Crepes

 This entry will describe us making crepes. In the meantime there's also a good recipe here:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16383/basic-crepes/

Cheese Sauce for Pasta

This receipe was originally borrowed from a site called "A Couple Cooks" and adapted to the food I was serving. ( https://www.acouplecooks.com/white-sauce-pasta/ ) The pasta involved in my case was Pelmeni, which is Russian in origin and can be found with a variety of fillings. I can get it from the local European Delicatessen and really like the tastes. You can eat it with tomato sauces, but they tend to overwhelm the taste of the filling, so I've started using this instead.

Ingredients

1. 1 pound pasta noodles of any shape: pelmeni, spaghetti, bucatini, penne, riagotni, cavatappi, etc.
2. 2 tablespoons salted butter
3. 2 cloves of garlic, grated
4. 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
5. 3 cups milk
6. ½ teaspoon salt
7. ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Start a pot of well salted water to a boil. Boil the pasta until it is just al dente (start tasting a few minutes before the package recommends: you want it to be tender but still a little firm on the inside; usually around 7 to 8 minutes). Drain.

Meanwhile, measure out all ingredients in advance; the cooking process happens fast!

Right after you add the pasta to the pot, start the sauce: In a small or medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the grated garlic and cook 30 seconds until fragrant but not browned.

Add the flour and whisk constantly for 1 minute to 90 seconds, until bubbly and golden. Do not overcook it: the flour can turn brown within a few seconds. Keep an eye on it!

Add a splash of milk and whisk it in: the sauce will instantly turn chunky. Constantly whisking, continue to add splashes of milk and whisk them in until the entire quantity is incorporated and the sauce is smooth.

Reduce the heat and whisk until the sauce thickens and no longer tastes like raw flour, about 5 minutes. Add the salt and Parmesan cheese. Taste and add a pinch or two more salt if desired.

Drain the pasta, then add the sauce. Add a splash or two of milk to loosen the sauce and stir until you have the right consistency. Taste and a few more pinches of salt, if necessary. (The sauce is best freshly made, so we don’t recommend making it in advance). Serve with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.

------------------- Bon Appetit ! -------------------

Beans from The Questing Feast

A person who I got to know died very recently - so I never really got to make friends with her. She was a potter, gardener, and author of cookery books, amongst other things - all the ingredients seemingly designed to make me befriend someone!

This is from her daughter, who exhibits many of the same wonderful characteristics.


Hurrah!!! Dried, fresh, any old way, they are damn good, and a mainstay of large portions of the world's population. I couldn't possibly even begin to do justice to the myriad means of preparation possible for the bean. Even an authoritative and comprehensive listing of the varieties would occupy more space than I wish to use.

A few years back I owned a small bar in the wilds of deepest Berkeley. It didn't take me long to go gloriously broke, as the majority of such ventures do, but as a result I met Earl. Earl was a fine cornet player. It had been his long standing dream to own his own New Orleans jazz club. And since it is well known that fools always rush in where the proverbial angels fear to tread, we became partners in what was also slated to be a somewhat less than successful business venture, but it was one hell of a lot of fun while it lasted. 

We bought out an establishment that was just oozing with Victoriana, a particular passion of mine. It was grand from the carved back bar to the crystal chandeliers and Tiffany shades. It was absolutely gorgeous; and I got to wear my heart's desire, a skin-tight black brocade Victorian gown with a feather boa. I was in seventh heaven. Our band was grand. We were fortunate enough to pick up some of the fine musicians who had been at loose ends since Bob Scobey of San Francisco jazz fame died. 

And we served red beans and rice. Not just any red beans and rice, but the Red Beans and Rice, or so tradition said. Every major name in traditional jazz history was supposed to have had a hand at the gradual growth and development of that tasty dish, from Lew Waters and Scobey, all the way back to its cleans roots of none less than Louis Armstrong's mother- Through the years it has come to pass that no jazz musician worth his salt can hit a clear note without a good bate of red beans and rice under his belt. Now, you must remember that, as with all folk processes, the validity of this story may be interpreted by the individual. 

And here, for all who would rather fox trot than jerk—or whatever they call it these days—for those who prefer the sweet syncopation of a clarinet to 80-some-odd decibels of a plugged-in gleaming guitar, is 

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice 

Choose those nice little red beans or possibly pintos, but not the large kidney beans. Put the beans on to soak overnight. This isn't necessary in the least but it is part of the tradition, and if not done probably anyone who eats thereof will never be able to play a note again. Put the beans on to boil with a bit of salt and oodles of water.

Meanwhile, take one small—or large, depending on how many musicians and jazz buffs you intend to feed—pork butt and cut into small chunks, none more than 1/2"x1/2"x 2". When the meat has been cut, put a considerable amount of drippings, not oil or butter, but drippins, into a cast iron Dutch oven and heat. Add the diced meat and a lot of chopped garlic. Toss until the meat is well braised. Reduce heat and add several chopped onions, a lot of chopped celery, a bell pepper cut into strips, and a can of well-drained okra. Toss about until all is evenly coated with the drippings. Try not to eat up all the braised meat while you're making the preparations. 

