(Week 30) Proud to be An American? Then try Cooking Like Grandma. September 28, 2010

Bringing a dish to pass in America has gotten easier over the years, this due to conveniences like the microwave, prepackaged everything, curb-side-to-go restaurant pick-up, and a family staple I grew up on- the ‘Hot and Ready Pizza‘.  The preplanning and prep. time has been cut down to mere seconds.  A flip of the cell, autodial, and that dish to pass is ready to rock and roll.  I get it.  I’d be lying if I said I haven’t committed the same desperate act, but a part of me is saddened by this.  A potluck, which used to be marked by homemade family favorites, is now kentucky fried chicken still in the Colonel’s bucket, potato salad in a plastic container from the deli, and those sugar cookies with the pillowy frosting conveniently colored for the nearest holiday.  It’s all become very watered down.  In fact, it makes me conjure thoughts of a foreigner eating at office gatherings and cook-outs for months and never actually eating something that didn’t come from a package.

Tell me, what is going to happen to grandma’s famous recipe if we never take the extra time and love to make it?  It may not be an every day occurrence, but it’s good to get our nails dirty every once in awhile to ensure that future generations aren’t convinced that Keebler Elves invented the chocolate chip cookie.  They gave it a shelf life and a pretty box, but a warm chocolate chip cookie always wins.  We’re a nation of consumers, that can barely remember the joy of producing.  Some days I do feel like joining the masses on this one, other days I feel bold.

Mr.’s mother was celebrating her monumental ‘half-way to one hundred’ birthday with a fall cook-out in the park and I figured I had a little extra time to do my part with some home cooking.  There was no reason for Mr. and I to fall prey to prepackaged comatose so I volunteered us to bring Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes and Apple Pie Pops.

It may have been a little more ambitious than I realized since neither of us had ever attempted an apple pie before…ah, details!   In hindsight, I completely see the situation for what it was:  an unnecessary, costly, time-consuming, game plan.  Could I have bought chips and dip and would anyone have known any different?  Would it have been cheaper to buy a whole apple pie at the bakery?  Would I have made it to the party on time with a lot less dirty dishes in the sink?  Sure.  But sometimes it comes down to the details and we were about to make all (10 of) those home cookers out there, very proud.

I definitely could have planned the day better in terms of time.  But in the end I don’t regret it.  Everything came out tasting just as I had hoped.  Both of the recipes we brought carved out a little place in my heart and earned a spot in my recipe file.  I look forward to recreating these fall goodies, each year, as the color’s start to change and the weather turns crisp.  Shoot, it’s not everyday that a recipe starts a tradition.

I’m sorry for getting all Hallmark on you, but Mr. and I don’t always have such success in the kitchen.  If we can forget about the messy kitchen, the bickering between an agitated cooking couple, and the cost of today’s supplies–just long enough to take a bite of a warm apple pie, it’s all good again.

Recipes and Ratings:

Apple Pie Pops:  A+, This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens, very yummy and worth the extra work.  I have never been a fan of apple pie but that is because there can be so much sticky, sugary, goo inside-with little trace of an apple.  These pies are the perfect combination of everything good about apple pie.  You get plenty of extra crust and apple with just  a little soft stuff.  This will make a believer out of those who won’t touch a fruit pie.  I ended up using an apple shaped cookie cutter.  Since mine were a little big I never put them on a stick, however, this was even better because I loved the way they fit perfectly in my hand.  A wonderful take along treat for a cookout or football game.  No plate or silverware required.

Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes:  A+, this recipe is easy  and can be enjoyed hot or cold.  I found the recipe on a bag of fingerling potatoes and have made it a few times since.  1) Wash potatoes, 2) you can leave them whole if they are tiny, if not cut them in half.  3) Toss them with olive oil, rosemary, sea salt, cracked pepper, and chives (fresh or dried)-the exact amounts are not crucial (that’s why I like this recipe:).  4) Cook at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Done!

(Week 29) Spend A Night with Us and You May Get More than You Bargained For. September 15, 2010

This week Mr. and I were confronted with a new truth:  If no one is watching, do you still really look like a fool?  We probably should have known that if this were the question in debate, than ‘Yes!’ was most definitely the answer.

A friend of ours (we’ll refer to him as McLovin’) was invited for dinner.  I knew I would be home late that evening so I picked out a few recipes in advance that seemed an easy crowd pleaser, Tortellini, Steak, and Caesar Salad with Molten Chocolate Surprises for dessert.  After running by the store on my way home I returned to find Mr. and McLovin’ lounging around the house.  We all chipped in to toss the groceries into their respective holding spots, and it was time to get dinner ticking.  This is when things started heading south.

