Stir Fry Veggies

I had some leftover pork roast in the fridge and one of the best things to do with left over pork other than making tomato sauce is serving it up with stir fried veggies.

Get some white rice going on the stovetop - you know how to do that.

Heat up the left over pork in a skillet, maybe add a splash of soy sauce.

Here we have the cut up pork, onion, mushroom, green pepper, broccoli, celery, snow peas and bean sprouts.  Heat up a wok, throw in some some oil and garlic, toss in the veggies and stir it up.  A few dashes of soy sauce to season it up.  Heat through, but don't over cook - the veggies should be hot but crisp.

Serve it all together - pork, rice and veggies.  Nice.

Jambalaya

I love one-pot meals.  Last night it was beef stew, sorry it was prepared, cooked and devoured before I even thought of doing a post.  Tonight it's Jambalaya with Andouille Sausage and Chicken.

The original recipe came from "The New Orleans School of Cooking" at Jackson Brewery where Leon and I saw a cooking demonstration years ago.  I use the recipe, more or less, without making it "brown" or "red", i.e. I omit the Kitchen Bouquet or brown sugar or roux and/or paprika and/or tomato juice.  I cut down on the amount of chicken and the amount of rice - and it's still too much.  Too bad y'all weren't here!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

First Apple Pie of the Season

I haven't been posting because the menu hasn't changed much around here, especially during the summer.  Now, even though late September is usually not very autumnal in these woods, the ground is covered with ugly brown and yellow leaves with large fungus spots.  The constant wet weather has wrecked havoc with the fall foliage, despite what the tourist spokespeople are saying.

Anyhow, Leon and I picked apples at the local orchard on the weekend and I should hate for them to go bad.

Here's a simple, basic apple pie:

Filling 6 large apples, mix of Cortland and MacIntosh (varieties that I consider the true New England Apple Flavor), lemon juice, cinnamon, half cup or more of sugar.  (add raisins or dried cranberries)

Crust: 1 cup Crisco, 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 Tbsp cold water, 1 Tbsp vinegar.  Divide in two (one a bit larger) and roll each between wax paper.  Larger crust on bottom, fill with apples, place top crust and pinch, brush with milk.  Bake at 475 for 45 minutes.

We're having spaghetti tonight and I don't think apple pie goes well as a follow-up, but we'll suffer.  Dinner's Ready!

Discordant Courses

Some foods that are perfectly good, just don't complement one another.  But given what's in the fridge and garden, they make their way to the table.  Tonight's dinner was a composition of green bean and tomato salad with basil (all from the garden), swiss chard (from the garden) with beans and sausage and some homemade sweet potato gnocchi that were in the freezer and needed to get cooked.

The three made for a rather discordant melody of flavors.  Oh, well.  We're not starving.

Colorful Garden Bean and Tomato Salad

Swiss Chard, Cannellini Beans and Sausage
(See Escarole and Beans elsewhere on this blog)

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
(see recipe elsewhere on this blog)

The Sum of the Parts

Pasta alla Prima Verdura - First Vegetables of Summer

Pasta, First Vegetables of Summer as we don't really get vegetables in the "Primavera"

We had this tonight, but I made it yesterday except for the actual pasta.  It's a variation on chicken cacciatore or chicken with peppers.  It takes a few pots and pans.

First fry up some chicken parts - I used chicken legs and some boneless breast.  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder while cooking.  Cook thoroughly but do not overcook.  Also fry up some Italian sausages.

In a large saucepan add a half to two thirds or all of a can of tomato puree or for a lighter sauce, use whole or crushed tomatoes.  Add four or five leaves of fresh basil.  Add the chicken and sausage and bring to a simmer.

In a separate pot saute some garlic in olive oil.  Add a sliced onion.  Then add a medium zucchini or a small zucchini and a small yellow squash.  Add two or three handfuls of green beans (stringless, Romano, yellow or any other variety - I mixed all of the aforementioned) cleaned and cut in half.  Stir the veggies occasionally while cooking over medium/high heat.  They should produce a bit of their own juices to steam in but do not overcook.

