Week 13:
Pork Roast with Thyme

Wow! Thursday already and I'm just writing up this past Sunday's installment of the Sunday Dinner Project. Hopefully, after the craziness of the holidays, I can get back to being a little more faithful to my little blog.

I'm going to be a bit lazy right now and just post the link of the recipe I used this week:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pork-Roast-with-Thyme/Detail.aspx

My commentary:

The good news is this recipe was voted a "make again." That's always encouraging. I did a few things differently than the recipe. First, I used pork tenderloin instead of a pork roast. Using a roast would be much more economical, but I was willing to pay a few extra dollars for a better cut of meat. Also, if you watch for the sales at Giant Eagle, you really can get a great bargain on pork tenderloin.

The other big change I made was to cook the roast on a sightly higher temperature than recommended in the recipe. I cooked mine at 375 degrees simply to alleviate a time crunch. Of course, I still checked the internal temp with a meat thermometer to make sure it was done.

This was another quick and easy recipe with pretty good results. The pork was very juicy and had a nice flavor. It worked very well with mashed potatoes.

This week or next, I'll be testing out my menu for the day that I'm having the whole family over. I'm still putting together the whole thing, but I'll probably need input from all of you experienced hosts and hostesses.

Sunday Dinner on a Monday

Week 12: Crispy Onion Chicken with Green Beans



This week's Sunday dinner is a day late, but for good reason! Yesterday was a fantastic girls day out to see the Rockettes, followed by dinner at Atrias. This all day event kept me out of the kitchen, but I made up for it today. Kim (who was one of the 5 lovely ladies out yesterday) actually gave me this quick and easy recipe.

Crispy Onion Chicken

Ingredients:
-Chicken Breast (cubed)
-1 (2.8 oz) can French fried onions
-Honey mustard
-1 Cup Italian bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Cube chicken and coat with honey mustard.
2. Crush french fried onions and combine with bread crumbs. Combine in bag.
3. Add chicken to bag and shake until fully coated with the dry mixture.
4. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

My commentary:

Fast, easy, and tasty! I made this with some green beans (with the left-over onions that I had.) Because I was in a hurry, I did not cube the chicken, which caused it to take longer to cook. I think smaller pieces of chicken would make the breading taste even better. Since I hate to cut up raw chicken, I think I'll try this in the future with thin sliced chicken breasts.

This was a wonderful week full of good food, fun, and family. I have yet to cook my own Thanksgiving dinner, but I'm working up to it. I am happy to report, though, that for the few smaller gatherings that we hosted, all of the food turned out very well! I used one of my previous Sunday dinner recipes (the Italiain Roast Beef) for the Pitt football crowd we had here on Friday night. Not a drop was left!

This week, I've thought about all that I'm thankful for, and the list is very long. I'll end this week with I piece that I found that helped to put things into persepective:

Be Thankful (Author Unknown)

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.

Thankful for the good and the not-so good, and looking forward to this holiday season!

The Big Easy and Cornish Hens

Week 11:

Rosemary Cornish Hens
Couscous with Dried Fruit

I made it back from New Orleans very late last night. The south definitely has their own way of cooking, and maybe sometime soon I'll draw some inspiration from this trip. For today, I was just happy to have food on my plate that was not looking back at me (I'll have to post a picture of the crawfish from our lunch in the French Quarter.)

The presentation (which is the reason that I was in New Orleans)went very well! About 80 people attended and we had a lot of great feedback. It was nice to see so much interest in our topic and have some great discussion with so many people.

So as for dinner, you may remember that Jason was supposed to be in charge this week since I was away. This included both finding a recipe and doing the grocery shopping. What he came up with was a "recipe" he created himself... his very own version of couscous. While that was a noble effort, I needed more food than that so I stepped in to contribute part of our meal. I made the Cornish hens to go with Jason's couscous. Here are the recipes:

Rosemary Cornish Hens:

Ingredients:

2 Cornish Hens
1 TB dried rosemary
1 TB garlic
2 TB lemon juice
2 TB olive oil
1/3 cup white wine
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix together the rosemary, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, wine, and pepper.
2. Leaving the skin on, use a knife to separate the skin from the hen to create a "pocket" in which to place the herbed mixture.
3. Using a spoon, insert several spoonfuls of herbed mixture between the skin and the meat. Place left over mixture inside the cavity of each hen.
4. Place hens, breast side down, in a roasting pan.
5. Broil for 45 minutes, turning the hen over at the half way point.

