Long time no chat with. Busy is an understatement. Not only are we working on moving our office - yes, we're down to eight file cabinets from twenty four but they do all still need to be scanned in and the new scanner is not dependable... - but a lot of my clients have been sending their friends and family my way. I can't think of a higher compliment. Maybe if it was preceded by, "Gosh, you look like you've lost a lot of weight, I need you to talk with my sister..." LOL, I can only wish those first words were coming out of people's mouths. At any rate, it's been a wonderful crazy busy around the office. By the time I've gotten home and fixed dinner I've been way to chatted out to chat some more.
Pepto Bismol and I were very good friends today. Tonight was supposed to be dinner with my friend Vicki. She's one of those friends you are SO lucky to have. You can tell her ANYTHING and she never breathes a word of it. She listens to whatever you need to say. She's the bestest. I was bummed. We were to head to Bravo's. Italian food absolutely wasn't a good idea. Turns out she felt as crappy as I did. So, we rescheduled. I had a bag of rotisserie chicken in the fridge at the office. That came home with me. Comfort food was on the menu. Cousin Polly's Chicken Elegante. Let me digress here for a minute. Isn't it funny how you can have a bad belly and something that normally wouldn't be on the recommended list for said condition is perfect? Yup, that's the way with chicken elegante. If you get a chance to go back and read the original post I talk about when I fixed for my ex. Every time I fix it for Connie, he says, "Jim Hutton was an idiot. This is FABULOUS!"
Along with the chicken, I thought I'd reheat some of the corn on the cob from the other evening. Except it was smoky. REALLY smoky. I'd reheated some Jack Stacks ribs by smoking them on the grill and at the same time had made some killer peppers (yes, I'll tell you about those in a minute.) The corn on the cob got thrown on the grill at the same time so it got smoked. The last pieces got left on the grill with the lid down while we ate. They just positively soaked up all that leftover applewood smoke. What in the world could I do? To my collection of recipes. I scan in way too many recipes. Just like I have way too many cookbooks. This time it served me well. There was a recipe from Fine Cooking for maple, mustard, thyme butter for corn on the cob. Maple is frequently in bbq sauce. It'd play well with the smoke.
I made a sample batch. Connie got back from Lowe's and I handed him a cold ear of corn. "Is this ruined?" Wow, that's smoky! "So, what do you think of it with this on it?" The maple syrup plays well with the smoke. That'll work. Indeed it did. I'd use this on any corn on the cob - smoked or not!
As promised, the killer peppers. A few months ago a friend of mine ran into a friend of his. She asked if he worked with anyone on his planning and he gave her my name. She called, she and her hubby came in and we discovered we'd met kindred foodies. Now, we start our meetings by comparing menus! Love working with folks like them :-) At any rate, Al had to stop in last week so he brought two recipes to start with. One was for Tri-Color Peppers with Goat Cheese from prettyfood.com. I HAD to try it. Soon. I was drooling reading it. And, I'd decided that I'd also smoke the goat cheese since that's something we love.
What did we think? The peppers were amazing. Hot and cold. Instead of cutting them in chunks, I cut them in half so the goat cheese wouldn't leak out. Since I'd smoked it, it was runny, not crumbly.
Now, my friends, I have two of the easiest and best recipes in ages to share with you.
Tri-Color Peppers with Goat Cheese
Ingredients:
bell pepper - red, yellow or orange - or mix thereof
4 oz goat cheese
olive oil
fresh basil cut in ribbons (ok, I confess, I was barefoot and didn't want to walk to the garden so left this out... it was still fabulous)
1 T olive oil (dressing for one pepper, increase as needed for additional peppers)
2 t balsamic vinegar
1 t brown sugar
Directions:
Cut the pepper(s) in half and remove all the seed and membranes. Brush them with olive oil and either grill them or smoke them. Put the goat cheese in a grill safe pan and drizzle it with olive oil. Smoke it until it's bubbly. Mix the olive oil, vinegar and brown sugar. Serve the goat cheese in the pepper halves drizzled with the dressing.
adapted from prettyfood.com, thanks so our friend Al!
