Third Week of Resolution!

This week just flew by for some reason – probably ‘cause we were getting out of Dodge!

Tuesday, the 16th – I played with the dish I made in Windsor for the fundraiser dinner two years ago. Bresaola Layered With 3-Peppercorn Chevre and Huckleberry Puree.
At the dinner, Lorraine and I served it as a salad course, but I wanted to make it over into an hors, so tried two options –

Prepping: combined the Chevre and mascarpone cheeses.
Rather than making the original huckleberry puree, I thinned Huckleberry jam w/jalapenos with tawny port to a dropping consistency.

1 - Spread a layer of the cheese mixture on each round of Besaola, a drizzle of the jam/port and topped with a few of the micro greens that had been tossed with EV olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

This didn’t work – the bresaola was not strong enuf and came apart.

2 – Toasted 18-hour bread rounds; spread with cheese mixture, layered bresaola over and spread a little more cheese mixture on the meat; drizzled the jam/port over and sprinkled with the micro-greens. This turned out wonderful and the heat from the toast added a nice creaminess. Very happy with this version.

This was supposed to be an appetizer, but we at so much of it – this was dinner, so was it a new one or an old one????? I’m thinking old with a twist.

Wednesday, the 17th – another old one, Chicken Picatta. Now, I’ve made this many times over the years, but for some reason it all came together for Roy and he could not stop raving about it. Served with a rice pilaf and some fruit.

Chicken Picatta
Season 4 chix cutlets, pounded thin, with s&p; dust w/flour. Spray a pan with nonstick spray, add a mixture of olive oil and butter- a Tablespoon of each, and heat over medium heat.

Saute cutlets 2-3 min; flip and sauté 1-2 min more with the pan covered. Transfer cutlets to a warm plate; pour off fat from pan.

Deglaze pan with ¼ c. dry white wine (I always use Noilly Pratt vermouth for this step); add 1 med. clove of minced garlic and cook till garlic is slightly brown and liquid is nearly gone, 2-3 min.

Add ½ c. chix broth, 2 T. fresh lemon juice and 1 T. capers, swish together; lay the cutlets on top and cook 1 minute on eah side. Transfer cutlets to serving plates and finish sauce with 2 T. butter and 3-4 slices of lemon. When butter melts, pour sauce over cutlets and garnish with fresh parsley – that’s it! A simple dish is a wonderful dish!!

Thursday, the 18th – at the beach, Port Townsend, left sunshine in P.A. to go to stormy looking weather in P.T!! Dinner this nite was the old standby, Pasta with capers, sundried tomatoes, Kalamatas and a little Parm. As a side dish, we again stopped and picked up Seaweed Salad – boy, do I just love that salad, from the seafood deli on the wharf. Also had leftover Herb bread.

Friday, the 19th – fixed Roberto’s Sausage and Veggie Roast – love that dish – picked up some Andouille at the Food Co-op in P.T. so used it in this dish.

ROAST SAUSAGE WITH ONIONS, PEPPER & POTATOES

Recipe By: (Roberto), Kernersville, NC USA
"Amounts are irrelevant - this is ultra simple and delicious."

Bell Peppers - green, red, yellow - whatever you prefer to use - cored, seeded and cut into nice chunks.
Potatoes, scrubbed & cubed into large chunks.
Large onions, of any variety, peeled and chunked.
Salt & Pepper, Olive oil
Sausage - Italian is the primary choice but this is wonderful with Kielbasa, Bratwurst, Chorizo, Andouille, whatever you can get a lot of for a little.

Combine all cut vegetables in a large foil roasting pan and drizzle with a goodly amount of olive oil, season with salt & pepper.
I add some crushed red pepper, a little Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and mix well.
Cover with foil and bake in a 350°F oven for about an hour.

While the veggies cook, parboil your sausage in a little water in a covered pan for 15 to 20 minutes.

When veggies are starting to get nice and soft, cut the sausage into nice size pieces and add to the roasting pan.
Cover and bake 3/4 to 1 hour, then uncover & roast under the broiler, stirring occasionally, till the sausage is browning nicely and the veggies start to show signs of browning.

