Blech-lava or the Christmas Disaster

First of all, I want to say that I'm sorry that I haven't kept up with this blog. I've been dealing with my diverticulitis and ancillary problems and so my cooking and eating hasn't been very ambitious of late. Actually, I'm darn sick of the pablum I've had to eat. I'm feeling better and since this is the holiday season, I thought I'd get back to it.

At Thanksgiving I told my family that I'd attempt to make Baklava with homemade Phyllo or Filo (I've recently learned that it's pronounced "Feel-o") dough. So the hunt was on. I had to find the right recipe. I found the dough Phyllo recipe at http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekbreadspitas/r/phyllo.htm and the Baklava recipe at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Walnut-and-Pistachio-Baklava-364612 I even ordered raw shelled pistachios on the internet.

I liked what I was seeing in these recipes. I realized I could do a bit of it at a time. The only thing that really worried me was rolling the dough thin enough. It said each sheet should be about the thickness of two sheets of paper. That's really thin. You can see light through two sheets of paper. But then I was happy to see that it said you could run the dough through a pasta maker. It just so happened that I have my parents' old pasta machine.

I forgot the lemons I needed so I ran to the store earlier in the day. Then off and on, I did one part of it and then the next. I decided to save the dough for last. I roasted the nuts, grated the lemon peel, juiced the lemons, boiled the syrup, ground the nuts etc. Then it came to make the dough.

Old Greek grandmothers must have hands as large as and as strong as NBA players. I should have known it was going to be a problem when I realized it called for 8 cups of flour and only 1 1/4-1 1/3 cups hot water. Well, maybe there was a little more liquid in it than that from the sweat dripping from my brow as I tried to work the stuff. I dug into it for 8 minutes and still I couldn't get it to stick together. This is what I ended up with.

I'm also thinking that those Greek grandmothers don't have any fat on their arms. I'm going to have to soak my hands in water and take a Tylenol before I go to bed tonight I hurt so much. My kitchen is a disaster.

I ran to the store to see if they had any frozen Phyllo dough, they didn't, but I haven't given up hope entirely. No, we won't have Baklava for Christmas, but I'll put the ground nuts into a baggie and freeze it. Then when I get a chance to find some Phyllo dough or a better recipe, I'll be ready to go.

Kidney Bean Stew

Unless you're the progeny of Amy Devereaux, aka "Grandma Amy," you've probably never heard of Kidney Bean Stew. At least that's what I've come to expect. I think when I first realized that most other people don't know what Kidney Bean Stew is, I was shocked. For us, it's a staple. I'm not certain, but I suspect that it's the first meal I made all on my own for my family. For one thing, it's very easy, and yet, despite it's ease, it's also very tasty. It's a dish that really warms you up in the winter, and yet, the ease makes it an ideal dish for a busy, summer supper. It's great with corn bread, but it's outstanding with cinnamon rolls. I think it's comparable to chili, but where it differs is that it includes potatoes.

A few years ago, my cousin Toni Vitzthum Stenshoel put together The Devereaux Cookbook. She did a valiant job of getting us to send her recipes. This cookbook included five different versions of Grandma Amy's Kidney Bean Stew. And that's only from those of us who sent this recipe to Toni. I suspect there are many more versions out there. My version varies even from my Dad's. Dad likes his Kidney Bean Stew thin and soupy. I prefer mine thicker and with more tomatoes. And mine can vary from time to time depending on my mood or even what I have on hand. But here's my recipe for it:

1 pound of hamburger (When we were kids we made it with 2 lbs.)

1 chopped small onion

chopped mushrooms (optional)

1 can tomato soup

1 small can tomato paste

1 can diced tomatoes

2 cans kidney beans

2 or 3 potatoes cut up and boiled

Add water as needed

Both Dad and I like to add a lot of chili powder individually to our bowls. Mom would always have a fit when she saw how much we'd add. Which, I suppose, is why we never added it to the kettle as it cooked.

