catnip and coffee

(Yesterday I promised a little something new and fun this week! Well, here it is! My latest recipe is cross-posted over at Chop. Stir. Mix. It’s the cutest foodie site ever, and it’s a great resource for busy women. Go see for yourself!)

Back when dh and I were living in Northern Virginia we would sometimes go to Red Hot and Blue, a bbq restaurant that was just down the street from us. One of the menu items we both loved was their chicken corn chowder, which had just a hint of smoke and heat. Now that we’re back in New England I can’t get no RH&B, so I had to come up with my own version of the chowder.

Now, mine certainly isn’t the same, and it would NEVER be called gourmet, but the flavors are perfect, it’s hearty, and it’s one of the easiest meals I make. I could boil the potatoes myself and I could bake the chicken myself (and sometimes I do.) I could also milk a cow myself (hee hee), and heck I could grow the corn too (well, probably not) but some nights I just don’t have time to do anything but open cans. Do you have those nights too?

The point is, I’m giving you my easiest version of this, and you change it up however you want, k? The only super duper important things here are the roasted corn and the spices.

Lazy Man’s (or Busy Women’s) Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder

2 cans corn, one drained, one not!

2/3 bag frozen roasted corn (I had a 1 lb bag from Trader Joes)

1 package pre cooked diced chicken, or 1 cup diced baked chicken

1 can diced potatoes drained or 2-3 boiled potatoes diced

1 can cream of potato soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 ½ - 2 cups milk

1 cup light cream (if using skim milk use more cream and less milk)

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne pepper

chili powder

optional:

4-5 scallions or 1-2 small onions chopped fine

2 tbsp butter/margarine

(If using onions or scallions, start by lightly sautéing them in butter.)

Get a big pot and dump in all of your ingredients, all the corn, (including the can with the water), cream of potato soup, cream of chicken soup, potatoes, milk, cream. Slowly heat on Medium to a low boil (not roiling), then turn to low to simmer. If soup is too thick add extra milk or a little water, if too thin add extra cream or more corn. Add cayenne, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste, (remember the canned soup has salt already so go easy.)

Simmer for a few minutes to meld the flavors, and enjoy!

ps. Here’s a printable pdf version if you want it! spicy-chicken-corn-chowder

I’ve always wanted to try making risotto, but it sounds so intimidating doesn’t it? Well when I saw this version of it on Pioneer Woman Cooks I couldn’t help but think it was actually doable. I pretty much followed her recipe to the letter. My only changes were to run the onions and garlic in the food processor - I didn’t want chunks. I also discovered grating real parmigiano reggiano will only make your knuckles bleed - take my advice and run that through the processor too!

Apparently, the most important thing about making risotto is: you must stand at the stove and stir stir stir, every few minutes. For about 40 minutes. So if you want a make it and walk away recipe, stay away from this. BUT if you want a truly glorious food experience, go, try it right now! It is so worth the effort.

Oh and by the way, it was great this morning too, when I ate it cold for breakfast!

I have a secret.

Well, it’s not really secret, but I only learned it a few years or so ago, and I’m going to share it with you.

For awhile now, every time I bake something, most notably brownies, I get rave reviews, and requests for more. Frankly, I don’t think I’m that much of a baker. I find a recipe I like and I stick to it. My chocolate chip cookies are always tollhouse. My oatmeal cookies are off the quaker oats container top, my cakes are always box mixes.

My brownie recipe is taken from the back of the box of unsweetened hersey’s baking chocolate. (Which I might add I’m having trouble finding in my local grocery stores lately so I’m glad I photocopied it long ago. Do they not make it anymore?) Anyway, the only difference between mine and the printed recipe are that I underbake them a bit, I sometimes add chocolate chips too, and I use REAL VANILLA.

Real, homemade, vanilla.

Did you know you can make your own vanilla? and if you do it will completely change your baked goods forever. For the better.