Jason's Couscous with Dried Fruit

Ingredients:

1 box Near East Toasted Pine Nut Couscous
1 TB minced garlic
1 1/4 cups water
1 TB olive oil
Dried cherries
Dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Combine water, olive oil and garlic and bring to boil. Add coscous and cook according to directions on box.
2. Add desired amount of dried ingredients to coscous and serve.

My Commentary:

The Cornish hens turned out very well...juicy and flavorful. In the future, though, I'll probably do just a few things differently. I'd prefer to use fresh rosemary as well as fresh lemon juice. I've read a variation of this recipe that places a quarter of a lemon and sprigs of rosemary inside the hen. I think that would really add to the flavor. As for the couscous, I think that Jason was subconsciously paying hommage to my Apricot Pistachio Wild Rice Salad from Week 6. :) I have a few other recipes that look great for Cornish Hens, so I'm sure this little bird will be the topic of some future posts.

Messy Food: Hassle or Heaven?

Week 10:

Barbecue Beef Short Ribs

After several weeks in a row of great Sunday dinners, this one was a bit of a flop. It was a failure on a few levels. First of all, it is truly hard to get a good cut of beef short ribs (short of going to a butcher.) The selection was not great at the grocery store. The best ones that I could find were incredibly slim on the meat and heavy on the fattiness. I realize this is the nature of ribs, but I'm sure there are better cuts out there than what I got today. Anyhow, I liked the recipe that I used, found here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Barbecued-Beef-Ribs-for-Two/Detail.aspx

I did make a few modifications though. First, I boiled the ribs for about an hour and a half to make them more tender. Other reviews on the site have noted you could boil them for even longer (up to 3 hours). I omitted the hot sauce and chili powder since I didn't have them. I also added a few shakes of mesquite flavored Liquid Smoke (that stuff is neat, by the way!) After putting it all together, I didn't feel that it looked like enough sauce to cover all of my ribs. To beef it up, I added some Sweet Baby Rays barbecue sauce in order to make sure all the ribs were fully coated. I cooked this for just short of an hour in a 350 degree oven.

The result was a great flavor and tender meat...just not enough of it! To me, it was just too fatty. After cooking for a few hours, I don't feel like I should have to work that hard to get at the food! The messiness and work involved made the ribs so not worth it to me. In my mind, the same goes for wings. I want to know your thoughts on this. Weigh in and let me know why you think what you think. I need some perspective.

Next week's Sunday Dinner will have a little twist. Since I'll just be returning from presenting at the ASHA conference, Jason is picking the recipe and doing the shopping for next week's meal. Maybe I can even convince him to cook it...


Poll of the Week- Messy food: Hassle or Heaven? Comment below!

Italian Comfort Foods

Week 9:

Italian Wedding Soup
Baked Ziti
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

So this week I took on more than just Italian comfort foods. This week, I took on the Sunday Dinner Project AND company. There is one kitchen rule that I have learned to stick to over the last few years, and it's very simple.

Annie's Number One Kitchen Rule: If you're having company, don't cook something you've never made before. Instead, go with something you know will be good.

Today, however, Jason's parents were coming over and I decided to ask them to stay for dinner. Now, I know this appears to break my number one rule of cooking, but I can explain. Allow me to digress for a moment. Very early in our marriage, we had a cook-out with Jason's entire family. At the cook-out, we had your typical cook-out food. I also decided to make a potato dish that one of Jason's aunts frequently makes (a family favorite, no less). It's a simple recipe (basically country style hash browns, heavy cream, butter, salt and pepper). The recipe (as I wrote it down) called for "2 containers" of heavy cream. At the store, I bought 2 large containers of cream and came home to cook away. I neglected to realize however, that the recipe actually called for 2 small containers of cream. After taking the potatoes out of the oven, I knew they didn't look right. It was essentially a soupy mess of potatoes and cream. Also, the potatoes were not fully cooked. I made the comment to my guests that I thought that I had goofed, but they insisted I serve the potatoes anyway. Every single one of my in-laws scooped the runny potatoes onto their plates and ate every last undercooked bit. My wonderful father-in-law looked straight at me at the end of the meal and said with all sincerity, "Annie, thank you for dinner. Everything was delicious." So if I'm going to break my number one rule on anyone, it would definitely be my in-laws. (Or my dad or brother.) Anyway, I cooked the wedding soup for lunch today, so I knew that at least the appetizer would be good. As for everything else, it turned out!

