For those who are into making homemade pizza, you can join Mark Bittman tomorrow, April 18th at 3 PM EST to on the New York Times’ Facebook page for a question and answer session about making pizza. Mark Bittman is one of my favorite cookbook authors and the author of “How To Make Everything.” Check it out if you get the chance.
Talk Pizza With Bittman – NYTimes.com.
I had actually planned to make a roast beef dinner tonight, but decided I wanted to slow roast it so it is covered in salt right now in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner. So that left me to change things around again, which is kind of business as usual in this house anyway. I had bought a bone-in turkey breast at the store this weekend and hasn’t decided whether to freeze it or not, but it seemed like a good night to make it. It was a really good deal for a 3 pound turkey breast for under $3.00, and we’ll get several meals out of it. So tonight was Roasted Turkey Breast with Sage and Cayenne, Pan Roasted Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes.
Roasted Turkey Breast with Sage and Cayenne
1 6 pound bone-in turkey breast (I only had a 3 pound, so I cut the recipe in half)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
Place the turkey breast, skin side up, on a rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan. Combine the salt, sage, cayenne, cumin, and paprika in a small bowl. Rub the spice mix all over the turkey skin and let the turkey stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees. Roast the turkey for 25 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 155-160 degrees, about 50 minutes longer. transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the turkey rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.
A 90 degree day may not have been the best day to do this, but it came out really well and the crispy skin tasted great. I had also bought some asparagus this weekend (also on sale) so I decided to make that tonight as well, using a pan roasting method that I had seen in Cook’s Illustrated. Use thicker asparagus for this recipe as I think thinner spears may tend to burn or overcook.
Pan Roasted Asparagus with Toasted Garlic and Parmesan
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound thick asparagus spears, ends trimmed
Salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 lemon (optional)
Heat the olive oil and sliced garlic in a large skillet over medium heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is crisp and golden but not dark brown, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic to a paper towel-lined plate.
Add the butter to the oil in the skillet. When the butter has melted, add half the asparagus to the skillet with the tips pointed in one direction; add the remaining spears with the tips pointed in the opposite direction. Using tongs, distribute the spears in an even layer (the spears will not quite fit into a single layer); cover and cook until the asparagus is bright green and still crisp, about 5 minutes.
Uncover the pan and increase the heat to high; season the asparagus with salt and pepper. Cook until the spears are tender and well browned along one side, about 5 to 7 minutes, using tongs occasionally to move the spears from the center of the pan to the edge of the pan to ensure all the spears are browned. Transfer the asparagus to a serving dish, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and toasted garlic slices, adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper, and, if desired, squeeze the lemon over the spears. Serve immediately.
I think they turned out great. I added some mashed potatoes to the meal, which I have made many times before and posted the recipe on here, and Michelle loves stuffing and I didn’t have time to make my own, so bless the fine people at Stove Top for their contribution to the meal.
Tomorrow I am really making the roast beef (I am committed now since it is in the salt), so I will be posting that recipe tomorrow. Until then, enjoy your evening (hopefully it’s not as warm where you are) and enjoy your meal!
Sorry I didn’t get to blog this weekend;work just got in the way I guess. Anyway, for now, here are 5 recipes from Williams-Sonoma to use in your slow cooker for spring. Each one looks tasty and delicious, so give them a try. I’ll be back tomorrow with my roast beef dinner. See you then!
People have a strong reaction when they hear a recipe that has prunes in it. A lot of people won’t even try it, being that the prune reputation has lent itself to be ignored. However, I came across this recipe on the Food Network a while back and Michelle, Sean and I have had it several times and we all really like it, even the prunes. Just be willing to give it a try and you won’t be disappointed. A word about this recipe: you need to prepare the stuffing hours in advance, so make sure you remember to do that the day you decide to make it.
Apple and Prune Stuffed Pork Loin
Extra virgin olive oil
4 slices of bacon, diced
1 small red onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
Salt
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into a 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup prunes, quartered
2 springs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped, divided
1/2 cup brandy
1 (3 to 4 pound) boneless pork loin
1 cup chicken stock
Coat a large saute pan lightly with olive oil. Add the bacon and bring the pan to medium heat. When the bacon is crispy and has released a lot of fat, add the onions and season with salt. Cook the onions until they are soft, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the apples, prunes, and half of the chopped rosemary. Cook the apples, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Pull the pan off the heat and add the brandy. Return to the fire and flambe, or let the alcohol burn off (I didn’t flambe, and don’t recommend doing it unless you’ve done it before and have a big enough kitchen to do it). Remove from the heat and let cool thoroughly.
Lay out a length of plastic wrap about 2 feet in length. Spoon the apple mixture onto the plastic and make a log down the center that is about the same length as the pork loin. Roll the plastic tightly around the apple mixture and twist at the ends to secure. The log should be about 1 inch in diameter. Place the log in the freezer and let it freeze solid. This should be done ahead of time. (Ideally, do it overnight if you can. I did it for 6 hours today and it was frozen, but not solid).