Here’s what you do. You go to a health food store and you buy whole vanilla beans (maybe three or so.) Second you go to the liquor store and you buy some vodka. (Maybe a quart? Doesn’t really matter. If I made a whole gallon I’d probably put in 10 beans.) You take them home and swig a shot you take a sharp knife and cut a slit all the way down each vanilla bean. You put your beans in the bottle of vodka. You DATE THE BOTTLE with a marker. Put it in some high cupboard for a few months and forget about it. I like to wait at least six months, but some people say you can start using it within a few weeks. I beg to differ.

When it’s ready you can start using it the exact same way you would store bought vanilla. But I warn you, make enough that you don’t ever have to use the artificial stuff again, because you will disappoint everyone in your life if you give them brownies any other way, ever. When you start getting low, just make another quart gallon. Right now would be a great time to start a batch that you can later re-bottle in something cute and give away as presents for the holidays. Just be sure when you put some in a fresh, smaller bottle, at least one of the beans goes with it.

ps. I learned all this from my mom! I’m pretty sure her first batch was made in a 30 year old bottle of vodka they had hanging around the house. It was awesome.

pps. I’ve started a batch in a small bottle of clear rum instead. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Well, I’ve gardening so much lately that my time for cooking has been very limited and my meal creativity has been sorely lacking. One day last week I was wandering the grocery aisles looking for inspiration and found some very nice large white mushrooms and in the meat department there was some fresh chicken breakfast sausage on sale. Hmmm. Any idea where I’m going with this?

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to put it all together, but when I got home I remembered I had a package of cream cheese and some garlicy/cheesy dip mix from tastefully simple (but any flavor dip mix would work!) I mixed up the dry dip mix with the cream cheese (room temp for ease in mixing) in a large bowl, and stuck it in the fridge to meld the flavors.

Preheat your oven to about 325.

Next, wash and dry the mushrooms well. I usually fill a bowl with cold water and a good splash of vinegar and let them soak for a minute to get all the dirt off. When they’re dry, you can snap off the stems and set them aside for soup or something. Sometimes, not enough snaps off so I just take a knife or a small spoon and scrape out a little more. You want lots of room for the filling. If any of the mushrooms crack a bit - no worries - use them anyway!

Line a cookie sheet with foil and put your mushrooms on hole side up. Bake for 10-15 minutes. When you pull them out of the oven you will notice they are full of water. You need to get rid of all the liquid. I just use a paper towel and dip them in each individually until the liquid is soaked up. You can do your initial cooking with the mushrooms upside down so they drain better, but then you’ll have to flip them when they’re super hot and delicate (and slippery!) - and that’s not so easy!

While the mushrooms are baking you can start the sausage.

The sausage was the loose kind without the casings, but it you only have the kind with the casings just strip the meat out and throw the casing away before you cook them. I just throw the sausage in a frying pan and drain off the fat when it’s done. Make sure you break up the meat pretty fine while you’re cooking. You don’t want huge chunks.

Take your dip out of the fridge and dump the hot (drained) sausage into it and mix all together. The heat from the sausage will make it really easy to work with.

Now you just need to put a heap of stuffing in the mushrooms! I also put a bit of provolone on the very top of each one for a nice bit of melty goodness.

Stick the pan back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so - use your judgement - if the cheese is nicely melted and maybe even a little browned on top - they’re ready. Honestly, there’s no rules on this one - just whenever it seems hot enough.

These mushrooms were super yummy, made a nice meal, and it gave me lots of ideas on variations:

If I were to use hot italian sausage I would probably use plain cream cheese (no extra seasonings.)

If I used sundried tomato and basil chicken sausage (my favorite!) I would add some italian seasonings to the cream cheese.

Any good melting cheese on the top would work - mozzarella, white american, whatever, I just happened to have provolone on hand. Also, using sliced cheese is easier than shredded on this - it won’t fall off the top.

If I made this for company I might use the smaller button mushrooms for bite size portions, and I would put a bit of parsley, rosemary or basil leaf etc. on top for a pretty effect. By the way, neither dh or the boy would try this one - but that meant more for me!

