Chicken Piccata and Glazed Potatoes

Since our ill-fated trip to The Villa Restaurant a couple of weeks ago I've been craving chicken piccata.  REAL chicken piccata.  Not the crud they served that was made with salt and balsamic vinegar.  I wanted lemon juice and white wine and capers.  As luck would have it, we ran errands Sunday afternoon and one of the magazines I got through while we were driving around was another old Cuisine at Home.  Unbelievable.  There was a recipe for chicken piccata.  I didn't even have to hunt for one.  I also found a great recipe for glazed potatoes in the latest edition of Everyday Food.  Those would be perfect along with some asparagus. 


Actually, I'd planned on making one of the recipes I found from my Secret Recipe Club blog but it took too long so asparagus was the substitute.  If you want to see the Secret Recipe Club post, please check back next Monday :-)


By the time we'd spent about five hours in the office, then took leftovers over to Mom, bought some seeds at The Garden Center, trudged through Sam's Club and picked up the last few items at Marsh, it was well after 5 pm.  I still needed to spend a couple of hours finishing a financial plan for next week.  And, prepping for a couple more reviews.  Yup, it was about 7:30 by the time I finally headed to the kitchen to fix dinner.  i was pretty darned glad it was a relatively quick and easy meal. 


What did we think?  This made up for the horrid dinner two weeks ago.  The chicken was moist and tender and very flavorful.  The potatoes were great.  Just a hint of sweetness and very tender.  And, the asparagus made a perfect dipstick for the last of the piccata sauce.  Best of all?  We had leftovers for lunch!


Chicken Piccata


Ingredients:


2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c flour
2 T olive oil
1 t garlic, finely minced
1/4 c white wine
1/2 c chicken broth
2 T lemon juice
2 sliced lemons
1-2 T capers
2 T butter
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley


Directions:

Cut the chicken breasts into cutlets.  I actually cut them into cutlets (cutting the breast into half so you have two very thin cutlets) then cut those in half.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Dust the chicken with flour. 

When the oil is shimmering, add the chicken to the skillet.  Saute until it's a bit brown then turn. 

Remove the chicken from the pan and add the garlic.  Deglaze with the white wine.  Once the wine has almost cooked away and the garlic is browned,

add the chicken broth, lemon juice, capers and lemon slices. 

At this point, I thickened the sauce with a bit of cornstarch mixed with chicken broth.  Add the butter and melt it into the sauce.  Add the cutlets and pour the sauce over them.  Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley.

adapted from Cuisine at Home

Glazed Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 lb small fingerling potatoes

2 T unsalted butter

1 1/2 c water

salt and pepper

3 T honey

2 T cider vinegar

1 T butter

1 t fresh thyme leaves

Directions:

Use a skillet for this dish.  Combine the potatoes, two tablespoons of butter, the water, salt and pepper in a medium skillet.  Make sure the potatoes are in one layer. Cook the potatoes until they're tender.  It'll take about 15 minutes.  Once the potatoes are fork tender, increase the heat to boil off most of the water.  Once the water has pretty much evaporated, add the honey, vinegar, one tablespoon of butter and thyme. 

Continue to cook until a glaze has formed.  Remove from the heat and allow the potatoes to cool for a couple of minutes prior to serving.

adapted from Everyday Food

Flank Steak with Caper Sauce

Birthday dinner.  As an adult it just isn't the same.  But, that's just fine because so many wonderful birthday memories are made in kidhood.  Mom always let us choose what we wanted.  Flank steak with caper sauce was always my choice.  You know how the steakhouses typically top their beautiful steaks with a pat of butter?  Well, this lovingly coats thin slices of rare flank steak with butter and capers.  Heavenly!

If you want the story about how we came to have this, you need to go back and read my post about Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup.  The end result?  Connie loved the family favorite.  I saved half of the steak for him to eat while I was out of town at a conference - women only, how fun is that!  He loved putting different condiments with the steak slices on Triscuits.  Word of warning here:  flank steak does not feel like other steak when you're checking for doneness on the grill.  If you're not careful, you'll way overcook it.  And, it is MUCH better served rare or medium rare. 