Add a good splash of red wine and, of course, have a little yourself. Chop 6 or 8 ripe tomatoes and add to the pot with a cup of very rich stock. Stir well and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed. Chop up about a fist full of garlic to add. Now add as many sliced fresh mushrooms as you feel you can afford and a rather large pinch of pickling spice, including one of the whole red peppers and an extra bay leaf. Add a bit of sugar. A bunch of parsley chopped fine would not be amiss, as well as another good splash of wine, and why not have a wee bit more yourself. 

Put on the lid and let it simmer for about three hours like for a good spaghetti sauce. Note that if you use canned okra instead of fresh, you may want to add the okra during the last hour of cooking. 

Turn off the beans when they are tender and let them sit in their water to plump.

During the last hour before serving, steam some rice. Drain the beans and save the liquid. (Bean broth soup is very good.) Add the beans to the pot of sauce. Put the fluffy rice on a large deep platter, make a well in the center of it. Pile the bean mixture in the middle, and serve forth piping hot, with crusty corn bread and cooked greens and sweet, sweet jazz. 

~Dana speaks:
My Nana, born in St. Louis, Missouri, made red beans and rice of that style. It was made on a Monday, but preparations began on Sunday. After Sunday Dinner, which was set to table about 2 in the afternoon and lasted a couple of hours ("dinner" being the main meal of the day, not to be confused with "supper," a light evening meal), a big pot of small red beans would be set to soak overnight. The ham bone would be put in a stock pot with a large round onion and a good handful of garlic teeth, all finely chopped. Some bay, rosemary, chopped celery, and Hawaiian chili peppers also would be tossed in. This would simmer most of the night. In the morning, the beans would be set to simmer until tender. They would then be drained and added to the stock pot. While they were simmering, the pork butt would be cut into  1"x1"x1" chunks, and braised in a skillet of drippins. When the beans were just tender, the meat and  a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes were added and they were cooked a bit more. Then the contents of the stock pot were stirred into the beans. The ham bone went to the dogs. In Nana's house, the rice always was served separately. You put rice in a bowl, and then ladled the red beans over it.

I guess everyone must have his or her favorite starchy or otherwise solid and rib-sticking salad that is easily amenable to being carted about the countryside to picnics, ball games, church socials, school potlucks, etc. It should be able to withstand a variety of temperatures and long waiting in the back of a station wagon or VW bus before being served, and it must still be good despite the fact that a sizable quantity of sand has been kicked into it and the volley ball landed in it once. It must also go well with deviled eggs, canned black olives, chicken salad sandwiches (even if they were sat on), lukewarm beer, and watermelon. It should taste equally good eaten off a paper plate or out of a tin Sierra Club cup," and it should be of a consistency that will allow you to eat quantities of it quickly with a flimsy plastic. A combination bean salad nicely meets all these criteria.

I don't like to use canned beans (too expensive), but they will make an ok version  of the following recipe.

Combination Bean Salad 

Use any combination of beans you like—kidney, tiny black, large lima, garbanzo, pink, pinto, etc. I also like to add green stringbeans and yellow wax beans if they are available. Cook each kind of bean separately, for they each have a character of their own and ask for different cooking times. When they are tender but not mushy, drain and rinse. Be sure to save the cooking water for soup. The green and yellow beans should be cooked to still be quite crisp and fresh tasting, not all sog. 

Put all the beans into a large bowl that will allow more room for tossing. Add a large quantity of minced purple onion, a good amount of chopped celery (this shouldn't be too large, but it should definitely be distinguishable), and some shoestrings of bell pepper. Over this sprinkle a big splash of a very zesty dressing or marinade. I like to use something like the following.

Marinade 

In a quart jar mix equal amounts of olive oil and vinegar. Add a lot of very finely minced garlic (AT LEAST 3 or 4 teeth for each cup of liquid), a bit of sugar, a splash of white wine, salt and pepper to taste, and your choice of good herbs. I add about a teaspoon of celery seeds, a bit of dry mustard, and some horseradish. Shake all vigorously for a bit and then pour over the beans. Toss gently and refrigerate. I prefer to never serve this salad unless it is at least twenty-four hours old. Stir it occasionally to keep the marinade from settling to the bottom. 

This is a fine salad to take on a picnic and goes well with the ubiquitous barbecue. 

I do love a good barbecue, but I guess my idea about this method of cooking is quite different from most people's. 

I enjoy squatting by a pile of glowing coals when out in the wild and woolly, carefully turning the chepati on its flat, heated stone. The smells that arise from the blackened pot, the savory taste of that sizzling pungent stew, perchance containing a bit of game as you accompany it on its way with soft,  warm chunks of the flat bread and cups of hot strong coffee, and the songs: on nights like this the greatest of recording stars couldn't hold a candle to us. 

