• Sunday - Ham salad sandwiches made with green onion mayonnaise and home made whole wheat bread.
• Monday - Moroccan chicken skewers with herb sauce accompanied by glazed carrots
• Tuesday - Garlicky shrimp pasta accompanied by roasted broccoli
• Wednesday -Grilled apple glazed port chops accompanied by mashed potato casserole and mixed vegetables.
• Family Thursday – Sausage and bell pepper pizza accompanied by a fresh tossed salad
• Finger Food Friday – Cheese cakes

Comments

Last weeks freezer cleaning was a success. The only “left over” is the ham which I’ll make into ham salad with a home made may0. This week we’re opening up the grilling season!

The Moroccan chicken skewers sound awesome (I really like Spice & Easy on Food Network). With a clean up grill I can’t wait to try some kabob type items and the spicing sounds wonderful. Hope it tastes and smells as good as it sounds.

I guess I’m just stuck on a shrimp theme for another week. The combination of shrimp with garlic and pasta is hard to resist.

In line with the grilling aspirations for this week, the apple glazed pork chops easily made the menu. They were a hit last time I made them and I expect it’ll be no different this time. The mashed potato casserole is new – never heard of it before I saw it air on Cooks Country TV. Sounds yummy!

This weeks pizza will have a pizza sauce inspired from a Joe Pastry recipe I found when looking at his pizza section. The ingredients will be the same, but I’ll cook it in a slightly different order.

While visiting my Mom recently I purloined one of her cook books entitled Cooking with Love and Paprika. Published in 1966 it has an interesting collection of recipes. One that looked tasty is called Cheese Cakes, not cheese cake as in cream cheese but as in cheddar cheese. Sounded interesting so I’ll give it a whirl.

Outcomes

I’ve thumbed through a number of ham salad recipes over the last couple of years and none wowed me. This time I decided to strike out on my own using the Flavor Bible. Aside from celery which adds some texture, I saw that green onions, garlic, mustard and brown sugar all paired well with ham. So why not in a ham salad and in fact why not in the mayo. Get Saucy had a recipe for green onion mayo that was almost what I wanted. A bit more lemon juice and white wine vinegar with the garlic and green onions got the mayo going. I added chili powder instead of straight cumin and some salt to bring out the flavor. Pretty good! Some course ground mustard with the may to bind the finely processed ham and celery and a a generous pinch of brown sugar made the sandwich wonderful.

After eating it I realized that home made bread would have made it even better. So before all the ham salad is gone I’ll whip up a loaf of whole wheat bread.

The bread wasn’t bad for my first time around. It’s a little more dense that I would like so I’ll tinker a bit with the recipe by adding less whole wheat and more bread flour. Perhaps I’ll also try adding the salt after kneading and chilling the dough.

Monday’s chicken skewers were pretty good – let’s say there was not much left. My wife even liked the dipping sauce. I ended up skipping the carrots and just making some rice. If I had thought about it some more I could have added mushrooms and perhaps onions and bell peppers and just had shish kabobs. D’oh!

It’s refreshing when your daughter tells you “that was the best thing I ever ate” – which is what she said about the garlicky shrimp and pasta. Served with the roasted broccoli, it was pretty good. Guess I’ll be making that again.

I was hoping Wednesday’s “meat and potatos” night would turn out great and for the most part it did. My first stab at the mashed potato casarole turned out a little on the dry side, but then again I only made 1/2 a recipe. I could have backed down on the cooking time. The pork was also a bit overdone since my instant read thermometer decided to give up the ghost right in the middle of cooking. Oh well, the chutney like apple sauce on top of the chops made up for their dryness. My son even like it!

There were certainly better reviews for the pizza sauce on Thursday. I ended up with enough sauce to make perhaps 2-3 pizzas. For pizza toppings I tried half-pepperoni, half-peppers/onions/sausage. The sausage actually started off life a sweet Italian sausage patties. Bulk sausage was not to be found at the store but the patties did a suitable job after being crumbled up and browned in the skillet. Once I use up the 2 remaining patties we’ll try some hot/spicy sausage.

So, cheese cakes. Interesting little pastries. More in a separate post but they puffed more that I thought and despite a little over-cooking they tasted pretty good and were super delicate – wafer thin inner layers. I substituted Spanish paprika instead of sweet Hungarian so the flavor was on the spicy side. I’ll give the sweeter paprika a try next time. Tasted kind of like a Cheeze-It, only much better.

