Attifood

The next episode is almost wrapped up. Sadly no dancing in this one-- just a lot of flubbed lines. I just have some voice-over stuff to do and then it's going live. Hopefully before the weekend, in time for your Sunday brunch.

Tonight's dinner was a last minute throw-together thing that required about five minutes of prep and about 40 minutes of oven time.

It's October and nothing says "October" better than 'kraut, sausage, apples, cider, and beer. So here it was: I emptied a can of sauerkraut into a baking dish, mixed in a 1/2 cup of apple cider and two peeled/chopped McIntosh apples, and then put some turkey kielbasa on top. I convection-baked at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes (go with 375 if you're not using convection.) I served it with some dijon mustard for dipping and a good German lager for the wash-down. Before I knew it, there was a mini-Octoberfest in 45 minutes or less. The sweetness of the apples and cider played off against the sourness of the 'kraut really well and the beer was the perfect compliment. Even the kids liked it-- minus the beer, of course!

See, this cooking thing is not so hard sometimes!

For some reason I've been craving spaghetti and clams for the past couple of days. So today Tonya and I made a quick stop to the Safeway on the way home where I picked up a couple of cans of clams-- yeah, yeah, I know they weren't fresh out of the rake-- but they got the job done admirably. I also picked a cheap bottle of white wine while I was there to use for cooking.

This is another really easy one and again even the kids liked it. The only "work" part was crushing the garlic. I kind of played around with this one and added about a tablespoon basil and a pinch of oregano so it ended up being a merging of pesto and white wine clam sauce. Adding a pinch of ground red pepper added a hint of zing, too. And let's face it, the smell of garlic being sautéed in olive oil is olfactory perfection.

Try it some time:

2 6 oz. Cans of Chopped Clams in Clam Juice
2-3 Garlic Cloves, Crushed/Minced (go for the 3, go for the 3!)
1/3 Cup Finely Chopped White Onion
2 Tbl Butter
1 Tbl Basil
1/4 tsp Ground Red Pepper
1/2 cup White Wine
1 lb Thin Linguini/Spaghetti
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start the water for the pasta-- don't forget to salt the water!

Open the cans of clams and drain the juice from each one into a container-- save the juice, you'll be needing it! Coat the bottom of a pan with Olive Oil and heat on medium-high. Saute the garlic-- the kitchen will now smell perfect. Lower the heat and carefully add the wine and the reserved clam juice from the cans. Then add the Basil, Red Pepper, and a few grinds of black pepper. Let it simmer.

Cook the pasta. When the pasta is almost ready, add the chopped clams to the simmering sauce and let them heat thoroughly-- don't cook them too long or they'll get too tough and rubbery.

Drain the pasta, put it in a large bowl, add the butter and give it few tosses. Pour the clam sauce over top. Serve it up.

Add a Caesar salad as a side, and some white wine, and you're go to go.

I hope everyone's turkey day was as thankful as possible. Ours rocked-- and was indeed full of thanks. The Good: brining the bird. The bad: Pumpkin Risotto. The Ugly: People's faces after tasting the pumpkin risotto. Hey, you gotta experiment sometimes... especially on your guests.

I've converted my kitchen back into a studio, and I'm laying down a few more episodes that should be ready for viewing next week.

Stay tuned!

And stay away from the pumkin risotto. Seriously.

So what's the best way for a foodie to start the week? Try food poisoning! Not sure what I tangled with Sunday night, but Monday I was mostly fetal. Good times! I was back on my feet Tuesday, and very happy to see the number of views for Hot Chocolypto go through the roof on YouTube, thanks to BoingBoing featuring it on their site (thanks Xeni!) It was at 6,000+ views last I saw.

In a word, wow.

Yes, eloquently spoken, I know.

I was still a little run-down Tuesday evening, but still needed to get dinner on the table. I am going to come clean here and enter the foodie confessional pantry: I made pasta... and used JARRED TOMATO SAUCE! (queue shocking music). I know, I know, how could I?

Jarred pasta sauces can be pretty good-- you've got to hunt around and try a few until you find something suitable to your tastes. Once you find something you like, you can also do what I like to do if I have to go the store-bought route: add some extras to the pot. Like these (either by themselves, or combinations):

- A can or jar of artichoke hearts, drained
- Fresh or canned sliced mushrooms
- Roasted red peppers
- Sliced olives

Experiment, you never know...

The very little cooking trend will continue this week as Thursday night is my wife's holiday party at Citronelle. Sweet-- Bring it on.

Finally! I said we were on the map when Starbucks showed up in our local strip. I said we were really on the map when Clyde's opened up it's flagship restaurant just a few blocks down from our house. Oh, and Bonefish Grill-- we've arrived!