Or a fine shish-kebob: tender chunks of lamb, well marinated and threaded on a skewer, then held over the coals till just right and eaten while yet so hot your tongue is quite blistered—and that can only be repaired with good cool beer. Shish is perhaps barbecuing at its best. . . well, if you forget about freshly grilled lake trout, caught at dawn in a chill Sierra lake, wrapped in bacon, cooked to a delicate crispness, and consumed with hot and heady sourdough biscuits and of course, the elixir of that battered pot. But somehow, the magic of outdoor cookery is totally lost for me when it is accomplished with an electric charcoal starter in a chrome-plated, enamel-decorated, rotisserie-operated $129.97 special, complete with matching fireproof gauntlet. All this to produce hamburgers? I would much rather use Puff. I spent $400 on a professional piece of kitchen equipment and I'll be damned if I am going to forsake it for a decorator-colored, cast-aluminum bubble precariously balanced on a tripod. 

Bush beans and pole beans, wax beans, Italian beans, broad beans, all the myriad fresh beans are wonderful, cooked just about any way you can name except dead. And totally dead, murdered even, is how this poor legume was wont to be served until very recently. I prefer all these fine tasties cooked lightly, with oodles of garlic, a bit of bacon, and salt and pepper. 

Or with a bit of olive oil and basil. But never, never ever kill them. Let them give you their light, crisp, personable selves. They will be a delightful addition to any meal. Well, probably you wouldn't want to serve them at a ladies' luncheon along with the meringue syllabub.

Enjoy !!

 Pasta and a Meat Sauce

Ingredients  

1	Onion, chopped
1 tbsp	Olive Oil
1 lb	90% Lean Ground Beef
1	small green bell pepper, diced
28 ox	Diced Tomatoes
4	Cloves of Garlic, minced
16 oz	Tomato Sauce
8 oz	Tomato Paste
2 tbsp	Oregano
1 tsp	Salt
1/2 tsp	Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp	Basil
11/2 cups	Beef Broth

Method  

Combine ground beef, onion, garlic, 

and (green) pepper in a large saucepan. 

Cook and stir until meat is brown and vegetables are tender. Drain grease.

Stir diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste into the pan. 

Season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. 

Simmer spaghetti sauce for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

After the sauce has started simmering, start a pot of water, lightly salted, on high heat to get it to boiling. Once there turn it down enough to keep it bubbling.

Then take your pasta, prepare it if needed, and add it to the boiling water. Follow the cooking instructions for the pasta, trying to time it to be ready a little before the sauce.

Bueno Appetito !!

Pasta and Meat!!

Meat and Pasta 

Thanks to Katie Workman (themom100.com) for this one!

• 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound fresh pork sausage squeezed from the casing
• 1 ½ cups chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Big glug or two of red or white wine if you have a bottle open 
• 2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes preferably in puree
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional

• In a large saucepot, heat one tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add both the ground beef and the sausage together and cook, stirring frequently, and breaking up the meat so that it’s very crumbly and browned throughout, about 4 to 6 minutes.  Turn it into a strainer and let it the fat drain off.
• Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the same pot over medium heat (don’t clean it!  All those little bits of flavor from the meat will season the sauce). Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, oregano and basil and cook, stirring for 2 more minutes, until you can smell the garlic and herbs. Add the wine, if using, and stir for one more minute, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom, until the wine pretty much evaporates.
• Add the canned tomatoes and red pepper flakes if using, and stir to combine everything.  Bring to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Add the browned meat, lower the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.  Taste, and season gently with the salt and pepper (the sausages provide a whole lot of seasoning). 

Chili

Ingredients

 

1	Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
1 tbsp	Olive Oil
1 lb	90% Lean Ground Beef
1/2 tbsp	Chili Powder
2 tbsp	Ground Cumin
2 tbsp	Granulated Sugar
2 tbsp	Tomato Paste
1 tbsp	Garlic Powder
1 1/2 tsp	Salt
1/2 tsp	Ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp	Ground Cayenne Pepper
1 1/2 cups	Beef Broth
16 oz	Canned Petite Diced tomatoes
16 oz	Canned Red Kidney Beans, Drained and Rinsed
8 oz	Canned Tomato Sauce

 

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. 
2. Add diced onion and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add ground beef and break it apart with a wooden spoon.
4. Cook for 6-7 minutes.
5. Add chili powder, cumin, sugar, tomato paste, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and optional cayenne. 
6. Stir until well combined.
7. Add diced tomatoes, kidney beans, beef broth, and tomato sauce.
8. Stir well.
9. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
10. Let the chili rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Cooking Sweet Corn in America

 Some friends collected these suggestions. I'll add photos as I get to doing them.....

Corn on the cob season: from scratch, for total, total, total amateurs. No reason you can't enjoy fresh corn cooked by the best method ever.

Get an iron skillet with a lid. Or any skillet and use tinfoil laid atop if you have no lid.

