What can I make with...

          So I found myself waking up from what seemed like a stupor of life recently. I had stopped cooking completely since August, when the SO and I split, and cooking just didn't feel like the right thing to do for some reason. My mom had always told me that food takes on the flavor of the emotions of the cook--and honestly, right about then, my food would have tasted bitter and unappetizing.

But, for some reason--be it my own heart's will to regenerate or just the passing of time--I suddenly wanted to cook again.

So, what to cook?! I found myself with little to no cookable food items in my house...at least, nothing that seemed like an obvious meal solution. I DID have some turkey cutlets and some very, very, very almost bad tomatoes. But that was pretty much it. However, after a bit of scrounging, I came up with this very easy (and very delicious) meal.

TURKEY CUTLETS

some thinly sliced tukey cutlets
1 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. parmesan cheese crumbs
some herbs and spices (I used parsley, sage, and chives)
salt
butter

TOMATO/ONION TOPPING

1 medium tomato
1 medium onion
1 large clove of garlic (or 2 small)
butter
herbs and spices (I used sage and oregano)
salt

1. Wash the cutlets and pat dry with a paper towel. Put the 1 c. of bread and the 1/4 c. of cheese crumbs into a bowl (as opposed to your hand?). Add salt to taste. Yes, you stick your finger in and taste it. Add a pinch of your chosen herbs and mix well. Make sure the whole mixture is evenly distributed.

2. Take each cutlet and put it into the bowl to coat it in crumbs. They obviously can't be TOO dried off for this to work. If they are, quickly stick them under running water and dry them off again to almost dry-ness. The crumbs need to stick, after all.

3. Heat up a skillet on medium heat with two pats of butter, 1/2 Tbsp. each. When it melts, swirl it to coat the pan, and put the cutlets in the butter. Fry about three minutes to a side, more if the cutlets are thicker. The crumbs and the butter help to keep the cutlets moist inside and not too chewy, as is the nature of cutlets sometimes!

4. For the topping, I seeded and cubed the tomatoes, chopped the onion into medium chunks, and minced the garlic. Since I like to absorb flavor, I used the same skillet as the cutlets, and I melted a bit more butter in there (because the bread crumbs tend to absorb the butter they are fried in.) I threw the whole mix into the pan, added some salt and herbs, and let it sautee until the onions were clear. Immediately, I topped the cutlets with it, and served with mayonnaise.

A word on mayonnaise and turkey cutlets: YUM.


I happened to have some desperately frozen peas (last thawed about 1 year ago?) in the freezer, and luckily they thawed out deliciously. I sliced a cuke and called it a meal!
Voila!

So, this week's tip is to be resourceful...it's easy to make great meals with very little. You just have to be creative. :)

Tea Sandwiches and Transversally cut bread

It has been beautiful here in western New York recently, and the SO and I decided to go on a picnic. There is a really beautiful lake nearby that we decided on as the spot for our munching, and the only thing left to do was to figure out what to munch. I didn't have much in my fridge (this is very typical, really) but the SO was hell-bent on making what basically amount to tea sandwiches. We had them a lot when on our trip to Argentina so see his family a couple years ago. They are square, usually thin sandwiches on thin white bread, with a very small amount of filling.

(Image taken from Asado Argentina)

The basic idea behind these is that you have to eat about 50 to satisfy hunger, but they are defninitely light and would be easier to haul around than thirteen Tupperware canisters full of potato salads, cocktail weiners, and all the other elaborate food I wanted to pack. So, we made them. Ah, but how does one get the bread so thin?

By cutting it lengthwise instead of width wise!

The fine people at Wegman's were understandably confused, but could not fight my rock solid logic. 

"This is the last loaf," the bread woman said skeptically. "I can't cut it that way here." We both looked from the loaf in my hand, to the machine, and then back to the loaf. I allowed my face to settle into a patient, oh so very patient smile.

"Is there any reason why you can't do it here? Can't you just put it in the other way around?"

And she did, and it worked. She was definitely not impressed with my bread cutting style, but since it was the last loaf and all (and it's not like I was at the bakery section of a grocery store or anything, right?) I can understand her attachment to it. The point I'm trying to make is that Wegman's is full of excellent people who always try to accommodate the customer. Even if we are weird bread-murderers!

The great thing about these sandwiches is that you can basically put whatever you want on them. We did three types: cuke/mayo/mustard/ham/salt ,  cuke/mayo/tomato pesto/turkey/tomato , and cuke/mayo/tomato/ham/mustard.