But what I think what really puts a community on the map is the arrival of the Saturday Farmer's Market. And this past Saturday it finally happened-- on the back lot of our neighborhood community center, Farmer John (I kid you not) pulled up his pick up trucks and unloaded palettes of locally-grown produce. I grabbed Graham and we loaded up on squash, beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peaches, and a dozen ears of corn. Here's a little tip-- be sure to inspect the ears of corn your five-year-old picks out, they may come with extra, slightly wormy, protein.

I'm also excited about the produce that I've managed to get going in my own garden this year. First, there's an herb garden of thyme, sage, basil, and rosemary. So far I've only used the basil and rosemary as I haven't been cooking as much this summer as thought I would. I will have to remedy that.

Of course, what's a garden without tomatoes. I'm trying out some giant, heirloom beefsteaks. The plant started out a little slow, but midway through the summer it exploded in size and in blooms. It's finally loaded up with fruit and I'm having visions of tomato, mozzarella, and basil salads in my future.

The biggest surprise was my single jalapeño plant. I've harvested quite a few peppers from that plant and it seems I haven't made a dent. There's enough there to try a little experimentation. I think I'm going to try putting a bunch in the smoker and make some of my own chipotle sauce. I'll document how that goes-- it's going to be spicy!

I really enjoy cooking when I am asked to bring something to a party. Oh what to bring, what to bring? The challenge is presented, I comb through recipes, scour my "What to Bring to the Next Party" files, and finally just surf the net for cutting edge, trendy-gourmet, yummy miracles. This past weekend we attended my hubby's office barbeque and I volunteered to bring the dessert because just one week prior I had found "The Real Crepe Cake" #2306 from www.tastespotting.com. Who made this delightful cake? Is there a recipe somewhere? I had to know more, so I clicked the picture and happily found the recipe and its story on this site www.creampuffsinvenice.ca. I was giddy, elated, I could go on and on... Well to make a long story longer, the cake made a huge show, each guest gathered 'round while I brûléed, sliced and served its towering creaminess to their quaking, drooling selves. The heavens opened, the angels sang, and the cake was declared a master piece by all. Doth one exaggerate? Who me?

Last week we journeyed to New England. My birthplace. It was wonderful to see family and friends, relax and explore, and of course EAT! I like to visit my favorite spots (Kelly’s Roast Beef at Revere Beach and the Boston Chipyard in Faneuil Hall) but I added some new ones on this trip. The first place was serendipitous. We were traveling north on Rt. 16 toward North Conway, NH and saw the parking lot of The Pizza Barn packed. We knew it had to be good and we were mighty hungry. What a pleasant surprise that Italian style pizza served in a barn could be so good. The crust was perfect and the pepperoni piled high, five and six slices high to be exact– no lie! The atmosphere was just that of a barn, lofty, open beamed, and filled with picnic tables and benches.

The next was an adorable café in North Conway, appropriately named, Peaches. Although is was raining we chose to sit outside in the tented courtyard. This called for a round of hot chocolate. We were told that the Peaches and Cream coffeecake was to die for and died we did. I picked at it and prodded it until I think I figured out how it was made. There was a familiar, secret flavor in there that I just couldn’t put my tongue on… is it anise? Basil?...Ach! I will post a recipe when I have it perfected so stay tuned. Dan and I savored the Eggs Benedicts which were perfect. The kids gobbled down kiddy-sized French Toast and Pancakes. The crowds never ceased as I spied other patrons plates and envied their choices as well.

One highlight of the trip was heading into Eastie (Boston that is) and eating at the famous Santarpio’s Pizza. (Please do not pronounce the “R” as you will sound stupid! SAN-TAH-PEEYOS!) The skewered lamb appetizer served with cherry peppers and bread was simplicity and excellency on a plate. Their pizza, again a perfect crust and just the right amount of cheese to sauce ratio, was classic. The place was a hole in the wall and the old Italian gold-chain-laced waiter was probably an original, but my Auntie shared her memories of the place as she and my mom grew up just around the corner on Bremen Street. The room in which we sat used to be the bread bakery that sold piping hot bread right from their ovens for 25¢ a huge loaf. Auntie said the bread has not changed and I had to agree it was heaven with its crusty exterior and feathery light interior.

With the smoky scent of Santarpio’s on my fingers, a few extra pounds on me bum, and some great new memories, we headed on south for home.

After searching the net for a copy cat recipe of this lavish coffee cake, discovered at the café "Peaches" in North Conway, NH, a thought occurred to me, a memory actually. I had eaten this before, in fact I have even made this cake in my previous life (BC, "Before Children...") My roommate in college gave me this recipe after she successfully served it to her three starving roomies. I did tweak the recipe a bit so that it lined up more with what I sampled at "Peaches". The result was perfect. I accomplished a coup d'etat of their famous, guarded recipe. Or maybe I am not so clever and the recipe has been lurking in housewives’ recipe boxes for generations as it had mine for the last eighteen years. Que sera sera!

