recipe!

do you like brussels sprouts? i think most people think they don't, but have you ever even had them? growing up, my mom never served my brother and i brussels sprouts because she hated them so much when she was growing up, but i saw this recipe on a blog i follow a few months ago and it just sounded so good--i asked one of my coworkers and she said she thought most people who say they don't like vegetables grew up eating them cooked improperly. so, i gave it a try, and holy crap, welcome to your new favorite vegetable side dish! here's the recipe (with a few changes i've made):

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
3 to 4 medium yukon gold potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks (don't peel them--just wash them. they taste better this way, and all the good for you stuff is in the skin)
1 large shallot, sliced
3 slices thick-cut bacon, sliced
10 to 12 brussels sprouts (about 1/2 pound), trimmed and quartered (i cut off the bottoms, too)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil and mustard (use more for bigger brussels sprouts, less for smaller ones). Toss the vegetables and bacon in the bowl until evenly coated with the mustard and oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper.

Spread the mixture in a baking dish (a 9-inch square pan works) and roast for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes--try to get anything stuck to the pan off, and make sure the rendered bacon fat can coat everything else. Roast until the potatoes are cooked through and the bacon is getting crispy. Salt to taste.

Here's the original recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-roasted-potatoes-with-brussels-sprouts-bacon-140594

Enjoy!

so, if you've noticed my daily number of posts dwindling...it could be because i've started a new blog with my friend jamie about our adventures in cooking. its over on wordpress--why not give it a look?

http://deuxgormands.wordpress.com/

see you there! =)

explanation.

so. this is the one recipe i can never possibly mess up, because i've made it so many times i know it by heart. are you familar with vichyssoise? if not--it's a cold potato soup. i know, i know, sounds gross--but it's actually pretty decadent. i found the recipe in a cookbook of mine a few years ago and made it a few times one summer; it's really great, thick, creamy, a little gritty (in a good way), and with fresh chives on top? be still my heart.

all of that said, the best part was always trying it while it was still hot.

i figured i'd just try keeping it hot one day, and call it potato leek soup instead. and guess what? brilliant.

so, randomly this afternoon i decided i wanted some and that i would post pictures along the way. here's how you make it:

ingredients

leeks (i usually get about 3, but if i'm making a TON of soup, i'll go for 6)
potatoes (duh--1 potato per serving is pretty standard. i used 8 this time around.)
one onion (i have never used more than one. you could try it, though)
chicken stock (or chicken bullion--you need enough to cover the potatoes when they're quartered and in the pot you're using. 6-8 cups, standard.)
about 1c. milk (whole. please.)
about 1 c. cream (the recipe i originally used insists on whipping cream, but really, whatever you have handy)
chervil (apparently unnecessary, but i never leave it out)
salt and pepper to taste

directions

follow the pictures! first, slice up those leeks into little half-inch pieces, and chop up the onion. i like this to be a one-pot dish, so i'll usually put some butter at the bottom of a big soup pot--this time i used olive oil (i'll let you know how that turns out). coat the bottom of the pan, place over medium heat, and load in the leeks and onions. cook till translucent--this is a good time to peel the potatoes and quarter them. once the leeks and onions are done, pile the potatoes in and cover with chicken stock. bring to a boil--be sure to add salt after each step, by the way (not too much, but it really brings out the flavors--and then lower to a simmer for 45 minutes. watch some tv, take a nap...hang out with your cat...whatever.

once the 45 minutes is up (this, by the way, is a good time to put some sourdough bread into the oven, with a little water sprinkled on top), turn off the heat, and either transfer the potatoy, leeky, oniony, chicken stocky mix into a blender, or use a little blender stick (which i was lucky enough to inherit with my apartment), and blend the whole thing.

leaving it here would have you end up with a really thick potato leek soup--you could probably eat it with a fork. if this is where you want to stop, by all means.

but.

if you want to REALLY kick up the awesome, here is where you add in the milk and cream. and the other stuff. which you should add even if you don't want to add the milk and cream.

the best thing is, you can eat what you've made right away--and it's great. then you can put the remaining soup in the fridge and enjoy it for lunch or a snack or whatever later, without even heating it up if you don't want to!

enjoy <3

for mothers day i don't really subscribe to the gift-giving thing; sure, i've given my mom presents for the day in the past, but usually tradition in our family sticks to cooking breakfast and picking flowers.

this mothers day is the first one i've lived in my own place without roommates (not counting the fianz), so i had the opportunity to have my mom and her partner over for breakfast! i wanted to try something new, but didn't want to do anything too crazy--i toyed with the idea of omlettes, latkes, and baked tomatoes before settling on a pretty basic meal: scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon and pancakes. but not just any pancakes: lemon blueberry pancakes, made from scratch.

