Soup! It's what's for dinner.

After Christmas dinner, my husband always asks "why did you buy such a big ham?". Every year it's the same thing. He still does not understand the well-known concept that winter = soup season. Today is soup day... because it is cold, and because I've got a cold, and because Carrie Fisher just died this morning and I feel like making ugly green, Yoda-colored soup. 

Quick soak of the peas.

Pre-chopped ham & veggies. Saving some time...

Pre-boiling the scored ham hock.

Dutch Baby

I've always wanted to try this recipe. It turned out tasty, but it is very savory and with powdered sugar or syrup, it didn't seem as good. I think I'll top it with salsa or veggies and maybe some cheese instead next time, but it's a nice presentation piece!

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
•  Pinch of nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons butter
•  Syrup, preserves, confectioners' sugar or cinnamon sugar

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar and nutmeg in a blender jar and blend until smooth. Batter may also be mixed by hand.
3. Place butter in a heavy 10-inch skillet or baking dish and place in the oven. As soon as the butter has melted (watch it so it does not burn) add the batter to the pan, return pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake five minutes longer.
4. Remove pancake from oven, cut into wedges and serve at once topped with syrup, preserves, confectioners' sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Davenport Hotel Peanut Brittle

** UPDATE: I sent some of this to my mother for her birthday, and my father ate most of it. Then they asked me for the recipe, which is a testament to just how awesome this is!**

"The Davenport Hotel was built in Spokane, WA in 1914 and it was the first hotel in the United States with air conditioning, a central vaccuum system, pipe organ, and dividing doors in the ballrooms. It is also the place at which the first Crab Louis (named after Louis Davenport) was created and served. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."  It was refurbished in 2002 by Walt Worthy, the guy who bought my grandparents' land on 5 Mile and developed it into huge homes. It's quite beautiful:

 
 Here's what their packaging looks like.


Their peanut brittle is renowned, but this lady claimed to have a knock-off recipe. 
So I thought I'd give it a try.  

 

Toum (Mediterranean Garlic Sauce)

I had this Lebanese garlic sauce at a Mediterranean restaurant and it was SO awesome, I had to know how to make it at home . I found this recipe from the Mediterranean Chef online with this VIDEO.  

It was great, but I wish she'd warned me about the heat that comes from fresh garlic!  Other sites say it will die down over a few days in the fridge, but good Lord, my tongue was burning.  

It's so delicious though, and it is great as a sandwich spread, marinade, dipping sauce... just awesome.  You will keep vampires away for weeks after eating this, too!

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

Fresh Garlic - 2 cups

Conola Oil - 4 1/2 cups or ( more/less) depends how strong or light you want

Lemon Juice 3/4 Cup

Salt 1 1/2 tspn

Method:

Place the the fresh garlic in a food processor ( you could use a blender, if you have strong one) start with a table spoon of lemon juice alternating with the lemon juice slowy. Once you have finished with the 1st cup of oil you can increase the oil to about 2 tbls or so but keep the lemon juice same.

P.S - if you rush into this you will end up with a very thin runny sauce, what I normally do is add some more garlic to it and start all over again...hope you will not have to do that.

Rice Pudding

Tyler Florence's Rockin' Rice Pudding

This was so good my son ate like 4 cups at a time!

Ingredients

3 cups white rice, cooked
3 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided


Directions

Combine cooked rice, milk, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan. Add raisins and vanilla. Cook for 25 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Spoon pudding into a serving dish and dust with remaining cinnamon. May serve chilled or at room temperature.

Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence

Thanksgiving!

Got the week off, and it's time to make Turkey Day Part I (the one that yields leftovers for home!!).
Today it's Parkerhouse Rolls and Pumpkin Pie (which I had to make 2 of because the kid ate an entire half pie himself last night).

Later... turkey- dry brined- mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and corn.  Brin on the CARBS!

