Thai Watermelon Salad

Yup, it's fall.  Connie didn't even ask me if I wanted to eat out on the screened porch.  It's our summertime favorite spot.  We finish our dinners and head to the rockers and finish our wine and talk.  Now, though, it's cold and rainy.  Good thing I made comfort food for dinner - potato, bacon and cabbage torte.  There's enough left for lunch day after tomorrow.  That's because I'm having lunch with a client tomorrow.  Connie will get the leftover sesame noodles while I eat something not as good... Today we had leftover duck risotto.  That was amazingly good stuff.  Dinner on Tuesday will be appetizers at a beer tasting.  And, Wednesday's dinner is almost done and in the fridge.  I won't have to dig into the freezer at the office this week at all.  Best of all, by the time the week's over we'll have tried at least six new recipes.  Thus far, the five we've tried have all been keepers.  I love it when that happens. 

So, let's talk about the recipes...

French Toast with Peaches.  I blogged about this for Secret Recipe Club.  REALLY good stuff!

Jeni's Pear Riesling Sorbet.  There's an ice cream shop in Columbus, OH (Dublin, OH if you want to be really specific) called Jeni's.  For the most part, Connie and I have very similar tastes.  We love cheese, anchovies, smoked oysters, salumi.  We dislike milk.  But, I love ice cream and he doesn't.  When we're in Ohio visiting our grandkids, we frequently head to Jeni's.  Yup, it's typically my suggestion.  I have a heckuva time deciding what to get.  There are so many incredible flavors to choose from.  Connie, not so much.  He gets the Pear Riesling Sorbet.  So, thinking that I might try to make some ice cream like Jeni's I bought her cookbook.  Lucky day!  It has the Pear Riesling Sorbet recipe!  Now, I wound up dumping the mix in the freezer and leaving it overnight.  So, what I really have is a frozen block at this point.  But, scraping with a spoon allows a spoonful at a time to be enjoyed.  And, I've got to say it's just the same flavor. 

Duck Risotto.  A lot of folks find risotto intimidating.  I'll confess that I felt the same way way back when.  Now, risotto is clean up the kitchen for two.  We've not made risotto in forever.  Then, one of my blogger friends mentioned the fact she was making duck risotto.  So, Heather Tallman, aka Basilmomma, this is ALL your fault.  I took my typical mushroom risotto recipe and changed it up just a bit.  The initial olive oil was replaced with duck fat.  A duck confit leg was shredded and added with the mushrooms.  And, of course, the duck skin was crisped and put on top.  YUM!!  At some point I've got to check Heather's blog and see how she made hers...

Then, we had two totally new recipes. 

The first was sesame noodles.  Pretty basic stuff.  A peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame noodle dressing over thin spaghetti, chicken, red bell pepper and snow peas.  I got the recipe in a Martha Stewart email.  We've had several similar dishes and loved all of them.  Best thing is that since the recipe is to be served at room temperature or cool, it makes fabulous leftovers!

 I'd been hungry for the watermelon salad with feta and red onions.  That was until I read Jamie Oliver's Thai Watermelon Salad recipe in Jamie's Dinners.  This was amazing.  I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch.  The peanuts were kinda yucky.  But, the rest of the salad was still killer.  This will absolutely be a regular in our home.

Thai Watermelon Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 of a small, seedless watermelon
1 bunch cilantro leaves
1 handful of mint leaves
1 small bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
1 large handful peanuts
1- 2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

for the dressing:
2 t grated fresh ginger
2 T soy sauce
6 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t sesame oil
juice of two limes
salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix the dressing ingredients.  Toss all the salad ingredients.  Mix with the dressing and serve immediately.

Rice Pudding

Life has been interesting, if not exciting.  Let's see...  Some guy cut in front of Connie, causing Connie to slam on his brakes and the airbag sensor to go cattywampus.  That was two days in the shop.  Then, on our trip to the airport, we took a side trip through Crown Hill cemetery to visit Dad's grave and show my sister-in-law the highest point in the city. 

Just as we were leaving, it started to rain. 

I was riding in the backseat and had the window down to take photos.  The window wouldn't go up.  My chivalrous husband put the car in park and ran around and pulled the window up as far as it'd go.  (Two more days in the shop...)  We then went home and traded cars for the trip to take Barb to the airport.  She was here visiting for five days.  We got in loads of fun things like a trip to the State Fair with the whole crew.  And, dinner with Mom at The Friendly.  I had some fabulous fried catfish there... 