• Mother’s Day
  • breakfast – blueberry scones
  • dinner – Baked Ziti accompanied by a fresh tossed salad
  • dessert - Homemade shortcakes with fresh strawberries and whip cream
• Monday – Baked ham accompanied by mashed potatoes and peas
• Tuesday – Chicken stir-fry with bell peppers, snap peas and broccoli
• Family Wednesday – Pizza accompanied by a fresh tossed salad
• Thursday – Trout baked in a pocket with lemons, parsley and white wine accompanied by green beans in an almondine sauce.
• Finger Food Friday – Grilled Southwest Shrimp cocktail

Comments

This week I’m using a lot of items that have been gathering space in my freezer – a ham, green beans, peas, broccoli, chicken, pizza dough & sauce.

I’ll have to find a glaze for the ham and a dipping sauce for the shrimp but other than that it’s a fairly easy week.

Mother’s Day is where all the work is – scones, baked ziti and and strawberry shortcakes. Good thing I like baking. The ziti is a America’s Test Kitchen recipe that looked wonderful. I’ve never made baked ziti so it should be fun!

The store had trout on sale this week so I figured the “fish in a pouch” would be good again. Perhaps I’ll try adding a bit of orzo to it. Last time I tried couscous and nobody cared much for it.

I was so impressed with how the grilled shrimp turned out last week that I’m grilling the other pound I bought and pair it with a “southwest” dipping sauce. Not sure what the sauce is quite yet, but I’ll work on it.

Outcomes

The scones were pretty good. This is about the 4th time I’ve made them and although I still have problems with the dough log tearing it’s getting better. Dough logs in general I have a tearing problem with. I think there are 2 causes:

• dough is too thin in spots
• dough is not dry enough – tears when picked up from surface

Just means I have to make more dough logs – oh snap!

The Baked Ziti was a huge hit – a better Mother’s day dinner would have been hard to find. Add to that fresh baked shortcakes with strawberries and whip cream and it’s nearly perfect. I was so pleased with how it all turned out – as was my bride!

My Freezer Raid of the frozen ham went splendid. I glazed the outside with some Dijon mustard, brown sugar and a spritz of Bourbon, brought it to 120 degrees and served. Took about an hour or so. The mashed potatoes and frozen pean rounded out a great meal. There were even a few strawberries, shortcakes and whip cream left over from Sunday to have a nice dessert.

Tuesday’s Freezer Raid on the chicken and frozen veggies for stir-fry worked out well. I used an oyster sauce and served it all over rice. Easy, easy easy and my freezer is getting thinned out as the days go by.

Wednesday Pizza was fine. The left over pizza sauce I had from the Mexican style pizza didn’t mesh that well with the Italian stuff I whipped up. Still good. I’ll have to look for a better pizza sauce recipe.

I continue to be impressed with the “fish in a pouch” cooking style. This time I added some orzo and it turned out pretty well. It wasn’t dry and it absorbed a lot of the wine. Quite good. My fear is that I’ll get addicted to this preparation technique and not try anything else.

The grilled shrimp on Friday was fantastic although my tequila laced dipping sauce left something to be desired, at least for my wife. She’s not a tequila fan so while I could chalk it up to that I think there was more to her dislike than just the offending liquor.

• Monday – Roasted chicken breasts accompanied by lemon potatoes and roasted broccoli.
• Tuesday – Tuna croquettes accompanied by green beans in almondine sauce.
• Wednesday – Pasta with tomato and almond pesto accompanied by peas
• Thursday – Hot dogs with Michigan sauce accompanied by fried potato rounds
• Finger Food Friday – Maryland crab cakes

Comments

For some reason the roasted chicken with red potatoes and roasted broccoli sounded really good. I don’t have a single recipe for it all – it’s a combination of 3 different ones that just sounded good together.

Both the tuna croquettes and the pasta with tomato and almond pesto I’ve made before and both were really good. Since I’m just back from vacation I didn’t want a lot of complexity this week so sticking with things I know and I like.

Talking with mom this week about cooking and in particular “coney sauces” got me hankering for hot dogs with Michigan sauce. Takes some time to make but it sure is good!

The crab cakes will be interesting. I’ve never made them before but my wife loves them. I’m going to try Paul Prudhomme’s recipe with a seasoning mixture. I have a Cooks Country version that broils them, but I want to try out the pan frying since I’m a sucker for fried foods.