Strip leaves and silk from the ears. Break in half or cut them into 4" pieces so they'll cook more evenly. If you use a knife, use a big one and press from the top of the blade with your fingers nowhere near the edge: corn cobs are tough and they roll. Breaking is safer.

Heat skillet on medium high with olive oil, Crisco, any oil you like.

sprinkle salt and pepper onto oil as it heats.

Add the corn bits, cover. Every few minutes, poke them with a fork and roll them over. When browned on all sides, they're done.

Remove from heat.

Turn off heat.

Serve.

( Cj Cherryh )

Turn oven on 400, trim silk end of corn cob right to the tip. Pull outer husk off and trim husk end. Pop straight on to the oven rack (centered) and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool until easy to touch. Strip off husks (the silks come off better than any other method I have used). Roll in butter and eat.

( Paula Pearson )

I like to make it by smearing on a rub of mayo, butter, olive oil and garlic, coriander, and theme, cilantro whatever is on hand onto a clean ear of corn. Putting the corn on foil, I smear ithe rub all over it, then tightly wrap the foil around it, then wrap a second piece of foil around that. Onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, then into a 350° oven for 20-40 minutes depending on size of corn. Whatever spices you like. Some people add cojita cheese. Delicious!

( Cheryl Wolder )

Set an oven to 350-400. Put corn, unshucked, in a single layer on the oven rack. Let roast an hour or so. Done and delicious. No need to soak beforehand. Great if you are cooking something else in the oven at the same time. So much easier than boiling a pot of water for a dozen people. Everyone shucks their own ears at the end (and use the husks to hold on to when eating the corn.)

( Christine Valada )

Bot Appetit !!

Some Italian Food.

Italian Sausage and Chestnut Dinner

Normally I cook things here that I've actually eaten, liked, eaten again, and then made my own version of. Very seldom do I just find a recipe and cook it for friends. On this occasion, however, I wanted to be rid of some bags of cooked-and-part-dried chestnuts that had been hanging around the kitchen since I used them for stuffing a pork loin for last Easter. The blog was posted on 7/15/2019 and called "Stuffed Pork Tenderloin".

So, I bought a 1 lb tube of sausage-meat to go with two of the packets of chestnuts, and collected all of the other ingredients from the pantry and set about cooking!

Ingredients

1 lb	Sausage meat
2/3 lb	Chestnuts, sold cooked and bagged
4 cloves	Minced Garlic
2 tbsp	Rosemary
3 tbsp	Fennel
2 tbsp	Chopped Parsley
1	large onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp	olive oil
To Taste	Salt and Pepper
Garnish	Parmesan Cheese
Paste	Fusilli. About a pound for 3 people

Method

Put the pasta on to cook in plenty of salted water, following pack instructions.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and fry the onion for 5 mins, until it is getting soft. Once starting to soften, add the sausage meat and chestnuts, and fry for another 10-12 mins, breaking the meat up with a wooden spatula or spoon as you fry it. Keep the heat quite high and stir often.

When the meat and chestnuts are golden brown, add the garlic, rosemary and fennel seeds, and cook for 2 mins more. Cover and simmer the sauce for 10 mins while you finish cooking the pasta.

Season to taste with parsley and parmesan cheese and, of course, salt and pepper and serve. 

Recommended: a glass of good red wine goes well with this!
Sorry that there aren't any pictures this time - it all got eaten too quickly!

Spicy Sausage Ragout


Ingredients

1 lb	Pork sausages.
1 each	Red, Yellow, Green peppers, sliced thinly
2 cloves	Minced Garlic
2 tbsp	Paprika
3 tbsp	Fennel Seeds
1/2 lb	Can of Chopped Tomatoes
1	large onion, sliced
2 tbsp	olive oil
To Taste	Salt and Pepper
Garnish	Parmesan Cheese
Paste	Fusilli. About a pound for 3 people

Method

Put the pasta on to cook in plenty of salted water, following pack instructions.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the sausages until well done (not burned!).

Remove the sausages; add the onion and cook until soft

Add the peppers and cook for about another 6-8 minutes. stir in all the other ingredients and let simmer - probably for at least 10 minutes.

Cut the sausages into bite-size pieces and return to the (now quite full) pan to heat up again

More description and pictures to come ....

------------------------- Eventually ! -------------------------

Chicken and Apples

Although you do get Chicken and Apple sausages in CostCo, among other places, it's a fairly unusual combination in America. There is a variety of ways of making it - this is just one that I tried this evening. It came out very well.
Here, for this recipe, I chopped three chicken breasts into medium sized pieces - I admit that it might have been better to have made the pieces smaller. Next time I'll try that and update things here.

Ingredients

Hasselblad Potatoes	Two per person
Apples	One medium per person
Chicken Breasts	One per person
Rosemary	Quite a bit!

Method
Preparation

Potatoes Before

1. Cut the chicken into squares of a bit less than two inches.
2. Put into a bowl with some olive oil and a good amount of Rosemary.
3. Leave standing for at least 15 minutes while other things are prepared.
4. Cut the apple into eighths and then half these width-wise. 
5. If you're going to use celery too then chop this up and rince it well.