Here's a photo of my grandmother's original recipe:

Actually, there's a story behind why it's printed on that piece of paper.  I wanted to organize my recipes electronically.  Both so there was a backup and so I'd be able to share them more easily.  Connie showed me how to scan them in and upload them to Word.  I got less than half of my TRIED recipes in and ran out of room on Word.  I had no clue it'd fill up.  Betcha you didn't either, eh?  That's when I said there had to be a better way and found blogging.  Now that the computer in the kitchen is MIA, it's either be wasteful and print the recipe and carry it to the kitchen or run back and forth.  You can see what the verdict was in this case. 

Well, there you have it.  My kidhood birthday entree and my blogging history.  Now, time for the recipe:

Flank Steak with Caper Sauce

serves 8

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter

4 t vinegar (I use red wine vinegar but back in the day Grammie probably used cider vineger)

2-3 T capers

2 T parsley (I leave this out most of the time)

2 lb flank steak

Directions:

Melt the butter and stir in the vinegar, capers and parsley.  Broil the steak until it's medium rare or rare.  Remove it from the heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  Slice it very thinly against the grain.  Serve drizzled with the caper butter.

Nikki's Beef Stroganoff

Growing up we had our fair share of meals made with Campbell's Soup.  Mom was a very good cook.  But Campbell's Soup frequently makes for a quicker meal.  And, that's important when you're working and still trying to get a good meal on the table for a family.  Some of my favorite dishes like Chicken Green Bean Casserole and Chicken Elegante have Cream of Chicken Soup in them.  But, this is the only one with tomato soup.  The original recipe came from a friend of Mom's by the name of Nikki, ergo the name of the dish. It's ultra quick and easy to make and is pretty darned good.  Best of all, it freezes beautifully.  All you have to do is cook some rice or noodles, heat up the sauce and fix a vegetable or salad for the side and you're in business.

Having a frozen dinner or two available was important this week. You see, since our house has been in total chaos since March we were anxious to finally get a room done.  And, since the painting is complete upstairs that meant that the little guest room could be completed.  Pictures hung on the wall et al.  Now, the other three rooms upstairs, not so much.  Soon, we'll have movers here to take a large file cabinet to the office and take an old desk to the garage where a charitable organization can pick it up.  Then, they're heading to the storage unit to clear it out.  I've had a bunch of our old furniture stored there since we bought this house five years ago.  Some of mine that didn't fit in the house and some of Connie's that's his ex's taste and is too formal for my taste.  And, some that we just plain couldn't use.  I thought one of his three kids or my niece or nephew would certainly want some of it.  But, to date, no takers.  And, I'm tired of paying for the storage unit.  So, it's all going elsewhere.  Whew.  Once all of that is done, I'll easily be able to put together two more rooms.  The sports guest room will be last.  I've got to make t-shirt pillows for the bed.  And, buy a bedspread.  Means I can finally get rid of the one with the gold and green and rose that I've disliked since day one.  But, it came with Connie and until I knew what I wanted to do in that room it didn't make sense to spend the money on an interim quilt.  Hopefully, by the middle of September, I'll have the upstairs put together.  I'd better be because by then, I'll be out of freezer meals!

Nikki's Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 can Campbell's Tomato Soup
1 large onion, sliced
1 8 oz box mushrooms or a 4oz can of mushrooms
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t - 1/2 t garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c sour cream

Directions:

Brown and drain ground beef.  If you don't mind using multiple pots and pans, you can saute the onions and the mushrooms in two separate pans.  Otherwise, once the beef is done, wipe out the skillet, hit it with a good dose of cooking spray and saute your onions and mushrooms.  Once they're nice and softened and a bit brown, add in all the other ingredients except the sour cream.  Simmer the stroganoff for about 20 minutes.  Stir in the sour cream and serve over rice or noodles.  I love to serve roasted broccoli with it.

Vietnamese Beef

One of the most popular items at our annual client appreciation holiday party is the beef tenderloin - go figure.  We buy the big untrimmed tenderloins at Sam's.  Not only is it FAR more cost effective, but we've got the chain left over.  Now, it takes a good bit of time to clean and trim but the chain is worth every minute. 