During Barb's visit, Annie the dog conned her into loads of treats.  Wee Mac the cat got in the grove too, showing Auntie Barbara he knows how to high five!

And, Barbs overfed her by more than a bit.  So, starting the day Barbs left and lasting for four days, Annie had diarrhea.  Lots of diarrhea.  My living room carpet looks like someone had a mudball fight in there.  Fortunately, once she picked a room, she pretty much stuck with it.  Then, she figured out at least one human would actually wake up and take her out in the middle of the night.  A human who forgot to turn off the alarm system and woke up the immediate neighborhood with the wailing of the sirens.  Ok, then.  A trip to see Doc was in order.  A VERY undignified examination of the doggie woggie ensued.  Meds were prescribed.  Excessive passing of gas followed.  That's fine except she was laying between my office and Connie's.  Both of us were ready for gas masks!  Now, Annie is starting to feel a bit better.  And, I'm thinking a good carpet cleaning will be happening - soon!

Midst all the fun and excitement, I barely cooked.  A barbecue for the kids.  Pork chops with peach glaze for Barb.  Pork fried rice with the leftover pork chops.  Not much exciting.  Totally forgot that Secret Recipe Club was sneaking up on me.  I'd perused my assigned blog and printed a few recipes.  I'd even put harissa on the grocery list thinking I'd make a soup that sounded good.  But, I kept going back to the rice pudding with dates and pistachios.  One, I've never made rice pudding.  Two, we both adore dates and pistachios.  Now, I had no business making a dessert after all the goodies we had while Barb was here.  But, rice pudding it was.  My assigned blog, SimplySensationalFood.com is by Nayna who lives in the UK and is a recipe author for City Connect Cambridge.  Her blog is vegetarian and measurements are given in grams etc.  I've copied her measurements here since I used the by guess and by gosh method of measuring...  And, I left out the saffron that Nayna called for.  That is one spice I really can't stand.  Guess if I had to choose one, choosing the most expensive one was the best idea!!  I was really pleased with this dessert.  The dates and nuts added just the right amount of crunchy/chewy/interesting topping.  And, the cardamom in the recipe was perfect.  I'd have included a link to the recipe but nowhere on the blog could I find an index...



Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

60 g short grain rice
250 ml water
400 ml cream
60 g sugar
1 t cardamom powder
4 almonds
6 pistachios
6 medjool dates
60 ml boiling water

Directions:

In a small saucepan, start simmering the cream and cardamom.  You don't want it to boil but you do want it to reduce.  In another saucepan, start water for your rice.  Cook the rice according to the package directions but add 5-10 minutes so it is VERY soft.  Drain the rice.  Add the sugar to the cream and stir until it's dissolved.  Add the drained rice.  Refrigerate so you're serving it cool.  An hour or so before serving the pudding, chop the dates and add them to the boiling water.  Remove them from the heat and allow them to sit for half an hour.  Mash them into the water.  Serve the pudding garnished with the date compote and the nuts.  As you can see, I chose to use sliced almonds that I'd toasted instead of plain almonds...

Thank you Nayna from Simply Sensational Food!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lou's BBQ Beef Stew and Jane's Rice

Torrential rains, floods, snow, frigid temperatures.  During the last three weeks we've had all four.  It started the third week of December.  Our office building has five stories.  The lower level has doors outside and elevator access, but no stair access.  It's where the mechanicals for the building are.  The problem is that when Fall Creek across the street floods, our lower level is below the water level - and so is our parking lot as you can see in the second photo.  The third photo is the same shot a bit later... In spite of some pretty hefty flood doors, it still floods.  In fact this time was the worst flood I've ever seen.  The waters came to within six inches of the tops of the doors. 

 

 

Of course, that meant the heat pumps and the elevator were out.  Getting to and from the office meant three flights of stairs.  Annie the dog was not amused.  Neither were we.  Finally, the elevator started working again on New Year's Eve.  We were thrilled.  Then, the weather folks started talking about snow.  Lots of snow.  Followed by bitter cold.  Did I mention that during all of this our office was under construction?  We were living with a mell of a hess.  Drywall dust.  Noise.  People in and out. 

