We Cook Together

Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs (Sichuan style)

2010-01-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

When I came to the US at age 13, my grandma made sure I was bringing with me not just the clothes in my luggage and their dreams of me having a better life, but something from home as well... something to remind me of my birth home, of the loved ones I left behind, especially the love she and Grandpa had for me.

For weeks before my departure, Grandma would make me practice making Chinese dumplings from scratch - mixing dough, turning dough into dumpling skins, and mix ground meat with vegi and sauce. I made so many dumplings that I couldn't bear to eat another for six months afterwards. :-)

In my luggage, she also packed two Sichuan homecooking books. My home province (state) is called Sichuan and famous for its delicious and spicy food. She didn't have enough time to teach me everything, so this is the backup plan (maybe?).

These two books have moved with me from state to state over the past 20 years, always found their way onto my bookshelves, quietly sleeping... until now.

I took them out last week and started bookmarking recipes that Danny & I both would like. They are now filled with colorful tags of possibilities. To start off, I tried the Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs.

Before we begin, just note quick note - Chinese measurement is very different from US ones. These are native Chinese scales passed down from ancient days and are still used today. However, since I am not familiar with the precious quantity, I pretty much wing it, with a bit Chinese cooking experience behind me. I'll try to give you the best judgement of scale as I can in this post, because the ribs turned out EXCELLENT! :-)

Step 1: - Babyback ribs, about 1.5 pds. If you can, ask the store deli to cut the ribs horizontally in half first, then you can separate each rib by the bone at home (as shown in photo below). This will allow the meat to absorb plenty of juice later.

Step 2: - Cut 1 tbs of ginger and garlic in flat thin pieces. Hand split 4 or 5 dried red pepper. Mix them with 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/3 cup of soy sauce in a small bowl. (If you have cooking wine, add 1/2 tsp of it.)

Step 3:

- Put 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a wok on high heat; wait until it's 60% hot to add the ribs.

- Stir the ribs so all sides are brown and no more water from the meat is present.

Step 4:

- Add the bowl containing ginger, garlic, dried red pepper, salt, and soy sauce. Stir to mix it with the ribs.

- Add 1 pd of chicken broth to the wok, or the appropriate amount to cover the ribs. Mix well.

Step 5:

- Cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 50 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid things stick to the bottom of the wok.

- Towards the last 10 minutes of the 50 minutes, stir every 5 mins.

- Cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Stir every 2 mins. By now, all the broth is cooked way and evaporated.

Step 6:

- Add 2 tbs of sugar, 1/4 cup of vinegar, 5 green scallions (cut into 2 inches) to wok. Stir well with ribs.

- Mix 1 tbs of cornstarch and 1/4 of water in a bowl. Add to the wok and stir well.

- Taste the sauce. Add more sugar or vinegar if stronger taste is desired.

- When all the liquid is cooked away, your ribs are ready!

Step 7: - Serve with rice and your favorite vegi. The meat should be soft and full of seasoning. Don't be shy, use your fingers! ^_^

Red wine compliment Chinese dishes well, especially these tasty ribs!

If you happen to have leftovers, store them in the container in the fridge. Re-heat in microwave for 1.5 minutes (or less depending on quantity) and they are just as good.

Enjoy and let me know how yours turn out.

Happy Cooking!

Tiffany

Surpemes de Volaille Archiduc (Chicken Breasts with Paprika, Onions, and Cream)

2010-01-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

Three years ago I had the pleasure of visiting France for the first time. I had the amazing luck of staying in Lyon, the Capital of French Food, for a week. My friends who lived in downtown Lyon took me everywhere and showed me the best Lyon had to offer. Let me tell you, churches were nice, fashion was exquisite, but the best was its heavenly food.

In returning to the US, I bought Julia Child's The 40th Anniversary Edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Last night, I attempted her Chicken Breasts with Paprika, Onions, and Cream recipe. (Pg. 268-269)

"Supreme" in French cooking is the "breast of chicken when it is removed raw from one side of the bird in a

skinless, boneless piece". During the day I had joked with Reneed that the chickens are "Supreme" or heavenly, which she totally agreed because the end result is so heavenly. :-)

Step 1: - Since I made Chicken Cordon Bleu last week, all of the ingredients were already in my fridge. Amazing! I substituted lemon with lime juice and port with vermouth. (Thank god we drink martinis!)