Typically, we clean the chain and have it in a dish the night before the party.  It's a fabulous tenderloin bite.  Well, in 2010, that didn't happen.  So, there was a freezer bag with chain in the freezer.  And, I'm on a kick to get the freezer a bit cleaned out. Please, don't ask how much progress I'm making :-(  I keep finding great recipes that don't apply.  Need I say more...  "Something with chain" would go on the menu then I'd find other recipes that sounded great.  Finally, Fine Cooking had a perfect way to use up that chain.  I'd go take a photo of the empty spot in the freezer but it's about 90 degrees in the garage and I've had enough of the heat.  In fact, on the way home from my south office today - the exterior thermometer said it was 101 degrees.  Needless to say, when I got home I pretty much cooked in the dark.  Anything to cool this place down! 

As I've been typing this, my mind has wandered back to Le Colonial in Chicago.  Many years ago, we were in Chicago for a couple of days and one of the fellows at the hotel recommended that we go there.  I'd never had Vietnamese food and I fell in love with it that evening.  I'm not a fan of hot.  But, I'm a major fan of flavor.  Vietnamese food has flavor combinations that just plain make your mouth dance.  This dish was no different.  I added a bit of komatsu that I found at the farmers market.  The stems are kind of like oriental celery.  And, I used brown rice instead of white like they showed in the magazine photo.  Can't wait for lunch leftovers!!

Vietnamese Beef

Ingredients:

2 T soy sauce
2 T lime juice
1 1/2 T brown sugar
1 t fish sauce
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 T oil (canola or olive)
1 1/2 beef tenderloin cut in 3/4" pieces
1 medium onion, cut in 1/4" wedges
3 T salted peanuts, toasted and salted
2 scallions, both green and white parts, thinly sliced

Directions:

Combine the soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl.  Combine the garlic and 1 1/2 t of oil in another small bowl.  Season the beef with salt and pepper.  Put 1 1/2 t of oil in a 12" skillet.  Heat it until it's shimmering.  Add half of the beef. 

Cook 1-2 minutes a side until it's browned.  Turn and cook the 2nd side for 1-2 minutes.  Do NOT overcook your meat here. 

Remove the beef to a plate and add the 2nd batch.  Once you've cooked that, remove it to the bowl.  Add about another tablespoon of oil to the skillet and heat it to shimmering.  Add the onions. 

Now, here's where I made a bit of a change.  After the onions had cooked for a couple of minutes, I added some komatsu - primarily the stems cut in 1/4" dice. 

Once the onions are softened and a bit browned, add the garlic and stir until the garlic is fragrant.  Now, its time to add the meat and accumulated juices back into the pan along with the soy sauce and lime juice mixture.  Stir on high heat until the sauce has cooked down a bit.  Serve over brown rice and top with the chopped peanuts and scallions.

Spanish Fish in a Sack

I don't very often get an opportunity to watch tv.  One, I work way to many hours.  And, two, when I'm not working there are way too many other things to do like clean the house, garden, sleep (yeah, I know, slacker for sleeping - lol.)  So, a couple of weeks ago when I sprained my ankle and couldn't head to the office, I worked from home - and had foodtv on in the background.  Most of the time I was very well behaved and focused on the work.  But,when Rachael Ray came on and was making her Spanish dinner, I kept cheating and turning around and watching.  The Spanish fish in a sack sounded wonderful.  And, pretty darned healthy.  A combination I love. 

A couple of weeks ago after driving back from Cinti, neither of us wanted to go to the grocery.  For the pork kebabs, I needed pork tenderloin.  For the cabbage rolls, I needed ground pork and ground beef.  For the potato torte, I needed the bag from the CSA - which was happily camping in the office fridge.  Fine, then, I had everything we needed for the fish packets.  Time to make those. 

What did we think?  These were really good.  I was suprised at how well the green beans cooked.  And, how wonderfully the flavors blended.  I've never cooked in parchment before but will certainly do so again!!