Outcomes

The roasted chicken hit the spot. Pan seared to give it a nice crust, it roasted in the oven for a nice finish that left it moist and juicy. The sliced red potatoes simmered covered in a lemon-chicken broth before evaporating the liquid and crisping the outsides – yummy! Roasted broccoli is quickly becoming a favorite dish – I tossed the florets in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, sugar and pepper before roasting.

Second time round with the tuna croquettes and despite some binding issues they tasted really good – my wife even said so. My daughter even ate them. The microwaved green beans in almondine sauce were great as well. The best part (depending on how you look at it): no left overs!

As with the tuna croquettes, the tomato almond pesto was even better the second time around. I used a few less tomatoes this time and the basil flavor really came out. Not much left over, a mere mouthful – which won’t be in the fridge long!

I’ve always loved hot dogs with coney sauce and the Michigan sauce recipe I’ve been using just keeps getting better. I used a higher fat content ground beef this time and while a bit more oily it had a slightly better flavor.

The crab cakes were fun to prepare and had good taste. The cooking technique and/or perhaps the recipe didn’t turn out a OMG crab cake I was hoping for. The spice mix left heat on the pallet long after the crab cake was gone, so the spices get an A+. Since my wife likes crab cakes I think I’ll be playing with these a bit.

One more item on the crab cakes – left over ones warmed up make great fillings for omelets!

• Sunday – Cherry Almond Coffee Cake
• Monday – Pouch cooked steelhead trout with couscous, lemons, red onion,cilantro, wine and assorted spices accompanied by orange glazed carrots
• Tuesday – Vegetable stir-fry with bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and saffron rice.
• Wednesday – Mom’s meatloaf accompanied by mashed potatoes and peas
• Thursday – Skillet Italian Chicken with Orzo accompanied by roasted broccoli
• Finger Food Friday – Pan Bagnat accompanied by  tropical fruit skewers

Comments

The Cherry Almond coffee cake is a Cooks Country recipe that I wanted to try. Everyone else can fend for themselves.

The “fish in a pouch” is my own concoction based on a Good Eats episode on pouch cooking. Should be interesting!

I got my first order from Penzey’s Spices and I want to try out the garam masala that I got. I’m going to see how it goes with a traditional stir-fry technique.

The kids want mom’s meatloaf with all the trimmings – my night to play sous chef.

Skillet Italian chicken with Orzo is another Cooks Country recipe I wanted to try. The twist is to see if I can thaw frozen broccoli and then roast it.

Friday we’re off on vacation and rather than just forget about my Finger Food Friday’s I’m going to take it as a challenge. Sandwiches and fruit for an on the road dining experience.

Outcomes

Don’t ask about the coffee cake – it would have been great if I actually followed to batter recipe instead of what I did. I tried to follow the recipe I really did. Evidently I don’t know how to read. Ick! I was so glad when my wife threw it out.

The trout in the pouch was really quite good! My daughter even ate it. I think I’ll use parsley next time – the cilantro was a bit too harsh. The couscous was – eh. Perhaps that’s what it’s supposed to taste like but it was a bit dry and bland. I’ll definitely be trying this technique again with fish – easy to make and clean up. The carrots were just some “steam in a bag” kind but I whipped up some OJ, butter and agave nectar (new experimenting food) to douse them in. Quite tasty!

Don’t ask about mixing garam masala in with the stir-fry veggies. Although I liked it, I was alone in that regard. The saffron rice was outstanding once again.

The meatloaf, as always, was outstanding despite not adding milk to it – don’t understand milk’s purpose in her recipe. I found the meatloaf tasted just as good and perhaps a bit better. At times it can be a little soggy – this time is was more firm.

Skillet Italian Chicken with Orzo was good- well for me at least. I got a little too much red pepper in the dish. Consequently my wife didn’t enjoy it. The chicken ends up being braised with the tomato and orzo and I don’t know that we’re all big on braised chicken. I do think I’ll do the orzo and tomatos again – less some of the red pepper.

Pan Bagnat on the road was wonderful! The car had a great smell when we unwrapped the sandwich. It needed a bit more of the oil sauce and some softer bread but otherwise is was simply grand! The fruit sticks of mango, kiwi, orange slices and pineapple were a great finish and made a great late night traveling snack.

So this time when the invitation came round I asked the host if I could borrow the kitchen while they played poker and prepare a few finger food items for the crowd. She was really receptive to the idea – hey what are friends for.

