Category Archives: dinner

Jun 27 0 comments
dinner, quick fix

nectarine steak

  • Petite Sirloin
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Cayenne
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 Nectarine
  • Honey

I’m sure most of you have cooked a steak before but for this steak I used Adam Roberts’, from the Amateur Gourmet, tip for cooking steaks like they do in restaurants. Before I cook any type of meat, I always season and allow the meat to rest for about half-an-hour before the actual cooking. This steak only takes no more than ten minutes to cook anyway. Hell, you could even cook it in about five.

Cover all edges of the steak liberally with salt and black pepper. I only dashed cayenne onto one side of my steak. This thing was about one pound. It was ginormous. I found it while browsing the local supermarket, they had some decent cuts of fresh meat on a special display designed to entice people into barbequeing. The cut was about half an inch thick and the length was approximately twelve inches. A decent slab of meat.

Prepping the nectarine was slightly more difficult than the steak. I bought a quite fresh nectarine so it did not want to part from the pit without a struggle. Just make some slices about 1/4 inch thick. If we make them too thin, we will lose the texture that we are aiming for.

Preheat your pan with three tablespoons of the butter. We are going to be cooking at a high heat so don’t be afraid to use the highest setting on your burner, unless you have cheap cook-wear. Once the pan is ready things will go very quickly from this point.

Place your seasoned steak into the pan and make sure you have your fan on or healthy ventillation because I neglected this step and my sister’s fire alarm went off for about five minutes before the air finally cleared enough for the alarm to feel comfortable with the air quality once again. We are going to sear each side for about thirty seconds so that both sides are nice and brown before allowing the rest of the steak to cook. I probably did this wrong compared to the method I was basing it on but it still turned out pretty good.

If you like your steaks slightly bloody in the middle do not be afraid to take the steak off too soon as it cooks very fast this way. After cooking each side for about two to three minutes arrange your nectarine slices on top then go ahead and use the rest of your butter as the pan is probably drying up by now. Cover your steak for no longer than three more minutes and turn the heat off if you need to if you want your steak medium rare. The nectarine slices will warm slightly but they don’t really need to cook all the way through. You should have enough slices of nectarine to cover the whole steak with no room in between.

Drizzle just a tiny bit of honey on top of the nectarines and then eat the whole thing. You can share your steak if you want or you can keep it all to yourself. I had two small children running around outside and they looked pretty hungry. Turns out they were, between the two year old and the three year old they ate half of my steak. Definitely a good meal to eat outside while it is nice.

I topped this meal off with some fresh corn on the cob with the husks still on. You can cook your corn at 450 – 475 for as long as you want. The husks do a great job of keeping the moisture in but I cooked mine for about foty-five minutes.

For dessert walk down the street and buy some shaved ice.

Jun 22 0 comments
dinner

Bleu-Bacon Meatloaf Burgers

If you like bacon, this has plenty.bleuburger
  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 9 slices bacon
  • 6 oz bleu cheese
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 c toasted bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 milk
  • 2-3 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 T dijon mustard
  • salt and pepper
  • buns
  • toppings (ketchup, mustard, onion, lettuce, more bleu cheese and bacon, etc.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sautee onion and garlic till translucent. Place in a large bowl. Fry bacon and add half of it to the bowl with the onions and garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients except buns and toppings and mix thoroughly.  Form into 6 large balls and place on a baking sheet.  Make a large dent in the balls and add bleu cheese and  remaining bacon to each, pinching ground beef around the hole to close. Flatten, taking care not to let any of the filling to get out.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well done. Serve on buns with your choice of toppings.

May 14 0 comments
dinner, ghetto

ghetto pork ribs

I normally don’t consume pork, but the food co-op always includes about a pound of the stuff whenever I get food from them and my kitchen is quite bare so I made some quick ribs. Those of you who enjoy pork or slow cooked ribs, leave now because I will probably offend you.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound pork ribs, mine didn’t have bones for some reason
  • paprika
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • crushed red pepper
  • maple syrup
  • basil
  • onion powder
  • 4 oz can of diced chiles

I always salt and pepper my meat for anywhere from five minutes to half-an-hour. It’s a good habit to get into. Tell you why later. After generously covering my ribs with salt and pepper, I dashed in some onion powder and then generously covered each piece with paprika. Covering the meat so that you can’t see the meat anymore, only in spots. Dash a bit of basil and then spread crushed red pepper all over.

