How to get kids to eat cabbage!!

I love cabbage, and it's cheap and healthy. I made this braised cabbage, inspired by both the Amateur Gourmet and the same book that he has, Molly's braising book. I left out the carrots but kept the onions in. I was also a bit liberal with the crushed red pepper. It is so simple, just a bit of stock and some onions, along with seasonings, and in the oven it goes. I have served this twice now, this time I put some heat-n-eat turkey kielbasa on top of the cabbage for the last 20 minutes (after the foil comes off) . I'll stick to the first version I did a few weeks ago though: I cooked up some "Lincolnshire" sausages from the Tesco Fresh & Easy, a much better choice. Turkey kielbasa is just so meh. Not enough fat, which is what sausages are all about. Note to self: I have a grinder, need to get busy and use it!! 2nd note - the turkey kielbasa looks bad in this photo, doesn't it?


The cabbages come out all tender and melty, I just can't get enough. I had leftovers but as usual forgot all about them until they were past their prime. This is a "heavy rotation" meal, it's so simple and fits the "cheap ass" (thank you Thursday Night Smackdown) mold.

A big winner for Soup Night 2.0

In the 2nd weekly "Soup Night", it was suggested that I try a carrot soup. I picked this one from Serious Eats, used homemade chicken stock, whipped it up with an immersion blender.
Wow - it was really spectacular. While cooking, the little bit of turmeric turns the stock a beautiful yellow color, looks pretty with the orange carrots peeking through. Did I take a photo? Of course not... my battery was dead after our weekend of baseball. It smelled a bit like Indian food cooking. It turned out great, served with just a little green salad, some freshly baked bread, and a chicken liver pate crostini. I know, it didn't really match flavor-wise but I was experimenting with a recipe for New Year's.
One for the rotation for sure. Next up for Monday, cream of mushroom with extra snark.
Happy Turkey Day!

Soup Night

Even though the days are still hot and dry here in So Cal (and smoky, thanks to the flammability factor of our hillsides), I instituted Monday Night Soup Night this week. With all of the excesses of the weekend (junk food, mixed drinks, pizza, wine), I figure that Monday is a good day to step back and simplify. A nice soup, with homemade bread is a good way to start of the week. This week was a simple split pea soup. I adapted from Bittman, which has become my "go to" for recipes and methods for easy meals. I really just needed the ratio of stock (home made chicken this time) to dried peas. I started off by browning some already cubed pancetta (thanks Trader Joe's!) and removing for later. Then I sweated a small diced onion, and added the stock and the peas. I let this cook for about an hour (maybe a bit more as I was multitasking), then used the handy immersion blender on it. I used the pancetta as garnish, along with some easy salt & pepper croutons made from leftover bread. It got a huge thumbs up from the family, as did my plan for a weekly soup night.

Plus, my ulterior motive... it is more often than not healthy and, especially in this economy, cheap! I also threw in an extra soup night (found some ground beef in the freezer) this week and made Cincy style chili. This time with just cheese and cornbread, no spaghetti or raw onion..... Next up will be one of my dad's other soups, besides the best soup ever described here.

Annoying, but her recipes do sometimes work

As annoying as RR is, some of her recipes actually work. I pulled this one off of the Food Network website a while back for pasta with pumpkin and sausage. If I remember correctly, our neighbor made it for us one night and told me where he got it. It's actually really good, and a fall favorite around here. I had everything ready to go and realized that I did not have fresh sage - something ate it early on from my herb garden - so I just used a palmful of dried. I also used water instead of chicken stock, and dry vermouth instead of wine (good enough for Julia, good enough for me). I just made a ton of stock 2 weeks ago, but I didn't have any thawed out at the moment.
It turned out great as always, but I forgot to take a picture (it's orange pasta with chunks of sausage in it, trust me). I'm just that kind of slacker right now. Being unemployed has made me uninspired to cook. But, the holidays are just around the corner and that means our annual New Year's Eve dinner with friends. Time to dust of the cookbooks and find something to make that will complement the fantastic wines that we have ready to go.