Step 2: - I thawed the chicken and rubbed it with lime juice, salt and pepper.

Step 3: - I blanched the minced onions and cooked it with butter, salt, and paprika, for 10 minutes on low heat, with pan covered.

Step 3 (con'd): - After 10 minutes, the onion should be translucent, but not browned. All the liquid have evaporated by now.

Step 4: - In the bowl I mixed chicken bouillion (instead of the beef bouillon the recipe asked for) and vermouth. In the measuring cup is the heavy whipping cream.

Step 5: - Melt butter in the oven-proof pan and roll the breasts in the butter.

Step 6: - Add the cooked onion and paprika to the pan and lay breasts on top.

Step 7: - Cover the pan with tight lid (or tin foil) and bake in high heat. The recipe did not give a temperature, so I tried 400 degrees. I put it in for 6 minutes as instructed, but it was still a bit raw, so back in the oven they go for another 3 minutes. "When the meat is springy to the touch it is done." (I think mine took longer because I covered with tin foil instead of something tight that could hold in the heat better.) The safe way is to put in for 6 minutes and check. If not done, then try 2 minute durations. By the time the chicken was done, it was genuinely "springy to the touch".

Step 8: - I pour the chicken bouillon and vermouth to a pot with butter and boiled over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Then added the whipping cream until the new mixture is thickened too.

Step 9: - Lay the breasts on a plate, along with the sautéed onions. Add any side vegi dish you desire.

Step 10: - Pour sauce onto the breasts and now you have yourself a dinner!! A delicious one I hope...

... because we did! ^_^
A side note: I used cauliflower for side dish. Not knowing exactly what to do with it, I

--> Cooked it in boiling water for couple of minutes

--> Drained the water, added a small stick of butter, added parsley, basil and mixed.

--> They were still a bit hard and not tasty, so I added them into the sautéed onion & paprika pan (which by now is empty but had enough sauce still lingering), added 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer in medium-high heat. After the water is boiled away, the cauliflower was soft and the leftover seasoning added a real nice complimentary flavor too. Not bad for winging it. :-)

Bon Appetit!

Tiffany

Naked Apple Pie (real name: Fruit & Nut Baked Apples)

2010-01-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

I am blessed with good people in my life - family, friends and even strangers that are eager to help.

Several years ago, two friends of ours took pity on us starving kids and got me a Crock-Pot for my birthday. I have since made many delicious stews with it and it gradually became as important as rick cooker for me. (If you are Asian, you know how much rice cooker is part of your life, and equally important as romantic relationships. LOL)

In supporting my Crock-Pot "hobby", Danny's mom gave us a Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipes book for Christmas. It's a small book with two dozen plus recipes; the best part is that every recipe only has four major ingredients.

Armed with the pot and the recipe, I set out to cook my first dessert, ever!!

All ingredients purchased.

* Couldn't find Rome Beauty or Jonathan apples, but the store-suggest Honeycrisp was great!
* I forgot lemon juice, so lime juice would have to do.

Step 1 - Take out the apple core and make enough room for stuffing-goodness.

Step 2: - Combine chopped apricots, walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon together.

Step 3: - Filling!
Step 4: - Put 1/4 cup of water in the Crock-Pot and stack the apples. Cook for 3 hours on low.

Ready for the taste test!

One for you, one for me... or maybe two for me. :-)

So good looking!

Yummy!

Tiffany

Chicken Cordon Bleu II

2010-01-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

While aimlessly browsing for something easy but tasty as the first dish of the year, I went on AllRecipes.com and found Chicken Cordon Bleu II. It looked fairly simple - few ingredients, few preparation, short cooking time... and the five star rating from its two thousand reviews made it a no brainer.

Original recipe - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Cordon-Bleu-II/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

I read some reviews and followed MEGBY's variation posted on Nov. 3, 2003.

Step 1: - Pound/Jaccard the chicken breast; add ham and Swiss cheese in the middle and secure with toothpicks.