Once the vegetables are steamed through, add them to the tomato/chicken/sausage sauce.  Simmer until the chicken is easily removed from the bone.

Serve over pasta.  Garnish with shredded mozzarella and parmesan.

First Green Beans of the Summer

Picked a good handful of beans this afternoon and wondered how I would use them.  I remembered I bought some mushrooms and peppers yesterday, had some frozen shrimp, an onion, garlic, a little hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, a little rice...

 Stir fried veggies with sautéed shrimp in garlic over white rice.  Nice. Easy, except I used 2 skillets and a pot - hate the clean-up.

Lazy Leftovers

We often go out for dinner on Friday evening.  Nothing fancy, just the old standbys Blondies' for a burger or fish and chips or Chinese or pizza.  But Leon looked frazzled when he got home from work and when I mentioned going out he didn't have to say more than "If we have to" which means "I really don't want to go out".

So, last night's pasta dish became tonight's Mac and Cheese.  Made a quick roux with butter, flour, milk.  Added whatever cheeses were in the fridge including cheddar, muenster, sour cream, and parmesan (add after turning off the heat).  Pour the whole thing into a casserole with the leftover pasta with broccoli and sausage (hum, where's all the sausage?).  A little breadcrumbs on top.  Into the oven for a bit.  Dinner was ready again in no time.

It's a long weekend, so we're likely to eat out at least once.

A Variation on Grandma's "Aglio e Olio"

Grandma made "agghiu ogghiu" (proper italian: aglio e olio; translation:garlic and oil) with spaghetti.  Simple and one of my favorites.  My aunt added anchovies. This version has veggies so it's so much better for you.  This serves 4 to 6.

In the time it takes to boil pasta:

Get 5 or 6 hot Italian sausages frying in the skillet.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.

Peel 4 or 5 garlic cloves and put them into a small skillet with several tablespoons of olive oil, (up to 1/4 to 1/3 cup) and let them all sizzle, (add hot pepper flakes if you like),  let the garlic get a little brown but not burnt.

Wash and cut up three small heads of broccoli.

Add the pasta to the boiling water -  I like farfalle (bow ties, literally butterflies).

In another pot put a half an inch or so of water, bring to a boil and add the broccoli, cover and steam for a few minutes till cooked but still a little crunchy (al dente).

Cut the sausages into bite size pieces.

Drain the pasta, toss in the broccoli, the oil and garlic and the sausage pieces.

Serve with parmesan cheese of course.

Love to Make Bread

Give us today our daily bread:

Well, I don't bake daily, but today seemed like a good day for bread.  As I've said, I really don't use a recipe, so I will have to get Leon to make a video of the baker at work one of these days.

White Pizza Night

 Last night was White Pizza Night.  Starting with my pizza dough made with King Arthur Unbleached and a little Whole Wheat.  Started with a couple of coffee mugs of warm water, a package of yeast, olive oil and salt.  After an hour and a half to two hours: Isn't that beautiful?

Getting the fillings and toppings ready:  Ricotta and spinach with some parmesan cheese, salt, pepper.

Eggplant drizzled with garlic infused olive oil, salt pepper and oregano, then oven roasted.

Onion and mushrooms oven roasted with olive oil.

I divided the dough into four pieces:

I flatten them out on the counter top with enough flour to keep them from sticking.  I don't twirl.  (Well, maybe some years ago, at the disco.)

Two of the pizzas got stuffed with the ricotta mixture and some fresh mozzarella.

The folded pizza or calzone was sealed using the Florentine Tapestry method (I made that up).  See the sealed edge of my calzone.

See the edge on the Florentine Tapestry

Put steam holes on top, then bake in a preheated HOT oven - 450 to 500 degrees

This pizza has eggplant and drizzled with more olive oil.

I recently acquired some nice asiago cheese, so grated some and put it on top.