To stuff the pork, insert a long, thin knife into the center of one end of the pork loin; repeat the process at the other end. Wiggle the knife back and forth to create a place big enough to accommodate the frozen stuffing. After cutting with the knife, you can use the handle of a long, wooden spoon to make sure the incision goes all the way through the pork loin. (I actually butterflied the pork loin,placed the log in the center, and then tied the pork loin with twine. To me this was easier and more efficient, especially since the log wasn’t frozen solid).
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Season the outside of the pork loin generously with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the remaining rosemary. Coat a roasting pan with olive oil and bring the pan to a high heat. Add the pork to the pan and sear it on all sides until it is brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the pork from the roasting pan and pour off the fat in the pan. Add the pork back into the pan and pour in the chicken stock. Place the pork in the oven and roast for 40 to 50 minutes, depending on how you like your pork.
I served the pork with the leftover rice from last night, some steamed green beans, and a little bit of the extra stuffing I had left from the stuffing log. It was all very delicious! Since tomorrow night is Saturday, we are going to have a Snack Night for dinner. This is one of Sean’s favorite meals (well it’s not really a meal I guess, but we’ll call it that), so check back tomorrow to see what we’re making. It promises to be some interesting choices! Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
I had intended to make a pork loin for dinner tonight until I realized this morning that I didn’t have all the necessary ingredients for the stuffing, so I have flipped the pork loin until tomorrow and am making a roast chicken recipe instead. I have made roast chicken before, but this recipe is a little different. I got this one from Bon Appetit. They are running on article called 5 Dinners For Under $100 and this is the first dinner they mentioned. It’s a very inexpensive meal of roast chicken with a warm parsley sauce, oven glazed carrots and I am making some rice to go with it. The chicken itself only cost me $4.50 ($9.00 actually, since they were packaged as 2 whole chickens, about 3 pounds each), and everything else in the recipes I already had in the house, so it’s easy and cheap!
Roasted Chicken with Warm Parsley Sauce and Oven Glazed Carrots
1 whole 3-3 1/2 pounds chicken, giblets reserved for another use (think stock)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, 1 halved, 1 minced
1 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon honey
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Generously season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large cast iron or other ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Place the chicken in the pan, breast side up, and cook until the skin is brown, about 6-8 minutes. Tip the pan to one side to gather the accumulated fat and juices and baste the top of the chicken. Return the pan to the oven and cook the chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees, about 50-55 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a carving board, rib with the garlic halves, and let rest for at least 10 minutes before carving. Pour off the fat and juices from the skillet, leaving the browned bits in the pan; set the skillet aside.
Meanwhile, combine the carrots, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, honey,and cayenne in a small bowl; toss to coat. Place the carrots on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and bake until the bottoms of the carrots are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir and cook until the carrots are tender and brown, about 5 minutes longer.
Whisk the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil, minced garlic, parsley and lemon zest in a small bowl. Heat the reserved skillet over medium heat. Pour in the parsley oil and cook, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until heated through. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and swirl the pan to mix. Season the sauce to taste with salt and more lemon juice, if desired. Serve warm parsley sauce alongside of the chicken and carrots.
I added some rice to the dish to complete the meal, but it was very easy to make overall. Tomorrow night, I promise, is the Apple and Prune Stuffed Pork Loin. It’s a little more labor intensive than tonight’s meal, but we have had it before and we loved it. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
Michelle has been asking me to make Sloppy Joes since before we got back to Charlotte, so tonight is the night. I was trying to come up with a good side dish to go along with the meal, and I tweeted America’s Test Kitchen to see if they had a recommendation. They suggested I make some cornbread to go along with the meal, so that’s what I am going to do. I’ve never made cornbread before, but the recipe looks as easy as the sloppy joes, so we’ll give it a try.
Sloppy Joes
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper
1 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
Tabasco
Hamburger buns
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and chili powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the beef, brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until the meat is no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the tomato puree, ketchup and water. Cook until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with Tabasco and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon 1/2 cup of the meat mixture into each hamburger bun.
Trust me, making your own sloppy joe sauce is so much better than using anything out of a can or a spice package. Homemade doesn’t require a lot of ingredients (the only thing I didn’t have in the house is the tomato puree) and it will taste far better than anything you can buy.
Now for the cornbread. As I said, I’ve never made it before, but the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen seems pretty basic and I had all the ingredients on hand, so let’s give it a shot.
Skillet Cornbread
4 teaspoons bacon drippings or vegetable oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup rapidly boiling water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Adjust an oven rack to the lower middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Set a cast-iron skillet with the bacon drippings or oil in the oven while it heats. Measure 1/3 cup of the cornmeal into a medium bowl. Whisk the remaining 2/3 cup of cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.
Add the boiling water to the 1/3 cup of cornmeal and stir to make a stiff mush. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk until smooth, then whisk in the egg. When the oven is pre-heated and the skillet is very hot, gently fold the dry ingredients into the mush mixture until just combined.