Step 2: - Brush chicken with egg, bread with breadcrumbs, then fry in butter until both sides are golden brown.

Step 3: - Put in oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Step 4: - Mix heavy whipping cream, white wine, chicken bouillon granules and cornstarch in a bowl. Simmer in a pot for 10 minutes or until boil right before the chicken is ready from the oven.

Step 5: - Blanch some great Sugar Snap Peas; season with black pepper.

Now, your dinner awaits. :-)

It was yummy! (First time I liked my own cooking)

The recipe I copied & pasted, with the second steps already incorporating the variation I mentioned earlier.

Tiffany

My first attempts into the World of Cooking!

2010-01-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

All my life, cooking was something someone else did... my job? It was playing around in the kitchen when I was young in China; when I was older, it was leaning over friends' kitchen counters, have a vino or two, catch up over good conversations, and watch the world of raw stuff being turned into dishes of delicious heavens.

While working the past ten years, cooking was always a chore - it only served to maintain my earthy body to continue functioning, though I've always admired people that can cook and have the patience to cook.

Maybe it's passing 30, maybe it's the final realization that corporate world isn't quite what was advertised in our childhood or adolescent, or maybe it's my recent layoff that triggered something deep in the brain, I have recently grown a fondness for cooking.

It started as part of the new year/post-layoff goal - dance more, start yoga, reconnect with friends, and try my hand in cooking.

So, from here on, the posts will be my juvenile dinners, desserts and maybe some appetizers.

The goal - cook as many different type of dishes from a variety of sources for as long as I can.

The joy is in the cooking!

Thank you for your support in advance! And a special thanks to Danny, for he is my guinea pig, my biggest supporter, and one that is not afraid of telling me the truth (when the food doesn't taste as good as Renee's... really, no hard feelings! LOL) ^_^

Tiffany

Summer Chicken Pasta Salad

2009-08-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

First, let me say sorry for the bad photos. My camera battery died (why can't I remember to keep it charged?) AGAIN so I had to use my crappy cell phone camera that has no flash. (Thanks, Samsung)

This is a dish that Chris learned from his Mom. She made it when he was growing up and he wanted me to try it.

Ok so we started with some really amazing Heirloom Tomatoes that we got at a local farm stand. Heirloom Tomatoes have a much better flavor than your boring old beefsteak tomato. We also got a few English cucumbers at the grocery store. We only ended up using the one large tomato because that was enough for the dish.

Next we pan seared some chicken breast in olive oil to get a nice crust on it. We only seasoned with kosher salt and some black pepper.

I made a vinaigrette with two cloves of garlic, pressed, half of a lemon's worth of juice, kosher salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme. Just whisk it in a bowl. I used a little more vinegar than olive oil and about double the amount of olive oil than lemon juice. (Algebra, anyone?)

So everything gets cut into bite sized pieces and then everyone goes into a big bowl with one can of black olives (drained) and one pound of rotini pasta (cooked al dente, we use Dreamfield pasta). Only use enough of the vinaigrette to coat everything, you don't want a big pool of it at the bottom of the bowl.

You can eat this salad hot/warm like we did for dinner or put it in the fridge and eat it cold. I usually take the left overs for lunch the next day and I don't heat it up. It is really refreshing and has a nice bite from the balsamic and lemon. We also added a little grated Parmesan cheese, but I really didn't taste it at all and you can save the calories and just leave it out. We might try adding some feta next time, but probably to the plate and not to the big bowl because I don't think it will hold up well in the fridge.

Kitchen Project: Magnetic Spice Rack

2009-04-22T19:48:00.001-07:00

Chris and I used to have all of our spices in the cabinet over the stove on a lazy susan. The problem was that we had more than really should fit on there so when you would spin it sometimes one in the back would get stuck and then a whole bunch would come flying out at you. Also, it was really hard for me to reach over the pot/pan that was being used on our gas stove without burning myself or being in fear that I would catch my shirt on fire.

