Archive for the ‘Dish Types’ Category

I so love baked potatoes…

Sunday, December 13th, 2009
i-so-love-baked-potatoes

I really do.  When I gave my brother a choice of baked or fried potatoes with dinner and he chose baked, I certainly couldn’t argue it.

So easy, so simple, so good.  Prep time of a whole 2 minutes of washing them off, poking them a couple times with a fork and tossing in a pan. An hour in the oven at 400 degrees and that’s that.  Even twice baked are easy, another 5 minutes of mashing them up and a couple minutes back under the broiler.

They’re healthy (even with toppings – just don’t use an entire pint of sour cream) and easy and one of my favorite sides.

All hail the lovely baking potato!

Oh, Sweet Pickle, how I love thee…

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
oh-sweet-pickle-how-i-love-thee

Would a gherkin by any other name taste as sweet?  I certainly hope so.

No matter how modern the holiday relish tray may become, you will still sit at centre stage of the crystal tray.

Your sweet crunchiness hits the spot every time, and your tiny diced up bits do lovely things to tuna and ham salads, and my hot dogs would be empty without your relish.

Let us all raise a pickle to the man who first sweet brined a tiny cucumber!

*crunch*

Enjoy your turkeys!

Thursday, November 26th, 2009
enjoy-your-turkeys

Have a wonderful and tasty Thanksgiving everyone.

TurkeyQuest 2009: Success!

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
turkeyquest-2009-success

In my fridge there is a 7.92# Shady Brook Farms turkey breast!  The first market I went to last evening had at least a dozen of them.  Much better than the year I had to go to 3 different stores to find one.

I always get the biggest one I can get my hands on, because the leftovers will NOT go to waste.  I like turkey, but don’t eat it a whole lot.  My brother LOVES turkey.  Last year he had 8 meals in a row of turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.  We’ll see if he can break the record this year.

As it stands, we will again have enough food for a small army, even though it’s just my brother & myself.  But I won’t have to cook for at least 3 days afterwards!

The cheese & sausage plate will be a meal in and of itself.  I’ve got summer sausage, hard pepperoni and…  There’s one other thing and I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head but it’s in the fridge.  For cheeses, we have good old sharp cheddar, pepper jack, salsa jack (never heard of it before, but it looked interesting,) smoked gouda and dill havarti.  I also have a roll of Salame Panino.  (Salame rolled in mozzarella!) It just looked really yummy.

Can’t wait!

Gobble Gobble!

Monday, November 23rd, 2009
gobble-gobble

First, Thanksgiving may be weighing too heavily on my mind – I could have sworn I heard a turkey in the neighborhood this morning.  And I don’t live in an area where we have wild turkeys wandering about.

I have just about everything I need for Turkey Day – except the Turkey, and today will kick off that quest.  I usually get a fresh* turkey breast, and it is always a little more challenging than I expect it to be.  You can’t buy it too far ahead of time, or you’ll have to freeze it, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting a fresh one, and if you wait too long, then they’re all gone.  And there have been years where one of the stores I shop at just never got them in!  (The poor butcher that I pestered several days in a row was as perplexed as I was – every day he was told they would be arriving and they never did.)

And I need to do a bit of rearranging of the fridge contents so it has a spot until Thursday morning.

Wish me luck!

*I don’t think that frozen is terrible or anything, I’ve just heard too many horror stories of the turkey refusing to defrost…

The Thanksgiving Relish Tray…I had no idea!

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn did a whole write up on the Turkey Day relish tray last week. I’ll be perfectly honest – I had NO idea this was such a big deal. Apparently there are all sorts of modern variations on the theme being employed across the country!

I really thought it was just one of those odd things my family did. We have a cut glass tray (no partitions) that holds the sweet pickles. (Yes, I have a brand new jar just for next week! Or until I break down and open it in the next couple days.) We also have a cut glass bowl that would old some seriously gawdawful California Black Olives. I never understood the draw on those, and once it was just my brother & I for Thanksgiving, that one went out the window.