Potatoes

1. Turn your oven on to 425F.
2. Peel the potatoes and make sure that one side is good and flat so that the potato will not roll.
3. Cut each potato with a series of vertical slices about 4 mm apart. The slices should go about 80% through the potato from top to almost the bottom.
4. Place the potatoes onto a baking tray, brush them with olive oil, and douse when with some Rosemary.
5. Cook at 425F for 30 minutes. Take out, spread gently with some butter, and replace back into the oven for another 30 minutes

Chicken

1. About 10 minutes in to the potatoes second spell in the oven, heat some olive oil in a large pan and set some chopped onions to cook until translucent. 
2. Peel the apples, section and core, and then chop up - probably eighths of an apple are a good size, unless you're dealing with very large or small ones.



With Added Celery

3. Add the apples to the oil and onions and, after a minute or two, add  the chicken pieces. 



Chicken and Apple Cooking



Chicken almost done



4. Cook this mixture until the chicken pieces are well cooked through.
5. I felt that some extra vegetables would be good, so chopped up 5 stalks of celery fairly finely and added them at the last moment. They got warm but not soft, which is unusual for celery.
6. Take the potatoes out of the oven and brush them with some more butter.
7. Plate the meal and present. You should get some satisfying ooohs and aaaahs !!

Bon Appetit ! 

TTFN

Shrimp and Rice

This is a pretty easy thing to make and fills you up well. On top of the basic Shrimp and Rice (and herbs and spices) I like to add some veggies. You can choose the vegetables you add to it from a wide selection. My personal choice is frozen sweet corn.

Cooking Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 cup	Rice
6 tbsp	Butter
4 cloves	Minced Garlic
1 lb	Shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/4 cup	Parmesan Cheese
3 tbsp	Milk
2 tbsp	Chopped Parsley
To Taste	Salt and Pepper
Garnish	Parmesan Cheese
1/2 lb	Frozen Corn Kernels

Method

Cooking Shrimp

1. Prepare the rice. In my little rice cooker it will usually take about half an hour, so start it about 20 minutes before the rest.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-heat.
3. Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring very frequently. Do not let the garlic burn !
4. Stir in the shrimp and cook for 2 minutes, or until they turn pink, stirring frequently.
5. Add cooked rice to the skillet and mix until well combined.
6. Add cheese, milk, parsley, corn, salt and pepper; mix and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, or until creamy and heated through.
7. Remove from heat.
8. Garnish with parmesan cheese.
9. Serve.
   

   

   Ready to serve

Chicken Rubs

This post definitely comes under the heading of food! It's a catch-up from the summer where I prepped a fair amount of chicken for people to grill and eat.

All the quantities are in teaspoons, but are ratios so that you can easily make more ... a quarter of a teaspoon of a powder is going to be a pain to measure .... multiply everything in the recipe by four, use what you need, and pput the rest in a Zip-lock baggie in the freezer for next time!

Coffee and Fennel

Ingredients
This turned out to be a popular mix, with a lot of positive comments about the "strange taste in the background" (the fennel !)

Coffee	24
Brown Sugar	6
Salt	2
Chile Powder	2
Fennel	3
Chocolate Powder	6

Sweet Garlic and Onion

This one has the potential for heat - be careful of the amount of Cayenne Pepper.

Smoked Paprika	16
Brown Sugar	16
Salt	16
Chile Powder	8
Black Pepper	12
Garlic Powder	12
Onion Powder	12
Cumin Powder	1
Celery Salt	4
Cayenne Pepper	1

Mediterranean Garlic and Onion

This one is similar to the one above, but with a Mediterranean flavour  rather than a more New World one.

Smoked Paprika	6
Salt	6
Garlic Powder	6
Brown Sugar	6
Cumin Powder	1
Sage	2
Oregano	2
Cayenne Pepper	1
Black Pepper	2
Coriander	1

Method

• In all cases, mix your herbs first.
• Open your (thawed, if necessary) chicken
• Cut chicken breasts to desired size - about 4 to 5 inch pieces (2 or 3 per breast)
• Rub herb mixture in to the meat, applying generously
• Pack meat into plastic food savers, add a little olive oil,  and stash in fridge
• Keep for about three days before use
• Every twelve hours bring meat from stash, add a little more rub mixture, and rub into the meat
• Remove from fridge at least four hours before cooking, and allow to warm
• Grill on medium-high heat
• To check for completion cut into thickest part of largest piece after about 10 minutes on grill

Winter Food - Slow Cooker Happiness

 Hot Food After Christmas
After Christmas is always a tough time for cooking. You're stuffed with so much bird that you really can't stand to see turkey for at least another 10 months. Mountains of Christmas Pudding, in lakes of whiskey, drift across your fevered dreams.

So, in the midst of this, food was required, and I was the one volunteered to shop at the local supermarket (here in Spokane, where we're staying for a few days) and make something to stop the incessant background rumbling of tummies !