The other pizza has the roasted onion and mushroom mixture and the asiago too.  I really shouldn't bake all of these at once, because my little 11 year old, $245 "Sears dent-and-scratch oven"* is not meant for such tasks, but I am not known for my patience.  So in they went.  If I could crank the oven to more than 500 degrees, I would have.

Here they are, waiting for everyone to dig in.  The calzone oozed out some of the filling.

Taste test:  Everyone thought they were tasty.  The onion and mushroom was a good combo.  I thought the eggplant needed something - a little more salt maybe;  I had a piece with some of the ricotta filling that had oozed out of the calzone and that was exactly what it needed: eggplant and ricotta pizza, yum.

*bring out the red robe, the crown and the bouquet of roses now

Spinach and Gorgonzola Frittata/Omelette

Spinach was on sale this week at Discount Food Outlet. Had the eggs and gorgonzola. A little salt and pepper and served up with a toasted Portuguese roll. A light and delicious meal.

The fold-over for an omelette is always a challenge for us "impatient" types; so mine always looks more like a frittata.

(Dom DeLuise explained the difference: an omelette coddles gently over low heat in melted butter, slowly cooking, then filled and delicately folded over;  a frittata, by contrast, starts by pouring half-beaten eggs into scalding hot olive oil in a frying pan over a flame as high as you can make it and it sizzles and dances among the peppers and onions and potatoes that were already in there and just this side of burnt.)

Buon Appetito.

Amateur Chili

I did not grow up eating chili.  I don't remember when I first had it, but it was probably at a picnic or pot luck.  And I must admit that I am not partial to those Southwest spices like cumin and cilantro and coriander. So when I make chili, it is usually very light on the pungent spice.  I'm also not very adventurous with things like coffee or chocolate.  I'll have my coffee with a chocolate biscotto.

The discount food market had London Broil for $1.99.  That's less than ground chuck, so I bought a slab and sliced and cut it into smaller than bite-size pieces.

Olive oil and garlic in the pot, added some chopped onion and the last of the hot lemon peppers from last year's garden that were in the freezer.  Some green pepper and the meat.  Let the meat saute with the veggies and some salt and pepper.  Then added a good spoon of chili powder and a couple table spoons of brown sugar.  There was a half can of tomato puree left from making pizza the other day, so that went in along with one large can of red beans.  It sat over a low flame for a about four hours.

The meat was tender and the chili seasoning was not overpowering.  It could have used a little more hotness but had a mild bite tempered by the sweetness of the brown sugar.

That Lettuce Leaf  and the Splash of Sauce
is What Ruined This Photo Op

Spooned it out with some grated cheddar on top, along with a nice salad and a Portuguese roll, it made for a good dinner on a hot day.  I was so hungry, I forgot to have a beer.

First Greens

The only thing that makes this a bit special is that we picked the first arugula from the garden tonight for our salad to accompany the pizza.  One pepperoni pizza for Leon, a sausage one for me; both with mushrooms.  Naturally we have a half of each leftover.

The pizza recipe has already been posted.

First Arugula From the Garden

Sausage and Mushroom

Pepperoni and Mushroom

Burgers on the Grill

This is the quintessential American meal - burgers and fries with accoutrements.

Grilled Lean Beef Burgers with Cheese
(Leon's Burger has Cheese Chunks)
The Third Smaller Burger is For Benni, of Course

Shallow Fried Potatoes

Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion

Red Cabbage Slaw*

Cukes With a Pre-mix Salad Dressing

The Table is Set

And Plated Up

*Red cabbage slaw: 1/2 head of red cabbage shredded; soak in a bowl just big enough to contain the cabbage with 1/2 cup of vinegar and enough water to cover and a little salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar.  After 20 - 30 minutes, drain off the vinegar-water.  Add 1 cup chopped carrots, a half cup of raisins and/or dried cranberries, a half of chopped onion, 2 teaspoons of horseradish, 1/4 to 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and refrigerate overnight if you plan ahead.  Otherwise serve today.