This is one of those dishes that is a lot better the next day. Initially, it doesn't have to cook long, which also makes t easy, but no amount of cooking is going to make it any better than it is the next day. It doesn't freeze well. But we've always gone through it so quickly it didn't need to. It's one of my absolute favorite breakfasts, but I'm weird, I like soup for breakfast. I'd like to think it isn't some sort of genetic flaw, that only someone with Devereaux genes likes this stuff. I'll let you out there be the judge of that.

Mom's Meatloaf

Ok, ok, I cheated. This is an image I found on the internet. The meatloaf I made is very tasty, but not quite so pretty.

Growing up, my dad was the primary cook of the household, not because Mom wasn't a good cook, but because Dad enjoyed cooking. Like me, he finds cooking relaxing. However, my mom had a few recipes that she did especially well. One of those recipes was her meatloaf, and now that it's really cooled down, this seemed like a great night to make it.

What makes Mom's Meatloaf different than other meatloaf I've had is that it's looser and moister. It's made with one pound hamburger, one pound ground pork, chopped onions, an egg, chopped tomato,salt, pepper and oatmeal...oh of course, you can either top it with bacon and/or ketchup. I think what makes it unique is the inclusion of both tomatoes and oatmeal instead of bread crumbs. I'm sure everyone thinks their mother's meatloaf is best, but I really think this is tasty.

When I think of meatloaf, I automatically think baked squashed, and we always made it with baked potatoes when I was a kid, but I was more in the mood to make oven fries....So, obviously I have a ton of food left over, but that's ok. I like meatloaf sandwiches.

Table Runner

This certainly isn't a cooking experiment. It is the table runner I just finished making and it will be auctioned off at Iowa Lakes' annual Korks and Kegs Fine Arts Scholarship event. It'll include wine and beer sampling and a silent and live auction of art and in my case, other objects. Join us Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 5:00-8:00 at the Pearson Lake Art Center.

Smoked Pork Chop with Sauteed Onions, Apples, and Caraway

Don't let anyone fool you. It isn't easy to cook for one person. Most recipes don't divide well down to a single serving, which is why I like things which are singles. One of my favorite meals is Smoked Pork Chops with Sauteed Onions, Apples, and Caraway...There's really no recipe to it. It's all in the title. I like to slice up just a tad less apple than onion. Dad's onions were great for this. They were really juicy and I swear they were as crisp as an apple. I don't know when and how I started to make this exactly. I do know that the caraway was a later advent, but it really does go with it perfectly. I put the chop on my little George Foreman grill, and slowly, patiently sautee the onion and apple. You don't want to cook them too quickly, or they get dark brown and taste bitter. Then, just before I plan on serving, I add the caraway to the pan. Really, this is a meal in itself and it doesn't take much time.

Russian Spice Tea

Well, I've got my car back, and so I'm once again mobile; however, now I have a head cold. The weather is really beautiful these last couple of days. It rained last night, but it was quite late, and the temperatures have reached the 80s, and so it doesn't make much sense making what I'm making today.
When I was a kid, my mom made this stuff that we called "Russian Spiced Tea" and I liked it. I still have the recipe, but I don't like how artificial it is. It's filled with artificial sweeteners and instant tea and Tang, etc. So, I looked for a recipe that had real ingredients and I found one for Russian Spiced Tea. I don't know if it is authentically Russian, but I thought with all the vitamin C in this thing it should boost my immune system. I changed only one thing. I added a small cinnamon stick as well. And my measurements weren't precise because I juiced three oranges and two lemons...I don't know how to juice a pineapple, so I just got it out of a can. I don't mind juicing some fruits. I like to use the peels to put down the garbage disposal. It makes the kitchen smell so good and clean.
It is VERY sweet. The recipe calls for sweetened, strong tea. I used the sweetened tea recipe I use to make Ginger-lemon iced tea in the summer, which calls for one cup of sugar for every two cups of water. This was probably too sweet to begin with. Not that I don't like sweet, but...Otherwise it tastes very good. It should be served warm but kept in the fridge so it's a great recipe to just warm in the microwave. We'll see if it helps me get over this darn cold.