Ingredient list:

• 2 or 3 packs of fresh large white button mushrooms (depending on the size of the packs err on the side of more mushrooms - you’ll be surprised how far a lb of meat will go)
• 1 lb or so fresh sausage, any flavor, sans casings
• 1 package cream cheese (I’m sure the light kind would work well too)
• 1 package dry dip mix (garlic or ranch or italian, the variations are endless, mmm maybe pesto!)
• a couple slices of cheese (again - whatever you have on hand!)

That’s it! So easy!

Well, I’ve been working on perfecting my chili recipe for some time now, and we tested the latest incarnation on dinner guests last night. I think it’s okay now!

I doubled this recipe and it made way more than I needed but I was able to send our friends home with some and still have leftovers for us. If you’re going to spend the time on it you might as well make lots right?! Yeah, in order to double the recipe, I did have to finally break down and get myself a large, 6 quart crockpot. And it’s red - oh so cute!

Anyway, it’s long but here is the recipe:

Crockpot Spicy Pork Chili

This chili does take a little time (so worth it), but not a lot of effort. It’s a pretty fluid recipe, meaning it’s never really the same twice if you do it right!

Day one ingredients:

Pork roast, whatever cut you like, I use a boneless loin, about 2 lbs.

1 bottle or can of beer, your choice

Roasting bag or crockpot

Hot sauce

Chili powder

*******************************

A day ahead of when you want to serve the chili, put the roast and the beer in the oven bag and follow the directions – usually 325 for 1 and ¼ hour for a 2 lb roast.

If you don’t have or don’t want to use the oven bag, (though I love it for easy cleanup,) you can cook the roast in the beer in your crockpot: chunk it up and cook on high for 2-3 hours, stirring once or twice.

After the roast is cooked and cooled, shred or cube it into tiny pieces and immerse it back into the cooking liquid. Add some hot sauce and some chili powder to your liking and let set overnight in the refrigerator. The meat will soak all the liquid back up. If it needs a little more liquid you can add another half a beer or so.

*******************************

Day two, now for the rest of the chili ingredients:

2 cans black beans, one rinsed and drained, one not

1 can small red beans, rinsed and drained

16 oz jar basic salsa, pick your own heat, I use medium. (or 12oz can tomato sauce, or diced tomatoes, plus chop your own green peppers, onions, jalapenos etc. I think it’s easier to use the salsa and no one will ever know.)

1 small onion, minced fine

3-4 cloves garlic, minced fine, or 1 heaping tbsp. pre-minced garlic, (do not use dry garlic powder if you can help it.)

big handful of fresh cilantro, chopped fine

packet of dry chili seasoning, taco seasoning, whatever you have, (or lots of extra chili powder)

at least a couple tbsp of cumin, more if you love it like I do (I use it by the handful!)

Don’t be afraid of the spices: black pepper, cayenne pepper if you like spicy, smoky paprika, sage, ground coriander seed.

*******************************

6 hours before serving time, (leave the pork alone!) start with a clean crockpot and throw in the drained and rinsed beans, salsa, extra onion, garlic, cilantro, and all the seasonings and spices. Lots and lots of spices!

Make sure your crockpot is large enough that it is only half – 2/3rds full at this point. You need room for the meat.

Let this cook on high, covered, stirring occasionally for four hours.

2 hours before serving time, add the pork, if there is a lot of liquid left you can dump it or add it depending on how thick you like your chili. Let this get hot again, half and hour or so, and then turn down to low. If it seems too watery you can leave the cover off for the last hour so it can thicken up. Keep stirring occasionally.

Serve with any favorite toppings: shredded cheddar, chopped green onions, sour cream.

If you want to print it, here it is in pdf:

2-day-spicy-pork-chili.pdf

If you try it, let me know what you think!

All week I’ve been meaning to post my turkey meatloaf recipe, but I’ve been too busy, um, cooking. And cleaning. And every time I cook, I have to clean again. Sigh.