Here are the recipes:

Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb extra lean ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
2 TB grated Parm. Cheese
1 tsp dried basil
1 TB minced garlic
3 TB minced onion
2 1/2 Quarts Chicken Broth
2 C Spinach (packed, rinsed, thinly sliced)
3/4 C diced carrots
1 cup noodles (I use mini shells)

Directions:

1. In medium bowl, combine the meat, egg, bread crumbs, basil, onion, garlic, and cheese. Form into small balls.
2. Brown meat balls in pan until brown on all sides but not cooked through.
3.Cook noodles separately.
4. Heat chicken broth to boiling, add carrots and spinach. Add meatballs to broth. Continue to boil and allow to cook for at least 15 minutes before serving. Add desired noodles.

Tricks for this recipe:

-It took a long time to make the meatballs! In the future, I will roll out a "rope" of meat, and then cut the rope to achieve the desired size meatball. That will be much faster.

- I used a pizza cutter to chop up my spinach. No worries about cutting my fingers, fast, and got the job done.

-Using pre-made broth is what helps to make this recipe quick. For the broth in this soup, I combined 1 large can of regular chicken broth with 1 large can of the low fat reduced sodium broth. That way it wasn't too salty. If I have the time, though, I will make my own broth.

-Cook the noodles separately so they won't absorb the broth while cooking. To ensure the noodles are not lacking flavor, I boiled them in water with a chicken bouillon cube.

Baked Ziti:

Ingredients (This recipe serves 10)-
1 lb dry Ziti Pasta
1/2 onion, chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
2 (26 oz) jars spaghetti sauce
6 oz provolone cheese, sliced
2 cups Ricotta Cheese
6 oz Mozzarella Cheese
2 TB Grated Parm Cheese

Directions:
1. Bring large pot of slightly salted water to a boil. Cook ziti for 8-10 minutes or as directed on box.
2. Brown onion and ground beef in skillet over medium heat. Add 3/4 of sauce and allow to simmer (covered) for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Layer ingredients in the following manner: Spaghetti Sauce (enough to cover the bottom of the pan), half of the noodles, Provolone Cheese, Ricotta Cheese, Half of the meat/sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese, remaining sauce mixture, parm cheese.
4. Bake, COVERED with foil for about 30 minutes or until all cheese is melted.

My thoughts on this one:

Easy, fast, and hopefully good as a leftover. It makes a TON of food, so consider cutting the recipe in half if you don't want to be eating this for the next week like we will be. :)

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 C UNSALTED butter
3/4 C white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz white chocolate chips
1 (6.5 oz) jar unsalted Macadamia nuts, chopped*

*If you can only find salted nuts, place nuts in a strainer, rinse thoroughly with water, then allow to dry on paper towels.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda and add to creamed mixture. Stir in white chocolate and nuts.
3. Chill dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
3. Placing heaping teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack and store in airtight container.

My thoughts:

:) Easiest cookies I've ever made. Quite delicious too.


Everything I made this week was voted as a "make again" dish. :) Hopefully, that trend will continue.

Until next week...eat, drink, and enjoy!