Serve with grated cheese, bread and a salad, or a raw vegetable antipasto, or soup, or anything.


Saturday, the 20th – a movie date nite!! Saw DreamGirls – what a wonderful movie – laughed, cried, sang along… and the on the pizza place a number of people have been telling us we ‘must’ try – Waterfront Pizza. We had a ½ and ½ - Greek (seems like all I’ve eaten this week is Greek flavors!!) and Roy’s side was sausage, pepperoni, etc. The pizza was great – they make a sourdough pizza dough that is lighter than air! And so tasty.

Sunday, the 21st – we had l/os from Roberto’s Sausage and Veggie roast with a green salad and a honey/mustard dressing. I guess the dressing is the only new thing we tried this week!!

Monday, the 22nd – it’s only 6:30 a.m. so haven’t had dinner yet, but as I have to report for jury duty, tonite will be l/os fro the freezer. There is some ham & beans, beef/veggie soup, and a couple other things to choose from.

So the count this week – new 2, if you count the pizza and the dressing, all the rest old ones. One week to go, and it certainly was not as hard as I thot it would be – it’s sure fun to look for some of the old favorites.

And I'm very please that we have held to the 'diet' regime of eating a heck of a lot healthier so far this year. I've been cooking and eating like I was still working full time and wow, my clothes are not fitting anymore!! Treadmill every day and watching what we eat - it's working!

2nd Week of Resolution

Did pretty well this week -
Tuesday, the 9th - Beef Stew (l/o) over pasta
Wednesday, the 10th - Taco Salad
Thursday, the 11th - Chicken Breasts w/Spicy Citrus Glaze - this is a very healthy dish that I first made in '99

Sear chicken breasts or strips of in butter (about 4 min. on each side).
While this going on, mix together:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup thawed frozen o.j. concentrate
2 tsp. orange zest
2 cloves of garlic minced
salt & red pepper flakes

Pour the honey mixture over the chicken and cook, turning to coat for about 2 min or till sauce begins to thicken. Garnish with scallions and serve with rice.

For a starter for this dinner, we had Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup - garnished with one meatball (from freezer), capers, kalamatas and feta sprinkled over. Very good!!

Friday, the 12th - Postponed Christmas party dinner in Bellevue.

Saturday, the 13th - Got home late afternoon from Pike Place so had Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup from Trader Joe's (wanted to compare to the online order product Burr's gave us and it's just as good!) topped with goat cheese.

Pesto Stuffed Tortellini topped with Parmesan, capers, kalamatas and Pancetta (most of which were purchased in Seattle). This was a nice combination, will definitely repeat.

Sunday, the 14th, I made the dinner to be reviewed on C@H forum on Monday.

Chicken Pho with noodles, fresh herbs, and lime - here's my review of this dinner that I posted on the forum:

Now this is a tasty dish - pretty too!! (will try to post pictures here)

The broth is just a wonderful flavor - I've never charred cinnamon nor ginger, but I'll sure do it often now!And the overall combination - great!

In addition to the Pho, we had stir fried Bok Choy
Nuoc Cham - from Mai Pham's Southeast Asian cookbook:
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp. chili paste
1/4 cup fish sauce
2/3 cup hot water
2 T. lime juice with pulp (author's note:"very important to include the pulp")
1/4 cup sugar
grated carrots

Red Bean Buns - I wasn't sure how to finish them, so steamed half and baked half. Love them both ways!!

Monday, the 15th - an old Cooking Light recipe that we especially like -
Conflake-crusted halibut with Chile-Cilantro Aioli (instead of making the Aioli, we tasted different chutneys/sauces we picked up in Seattle and all were great with the fish and 'chips'.
Oven fries with Yukon potatoes - these are becoming my favorite potato to use for oven fries.

So, for the week - four old dishes; two new dishes; and one night out to dinner - which the food was not the least bit tasty.