Ingredients

Leeks	4
Celery	1 head
Chicken Broth	1 litre
Sweet Corn	2 cans
Chicken Breast	2
Andouille	1 large

Herbs and Spices

Fennel	6 tbsp
Herbes de Provence	4 tbsp
Garlic	2 tbsp
Parsley	4 tbsp
Salt and Pepper	1 tsp each

Instructions

• Chop the celery and leeks into small pieces.
• Rinse the leek well to remove and sand or mud.
• Add the greens and the chicken broth to the slow cooker.
• Start the slow cooker at maximum heat.
• Cut the chicken breasts into small (2 cm) pieces and fry them gently in oil (olive oil or even butter will do fine) with more Herbes de Provence added to flavour.
• Slice the Andouille and fry this gently also.
• Add the meat to the slow cooker, and then the balance of the herbs and spices. 
• Mix well and then add the corn and blend well into the mix.
• Leave to cook for two or three hours and then serve.

Bon Appetit!!

TTFN

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This was made for an Easter lunch, and everyone seemed to like it very much, which was very gratifying!

The Meat

I took the loins (there were four in all), trimmed any excess fat off the outsides, rubbed them in onion salt and white pepper, and left them overnight in the fridge.

The next day I sliced them length-ways as far through as I could without ending up with two pieces.

Some more salt and pepper seasoning was applied to the new surfaces.


The Stuffing

The stuffing was made with:

• young spinach leaves
• dried cranberries (buy in bag at Target!)
• chestnuts (buy in bag at Target!)
• 2 or 3 fresh eggs
• mushrooms
• sausage meat (Jimmy Dean's)
• olive oil

All this was chopped up and mixed up well into a paste.


















Each loin was laid out, topped with a good thick layer of stuffing mix, folded over, and then gently tied by looping string around it, spiraling from one end to the other. My darling wife was engaged for this task, as I only have two hands!

The stuffed loins were then placed onto a large baking tray, covered with alu-foil, and cooked at 375F for an hour.

Bon Appetit !

Mike

Chicken to Grill

It's been a long time since I was here - sorry!
Here's something to try on your grill or barbeque now that nice warm summer temperatures are here
The star of the show is, of course, the chicken - whatever cut you like, skinned.
The supporting act is this:
Ingredients:

Black Pepper	1
White Pepper	2
Salt	1
Onion Powder	2
Garlic Powder or Flakes	1
Oregano	2
Paprika	1
Coriander	3
Fennel Seed or Powder	3

There aren't any units because they're all the same units - whatever you like! - just make heaps and save what's over for next time!

Notes:

• You'll notice in the photo that there's no salt - I used Onion Salt instead of the Onion and the Salt.
• You'll also notice that there 's two jars to the right - Fennel Seed and Fennel Powder. You can use either or both equally well.

Method:

1. Wash of and dry the chicken pieces
2. If you have chicken breasts decide if and how you're going to cut them up
3. Get the chicken into the right-sized pieces
4. Sprinkle mixture onto one side of a piece of chicken and rub in all over. Turn, and repeat
5. Repeat for each piece of chicken
6. Put chickens into food-savers and sprinkle more mixture over the top of each.
7. Put the lid on and shake the container to make sure all chicken bits are well covered
8. Stash the containers in the fridge for a couple of days

On The Day you'll probably find that the chicken pieces cook a little more slowly that you expect if they're on an out-doors grill. A George Foreman grill, as it cooks from both sides, is definitely quicker.
Make sure that you cut into the thickest part of the thickest piece of each batch put onto the grill in order to make sure that the chickens are done before serving!

As you can see to the left, I've cut off a small piece of the meat, right through the thickest point.

This piece has been cooked on a George Foreman grill, so it browner than it would be on a "normal" grill. It's fairly hard - not quite crisp - on the outside but soft an juicy on the inside. This is from letting the grill heat up well before placing the meat on it.








To the right now you can see that the meat is cooked to be just white all through. I put it back for about another minute after this photo.
The meat is firm but also easy to cut in this condition - after about 4 days marinading in the fridge.

Bon Apetit!

 Mike

Sweet & Sharp Pork Tenderloin

I'll admit to stealing this a while ago, but I've now no idea from where! I've made it a few times and it's always been devoured with murmurs of sated satisfaction. The nicest part (from the pov of the cook) is that it's easy to prepare and tastes great. Surprisingly it's usually quite cheap too!