Rach's Spanish Fish in a Sack

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb, trimmed green beans
1 roasted red pepper, sliced in 1/4" slices
8 anchovy fillets
4 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 c chopped kalamata olives
2 lbs cod, cut into four portions
lemon zest from one lemon
4 scallions, chopped
1/4 c flat leaf parsley, chopped
juice of one lemon
olive oil, to drizzle


Directions:

Cut four pieces of parchment paper at least 12" each.  Lay them out on the counter.  Put a quarter of the ingredients on each piece of paper in the order listed above. 

Finish by drizzling the fish with the olive oil and lemon juice.  Wrap the packets up so they're well sealed. 

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  Be very careful when you open the packets because there's a LOT of hot steam in there.  Reminds me of some people I know :-)

Pork and Snap Pea Kebabs

The Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in many years.  Like 39.  A LOT of years.  Way back when I was the loan officer for the Fort Wayne Comets I spent plenty of time at hockey games.  But, it's been a LONG time.  And, I'm not a big hockey fan.  But, because I sprained my ankle and that's negatively impacted my ability to finish painting the living room, Connie has been watching the games in the family room.  That's normally my domain if the tv is on.  So, as I type this, I'm dealing with the end of a sprained ankle and a very loud hockey game.  Not my idea of fun.  But, it makes my hubby happy and I love him to pieces so I'll go to bed early and read. 

All of this meant that dinner needed to be quick Wednesday.  I had a recipe that'd be perfect.  We had peas and scallions.  And, it was super quick to make.  So, what did we think?  Very good.  A four out of five.  The original recipe called for cooking this for a total of ten minutes.  Do that if you enjoy pork-flavored shoe leather.  Otherwise, stick to a minute or two per side.  Serve some sauce on the side and some rice underneath.  Oh, and make a skewer of scallions.  They're really the best.

Pork and Snap Pea Kebabs

Ingredients:
serves 2

1 pork tenderloin
4 scallions or green onions cut into 2" lengths
12 snap peas
1/4 c hoisin sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T ginger, mashed

Directions:

Mix the hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce and ginger for the sauce.

Cut the tenderloin into 1/2" thick slices.  Thread a piece of tenderloin onto two skewers, followed by three peas, then another piece of pork, then three slices of green onion, then another  piece of pork... until the skewer is full. 

Heat your grill.  Make sure it is really well oiled or the pork will stick like nobody's business!  Put the skewers on the grill on direct heat. 

Cook the first side for no more than two minutes.  One minute is preferable!  Flip the skewers and glaze the cooked side with the sauce.  Cook the 2nd side for one-two minutes.  Serve on a bed of rice with sauce to drizzle.  I tossed a little leftover beef broth into the rice cooking water and it added a bit of flavor that was wonderful. 

BourBQ Sauce and Smoked Pork Butt

My back was screaming and my arms felt like they were going to fall off and my knees were shot.  Painting is not my friend.  Except for the end result.  Now, that is a wonderful thing.  I got up at 5:45 am on Memorial Day to start the pulled pork.  The rub went together wonderfully until I discovered that the container of dry mustard was about empty.  No way I was going to get 2 T of dry mustard out of that hummer.  So, off to the grocery I went.  I grabbed the list from the fridge since it seemed wasteful to just go for one item.  The pork butt would wait another 30 minutes.  Seven bags of groceries later, I got home and finished the rub.  The pork butt went on the grill to smoke for 2-3 hours and I headed toward the living room to start painting the ceiling. 

We started with yellow walls and white ceiling.  Nice enough in daylight.  Deadly at night.  Thanks to my Other Mother, Babs, I had some help picking out new colors.  I've always been able to figure out the decorating thing myself but this time I wanted a professional eye.  I needed to find something that wouldn't clash with the plaid couch Connie brought to the marriage but that would also work with new upholstery.  You see, that couch has a bunch of holes in it.  Within a year I'm going to have to break down and recover it.  It's one of the few non-antique things I "inherited" from his ex that I like.  Most of it is too flowery or too formal.  This couch, I really do like.  But, it's got to be recovered and it won't be plaid since my hubby has announced he's not terribly fond of plaids...  My grandmother's couch - last recovered in 1984 - will wait yet another year...