Italian Roast Beef with a side of Monster Mash

Week 8: Italian Roast Beef, Pumpkin Bread

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a safe holiday! For us, this was a pretty busy weekend, and since I was not home for much of the day due to Stef's lovely baby shower (Congrats Stef!) I opted for a Crock-Pot meal this week. There's only one thing I like better than a meal that turns out great: A meal that turns out great that's EASY, fast, and doesn't make many dishes. This will very likely turn into a week night favorite in our household. Here is the recipe:

Italian Roast Beef

3 Cups Beef Broth

1/4 tsp salt

t tsp ground pepper

1 tsp dry oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 Bay Leaf

2 (0.7 oz) pkts dry Italian Dressing Mix

3-5 pound Chuck Roast

Sliced Italian Rolls if desired

Directions:

1. Combine all dry ingredients in small bowl. Mix well.

2. Rub dry ingredients into meat.

3. Add Beef Broth and meat to crock pot. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 12 hours.

4. Shred meat with fork and serve alone or on soft Italian Rolls.

My commentary:

SO EASY!!!! We saved the broth that it cooked in as a dipping sauce for the sandwiches. I used my very handy Pampered Chef Gravy Separator to skim the fat from the sauce. If you don't have one, an easy alternative is to use a piece of Saran Wrap to remove the fat from the top of the sauce. This would be a great meal to serve some type of roasted potato or any type of veggie. As for the Pumpkin Bread...I cheat and use a great boxed mix by Libby's. Some stores only carry this mix around Thanksgiving, however the Hempfield Square Giant Eagle seems to carry it year round now.

In closing, I'll leave you with some Halloween fun. Of course, this will be much funnier if you know my family, but please click the links below to check out the Monster Mash halloween cards that I made for my family. I couldn't stop laughing!!!



http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/q5k7ey1rJPTSx5GJ


http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/bYf0urig6NJ8nxNx

Hope you had a Spook-tacular weekend! Please send recipe ideas for next week!

Week 7:
Teriyaki Chicken Chow Mein
Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

Cooking vocab lesson de jour:

Teriyaki: Derived from the word teri which refers to the shine or luster given by the sugar content in the tare and yaki which refers to the cooking method of broiling or grilling a meat.

My commentary:

This is the first week that I actually deviated from the recipe on hand. In theory, that is a sign that I'm becoming a better, more adventurous cook. I think the base recipe that i had definitely needed some tweaking, but I'm just not sure I tweaked it the right way. I started by marinating my chicken in a combo of teriyaki sauce and brown sugar. I let it soak in for about 2 hours. The rest of the recipe follows (with my modifications). After preparing the recipe below, I layered the finished product on top of dry Chow Mein noodles. It was good, but too salty. Next time, I would cut down on the soy sauce, and possibly buy low sodium Chicken Broth.

Dessert was better. I did this dessert without the raspberry topping since I had no fresh berries on hand. To tie it in with my Asian inspired dinner, I served these lovely little cakes with chocolate covered fortune cookies on the side. Yum! The recipes are below.

Chicken Chow Mein

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup butter
2 cups chopped mushrooms
2 cups chopped celery
1 onions, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 TB ginger
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 can Water Chestnuts
1 can Bamboo Shoots
1/2 cup green bean sprouts
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup cold water
3 cups cooked, cubed chicken meat

DIRECTIONS
1. In a wok or skillet, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Add mushrooms, celery, onions and garlic powder; cook until the onions have wilted. Add chicken broth, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. Continue cooking until celery is cooked but still crisp. Stir in the bean sprouts and soy sauce.

2. Cook chicken in separate pan. Remove from heat and cut into bite size pieces.

3. Mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. Slowly stir into vegetables. Sauce should start to thicken a little. Mix in chicken.

Molten Chocolate Cake-

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter or unsalted margarine*
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, or
bars, cut into bite-size chunks
5 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
4 teaspoons flour
8 extra-large paper muffin cups (or use
regular paper muffin cups, which will make
12 cakes)

Garnish:
1 (6 ounce) container raspberries, barely
moistened and rolled in about
1/2 cup sugar right before serving

Directions:
1. Microwave chocolate and butter to smooth texture.

2. Beat eggs, sugar and salt with a hand mixer in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Beat egg mixture into chocolate until smooth. Beat in flour or matzo meal until just combined. (Batter can be made a day ahead; return to room temperature an hour or so before baking.)

3. Before serving dinner, adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a standard-size muffin tin (1/2 cup capacity) with 8 extra-large muffin papers (papers should extend above cups to facilitate removal). Spray muffin papers with vegetable cooking spray. Divide batter among muffin cups.