Is fall here yet?

I know in many parts of the country, Fall is not only here, but Winter is upon you. However, here in Southern California we have been experiencing hot and dry conditions, temperatures in the 80s and 90s. It doesn't really inspire a lot of cooking, so I have been revisiting a lot of favorites. I had big ideas at the beginning of October to make a dent in my 4 Mario Batali books. I made carbonara, which I have done before, and finally got around to the "2 minute Sicilian Lifeguard Calamari" from the Babbo cookbook. I used my grandma's marinara sauce instead of his though, even made a double batch for pasta a few days before.
This was truly a quick dish: the pine nuts, currants, capers, and red pepper are quickly sauteed in some oil, the sauce added, and then the squid goes in and cooks fairly fast. Add to that some par cooked Israeli couscous, and the dish comes together literally in the 2 minutes inferred by the title. The couscous was toothsome, and the calamari was perfectly cooked. It was a touch spicy though, since the initial sauce already has some crushed red pepper in it I think I added a bit too much. I have been heating up the house just about every other day baking a loaf of the "Artisan Bread in 5" bread, but other than that, motivation is slow to come. But, I did roast a chicken and some egpplant & squash last night that restored my faith in things. Tonight, braised cabbage & Lincolnshire sausages, maybe I will make the cool weather come quicker~

coq au vin

I think Bourdain puts it best..... "like the very best dishes, this is one of those that goes on the stove looking, smelling and tasting pretty nasty". Yep, I pulled this bowl of marinating chicken & aromatics out of the fridge, took the plastic wrap of the top and went, "blech". It smelled and looked pretty bad. But, after all was said and done it tasted pretty darn good.
I used the Les Halles Cookbook recipe, except that I substituted some big fat leg quarters that I had in the freezer. In retrospect, I probably could have cut down on the marination time because of that.
After marinating them in some merlot/cab blend or another (drinkable, eh...), some chopped up aromats and a bouquet garni overnight, I browned the chicken (kind of hard to tell with the purply skin, lol) and the veggies, then added the marinating liquid back to the pot (yes, I thought about the germy implications of this .. but realized it would all be slowly simmering for the next hour or so), and then prepared the garniture...
Fancy, huh? Thick bacon (since for some reason slab bacon is impossible to find around here), mushrooms browned in the bacon fat, and some browned pearl onions. Yes, I cheated and did frozen pearl onions. Next time I will invite you over to peel fresh ones.
Some fresh wine was then reduced in the onion browning pan down to a syrup, then the strained cooking liquid and garniture were added. Wow, wow, wow. The sauce for this was great on its own! The chicken was just ok, blah grocery store chicken, a tad overcooked (my timing was a bit off), but the sauce was really great with some buttered noodles.
Although we would have preferred rice and maybe some crusty bread next time instead. I guess I just don't get buttered noodles as a vehicle for sauce, it doesn't work for me.

Return to an old favorite

Fall is almost in the air here in Southern California (it was 100 degrees for a few days this week, hopefully for the last time) and today it was only about 80 or so. Time to fire up the BBQ for Flank Steak with Coffee & Black Pepper Marinade from Gordon Hamersley's Bistro Cooking at Home.
I had forgotten how much I really love this cookbook. Of course I was reminded when looking through it the other day, many pages are dog eared and stained! I first made this back when we were living in a condo in Santa Clarita - grilling was often a challenge there because of the wind! I think we had a Weber back then. Now with our trusty combo grill/smoker, no problem at all!
This bit of flank steak (which turned out to be a LOT bigger than I thought) was marinated in a cup of espresso, dijon mustard, garlic, shallot, balsamic, dark brown sugar, salt & pepper. For exact measurements, buy the book! You won't regret it!
Grilled to perfection by the grillmaster of the house (rare for flank steak bien sûr), accompanied by a bordeaux, some haricot verts and a nice salad we had a perfect bistro meal. Of course, we were having it in the living room watching the Dodger game!