Carefully remove the skillet from the oven. Pour the bacon fat or hot oil from the skillet into the batter and stir to combine. Quickly pour the batter into the skillet. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Flip the cornbread out of the skillet and onto a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
According to the recipe, baking the cornbread in a greased and pre-heated cast-iron skillet will give the cornbread a brown, crunchy crust, which is what I like. If you don’t have a cast-iron pan, you could use a cake pan (round or square) or a regular skillet, but it may not be as crunchy. Just a quick note on this recipe. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, but it’s very easy to make your own buttermilk at home. For 1 cup of buttermilk, stir 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or fresh lemon juice into the milk and let it stand for 5 minutes until thickened.
That’s all there is to it. I do have a menu for the rest of this abbreviated week. It is:
Thursday: Apple and Prune Stuffed Pork Loin
Friday: Roast Chicken with Oven-Glazed Carrots and Warm Parsley Sauce
Saturday: Snacks for Dinner (This is a Sean favorite, so you’ll see what it is Saturday)
Sunday: Roast Beef with Au Jus
Some good meals to look forward to this week. The apple and prune stuffed pork is a Michelle favorite, and I need the chicken to make some stock this week, so it works out pretty well. Check back tomorrow to see about the pork loin recipe. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
It was a nice week spent away with the family and visiting in Charlotte. The weather was great and we had a fun time hanging out with everyone and seeing all the nieces and nephews and how big they have become. I didn’t get a chance to any blogging at all while I was gone since I left my computer at home, but I did help with some cooking, making my spaghetti and meatballs, my corned beef in the oven, and my corned beef hash for breakfast on Easter morning. So now it’s back home and back to the real world of cooking every day. I didn’t have a meal plan for this week already, so I am working on one today and hope to have that tomorrow to post.
I thought for today I would go over some things I am planning to do for the house and the kitchen to make things a little easier for us around here, and maybe give you some ideas too. I have been receiving some requests for ideas and recipes to post, and I really do pay attention to them and hope to post them on here soon. I did have a request for some easy party appetizers and dips, a request on how to make some roast beef with au jus (which I hope to do this weekend) and a few other odds and ends that I’ll be writing about it.
I am planning a few things in the house to hopefully make cooking a little better and also save us some money in the process. I started growing my own herbs at home in the hopes of using more fresh herbs in my cooking. WE don’t have a lot of space since we live in a condo, but we do live on the bottom floor and have a small patch of earth in the back that we can plant in, so I am going to put some herbs there. For now, I have growing in the house some basil, oregano, parsley, mint and thyme. I have used some of the mint and thyme already since I bought them when they were further along as plants and it was great. I have looked into getting a couple of other herb boxes so I can start some things out and move them outside. I just want to get herbs that I use a lot on cooking (although Sean wants me to grow some watermelon :)).
Another thing I am looking into is getting a bread maker. We seem to go through a lot of bread in this house and I think if I had the bread maker I would get good use out of it. I just don’t have the space to work with dough like I would like to since we only have one small counter to use in our kitchen, but I do have the space for a bread maker. I have been doing some research online to see what might be best and so far the one that seems to look good is the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme 2-Pound-Loaf Breadmaker. It seems to be the size I like and would do everything I want it to do and more.
We are also looking into getting a kitchen island cart. We have some room in our dining room for something like this and it would give us some needed storage space and provide us with some extra butcher block cutting room for counter space. We have done a lot of research on this one but haven’t really found one to fit nicely in the space we have.
Lastly, we are looking into making some dietary changes in our lives that will change our menus a little. Everyone is always trying to lose some weight and having foot problems caused by my illness has made exercise difficult, if not impossible, so it has become more important to watch what I eat. I think we need to introduce more fruits and vegetables in our diet, eliminate some carbs and cut back more on the red meat, so you’ll probably see more dinner recipes here that try to do that, along with recipes that I really want to try or really like (I can’t just give up everything!).
Tomorrow I hope to have our menu plan for the rest of the week laid out. I do know that I’ll be making Sloppy Joes for dinner tomorrow as a request of Michelle’s, so look for that in tomorrow’s blog. If anyone has any suggestions for herbs to grow, bread makers to look at, kitchen carts they like or menu suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment and pass them along. Until tomorrow, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
Here’s one from another blog I follow at http://www.rantingchef.com, a great blog with great recipes. Check out this one for beef burgundy in the slow cooker.
For much of my childhood I was a latchkey kid. Both parents worked, and several times every week I would come home to a note that read:
Crock Pot is in the fridge. Plug in on high. Love, Mom.
We used our slow cooker a significant amount. Chicken or beef. I don’t really remember anything thing else, but we had a variety of recipes with chicken or beef. By the time my parents came in the door from a long day of work, the smell of the slow cooking creation had permeated the house (and driven the dogs crazy with hunger).
A favorite of ours (and many slow cooker chefs) was Beef Burgundy. Not beef bourguignon, or Boeuf à la Bourguignonne. That sounded too fancy for our slow cooker, so we just called it Beef Burgundy.
Such a rich, meaty dish.
I purchased stroganoff cut beef and sliced it into…
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While I am on vacation enjoying some family time, I thought I would post a couple of things from one of my favorite blogs. This looks like a great potato recipe from hungry cupcakes. Check out their blog!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
onedadskitchen 