We learned from Alton Brown on Good Eats episode "Spice Capades" that you really shouldn't keep your spices above your stove because the heat is not good for them. AB stores his spices in different size round tins that he writes on with what I think is a grease pencil and sticks to the inside of his cabinets with velcro. (I tried to find a picture, but I cannot. You can YouTube the episode though if you want to, its a good one)

I loved the idea of having my spices in tins and having easy access to them while I'm cooking. I went searching for magnetic spice racks and found them to be expensive and generally they didn't come with enough tins for the number of spices we have. Then I came across Amber's blog over at myaimistrue.com. She made a magnetic spice rack out of magnetic knife racks from Ikea and some tins from Leigh Valley. I thought 'Awesome!' I showed it to Chris, he loved it and so we got the magnetic knife racks from Ikea and ordered the tins from Leigh Valley... and I hated the tins when they came. They were thin and small and cheesy looking (they looked so great in Amber's pictures! I was really shocked.) So I sent them back. Leigh Valley was really great about it and returned my full price paid plus shipping to me in cash. So then I went on the hunt for tins... and I searched and searched and searched until I finally found these from Specialty Bottle :

And I absolutely love them. They were inexpensive, sturdy and (most importantly) good looking. I put all of our spices into the tins (with a few exceptions that we decided were 'baking spices' and so they went into the baking cabinet such as poppy seeds, pumpkin pie spice & caraway seeds). I wrote the names on the bottom with a black Sharpie marker. Then Chris got to do the manly thing and drill holes in the wall (after of course measuring three times and writing all over the wall in pencil, very necessary for a good home improvement project) and hang up the knife racks and then....!!!

Voila! They were done! I purposely did not straighted out the tins when I took that picture because I'm trying really hard not to be OCD about the fact that they are not at perfect right angles. They look great! Really colorful and very much a piece of usable art. We put the spices we use a lot of (oregano, basil, parsley) and our spice mixtures (Chris' Spice Rub and our homemade Taco Seasoning) into the big tins and all the other spices into the small tins. We also have about 12 extra small and two extra big tins for expansion in the future. Its been about two weeks since we put them up and they are really convenient since that is the counter we use to cook on. We made sure that I could reach them without a problem (or a step stool :P) before we put them up, so they really are at the perfect height.

We really love it.

Quiche

2009-03-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

Julia Child's book has a great section on Quiche. I have made a variation of the basic recipe 4 or 5 times now. I made two different versions on Sunday to take over to Uncle Richie's birthday brunch. One was Jalapeno, Sweet Red Pepper, Homemade Sausage and Cheddar and the other was Baby Zucchini, Jarlsberg cheese and Homemade Sausage. (Sorry no pictures, there was an Incident Regarding The Number Of Eggs In The House which took up all my photo taking time. You can blame Chris :P) The Jalapeno version was SO good. We will definitely be making that one again.

I had some left over pie dough from Sunday so last night for dinner we made little quiche cups. I cut dough rounds to fit the bottom of my ramekins, pricked them with a fork and baked them in the ramekins for about 7 or 8 minutes. We added crispy bacon bits on top of that and pressed them into the crust (Julia suggests doing it this way). Then we added the egg mixture on top (eggs, cream, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg) which had some Jarlsberg and sweet yellow and orange peppers. They baked for about 25 minutes. I did forget to dot the tops with butter the way Julia says to (which in all honesty might not be necessary but it sure does make it taste goooood). They came out great. It was a quick and delicious dinner for Chris and me. We made six and each ate two.

I really recommend making a quiche using Julia's recipe. Especially if you have friends coming over for brunch. You can put it in the oven and let it bake and serve it with some toast or bagels, maybe a pastry or two and you don't have to stand over the stove cooking while your company waits for you (because really you can't cook eggs early, they get cold and gross or dried out and gross if you try to keep them hot). You really can put whatever you think sounds good in there too. My only tip would be that if you are going to use something that is a little wet (like my shredded baby zucchini), you want to dry it out or drain it in a paper towel before adding it, or your egg mixture might become too watery. MMMmmmMMM! Yum!

Who Needs McDonalds?