i know what you're thinking. how good can a pancake really be? isn't it easier to just buy bisquik? well, friend, perhaps. but this was really fun to do, and they really were emotional. here's how i did it:

dust off and crack open your copy of The Joy of Cooking, and find their recipe for basic pancakes. the ingredients are as follows:

ingredients

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 1-1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 or 2 large eggs, slightly beaten

directions

combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (i actually do this in a large measuring cup, a rule my friend dillon taught me after years of making the best pancakes, ever). when it comes to adding the "wet" ingredients, here's how i did it: i grated the rind of one lemon, then juiced that lemon into a measuring cup. i added the milk to the lemon juice--i didn't want my pancake batter to be too watery! i think i probably ended up with more like one and a half cups of milk/juice, but my advice would be to start off with just one cup, total, and add more as you see fit. i also decided to go with two eggs. just 'cause.

i like to whisk my pancake batter together, but mix it however you like--just until everything is combined. lumps are ok! then--this is something new--cover it with plastic wrap (or whatever) and put it in the fridge. The Joy of Cooking recommends 3-6 hours or more; i only had about 3 hours, and i'm not sure what difference it made, but it was no extra effort, so, i'd go for it again. in the last twenty minutes or so of this cycle, you can get to work on your home fries! here's my recipe:

ingredients

about 2 tablespoons olive oil
about 2 tablespoons butter
1 large-ish yukon gold potato per couple eating them
a few stems of fresh thyme (use your judgement)
garlic powder
paprika
salt & pepper to taste
one yellow onion

directions

peel and quarter the potato(es). heat olive oil and butter on the stove in a good sized frying pan--i like to go with no-stick pans in general, and would recommend on here. add potatoes to the oil and butter mixture, along with however many thyme leaves you want to add--i usually add a lot. you can use dried thyme, also, but fresh is so much better! sprinkle over a healthy amount of garlic powder and paprika, and add a smidge of salt and pepper, cover, and fry on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

once these 10 minutes are up, take the top off, mix the potatoes around a little (try to get them completely covered in the oil in the pan!), chop up the onion and throw it in. cook uncovered for another 10 minutes. if the rest of your breakfast isn't ready when your home fries are, put them in an oven-proof pan and into the oven--i put them in with the bacon this weekend and then ended up turning the oven down to "warm" for the rest of the time it took breakfast to be ready.

with the pancakes, take the batter out of the fridge, mix it around again (add more milk if necessary), and heat the frying pan on the stove, until water dropped on it sizzles. depending on the quality of your frying pan, either spray pam on, coat with butter, or simply drop pancake mix into whatever size you want onto the pan. add as many blueberries to the side facing up as you'd like--i usually like to load them on. fry the first side until done, flip, fry the second side, and voila! these pancakes are delicious, don't have any crazy preservatives in them, are totally natural, and if i'm not mistaken, aren't as unhealthy as pancakes can tend to be.

enjoy!

chicken in milk--sounds either gross, or DELISH.

i know it's probably a little, well, lame--but when i'm at work with nothign to do, i often pass the time by fantasizing about what i can cook for dinner for myself and the fianz. i've mentioned the kitchn, my new favorite blog, in here before, and i've been holding onto this bookmarked post for a little while now, because i lack the tools to make it, but i want to soooo badly:



it's rather famous chef (and totally adorable guy) jamie oliver's recipe: chicken in milk and lemon, and according to faith, one of the kitchn writers, it's the best bird she's ever had: "I know I'm going out on a limb with this one, but it is the truth: this is the best chicken I have ever had. It's definitely the best chicken I've ever cooked, and it was so easy I still can't believe it."

here's the recipe:

ingredients

1 whole chicken (recommended: 3½lb)
salt & freshly ground pepper
½ stick butter
olive oil
1 pint of milk
"a lot" of lemon zest (2 lemons worth)
1 cinnamon stick
unpeeled garlic cloves (10!)
sage leaves (about a handful)

directions

brown the chicken well in a big pot with butter and oil. throw away all that extra fat; you won't need it (or, save it for cooking potatoes or vegetables.) put the chicken back in the pot, add the milk, garlic (no need to peel the cloves or smash them), lemon, and cinnamon stick, along with a handful of sage leaves. put in the oven and roast for an hour and a half. faith mentions here that she's tried leaving the lid on, or taking it off, and recommends leaving it on, but, jamie's original recipe says to leave it off. i guess this is a judgement call for the individual chef to make (i will prob/def leave it on, personally, if i ever get the hardware to cook this guy!)