Yum!!! We had a great picnic, and though I didn't make fifty, I wish I had--because I really could have eaten at least three more. I wonder how much of sandwich eating is eating a bulky crust? Maybe that's why most people can only eat one real sandwich, but fifteen of these?

Herbed Tomato, Garlic, and Noodle Soup and some CHANGES

Hey there!

Long time no see!

Well, I guess I've been a little lazy, and definitely BUSY, but I'd like to just get right back into the swing of things with this recipe I made the other day. It is the middle of bone-chilling winter here in New York, and I had a horrible cold last weekend, so I wanted to make some sort of a soup to help me weather the sniffles. Now, if you know me at all you will know I am a hoarder of all things cookbook, and I have a million of them, but one of my most recent acquisitions is a Williams Sonoma Cookbook called Pasta Soups & Salads. I know, the lack of a comma in between Pasta and Soups irritated me to no end until I figured out that it was literally a ton of recipes about pasta INSIDE of soups and salads. WooAAhhh!

I don't usually mess with pasta. No joke. I mean, it always kind of seemed like a cop-out dinner. It was the dinner of shame and not glory, especially when you're working on some sort of thesis or something and you just can't stomach the idea of doing more work just to feed yourself, so you just plop a cup of pasta on the stove. Awesome. But no glory.

This soup, though, was glorious. There are noodles in it, which is yummy when you are really sick, and there are tomatoes, which are not yummy in the winter, but I made do. And of course there is a ton of garlic. If you do not like garlic, I recommend cutting the amount down. However, garlic is really good for you. Some of the benefits I found here include:

• a treatment for acne
• a natural antibiotic
• a powerful antioxidant

Rock on, garlic!

Well ok, so here's your recipe. Not many pictures because I got so swept up in blowing my nose and drinking DayQuil every five minutes, making for the most psychedelic cooking experience of all time.

Herbed Tomato and Garlic and Noodle Soup

3 qt water
2 tsp salt
4 oz dried elbow pasta
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and minced
1/4 c. garlic cloves, peeled and minced
3 tomaoes, peeled and seeded or 3 c. canned chopped tomatoes
4 c. Chicken stock
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
1.5 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1.5 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a lrg pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the 2 tsp salt and the elbow pasta and cook until done. Drain pasta and toss immediately with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

2. In a lrg pot over med. low heat, warm the remaing 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onion and garlic and saute slowly, stirring, until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, parsley, chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary and simmer for 20 min. Add pasta, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until pasta is heated through, about 2 min.

I made provolone and chive grilled cheese sandwiches for this, but you can do whatever. YAY!

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In some other news, there are going to be some changes to this blog. I am going to start posting a little more of the other things I do, including sewing, local restaurant critiques, and even the occasional "What I wore" post where I spend a chunk of time discussing fashion and what I think about it.

It'll be fun. Stay tuned.

CHICKEN WEEK, DAY TWO

I find that typing in all caps makes my entry titles feel VERY IMPORTANT. Another thing that is VERY IMPORTANT is using all of the leftovers of this chicken I made! So, last night for dinner, I made Linguine with Shredded Chicken Thigh, Mozzarella, Basil, and Cherry Tomatoes.

Here's what you need for one serving.

1 Leftover Chicken thigh

Pasta measured out for one (check out my awesome measuring thing in a few lines)

Four big basil leaves, fresh

a handful of cherry tomatoes (or whatever tomatoes you have)

some mozarella

1. Set your pasta to boil in some lightly salted water. See my awesome thing? It was only ten whole cents. What a sweet bargain! And I never have to guess how much spaghetti to make ever again.

2. Shred your chicken thigh into manageable pieces, either with your hands or with two forks.

3. Take your cherry tomatoes and slice them in half....

into

...and combine them with the chicken in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave this for about two minutes to let the chicken get hot (because I hope you've been keeping it in the fridge, not letting it fester on your counter.... :/ ) and to let the tomatoes release some of their juices. Toss with a little bit of salt and set aside.

4. Chop up basil and shred the mozzarella as fine as you can. Of course, already shredded is easier, but don't let the challenge scare you.

5. Drain the pasta and mix it, the basil, and the cheese in with your chicken and tomatoes. Toss to coat, then put it into a nice bowl.

Day two...COMPLETE!

IT'S CHICKEN WEEK!

Welcome to CHICKEN WEEK!!!!

Basically what is happening is I made an entire roast chicken on Sunday...a 3.9 pounder from Honey Hill Farm. If you have never tried an organic, grass fed, free range chicken, you are missing out. It tastes like CHICKEN....I mean, like the chicken taste you could only ever dream of. Anyways, I made it.

I stuffed it with some of this mystery squash:

(what is this thing????who cares, it tastes good....)