2008-12-20T06:31:00.000-08:00

You may already know that Mom got us a KA mixer for Christmas this year. Chris' company gave him a $50.00 Amex gift card for Christmas. KA mixer + $50.00 =

YAY! We got the food grinder! We have been so excited at the prospect of making our own sausages that its not even funny. We decided to grind up a roast beef that we had in the freezer to make some hamburgers. I have to say, the grinder is quite disgusting. The meat looks really gross coming out and every once in a while it spits meat juice across the kitchen (or in my case, right onto my face). Luckily, I could get over it enough to really enjoy the process. Here is the final ground up meat:

So into the mixer it goes with all of Chris' special burger making stuff (I really don't know what he puts in there or I would tell you)

I know there are sauteed garlic and onions in there.

MMMmmmMMM! That is damn good! We even bought Ore Ida 'fast food fries' that go in the oven. They were pretty good!

Wanna bite?

Holiday Cookies!

2008-12-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: BIGGER slideshow on dannyburbol.com)

We're going to a cookie exchange party, so we baked lots of surgar and peanutbutter holiday cookies!

Our Favs are:

#7: that G-Bread man got hit in the head by a peanut butter cup flining ninja!
#8: just simple and classic
#13: cute star!
#14: Tiff was going for height!
be sure to check out #19 :)
#15: Yeah Baby!
#19: of course, this one is our top pick :)

Stuffed Pork Loin

2008-12-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

Mom came over for dinner. Chris decided to make stuffed pork loin. We have made this before and it is so easy and yummy.

First take your pork loin and cut it so that it is flat. You kind of have to go in a reverse spiral.

Next season with salt and pepper and place your fillings on. We used fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and roasted red peppers.

Roll it up and bake in a 350° oven for 45 min to 1 hr. We use our stoneware bread pan because it helps keep the shape without skewers. We served it with butternut squash puree and roasted potatoes.

Beef Provencale

2008-11-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, my mom was always getting these 'join our recipe club!' packages in the mail. With the invitations they would include a sample of the recipe cards. Mom never joined the clubs, but always kept the free cards. I have mostly inherited these cards since Mom doesn't really cook that much anymore. This recipe was from one of these sets. The set is called 'Simply Delicious'.

We decided to make this recipe during Thanksgiving week, since Chris and I both had off. We were going to go out on a 'date' but decided that we would probably have more fun and have better food if we just stayed home and cooked together. We also spent about half of what we would have for dinner.

The recipe is easy, but a little pricey. You take a beef tenderloin (go to the butcher, not the supermarket!), brown it in some butter on all sides and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Remove it from the pan, cover it with foil and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Slice it into 1/2 inches slices, put it in a dish and spread with some garlic butter (6 Tbl softened butter, 2 cloves minced garlic, 3 Tbls finely chopped flat leaf parsley, mix together until smooth) and put into a 425° oven for 8 minutes.

Now you may notice the potatoes in the picture above. You should ignore them. They were part of the recipe that was annoying and should have been called 'Simply Bland'. I would serve this with a good gratin or mashed potato and some steamed veggies.

Now, this dinner (minus potatoes) was delicious. This is a very, very good cut of meat (1 1/2 lbs filet tenderloin cost us $35.00). It was tender and practically melted in your mouth.

The next day we decided to make lunch with the leftovers. Now dinner was good. We had fun making it. What Chris did with the leftovers was just simply the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my whole life.

He cut up the beef, mixed it with the garlic butter and basically made a grilled muenster cheese and beef sandwich out of it. The kicker? He toasted garlic in the pan before adding the bread. I know it sounds so simple but really it could not have been better. There was not one thing that either of us said 'oh next time we should....'

Yum!

Chicken Soup - Grandma Katie Style

2008-10-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

Growing up, Mom always made chicken soup. She says the smell reminds her of her Grandma Katie. I don't remember Grandma Katie, so the smell of chicken soup reminds me of Mom. I feel like I've known how to make this my whole life. I remember watching Mom boil the chicken and then letting it cool overnight, skimming the fat, cleaning the chicken off the bones and then heating everything up again.

Recently, Chris and I made Roasted Chicken. I decided (before we even cooked it) that we would make chicken soup out of the leftovers. So on Thursday night, after work, we set out to make chicken soup. A lot of the work was done for us already. I had saved the gibblies from the chicken, along with the juice that collected in the bottom of my roasting pan, the bones of the chicken and some of the pieces that we didn't eat (wings, some breast meat).