more from faith:

"regardless of cooking method, this dish smells absolutely divine. my husband groaned when he walked into the house. what IS that? he asked. when i took it out to get it ready for dinner, the chicken was sitting in a pool of creamy pan liquids, the milk having dissolved into small bits of curd and juice. it isn't the most appetizing looking sauce, but who cares. it was like liquid lemon gold...guys, you have got to try this chicken."

all i need is one big freaking oven-proof pot! sigh. how much do you love the red one in faith's picture? want, want, want.

here's a link to jamie's more specific recipe...and faith's blog post on the kitchn. enjoy =)

so, last night i decided to try something new with dinner. i took a recipe from my faaaaavorite blog, the kitchn, got the ingredients from the store, and decided to document my adventure here.



easy enough--all you need is 1lb of snap peas (this is a perfect time of year for them!), one shallot, some mint leaves, olive oil, a meyer lemon, and some salt and pepper. the recipe doesn't call for it, but i added a bit of apple cider vinegar, too--i needed a little extra zing. anyway, here are the ingredients:

1 pound snap peas, trimmed
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice
1 teaspoon Meyer lemon zest
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

and, the directions:

first, if you want (i did), snap off the ends of the peas:

(if you're lucky, you'll have somebody to supervise and make sure you're doing it right)


(...but she might end up more interested in the new carpet you bought from job lot. that's right, Kyle!)

next, toss all of the peas into a pot of boiling water and leave for about two minutes, until they're a little bit softened, but still have that snap to them. while they're on the stove, take a large(ish) bowl and fill it with cold water and ice cubes:



when the peas are done on the stove, strain them and toss them into the bowl to cool them off. make the vinaigrette while they're cooling; zest the lemon, cut it in half and juice it, mince the shallot:



...cut up the mint, and end up with this lovely looking mix of yum:



i added in a LOT of pepper, about a cap-full and a half of vinegar, and some of this great salt that my mom's partner gave me for my birthday--it's got little bits of lemon zest in the grinder--perfect! then, whisk:



once mixed, toss the peas in and toss them around in the vinaigrette:



beautiful! next time, i might add more shallots to the mix and i'd definitely still add the vinegar, maybe even a bit more--but not too much, as i wouldn't want to mask the flavor of the lemon.

to accompany this, i made some quick brown rice (instant--sacrilege, i know) and lemon chicken (which is super easy--fry floured chicken breasts in olive oil, remove from pan once done, add in a ton of lemon juice, half a stick of butter, and a handful of chopped parsley, heat for like, 2 seconds, then pour it over chicken, and leave in the oven--at about 300 degrees--until the rest of the dinner is ready). all that's left after that is waiting for kurt to come home....



...luckily, we have a watch-cat to keep an eye out.

another tomato-y recipe

so, i really don't like pasta with sauce.

*gasps*

i know. i know. i live in RI, everybody here is italian (i'm not, but that's neither here nor there), i'm supposed to be a total snob about what KIND of red/marinara/tomato sauce i like--but i just don't. i never have and i probably never will.

that said, i did find a recipe for something sauce-like that i actually quite enjoy. i promptly lost it--but i've tried making it over again a few times and it's worked out from memory, so i'll jot it down here:

ingredients

again, stuff i usually have around the kitchen--some olive oil, one onion, some oregano, thyme, a bay leave (if you have it--not necessary), some tomato paste, and i usually use a can of chopped tomatoes--this makes entirely too much for me and the fianz to finish in one sitting, although he always tries, and then his stomach wreaks havoc on him for the rest of the night. you'd think he'd learn. anyway. all that, plus a bag of frozen peas. i mean, you could use fresh peas--i just never have.

recipe

chop up the onion and saute it in the olive oil--not too too much oil, now, but eyeball it and i have faith that you'll use exactly enough. once the onions are pretty translucent, toss in the entire can of tomatoes--to answer the inevitably question, i don't drain them, although as i recall the recipe says you ought to, but then adds that you should throw in a cup of water. which i think is just weird.

add in about a tablespoon full of tomato paste, and add the spices to taste. i generally try to go light on the thyme since it's so flavorful and i think can kind of take over a dish, but then, i like to go totally wild with the oregano, so, whatever. do what you like. also, some people add sugar to their sauce--i do and i don't, i guess it depends on my mood, but i've never really noticed a huge difference. if you have fresh parsley, toss it in, although it's not necessary and i'm guessing most people don't have it on hand all the time. now would also be a good time to toss those peas in the microwave to reheat them (according to the directions on the package, of course).

let the sauce sizzle on the stove for a good 10 minutes or so, stirring when the feeling strikes you, and add the peas at the last minute. i usually like to let them cook with the rest of the sauce for a few more minutes, against the recommendation of the recipe that i used. add salt and pepper if you want to--again, not required, but i usually do.

this is a "sauce" that i like to serve with ravioli since it's so chunky and "ravs" (as we called them in my house growing up) are usually cut up when you're eating them and have enough flavor to stand up to the flavors in the sauce.

enjoy! it's super easy to make and tastes great. at least, i think so.