 

 We needed to have the humongous conference table moved from it's temporary location into the new conference room.  And, the admin desk up front had to be moved.  Movers were the answer.  Then, it snowed about five inches and they rescheduled.  For a Saturday.  At 7:30 am.  Fortunately, they showed up because Sunday it started snowing.  And snowing.  And snowing.  We got 11.4 inches at our house.  Fortunately, Connie made a house for our three-legged feral cat, Smokey.  I jury-rigged a feeding area.  And, Connie plowed a path to the feeding area.  Smokey was in business!  Then, Monday the temp dropped to -12.  Windchills were -40.  The city put an emergency travel only edict into effect.  They didn't have to encourage me!  I was more than happy to work at home.  All of my appointments were equally happy to reschedule.

 

 

 

Friday evening I knew what was coming.  We had to go to the grocery anyway so I bought provisions to make and freeze a bunch of meals.  Made a list of 30 potential dishes.  Sunday morning about 8:00 I dug in.  Chicken Caesar Lasagna.  Chicken Green Bean Casserole.  Spaghetti sauce.  Lasagna.  Chicken Elegante.  Chicken Chili.  Chicken Stroganoff.  Beef Stroganoff.  Black Bean Soup.  Lou's BBQ Beef Stew.  Three days later, we have a stocked freezer at the office.  If there aren't leftovers there will now be decent meals ready to do.  Things with vegetables even if I've not been to the grocery to get salad fixings.  Actually, today we dug in.  Last night we had some of the beef stew.  Today for lunch we had chicken green bean casserole.  Last night was a Mrs Huber evening.  We had her cole slaw and her chicken livers.  And, Jane's rice.  This evening, leftover Jane's rice and some stroganoff.  And, more Mrs. Huber's cole slaw.  YUM!





Jane's Rice

Ingredients:

1 c Uncle Ben's original converted rice
2 c liquid - 8 oz or so of white wine, mushrrom juice plus water
1 4 oz can mushrooms
1 package dry onion soup mix

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 12 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. 





Lou's BBQ Beef Stew

1/2 - 1 lb beef cubes (I cut typical beef stew meat cubes in half)
1 T olive oil or vegetable oil
salt and pepper
1 46 oz can beef broth
1/4 c ketchup
1 T mustard
1 clove garlic minced
2 t Worcestershire sauce
dash Tabasco
2 medium onions, cubed
1 large green pepper, coarsely chopped
8 oz button mushrooms, halved

Directions:

Salt and pepper the beef.  Brown the beef cubes in the olive oil. Brown them in batches so you brown them and don't steam them.  Remove the browned cubes to a paper towel lined plate to drain.  In a stockpot, combine the beef broth, ketchup, mustard, garlic, Worcestershire and Tabasco.  Add the browned beef and simmer for 1  1/2 hours.  Add the onion cubes and simmer for another 40 minutes.  Finally, add the green pepper and mushrooms and simmer for 20 minutes.  Serve in a bowl, plain or over brown rice.

Spanish Rice

Secret Recipe Club is so much fun!  This month I got Our Eating Habits.  And, I got a wonderful trip down memory lane because Jamie and her hubby, Clarke had just taken a cruise so all of their dinner photos were posted.  Made me want to grab my Royal Caribbean cookbooks and sit down and read through them again.  If only I had the time...  At any rate, Jamie and Clarke and their kids have a LOT of fun centered around food.  They live up in Canada but traipse around visiting the northwestern part of the US pretty regularly.  That's a spot I've been to twice and would love to visit again!

What to choose?  All the yummy desserts were off limits thanks to our diet.  And, there were some REALLY yummy ones there.  Gingerbread Cream Pie.  Nutella Ice Cream.  Ok, stop.  We're dieting.  Would I choose the pork and peach stir fry?  No, my peaches aren't quite ripe.  And, since I'm trying to use garden goodies, a recipe jam-packed with veggies is a great thing.  I finally settled on the Spanish Rice.  It is very much like one of my favorite recipes from years gone by - Mexican Rice.  Except that Jamie spices hers up with a bit of chili powder and hot sauce.  An opportunity to revisit an old favorite AND use up some tomatoes and peppers.  Perfect.

Here's how you hop on over and visit Jamie:  Our Eating Habits.   If you'd like to take a look at some other fabulous recipes, head on over to Secret Recipe Club.  There you'll find the recipes from all four of the groups. 