After about fifteen minutes, long enough for the oven to pre-heat to 325, I lay the meat in a single layer in my skillet. I don’t have a pan for the oven and I probably won’t buy one for a while. My pots and pans do a fine enough job of it. Before I built a cute little tent out of tinfoil, I soaked each piece in maple syrup. Taking care not to disturb the dry rub, I placed the syrup on each piece carefully. The syrup should be thick enough to not wash off your rub.

Before placing in the oven for an hour, I made sure that I had maybe an 1/8th of an inch to a 1/4 of an inch of water in my pan before closing the aluminum foil tent just barely enough so that steam could escape.

An hour later I tossed in a can of diced chiles, turned the heat up to 375 and then browned the meat for another 12 minutes. This stuff ended up tasting pretty good. I wasn’t disappointed.

I still had some brown rice from the food co-op and it made for a nice filler tossed with a couple drops of liquid smoke and a hint of mustard.

Minimal effort, happy tummy.

Mar 03 0 comments
dinner, ghetto, improv

ghetto cornflake chicken

A delicious recipe that I used for the Awkward Hour cooking special last Saturday. Delicious!

  • 5 lbs chicken breasts with bones and skin
  • 1 c flour
  • 1 tsp rosemary
  • 1 c buttermilk
  • dash hot sauce
  • 4 c cornflakes, crushed
  • salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread salt and pepper over the chicken and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. You can use this time to prepare other food or conversely feed the cat, put gel in your hair, etc.

If your cat is properly fed then add some more salt and pepper to the buttermilk in a large bowl. Chop the rosemary. Fresh rosemary is the best, but at $3.00 for a little pack you either need to grow your own, you can even use that hydroponics set up from your failed weed-growing venture, or get dried. Dried works as long as it’s fresh. So, add the rosemary and hot sauce to the buttermilk and put the chicken in there and let it soak 20-30 minutes.

Feed the cat again or maybe reorganize your stamp collection.

Okay. This part requires three semi-large bowls. If you don’t have bowls Tupperware works. If you don’t have Tupperware, consult your nearest Tupperware party.

Drain the buttermilk into a bowl. Put the flour and cornflakes in bowls as well. Coat the chicken in the flour, then the buttermilk and finally roll it in the cornflakes.

FInally place your chicken on baking sheets and bake for about 45 minutes or until there is no pink left. It’s really good! Try it!

Feb 28 0 comments
dinner

salsa verde

I promised to share the recipe I used for salsa verde which I topped the Vermouth Seared Scallops with from last week’s meal.

  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley
  • zest from 2 small lemons or one large
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped capers
  • dash of salt
  • olive oil (enough to just barely cover the whole mixture)

This doesn’t require much preparation other than letting the mixture sit for a few moments before serving. Chilling it in the fridge before serving definitely helps with the flavor.

Just chop everything up coarsely, and mix together. That’s about it. I borrowed this recipe from Alice Waters once again except she makes hers slightly different. I just eyeball the recipe and above are the approximate amounts for how much I use when I make this.

Feb 24 2 comments
dinner

awkward hour squid

I had the pleasure of cooking for a live audience this last Saturday. I had a lot of fun and we had some guests who were watching the web-cast come and join us in the end. Three items were prepared so I will try and keep the commentary short and let the rest speak for itself.

  1. Cucumbers with Cream and Mint
  2. Vermouth Seared Scallops topped with Salsa Verde
  3. Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

The first item, Cucumbers with Cream and Mint I copied out of The Art of Simple Food. This was actually the last item I chose for dinner. Sometimes I work my menu backwards, choosing the main course first.

Cucumbers w/ Cream & Mint

Cucumbers w/ Cream & Mint

 

  • 2 cucumbers
  • 3 or 4 sprigs of mint
  • 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 juiced lemon
  • splash or two of olive oil
  • sprinkling of sea salt
  • dash of cumin

I am just estimating the ingredients I used for the Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Slice the cucumbers into 1/8″ slices and sprinkle with sea salt. In a separate container mix the cream, olive oil, mint, lemon juice (this reacts with the milk and gives it some body after stirring vigorously), and cumin. All that needs to be done once the sauce is ready is toss in a bowl. I can tell you that the cumin added quite an interesting and delicious dimension to this dish.