4. Bake until batter puffs but center is not set, 8 to 10 minutes. Carefully lift cakes from tin and set on a work surface. Pull papers away from cakes and transfer cakes to dessert plates.

5.Top each with sugared raspberries and serve immediately.

Wine of the Weekend:

Yellow Tail, Pinot Grigio

I'll leave you with a thought from my fortune cookie:

"Be brave enough to face new challenges."

Until next week!

Week 6:

~Prosciutto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Balsamic Sauce
~Apricot Pistachio Wild Rice Salad

I was a little bit on the fence this week if my Sunday dinner would come through. I have been battling a sudden and especially annoying cold since Friday. I wasn't willing to let that stand in my way. Jason came with me to the grocery store Saturday night to help me round up the ingredients. Today, after about 1 1/2 - 2 hours of cooking (interspersed with crazy hand washing to avoid sharing my cold), I'm ready to drop. The results, however were well worth it. Jason declared that this was my best meal to date and he actually used the word "excellent" in describing it. :) This recipe was found by my Aunt Phyllis. The recipe was originally developed by Rania Harris, and it was found on KDKA.

Prosciutto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Balsamic Sauce:

Ingredients-

Marinade:
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly minced garlic
- Sea salt/freshly ground black pepper to taste

-1 Pork Tenderloin - about 1 pound
-Thinly sliced prosciutto for wrapping pork (I got 10 slices from the deli)

Sauce:
- 2 TB olive oil
- 2 TB minced shallots
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 cup fresh cherries - pitted and halved (I used frozen since they're out of season)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup reduced dark chicken stock
- 1 TB chopped sage
- 1 TB unsalted butter (oops...I forgot to add this!)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine the ingredients for the marinade in small bowl. Place pork in shallow baking dish and add marinade to coat pork well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (I flipped the pork several times while it marinaded.)

3. Remove pork and discard marinade. Wrap pork with the prosciutto and place in a roasting pan. Roast the pork for 15-20 minutes.

4. In a 2 quart pot, heat the olive oil and shallots, cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add garlic and cook for additional 30 seconds.

5. Add cherries to pot and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar and cook, stirring, to deglaze the pan.

6. When nearly all vinegar has evaporated, add chicken stock and sage. Cook until reduced by 25% in volume, about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the butter and stir.

Apricot Pistachio Wild Rice Salad:

Ingredients:

- 2/3 cup brown rice
- 2/3 cup wild rice
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 10 large basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
- 1/2 minced red onion (skipped this...no onion fans here)
- 1/2 cup dried apricots - chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped pistachios, lightly toasted
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1 tsp finely grated orange zest

Dressing for Salad:
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 TB olive oil
- 2 TB orange juice
- 1 TB freshly grated orange zest
- 2 TB Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey
- Pinch of Salt

Directions:
1. Combine brown rice, wild rice, and chicken broth in sauce pan and bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until all water is evaporated and rice is fully cooked.

2. Remove from heat and cool completely.

3. When rice is cool, add basil, red onion, dried apricots, pistachios, dried cherries, and orange zest. Mix well.

4. Combine ingredients for dressing and whisk together. Pour over rice mixture.


My commentary:

First of all, you should start the rice WAY before everything else (except of course for prepping the marinade...my pork marinaded for 3+ hours). After I started cooking the rice about an hour and a half before I planned to serve the meal, and it still wasn't fully cooled in time to serve the salad as a cool dish. (However it was still really good). Get the rice cooking and then start chopping up all of the ingredients for the salad (including time to toast your pistachios).

I also felt that the pork sauce took longer to cook than what it seemed to call for in the recipe. I don't feel that enough of my vinegar evaporated.

Overall, this was a great meal with complex flavors. The pork was juicy and flavorful on its own, and the cherry balsamic sauce added a whole new dimension of flavor. The salad had great depth, with lots of different layers of taste...served cool, it would be ideal as a summer salad.

Kitchen tools I realized I need based on this recipe:

More cutting boards
Hand chopper
Zester

Cooking term I learned with this recipe:

Deglaze: To extract flavor and cooked on food residue from a pan by introducing a cool liquid to the mixture.