Ok, so as usual that reminds me of a story.  When I painted my condo lo those many years ago I went to the paint store and got a chip of every white.  I tossed the ones that were too yellow or too grey.  The ones with a slightly pink cast were my favorites.  I took my two favorites to Mom to see which she liked.  She chose the one I liked best then walked into their utilty room and got a can of paint out.  2510.  Same number.  Same paint.  Amazing.  Out of all of those choices I'd selected the same one. 

This time, however, I have Swiss Miss on the ceiling and Heirloom Lace on the walls.  The trim will be Delicate White when I get it painted.    So, here's the contrast:

 And a bit of the ceiling and walls - with the same dingy trim and new window...

Well, I painted and painted and painted.  Finally, I had to head to the office.  I knew on Memorial Day the phone wouldn't ring.  And, I had a big project I wanted to do that couldn't be done from home.  I got home and I got busy and trimmed the walls.  Almost done.  Just have to paint the trim...

The best news of all is that the whole time all of this work was going on, my oven was happily cooking away.  This lovely pork butt was the result. 

The recipe called for Sooey Sauce.  That's basically commercial barbecue sauce plus some cider and honey.  I really wanted to make BourBQ Sauce instead.  If you've not yet found the cookbooks by Cheryl and Bill Jamison, you're in for a treat.  Smoke and Spice and Sublime Smoke.  Both are excellent grilling cookbooks.  Smoke and Spice is my first choice when the grill comes into play.  I bought the cookbook in 1994 and as usual, read it cover to cover.  Over the last 17 years, I've made too many of the recipes to count.  I think only one has been a clunker - the cole slaw.  Needless to say, when I was thinking about bbq sauces my brain went immediately to BourBQ Sauce.  I'm VERY glad it did.

What did we think?  The rub was good but not fantastic like the lamb ribs rub.  The meat was incredibly moist and flavorful.  BourBQ Sauce.  Let me just say this is incredible stuff.  

Smoke Roasted Pork Shoulder

Ingredients:

7 lb boneless pork butt
1 c ball park mustard
1/4 c freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c smoked or sweet Hungarian paprika
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
2 T  brown sugar
1 1/2 T dry mustard
1 1/2 T celery seeds
1 1/2 T chili powder
1 c apple juice or other fruit juice
1 12 oz can or bottle of beer

Directions:

Slather the pork butt with mustard. 

Mix the next eight ingredients. 

Pat onto the pork butt. 

Allow the pork to sit for 30 minutes until the rub has become "tacky."  While the pork is sitting, put hickory chips in the smoker of a gas grill or make a smoker packet by putting water soaked wood chips in a packet of aluminum foil with a couple of vent holes.  Now, it's time to smoke the pork.  Smoke it on medium heat for an hour.  Remove it from the grill and put it on the rack of a roasting pan. 

Pour a cup of fruit juice in the bottom of the pan.  Tent the pork with foil.  Bake at     for    About halfway through the baking, pour the beer into the pan. 

BourBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

1 T butter
1 T canola oil
2 medium onions or 1 large, minced
3/4 c bourbon
2/3 c ketcup
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 c pure maple syrup
1/3 c dark molasses
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t salt

Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the oil and onions.  Saute until the onions begin to turn golden.  Add the rest the ingredients.  Simmer on medium heat for about 40 minutes. 

The sauce will thicken.  Stir frequently.  This will keep in the fridge for about two weeks. 

Pork adapted from Heartland,  BourBQ Sauce adapted from Smoke and Spice

Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza

I love being able to combine business and pleasure.  The rules say that I have to do an annual sign audit at a bank where one of my reps offices on occasion.  That means a looonnnggg trip west of Indy.  All for about five minutes of work.  Bleech. 