:::edit::: i've discovered something that i think adds a certain depth to this sauce--it's kind of weird, but adding a splash of vanilla extract really deepens the flavor in an interesting way. i tried making it this way last week and the fianz really liked it, but couldn't figure out why (i kept the new discovery a secret!). also, tried making the sauce with pureed canned tomatoes...i liked it better, he did not. he likes the sauce way more than i do, so i'll probably go back to making it the way he likes. aww =)

delicious, easy, and delicious (and easy!) tomato soup--which is delicious and easy.

i was thinking i might also start posting recipes in here--since cooking is something i'm starting to really get into. i made tomato soup a week or so ago that was a pretty epic procedure, and while i think i could improve upon the recipe i used, if you dig the spicy taste of the homemade stuff, this is pretty much where it's at.

the best thing about this soup is that you really don't need to go on a big grocery store adventure to make it--most of this stuff i just had in the kitchen already, and i'm guessing that means most other people would, too, as my kitchen is anything but "well stocked."

i got this recipe from my new favorite blog, the kitchn, which i found while perusing google reader, which my friend aaron got me into a few weeks ago. i'm still fine-tuning my reader and working on adding things i'll actually read while eliminating those i won't--this blog, though, will stay on for sure.


ingredients

all you need is a half a stick of butter, an onion, a carrot, one stalk of celery, 2 (28 oz) cans of tomatoes (the recipe recommended crushed, but being that you end up blending the whole thing anyway, i'd argue that you can really use any old canned tomatoes and be just fine), some fresh parsley, 4 cups of either vegetable or chicken stock (i used veggie., but if i tried this recipe again, i might go with chicken to see if it's any different), and some milk (although the recipe recommended heavy cream--which i did use--i think any old dairy, again, would do just fine).

recipe

chop up all of the veggies and toss them into a big (and i mean biiiiig) soup pot with about 3 tablespoons of butter. i, personally, always use more butter than the recipe calls for--which might, now that i think about it, be why i'm getting a little fat. oh well, at least my food tastes good, right? anyway, sauté those veggies until they're tender (not browned). if i had to do it again, i think i'd try browning the onions first--and maybe even adding a few more than the recommended "one small;" i like the sweetness of cooked onions and i find them hard to regulate when there are other vegetables in the mix. anyway, once you've gotten everything softened up--which should only take a few minutes, probably 8 tops--add everything else (minus the dairy) and simmer. keep the parsley as (about 6) full sprigs and, once the carrots are tender (i'd give it about a half an hour, maybe a little less), take the parsley out and toss it. blend everything in a blender and add whatever liquid dairy you've selected--and i'd say, here, just use your judgment and pour until you think you have enough. some people like their tomato soup straight up, some (like me) like it creamy, so it really is all about personal preference. i'd save the salt and pepper for the individual bowls and let everyone put in as much as they'd individually like.

now, if you're into this sort of thing (and i am), when you've got the soup simmering, take a sourdough baguette and slice it up into bite-sized pieces--as many as you think you would like to top your soup. put them in a bowl and toss with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. put them on a cookie sheet and bake them at 400º for about 10 minutes--they were, for me, the best part of the entire meal; i actually just made them again for lunch with canned tomato soup and they were delicious.

anyway, there you have it!

:::edit:::

i forgot to mention--my favorite way to eat tomato soup is with grilled cheese, which just about everybody knows how to make, but still, i'm adding a recipe here:

for each G.C., take two slices of white bread (i'm sorry, healthy people--there is no other way), and one slice of american cheese. i've tried good, expensive and cheap kraft american cheese and actually really prefer the kraft, but that, again, is up to the individual. take a medium frying pan and brown a small pat of butter in a bread-slice-sized square, then place one piece of bread over it. put a slice of cheese on there and then--here's the key--take some worchestire sauce and dribble a little of that on there. trust me, it's amazing and, in this case, the brand-name expensive stuff really makes a difference. top off with the second slice and take another pat of butter; lift the whole sandwich with a spatula, artfully balance it while you smear the butter into another bread-slice-shaped square, and flip it over (carefully) to brown the other side. and, and i'm sure this goes without saying, cut on the diagonal, people. for christ's sake. it's tradition.