October 3, 2014. Well, I made the Russian Spice Tea again this evening. This time I cut the sugar down by a cup, which helps, but I think there's too much pineapple juice as well. Actually, I think I'd like it just with the lemon and orange juice and no pineapple juice at all. I think without the pineapple, the taste of the cloves and cinnamon would be more distinct.

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup

It's tomato season and now that it's cooler it's also soup season...ok for me, soup season is year round. I love soups. So, when Dad delivered some of his homegrown tomatoes to me, and when I saw this recipe in the October 2014 Cooking Light magazine, I had to make it. It really wasn't that hard, and scent of the roasting tomatoes and garlic was incredible.

That's the way tomatoes are meant to smell. The recipe calls for beefsteak tomatoes. I didn't know for sure what breed of tomatoes Dad gave me. I just took the biggest and meatiest of the lot.

I did have one problem with the recipe. It says to strain the soup through a fine sieve after pureeing it. Well, my strainer is very fine, and the next biggest thing I have is a colander...needless to say it didn't work, so I decided just to eat it without straining out the solids. It tastes good, but it's much thicker than it should be and the texture is undoubtedly coarser. I suspect it would be much more appealing if it were thinner. The smell and the taste is still quite good. However, I doubt I'll ever be making this again. It's not "throw it down the garbage disposal" bad, but it's not exactly, "I can't get enough of this stuff" good either.

Speaking of tomato soups. There used to be a restaurant in Sioux City called Botticelli's. I think it closed, or maybe it moved. Anyway, they used to serve this incredible Carciofi soup. It was a creamy, pureed artichoke (that's what carciofi means) and tomato soup. It was simply to die for. I've been trying to find a good recipe for it for years now. If anyone has any idea how it's made, please share. I'll certainly mention and thank you here.

Banana Bread

This is my favorite Banana Bread recipe; however, I have had some problems with it in the past. The reason I like it so much is because it doesn't include any fat or processed sugar. It's made using honey and applesauce. The problems I've had with it is that if I cooked it in a regular bread pan, it would either be too dark on the outside or gummy on the inside. My solution was to use a pan my mother had given me ages ago. It's wider than it is deep. This works perfectly. I also changed just a few things with the recipe. I use white flour instead of whole wheat flour, not because I have a problem with whole wheat. I love whole wheat, but unless you're going to use it all right away, if you keep it even for a short time, it will go rancid, and I never use even the smallest purchasable amount in a short period of time. The other thing I changed is that I added chopped pecans. For me, it just isn't banana bread if it doesn't have nuts. Try it out some time, but consider the problems I've had and plan accordingly. I think you'll like it.

Deconstructed Pizza Sauce

I don't know. Maybe everyone does this, but one of my favorite things to do in tomato season is to make homemade pizza. Rather than making a sauce though, I like to peel the tomatoes, slice them, and just arrange them on top of the crust. Then I sprinkle, sugar, salt, fresh basil and oregano, sauted onions, garlic, and mushrooms on top. I've tried a few crusts from scratch, but I haven't found one as easy and good as the packets to which you just add hot water. If someone knows of a better homemade crust, please let me know. I don't like to use much cheese, usually, either mozzarella or feta or sometimes a little of both. I also like to use olives, both ripe and green, but I forgot to buy either olives or mushrooms when I made the pictured pizza. If you can't tell, I put this pizza in a cast iron skillet. It's a lot closer to a deep dish rather than a thin crust, which is a lot more popular these days. However, on a chillier day like today, it's a great pizza, and really it doesn't take much work at all.

