An Interesting Day

Some days are routine, others are not.  I went grocery-shopping.  I have a lot of meat stored away in the freezer, but fruits and veggies don't do well with that so I had to get more.  It's that time of year when many fruits are either not available or poorer quality through long shipping. 

And it has been a hard year for growers.  Haven't seen a peach since September and the plums are gone.  Strawberries have doubled in price.  But blueberries were cheap.  I have no idea why.  Bananas stay cheap.  Apples stay cheap.  So I eat those after dinner.

The grocery store cashier was unusually conversational.  Wanted to know how my day had been.  "average".  Was I happy?  Huh?  Well, I worked in department stores for a few years and every new manager thought we should be "friendlier" on demand so I know how that works.  So I was friendly in return (while watching the checkout display screen like a hawk; they make errors).

But I'm conversational about things that aren't secrets, so we talked.  Then I realized he was just standing there.  He had bagged the last items and handed them to me.  He was waiting for my card in the reader...  He could have mentioned that.

But the weird part of the day came after I got home and put the groceries away.  I knew I had bags of cooked and uncooked meat in both the upstairs and downstairs freezers (or refrigerators).  So I decided to sort them out and put them in meat-specific plastic containers.

Took HOURS!  OMG, I had more pork than I realized.  I think I like cooking more that I like eating.  Its almost a hobby.  And chicken.  And NY Strip steaks.  And Filet Mignon (when on sale).

So I sorted it all out.  I AM organized.  I have individual large plastic containers for each meat that fit perfectly into my basement refrig freezer.  So I put the newest stuff on the bottom of each and the older stuff on top.

But I had WAY too much pork to fit.  Well, I keep containers around, and found one that fit perfectly in the upstairs refrig freezer.  I'll be eating a lot of pork for a while, LOL!  I don't mind that.  Pork is easy to use in many ways.  Stir fries, cubed with gravy, smothered in carmelized onions or bell peppers, added to baked beans, etc.  But I sure won't be buying any for a while!

But I DID get all of it organized, and that was good.  

So what did I have for dinner tonight?  Spaghetti.  I found a frozen hamburger patty in the freezer, so used it up...  Can of crushed tomatoes, saute'd onion and mushroom, crushed garlic, lots of Italian Seasoning.  Touch of sugar and red wine.  Best I've made in a year.

But I really DO have a lot of pork to use up.  Any favorite recipes?

Dinner At Chez Cavebear

A few months ago, I received an offer to subscribe to many magazines at $2 per year.  I know a come-on when I see it, but 3 of them were interesting and I had subscribed to them in the past.  Cooks Illustratated and Eating Well, and I forget the 3rd which hasn't arrived yet.

I'm no sucker.  I know they will beg me to renew the subscription in a year.  I won't.  But, as they desire to take advantage of me (hoping I will automatically renew) I will take advantage of them.  Both magazines are very good and have good recipes.  A year's worth of good recipes from 2 cooking magazines is nice.

In fact, they are good enough that I used all the subscription inserts as bookmarks.  Oddly, they equaled each other rather well.

One that interested me was beef with black bean garlic sauce and asparagus.  I didn't find that sauce in the store when I shopped but I found black beans and I found the basic recipe online.  OK, so it wasn't fermented black beans.  And I didn't use flank steak.  But I improvise.

I had New York Strip steak I cut into 2"x2"x6" pieces 1/4" thick because I like cutting the pieces against the grain.  I had the black beans (but not fermented).  I had garlic. I had canned jalepeno.  I immersion-blended the mix.  Close enough.  Then I made a cornstarch slurry of beef boullion paste, sherry, and soy sauce with some toasted sesame seed oil.

The wok cooked the beef nicely and I set it in a bowl.  Then wokked asparagus, red bell peppers, and scallions.  Just the too much "crunch".  Returned the beef and poured the cornstarch slurry in for a minute.    That made the veggies "crunch" right.  Had to add water because the slurry was too thick, but water never ruins the taste, just changes viscosity.

The result was very good!  Enough hot for me (I don't need much), enough beef (I like meat but not a LOT!) and the veggies came out perfectly.  With a nice tossed salad, a perfect meal.  Hurray to a magazine recipe (even if I didn't follow it exactly).

Next time, I will serve it over angel hair spaghetti or fettucini.  It needed a starch (I used a slice of bread).

