What's Cooking (Take Four)

In all seriousness, that sounds identical to the recipe for "yummy balls" that my wife's family makes. I love them. Though we often double the sauce ingredients because otherwise there's too little. A classic!
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Wow - I would have never guessed that these would be popular, although they really are good. I had a leftover one for breakfast this morning warmed up on some leftover egg noodles. It was delicious. Next time, though, I think I'll spice them up a little with some garlic and maybe some thyme or oregano.

[Jenise]

My mystery beef turned out to be a thick prime filet mignon. It was wrapped in just Stretch Tite, and it was large, so I'm sure the thinking would have been: "there were three in the pkg so I'll serve the smaller ones and save this large one, which we'll share, probably next week so I don't need to go full Ziploc."

Well, next week never came. At this point probably not good enough for a steak course so it's good that I planned to braise it, and braising away it is right now with onions, chopped fresh tomatoes, chicken broth, a big splash of Noilly Prat white, pepper, a bay leaf, two garlic cloves and a chile de arbol. This is the first meal I've truly looked forward to in a while. Last night dinner was just strips of bell peppers.

Sounds like perfect way to use imperfectly stored beef!

Betsy made onion smashburgers last night with jalapeno, really tasty. Recipe called for mayo on rolls, I was hesitant but it worked. Helped that for the first time in NY I found Duke's in the supermarket.

I picked up a whole, organic chicken at the store this week. Yesterday, I seasoned it inside and out, then made a marinade of olive oil, butter, and juice from Bruno's Peppers. I've given the bird several swipes with the marinade, then placed it on a bed of sweet onion, whole garlic cloves, carrots, and leeks. This morning, I stuffed it with lemon wedges, cut up a few red potatoes, dressed them with EVOO, Black Truffle oil, celery salt, and white pepper. I tossed the potatoes over the veggies surrounding the chicken. This will be roasted later this afternoon. I am also sauteeing Swiss Chard with fresh garlic, and will drizzle a good red wine vinegar over it at serving.

[Jenise]

Sounds like perfect way to use imperfectly stored beef!

Betsy made onion smashburgers last night with jalapeno, really tasty. Recipe called for mayo on rolls, I was hesitant but it worked. Helped that for the first time in NY I found Duke's in the supermarket.

It was. That kind of steak, wrapped like that, would have been purchased at Costco (where you buy a tray of four) and pre-dates Bob's decline, before he lost the ability to handle a knife and fork, so probably 10-12 months old. And while some would say that braising is a waste of prime filet, I have to say that the velveteen texture of this cut (which is what I don't like about it as steak meat) made one of the best pieces of braised beef I've ever had the pleasure of eating. I seriously wouldn't have predicted it.

Love onion smashburgers! Would have loved the addition of jalapenos too. Fresh?

Yes, not generally a fan of filet as steak, but that sounds delicious as a braised dish.

Yes, fresh jalapenos, enough heat to make interesting without overwhelming (Betsy makes me taste every jalapeno before using)
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102 ... eseburgers
followed pretty closely except for aged cheddar for the cheese

I'm going to make Sichuan stir-fried ground pork with minced hot chiles. Among the hot chile selection at Lull Farm were attractive red chiles called lantern chiles. Never had them before so I decided to try them. It turns out that they are close cousins of the habanero and scotch bonnet. I will be using only a few of them along with long hot green chiles. Should make a nice color contrast. And won't be fatal.

-Paul W.

Tomorrow's plan is a classic: whole roast chicken with butter, tarragon, and cognac. On the side will be a pan of Robin's fennel gratin and a couple simple baked potatoes. Somewhere on one of those roasting pans I'm going to find room for a couple maitake mushrooms.

Today was the biennial harvest of the apple tree in the front yard. So I now have about 100 apples in my fridge. (I gave away an equal number to my upstairs neighbor, my neighbor across the street, and any passing child (or grown-up) that expressed interest.)

Therefore, also on the charts for tomorrow: Apple Tart. (To be followed soon by French Apple Cake, American Apple Pie, another tart -- I've got two pieces of short pastry -- and then, finally, applesauce.)

Try a Russian Sharlotka for yucks.

[Jenise]

I love French apple cake! Leave the icing off my piece, please.

I just made a spicy raw tuna and bamboo tartare to take to a dinner party tonight, as well as crackers from won ton skins to go with it. The hostess is serving cioppino, and it was my intention to lighten her burden by supplying an appie. I have many times learned at the last minute of a guest's similar intention and gratefully dropped plans to make something I'd just about run out of time to do. I hoped it would be the same for her. We'll see when I get there but her response was that she's making stuffed dates. Not exactly an intuitive lead-in (and it's horrible for wines) but oh well!

Try a Russian Sharlotka for yucks.