Almond Cookies

I knew when I woke this morning that I wasn't going to be up to making the puff pastry pinwheels...that'll have to wait for another time. I need to somehow teach my little dog that there's a difference between weekends and weekdays. She wants me up to walk her and give her her pills (she has allergies). So instead, I tackled almond cookies.These cookies are so easy, I'm actually a bit embarrassed. However, they are light and tasty. I think they're going to be great with a latte.

What made them different for me was that one of the ingredients is ground almonds. This was really easy. I have a food grinding attachment to my Kitchen Aid mixer. I usually use it to grind chicken for chicken salad, but it worked really well for grinding the almonds.

My Kitchen Aid is pretty disreputable. It's actually Mom and Dad's old one. They got it when I was still in high school...we won't even talk about how long ago that was. I keep waiting for the poor thing to break down. I can't justify getting a new one as long as this one's still working.

I did change one thing. I used almond extract instead of amaretto. I'm not a big fan of liqueurs, so I don't go out and buy a whole bottle for a simple recipe like this.

So, I've decided that my Mission Statement is too narrow. I want to write about cooking beyond techniques and foods I've never used before. It's sort of like my students who choose topics that are too narrow for their essays. I guess there's a learning curve to this as well. So, don't be surprised to find recipes and writings about foods I've made in the past and have really liked. I'll still get to those new things, but I guess it has to come in its own time. So, you can check here a little more frequently because I'll be writing more.

Groceries

I just got back from shopping. I hate grocery shopping. I sort of imagine a lot of people do. Ok, there are those who love any kind of shopping, but I do not fall into that category at all. Maybe amazon.com has got the right idea about using drones for delivery of products. But I think we've gone in the wrong direction. I think shopping for groceries should be a sensuous experience. But here in the rural Midwest, everything is hermetically sealed. I want to be able to smell everything even the stinky fish and cheese. But that isn't how things are done today. Even the fruit is bred for consistency and longevity, but smell isn't all that important, so you don't really smell it in the produce department. I also want to see the colors and yes, sometimes even touch the produce, but that isn't allowed. I think our health and happiness is threatened more by overprocessed foods than germs.

With that being said, tomorrow, I'm planning to get some cooking done. I'm not going to say what for sure because I don't know. Check this space.

Puff Pastry Berry Pinwheels

I think I know what I'm going to make this weekend. Although I'm only a decent cook, I'm actually a pretty good baker, but there's one thing I've never made that I've always wanted to try, puff pastry from scratch. I've got a recipe in my beloved Fanny Farmer Baking Book, but I'll need a recipe in which to use it. After a quick search, I discovered this yummy looking Puff Pastry Berry Pinwheels on Pinterest and it came from the "Get Off your Butt and Bake" Website. I'll probably not include the little decorative pearls. I think I'll make these on Monday...if they aren't a complete disaster, I'll take them to school with me.

From previous experience with pastries, like croissants and strudel, I know it'll be a messy process. I hope I can capture some pictures, but it might be difficult because my fingers will undoubtedly be covered in buttery dough.

Everyday Food

I've been looking at recipes off and on this week...it hasn't been as consistent as it should be because I've started a new semester at school and I'm just plain pooped. I just picked up a pile of back issues of one of my favorite cooking magazines, Everyday Food. It was part of the Martha Stewart fleet of magazines. They've pretty much discontinued it, which is very disappointing. I learned a lot of techniques and acquired some really good new recipes from this magazine. One of my favorite techniques that I use weekly is poaching chicken. Hopefully, I can find another magazine to fill this void. But in the meantime, I'm still looking and I hope to find something to try this long weekend.

Decisions, Decisions

I so enjoyed cooking and writing about it yesterday, I'm very excited about the next recipe. I've been looking through back issues of magazines and through cookbooks. So far two things have really caught my imagination, but both would require getting out of town to shop and one sounds too similar to the Apricot-Rosemary Chicken thighs I made last night. The first one is Chicken Tagine with Almonds, Apricots, and Olives from Martha Stewart Living

What I like about this recipe is it is a Middle Eastern dish and it combines foods that my grandmothers would never even consider, but it's got those apricots, almonds, and chicken again. I think I might wait for this one.

