Chickadee78's Blog

Day 21

chickadee78 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:10:26 +0000

After coming home a little late from a great handbell Director’s seminar, there wasn’t a lot of time to cook. So we pushed off a few recipes and focused on the steak. We made Pan-seared Steak w/Shallot-Butter Pan Sauce. The steaks that work best for this method of cooking are Strip or Rib-eye Steaks. Rib-eye’s might be found under the names Delmonico or Spencer Steak in the store. Strip steak can be found as shell, Kansas City strip, New York strip, or top loin. Why do stores have to have so many names for the same steak? It makes it very hard to find what you want! We went with Rib-eye’s because they are a little bit cheaper. Because we have found shallots to be so overpowering, we cut back on the shallots and found that the Sauce was fantastic, flavorful, but not too shallot-y! We also found that stainless steel pans are essential when you sear meat and want to make a pan sauce. You have to have a pan that allows the delicious browned meat bits to adhere, so that they can flavor the sauce. This was a delightful dish!

The Eight Primal Cuts of Beef are:

Chuck/shoulder

Rib

Short Loin

Sirloin

Round

Brisket/shank

Plate

Flank

Rib Cut- the prime rib comes from this area, as do rib-eye steaks

Short Loin- contains two major muscles- the tenderloin and the shell. The tenderloin is extremely tender and may be sold whole or sliced into filets mignons. The shell is a much larger muscle and has a more robust beef flavor. Strip steaks come from this muscle. -The New Best Recipe pg. 386

Day 20

chickadee78 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:48:27 +0000

Well, it appears that I’m not great at this blogging thing, but I will strive to be better this year.

Alyssa and I have been cooking sporadically since I last posted in October, mostly focusing on soups. I’ll catch you up on the soups later after I return from my Handbell Director’s seminar this weekend. We’ve decided to leave the soups for a little while and move on, the natives (husbands) are getting restless and they want some meat!

Between busy schedules and sick families we haven’t been able to cook too much, but we are planning to be better at it!

Two weeks ago, we set out to make Chicken w/Forty Cloves of Garlic, American Potato Salad, Roasted Beets, Foolproof Spongecake made into Boston Cream Pie.

This didn’t go quite as planned. First we all hate Potato Salad, so we decided not to even bother with that!! Second, Alyssa couldn’t find beets so we did the Baked Potatoes recipe instead. Third, Alyssa came over to cook and lasted about 10 minutes because she was sick with the nasty bug that has been going around, so I finished up all the food myself and dropped some off to them.

Chicken w/40 cloves of Garlic: Actually this isn’t as potent as you would think, you start off roasting the garlic and shallots, which makes them all soft and mellow tasting, not harsh like raw garlic can be. The recipe is unique because you start with a whole chicken and hack it up into pieces to cook.

Baked Potatoes: Classic and easy. The book says that poking them with a fork doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. But that foil is a big no-no, it prevents a nice crisp skin. Basically just wash them and set them right on the oven rack for an hour, until they are soft. It’s also important to let the steam out when they come out of the oven, the trapped steam can make them soggy. Make an X across the potato with a fork, and push up the sides, easy!

“Opening a baked potato: To ensure that the flesh does not steam and become dense, it’s imperative to open a baked potato as soon as it comes out of the oven. This technique maximizes the amount of steam released and keeps the potato fluffy and light.” -The New Best Recipe pg. 182

Boston Cream Pie: This was time consuming, but the result was the best stinkin’ one I’ve ever had! First you make a homemade Pastry Cream, which involves slowly heating eggs and cream until thick on the stove. Then you press the cream through a sieve to smooth it out and then it has to chill. Next you make the cake, which involves two bowls, one with flours and egg yolks and one with well-beaten egg whites, mix them together carefully and bake. Then you make the chocolate glaze, also on the stove-top, but once that’s done, you have to slowly cool it down to glaze temperature, taking care not to let it get too solid. See, a lot of work! But well worth it!

Fantastic!

Day 11

chickadee78 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:08:13 +0000

After a long hiatus, Alyssa and I finally got to cook again last night! Here was the menu:

French Onion Soup

Creamy Garlic Vinaigrette over Bitter Salad Greens

Cream Cheese Brownies

The soup and the brownies took quite awhile to make, but well worth it!! We had to stop ourselves from eating the whole pan of brownies! The soup was delicious as well, and Alyssa was very happy to find that she actually liked it (of course she wouldn’t eat the onions, but that’s how I started eating it too!).