The third week will be mostly at the beach - and I'm taking the stuff for a lot of our old favorites (and healthy) that we've been making in the trailer for a long time. One nite tho, we are eating out at a local pizza joint that neighbors around here have said is the best pizza around.

A TRIP TO SEATTLE

WITT's Christmas party had to be postponed because of 'the storm' so it was held Friday (1/12) in Bellevue - dinner terrible. It was held at an Italian chain that I'd not heard of before, Maggiano's Little Italy. Only one dish passable they served a hot artichoke dip that was tasty.

But, on Saturday we went to Pike Place Market and The Spanish Table and spent the kid's inheritance!! What fun.

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
1600 Pike Place (across st.)
Blank Slate Tapenade cheese - a soft, fresh farmer's cheese with a mixture of gr/blk/kalamata olives, garlice and lots of herbs and spices.
6 oz. / $5.75 (have brochure) Beecherscheese.com
What a wonderful selection of cheeses - first stop so had to watch the sheckles and bot only one (the tapenade), but they also had a Blank Slate Honey. It was a hard choice.

La Buona Tavola
(truffle Café Specialty Foods)
1524 pike Place (across st.)
TruffleCafe.com
Three Pack-
Truffle & Salt
Mushroom-truffle pate
Acacia Honey & Truffle

Trader Joe’s
Belletoile - Brie Triple Cream - wonderful
Castello Blue – real creamy/delicious
Tortellini w/pesto filling – 1 lb. (had for dinner when we got home mixed with a little capers, kalamatas, parm and some of the Sun Dried Tomato Bruschetta.)
Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper soup (2) (had a cup of this also for dinner, very good flavor! sprinkled with goat cheese)
Creamy Corn & Roasted Red Pepper Soup (1)
Spinach & Chive linguine – 8 oz.
Sun Dried Tomato Bruschetta
Rst’d Red Pepper Artichoke Tapenade
7 bottles wine –
Bears’ Lair Cab - $4.99 (Napa)Falcon Ridge Lodi Zin ’04 - $5.99
1-877-994-4616
Chariot Gypsy ’03 Red -7.99 (American Canyon, CA)
Barefoot Zin (Modesto) – 4.99 Barefootwine.com
Trader Joe’s Chilean Collection, Merlot – 3.49 Central Valley, CA
Haywood ’03 Merlot - $4.99 (Geyserville) haywoodwinery.com
Montepulciano D’Abruzzo ’05, Denominazione di Origine Controllata
Italian – 4.99

The Spanish Table – Food & Wine from Spain & Portugal
(Matiz Catalan) Squid Ink Pasta – Fideo
La Hacienda De Ybarra - Pimientos del Piquillo de Lodosa
(piquino peppers)
AlCaparras Capers ( big hummers)
Two Temranillo wines –
Campo Viejo, Crianza ’03, Rioja $9.99
Legaris Crianza, Ribera Del Cuero ’03 – $16.99 (Owner recommended) had with dinner tonight - great temprnello
Spanish Style Aurelia’s Chorizo, 6 oz. - $9.99
Redondo Iglesias – Dry cured Serrano Ham/
18 mos old.

Delaurenti Specialty FoodWine Store in Pike place
Fennel Crackers
Talatta Filetti di Aciughe, all’olio’di oliva – Anchovies $6.99
Bresola from Uruaguay – ¾ lb.
1 end piece $1.50/9.99 lb.
¼ lb. $5.76/ 23.99 lb.

Trying to work all of these goodies into a 'healthy regime' in eating for the next couple months will be hard! But, a good challenge.

First Week of the Resolution!

I committed myself in the form of a New Year's resolution to only fixing old recipes for the entire month of January! Well, I know (and knew it at the time probably) that no way could I go a whole month without trying a new dish - so I'm modifying my resolution. Two nites a week I can have fun with new recipes and the rest of the week I'll have fun with oldies that I'd forgotten about.This really is fun. Especially because I use my recipes as kind of a diary - I always write the date (YES, even in my coffee table type up-scale books!!) and if we're doing a project, or someone's here, just things that are going on in our lives that particular day.

