just pink - do not brown!  It will cook more while you build the sauce.  The secret to this recipie is beef that is not overdone.

Then add sauce, ketchup, and worcestshire.  Cook over medium low for fifteen minutes uncovered, stiring every four-six minutes.  When the sauce reaches the consistency of ketchup (sometimes takes up to 30 minutes on my stove) add the Franks Red Hot.  Let cook for two minutes, then taste - add salt and pepper as necessary. 

This recipie done in this proportion lasts David and I two days on average - we'll eat it for lunch and dinner.  I usually make a triple batch, and we invite a friend or two over when we do this.  Perfect on onion buns with a little Miracle Whip and a few pickles.

Monday, February 15, 2010

God - we've been frying a lot lately...

So, some notes on frying - for two.

Every recipe for frying anything seems to be geared towards the large group - appetizers for twenty, it seems like.  

For Valentine's Day, my sweet husband and I decided to make a batch of Crab Rangoon and watch the first 8 episodes of "The West Wing" curled up in front of the TV with the dog.  I couldn't find a recipe for less than 48 pieces, about double what we wanted.  So I halved it, and bought the ingredients, and still had enough stuff for 48.  Here's how I made 28 out of enough for 48 Rangoon's.

1/2 package of wonton wrappers (put the other half away for a party later, ziploc in the fridge should be fine.  Plan on using this week - don't freeze them.)

1/2 lb artificial crab meat, or real lump crab.  (The canned is not good eats for this, and being in Alaska, real crab is pretty available, but the artificial stuff will taste like the Crab Rangoon that's usually served in restaurants.)


1 tub onion chive cream cheese

Here's the plan - blend the cream cheese and crab in a food processor until smooth (as smooth as it's getting, anyway).  Lay out the wonton wrappers on a cutting mat or wax paper.  I usually do 12 at a time, fits on my flex-mats well.  Put a good sized spoonful of crab mix on each wrapper - the recipe I found said no more than a teaspoon.  That's crap - put as much as you think the wrapper will hold, folded up.  

Now, get a small dish of water, and use your finger to wet the edges of the wrappers.  Fold them however you like, so that all the edges are sealed.  I bring all four points together to make little packages, but it's just as cool to fold them in half, or on the diagonal.  Depends on how fancy you want to get.  


Get out the sauce pan, a deep one.  Heat enough oil on medium so that it will cover the Rangoon, remembering that when they've cooked a little bit, they float.  Let the oil get hot before you put anything into it!  on my electric stove, on 6, in my pans, it takes about 12 minutes for me to be certain that the oil is hot enough.  At least, that's how long I set the timer for when I walk away so that I stop fiddling with it.  


Put in enough so that they are not touching but as many as you can get in with some spaces between.  Flip every two minutes, until the wonton wrappers look white and bubbly.  If you like a crispy Rangoon, cook for one more minute past that point.  If you like a softer shell, remove with a slotted spoon or fry basket.  Put on a plate or bowl lined with a double layer of paper towels. 


Open the plum sauce and enjoy! 

Monday, February 8, 2010

Tips, Tricks and Tired

So this week, with the time spent sick or exhausted, not much cooking got done, really.  Fortunately, that did not stop us from eating - finishing up leftovers from the fridge and having a big bucket of baby spinach in there helped.  If nothing else, coming home to whip together a salad from spinach, dried fruit, feta cheese, sunflower seeds or candied almonds, and whatever dressing I have in the fridge (usually homemade creamy garlic) is an awesome dinner.  If I need protein, cook up a little bacon or some grilled chicken strips (I keep a bag of frozen strips in the fridge for just such tired occasions).  Even if David doesn't feel like having it, it is an easy fix for a hungry Jeannie. 

Between that and the sack of frozen corn dogs in the freezer for those "I'm an adult and can eat what I want, dammit" moments, we were pretty set.  

I promised recipes on here, and I have one for you today - Chip Chop. 

Chip Chop is a pork chop crusted in crushed salt & vinegar chips.  We tried it with ten people one weekend, and they turn out spectacular.  But the recipe is for one chop, so here we go:

1 Bone-in Rib Chop pork chop, 1" - 1 1/2" thick.
1 single serving sized bag of Salt and Vinegar potato chips (Kettle Chips worked best)
1 egg
4 tablespoons of seasoned flour (little salt, pepper)

Step One: Dredge the chop in the flour.  Shake off as much flour as you can, you want the lightest coat possible on the chop.

Step Two: Dredge in the beaten egg.

Step Three: Press into crushed chips (you want them crushed, but not uniform sized, pieces the size of a pinky nail are fine).  Coat both sides of the chop well.  Place on a rack on the counter for 25 minutes. (This is important, lets the egg dry and adhere the chips to the chop.)

Step Four: Preheat Oven to 250 degrees.  Heat oil in a deep-walled skillet on the stove to 350 degrees - enough oil to come up halfway on the chop. 

Step Five: Fry Chop for one or two minutes per side, just until the chip crust starts to brown.  Do both sides.  Place on rack, on baking sheet, in oven for 20-30 minutes to finish cooking. Check temperature of chop with a probe, you want 145 degrees.  

These turn out tasty, moist, and amazing the first day, but don't make good leftovers (cooling them makes them a little too greasy, even with how much grease drains out in the oven).  So just make them one at a time, of two, or however many for your guests.  

Enjoy!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

First Day, New Blog

So, today is the first day with my new blog.  I'm going to challenge myself to update this with new things I learn and great recipes I find at least once a week, probably on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  

I grew up in a giant family.  When I say giant, I mean we had over 140 people at the last family reunion, both of my grandparents on my Dad's side at thirteen siblings each, Mom had seven siblings and Dad had five siblings - giant.  As a result, I learned how to cook with sixteen people or more in mind on a regular basis.  Lots of rice and potatoes and pasta, anything that stretches a long way.  Leftovers?  Not really an issue.
Now that it's just me and my husband, I've hand to completely rethink how and what I cook.  Especially since one of the main staples of growing up (casseroles) are not his favorite thing.  On this journey, I've discovered they aren't mine, either.


Today's first thought to share, when considering cooking for one or two people, I found the biggest transition was leftovers - who wants to eat the same thing for four days straight to get through a recipe?  And who really has the freezer space to freeze that much for later - more on the virtues of a chest freezer to come, after we acquire one for the new house.  Meal pre-planning was key for a long time.

The most versatile thing you can cook or use in your kitchen, food wise?  Rotisserie or roast chicken.  The first night, enjoy the legs (Remember to keep the bones.)  Strip the meat off of the rest of the chicken, freeze the carcass for soup later.  That chicken meat can become so many good things - from salads, sandwiches and just nibbles - to creamed chicken for waffles, corn and chicken bisque, or shredded for chicken tacos.  One good-sized roasted chicken can become about a week of meals for two of us, and we don't get bored.