So here is the problem with having an uninvolved party around when you are learning:  without meaning to snoop, they become witness to all the ridiculous things that you do in the heat of the moment.  It’s like the first time you drove a car, preformed your first day on the  job, or changed a dirty diaper–you looked like a nut without even trying and you surly didn’t do things in the most efficient manner!  At the time, all you wanted was for all life forms to disappear until you got your junk together.  That, or you only wanted the company of those experiencing the same learning curve that you currently were a part of.

Typically, Mr. and I have the latter-we are like two bulls in a China shop, bumping around, making a big mess.  We typically do embarrassing things with only the witness of each other and the best part is, most of the time, neither one of us even realizes it.  This particular night, however, was especially embarrassing because our kitchen guest had cooked once or twice (that’s all it really takes to outsmart us on an off day) and was enjoying the skeptical that we had become.

First, I started the night by forgetting to season the steak.  I opened the oven that was turned to broil and reached for the pan with the steaks in it, thinking, “Hey, it has only been in there for one minute, it can’t be that hot.”  It was.

Next, our guest pointed out that we should probably move our oven rack up closer to the broiler at the top so that it would cook faster.  Mr. and I used a very unconventional form of team work as we each sported one oven mit to grab the wire rack (with the steak pan still on it), bent it up, slide it out, and slide it up to the highest rung on the oven wall.  McLovin’ held his break, waiting for the great fall.

Then, Mr. was in charge of chopping the Romaine lettuce.  McLovin caught Mr. ripping each leaf apart before hacking them with a knife, instead of the more logical option of leaving all the ruffage huddling together and dicing it that way.  We laughed as he tried to defend this strategy.

Later, Mr. ate from the fork that he was in the middle of cooking with.  Just as he was about to dunk the fork back into that night’s dinner for all, he remembered that he had an audience.  He muttered under his breath, “Probably should grab another fork, huh…” Had our guest not been in the kitchen, I can guarantee that fork would have been right back in there.  Behind closed doors I may have done the same.

And finally, I was working on the dessert which called for lying a cookie face down in a muffin tin, and pouring a homemade chocolate batter on top.  The cookies were too big to fit in the bottom of the muffin tin and I worried that if I just poured the batter in, it would go beneath the cookies.  Instead, I put each paper muffin liner on to a baking sheet, put the cookies in the liners, and poured the batter on top.  There was nothing to help the liners hold their shape and they ballooned out like a Biggest Loser contestant after a cruise ship buffet.  What a hot mess.

I’m pretty sure that we scared our dinner guest at times with our banter and bad kitchen etiquette.  However, it was definitely not boring or uneventful!

With all this evidence at hand, it doesn’t take a Harvard degree to conclude that we may have done one or two things in the past that have made us look like fools in the kitchen.  But hey, when no one else is watching we sure do like to convince ourselves that we’ve got it all together.  Lookin’ good honey!

Recipes and Reviews:

Tortellini, Steak, and Caesar Salad: B, and if prep time and ease of recipe are just as important to you as taste then I would say B+!  It was nice to not have to worry about lighting up the grill for a steak dinner.  Using the broiler is a cleaner, quicker method that works just fine for some meals.  The cheese tortellini was mild, but gave just enough flavor to the dish while giving it a decadent flare.  This dish seemed a little odd-some kind of Greek-Italian hybrid, but it worked.  A filling dinner will be on the table in the next 15 minutes!

Molten Chocolate Surprise:  D,  Sad to say, but nothing went right during the process.  You would think that there is no way you could screw-up chocolate to the point where you wouldn’t eat it, and in fact we DID eat it, however, that was after adding lots of whip cream.  Our version came out more like a spongy cupcake, with no liquid center.   We only baked them for the eight recommended minutes, but I believe the mishap had something to do with the fact that the oven had been set on broil for the 15 minutes prior to using it to cook desert at 425 degrees.  Kraft has never done me wrong with a recipe so i believe it was our fault; at the same time, there are a few things that should have been pointed out in the recipe itself.  You MUST use LARGE muffin tins. The small ones won’t fit the cookies at the bottom.  Also, I would recommend using the FOIL liners and spraying them with Pam.  Following these simple, yet highly effective tidbits should take this dish from barely making the grade to a regular dessert staple.  Most of the reviews on the website were positive, but I am here to give you the truth about how things went down in our kitchen.  Get baking, yours can’t come out any worse then ours!

(Week 28) Drowning in a Sea of (Foreign) Noodles September 8, 2010

A week ago I had the nerve to believe I was cultured.  I have traveled the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Australia..but nothing prepared me for this week.  Three events lead up to my belief that Mr. and I should tackle a very ethnic dinner this weekend, and here they are:

1)  Mr. was offered a six month international assignment in Japan.  After many rounds of rock, paper, scissors with Mr., and a glance in my Franklin planner to make sure I had those six months available, I was invited to tag along.