So today is the 9th of January, the second week of the new year. I’ve tried to keep the resolution, but I really have not listed every dinner I’ve made, so now I’ll look over what I have done.

January 1st’s menu is listed in previous blog – all old recipes and ate this food on Monday (1st) and Tuesday. Wednesday, had ham/cheese grilled with ham and beans (old recipe); Thursday – Confetti Pasta (old, healthy recipe) – fettuccine, ham, peas, milk, cottage cheese, Parm, s&p&nutmeg.

Also on Thursday fixed the first of two versions of Sex on the Beach drinks. (thanks to dollop and Jan)
Dollops first –
1 ½ oz. each:Peach Schnapps & Vodka
2 oz. each: Cranberry, Orange and Pineapple juices.

Very good, but…

Next day we tried Jan’s offering –
¾ oz. each: Peach Schnapps, Vodka, Pineapple juice
3 oz. Cranberry juice
Splash of o.j

This was the best I think because of the larger amount of the cranberry juice. Love that flavor.
Well, love this drink. We’ll take the makings for this drink every time we go to a ‘warm’ state.

Also on Thursday, I started the 18 hour bread and finished it on Friday afternoon. Damn near ate the whole loaf before dinner.

Friday, old recipe again!! ‘Baked Beans’ which we really liked the first time around and ‘Tar-Heel Ribs’ with a marinade:
2 cups cider vinegar
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. molasses
1 ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Black pepper & salt

Marinated ~8 hours, drained & brushed with a combination of ½ Huckleberry BBQ sauce & ½ Heinz Chili Sauce (I didn’t have the ingredients for the sauce called for in the recipe). Roasted for a couple hours and had planned on grilling on the Barbie later with more sauce. BUT…we encountered Seattle weather in Port Angeles that nite and I stuck the buggers under the broiler instead.

While this is an old recipe, I made it Aug. 3, ’04, I really, really like the combination of the Berry bbq sauce and chili sauce mixture. Will definitely do this again.

Saturday – a brunch morning. Friday nite we saw Ina Garten in her ‘Barefoot in Paris’ and got a real yearning for the ‘Herbed Baked Eggs’ – added some minced ham to help disguise the egg a little ( ;) ) and it was a very nice dish. Will do this for company.
No Champagne tho, had Bloody Marys instead.

Sunday, the 7th – Had Emeril’s ‘Steamed Baby Bok Choy with Broiled Salmon & a Warm Roasted Tomato & Lemon Vinaigrette’ – what a nice light, fast dinner this was.

The standout of the dinner was the Roasted Tomato & Lemon Vinaigrette –
2 c cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ c plus 1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 T. fresh marjoram leaves
The zest from 1 lemon
Salt & pepper
¼ c lemon juice
2 T. basil leaves

Saute quickly the tomatoes in ¼ c. of the olive oil, marjoram, lemon zest, s&p and lemon juice. Move to the oven and broil till well caramelized, 8-10 min. let rest while roasting the salmon, then add the julliened basil leaves – season again with s&p.

Love this ‘vinaigrette’ – will use it on lots of things, bet it would be good just over a bowl of pasta!

The second week will be much easier not to want to experiment – Roy will be in Portland Tues thru Thurs., but I may cook up something old that I especially liked…..hmmmm.

And for dessert we had frozen yogurt with Ina Garten’s chocolate sauce – yum!! (but didn’t make the profiteroles – maybe next time)

So, that’s the first week of the year – did I do O.K.??
Yes!! Five nights – old; two nights – new. There were some extras (drinks, brunch eggs, 18-hour bread, but also old meatloaf for sandwiches and herb/Kalamata/sun-dried tomato bread)

New Year's Resolution

I've never (I don't think) made a New Year's resolution, but I'm going to try one this year. For the entire month of January, I'm going to cook old recipes...I'm talking the old(!) ones. Dishes that our family has loved forever - starting out with the most favorite of family dinners for New Year's day -

Roasted Ham with Maple Syrup/O.J. baste
Mom's Macaroni and Cheese
Monkey Bread
Pink Salad
I'll have to look for a dessert - I want something that will be gone in one sitting - no leftovers!!!