Poker Night

So all week I’ve been thinking about what to make. I had a lot of ideas but in the end knew that it had to be “clean to eat” – didn’t want greasy or messy fingers on the cards.  I opted for stuffed celery using a cold version of Crab Rangoon filling, some Greek salad on a stick, and for break time bite sized fish tacos. The first two should be easy to prepare and while the final one would require some work it wasn’t that hard.

However, I would not be cooking in my house and I wanted to prepare as much as I could in advance. I opted for making the celery filling ahead of time and thawing the fish. The taco recipe also called for crème fraîche which I had made on Thursday so I could just take it with me. I also prepped the vinaigrette for the salad sticks. The rest I would prepare there.

The filling for the celery was just a double batch of the Crab Rangoon mix from earlier in the week, but the fish took longer to defrost than I figured. As a result I was about an hour past the appointed start time. I shouldn’t have worried – the game never starts on schedule.

Deal ‘em

The celery prep went easy and tasted really good, but the game was progressing a little faster than normal so I switch gears and started getting the shells for the fish tacos going. My host’s oven ran a little warmer than mine and the first batch was slightly browner than I wanted, but still passable. The next batch turned out perfect as I cut back on the time by about 1.5 minutes.

Prepping the taco innards and dressing was easy and so was the crème fraîche topping. The fish cooked nicely once I figured out the cook-top controls. I was done by the first break. There were some skeptical looks but there were no wonton wrappers left when they went back to the table. The arugula was fairly new to everyone but it added a nice kick to the taco. I also had fears about all the lime juice in the dressing but it lightened up when mixed with all the ingredients.

The only trouble I had with the Greek salad sticks was getting the fetta cheese through the skewer. It broke and crumbled when I got past the skewer tip. I read about this happening when I read the recipe comments and per some suggestions tried bigger chunks. No dice. I could not get them on there. So on a suggestion from a friend that was out of the game, I just stuck them on the tip. I think the key is thinner skewers and not the bamboo kind used for grilling.

Final Table

By the time the first game was over, I was all cleaned up and had only a few left over salad skewers. I left the salad skewers since my friends were going to play another game and they seemed to be trying the salad skewers as they discovered them.

All in all I think it went well. I would definitely prepare and dress the taco innards ahead of time less the arugula. Since the dressing is lime based the avocado would not brown and adding the chopped arugula just before serving will keep it crisp. I had about 1/3 of the Crab Rangoon filling left which I’ll enjoy eating and just a tiny bit of the taco innards – perhaps for lunch if the arugula holds up.

I think I’ve found my way back to the poker parties!

• Sunday Easter lunch – a “pot luck” with friends! I’m bringing Ambrosia and a Lemon Chess pie
• Monday – Spicy Jalapeno Chicken sausage with Mango, Pineapple Chili with Jasmine rice
• Tuesday – Cheesy Toasted Tortellini with Pesto accompanied by roasted broccoli
• Wednesday – Chicken stir-fry with bell pepper, carrots, and sugar snap peas in a sweet & sour sauce
• Thursday – Hamburgers with fried potato wedges
• Finger Food Friday – Crab Rangoon

Comments

The Ambrosia’s going to be made with mostly fresh ingredients including coconut and marshmallows. Really it’s just an excuse to try the marshmallow recipe.

Although I’m not a fan of food producer recipes, the one from al Fresco caught my eye in the April/May edition of Fine Cooking. The edamame will be new for us and I’m looking forward to see how the rest of my family likes Jasmine rice.

Cheesy Toasted Tortellini was originally Cheesy Toasted Ravioli but there’s this pound of frozen tortellini that I need to use up see and uh.. well tortellini is ravioli “like”.. we’ll give adapting the recipe from Cooks Country a whirl.

Nothing new about the stir-fry or the sauce – family favorite, move along nothing to see here.

Hamburgers! The red meat for the week and the first burgers of the season – really just a cheesy way to clean up the gril for outdoor cooking after the winter layoff.

My wife loves Crab Rangoon – and I need to use up some wonton wrappers. Not sure of the recipe so stay tuned.

Outcomes

The Ambrosia was fantastic! Seems everyone liked it and having to explain how to make marshmallows was an interesting lunch conversation. The Lemon Chess pie was a winner too – the Tender Flaky crust from CookWise (see sidebar) turned out well!