 ...along with some chopped garlic, carrots, and scallions sauteed in butter. I tied the little legs together and rested it upon a bed of roughly chopped onion slices. I brushed it with a mixture of mustard, olive oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, more garlic, and basil. I baked it until my thermometer said  170. I took it out and drained the juices, strained the onions and bits and poured off the fat, and added lemon juice. I used this as a salad dressing. mmmmm!

BUT WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL OF MY LEFTOVER CHICKEN?

Lucky I am so crafty, huh? This week is all about you, the low-on-pocket-change messy chef in training, who has all this chicken and knoweth not what to do. I will make one new chicken recipe with my leftovers each day, finishing off THE ENTIRE bird....carcass and all. :) You won't get tired of it, I promise.

Onwards and upwards!

DAY ONE, MONDAY:  Chicken Salad Sandwiches for lunch!

1. Pick the meat off of the carcass of the chicken, what is left after you've carved it up. Should look like this. 

2. Add some mayonnaise. This is my favorite brand because it still has the "tang" of fresh mayo. Of course, if you want to be fancy, make your own, by all means. Not that I have ever been successful with that, but go ahead. That is another entry in the making, I guess.... hmm..

3. Add some fruit. Some people like apples, others grapes. I had asian pears. Whatever you like. You can chop up celery too. Not a fruit...still awesome.

4. So now you chop the solid bits up as fine as you like them, and mix them together with some mayo. Add slowly, because you don't want to overdo it and drown out the delicious flavors that mix when chicken and fruit come together as one. :) say it with me: "ommmmmm.....ommmmmm....nomnomnomnom!"

The Choke's on me.

All Hail the artichoke, the most noble and under-appreciated of all bizarre vegetables! 

The artichoke is a beast that I have steered away from in the supermarket for years. It is like the ultimate challenge. You know it is somehow impossible to cook and/or eat, and yet someday someone is going to point a finger at you and demand, 

"HAVE YOU EVER COOKED AN ARTICHOKE?"

...and your answer will be a tiny, meek, helpless,

"no."

It's okay though. Don't cry. I'm here to save you....the secret that your gourmand elitist friend doesn't want you to know is that artichokes are actually easy. And wonderful. They are like lobster in that they do take a bit of maneuvering around to eat, but just like our steadfast hard-shelled friend, they are worth the effort.

I didn't vote for this guy, but I did vote for the artichoke. That is because while being a super low calorie food (60 calories in a medium artichoke), they are super high in fiber, Vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and other goodies. I guess that's why you can allow yourself to have butter with it. In fact, my dinner this evening consisted of two small artichokes and a caprese salad. YUM!

Here's how to do it. You'll need a sharp knife, a cut lemon, a big pot, a steamer or a little pot, and a weight.

1. Slice the stem off your artichoke. Some people like to boil and eat this. The stems on mine were too puny, so I discarded them. Then, slice about 1/4 of an inch off the bottom of the choke, so it will sit on a flat surface. Rub the cut surfaces with lemon to prevent them from turning black.

2. Cut 1/4 inch off the top of the artichoke in the same manner. Rub with lemon. 

3. Salt a pot of water. There should be enough in this pot to cover the chokes with an inch of water over them to spare. Put the chokes in and you will see that they float...so weigh them down. I used a pot with a vase inside it. This tended to make my water overflow, so I would go with an upside down steamer weighed down with something safe. 

4. Great. Now boil those babies for 30 minutes. Check them after 20 if they were small like mine. Otherwise, maybe 30 isn't enough. Maybe more. Who knows. MYSTERY!

...just kidding. I wouldn't leave you hanging like that. To check if your green darlings are done, gently insert a knife into the very center. It should enter easily. If it doesn't, boil some more. 

5. Take your chokes out and drain them for at least 5 minutes in a colander. This will give you time to melt some butter.

Now, to eat one of these babies is something you kind of have to prepare thyself for. You take each leaf, and the meaty part at the bottom that attaches it to the choke is edible. Scrape this between your teeth. As Alton Brown said in his artichoke episode, there's not a lot of meat, but a lot of flavor. Be dipping these nibbles into the butter as you go. MMMMM!

My artichokes didn't actually have a choke, persay, but the choke is a little fuzzy inedible bit right above the heart. Scrape or cut this away and eat the base with butter. It is fantastic and you will devour it so quickly you'll wish you had a whole plateful. Such it is with lobsters, too. Note to self: investigate the possibility of a themed dinner.... "Night of many difficulties." I will serve artichokes, lobster, crab legs, fugu, and crack-your-own walnuts.

