What's Cooking (Take Four)

In my slow cooker that can do everything, is filled with well-seasoned and browned skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces, thighs, legs, and wings. (I keep the breast halves for other things)fresh mushrooms, red and orange bell pepper chunks, celery chunks, red onion, garlic, fresh thyme, and oregano, red pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes, red wine, and salt and pepper. This will be served over Fusilli Lunghi, a product of Italy made with Durum wheat semolina pasta, fresh parsley will be the finish on top. Steamed broccoli that I love to eat with spicy brown mustard is the side. It already tastes good and smells great.

That sounds delicious, Karen. I've not thought of having broccoli with mustard, but I'll give that a try next time we eat it.

Mike, I used to eat it with Mayo, and of course, that is delicious. However, over the past two years, I have started eating a Mediterranean diet as I wanted to get my weight back down to the healthy size I used to be. I have succeeded in that and want to keept is down but still eat much of what I want. Sierra Nevada Spicy Brown mustard did the trick for me with the broccoli.

[Jenise]

I'm in throwback mood. This morning I bought a pkg of super thin pork chops which I'll pound a bit, coat in onion salt and pan fry the way my Grammy used to. I'll skip the mashed potatoes and the milk gravy in favor of a healthier pile of wilted pea tips, but I'll love it just the same. That is: if my cat will give me the space to make dinner for myself tonight. She's having dental surgery today.

Oh my! I hope the kitty surgery goes well.

[Jenise]

It did, Mike, thanks. I spoke to the vet who let me know that Jane only lost four teeth; was expected to be more. I pick her up in an hour.

Nice to hear your fur baby surgery went well, our pets are a very important part of our lives. Love them all!

To go along with some chicken thighs with leeks and mushrooms in a cream sauce, I made a small pot of succotash and an Italian sort of a potato galette.

I am not Southern so, presumably, I know nothing about making succotash. It's OK but I don't see what's special about this mix of vegetables; any ones would work fine given the same prep.

The galette was OK but did not hold together. Not sure if I underestimated the flour or didn't press it hard enough or what. Tasty anyway just not so nice to look at.

Breakfast this morning is a slice of jalapeño cheddar sourdough, smeared with Peruvian pepper jam, and a fried egg, with a broken yoke cooked fast in Smart Balance until nice and crispy, seasoned with Real Salt and white pepper. An ever-present mandarin orange at this time of year is my fruit.

As a thank you for including her in a trip we took, our daughter's roommate sent us a variety pack from Omaha Steaks. It included four each of filet mignon, pork chops, burger patties, and chicken breasts along with some hot dogs and apple tarts. So far, we've had a couple of the filets, the chicken breasts, and a couple of the pork chops. The quality of the meat is quite good, although I wouldn't order them myself just because we can get great meat just down the street. Still, it was extremely nice of her to send them out to us. Last night, I fried up the last two pork chops, just giving them a coating of berbere spice with some S&P. Served them with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli that had browned pearl onions thrown in at the end of the roast. It was all very tasty.

As a thank you for including her in a trip we took, our daughter's roommate sent us a variety pack from Omaha Steaks. It included four each of filet mignon, pork chops, burger patties, and chicken breasts along with some hot dogs and apple tarts. So far, we've had a couple of the filets, the chicken breasts, and a couple of the pork chops. The quality of the meat is quite good, although I wouldn't order them myself just because we can get great meat just down the street. Still, it was extremely nice of her to send them out to us. Last night, I fried up the last two pork chops, just giving them a coating of berbere spice with some S&P. Served them with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli that had browned pearl onions thrown in at the end of the roast. It was all very tasty.

We have received a few of those over the years, Mike, and I agree with you that the quality of meats are fine. Here in Redding, we have a few locally owned meat and seafood shops that do a fine job, and I have a favorite. Lately, since I am only cooking for one these days, I frequent our local grocery store which recenty trippled in size and has a couple of great meat cutters who do whatever i ask.

Sitting in a ziplock bag in the fridge is a pork tenderloin marinating in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, honey, Dijon, fresh rosemary, garlic, and pepper. A standard favorite of mine: a mix of multicolored baby potatoes, small, colorful peppers, shallots, fresh garlic, Kumato tomato wedges, and fresh rosemary, with garlic olive oil and red wine vinegar, is in a bowl, which I will turn several times during the day. These will roast in the oven later, as will the tenderloin. I am also going to make a fresh vegetable side, and since I have fresh green beans, I will use those. Not sure how I will prepare them yet.
Our weather is changing again to rain, and we are scheduled to have wet weather for a week. Living in a valley surrounded by three mountain ranges is beautiful; nevertheless, we do have some strong weather patterns.

[Jenise]

Mike, re succotash: I am not one to say "I grew up on this" or "I didn't grow up on that" to defend my likes and dislikes, but a favorite vegetable side dish of childhood was frozen corn and frozen lima beans cooked in butter and called 'succotash' and to this day I've never had any version called same that I find as appealing.