Blaze Pizza

So this build your own pizza craze continues. First, Pielogy came on the scene. Then locally we got The Artisan Pizza. In Spokane, I noticed a Blaze Pizza down by Gonzaga U and when we returned to So Cal, we saw that they were popping up all over.  The newest one is in West Covina, close to home. 

It's a more industrial chic decor; they have a press for the dough like Artisan and Pieology, but it appears to also aerate the bottom and form a lip on the edge. They do have gluten free dough, but I didn't see a wheat option. Anyhoo...

I think it was 5.95 for cheese, 6.95 for one topping, and 7.95 or so for build-your-own unlimited. That seems reasonable, as I think Artisan is at least a dollar more. I ordered a red sauce, mozzarella, bacon/italian meatball, olives mushrooms, zucchini pie.  It was quite good, and the takeout boxes were easily accessible so I could take my half home.  

The dough was, in my opinion, slightly thinner than Artisan, but also more crispy and less chewy than the other, which I kind of like. Maybe it's less gluten in their flour, or because they aerate and it doesn't rise like the Artisan dough. 
It was however, NOT soggy in the middle, as has happened at Pieology, where you pick up the dough and everything slides off.  

So, basically, it was good and I'd go again. It was good enough that I almost forgot to take a photo before I scarfed it down!

Jameson Cider Smash

• 1 1/2 ounces Jameson whiskey
• 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 4 ounces chilled apple cider

Shake and pour over ice. Garnish with an apple slice if desired. Yum!

Knockoff Chipotle Burrito Bowl

                                       

Preparing a Burrito Bowl using leftover grilled meat (steak, chicken, or pork)

This is a great way to use up leftover grilled meat and you can use canned beans and store-bought pico de gallo (or tomato salsa if preferred). There is a lot of protein and fiber and less bad carbs without the tortilla, but you can also make this a burrito if you wish. You can make all of it ahead of time and then just heat up and assemble as you desire. You can also substitute parsley for cilantro if you don’t like the taste of it, or just leave it out.

Once all the items are cooked, assemble the burrito bowl as follows: Rice and beans at the base. Top with diced meat. Then add your salsas/pico de gallo, chopped lettuce, cheese, sour cream if desired.

MEAT

Reheat & dice up the leftover meat.

FRESH CORN SALSA

2 ears white or yellow corn

2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

2 tablespoons red onion, small diced

Juice of 1 lime

Cook corn and remove kernels. When corn has cooled, add cilantro, red onion, lime juice, and salt to taste. Mix well, cover, and refrigerate until serving.

PICO DE GALLO

3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

2 heaping tablespoons cilantro, chopped

2 tablespoons red onion, diced

Juice of 1 lime

Half of 1 jalapeño, seeded, deveined, and fine diced. Jalapeños vary significantly in heat, so test yours to see how much you want.

Salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Do not skip the seeding of the tomatoes — it really is crucial to getting the right consistency.

CILANTRO LIME WHITE RICE

1 cup long grain white rice

1 3/4 cups water

1 tablespoon butter

1 handful cilantro, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lime

Salt to taste

Mix rice, water, and butter in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and keep covered for five minutes. After five minutes, fluff rice with a fork and mix in the cilantro, salt, and lime juice.

SEASONED BLACK BEANS OR PINTO BEANS (your preference)

1 15-ounce can black beans or pinto beans, rinsed

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 large sliced red onion, diced

1 large pinch cumin

1 large pinch chili powder

Salt to taste

In a medium non-stick pan, heat the vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Add the onions, and sauté until soft. Add beans, cumin, chili powder, and salt, and simmer on medium-low for about 15 minutes. If these are done before your other elements, just keep them covered on extra low heat until serving.

Lasagna From Scratch. Really.

 Today, I made the sauce and homemade ricotta. It is so easy to make, and so creamy and delicious!

The sauce has 1# ground beef, 1# mild italian sausage, 2 cl garlic, 1/2 c chopped onion, 2 cans tomato paste, 2 small cans tomato sauce, 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds. Simmer 1 1/2 hrs after browning meats.