And with that, we've wrapped up Week 6. Please feel free to post links to your favorite recipes. I'm constatnly searching for something new to try.

Until next week!

What about those Bamboo Shoots...

Chicken Lettuce Wraps - Remix

Because I went back and forth between two slightly different versions of the chicken-lettuce wrap recipe, I ended up with some "left-over" ingredients. In the recipe I did NOT use (http://www.grouprecipes.com/sr/11547/pf-changs-chicken-lettuce-wraps/recipe/) one of the listed ingredients was Bamboo Shoots.

Because I couldn't think of any other time that I might need bamboo shoots, I decided to cook them up along with the other leftovers to create a new dish altogether. Here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS:

Leftover Chicken Mixture
Leftover Iceburg lettuce, chopped
Bamboo Shoots
Shiitake Mushrooms
White Onion, sliced
Brown Sugar
Soy Sauce
Cashews
Remaining "Special Sauce"

1. Combine soy sauce (enough to cover bottom of pan), brown sugar (a few tablespoons, to taste), and onions in sauce pan over medium-high heat. Allow onions to begin to cook.

2. Add bamboo shoots (8 oz can) and leftover shiitakee mushrooms to pan. Cook until onions are soft and translucent.

3. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.

4. Chop leftover Iceburg lettuce for salad.

5. Toss leftover chicken mixture, lettuce, and bamboo shoot mixture with cashews. Add remaining "special sauce" as a dressing if desired. This salad can be served cold or hot.

PRESTO! Leftovers that feel like an all new meal! And on top of that, now I can say that I've cooked something that involves BAMBOO SHOOTS!!! That's pretty impressive for the girl that usually orders chicken fingers at restaurants.

Rachel Ray and P.F. Changs

Week 5:

Saturday's Dinner- Beef Fondue, Apple-Brie Mashed Potatoes, & Legumes
Sunday's Lunch- Chicken Lettuce Wraps

So it may look like I've gotten extra ambitious by trying 2 new meals this weekend. That's partly true. Really, though, I think I was trying to make up for the fact that I cooked absolutely nothing during the week. We went out or had take-out every night. On nights that I come home late from work, it would just take too much time to cook something. That's not to say that Jason (who gets home earlier) doesn't start dinner sometimes If I keep up my weekend practicing though, maybe I'll get faster and more efficient. I also need to get better at planning ahead for the week to make weekend grocery shopping easier. :) There's so much more to learning how to cook than just the cooking part.

Anyhow, as a new chef, I'm always looking for inspiration. My favorite sources include: my mom's recipe box (I treasure this), online recipes (because I love being able to read the reviews), the Food Network, and restaurants. (That helps me to justify all the eating out...I'll just call it "research.") My Saturday night meal came partly from a 30 Minute Meals episode. Rachel Ray prepared the Apple-Brie Mashed Potatoes with a chicken dish, but I decided that Beef Fondue would be more fun. I also added Lima beans prepared in a roux to round out the meal. Here are the recipes, followed by my commentary:

Apple Brie Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

- 2 lbs Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes
- Salt
- 1/2 cup of cream
- 1 Golden Delicious Apple, peeled and cored
- 1/3 lb wedge Brie Cheese, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. Peel and quarter potatoes. Place in large pot and cover with water. Boil over medium heat until tender.

2. When potatoes are cooked, remove from heat and drain. Mash potatoes, season with salt and set aside.

3. In small pot, combine apple and cream and reduce over medium heat for 15 minutes.

4. To food processor, add the hot apple cream mixture, and brie, process until smooth, and
season with salt.

5. Beat cream mixture into potatoes.

DELICIOUS potatoes! The apple just really adds something interesting and sweet. Now I will admit that the Brie scared me a bit, and in my preparation, I did not use the amount of Brie that was called for. I had never worked with Brie before. I was unsure about the consistency of it and if I should use the white-ish part all along the edge. Smelling the apple-cream mixture was fantastic, and I really hesitated to add in the Brie (which to me smelled a bit like mushrooms...or feet...). I served this with beef, as I mentioned before, and Jason and I both agreed that these potatoes would really compliment a chicken dish much better.