Corn on the Cob with Mustard, Maple, Thyme Butter
Ingredients:
1/4 c butter (I used 2 T and not 4T)
1 T Dijon mustard
1 t grainy mustard (I used almost a tablespoon)
1 T maple syrup
1 t fresh thyme (reduced from 2 t in the original recipe)
Directions:
The original recipe called for making a compound butter. I decided to melt the butter instead. That worked perfectly. The butter was melted and I whisked in the other ingredients. We served it in Mom's old copper skillet and drizzled it onto the corn. Fabulous!
adapted from Fine Cooking
The big family birthday party is this weekend. My brother John loves to cook as much as I do. So, we split the menu and both have a grand time cooking away. My responsibilities this time are pulled pork, strawberry salsa, three bean salad, rhubarb cream pie and strawberry torte. He's doing ribs, cole slaw and a brie appetizer. His mother-in-law will do the potato salad. Since the party got pushed back a week, my strawberries had to be replaced. My red grapes (good for my eyes!) were on their last legs. And, I wanted a rotisserie chicken to make Giada's Chicken Salad. That meant a trip to Costco or Sams. Costco it was. We had a gift certificate to use up.
On the way to Costco I read a recipe for a bourbon pepper bellini. It'd be perfect with the bourbon smoked pepper the kids had given us in our Christmas goodie box. That meant I needed frozen peaches. No dice at Costco. So, Connie'd be heading to the grocery as soon as we got home. Well, I also needed onion powder for the pulled pork rub and raspberries for the duck.
Last time I made the pulled pork I wasn't thrilled with the rub. This time I used a recipe from Smoke and Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. It's probably one of my five favorite cookbooks. It's positively dog-eared. Oh, and by the way, I saw a paperback version at Sams the other day. I also used one of Cheryl's mop recipes. But, I used the method from Heartland. You rub the butt then smoke it for 2-3 hours on the grill then move it to the oven for 8-12 hours at 250. Pretty easy. And, VERY good. The best part is it's doing it's deal in the oven while you're sleeping :-)
Dinner was to be duck breasts with a raspberry port sauce. The recipe was from Food and Wine Fast. I needed a salad or veggie that would go along... Somewhere I'd read a recipe for a gingered iceberg salad. My guess was Rachael Ray's FAST section. I was right. But, it called for chopped iceberg lettuce. I had romaine hearts. And, I really wanted to grill them. The recipe also called for pureeing the dressing ingredients in the blender. But, I love the crunch of toasted sesame seeds. Whisked it was. That worked because my fresh ginger was ginger puree. You'll need to actually puree it if you are working with truly fresh ginger. Oh, and we have about six seed packets of radishes in our garden. They'd be a perfect addition.
The duck was looking good. I put together the salads. Oh, my. I called out to Connie to come look at them. He walked in an whistled. If only they'd taste as good as they looked. Our score? If we gave out sixes, these'd get a six. But, alas, our top score is a five. Absolutely a five. They'd be perfect with shrimp or chicken added to make a meal. Any raw veggies would work. I'll try snow peas soon - like as soon as they're ripe!
You ready for some recipes?
Here we go:
Gingered Iceberg Salad
serves 2 with dressing left over
Ingredients:
for the dressing:
1/3 c mayonnaise
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1 T ginger puree or 3 T chopped fresh ginger
4 t soy sauce
2 t sugar
for the salad:
1/4 c finely chopped carrots
1/4 c finely chopped radishes
1 heart of romaine lettuce
2 T toasted sesame seeds
Directions:
If you're using ginger puree you can whisk the dressing ingredients together. Otherwise, use your blender or immersion blender. Chop the carrots and radishes and set them aside. Cut the heart of romaine in half
and brush with olive oil or vegetable oil. Grill it for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and put half on each of two plates. Drizzle it with dressing
then top it with the carrots and radishes. Top everything with the toasted sesame seeds.
adapted from Rachael Ray Everyday
The duck breasts were good. But they were only a four. Rarely do we dole out two fives in a meal. The original recipe called for smoked duck breasts so my guess is that might've elevated these to a five...
Duck Breasts with Raspberry Port Sauce
Ingredients:
1 T unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
1/4 c port (ruby is preferable)
1/4 c dry white wine
3 T seedless raspberry preserves (we had strawberry so that's what we used...)
1 T raspberry vinegar
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 c raspberries
salt and pepper
2 smoked duck breasts
Directions:
Make the sauce. Melt the butter in a small skillet. Add the shallot and cook until it's softened, about two minutes.
Then, pour in the port and wine and cook until it's reduced to about two tablespoons. Stir in the preserves, vinegar, mustard and raspberries. While the sauce is cooking, prepare the duck breasts. Cut a cross-hatch pattern in the fat and start them cooking skin side down in a large skillet.