 Italian Sausage (removed from casings)

Ground beef, browned.

Sauce, ready to simmer.


The ricotta, I made 2 batches. You line a sieve with cheesecloth ( used an old flour-towel) over a drip pan. In a sauce pot add 2 C. whole milk, 1/2 C. heavy cream, 1 tsp salt, and bring to a boil. Immediately remove from heat and stir in 2T white vinegar and you'll see it curdle. Stir a bit, then pour through the sieve. Let sit 20 minutes at room temp- and you can refrigerate it up to 2 days. I've tried lemon, but vinegar gives me better results.  This yields about 8 oz.

For the homemade noodles in the AM. Make a well of 3 1/2 C. AP Flour. Put four 4 eggs in the middle. I'm kneading with a dough hook, 'cause I'm lazy, but it should be pliable but not sticky. Cover and let rest at room temp for 15 minutes. Roll out on a floured board and roll as thin as humanly possible without a pasta machine!!  I'm cutting large rectangles for the lasagna. Cook 30 sec's in boiling water, place in an ice bath quickly, then start layering.

Mix the ricotta with 1 egg and some parsley, then start with: Sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, repeat and top with mozz and parm.

Cover with foil (spray with cooking spray first to avoid stickage!) and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Pork Enchiladas

I had leftover pork in the freezer from a slow cooked roast, so I defrosted it and made pork enchiladas with homemade sauce. The rice was leftover- not authentic Mexican, but the enchiladas were good and the smell brought my teenager out hunting for grub! :)

Hähnchenschnitzel

So, we spent a day in Leavenworth, WA a few weeks ago- a little bavarian town in the Eastern Cascades foothills. We all tried schnitzel, or as the A put it, "Shitzel". Today was homemade schitzel day! I made it with chicken, but traditionally it is made with veal.

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, skinless

Flour, 1/2 c.

2 Eggs

1/2 c. bread crumbs, unseasoned

tsp paprika

tsp nutmeg

tsp salt

Oil

4 oz dry spaetzle (Cost Plus Mkt)

Mushrooms (Fresh, chopped)

Butter

Beef boullion cube

Paprika

Cream

Milk

Recipe:

Mix the spices with the breadcrumbs.Using a flat mallet, pound breasts to 1/4 inch or less. Dip in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. 

Fry 4 minutes on each side in oil. Meanwhile, add 4 oz spaetzle to boiling water. Cook 17 minutes. 

For sauce, saute mushrooms in butter, add 1/2 c cream, 1/2 c milk, tsp. of paprika, and 1 beef boullion cube, and 1/4 c. white wine. Stir over med heat until reduced and creamy. Serve over schnitzel & spaetzle.

A doesn't like the sauce, so here is the plain view:

Here it is with mushroom sauce:

Viva la France!

Demain est jour de la Bastille!  In honor of this moment in French history, I shall be having quiche and brie on triscuits. I'm not sure triscuits are Francais vrais, but since I'm cutting down on the carbs, gotta go without the brioche.

Here is the bacon cheddar quiche recipe, however, I added mushrooms, because J'aime champignons! I honestly believe that if we called mushrooms "champignons", more people would eat them.

This spreadable brie I located at the Grocery Outlet. It is called "wee brie", which is tres mignonne, ne c'est pas? 

Here's a little history for you that you might find interesting: "La Fête Nat. is probably called 'Bastille Day' in English because [it] is a brief, concise and unambiguous reference to the storming of the prison of the Bastille in Paris on July 14,1789, by 954 men and one woman, armed with pikes and miscellaneous firearms, yelling “Tous à la Bastille!"  *

But don't wish a Frenchman "Happy Bastille Day".  They view it as rude.  They don't approve of we Americans hanging our stars and stripes all over the place on July 4 either.

They just like to quietly get the day off and enjoy no work. I can respect that.

*Source: ©Julia Frey, 2010