I loved the recipe from al Fresco, but it was too spicy for the rest of my family. The stir-fry like preparation was nice. The only change I made was to add frozen sugar snap peas instead of the edamame. Evidently I needed the shelled edamame instead of the ones still in the pod. The Jasmine rice was also outstanding. I sautéed it in a little oil before adding boiling water and a few tablespoons of Better than Bullion Chicken. It couldn’t have been more perfectly cooked and the flavor was grand! I’ve have a lot of leftovers to eat this week.

The Cheesy Toasted Tortellini had great flavor, especially with the homemade pesto but the sauce was a little watery. I don’t think the frozen tortellini had enough starch on it to thicken the cream sauce. I paired the tortellini with lemon-garlic-olive oil roasted broccoli. Nothing remained.

Given the summer like temperature on Wednesday and the forecast for rain on Thursday I opted to swap dinners – burgers on the grill for Wednesday and stir-fry on Thursday. I was going to mix some of the left over pesto into the fresh burgers, but my wife took the pesto for lunch – oh well. I opted to use a chili power rub on the burgers instead. It gave them some nice flavor but it wasn’t quite enough spice for me.

The stir-fry turned out well. This time the challenge was to get the carrots done on time with the rest of the veggies. I added them early and held the peas and bell pepper off. It worked out well.

• Sunday Breakfast - Biscuits and sawmill gravy accompanied by hash browns
• Monday - Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto accompanied by roasted broccoli
• Tuesday - Skillet Pizza with tossed salad
• Wednesday - Smoky rib eye steak accompanied by loaded mashed potatoes and peas
• Thursday – Tuna melts accompanied by green beans amandine
• Friday - Lamb tacos – adapted from Giada’s recipe

Dessert - Fluffy yellow layer cake with butter cream frosting

Challenges

The butter cream frosting sounds finicky. The crème fraîche called for in the fish taco recipe will be a new sauce for me. Seems to be just buttermilk and heavy cream warmed, rested and chilled – is it that simple?

Outcomes

The more I make my hash browns the better they are! The biscuit recipe was my own concoction (more on that later) and the sawmill gravy technique is getting better every time. It was a little salty so next time I’ll wait to check the seasonings until after I crumble the sausage back in.

The cake itself is yummy; AB’s buttercream icing, not so much. Oh the recipe worked OK – the comments were helpful in getting it right the first time – but my family didn’t care for the texture and to tell the truth I didn’t either. A bit too oily and not nastily sweet. Perhaps it was the corny syrup. I’ll have to try a different icing concoction next time but at least the cake got the nod of approval from my daughter.

The pasta with tomato and almond pesto was fabulous. I’d have that again anytime!

Skillet pizza is an existing family favorite and it didn’t disappoint.

The rib eye steak and potatoes passed with flying colors. The steak was very tender and the potatoes were wonderful. My daughter – the mashed potatoes purest – even liked them.

While the tuna melts won’t win any awards, I finally got the amandine sauce right – I let the butter brown a little longer this time. They were really yummy!

My lamb tacos combined elements of an Alton Brown Gyro recipe with toasted wonton cups from a Giada recipe. Turned out pretty good for first time around. You have to like a blast of sour to eat them.

Oh and the crème fraîche – my new favorite thing to try on just about everything! It was easy to make. Mine came out a little on the damp side and I was expecting something more sour cream-ish. Having never had any before I don’t know if that’s normal or not. It is just a little less firm than sour cream and doesn’t have a lot of body. However, it’s very, very yummy – I’ve dipped omelet pieces in it, fruit, lamb, fish sticks and was never disappointed!

• 3 lb beef tenderloin roast, rubbed with pepper, thyme and garlic
• cranberry-pear chutney sauce
• garlic mashed potatoes
• rosemary carrots
• fresh green bean casserole

This is my 4th year making the roast in the same manner and it came out a little drier than usual. I think the internal temperature got too high (150+ range) which caused it to loose moisture. Next year I’m going to try searing it first and then 200 in the oven until it hits 140-ish.

As my wife will tell you I detest green bean casserole, but I found a recipe at Cooks Illustrated that solved all my issues. The green beans were crisp, not soggy; the sauce was made from fresh mushrooms and tasted wonderful; the home made bread crumbs complimented the only prepared ingredient - fried onions. I even ate left-overs the next day! It’s certainly a green bean casserole I can get behind.

For dessert mom and I attempted a cherry cobbler using Bing cherries. Let’s just say that mom’s crust was magnificent and the filling was – well – interesting.