 

  • 2 lbs squid
  • 2 lbs leeks
  • 2 or 3 sprigs of dried thyme
  • 3 or 4 pinches of dried oregano
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 8 cloves of garlic (I was lazy and used minced garlic)
  • 2 healthy pours of red wine
  • several small pulls of water
  • healthy dash of cayenne
  • splash of lemon juice
  • parsley for garnishment

 

 

Five pounds of food

Five pounds of food

I cribbed this recipe from the Amateur Gourmet’s Squid & Leeks in Red Wine who in turn cribbed it from Richard Olney’s Simple French Food. I had been wanting to try squid for a while and I was impressed. If you know how to clean your own squid, you can pick it up for ninety-nine cents per pound.

Clean your leeks, there will be dirt in them. I like to cut them in half to separate the green and the white then I cut each of those halves in half lengthwise and then in half crosswise once more. I clean them after cutting lengthwise to allow the water better access to rinsing the insides. While you are playing with the leeks you will want to warm the oil. All of it. After the leeks are rinsed and ready, give them a good turn in the oil and some salt for a few minutes, five or so will do.

While the leeks are softening we want to slice the squid into 1/4″ slices. I kept the little squiggly parts, I wasn’t afraid to eat them. The next step is somewhat of a juggling act but juggling in the kitchen is one of my favorite passtimes. Place the leeks somewhere safe and start cooking the squid. This may take a while because we are going to cook them until all the water has evaporated. This is where I diverged from the previous two incarnations of this recipe. I didn’t have any flour and I did not salt the squid while cooking.

At this point I added the oregano and thyme. After a couple quick stirs I added the garlic and let things sit just long enough for the garlic to start sweating. Here I started pouring in the wine, just a little bit at a time allowing the liquid to come to a simmer before adding more. In between pours of wine I splashed some water in with the ingredients and dropped a couple of bay leaves into the mixture. I was feeling adventurous this night and I felt that a lot of cayenne was in order. I am so glad that I used a generous amount of cayenne here. During the meal it didn’t quite overpower the other flavors and left quite a warm after taste that was somehow pleasantly mellow.

Wait until the liquid is simmering, I took heed from the Amateur Gourmet and used a very low heat, then add the leeks back into the pot. Adam cooked his for an hour and a half longer, my cook time after this point was probably just shy of an hour. This made over four pounds of food and everyone got seconds. At the very end of the cook time I added a splash of lemon juice. Since I didn’t have any croutons I reduced the rest of the liquid to a yummy syrupy sauce that I drizzled over the squid and leeks, then topped with parsley.

  • 1/4 cup vermouth
  • 1 lb scallops
  • olive oil
  • sea salt

The scallops are pretty simple. It’s the Salsa Verde that took more effort but I will have to post that recipe tomorrow.

Heat the oil until you can hold your hand over the pan for no more than a few seconds. You only need enough to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Salt the scallops lightly just before placing them in the pan. 1 lb of scallops fit into my frying pan just fine. Let them sear on one side for six or seven minutes, this will pretty much cook them all the way through. Flip the scallops over, at this time there should not be any liquid left in the pan. The direct heat will add just a bit of color to the other side so quickly pour the vermouth into the pan. After a few moments  most of the vermouth should be gone and you can pull them off the heat.

Top the scallops with some Salsa Verde and enjoy. I will post the recipe for that soon.

Feb 02 0 comments
dinner, improv

frozen pizza plus

Many times, out of laziness or a lack of resources for better ingredients, I will take some prepared food and attempt to add flavor and nutrition to it. Sometimes I fail epically but most of the time I end up with mouth watering yummy.

My sis and my coz can both attest to my last foray into indulgence. She also pointed out to me that some of her favorite dishes that I have prepared came from a drunken stupor. Like the time I made scones and I didn’t have the right ingredients but somehow, magically, we still ended up with scones.

I’d like to start measuring the correlation of my drunkenness to my ability to whip something up. I will liken it to the ‘uncanny valley‘ factor. The more drunk I get, the better the food is. Until I hit the valley. Then anything produced after that point will be met with revulsion. Am I making any sense here?