My other thought is Thai Sticky Rice and Mangoes. Eric and I went to a Thai restaurant last weekend and had this, and I can't stop thinking about it. I found a recipe for it at allrecipes.com

However, I don't think I'll get to an Asian market any time soon.

So, I think I'll keep up my search. Lamb recipes often draw my attention. I love lamb, but it's really expensive and hard to find (figures, we're deep in the heart of farm country!). If anyone has any suggestions of something that sounds out there that they'd like me to tackle?

Oh, and the Dingels, Teri and Doug, have already tried the recipe I made last night. Check what Doug had to say.

Apricot-Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Roasted Almond Couscous

When I left work this afternoon, I didn't think I'd be up to cooking tonight. All of us at the college are getting things ready for the Fall semester to begin next week, so when I came home, I was pretty whooped. However, since I said I'd get this made tonight, I decided I had better do it, and I'm glad I did. This is a really good meal, and it's not terribly hard at all, and making it revitalized me.

THE MEAL

I really enjoyed the texture of the couscous with the almonds, but by itself, it's too dry. However,by drizzling a little of that incredible sauce on it, it's outstanding! This sauce would make anything good. I can imagine it on pork, but on the chicken thighs, you can't beat it.

NEW THINGS

As I said when I started this project, I want to try new techniques and equipment with each new recipe. For this recipe, I had to bone a thigh, which really wasn't all that hard, but I couldn't get just thighs from the store. All they had were hind quarters.

It was no big deal to cut off the leg portion of the quarter, but it was sort of messy getting that portion of the back off. The end product didn't look too bad, but I don't think I'm going to get a job as a butcher any time soon. And I'm sure if my dad, who butchered tons of turkeys when we were on the farm would have wept if he saw how I handled the knife (by the way Dad, I did sharpen it, a bit). Except for the skin and fat, I'll use the rest of the hind quarters to make chicken soup.

The other new thing was that I used a grill pan for the first time. I really liked using it, but I suspect that it might be a pain trying to get the charred remains of chicken and sauce out from between the grooves. Despite those grooves, I'll definitely be using the grill pan again.

SCREW UPS

Also as promised, I'm going to confess to my screw ups. My first noticeable screw up is that I thought I had white wine vinegar...well I had red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and rice vinegar and white vinegar and apple cider vinegar...At first I thought I'd just substitute white vinegar, but instead, I checked the internet for substitutes. The internet machine said to use rice vinegar, so I did. I have no idea if it would have made any difference, but it was so good, I don't care.

I don't know if you'll call this a screw up or not, but I don't have a vent above my stove. I have a couple of push-out windows in the corner. I really got that pan hot before I put the thighs in. I wanted to make sure it really seared the chicken. It did, but it also smoked up the place. It's a wonder the fire department didn't show up...but then, my neighbors are pretty used to seeing smoke pour out of my kitchen windows.

INGREDIENTS

I'm not going to reprint the whole recipe here. You can find it at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-rosemary-chicken-thighs-50400000136935/ However, I did want to say that I used my own homegrown flat leaf parsley and rosemary, and I used my own previously made chicken stock. I cook enough chicken that it's easy to whip up some chicken stock to freeze. Although this makes it sound like I'm a great gardener, I'm not. I just wish I was. I can grow things in pots, and now that I realize I'm lousy in the garden, I'll be doing a much better job with my pot garden...(that didn't sound right).

So all in all, I think this was a fun first recipe. I'm not sure what I'll do next, but I'm thinking I'll tackle something a little more complicated.

