Birthdays & Books

This past weekend we had our first of several family summer birthday get togethers at the B and SIL's house. There is one thing you can know for sure when we go to their house. We will eat delicious food. This time was no exception. The food is always great because they like great food, like to make good food and SIL's mom is a cutting edge foodie to the highest degree. I get so excited when I know I'm going to spend some time with her: we are going to talk about food. I know I talk about food a lot but you need to know I am always holding back. I want to talk about it more than I do. I can't help it. To feed my passion for all things food and to keep me from driving those around me crazy talking about it 24/7 I read about food. SIL's mom gets me. She gave me the most wonderful unexpected gift. She gave me 2 cookbooks. Not your ordinary books, not the kind most of my friends would have or even read but someone needs to know about, "Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal." It has a picture of a pigs head in a skillet. The other book, "The Art of Charcuterie." Charcuterie is the art of preserving meat. You probably eat charcuterie. Salami, sausage, bacon, prosciutto, paté, pancetta, hot dogs and the like. We've got charcuterie going on in our garage right now. Salami, bacon and pancetta are curing in Prince Charming's converted garage refrigerator.

My contribution to the celebration of birthday foods was a puff pastry with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Like almost everything I make it was several ideas pulled into one. I keep puff pastry on hand along with sun-dried tomatoes at all times. It's not uncommon to have goat cheese but we always have a large variety of cheeses in our fridge so this recipe could be made with another cheese. Something crumbly would probably be best like blue cheese, Feta, ricotta. Today I made these again to use up the second sheet of pastry only today I added diced bacon just to see if it made them better. It was good but they are just as good without the bacon making them excellent vegetarian snacks. You could take these to a gathering or serve them as part of a meal. You can be sure you will want to eat more than one. Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Bites.

Decadence

Somethings I eat I know are pure decadence. Over the top. When you look up the word in the dictionary it does not have a good connotation however my use of it here is a good thing, a really good thing. The thing about decadence is you don't do it everyday or very often and in fact if you do you probably go from decadent to glutton. Last night I made smooth silky creamy decadence. Creme Fraiche. It's...um...well...it's a French sour cream? For purest I've probably made them very mad or revealed my utter ignorance. Either way it is so yummy. You can use it any way you would use fresh sour cream. Only it's better.

This morning I put a dollop on top light and fluffy scrambled eggs topped with fresh chives. It was a beautiful way to begin the day. Every once in a while we should indulge in decadence.

Crispy Potato Chips

I'm nearly 50 and I've been reading cookbooks and recipes and food magazines and the Internet for a very long time and I've never seen a recipe for Crispy Potato Chips from the microwave. I've learned over the years not all recipes are trust worthy. They don't all work out, they taste bland or yucky or somehow do not live up to my expectations. I know that some of those failures are my fault but not all of them.

I've come to trust some web sites and cookbooks more than others so when I read a recipe on one of my favorite reliable sites yesterday I didn't hesitate to try their potato chip on this site. I was not disappointed.

Crispy thin and lightly salty chips. Anyone can make these, anyone with a mandolin* that is. Could you cut these thin enough with a knife? Someone could but not me and I'm pretty good with a knife so I would recommend using the dusty slicer or mandolin in your cupboard or borrowing your foodie neighbors. A true "foodie" would be so excited to loan it and show you how to use it. If she's like me she'll use it for you because she is so excited someone else likes food as much as she does, at least for the moment.

Because I had a sweet potato in the cupboard I tried one of those too. The results were as good as I hoped. Since it only makes a plateful at a time I suggest making only one kind cause they will get eaten by you or others as fast as you can get them off the plate.

I can see so many ways to experiment with these I can hardly sleep.

Try them. Your family won't believe you made them and there is great joy in that for some reason.

*Don't have access to a mandolin? Check the note at the end of the recipe for a trick to make these without it.

Girlfriend, Beer and Crackers

The son has a girlfriend. We like the girlfriend. I've like girlfriend longer than he has but that's another story. We love to home make stuff. Always have. Before Prince Charming and I were married we made our first built-in bookcase in my condo.

How are these things connected you ask? The girlfriend likes to make stuff too. Yesterday the two of them made beer in our kitchen. I walked into the familiar smell of mash, cooked grain. In the oven was a tray of spent grains drying. Drying grains for another use. The ultimate in "green" or "recycling" I suppose. I need no excuse to find a way to reuse something. They had already planned to do something with some of it but since they left the house leaving it on my pan in my oven using my energy I figured some of it was now mine. That's how it works around here.

Fast forward to this afternoon: we have Spent Grain Cheese Crackers smelling yummy in our house. They taste yummy too I might add.

This is not an easy recipe but if it's all easy it gets boring and you don't learn anything. For those of you who are looking for a medium challenge with a great pay off you should try this if you can get your hands on some spent grains.

Banh Mi and other easy eats

   I'm not really sure where to begin telling you about yesterday's food adventures. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen and washed a lot of dishes. I washed my food processor 3 times! Ok, only twice since Prince Charming washed it once or was that the mandolin he washed. Either way there were dishes and food every where.

   The day began with Eggs Benedict again. (I told you I'm hooked on it) The vinegar water soak before cooking worked perfectly again for my egg. If you want to learn that trick check out my Easy Eggs Benedict post from July 5, 2012. 