The recipe…
Grease the bottom of a 9" square baking pan
3/4 cup flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 1/4 oz box vanilla non instant pudding
3 T. butter
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/8 t. anise extract
Combine in a large mixing bowl and beat for two minutes at medium speed and pour into prepared pan. Drain a can of peach halves (reserve the juice), you will need 5 halves sliced very thinly and placed evenly over the batter. In the same mixing bowl (no need to mess another), mix one 8 ounce brick of cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of the reserved juice, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Pour this over the peaches with in one inch of the edge of the pan. Sprinkle top with cinnamon and a little sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is still soft but a little bubbly. Eat warm and store in fridge and reheat as needed.

On a daily basis I hear from my children, “I’m bored.” I respond with, “Good! Boredom is healthy.” Then to confirm my beliefs that boredom is healthy and can lead to many wonderful creations I found this quote. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” -Ellen Parr

My mind constantly wanders and if there were an award for daydreaming it would be mine year after year. My mother usually refers to me as “my daughter the dreamer.” Dreams are good and dreams are free. Right?

So one day while daydreaming I came up with an algorithm (a finite list of well-defined instructions for accomplishing some task) for planning my dinner menu for 6 months at a time. Maybe I have too much time on my hands or I just want more time on my hands. But here is what I came up with…

1. Decide how many days of the week you will cook. (I chose 5 plus one leftover night and one night to eat out.)
2. Assign each day of the week with a “Food Plan”.
   Ex. Sunday/Chicken, Monday/Crock Pot, Tuesday/Italian, Wednesday/Salad, Thursday/Leftovers, Friday/Eat Out, Saturday/Sandwich
3. Take each “Food Plan” and write as many recipes or ways to serve this item that you know.
   Ex. Chicken– Buffalo wings, parmesan, chicken salad, chicken cordon bleu, fried, cacciatore...
   Crock Pot– drip beef sandwiches, French dip, Coke roast, 40 clove chicken...
   Italian– Lasagna, spaghetti, stromboli, ravioli… Salad- Cobb, chef, Caesar
   Eat Out– Thai, seafood, pizza...
   Sandwiches– hotdog, hamburger, BLT, Sloppy Joe’s, subs...
4. Make a grid with 8 columns and 27 rows. See below but continue labeling all the way to Week 26.

   	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
   Week 1
   Week 2
   Week 3

5. Fill in each day with the items from its assigned “Food Plan” rotating* those items until all 26 weeks are filled.

   	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
   Week 1	Buf Wings	Drip Beef	Lasagna	Cobb	Leftovers	Out-Thai	Hotdog
   Week 2	Ch Parm	Fr. Dip	Spag.	Chef	“	Out– SF	Hamb.
   Week 3	Ch Salad	Coke Roast	Stromboli	Caesar	“	Out –Pizza	BLT

Now that you have 26 weeks worth of dinner menus, you may want to alter the list according to seasons. It may be wise to create one for October-March and one for April–September. Or use the same menu twice just changing the side dishes according to what is in season. I have benefited in many ways from this algorithm. It has saved me time, money, and countless afternoons wondering what to make for dinner. I can also cook ahead by purchasing chicken in bulk and make 3-4 weeks worth of my chicken dishes on the list and freeze them. This list is never written in stone as plans can change. But I find there are more unchanged plans than changed plans so it is good to be ready. Back to dream land...

Add this to your “Things-to-keep-on-hand-for-fast-and-excellent-meals” list: Boneless, skinless chicken thighs. This is one item that I try to keep bulk packs of in the freezer. Typically I buy a 16-pack and divide it in half for freezer storage. It’s easy to prepare, forgiving to overcook, has a decent amount of fat-giving flavor (just be sure to trim some off to prevent grill flare-ups), and even the free-range, organic variety is easy on the wallet. A sixteen pack typically gets me two dinners and two lunches of leftovers.

And, oh, is it versatile! Fine Cooking featured a few different recipes this past summer for grilling them and I’ve yet to be disappointed. A couple of weeks ago I tried the Rosemary Grilled recipe and it rocked.

It’s a simple rub featuring minced, fresh rosemary, brown sugar, kosher salt, and some crushed red pepper flakes for some bite. My herb garden from the summer is still kicking out rosemary despite being iced-over a few times, so I snagged a fresh sprig. I also added some chopped green onion that I happened to have on hand. Good move.