Ingredients

I still don't know when I'll be making the apricont-rosemary chicken thighs, http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-rosemary-chicken-thighs-50400000136935/. Maybe Friday night. I'm sure not going to make them Thursday night after sitting through inservice all day. But I think I'll go shopping for the ingredients tomorrow. This recipe will be easy. There's nothing in it that I won't be able to find locally, and I'll use my own homegrown rosemary and parsley. But sometimes it isn't always this easy. I've gone out of town many times looking for ingredients. Rarely have I had to go any further than the Lakes. However, there have been a few instances in which I had to order ingredients online. This is the sort of thing we have to deal with living in such a rural area.

This recipe, includes one of my favorite ingredients, almonds. I love almonds whether they're raw out of the shell or baked into cookies. One of the things many people don't know is that if you are cooking with almonds, you really want to roast them in the oven a bit; otherwise, they are sort of plastic and lacking flavor, but once you've roasted them, they are crunchy and have that sweet nutty taste.

Once a long time ago, I don't remember when or where, I heard almond pronounced (ah-muh nd). I was curious and looked it up in the dictionary, and sure enough, the phonetic pronunciation was with the "ah." So, of course that's the way I started pronouncing it. My brothers gave me such a hard time about this, and they still do. I kept telling them to look it up, and they wouldn't, and I wasn't about to shove a dictionary in their faces. Now I see that at dictionary.com, they include multiple pronunciations; however, at this point in my life, I'm going to stick with my "ah."

Grill Pan

I think I've decided on what I'm going to prepare for my first meal for "Lorad's Kitchen." I think I'm going to make Apricot-Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Roasted Almond Couscous from this month's issue of Cooking Light magazine. You can find this recipe at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-rosemary-chicken-thighs-50400000136935/ The recipe says to cook the chicken thighs on a Grill Pan. Well, I didn't have a grill pan, and found this one in Sioux City at Kitchen Dressings, a store I will be visiting again in the future. It's obviously a cast iron pan, which pleases me. I love my cast iron skillets, and this one was reasonably priced.

I want to try to do new things with each recipe and because we can't get boned chicken thighs here in Estherville, I will be boning my own. I'm sure this won't be difficult, but there's little guarantee that it'll be attractive. The recipe shows how this thing is supposed to look. I'm sure mine won't look this good. I just hope it won't look like the thighs have been put through a grinder.

Oh, and as you can see, I figured out how to put the paragraph breaks in thanks to Eric's help.

My Mission Statement

I feel as though I need to write a mission statement for this blog. Crap, in the real world I really hate this sort of thing, but nonetheless, here we go. The purpose for this blog is so that I can share with you my kitchen experiments. I love to try new recipes. The crazier the better. Plus, I like to write...my photography sucks, so apologies in advance. What I'll do is try a new recipe on a semi-regular basis. Hopefully, I'll get at least a couple done a month. Sometimes I'll surprise you and do a couple two days in a row (snow days make this more likely). I've learned from experience not to have a regimented schedule. Feeling obligated sucks the fun out of it for me. I'll try to choose seasonal foods, and I'll include recipes or at least links to recipes. Before you get too excited, I am not a great cook. But I am pretty fearless. Cooking has always been how we entertained ourselves in my family, so this is what I do. To give you an idea of what you can expect within these virtual pages, let me tell you some of the things I've been doing over the last couple of years. A couple of years ago, I harvested yeast and made and have maintained to this day my own sourdough starter. I'm still trying to perfect my sourdough recipes and I've got a long ways to go. I brewed my own Kombucha (fermented tea). This turned out really well, but it's got its hazards and I decided to stop brewing it. I do want to make my own ginger ale and ginger beer which is much safer. A couple of years ago, I got into smoking meat on my little charcoal grill. This worked fairly well, but it wasn't the best thing I could have done for my sinuses. I'm sure I'll throw some of this crazy stuff at you; however, I'd really like to explore recipes from different cultures. I'd especially like to do some Asian and Middle Eastern recipes. However, I think I'll start slow and simply do something that's interesting, but not too far out there. And feel free to send me recipes. I may try them, I may not. I hope you enjoy this. (By the way, I wish I knew why this thing won't show paragraph breaks. Sorry!)