Why Do Onions Make You Cry?: The problem is caused by the sulfuric compounds in onions. Protecting your eyes by covering them with goggles or contact lenses works. Introducing a flame from a candle will also change the activity of the thiopropanal sulfoxide by completely oxidizing it. The New Best Recipe- paraphrase from pg. 44

We both wear contacts and still found the onions to be superstrong! So we lit a candle and that helped but it took awhile! You might want to lit the candle first or truly wear goggles!

Cheesy Oniony Goodness!

Days 6-10

chickadee78 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:44:50 +0000

Wow, it’s been busy lately, and I have not been writing, shame on me! Well, here’s a catch-up on the cooking project:

Day Six

We made Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Quesadillas, Classic Salsa, Guacamole, Classic Fajitas and Grilled Flank Steak. The Quesadillas were awesome! Everything else was quite good too!

Day Seven

We made Classic Deviled Eggs (yuck!), Tomato and Mozzarella Tart, Simplest Roast Chicken, and Steamed Artichokes w/Mustard-Tarragon Vinaigrette. Everyone loved the Tomato Mozzarella Tart, but I think I’m the only one who braved the Artichokes-I thought they were quite tasty!

Day Eight

We made Chicken Stock, Chicken Noodle Soup, Ranch Dressing, and Buttery Shortbread. I misread the directions and the shortbread got a little burned, but it still tasted great!

Day Nine

We made Slow-Roasted Beef, Buffalo Wings, Blue Cheese Dressing, and Lemon Biscotti. Wow!! The Wings were so good! I think they were the best I’ve ever tasted! And I don’t think I can ever eat jarred Blue Cheese Dressing again, it was so easy to make and so yummy to eat!! The biscotti were good too, never thought of making my own biscotti before, but it was quite easy to do!

Day 10

We made Beef Stock, Beef Noodle Soup, Thousand Island Dressing and Coconut Macaroons. The soup was tasty and the Macaroons delish!

There, all caught up! We didn’t take pictures on a lot of the days but here are some of the pics from the Mexican Night!

Day Five

chickadee78 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:08:45 +0000

Today was Day Five of the cooking experiment. And I must say, that Alyssa is definitely coming into her own as a cook now. During our first cooking lessons over a year ago, I had to lead her through how to do everything. But now it’s like we’re just two co-cooks in the kitchen working together with a comfortable rhythm! I had my first handbell rehearsal with the Granite State Ringers tonight, but Sunday’s are a good day to cook for us and the menu tonight was relatively easy so I figured it would be okay to cook after my rehearsal. I got home a little later than I’d hoped, but everything was fine, because Alyssa had jumped right in and starting cooking the recipes all by herself!! When I arrived, my husband had started up the grill for us, and Alyssa had popped the Sweet Potatoes in the oven and was about to make the Cocktail Sauce for our Shrimp Cocktail! The Cocktail Sauce was awesome! It was way better than any that you could buy, and the shrimp were very tasty too. We made a shrimp stock out of the shrimp shells, then added herbs, lemon, and wine, in which we poached the shrimp. Also on the menu was Grilled Lamb. We weren’t sure if we’d like lamb, so we just had a sample and fed the rest to my husband and Alyssa’s Dad, Dave. They both devoured the lamb, although it did have to go into the microwave for a minute. By the time we grilled it was so dark out and the lamb was so thick that I just couldn’t tell if it was done! But the microwave did the trick and cooked it up just enough. We’re flying through the recipes, and we are way ahead of schedule, yippee!! Tomorrow night is the next meeting of the Cooking Girls and it’s Mexican night!

Menu:

Herb-Poached Shrimp

Classic Cocktail Sauce

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Lamb Chops

“Sweet Potatoes-Once you get the sweet potatoes home, remove them from any plastic produce bag. Do not wash the sweet potatoes until you are ready to use them because this exposes the vulnerable skin and causes them to go bad more quickly. Refrigeration is also a n0-no; it causes the core of the potato to gradually change texture until it resembles a soft, damp cork. The best storage is a dark, well-ventilated spot.” -The New Best Recipe pg. 200

Day Four

chickadee78 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:46:44 +0000

Wednesday was the fourth installment into our cooking experiment using The New Best Recipe. The menu was:

Melon and Proscuitto

Grilled Pork Chops w/Basic Spice Rub for Pork

Grilled Summer Squash and Zucchini

Hummus

Pita Chips

Everything was wonderful again! I’ve always wanted to make homemade hummus, and it was extremely easy and delicious. I learned about the different cuts of pork chops, apparently there are four. The Blade chop is the fattiest, toughest, juiciest and most flavorful. The Rib Chop has some fat, is relatively tender and juicy w/great flavor. The Center-Cut Chop has a little fat, it’s relatively tender, less juicy, but has good flavor. Lastly the Sirloin Chop is tough, quite dry, and has little flavor. The recipe book prefers the Rib or Center-Cut chops, but I accidentally bought the Sirloin Chop. But the recipe calls for brining the pork chops for an hour before grilling and I think that made all the difference! I still found them flavorful and juicy, plus the Basic Spice Rub that Alyssa put on them was very tasty too!

“The Best Chop for Grilling- Pork chops come from the loin of the pig. A whole pork loin weighs 14 to 17 pounds and can be cut into blade chops, rib chops, center-cut chops, and sirloin chops. Rib chops were tasters’ top choice, followed by center-cut chops.” – The New Best Recipe pg. 581

(Pictures lost….)

Cooking Day Three

chickadee78 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:57:52 +0000

Sunday was the third Day of our cooking experiment and it was long and yummy! Here was the menu:

B-B-Q Beef Brisket w/ Dry Rub & Quick Barbecue Sauce

Crudites

Herbed Spinach Dip

Brushcetta w/Tomato & Basil

Everything was very tasty! Although a labor of food love, especially the brisket! First, finding the brisket! Wednesday I figured I should call around to the local stores and find out who carried brisket on a regular basis. I just had no idea where to look for it! Of course, I forgot to call until Friday when I called Shaw’s. Apparently it’s not “brisket season” yet (it’s in the winter) and they would have needed four days to get one, should’ve called earlier. Next I called Concord Beef & Seafood, not open yet for the day, whoops! Then I tried the Meat House and was assured that they would have one in stock for me if I stopped by on Saturday to pick it up. While grabbing a salad for lunch at Hannaford I figured I’d swing through the meat department and see if they had one, surprisingly they did, but it was a flat cut, and I wanted a point cut. So Saturday morning I headed out to get the brisket. Of course, it didn’t come off the truck at the Meat House and they didn’t have one for me, despite the promise of the day before. But the butcher who waited on me was very sorry and apologized for the unfulfilled promise I had received on the phone. Next, back to Hannaford, now the briskets from the day before were gone! So I asked at the counter, and luckily they had 5-lb. Flat cut brisket in the back, not exactly the cut I wanted but after all that, it was fine!

Preparing the Meat

First a dry rub early Sunday morning before Church I prepared a smokey & spicy rub for the brisket and let it set for 4 hours. Then the brisket was slowly roasted and smoked over a blend of hickory and mesquite wood chips for 1 1/2 hours. Then into the oven for a braise for 2 hours, followed by a 1/2 hour rest and homemade BBQ sauce, yum!

Everything else was delectable too. The brushcetta was fresh and delicious and so was the spinach dip. I also enjoyed the improved textures of the crudites. I am not a fan of raw broccoli, but a 2 minute blanch in hot water followed by an ice water bath improved the taste and color tremendously!

“Celery, bell peppers, endive, jicama, tomatoes, and radishes taste best raw, but carrots, snow/snap peas, cauliflower, green beans, fennel, broccoli, and asparagus are best served by a quick blanch-and-shock before joining the rest on the platter” The New Best Recipe pg. 9

Cooking Day Two

chickadee78 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:24:19 +0000

Monday night Alyssa and I had the second night of our cooking experiment. Learning some lessons from Friday night (August is too hot to use the oven! And we need to cook some good food with the weird food!), I modified the schedule a little bit to focus on Grilling for the rest of this finally hot-not-rainy summer! So on Monday we made:

Grilled NY Strip Steak

Roasted Red Pepper and Smoked Paprika Butter

Crudites

Baba Ghanoush

Roasted Red Pepper Spread

We also made the Dates Stuffed with Parmesan that we didn’t get to last time and we threw some Pitas on the grill with olive oil on them to use for dipping. I enjoyed everything, but my favorites were the Steak and the Baba Ghanoush.