2)  Mr. and I headed downtown to Memphis’ ‘eco-artsy part of town’ for a romantic, yet responsible, meal at Grace.  This is a classy joint busting with ingredients from local farms, where the menu is always changing.  Because of this, the dinner choices are few, yet the cheese menu is extensive.   I believe there were six dinner choices.  Three contained seafood and were tossed out instantly.  That left me with beef, lamb, or quail.  Reading through the beef option I noticed two little words that didn’t sit well.   I couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but I knew it wasn’t part of my traditional Dinner Top 20.  After looking up Foie Gras online, while at the table,  I said a little prayer,  “Thank you God for the man who created mobile internet so that I did not unknowingly order DUCK LIVER for supper,  Amen.”

When our waiter returned he knowledgeably described EVERYTHING on the menu.  A little piece of me wanted to pick him up and put him in my pocket.  That way when I needed a little help deciding from multiple dinner choices I could just pull him out and have him describe each ingredient and cooking style used in the dish.  Just heavenly.  Though I had never ordered Quail before, his description of the cooking process, flavors, and fact that it was stuffed with sausage and came with sweet potatoes,  sold this eater.  Mr., on the other hand, went bold by ordering up the beef, foie gras, and brussel sprout trio.

Drum roll please…. we liked it!  ‘It’ being everything new that we tried-Quail, brussel sprouts, foie gras  (which I later read translates from French to mean Fat Liver,  Mmm, Tasty)!  By the end of the meal I felt so proud of us for expanding our palates, I wasn’t ready for the experimentation to end.  This created a very obnoxious need inside of me to try cooking something new in the kitchen, and so I began ravaging through recipes.

3)  I was reading Cooking Light and came across an entire section of Asian inspired dishes.  These sounded a little more authentic then the typical American-Asian remake.  They even used ingredients I had never heard of before, so I figured it must be thre real deal.  We decided on veggie rolls with a chicken and glass noodle salad.  My thought process being this:  During green tea chats, I really didn’t want to have to explain to the Japanese women why I was the only housewife that didn’t know how to whip up a mean veggie roll.  You understand.

Turns out that we are silly Americans who have been fooled by our local food store’s ‘ethic aisle’.  After stop number one, our cart was still shy: rice paper, cellophane noodles, and fish sauce.  We tried looking up an Asian market, but when we got to the location, they were no longer in business.  Nearby was a Fresh Market, which is more of an upscale, specialty grocer.  There we found a decent look alike to glass noodles or bean threads, called cellophane noodles, but still no rice paper.  Finally, we called another international market that said they were open and sold rice paper!

I felt like the clouds had parted and our wild rice paper chase was nearing a close, when I was knocked over by the smell of the international market and my nostrils ruptured!  I said that I had believed I was cultured, but I should have clarified that this was strictly related to travel and experiences, not food.   This was nuts; tanks filled with sea life whose beady eyes followed us, smells that would gag even Anthony Bourdain, and shelves filled with labels that resembled pictographs.  After tracking down the rice paper we bolted outdoors to gulp the humid Memphis air, a great alternative to what we had just experienced.

I now understand that many of the most cultural  moments in the upcoming months, will most likely happen around the dinner table or while shopping the market.  It will be our time to either sink or swim; scream and kick our way through the grocery store or pick up the chop sticks and dive in.  There will be some near drowning experiences, but if we can come to terms with duck liver, I think we may just make it.

Recipes and Reviews:

Asian Style Veggie Rolls: B, the rice paper was surprisingly resilient, easy to work with, and fun!  The veggie rolls were very fresh and clean tasting, however they lacked a little zip.  The sauce helped give the rolls more flavor and we also dipped them in a side of the pre-made chili sauce called for in the chicken recipe below.  We never were able to find fish sauce.  We used chicken broth, but we read the soy sauce is also a good alternative.  These are a great vegetarian option.  Just make sure to roll the logs firmly so that they stay tight for dipping!

Chicken and Glass Noodle Salad: C+, This particular dish made it in to the average category for a few reasons.  1st, Cooking Light said that it was a fast & easy recipe.  Which would have been true, however, all the time we used to track down the unusual ingredients for both dishes, made it far from fast or easy.  The actual prep. steps were simple, but the taste of the dish was compromised by the strange texture of the cold noodles.  These noodles actually felt like they were expanding in our mouths as we ate them.  I never knew something as simple as a noodle could be so strange.  Try a ramen noodle instead or be a brave soul and cook with the noodles that we could not master!