On the side is an orange marmalade, rice wine vinegar, and rosemary dipping sauce. Typically not an orange marmalade kind of guy, its sweet and sour accompaniment convinced me otherwise. It’s simple to prepare—one cup of marmalade, ¼ rice wine vinegar, and a teaspoon of minced rosemary all warmed together on the stove.

The chicken itself is easy—combine the rub, toss it with the chicken and a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil and then it’s onto a medium-high grill for about five minutes per side. Done.

I served it with a side of simple jasmine rice. One little cool twist on the rice was dropping in a cube of crystallized ginger to cook with the rice. It added a light hint of ginger flavor to the rice—just enough to make you to say, “what is that?” (in a good way, really.) and proved a nice pairing to the Asian-inspired chicken.

So stock up on the thighs. And make this first. Then, follow it up next weekend with the Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Thighs. That was pure, curried bliss.

Meh.

I saw this recipe in a cook book at my mom's house and it seemed like it would be good. It was so-so. I'll be sticking with this one in the future.

The recipe, in case you're looking for something different:

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 clove chopped garlic
4 lbs mussels
3 oz (1/3 cup) smoked salmon

In a 5qt pot, combine first 3
Bring to a Simmer
Add mussels and salmon and cook over medium heat, uncovered 5-6 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Last weekend I prepared a surf-and-turf dinner for eight with a twist. No steamed lobsters and New York strips this time around, instead a spicy, tangy journey across Central America. First, petit filet mignons with a Mexican-inspired red wine and port reduction infused with the spice and flavor of smoked jalapenos, thyme, mushrooms, and onion. For the starch, I went with fried yucca. The surf came in a stack of rice, a mixture of mango, avocado, lime juice, and jalapeno, and a top-layer mixture of swordfish ceviche and jumbo lump crab meat. Plated, it all came together like this:

(click to crabstackusize)

Building the stack was the biggest challenge of the day, fortunately a make-ahead item for this menu, as it's served cold. Making the stacks requires a ring mold, or even a short (and, of course, clean!) section of pvc pipe from your local hardware store. I used an adjustable, plunger-style measuring cup to build the stacks, which allowed me to really give them a good squeeze that held them in one piece and keep a uniform size.

I made this for eight, so recipe-wise, I've tried to reduce it for four.

The rice:
1 cup jasmine rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2" cube of crystalized ginger (optional)

Cook the rice using your preferred method. Let it cool, then refrigerate, as it's easier to work with cold at assembly time.

The mango mixture middle:
1 1/2 mangoes, diced in 1/4" chunks
1 avocado, diced
1/2 medium-sized red onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
zest of 1/2 lime
juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

Gently combine all ingredients until evenly mixed. Refrigerate. Onwards!

The crab and and swordfish ceviche:
1 lb fresh swordfish, diced in 1/4" chunks
1 lb fresh jumbo lump crabmeat
juice of 1/2 lime
zest of 1/2 lime
1/2 to 1 tsp Sriracha hot sauce

Combine the lime juice, zest, and hot sauce with the swordfish. Place in refrigerator for about 15 minutes to let the acidic lime juice go to work on the swordfish. Remove from the fridge and combine with the crab meat.

And now, we stack.

(click to crabstackusize)

The first layer, the base, is the rice. Next comes the mango mixture, followed by the seafood. I did everything upside-down in the mixing cup, turned it over, gave it a good press, and then slowly lifted the mixing cup up, while pressing the rest of the plunger out. (Maybe that needs a video or something) Any how...

Measuring it out it's about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of rice for the base, 1/3 cup of mango mixture, and 1/3 cup of the seafood.

Top it with three thin slices of cucumber and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Garnish with a spring of fresh cilantro. Consume.

It must be pure as an angel.
Strong as love.
Black as the devil
And hot as hell.
- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

I'm at BlogWorldExpo 2008, in the cool, stylish, exciting, entertaining, tragically seedy, and love-or-hate-it city of Las Vegas. I've much to blog about which I eventually will including a tour of Belgium beers at the Burger Bar with Cliff Lusso from Global Beer, a fantastic lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, and an excellent dinner at Todd English's Olives.

But it was coffee on my mind this morning after a late night of exploring the LV Strip. Of course SBUX was my ultimate supplier-- I spotted a Peet's at Mandalay Bay, but it's a little too far. The drip delivered in it's two tablespoons per six ounces, and I got my fix.

And therein lies the question: two Tbl of coffee to six ounces of water? Really? Have you ever tried that at home? I have, proper grind density and all, and do you know what? Strength: Pure biodiesel. So what's up with that recommended recipe, Starbucks? We find that at home, around 1.5 Tbl (or a well-rounded Tbl) per six ounces produces a perfectly strong brew for us, though everyone complains, er, remarks, that our coffee is on the strong side. I feel that anything less produces a taste that's over-extracted and burned.

So how does your mileage vary?