We took a squarish four cheese Costco frozen pizza out of the fridge and started pre-heating the oven. This is where some of my philosophy for food comes in. I am sure there were plenty of ingredients we could have put on this pizza to make it more nutritious and more appetizing, but I always go with the ingredients that look like they need to be used. Items that are almost gone and will get thrown out if not used with other things.

I saw a quarter of a red onion and a quarter of a roma tomato in the fridge. Perfect. These things naturally taste good on pizzas. Especially with each other. I also cannot resist placing fresh garlic on frozen pizzas. If you ever have a frozen pizza and fresh garlic in the house, it is a must. Being drunk, I was feeling adventurous. Hell, I’ve had pizzas with tomatoes and onions on them before, but have I ever had a pizza with pimentos on it?

Tonight was the night to find out. After the pimentos made it to the pizza I started feeling a little more adventurous and thought that some more green would help the pizza taste and look yummy. Tarragon. I haven’t used tarragon very much in the past so I used that as an excuse to use some now. After this I realized I wanted some spice in my pizza. Tapatio. Tapatio is one of the best hot sauces out there, it has no vinegar.

We were just about done but then I realized that no pizza can be harmed with some oregano. So in went the oregano and out came the pizza eight minutes later because after all the chopping and dicing, the pizza was almost done.

I can’t describe how amazed I was with myself. At first I just attributed this feeling to narcissism combined with alcohol. After the first three pieces I had to have seconds but my little sister had already beat me to the second serving. This is when I realized that maybe it wasn’t all in my head. My final confirmation was when I woke up and was craving the last six pieces but they had already been consumed by my cousin. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. I can’t wait to make this for somebody so that I can try it again.

p. s. If you can tell me why I called it pizza plus and list the source, I will truly respect your trivia prowess.

Jan 29 0 comments
dinner

shoestring spaghetti

I ate all of what I made just to stay full but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could have been. I hope I can remember what I did. I think it involved the following:

  • One half a box or bag of spaghetti noodles
  • One can of roasted diced tomatoes
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 pearl onion (I ran out of regular onions)
  • Thyme
  • Butter
  • Packet of Crushed Red Pepper left over from Pizza Night
  • Packet of Parmesan Cheese left over from Pizza Night

You can probably guess what happened next. The key difference may have been that I started the garlic and the thyme and onion in the butter before dumping in a can of roasted diced tomatoes. Thank goodness I had some leftover ingredients from when my friends bought pizza. Cheap. It’s all about the recycling yo.

Jan 04 2 comments
dinner

Simply Sunday

 

Fine Dining for the Real World

Welcome to Simply Sunday. I am excited to lend some expertise, advice and wisdom. Please feel free to ask questions about your culinary conundrums, seek handy tips, comment or share your experience in the comment section. This first edition is at keldwud’s request, but this weekly spot will also feature my own recipes as well as hints for the begginer and so on. A bit of background: I started cooking for my family when I was 7. I learned quickly how to stretch a little food to feed a lot of people. After getting married, I quickly found a real and pure joy in preparing delicious meals for my husband. Soon word got out that I was a pretty decent cook; soon I found myself being asked to prepare things for church events, family events and so on. I am thrilled to be catering my first wedding in March! I watch a lot of Food Network, and have yet to back down from a challenge. I love food, in all its forms, from all over the world, and I’m so excited to be doing this. Enough about me, though. On to the food! ~Danielle

Corned Beef Hash

While this dish is most popular around St. Patrick’s Day, the truth is, it’s good any time of year! To be honest, corned beef is not something an Irishman during St. Paddy’s actual day would ever have heard of. Be creative. Try corned beef on sandwiches, chopped into a quesadilla, served finely sliced on an antipasti platter. But try this first. You will need:

  • 1 corned beef roast from the market (2-4 pounds depending on how much you plan to eat before hashing it!)
  • 1 small head of cabbage, cut into large chunks
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • Butter, a soft stick
  • 1/3 c. water
  • 2-3 cups hashbrowns OR
  • 2-3 cups diced potatoes (see below)
  • Eggs, two per person
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Cinnamon
  • Slowcooker
  • Large skillet
  • Small skillet
  • Food processor