And I'll go from there - one I'm really looking forward to is Cold Oil Chicken..will have to buy an electric skillet. so many....

Beerox (which I have just recently learned is spelled 'bierox')
Braised Beef w/mushrooms & barley
Tuna-Noodle Casserole
Choo Choo Train Rice
Zucchini & Pimento Casserole - (when first found this recipe Jackie and I made this three nites in a row)

There are so many! This is going to be fun.

Pictures of Recent Dishes

Well since I can't figure out how to add pictures to an original post, I shall try it here...

This first one is of the Duck salad made the second time withing three days using the leftover Duck Breasts from the Grilled Duck with Risotto dish. It's kind of a clean the frig salad topped with beautiful duck slices.

O.K., edit time - the first picture is of the Soft Shell Tacos that Alix from DiscussCooking forum posted. What a great idea this is and it must be better for us than regular tortillas - especially since I adore flour over corn...

Soft Taco Shells

1 1/2 cups milk

1 egg

1 cup flour (may need up to 1-1/4 cups)

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 pinch salt

Whisk egg in the milk, add the flour and stir til well blended. Add in the cornmeal and stir til evenly distributed. This should be quite runny, don't be afraid to add more milk as needed.

Pour about 1/4 - 1/3 cup batter in very hot, oiled frying pan and rotate pan to coat the bottom with the batter. When the top starts to look dry all over its time to flip. Repeat until you've used all the batter.
This amount usually feeds 4 family members or 2 ravenous adults.

Alix, Discuss Cooking posted on 11/28/06
It makes 12 six inch shells.

Its like a thick crepe, so when you are making them keep that particular texture in mind. I make mine in my 6 inch frying pan as I don't have a crepe pan. I have tried them in my 10 inch frying pan and they work well there too. We just prefer them smaller as they can be a touch messy. LOL.

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TACOS WITH SOFT TACO SHELLS

Made tacos (old family style - lettuce, tomato, olives, cheese & onions) using your soft taco shell recipe. What a treat they were - there were three left after stuffing ourselves and my husband ate those also sprinkled with just a little salt.

I'll just add what I did with the chicken for filliing - it turned out quite nice also -
I tossed together 2 chicken breasts, raw and cut up bite-size with:
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. grd. cumin
1/8 tsp. each - garlic powder and cayenne

Brown the chicken in just a tad of oil; remove from skillet and keep warm.

To the pan, add one (14 1/2oz.) can of diced tomatoes, 1 jalapeno minced up (seeds and membrane included), 1 T. golden Tequila and cook that down a little, about 15 min.

Add the chicken back to the pan along with a cornstarch/water slurry to thicken it up a bit for the taco shells.

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Will make these little goodies often!!

Duck, Beautiful Duck!

(must warn those from C@H to please not read the following, if you have meandered over here before the 18th of December)

My Duck tale begins with daughter Tracie and her friend Susan wanting to join us in the "Dinner Party" menu - we'd all decided to do a duck dinner and since her Dad & I were visiting and exchanging early Christmas presents, she decided Mom should help her get the duck. Because we didn't find the required duck breasts, we bot a whole duck and I cut the breasts off, wrapped and froze them for her dinner party. And for my 'hard' work, Trace sent the rest of the duck home with me - not a bad trade on my part.

Fast forward to getting home. I cooked the rest of the duck in a beer braise, removed the meat (yummy tasting, by the way) and started searching for what to do with the hind-quarters of duck meat. I settled on a Bon Appetit recipe - Duck Salad with Cheese Toasts and Port Currant Sauce.