On my list, too! I have noted your posts on it.

Jenise, I rarely drink wine anymore, but I cook with it all the time. I also recall when we owned Liquor Barn, our store manager gave me information on pairing wine with figs. I also found this info, which I found interesting.
https://www.wineenthusiast.com/basics/h ... T60GOLRYnV

[Jenise]

Figs are a lot less sweet than dates, though, and dates are what my friend made. That level of sweet is the enemy of dry wine, and you can't stuff enough blue cheese in one to un-make that problem.

I will be making Cajun sauce piquant on Tuesday.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

It's only 54F outside right now (and foggy), but it's supposed to get up to 76 today which might be the last warm day of the season. So I invited several couples over for a shrimp and manilla clam paella this afternoon. I'm going to switch things up a bit and serve red wines and cheeses before dinner, then whites with the salad and paella (and people can keep drinking red if they want to). Everybody coming enjoys wine but nobody's serious about it, at least for anything over $20. The salad will be mixed greens and shaved raw beets with a basil pesto vinaigrette, and tiny Dove ice cream bars will be dessert.

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner was silly. I cut up two bell peppers and ate them, unseasoned, out of a bowl. A little later I ate a raw tomato, and still a little later, I heated up a mug of chicken broth because I was cold. Multiple reasons: no desire to do actual cooking, and a day of simple carb-less eating would help the fact that I've put on almost 10 pounds since losing Bob--mostly due to lack of exercise, and I need to put a stop to that. Reward: I'm down two pounds this morning over yesterday.

But hey that paella was good. Something I did and would recommend, speaking of carbs? I cut a head of cauliflower into florets which went raw into the rice mixture at the beginning of the cook to 1) add another interesting texture and 2), more importantly, displace what would otherwise have been more rice/carbs. The result was perfect: the cauliflower was both tender and a little crisp, a really pleasing texture. It was especially helpful since I discovered that one can't get manilla clams in this town on any day but Friday (and maybe Saturday by noon, as they typically sell out), and my plan had been to make a clam-intense version.

[Jenise]

Yesterday afternoon I reached into my overstuffed freezer and pulled out a lb of ground pork. Had no particular plan but decided to make a small meat loaf, which I seasoned with herbs d'Provence, truffle salt, and worcestershire sauce. It was delicious, but the high point of my meal was the small, misshapen magda summer squash I bought at a roadside stand. Steam-cooked with a small amount of salted water, it was the sweetest squash I had all summer. Didn't even want butter. There was enough that I thought half would be leftover, but I loved it so much I ate it all.

I have my slow cooker going with cut-up chunks of London Broil, onion, garlic, celery, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, celery seed, and Worcestershire sauce. Parsley, salt, and pepper. This will be served over a mash-up of cauliflower florets and little red potatoes, steamed and then mashed in my food processor with butter, fresh thyme, garlic, and a little low-fat sour cream. I am using what I had on hand that needed to be used. I'm planning on a salad of some sort, depending on how it goes for me today.

I'll be making pork carnitas and chili verde tonight.

-Paul W.

I just finished dealing with the carcass of the roasted chicken I have been eating this week. I was inspired by a soup recipe in the Wine Lovers Cookbook by Sid Goldstein. The recipe calls for ham, but I am using cut-up chicken breast. The recipe calls for olive oil, garlic, red onion, carrots, celery, dried thyme, fines herbes, caraway seed, a can of chopped tomatoes with juice, a can of spicy V8 juice, chicken stock, chopped green cabbage, salt, and red pepper flakes. Garnish with parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. The suggested wine pairing is Sauvignon fume Blanc. Tomorrow, I will work on putting it together. Oh, I also added large, white lima beans; they are delicious in place of black eyed peas, as the recipe calls for.

[Jenise]

So it's a soup? Sounds good!

I'm not cooking today and will be off the grid for the next few days. Before leaving this afternoon, though, I'll cook down a lot of the tomatoes I have too many of. Vines are dying back, gotta save what's left and put it to some use.

Last night I made double-thick venison chops (seared, buttered, cooked to rare for me, well for Jim) and a vegetable tart featuring spinach, mushrooms, and peas.

Today, as we have two teenagers coming to visit for a week, I made a big tray of lasagna and a French apple cake. That should hold them for a day or two.

Jenise, yes, a soup, I will edit to clarify. Have you considered making tomato sauce or paste? I roast all my overstock of tomatoes and roast them with a whole head of garlic. This all goes into the food processor, garlic cloves removed from skins. Season as you wish. I put it into small freezer containers. They freeze beautifully and keep well.

Today, as we have two teenagers coming to visit for a week, I made a big tray of lasagna and a French apple cake. That should hold them for a day or two.

Or an hour or two, depending on the teenagers. (Either way, they're lucky teenagers!)