A professional chef would have been horrified, I suppose.  Well, I'm not one, but I can turn out a decent dish most times.  The failures get tossed (there is a good reason to have premade meals in the freezer).  The good ones I eat and enjoy.  LOL!

Happing dining to all!

Cooking

I enjoy cooking.  But sometimes the "same old same old" gets boring.  So I read cooking articles in the newspaper, see some on TV, etc.  Most just seem like the authors are randomly throwing things together to create something new ("Sausage with cauliflower and mushrooms"?  No thank you). 

But sometimes I find a strange one that sounds (in my mind) like it might work.  I've been making a North Aftican chicken dish I found.  It sounds weird but I really like it. 

It is chicken with lemon and shallots and green olives.  I made it a few days ago, took it out of the oven, set it to cool enough to set into individual containers (covered it with a wire rack so the cats wouldn't get at it), and forgot about it overnight!  Had to toss those...

ARGHHH!

So I just had to do it again today.  Went shopping for a new pack of 10 thighs and lemons.  This time all went well.  The pan holds 6 thighs, so I baked the other 4 with more spices and panko flake coating.  That went well too (and actually one of THOSE was dinner tonight with a big tossed salad, an ear of corn, and some brocolli. 

It was important to me to make up for the wasted ones...  When a mess up cooking (and fortunately, it is just me, not guests) I want to do it again right soon.

And (I may have mentioned the recipe previously), it is very flexible.  No specific amounts of anything (sort of making a salad)

You take skinless chick thighs (I think bone-in adds to the flavor) seasoned with garlic, ginger, and paprika to taste to marinate for a few hours;  place them in a shallow baking pan, top them with with lemon and shallot wedges.  Heat oven to 350F.  Bake about 40 minutes (til 175-180F).  Remove thighs to covered plate.  Remove lemon wedges to a plate to cool. 

If you don't like chicken fat, drain into a fat-separator and wait 5 minutes, then return non-fat portion to pan.  Whisk in enough cornstarch to make a medium slurry.  A shot of dry sherry and some chicken paste is a nice addition.

Add more green olives than you might think (4-8 per thigh) to baking pan and return to the oven for 5 minutes.  If the sauce is too thick, whisking in a little water at a time works fine.  Place thighs in baking pan to reheat (thighs are very forgiving of temperature and reheating).

This recipe is easier than it sounds, is completely open to ingredient quantities, and flexible.  You can do almost anything you want, for example, so long as the chicken thighs reach 175F.  And, in fact, my recipe is more complicated than the recipe I found (which was just a chicken parts/lemon/shallot/green olive stew.

It is fine on its own.  I usually serve a thigh over spaghetti with the sauce.  If you just want the thighs, make little sauce. 

I'm mostly mentioning this because I was really annoyed at myself at letting the previous version sit out and spoil.  And then one paragraph let to another, LOL!

Cooking Time, Part 1

I've been cooking for myself for almost 50 years.  I don't often see a new recipe that I suspect I will like.  The newspaper food section offers stuff like fish smothered in strawberries or pork with aocado sauce.  I know what I like and don't like.  Adding stuff like tofu and pineapple to my tossed salad isn't my style.

But I came across one in Better Homes and Gardens (I got a free subscription with some thing I bought at a store).  It seemed weird, but I tried it.  And I LOVED it!

So here it is (my adjusted version):

1.  Preheat oven to 400F. 
2.  Spray or wipe some olive oil on a sheet pan. 
3.  In a plastic bag, place 6 bone-in chicken thighs, add some olive oil to coat, add some salt, ground pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and some dried red pepper flakes to taste.  Shake bag to spread spices.
4.  Place chicken on baking sheet.
5.  Add 1 lemon and 2 shallots cut into wedges.
6.  Bake 30-40 minutes until chicken thighs are 175F.
7.  Squeeze lemons to release remaining juice.  Careful, they are hot.
8.  Remove chicken to bowl and cover to keep warm.
9.  Add 1/2 cup green olives and 2 pats butter to pan.  Return pan to oven for 5 minutes.
10.  Pour heated pan liquid into a fat separator for 5 minutes.  It separates quickly.
11.  Pour juices over chicken and let sit 5 minutes.
12.  Serve over any starch or pasta you like or none.