I had enuf of the duck meat for two nice pkgs. so for this salad I only needed one of the pkgs. The salad is tossed with a very simple Walnut oil and Champagne vinaigrette (kept the salad simple, just gorgeous greens and a few green onions) and place on plate. For the cheese toasts - the recipe called for "Pont l'Eveque Cheese and a qood-quality fruit-and-nut bread (such as walnut-raisin), toasted." I had neither, but did have some Brie and dragged the bread machine out and made dough in it for Fruited Snack Bread -


Fruited Snack Bread
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup snipped apricots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package Fleischmann's® Rapid Rise Yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Confectioners' sugar

In large bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, raisins, apricots, nuts, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Heat milk, water and butter until very warm (125º to 130ºF); stir into dry ingredients. Mix in enough reserved flour to make stiff dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and
elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

Roll dough to 10- × 15-inch rectangle or to 12-inch circle. Place on greased baking sheet or pizza pan. Bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes or until done. Remove from pan and cook on wire rack. Makes 1 (10- × 15-inch) focaccia. Top with sifted confectioners' sugar. Cut into strips, squares or wedges. Top with whipped cream cheese or creamy peanut butter, if desired.
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Didn't do all of the above - just dumped all the ingredients (3 cups flour) in the machine, made dough, removed and made into just a loaf style bread and baked that up - no powdered sugar or other goodies.

So, for the salad, I toasted two slices, cut them diagonally and while still hot, layed thin strips of Brie on the toast and added them to the salad.
Topped this with pieces of duck meat and sprinkled toasted walnuts over.
Somehow the day got away from me and I didn't get the Port-Currant Sauce made, but I did have some Apple Cider Reduction handy so drizzled that over the salad.

Anyone out there who wants an absolute treat - I hope everyone will try this salad. The 'cheese toast' (such a bland name for such a wonderful garnish) - is absolutely fantastic. And like the chicken roulades with tomato concasse of a few months ago - you need to get a little of everything in the salad to experience the wonderfulness of it!! It is truly orgasmic!

Now, I must keep in mind that this dish was supposed to be kind of a 'throw away' dish to use the unexpected duck I inherited! The real Duck Story here is supposed to be "Pan-Seared Duck Breast & Risotto with Wild Rice, Sweet Potatoes and Sage AND Pear-Ginger Chutney" to be reviewed on Dec. 18th!

I called the only store in 20 miles that I thot I had a chance in hell of finding duck breasts and they did come thru. The butcher said he had three pkgs. in the freezer and I asked him to keep them for me - he didn't know what he had, because he kept saying they were pkgs. of one duck breast - which I assumed meant the entire breast, but he talked like the pkgs. held one half-breast. Got to the store and he has found another pkg., so I grabbed all four pkgs. (~ $13.00 per pkg.) - and because I don't know when I'll be able to get more, blew the week's grocery money and was grinning ear to ear while doing it.

Thawed out one pkg. and lo and behold, it contained 4 (FOUR) half-breasts, each a gorgeous size, about what I had removed from Tracie's duck and had spent ~$14.00 for (well she did). And to think I have three more pkgs. in the freezer!!

The Pear-Ginger Chutney is a wonderful, spicy chutney. I had dried Cranberries so subbed them for the cherries. A great sweet, savory, spicy flavor.

I've never combined wild rice with risotto, much less added sweet potato to the mix, but it is really a nice combination.

AND THE DUCK! I cooked it exactly to the recipe (used a timer and a splatter screen even!!) It was cooked to perfection - just pink in the center and the greatest (I'm so tired of 'wonderful') crispy, tasty skin. I think the pan made all the difference - used a very heavy SST skillet and NO non-stick finish, so I could sear this over the required high heat.

And after the dish is put together, it looks like it could have come out of Bouchon's kitchen (and that's saying something). Then only thing I will do differently next time is fry up some sage leaves for garnish - it needed a little more color. Served dinner with an Abacela winery '03 Estate Tempranillo ( a new wine we have just discovered and absolutely love!) Great match!

Again, this is so repetitive, but to get all the flavors at once...died and gone to heaven! Crispy duck, spicy chutney and the oh so smooth risotto.

This dish gets the second 10 I have every given for our dinners!

P.S. had two halves of the breasts left over (that just sounds wrong!) - so repeated the above salad the next nite!!