So, here's how to make Jamie's delightful Spanish Rice

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped green bell pepper
1 garlic clove, chopped
3/4 c long grain rice
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 c V8 juice (Jamie's recipe called for water)
1 t sugar
1 t chili powder
several dashes hot sauce (I used Tabasco Chipotle)

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, sauté the onion, bell pepper and garlic in the olive oil just until they're softened.  Add the rice, tomatoes (and their liquid,) V8, sugar, chili powder and hot sauce.  Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly.  The rice is ready to serve when the liquid has almost evaporated and the rice is tender - about 15-20 minutes.




adapted from Our Eating Habits.  Originally from Betty Crocker

Super Bowl

It's Super Bowl week here in Indianapolis.  Early Sunday morning, Connie and I took a drive downtown to see what's going on.  It's impressive.  When I was growing up this city was India-no-place to a lot of folks.  Now, there's a LOT to do.  There have already been articles in major magazines saying that all of the naysayers will be very pleasantly surprised.  I do believe that's true.  Our downtown is very compact so folks will be able to get around easily.  There are several districts with special cachet.  We live close to one by the name of Broad Ripple.  Way back in the 1890's when my father's mother was born there it was a small village on a bend in White River.  Now, it's an entertainment destination stuffed with restaurants, bars and shopping.  I hope all of our visitors have a fantastic time!


Now, that being said, since we're going to have a few extra folks in town, it's going to be a good week to STAY HOME.  LOL.  A few extra folks.  Try 150,000.  Yes, indeed, it's going to be a good time to stay home and not try to battle the crowds for dinner.  I've got my menus ready to go.  And, this morning we picked up the last necessary ingredient:  pancetta for pancetta wrapped meatloaf with a red currant jelly glaze.  We're also going to have shrimp and crab etouffee, mojito lamb chops and five spice and clementine chicken.  Before I get to today's recipe, I've got a couple of other things to tell you.


This past week, we traveled north to see some friend's new house.  It's gorgeous.  Perfect for them.  And, Nancy fixed a killer meal.  Olives baked in a cheddar cheese crust.  Like the gruyere olive poppers but with cheddar.  Those were off the charts good.  Then, a beef stew.  She put in waterchestnuts which gave it a wonderful crunch every once in a while.  I loved it.  Salad with kiwi, mandarin oranges, red onion, pecans and a lovely vinaigrette.  Some yummy pita breads.  And, killer brownies.  YUM!  Best of all was the opportunity to relax and catch up.  We're very lucky to have some wonderful friends!!Thank you, Nancy :-)


Ok, listen up you Indy residents.  I'm going to tell you a secret.  There's a destination restaurant that's every bit as good as Bonge's.  It's called 18 on the Square and is on the square in Shelbyville.  Forty-five minutes for us door-to-door.  Fantastic food.  We met our friends Molly and Don there on Thursday evening.  That's when they have a special.  You get half the protein and full sides plus a house salad for pretty much the cost of one dinner.  We split the pork chop, collard greens and sweet potatoes.  Those sweet potatoes were a bit of heaven on our plates.  Chef Joseph said they were his grandmother's recipe.  I'd have loved to have eaten at her house!   Whipped to perfection.  Ethereal.  The collards, well, they were cooked with the ribs left in so they didn't wind up stringy and slimy like so often happens.  These tasted like they had some balsamic vinegar and onion and who knows what else.  I'd drive down there just to have the sweet potatoes and the collards!

Now, on to our feature presentation.  You probably thought I'd never quit gabbing so we could get there, now did you?  One of the recipes I pulled out for a side is from Tampa Treasures by the Junior League of Tampa.  As you probably know, I typically buy a cookbook whenever we travel to a new destination.  This was from our trip to Orlando and Tampa.  I dithered and dithered.  The gift shop in Ybor City had several really wonderful cookbooks.  Finally, the fact it was a Junior League cookbook won out.  Not that I've ever been in the Junior League or even wanted to be.  Nope,it's because some of my favorite cookbooks are Junior League.  Back Home Again is the Indy chapter's most recent cookbook.  I'd highly recommend it. 

I've marked a bunch of recipes to try.  But, this one kept kind of knocking on my mind. You see, Connie loves Rice-a-Roni.  HIs mom wasn't a great cook.  They ate good meals but she loved cans and boxes and jars.  So, he ate a lot of Rice-a-Roni as a kid.  We didn't.  It wasn't until I was in my thirties that I even tried it.  And, then it was just because of the ads.  I figured I'd try it once and never have it again.  Then, I met Connie and he asked for it on occasion.  So, I've now had it probably a half a dozen times in my life.  What if I could cook my own version and make my hubby a happy camper?  Perfect.