Now, who wants an invite?

 

PS: here's a link to that Alton Brown vid. I think he's a funny and smart guy, so check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxqRAACohEA

Here I am!!!

Sorry for the long hiatus! I was spending the summer teaching little girls how to ride...in Poland, Maine! (Yes, where the spring water comes from.) It was a long summer, full of much hard work and even a little bit of suntanning (!), and I made a great number of new friends from abroad. :)

So, where to begin? I am embarking on a money-saving agenda this year, keeping in mind the very many resources I have available to me as a citizen of Western NY. Just today I bought three ears of sweet corn and a pound of green beans for $4.50 total. And you wouldn't believe the taste of this corn. It's one of the easiest things to prepare...and a lot of people seem to bungle it up anyway. Get it right off the stalk and RUN home to plop it into a pot of boiling water...corn starts to lose its sweetness the minute it is separated from Mother Stalk!

To boil corn:

1. Set a lightly salted pot of water to boil on med-high heat. When it reaches boiling point, drop the shucked ears of corn in. A good, fresh ear will be done almost as soon as the water reboils again. Take a bite to test....and save that one for yourself. ;)

PS: Everyone should go see the movie "Julie & Julia"....great film about Julia Child and the foodie/novelist Julie Powell!

Turkey Chili a la Eugenia

So after waiting forever for Eugenia to write this post, I have decided to.
This is a very, very tasty and easy chili made with Turkey...good for a warm day, a cold day, or whatever! Yay Chili!

Ingredients:

1 really large onion, or 2 medium onions

1.5 lbs turkey, ground

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 can chicken broth

1 can kidney beans

salt

pepper

oregano or other spices to taste

1. Fry the onions in some butter until lightly browned. Add the turkey and cook all the way through.

2. Spoon this meaty onion mixture into a saucepan. Add the (drained) can of diced tomatoes. 

3. Add everything else. Stir madly! Well, maybe not so madly...you don't want chili everywhere, do you? No. Just in your tummy. Don't fret, it will be....soon.

4. Okay...now, heat everything up to a simmer, and simmer uncovered for about fifteen minutes. To serve, spoon it into bowls, shred a mountain of cheese on top, and sprinkle in some Fritos. Voila! The easiest dinner ever! Make a ton and eat it for weeks!

Roast Spring Chicken with Asparagus and White-Wine Mushrooms

(You're going to need a big, sharp knife for this one.)

Ah, how I love spring. The flowers, the grass getting greener, the little tasty dishes made with fresh(er) vegetables and fruits. I love to cook for an occasion, but I love even more to cook something unique for just regular dinner once in a while. I was walking through Wegman's with a girlfriend a bit before Easter, and saw that they were having a special on "spring chickens"...which are basically really small chickens. (They may or may not be baby chickens, I try not to think too much about it.) However, should you not be able to find a spring chicken, you could prepare this recipe with basically any other type of tiny poultry, be it quail, cornish hen, or anything around that size. It can be done on the grill or in the oven. 

This recipe is pretty easy, but requires a bit of prep, so make sure you have at least 30 minutes to do it. 

Roast Chicken with Asparagus and White Wine Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 chicken per person, butterflied

1 medium apple per two chickens

1 large orange per two chickens

fresh rosemary

1-2 shallots per chicken

olive oil (I prefer light here, because you don't want an olive oil taste to this dish)

salt & pepper

2 bunches of asparagus

butter

1-2 lbs. crimini mushrooms (or another flavorful sort)

more butter

white cooking wine (or white wine, be my guest.)

 Well, if you read ingredient number one, and your first thought was "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BUTTERFLY," never fear. I know not only how to butterfly, but I will impart my secret to you. Guard it well, ok?

1. First, you want to flip the chicken so it is breast side down on your cutting board, with the drumsticks pointing towards you. Take a sharp, clean pair of scissors, and cut along the sides of the backbone until you can free it and pull it away. Please make sure you wash your hands and utensils and counters, etc, after working with raw meat, especially poultry. You don't want salmonella, do you?

2. Next, press the sides of the chicken open, take a very sharp knife, and cut along the sides of the breast bone from the neck down. Try not to cut too deeply, go slowly. The idea is to pull out the breast bone too. Once it is out, your chicken will be butterflied! Yay!3. To continue with the recipe, slice the apple and orange very thinly without peeling. This will keep all the vital things inside of the fruit during baking. 

Arrange the slices on the grill apples first, leaving no holes, then arrange the orange slices on top. You may notice that I have a weird contraption for baking my chickens. This is simply a glass casserole dish with a lift-out roasting rack on top of it. I like to roast things like this sometimes so they don't sit around in their own juices and get soggy. 