But, the post has been rattling around in the back of my head all week, and I got to thinking… I have had olives that I really did like. Perhaps it’s time to hit one of the olive bars at the local markets and pick up a few olives that are actually edible! Maybe some pickled onions?

Perhaps this year we’ll bring a new tradition to the table.

Another for the “To Attempt” list – Oven baked breaded fish

Thursday, November 12th, 2009
another-for-the-to-attempt-list-oven-baked-breaded-fish

From Lobstersquad – looks incredibly easy and I’ll have to give it a whirl sometime. I usually pan-fry or broil fish fillets, so this looks easy and different.

And really, go look at her page, lovely illustrations as always!

A NomTastic breakfast

Monday, April 20th, 2009

What happens when  you take your traditional Easter brunch egg casserole and divide it by 4?

A very yummy little breakfast for one!

Here’s the recipe, thanks to the Virginia Hospitality cookbook (circa 1975…)  (Note: If you cut it down to a 1 egg serving, it takes approximately 35 minutes at 325 degrees.)

2 c. plain croutons (I use the cheese/garlic croutons)
4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese  (I really don’t know what this equates to in cups, I just kept shredding and weighing.)
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. milk
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. mustard
1/8 t. onion powder (optical communicationsI think 1/4 c. diced onions would work fine as well)
dash of ground black pepper
4 slices crumbled bacon

Put croutons & cheese in bottom of greased 10×6x2 casserole dish (my 8×8 worked fine)
Combine everything else, EXCEPT bacon.
Pour egg mix over croutons & cheese.
Top w/crumbled bacon

Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.  Don’t worry if it’s “jiggly” when you take it out – let it sit for 5 minutes to cool enough to eat, and the eggs will finish setting. 8 servings.

Nutrition info:
Per Serving: 177 Calories; 11g Fat (56.5% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 119mg Cholesterol; 386mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

So simple, yet so perfect!

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Oh yes, I am SO going to have to give these a whirl soon:

online casinoBacon Wrapped Potato Bites

How on earth could I have not thought of this before now????

Thanks, Apartment Therapy!

Pot Pie Puffs, Round 1

Sunday, March 29th, 2009
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So, about a month ago, I mentioned the Curry Chicken Pot Pies that I had at a party.  I wanted to give them a whirl, but of course, I couldn’t stick with Alton’s original recipe… (Sorry, Alton!!  But I’m sure you understand.)

It’s still not perfect by any means, so this is round one – but they are still pretty tasty!  I skipped the curry – my brother isn’t a fan (bad childhood experiences) which was fine, I’ve been looking for a decent “plain” chicken pot pie filling recipe to start with, and this looked like a good base.

First, I wanted to do some sort of bite sized version like my friend did.  I couldn’t find puff pastry (I am sure my market has it and I was just looking in the wrong places) so I went with fridge biscuits and used about 1/3 to 1/4 of a biscuit for each section in a mini muffin tin.

I added some garlic (because everything needs garlic) to the onions & celery, and used sweet onion since the white onions around here have been insanely strong this year.

Cut the 4 cups of veggies to 2 cups and added 2 cups of diced white potatoes.  (I also microwaved them for a few minutes, as I had no faith that they would cook through just sitting in the oven with the veggies – I would have boiled them if I had thought of it soon enough.)

Finally, rather than letting the sauce thicken and then folding in the veggies & chicken, I just went ahead and added it all at the same time and letting the chicken simmer in the sauce & seasonings.  Added them to the biscuit cups and popped them in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 (the temp called for on the biscuit package.)

And the results:

I put some of the leftovers in the fridge – 5 minutes at 400 degrees in the toaster oven is just right for reheating without burning the biscuit part.  The rest are in the freezer, we’ll see how well they can be thawed and reheated for snacks.

Now, the changes I need to make for next time…

– Cut it in half.  The original recipe says 6-8 servings.  That is 6-8 servings for people who really, REALLY like chicken pot pie!  (Seems most 4 serving recipes will feed myself and my brother, and then I have a small serving left for lunch the next day.)
– More potatoes, less veggies. :)
– A little bit of bacon.  Cause everything is better with bacon, and I think it would give it a little something.
– Find where the grocery store is hiding the puff pastry.