This is an easy recipe that involves much more hanging around waiting than actually doing stuff, which means that you can make other things to go with/before/after it while the meat is just doing all the work!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons honey	2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup white wine vinegar	1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper	1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin (1 piece)
Potatoes, peeled and boiled	Sweet Corn

Preparation

1. Whisk together honey, mustard, vinegar, thyme, and pepper. 
2. Place pork tenderloin in a large zip-top bag and pour in honey mustard mixture. 
3. Squish around to make sure pork is completely covered. 
4. Refrigerate at least one hour.
5. Heat oven to 425F. 
6. Lightly oil a baking dish.
7. Place pork in dish, reserving marinade. 
8. Roast 35 minutes to an hour (depending on the thickness of the tenderloin), checking internal temperature at 30 minutes. Pork is done when a thermometer inserted into the center reads 145F. 
9. Remove from oven and rest 10 minutes before slicing.
10. Place reserved marinade in a small saucepan and boil 5 to 10 minutes or until thickened, adding water as needed to keep from sticking and to maintain the desired quantity.
11. While working with the marinade to make gravy, you can use some Bisto (original) powder or granules to thicken it and give a good colour.

I serve the pork drizzled with the honey mustard gravy, and with boiled potatoes and sweet corn.

Note: 425F is a good temperature for roasting baby potatoes or vegetables, so cook them at the same time on a sheet pan while the pork is cooking.

Enjoy your meal - I'll add pictures when I make it next!

TTFN

Computers Accumulate!

[Tech - Work]
Having moved a little while ago to Tacoma, I now have a new manager and today was the day of the new team's first meeting. So, a trek from Tacoma to Bellevue (about 75 minutes) and a really long one back (about 3 hours) because of at least one accident. Oh well!
It was really nice to meet all the people that I'd only seen as names on emails up to now - they're a really great bunch and really exhibit the qualities people notice about Microsoft People - very friendly and very bright!

[Tech - Home]
Looking back I saw a blog entry here from October 3, 2010 where the Tech entry mentioned that I'd shed a pair of tower computers and that the household was down to just six computers.Phones didn't really count in those days. Right now we're at a high spot again
In 2010 I would have had a Sony VAIO laptop for home and recording off TV, and a 17" Acer Aspire laptop for work. The Sony, along with another amazingly tiny Sony laptop acquired out of curiosity from a thrift store, are retired but not shed, and the two remaining desktops of that era were shed in 2016. In 2011 I bought a System-76 Bonobo (17.5", 32 GB, etc) - in short, a small server masquerading as a laptop (you'd need knees of steel!). We also have two Windows-based netbooks, an Asus netbox for on-monitor mounting, 3 ChromeBooks (so convenient it's untrue!), and an Acer Switch tablet with keyboard. Very similar to the SurfaceBook from Microsoft that I use for work.
In addition there's a Samsung tablet lurking somewhere, but that hasn't been seen since we moved!
Twelve machines plus two iPhone SEs. Like I say, they accumulate!

[Food]
Salmon, basil, tomato, garlic, and some pepper. Heat and eat!

Well, not quite so simple, but here's how I've been doing it.

Many years ago I owned a contact infra-red grill by a company called Rima. It was a gift from my father while I was away at university. It was a 240v beast, so never made it across the Atlantic with me, and the company is long gone now.
The nearest thing that I've found is the
George Foreman grill (right). Here in the US they cost about $50, but can often be found in thrift stores for $10 or $20. They're fairly easy to clean, being Teflon coated, but unfortunately the plates don'e come off for washing as they did with the old Rima.

Ingredients

1 cup Couscous	1 oz Butter
4 Salmon pieces	Basil
One large Tomato, sliced thinly	Garlic powder or flakes
Pepper	Celery
Plum Tomatoes

Method

1. Melt the butter in a pot, then bring it to a "boil".
2. Add the couscous and stir well so that the hot butter is well coating the couscous.
3. keep this on medium heat for a few minutes
4. Add a cu of water or, better, chicken broth
5. After another minute or two on heat, remove from heat and leave for couscous to absorb the water
6. Prepare the salmon. Mine came frozen in pieces this time, but basically you will need to cut it into pieces each about half of what one will want to eat.
7. If you have fresh Basil then roll some leaves and then slice the roll. This gives you long thin strips like tinsel that are easy to drape onto the salmon. This time I used dried basil from Trader Joe's as an experiment. It came out rather well.
8. Sprinkle the salmon with some pepper and some garlic powder or flakes.
9. Add the basil onto the salmon.
10. Lay tomato slices onto the pieces of salmon.
11. Cook the salmon and toppings in a George Foreman grill for about 4-5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the salmon).
12. Place the cooked salmon on a plate, add the couscous beside it, and garnish with plum tomatoes and chopped celery.

Bon appetit!

TTFN

The Wonder of Chicken!

I follow a blog called French Letters, by  a lady from a town near Nîmes, and a couple of posts ago she described how she'd got addicted to a particular chicken dish. So, I decided to try it out.

I should warn you that while this is really easy,
a. it has peanuts
b. we have pictures, finally. Only about 16 months late !!

Here are all the ingredients for a large batch - 4 peppers (2 red, 2 orange), 2 bunches of spring onions and two small ones of cilantro. 3 medium chicken breasts. This has to feed several people, and wwill easily be enough!