What did we think?  Connie loved this.  We both added salt and pepper.  I made it with homemade chicken broth so there was no salt there.  My guess is someone using canned broth wouldn't need any additional salt.  We cut the recipe by about 2/3 and still had half left.  The original recipe says it makes six servings.  My guess would be that eight is closer.

Pine Nut Rice and Vermicelli

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c long-grain rice
1/2 c butter
1/2 lb vermicelli or spaghetti
1/2 c pine nuts
2 c chicken stock
salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Cook rice according to package directions. 

While the rice is cooking, brown the pasta and the pine nuts in melted butter. 

Once the pasta and pine nuts have browned, pour in the chicken stock. 

Boil it for five mintues and remove it from the heat.  Add it to the rice and stir to combine.  Cover and set it aside for 30 minutes.  Serve with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. 

Dirty Rotten Corrupt Rice

Dirty Rice is a New Orleans staple.  I loved it until the early 80's when I ate it for dinner the night before I came down with the flu.  Anything else said about that obviously falls into the too much information category!  Over the years, I tried dirty rice a few times.  But, it just didn't work for my anymore.  Then, I saw this recipe in Big John's Speedway Grill cookbook AND found out Connie loves the stuff.  Ok, time to try making it again. 

This time, enough years had passed.  YAY!  The addition of the cream soups was interesting and definitely isn't terribly traditional.  But, I followed the recipe. I know, shocking!  And, next time I'll certainly include the soups in the recipe.  This was very easy to put together.  And, the fact it had to bake for an hour and a half meant I could come in to the computer and get some work done while it was baking.  With a salad, this is all you need for a meal. 

Dirty, Rotten, Corrupt Rice

Ingredients:

1 lb ground Italian sausage (hot or mild or mixture)
1 1/2 c uncooked rice (NOT instant rice)
1 10 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 10 3/4 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 10/34/ oz soup can water

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients

and pour into a 9x13 glass baking dish. 

Cover very well with heavy duty aluminum foil.  Bake at 325 for 90 minutes.

Blue Cheese, Bacon and Pecan Risotto

Our big party is in three months.  My freezers are full.  I need to use up freezer food so I have room for party food.  On the way down to the Colts game, trying to keep from being too nervous since we were up against the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs (and, I knew my radio colleague, Dean Barber, would kid the heck out of me if we lost since he lives in KC!) I focused on what I could use up from the freezer for dinner.  Chicken stock.  Risotto.  So, what's a new and different way to make it?  Is there anything in the fridge that needs to be used up?  Bacon.  Well, as it turns out, Connie loved the blue cheese, bacon and pecan dip I made a couple of weeks ago.  What if I turned that into risotto?


Problem solved.  On to reading cooking magazines.  So, I turn the page in whatever one I was working on and the next recipe is a risotto with bacon and taleggio cheese.  This happens all the time.  I make something up then see a recipe. But, I was going to stick with the blue cheese and pecans.


We won the game - by the skin of our teeth - but we won.  Whew!  The usual crew was not going to meet at the Lockerbie Pub for burgers because we'd all gotten together the evening before.  So, it was home to make risotto.  Now, for those of you who follow recipes and have to have measurements, I apologize.  Some of this is a guess because I was just tossing stuff in.


What did we think?  Connie liked it but it'd not be on his list of his favorite risottos.  I liked it a bit more than he did but it'd also not be on my list of my favorite risottos.  I'll keep the blue cheese, pecan and bacon combo in a party dip.  I guess I'd say we prefer risottos with vegetables - well, except for the short rib risotto that I have to blog about someday!

Blue Cheese, Pecan and Bacon Risotto

serves 4

Ingredients:
2 bunches green onions, chopped
2 T olive oil
2 T butter
1 c Arborio rice
1/4 c white wine
4 c chicken stock
6 slices bacon, browned and crumbled
1/4 c crumbled blue cheese
1/3 c pecans, toasted
4 poached eggs

Directions:


Saute the green onions in the olive oil. 

Add the butter and the rice and saute until the rice is lightly browned. 

Pour in the white wine and stir until it's absorbed.  Add the chicken stock 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until it's absorbed. 

When the rice is done - not crunchy, not mushy but a little bit chewy - and the broth is all absorbed, stir in the blue cheese. 

Once it's melted in, add the bacon and pecans. 

I topped each serving with a poached egg just because it sounded good...