This is a two step process, which is fine, because you’ll end up eating well twice! I may do another spot later on corning your beef from scratch, but for now we’ll just use a store-prepped hunk o’meat. Take the packet of spices that comes with the roast, and… toss it. Seriously. You don’t need ‘em. Rub your roast generously with black pepper and sprinkle with a hint of cinnamon. Coat the bottom of your slowcooker with butter. Add in a layer of onion, a layer of cabbage, repeat once more. Put your roast on top. Slowly pour water over all, cover, and DO NOT TOUCH for the next 6 hours. (Cook it on low). Remove your meat and let it sit there for 10-15 minutes. Don’t be swayed to slice it any sooner!! If you want yours with carrots and potatoes, that is fine, but be prepared to pick them out later. I would cook my potatoes separately, in slices, either boiled and then fried or just nuke them in the micro.

When you are done with this fine meal, put the leftovers in a container with NO juices included. Take out any carrots/taters you may have cooked it with and place in a different container. Put these in the fridge ’til you’re ready to make your hash!!

To make your hash, put your meat/cabbage/onion mixture in a food processor or a REALLY good blender. Pulverize until it’s almost but not quite the consistancy of ground meat. Take out your skillet and butter it well. Over medium heat, brown either what’s left of last night’s potatoes (diced) or hashbrowns (this will be enough for 2-3 people!). After your first side of potatoes have browned, dump your beef mix on top and then carefully flip it if you know how, or use a wide flat spatula to turn it. In the meantime, in a separate small skillet, fry your eggs, 2 per person. If you don’t know how to do this, don’t worry, there will be an article about eggs in the near future! After about 5 minutes on the second side, use your spatula or a big spoon to mix everything up. Put a serving on a plate, add the eggs on top, salt and pepper your eggs, and add Tabasco if you feel so inclined (which I do). Eat up!

P.S. YOU be the judge. If you have a lot more meat than potato, don’t use all the meat. Or use more potato. ~Danielle

Dec 29 3 comments
dinner

steak and potatoes

Today I made myself steak and potatoes. I had some steak that was defrosted and I hadn’t thought of anything cool to do with them yet so I figured a simple steak and potato meal would be sufficient.

First I started preheating the oven while I wrapped a couple potatoes in some aluminum foil. Then I liberally salted and peppered the meat. I want the meat to sit in its own juices for a moment. A couple cap-fulls of vermouth and a splash of worcestershire probably won’t hurt the flavor.

After throwing the tubers into the oven, I tabbed about two almost three tablespoons of butter into my frying pan. I do not fear fats and oils. You should not either. The idea was to sear the steak and bring the internal temperature up to par as quickly as possible. From prior experiences we had learned that the quality of this steak was quite atrocious. I was hoping that cooking it in this manner would help to avoid the nasty chewy low quality beef flavor that we experienced from previous adventures with this meat.

I left the steak on each side long enough to create a deep brown color. Because the smoking point of the butter wasn’t as high as I needed, I didn’t quite get the color I was looking for. The ideal color would have been the brown you get just before it starts to caramelize on the outside.

After getting some color on both sides I started preparation of the onion. I only had half of a red onion left. About medium sized. This was all I really needed so that worked out fine.

The plan now was to allow that internal temperature to stabilize so I needed a few more minutes with the stove but I didn’t want all the heat going directly into the outside layer of meat. I dumped the onions into the pan and I love the sound that a pan makes when you throw in something fresh. It is one of my most favorite things to hear.

I love the bitter taste of onions so I did not want them cooking too long. Just long enough to soften them a little. So while those were cooking I spread, liberally, some stone ground mustard onto each side of the steaks and cooked both sides for another minute give or take. The smells coming out of my kitchen at this point were making me salivate.

This is where I turned off both the oven and the stove so as to allow the potatoes to cool off and let the frying pan cool a bit before taking the food out. I have this thing with leaving empty hot dishes on my stove. They need to cool off before I make them empty.

The potatoes received just a little bit of salt, butter, pepper, and a topping of ranch chip dip. I don’t know if it is really ranch or not, it is pink, but it came from my fridge and the container says ranch so I assume it is. It almost tastes southwest.

Anyway, I pigged out and ate a steak and a potato and then another half of the steak before I was engorged. Now I am sitting here staring at and smelling my food wishing that I could eat the rest. I really need to learn how to cook single servings.