(Week 27) Recipes May Just Be the Scapegoat for All Our Cooking Idiocies September 1, 2010

To me, the sign of an experienced kitcheneer is someone who is able to cook freely, enjoying each ingredient along the way, without darting back to the recipe after each move for self affirmation.  Thus, I know we are not there yet.    Mr. and I are more like deer caught in headlights, fixated on the steps in front of us, too stunned to look away and think for ourselves.  Thank goodness our cooking venture is only half complete because we could defiantly use some continued practice!

Our cooking journey has proven itself to be messy, annoying, costly, and deceptive.  But like a parent’s affection for their children, some how I still love cooking and I’m not ready to give up on it.  More accurately, I am not ready to give up on Mr. & I and a little belief that someday we will just “get it!”

The past twenty six weeks have taught me that we may be going about recipes the wrong way.  I can’t say for sure whether it is us abusing the recipes; or the recipes abusing us, but what I do know is that the recipes tend to scare Mr. & I in to focusing on each step like it’s its own entity.   We really should be reading through the entire thing and then figuring out the smartest way to execute dinner.  Instead, we find ourselves diving in with reckless abandon, thinking that the recipe will guide us.  Au contraire, when someone is cooking strictly from a recipe, it can actually be a recipe for disaster!

Here’s the pop-in-the-chops though;  In theory I may understand this, but I still feel the presure to use a recipe because I am inexperienced.  It’s a viscious cycle that I am hoping we can put an end to; feeling like we have to use a recipe–using a recipe–doing stupid things to follow the recipe. Yuck!  Sorry Mrs. Rombauer, but sometimes it’s the recipes that take the joy out of cooking.

I find myself buying $15 jars of spice for a pinch of an ingredient because I fear that leaving it out may ruin dinner.   Or,  I will ask Mr. to run to the store to buy that one unnecessary ingredient that we don’t have at home just because it is in the recipe.  Better still, is when we get elbow deep in a recipe and later read (half way down the recipe, hidden in size 8 font) that it has to set for 4 hours—or in Mr.’s beer instance-an extra TWO WEEKS!;)  It’s just plain silly.  Recipes should not control us, and if we really understood cooking, they wouldn’t.

This week, like may others, included a lot of bumping around in the kitchen, doing things in a less-than-efficient order because everything hadn’t been thought out beforehand.  Read below for recipes like Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Baguettes with Parsley Aioli and make your own Pita Chips.  Then follow my freestyle attempt at Grilled Chicken and Peach Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette, as we hijack the necessary recipes from a pricey cooking guide.

By the end of the fifty two weeks I hope to have exposed Mr. and I, by self-force and readership, to experiment with enough ingredients and cooking styles that we have a solid foundtion in the basics. Once we are experienced in the kitchen, we will no longer be bound by the words on the page.  Unlike those of us who still follow recipes like  a navigation system–even when that means ending up in a murky swamp, real kitchen-talent sees the recipe as a map, and they understand that there may be a smarter way to get to where they want to go.

I hope that the next few months is enough time to get us there because freestyle cooking is when things really get funky.  Watch out world, Mr. and Mrs. may just bust a move.

Recipes and Reviews:

I am trying something new this week.  I was too cheap to buy Cooking Light‘s Five Ingredient, 15 Minute Cooking Special Recipe Edition ($15!) from Barnes & Noble to get the recipes I wanted to make, and they weren’t offered online… instead we snapped photos of the recipes on Mr.’s I-phone and used those to cook from.  Scroll over the photo for the name of the recipe, then click on the photo for the recipe.  They will enlarge when you click on them. In your face overpriced cooking magazine!

Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Baguettes with Parsley Aioli:  A-, Defiantly a good sandwich for lunch or dinner.  Even without meat it was still a hearty sandwich.  We made the Parsley Aioli in our mini food processor with was very quick and easy.  The entire dish takes about 15 minutes.  I might suggest using a little less than the recommended parsley.  It was good, but it was a lot of one flavor.

Pita Chips: A, Gotta like this guy.  We made ours with whole grain pitas-yum.  You could also make a sweet treat by subbing in cinnamon and sugar.  Make sure to open the pitas so that the two sides are not together.  Having the halves separated makes them cook more evenly and crunchy.  Keep an eye on these while they cook. The recommended cooking time on the recipe was a little too long.  At $4 a bag for Stacey’s Pita Chips vs. $2.50 for the pitas to make this recipe + cook time + clean up, the better deal really just depends on the day.

Grilled Chicken and Peach Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette:  B-,  For this recipe I did actually try a little freestyle cooking.  I refused to buy everything and wanted to use what I had.  I used romaine lettuce, chicken, canned-drained peaches, and sunflower seeds.  The dressing was made from a peach vinegar, EVOO, and ground pepper.  Later, I felt it rated at a B because it tasted more flavorful the second day, after the salad leftovers had marinated in the dressing.