Legumes (Lima Beans) in Roux Sauce

Ingredients:

-Half bag frozen Lima beans
-2 TB butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 TB flour
- 1 TB white vinegar
- Salt

Directions:

1. Boil the Lima beans in water, separately from roux. Cook until tender, set aside.

2. While beans are cooking, combine milk and butter in sauce pan and heat on low-medium. Do not allow the milk to boil.

3. After butter has melted, gradually add flour, stirring continuously.

4. Add white vinegar, continuing to stir. Add salt to taste.

5. Combine roux with Lima beans in serving bowl.

This is one of my mom's. I never actually had this recipe written down, I just played around with it until I got it just right. Sometimes, I still have to add a little more flour and vinegar to get it to the right thickness. It can be tricky to master, but it's really good. It's always important to put in the ingredients in the order listed above. Otherwise, the vinegar does weird things to the milk.

Beef Fondue - I served the two above dishes with your standard beef fondue. I loved fondue as a child simply for the novelty. I think I wanted to do it last night because it helps to slow down the pace of a meal. Sometimes we rush through our dinners, and I'm working on ways to help us remember what its like to savor the food and the company. Next time I do fondue, I'd like to making some dipping sauces for the meat. Does anyone have any recipes they like? Please share!

Overall, this was a fun (but messy!) meal to make. Being an organized chef needs to move up on my list of priorities. Check out these pictures. The first one is my kitchen on a typical day. The second one is the "after" shot. Yep...that took a while to clean up!

Sunday: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

So on to Sunday's meal. I decided to do a lunch attempt for today. One of my favorite restaurants is P.F. Changs. I have tried a few "copy cat" recipes that I found online with other recipes from the restaurant that have turned out really well. (Ask me for the Mongolian Beef recipe if you want it...it's easy to make, delicious and great as left-overs.) I decided that Chicken Lettuce Wraps would make a nice lunch. Here is a link to the recipe that I used: http://http//www.recipezaar.com/P-F-Changs-Chicken-Lettuce-Wraps-15865

Jason really liked the end result, but this took me FOREVER to make. I think mincing some of the ingredients took the longest...does any one have a hand chopper that works well for mincing? I might be investing in one after this.

My last thought for today will be the "Wine of the Weekend." We opened a new bottle on Saturday that was excellent. It would go perfectly with any kind of beef meal. Highly recommended!

NEWTON Napa Valley Claret, 2006:

Merlot: 43% Cabernet Sauvignon 41% Cabernet Franc 9% Petit Verdot 4% Syrah 3%

Until next week, be well, eat well, and love well!

Dinners to Date

Week One: Lasagna



It's true. I'd never actually cooked (or eaten) lasagna before a few weeks ago. I figured it combined all of my favorite things, so I couldn't go wrong. I bought the no-cook Barilla lasagna noodles and followed the recipe on the box. My lasagna was strictly sauce, noodles, and lots of cheese. And it actually turned out! It helped that my first attempt at a Sunday dinner worked out. On top of that, this was a meal that was even better as a left-over!


A lasagna tip that I found out after the fact comes from the Barilla website:

I did not alternate the direction of my noodle layers the way they show to do here. Apparently, that helps to hold it all together better.


Week 2: Beef Stew

Chilly fall days bring out the craving for some nice, hot comfort food. My mom used to make us beef stew, but I did not have her recipe. I once again resorted to using the recipe from the back of the box of Swanson Beef broth.

Hearty Beef Stew
Prep: 10 in, Cook: 2 hr, 15 min, Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:
-1 lb beef for stew, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 and 3/4 cup Swanson Beef Broth
-1 Bay Leaf
-1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed
-1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 medium carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
-2 medium potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 bag frozen peas
- 2 TBs all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup water

1. Brown beef on all sides over medium high heat. When browned, discard excess oil.
2. Stir broth, bay leaf, thyme, and black pepper and beef cubes into saucepot. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cover and cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
3. Add carrots and potatoes, cover and cook 30 minutes more or until vegetables are tender.
4. Stir flour and water in cup and stir into saucepot. Cook and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Discard bay leaf.