I finally got the kitchen in great shape yesterday but was then asked to make cookies for dh’s work. Not that I mind baking cookies, and dh certainly offered to buy some instead. But, dude, that would totally ruin my reputation at his office! I am known as the brownie queen. His coworkers were hoping for brownies on cookie day! Instead, I adapted my brownie recipe and made super chocolaty cookies. Secret ingredient: homemade vanilla. It makes any baked good taste amazing.

I also sent along my lemon cookies. It’s a basic sugar cookie but you replace the vanilla with lemon extract. These cookies also have white chocolate chips and coconut. Secret ingredient: replace some of the plain white sugar with dry lemonade mix. Extra lemony goodness.

I finished baking at 9:15 last night. You can guess what my kitchen looks like this morning! Yep, time to clean again.

Anyway, on to the turkey meatloaf!

I haven’t used any ground beef in almost 13 years. (Except for that huge vat of chili I had to make for a fundraiser, yuck.) It’s just too greasy for us and after all these years we’ve come to prefer the taste of ground turkey and ground chicken. However. If not cooked properly it can be very dry, hence it’s bad reputation.

There are a couple of tricks I’ve learned that make a huge difference and I use them whether I’m making meatloaf, turkey burgers, meatballs, etc. The most obvious is not to overcook but you all knew that one.

The next is GRATE your onions! Use the smallest cheese grater you own and grate the peeled onions directly into the uncooked turkey mixture. This works really well with garlic too - and I hate using a garlic press - they are too hard to clean. (A nice flat cheese grater cleans up super easy.) The reason for this is that all the juices come out of the onion and go directly into the turkey. When you chop onions all you have are chopped onions. When you grate them you have onion juice and mush and lovely onion flavor = moist and flavorful meatloaf.

The last is: use fresh herbs. Yes, ground turkey is slightly bland, but that just means it takes on whatever flavor you want it to. It needs lots of herbs and spices. But if you use too many dry herbs you are taking moisture out of the turkey in order to rehydrate them. Use some fresh herbs and you are adding moisture. Makes so much sense right? It took me way too long to figure it out though.

Yes, I do grow some of my own herbs in little pots all over the kitchen. I use enough now that it gets a little expensive to buy it all the time. The best for me are sage, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, and lavender. I have a tough time keeping basil alive or I would grow that too.

Before I give you the recipe, let me first say that unless I’m baking I don’t measure anything so I hope pinchs and palmfuls don’t frustrate you!

1 lb of ground turkey

two handfuls of bread crumbs, plain or any flavor

handful of dry quick cooking oatmeal

1 egg (or 2 if they’re small)

2 small or one medium onion

a couple cloves of garlic depending how strong you like it

lots of fresh herbs, chopped fine. I use whatever I have on hand but especially oregano, parsley, sage, thyme, cilantro (aka coriander), and rosemary. (I love, love me some fresh cut rosemary, it’s just not the same even “fresh” from the store. Rosemary should not be like a piece of wood!)

lots of spices, including but not limited to: cumin, coriander seed, black pepper, chili powder, savory, marjoram, paprika, and whatever you don’t have of the above fresh herbs - use the dried.

couple squirts of ketchup in the mix, and a little more on top at the end

couple drizzles of olive oil, a little more if you have a lot of dried herbs, or if you use 1% lean turkey.

a little finely chopped spinach if you want to make it even heathier, but my dh won’t let me!

mix it all up, throw it in a bread pan, spread a little of the ketchup on top, stick it the oven, on say 350, for a half hour or so - I just keep and eye on it so I don’t know for sure. I even will cook this in my toaster oven - bread pan fits perfectly and I don’t have to heat up the whole big oven for one item.

I hope this didn’t sound difficult or complicated! It’s really the easiest meal ever, and it’s also very adaptable to your own tastes. Try the same recipe with some parmesan mixed in as meatballs, bake them on a cookie sheet for fifteen minutes and throw them in tomato sauce, yum! Or leave out the oatmeal, add an extra egg and you will have the best burger ever, at least my boys think so