   Banh Mi was on my mind and once I get something in my head it's hard to get it out. Banh Mi are Vietnamese Sandwiches and my family loves them. (Banh Mi: Warm baguette filled with a variety of meats, most often pâté, spread with mayonnaise and garnished with whole sprigs of cilantro, pickled carrots and daikon, flavored with fish sauce (nuoc mam) or dipping sauce (nuoc cham).

   Now I know the name and maybe the description could scare you off but stick with me here. Not only are these easy they are very versatile. Please don't be dissuaded by the length of the recipe as I've used lots of words to make it as clear as possible for my non-foodie friends who should try this recipe and you know who you are. 

   I'll leave the other 2 things I created for another post but I will tell you this. One is easy and I don't know one person who can eat only one. The other is for the more sophisticated palate and I'll admit many people don't like it (or at least think they don't like it). The son was brave enough to try it but he did wipe his tongue with a napkin after spitting it out and promptly ate a chocolate cupcake with an Oreo baked in. Oh well, more for PC and I.

Easy Eggs Benedict

   I love Eggs Benedict. In my opinion it's the only reason to go out to breakfast. If it's not on the menu I don't want to go to that restaurant or I just don't want to go. I know, I'm a snob. What's a snob to do? That's right make it yourself and I do pretty regularly. I know you are supposed to make Hollandaise and use it straight away but who wants to go to all the trouble day after day? Don't tell anyone French but I have been known to store it in the fridge and use it for several days. Sometimes it breaks, separates and looks yucky but I still eat it. 

Last week while hunting for new cheeses at Trader Joes I came across Hollandaise sauce in a tub. WHAT? That's right refrigerated and ready to go. Out of the container cold it reminds me of buttery mascarpone with a touch of lemon. Atop the perfectly poached egg and English muffin I made it's smooth, creamy and really tasty. There is a slight after taste that reminds you it's not homemade and has "extra" stuff in it but will work as a fresh stand in. Next time I'll stir in a little minced chipotle for some smoky heat. 

   I may have come across the easy way to make the perfect poached egg. In my hours of reading about food last week I read somewhere about putting a raw egg in a bowl with water and white vinegar and letting it sit before cooking. Don't know where I read it so I can't give credit to anyone and I can't remember measurements but that never stopped me from trying something. I put about 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup white vinegar in a small bowl. Crack egg into the bowl and allow to sit while a pan of water with another 1/4 of vinegar heats to just below boiling. The egg held tightly together in its water/vinegar soak. I swirled the hot water then added the contents of the bowl keeping the water moving. I turned the heat up a little to maintain the temp and allowed to cook for about 4 minutes. I lifted it with a large slotted spoon to make sure the white were firm. Just touch it with your finger. Blotted it on a paper towel and laid that beauty on a buttered English muffin. The egg was so perfect that there were no wispy edges. Warmed Hollandaise spooned over and garnished with fresh chives. The only meat we have on hand is shredded chicken and pork belly so I opted for the meatless version of Eggs Benedict today. If you like Eggs Benedict you should try Trader Joes Hollandaise and certainly if you like poached eggs try the trick above and see if you can get the perfect egg too.

Vacation Dinner

Cooking away from home is not easy. I know it's mostly because I'm spoiled with my kitchen set up and equipment. It has taken me years to get it the way I like it. In our 21 years of marriage we've slowly accumulated just the right things to make cooking and creating a breeze. We've been careful not to have too many gadgets that only serve one purpose. There are some things we try to never run out of. Perhaps I should begin a list of some of those things. I will give this list to my mom. I'm not sure if we had all the right stuff in the kitchen when I was a kid but I do know that my mom still has that stuff. Some of it good and useful, some of it old and in need of replacement. All of it bringing back childhood memories.

This last week while visiting and going through every drawer at moms I came across the old aluminum scoops that used to live inside our sugar and flour canisters. They are very cool. I asked my mom to give them to me when she is ready to part with them. They don't have duel purpose but I really like them. Even the teenage daughter thought they were special.

Anyway back to cooking away from home. It can get really hot where my mom lives so I'm always thinking of ways to cook that don't heat the house or put me in front of a 500 degree grill. One of my sisters would be there with her 3 kids so there would be 10 of us for dinner when you add in my favorite cousin and aunt. So I needed a meal to serve a lot that satisfies, everyone likes, supports left-overs, doesn't use complicated equipment and doesn't heat the whole house. BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches to the rescue! Easy, fast and mostly hands off.

I seasoned boneless pork ribs with seasoned salt and pepper and put them in a crock pot. Poured a bottle of BBQ source over, put the lid on and set it on low for about 9 hours. Musclely son carried the whole thing out to the sun room where is was out of the way and not heating up the kitchen. At dinner time I carefully removed the super tender meat (this is where a good pair of tongs would be handy) to a dish and with 2 forks pulled it apart. There wasn't really much pulling since the meat was falling apart. I wanted more sauce to dress the sandwiches with but had used the whole bottle in the preparation so I ladled sauce from the crock pot into a cup and allowed the fat to raise to the top. I then took the fat off with a spoon and put what remained into a small sauce pan and over medium heat reduced it to thicken. Once I finished with the meat I poured the thickened sauce over. This did two things: moistened and heated the meat just before serving.

Served on buns with cole slaw and fruit salad and everyone was happy. Note in photo below all 6 grandkids are happy.

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