Now, Saturday's normally a workday for me.  Actually, truth be told, Sunday is too.  I just tend to work more hours on Saturday than Sunday.  Connie'd found a blurb on the Mansfield Mushroom Festival several months back.  It'd been on our calendar ever since.  I didn't think I had a prayer of taking the time to head out there.  But for the fact that I was totally exhausted - physically and mentally - I'd never have done it.  If I didn't have a break, I was going to crack.  And, since I had to do the sign audit and really didn't want to take half of a weekday workday, heading west was perfect.  Off to Mansfield we went. 

I got up really early and got a bunch of work done so I'd not feel quite so guilty about taking a Saturday out of the office.  We checked Google maps so we'd have an idea where we were going.  The whole idea was to stay off the main highways as much as possible - while still doing the sign check.  Over the river and through the woods we went.  Please don't ask what the folks at the bank really thought about the crazy lady in the sweats and tennies who came in to verify that the SIPC sign was there.  They were very nice in spite of the fact that I looked a bit seedy.  Way out in the boonies, we found Mansfield.  Talk about a speck on the map!  If there were a dozen buildings in the town, I'd be shocked.  The first thing we came up on was the auction.  There were coolers lining several tables. 

The coolers were all full of gallon ziplock bags of morels.  Freshly picked morels.  The most gorgeous morels I've ever seen.  Now, in the grocery if you can find them, the morels go for about $40 a pound.  These were MUCH better quality and much less expensive. 

Needless to say, we bought a bag. 

Next stop, the roller mill.  The way flour used to be milled. 

There's no way to show you how the mill actually worked because it's just too complicated.  One of those you've got to be there types of things. 

Suffice to say, the building is filled with spouts and shoots and all kinds of things to move the goods around.  The machinery was fascinating. 

And, we explored every inch of it!

From the mill we went to visit the covered bridge.  It was built to allow the farmers on the west side of Raccoon Creek to get their goods across the creek to the mill.  A few years ago we got to explore another covered bridge.  This was a different type of construction and was called a burr arch as I recall. 

There were dozens of State Fair types of vendors hawking all kinds of goodies.  Tenderloins were one of the most popular choices.  Oh, and there were the folks selling junque.  Ugh.  Otherwise known as crap.  Do not make eye contact with those vendors or you'll need to extricate yourself from their grip.  They want to SELL you something.  Preferably something way overpriced that I'd not even take to the church rummage sale...  Ok, so we ignored those folks.

Time to head home.  And, time to read more cooking magazines.  That's one of the best things about adventures.  Or, even riding to the office with Connie.  I actually get to read cooking magazines.  FoodNetwork Magazine.  I ordered it because I love watching FoodTV - on the rare occasion I actually get to watch TV.  Now, I love the magazine.  I found a recipe for a pizza made with duck confit.  Something I've become very fond of but don't eat very often.  The recipe looked easy used up a lot of the arugula. 

We got our CSA share Friday afternoon. Overall, it was pretty skimpy but still good. Last week we got about six salads out of the greens. This week, I think we'll get 4-5. But, I may be wrong and we could get six again. We also got some green onions and a big bag of arugula. That meant when I saw the recipe for Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza I was thrilled to find something really different that would allow me to use most of the arugula.

What did we think?  Oh, my.  It was incredible.  The recipe showed one fried egg in the middle.  All I could picture was cutting that egg into quarters and having all the yolk run all over.  Not a good idea.  Four quarters, four eggs.  And, a LOT more arugula than the photo in the magazine showed.  By the way, I totally cheated on the crust.  Boboli it was.  NO time to make a homemade crust.  So, here you go.  For a total treat...

Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza

Ingredients:

Boboli pizza crust - or homemade
3T extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 oz shredded duck confit
4 large eggs
2 c baby arugula
1/4 c grated romano cheese
truffle oil

Directions:

Heat the garlic gently in the olive oil until the flavor has infused the oil. 

Brush the olive oil on the pizza crust. 

Top with the duck confit. 

Bake on a hot pizza stone for 8-10 minutes at 500.  While the pizza is baking, cook the eggs sunny side up in a small drizzle of olive oil. 

When the pizza is removed from the oven, top it with the arugula, then the eggs (sunny side up,) then the grated cheese.  Drizzle with truffle oil and serve. 

adapted from Food Network Magazine, Emeril Lagasse