Today I'm joining my brother's family for Valentines Day dinner, which they celebrate annually to commemorate the birth of The Best Dog Ever and their first rescue dog, one Aussie cattle dog named Maverick who passed before Chris and I reunited after a 20 year estrangement. It will be the first I've seen Chris since he returned from Costa Rica a week ago, during which trip his partner and I had to put Chris' heart dog, Polly, an Aussie-shepherd/rottweiler mix, to sleep. Tonight's dinner will be happy/sad. They're doing steaks and I'm bringing the wine, will make a potato-onion dish on site after showing off the huge heart-shaped russet potato I found, and will bring a starter of marinated fresh wood ear mushrooms and snow peas. The latter is inspired by one of the dishes Walt and I shared at the Uyghur restaurant in San Jose last weekend.

Last night I made Thai green curry with beef, cauliflower, and pea eggplants.

-Paul W.

Last night's supper was sheet pan chicken thighs that were marinated in a mix of maple syrup, soy sauce, and curry powder along with some other spices. They were very tasty. Served them with baked sweet potatoes with a sauce that had maple syrup, miso and ponzu in it. We also had collar greens cooked "Brazilian style", as per the NYTimes Cooking site. They were chiffonade'd and then sauteed in olive oil in a hot skillet and dressed with some lemon juice. I really liked how they came out - they were a tad crunchy and they were nice and green as opposed to the ghastly grey that collards take on with slower cooking. A little Caribbean habanero sauce jazzed them up beautifully.

As Sylvester the Cat will tell you, the best succotash comes from Suffern, NY.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Oh, Paul! ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Mike, that sheet pan dish sounds fantastic. It reminds me of a version I've been planning to make featuring chicken thighs, oranges and fennel baked after a two day soak to meld the flavors into the bird. I've got all the ingredients on hand, so what's stopping me?

Meanwhile I went into town for lunch yesterday and ordered a pastrami sandwich. It was a lot fattier than is typical, and for some reason the deli added a totally unneccessary slice of swiss cheese. I may be over pastrami sandwiches. The guilt stayed with me all afternoon and when I got home, I wanted nothing that didn't fall off a bush or a tree, so dinner was a tomato salad (halved cherry toms, EVOO, dried French basil).

In a slow cooker right now, I have Rancho Gordos large white lima beans cooking away in chicken stock and bay leaves. These will go into my current favorite soup, posted by Larry Greenly, Corn and Lima Bean Soup with
Andouille. I usually add a green of some sort, and today it is Kale. I love this soup; it comes together quickly, except for cooking the beans, and is darn good. I will be adding lime zest and juice at the end of cooking. Those lima beans from Rancho Gordo are fantastic, and have become a favorite along with their Royal Corona Bean and Rio Zappe bean.

Jenise - orange-fennel chicken sounds great! And I try to stay away from delis that give you massive piles of meat on a sandwich, ala Zabar's. I just don't understand the idea of a sandwich with three meals of meat in it. I've gone completely over to the Italian side when it comes to sandwiches. I'd much rather have a couple of thin slices of incredible cured meat with a slice or two of good cheese on ciabatta or focaccia dressed with good olive oil than a pound of meat between two halves of a middlin' bun.

Last night, I made Chicken Pot Pie Soup, from a recipe by Greta Podleski (who also provided the maple chicken recipe from a couple of nights ago). She's a Canadian cookbook author who's apparently very popular up there in our 51st state (ahem). It's a bit of a short cut recipe, calling for frozen peas and carrots, canned creamed corn, and pre-cooked chicken breast meat. I used fresh carrots and a breast meat from a rotisserie chicken. You just fry up some onions, garlic, and celery, add broth and potatoes (and carrots, in my case), simmer, add the frozen peas and creamed corn, simmer, then add a tbsp of corn starch whisked in to a cup of half-and-half and simmer to thicken. It's exactly what Chicken Pot Pie Soup would be expected to taste like. As an aside, when I opened the can of creamed corn, I ate a spoonful of it It's probably been thirty years since I've had that and it took me right back to childhood meals, when it was a favorite of mine.

I always took my kernels neat, no saucy goop.

[Jenise]

I always took my kernels neat, no saucy goop.

Ha! I'm like Mike, I liked canned creamed corn when I was a kid.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm trying David Bueker's lobster/Ritz cracker crumble, though I'm going to use Keebler's version of same just because I like their lighter color. I otherwise could eat my way thru a box of Ritz any day of the week. Not that I do! My house is pretty devoid of snack food.

Something very simple tonight: Cantonese stir-fried beef with snow peas.

-Paul W.

Tonight I'm trying David Bueker's lobster/Ritz cracker crumble, though I'm going to use Keebler's version of same just because I like their lighter color. I otherwise could eat my way thru a box of Ritz any day of the week. Not that I do! My house is pretty devoid of snack food.

Jenise, have you ever used shrimp...it is also delicious. Do you add oyster crackers?