4. Season the chickens. I like to salt and pepper them, then sprinkle on a little Herbamare (my seasoning of choice lately). Pull off the leaves of the rosemary and put under the skin of the chicken, then tuck a few under the wings. 

5. Arrange the chickens cut-side down on the fruits. Spoon a little olive oil over the top, salt and pepper again, and sprinkle some rosemary and chopped shallot over the top. Set the oven to 430 Fahrenheit, and bake the chickens at that temperature for about fifteen to twenty minutes. The idea is to get a crispy skin. Lower the temp to 300 and continue to cook until done--about 1 1/2 hours.

6. During the last stretch of the chicken cooking, chop the whiteish ends off of your asparagus. Boil enough water to just barely cover the asparagus, lower the heat, and drop the stalks in it. Keep a close watch, though, and make sure they don't overcook. When a fork can easily go through the thickest part of the stalk, they are done. Lift them out, drain them, and run cold water over them quickly to stop the cooking process. Arrange in a flat layer on part of the plate.

7. For the mushrooms, melt some butter in a rather deep skillet on medium low heat, and put the (washed) mushrooms in it. 

Toss them around a bit until they are coated in butter, then place a lid over them and let them cook for about five minutes, tossing occasionally until browned on all sides equally.

8. Pour about 2 c. white cooking wine into the skillet (if using white wine, add some salt) and cover again, letting the mushrooms simmer for three minutes. Uncover and let the wine reduce completely. Lift out the mushrooms with a slotted spoon and arrange next to asparagus.

9. When the chickens are done, let them sit for a few minutes out of the oven for the juices to settle. Lift them off of their fruit and place on top of the asparagus. Ta-da!

Parsnip Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Before making this cake, I had never eaten a parsnip. For that matter, the humble parsnip had never even received a second look in the grocery from me, lumped (unfairly) in with the bizarre ethnic fruits, beets, and what Wegman's labels as "baby frizzy lettuces." In short, I stuck to what I knew (FOR SURE) to be edible as well as having the highest probability of being eaten by whomever I was feeding. 

However, the day has dawned that I wanted cake. And, more specifically, I wanted some sort of interesting cake, AND, even more specifically, I wanted to make it with elbow grease! 

I got this recipe from "Not Your Mother's Cookbook", which can be found here on Amazon. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!

You need the following stuff.

-Enough parsnips to grate 4 c. (It took two big ones for me.)

-1 c. fine sugar (I just used granulated, and it was fine.)

-3 eggs

-1/2 c. crushed pineapple

-1 1/3 c. flour

-1 tsp. baking soda

-2 Tbsp. cinnamon

-1 1/4 c. vegetable oil

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 c. currants (I used dried...fresh is probably tastier.)

For the frosting:

-1 c. cream cheese

-5 oz. melted butter

-1/2 c. superfine sugar

-the juice and zest of one lemon

(Yes...a cell phone photo...do forgive it. :(  )

1. Grease a 9' springform pan, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2. Grate the parsnips. This can take forever....and really start to develop an ache in your arm after a while. 

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3. Whisk sugar, oil, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. I like using duck eggs for baking , but not because of the novelty. Duck eggs are actually richer tasting, and provide a more flavorful baking experience. 

4. After all the eggs are mixed in, the mix should take on a thick, syrupy quality, and somewhat retain this quality as you mix it. 

5. In another bowl, combine parsnip, flour, salt, baking soda, currants, and the cinnamon. 
6. Put the contents of both bowls....into one bowl....and mix! It will look like a giant bowl of the tastiest oatmeal in the whole world. Don't be fooled! Eating this all at once will most likely make you ill. :(

7. Next, pour this carefully into your springform pan, and bake for 1.5 hrs, or until a wooden stick or cake tester comes out clean. 

Let the cake rest for about twenty minutes after you take it out of the oven, then remove the outer band and slide the cake onto a plate to cool before cutting in half for layers.

To make the frosting, just whip all the ingredients together. Frost when the cake has completely cooled, or you will have a mess on your hands. I made a double batch, because I LOVE FROSTING, and I also wanted enough to put between layers.  However, frosting amount is totally up to you. Although, if I were you, I would make tons...and then eat a lot. This will, like eating batter, make you ill...but, somehow, I managed to justify it. I am thinking you will not find it that hard to do the same.

PS: To cut a clean layer and make sure you lift the top one off in one piece, tape a piece of parchment or wax paper to your knife, then drag it through the cake as you cut. Lifting the paper will result in lifting the top layer. :) Aren't I smart?