When the skin is nicely browned, flip them. It depends on how you like the duck cooked and the thickness of the breasts as to how long you cook each side. We prefer our duck rare so cooked them about 5 minutes a side. When the breasts are cooked to your satisfaction, remove them from the heat and allow them to rest for five minutes. Slice them thinly and serve them drizzled with the sauce.
adapted from Food and Wine Fast
Pulled Pork
Sweet Sensation Rub
1/4 c ground allspice
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c onion powder
2 T salt
2 t ground nutmeg
2 t ground cinnamon
2 t dried thyme
Basic Beer Mop
12 oz beer (use a lager)
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c water
1/4 c corn oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T Worcestershire
1 T rub
Directions:
Score the fat on the top of the pork butt. Rub the pork butt liberally with the rub. Allow it to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Heat your grill to medium/low (abot 250F.) Add wood chips to the smoker. Put the pork in a disposable aluminum pan. Put it on the grill. Smoke for 2-3 hours, adding wood chips as necessary. Move the meat to the oven, tenting it with aluminum foil. Bake it for 8-10 hours at 250. The meat should be falling off the bone and extremely tender. Pull the pork.
Rub and mop from Smoke and Spice. Cooking method from Heartland
I'm the sauce girl. Salad dressing, gravy, barbecue sauce. You name it. I love it. So, for me to eat ribs without barbecue sauce you have to be talking about some seriously good ribs. I ate these with NO sauce.
A few weeks ago I dredged three cookbooks out of the bargain bin at the grocery store. They sell closeouts at wonderfully low prices. This cookbook I bought because of a recipe called Hoosier Lamb Chops. As I browsed through it I found loads of recipes I'd like to try. Ribs sounded good. Tuscan Ribs sounded fabulous. And, I thought it'd be a great weekend meal. Make the rub and slather them on Saturday. Smoke them on Sunday. Well, no, the recipe didn't call for smoking the ribs. But,we love to smoke just about anything on our grill.
We made these a couple of weeks ago and absolutely devoured them. And, cut the other racks into serving size pieces and froze them. For evenings when we get home too late and don't want to cook. Tonight was one of those nights. We pulled around the corner to our house and both of us went WOW - look at those!
Crocus that were open and stunningly beautiful. And, one little iris:
So, we spent about an hour wandering the yard and chatting about what we'd like to accomplish this year. I wish I'd taken a notebook outside and started a written list of what we need to/want to buy (yeah, that's the financial planner coming out - distinguish between your wants and your needs...) Here are some of the fun things we saw:
The old hellebore (aka lenten rose) has a couple of flowers open. Rather buried int he leaves but open. And, tons of buds. The newbie from last year looks like it's going to do really well.
No signs of asparagus in the garden but the srawberries are coming back nicely. There are a few daffodils on the south wall of the house that are about to bloom. The golden raspberries have loads of buds as does the wisteria. The daylilies all over the yard are just going crazy. As are the surprise lilies. We'll have to divide those this year. And, we really will have to divide our siberian iris. All 25 have now gotten empty spots in their centers. We'll probably have a LOT of those to give away. If you live in this area and would like some starts, please let me know. We've got plenty to share!
Now, it was time to head to the south side of the fence. A total riot of crocus! And, soon to follow, an equal number of daffodils. This year we're hoping to put a path through here and mulch the rest. Too many of our neighbors don't understand the theory that you've got to let the daffodil leaves die down to store nutrients for the next year... With mulch instead of grass we'll not have to worry!
Finally, we were off to the herb garden. The sorrel is starting to come back. The blueberry bushes, small though they may be, are growing. And the lavendar, thyme and marjoram look great. Ok, so they need a bit of trimming. But, to spring-starved eyes, they look fabulous!
Now, did I mention that we're supposed to
get 6-9" of snow tomorrow? LOL. I guess I ignored that. The good news is that snow is an insulator. It's much better for our plants than fifteen degrees. So, we'll enjoy what will hopefully be the last snow of the season and look forward to seeing our flowers again soon.
Now, on to our recipe:
Tuscan Ribs
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
2 T rosemary, chopped fresh or 1 t dried
1 1/2 T kosher salt
1 1/2 T fennel seeds
2 t freshly ground pepper
2 t fresh chopped sage or 1 t dried
2 t fresh thyme, chopped or 1/2 t dried
2 t paprika
1/2 - 1 t crushed red pepper (how much heat do you like?)
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t ground allspice
6 lbs pork ribs
3 T balsamic glaze
Directions:
Mix all the herbs and spices with the olive oil to make the spice paste. Smear the spice paste over the ribs, cover and refrigerate overnight. The original recipe called for roasting the ribs at 325 for two hours the broiling them for two minutes with the balsamic glaze drizzled over them. Instead, we smoked ours for a couple of hours at about 325. We used cherry wood.
adapted from Fix It and Enjoy It