“In Middle Eastern countries, Baba Ghanoush is served as part of a meze platter-not unlike an antipasto in Italy-which might feature salads, various dips, small pastries, meats, olives, other condiments, and, of course, bread. The driving force behind baba ghanoush is grill-roasted eggplant, sultry and rich.” The New Best Recipe Page 13

Here is our tentative schedule in case you’d like to follow along:

Cooking Schedule Spreadsheet

Jennifer, Alyssa and Christopher??

chickadee78 — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:12:16 +0000

After being inspired by the book/movie Julie and Julia (without having either read the book or seen the movie :{ ), my friend Alyssa and I are embarking on a culinary adventure! Our plan is to work through the New Best Recipe written by the editor’s of Cook’s Illustrated and tested by America’s Test Kitchen!

If you don’t know Julie and Julia is about a women who decided she would cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastery of French Cooking in a year. Alyssa asked me for cooking lessons last year when we were living about 20 minutes apart. We would cook consistently together, but not on any real schedule and pretty much just cooking whatever we felt like at the time. Now we live in the same duplex, so being just one wall away from each other makes it much easier to cook more often.

I picked The New Best Recipe because it literally contains a recipe for almost anything you’d want to cook. But it’s a little more modern and less exotic than the Mastery of French Cooking by Julia. If we stick to cooking together twice a week, Alyssa and I can work through most of these recipes in about a year and half. The book has 990 pages and 1000 recipes!! By the end, we should be masters of the kitchen!!

I’m currently making a schedule, so that we’ll be able to make “meals” from the book, and not just string a bunch of random recipes together. Last night was our first session and it was fun! We made Chicken Alfredo as the main course and started out in the appetizer section of the book. We made a cheese platter of sorts with Marinated Goat Cheese, Cheese Straws, Marinated Olives and Spiced Nuts with a Rum Glaze. We ran out of time, and didn’t quite get to the Dates stuffed with Parmesan, but there’s always next time!

“Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the “best” version.” -The New Best Recipe Introduction

“Science: Can you Freeze Cheese?- To find out if cheese could withstand the rigors of freezing, we bought two blocks each of cheddar, Parmesan, and shrink-wrapped mozzarella and placed one of each in the freezer and one in the refrigerator. Two days later, we held a blind tasting. We tasted the cheeses raw and melted on toast to see if the texture or melting ability was affected. Conclusion- For mozzarella, go ahead and throw it in the freezer. But for hard cheeses like Parmesan and cheddar, skip the freezer and keep them in the refrigerator.” -Paraphase from The New Best Recipe pg 8

Movies of the 2000′s

chickadee78 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:04:49 +0000

I’m stealing this idea from my friend who also blogs…. sshh don’t tell her!

After reading my friends post about the best of the OO’s or ought’s or whatever we’ll call this current decade, I got to thinking about my favorite movies of the 2000′s.

I like to watch movies, but never have time to watch as many as I’d like. Just look at my Netflix queue, there are almost 500 movies in it! I just never have enough time to watch enough to catch up it seems!

So, anyway to start, here are my favorite movies of the year 2000:

First a disclaimer, I love Romantic Comedies/Chick Flicks and I won’t be able to do a “best of list” without them! (even though they might not be very “high-brow” ) And I’m going to try to throw in at least one Comedy per year to outweigh the dramas, and hopefully I have also seen at least one good foreign film each year. That being said:

Top Five of 2000

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Foreign pick)

2. Traffic

3. Gladiator

4. Meet the Parents (Comedy Pick)

5. What Women Want (Romantic Comedy Pick)

Top Five of 2001- Harry Potter and the Socerer’s Stone and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Memorial List

(I’m leaving out Harry Potter movies and LOTR-cause the would dominate my list each year that they came out)

1. A Beautiful Mind

2. Memento

3. Moulin Rouge

4. Amelie (Foreign)

5. Serendipity (Romantic Comedy)

Top Five of 2002- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets an d LOTR: The Two Towers Memorial List

1. The Bourne Identity

2. The Hours

3. About a Boy (Comedy)

4. Spirited Away

5. Sweet Home Alabama (RC)

Top Five of 2003- LOTR: Return of the King Memorial List

1. The Matrix Reloaded

2. Finding Nemo

3. Kill Bill Vol. 1

4. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (RC)

5. Just Married (Comedy)

to be continued…..

Great Podcast on Movies: Filmspotting

Check it out!