You'll need a large frying pan and an oven pot, such as a Pyrex or Arcopol glass bowl with a flat base and lid (I used an Arcopol 26).
So, to start, there's two parts that come together during the process.
1. The Meat.
2. The Gravy

The Meat
This was chicken. She used thighs, but I used two chicken breasts double cut to make four thin pieces.
Preparation here is simple; heat maybe two or three tablespoons of oil in a large pan and fry the chicken on each side until it's cooked and browned just a bit. The first couple of times you turn it, sprinkle a little salt over the top before the turn, so it heats and melts and flavours the meat as it heats up.
When the chicken pieces are done place them flat in the bottom of your oven-proof dish.
Turn your oven on to 350F.





At this point I started rice in my rice cooker; you have just enough time to do this and have it be ready when the dish emerges from the oven.

The Gravy
The ingredients are these:

Diced Red Bell Pepper	1 tsp Cinnamon
Chopped Cilantro	1 tsp Paprika
Chopped Spring Onions	2 tsp Ginger
Peanut Butter	A little Salt
1 can of Coconut Milk	Pepper to taste.

Prep
For my first attempt I used a bunch of eight small Spring Onions and chopped them completely (excepting the roots and dried tips, of course!). I used a small box of Cilantro from the supermarket and one really large but very firm red Bell Pepper.
When taking the pictures here I used four peppers and two bunches of spring onions, along with two cans of coconut milk.
Method
Using the oil left in the pan after the chicken has been cooked, add the vegetables and fry them for about 3-4 minutes until they begin to wilt. Then add the spices (right-hand column) and stir them in to the frying vegetables. After a minute or so, add two good dollops of peanut butter and then the Coconut milk. Mix all the ingredients well, stirring so that the peanut butter mixes in to the coconut milk.
Pour this mixture over the chicken breasts in the pot.




Cover the pot and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Remove pot from oven, uncover, and let it start to cool.

At this point my rice was cooked, so I could fill plates with beds of rice.

Plate your masterpiece, serve, and bask in the applause from your family and guests.

TTFN

Food From Long Ago

Well, not the food itself, but ...
I recently discovered,  during one of out many moves, a book from probably my great grandmother. It sings the praises of a piece of wonderful new kitchen equipment - the gas stove!!! This dates it to around the 1890s. As my mother was born in 1921 and my grandmother in the 1890s, my great-granny takes the blame! It was written by Miss Amy Atkinson and Miss Grace Holroyd.



I also discovered, in the same trove, a copy of The Olio Cookery Book, 14th Edition, from 1922. This is a rather interesting find, although much younger. It offers a lot of recipes, it is true, but also many tips interspersed amongst the recipes. For an example, on page 144 one may find recipes for Sherry Whey, Raw Beef Tea, Quickly-Made Lemon Jelly, Special Suet Pudding, and Invalid Pudding. After that come two Cures For Neuralgia and a Boer Embrocation For Sprains. Page 145 has a variety of remedies - for afflictions as varied as Boils, Rheumatism, Corns, and Chilblains!
This book was written by a Miss L. Sykes.
Both books contain fascinating little insights into the past, and quick simple little recipes very suitable for today.

With a little bit of research you can find both of these books in a database online from the University of California at Davis. Believe it or not, you can obtain copies of both books from Amazon UK !

Anyway, on to the food!!

Sausage and Tomato Pie

Ingredients

1 lb sausages, chopped as shown	2-3 medium onions, sliced
3 plum tomatoes, sliced	Salt and pepper
Half a cup of stock
2 cups Idahoan dried Mashed Potatoes	3 cups of water
1 stick of butter	1 cup of milk

The Chopped Onions. You'll see that at least one had sprouted. This isn't a problem, excepting that most of the bulb was useless - the green part was still good!

The sausage I used was Amylu's fully cooked Chicken Andouille. I got a pack of 8 from CostCo and used four here. For info on the product see here.

Procedure

You will need a container to cook this in: I used a glassware loaf dish, about 26x15x8 cm.

1. Start the oven heating to 350F.
2. Slice up the onions, tomatoes, and sausage. 
3. Fry the onions until well-browned - the picture below is about 2 or 3 minutes from the end.     
4. If you're using raw sausages then prick the skins well and cook them gently in boiling water for 5-10 minutes until pretty well cooked through.
5. Fry the sausage gently until the pieces are reasonably browned. You don't need to totally cook these sausages - they already are cooked! (See the next picture!)
6. Put a pan on to heat with the water, milk, and butter. Let it come to a boil.
7. Add the dried mash to the water mix and whisk to mix it. The dry flakes will rapidly turn back into mashed potatoes!
8. Put the sausage pieces in the bottom of the dish and cover with the onions. 
9. Add the stock and the tomato slices 
10. Slather on the mash. Smooth it down to neatness with a fork.
11. Place in the oven on a baking tray and cook for about 30 minutes, until the tips of the potato turn brown.
12. Serve!

Onions frying!

As you can see, I've been fighting Blogger a bit to get this to post. I hope you enjoy it.

TTFN