I changed a few things in this recipe. The recipe actually calls for the use of the fat that is derived when you brown the beef. I tried this recipe twice, and it's way too fatty if you do it that way. I would also recommend using a bit more beef broth. Otherwise, most of the liquid boils off and you're left with hardly any. Otherwise...really good for a cold fall day. The leftovers also worked perfectly as lunch the next day.

Week 3: Crab Cakes, Twice Baked Potatoes, and Onion Rings

Thanks to a sale at Giant Eagle, I found myself with a 16 oz. can of genuine Crab meat. This is one of Jason's favorites, so I really didn't want to goof it up. Since following the recipe on the box had been working for me up to this point, I decided to do it again. Now, I no longer have the can with me so I can't write the recipe out at the moment. All I know is something went wrong somewhere along the way. It was a recipe that did not call for any sort of "filler." After I mixed up all of the ingredients, it was too soupy to actually form into cakes. I ended up putting the entire mixture in a pie pan and baking it that way. I suppose it still tasted ok, but any ideas on why it turned out like that?

I found the recipe for the twice baked potatoes here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ultimate-twice-baked-potatoes/detail.aspx. I think next time I'll do just a bit less sour cream. As for the onion rings...I cheated with the frozen kind.

Week 4: Chicken Pot Pie (Soup)

No, it really wasn't supposed to be a soup, but that's kind of how it turned out. Here is a picture of what it's supposed to look like:


* This recipe is courtesy Robbie Rice from All Recipes.com.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• Poultry Seasoning
• Garlic Powder
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, celery, poultry seasoning, and garlic powder. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heats, drain, and set aside.

3. In saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Place chicken mixture in bottom of pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over it. Cover with top pie crust, sealing edges and removing excess dough. Vent the top pie crust to allow steam to escape.

5. Bake fro 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown and flaky.

Jason described this one as a chicken stew. He said it wasn't "bad" however this is a dish that never found a second calling as left overs (as it continues to sit in the fridge as I type.) I don't know what went wrong...

OK...so we're officially up to date. This weekend, I was ambitious and decided to try 2 new dishes, one for last night and one for tonight. I'll post those both after I've finished today's attempt. Wish me luck!

The Sunday Dinner Project Begins...

Every year, on January 1st, millions of Americans make New Year's Resolutions that they hope to stick with through out the coming year. Many of those pledges are forgotten by the middle of February. Very fortunate people, like myself, have a second chance at those same resolutions. As an educator, I make what I like to call "New School-Year Resolutions."

I am still a newcomer to the field of education. In fact, I'm not a teacher, but a speech-language pathologist working in the school setting. At the beginning of my second full year of school, I found myself making a list of things I hoped to accomplish for the year. Of course, many of these goals involved my work with the kids. My personal goals are what I would like to keep track of here.

Now at the beginning of this school year, I started off with many personal goals. There was a pretty wide range: completing a chore every night of the week, exercising regularly, and learning to cook new things (particularly because I'm such a picky eater, I could cook the same 4 things every night and be content). The first two weeks of school were pretty successful...I followed my cleaning schedule, worked out on the elliptical, and cooked like crazy. But somewhere in the middle of week three I started to slip. The chores have slipped back into weekend duties and the extent of my exercising includes running around my school building (in heels) hunting for kids that forget to come to speech. The cooking was the only thing that I stuck with.

I decided to be reasonable and work on one totally new meal every week. On Sunday, to be exact. Sunday was always an important dinner day in my family. Each week, after church, we would go to my grandparents house to eat Sunday dinner. It wasn't necessarily about the food back then...it was more about the family. Being together, eating, enjoying each other. It's an important part of my memories of growing up. Aside from that, my mom was also an excellent cook. Because she passed away when I was only 17, I feel that I never really had the opportunity to pick up all of her cooking skills. That's why the Sunday Dinner Project means so much to me. I want to be a good cook. I want to bring people together over food. I want to be a great cook like my mom.

My husband Jason (of more than 3 years now!) is my Guinea pig. I learned early on that it's not always a great idea to try out a brand new recipe on company. My hope is that this blog will serve as a place for me to keep track of my successes and failures, get tips from other people, and chronicle my progress as a cook. In the next few days, I will catch you up on my first few attempts of Sunday Dinners, and then keep current from here on out. Bon Appetit!