First, we started a pot with water and the juices that were saved, which I skimmed the fat off of before adding to the pot. I cleaned all of the meat that I could off of the bones, separating the good meat, the bones and the sinew. The sinew goes in the trash, the meat goes in the pot and the bones get tied up in cheese cloth and then go in the pot. Gibblies get tied up in a separate cheesecloth and thrown in too.

We added about a half of a large bag of baby carrots, an entire package of celery, chopped, and an onion, also choppped.

Next are the spices. We added some oregano, thyme, sage, salt, pepper and 6 cloves of garlic, minced. I used these spices because that was what I made my chicken rub with.

We simmered it for about an hour, until the veggies were tender and the gibblies were cooked through. Just lift out the cheesecloth bundles, let them drain, and throw them out.

I don't like to put rice or pasta into my soup and let it sit there. I like it much better if you make the rice or pasta separately and then add it to each individual bowl before adding the soup. That way it doesn't break down too much and get soggy. We made rice this time.

We served the soup with a crusty bread and some apple cider (thanks for the idea, Vina!).

It was so delicious. Perfect for a cool night and worth the time we put into it on a work night (we didn't get to eat until almost 9pm since I got home from work around 7:30ish).

The best part was lunch on Friday. If possible (Chris and I agree 100% that it is), it was even better the next day.

Our pot was big enough for us to make dinner, lunch the next day and put a huge container in the freezer for another day.

Renée's Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

2008-09-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Whole chicken was on sale and I was sick so I decided to make a roasted chicken and then turn the leftovers into chicken soup. This is the roasted chicken part of the plan. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead from the French Toast Experiment so there are not too many pictures for you here. I will narrate to the best of my storytelling abilities.

First you unwrap your lovely lady (the chicken, not your girlfriend) and give her a lukewarm shower in the sink (make sure your sink is clean on the bottom). Rinse out all cavities and crevices, also remove the bag that has the gibblies in it and put it in the fridge for later use in chicken soup making. (I call them gibblies, you got a problem with that?)

Now this part is a little bit hard but you can do it. Put your girl on a cutting board and get a small, sharp knife. Starting by the neck end, you are going to pull the skin up in one solid piece, cutting underneath at the stringy parts that make it stick to the chicken until you have a big skin flap that you can see the whole naked lady under (if you are really good you should be able to get the legs uncovered too, but that takes practice and if you can't do it the first time, its ok). Do not cut it completely free of the chicken! it should still be attached at the opposite side.

Now wash your hands. If you are smart you have made your spice rub ahead of time and can just start applying, but I always forget and have to make it after the de-skinning step. I just mix whatever I feel like in a little bowl. This time I used about a tablespoon of each of the following: sea salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, rosemary and sage. Mix them together well.

If you want at this step you can use your meat tenderizer or a fork to poke some holes in your chicken. I recommend NOT going through the skin, but hold it up instead and work underneath it.

Now the fun part. You are going to give your lovely chicky a nice rub down. Get some of that yummy spice rub and rub it under the skin of the chicken. Make a nice coating under there. Now you are going to stretch the skin back in place (don't worry it will stay). If you have left over spice rub, put it on the outside of the skin.

I baked my chicken in a clay baker (with lid on!) at 350° for 20 min/lb. You will be tempted to take the lid off and look - DON'T! Just let it bake and all the juices and steam will collect on the bottom. After its done you can take the lid off for a few minutes and let the skin get crispy if you want to. You want to keep that juice and bones and leftover meat for the chicken soup.

On to potatoes!

This part is super easy. Wash and quarter about 2lbs of baby potatoes (I prefer red, but white is good too, this time I used both). Put them in a large bowl, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some dried rosemary. Enough so that every potato will get some. Add about 1/4c of Olive Oil and toss until evenly coated. Then turn out onto a baking sheet.
Make sure that one of the cut sides is facing down. Bake at 400° for about 35-45 min. (If you want you can bake them with the chicken at 350°, but they will take around an hour or so)

Sorry for the bad plate picture but the lighting was bad and the flash reflected off the plate and then the camera died and I was hungry and didn't want to wait until it charged to eat. Yum! Perfect moist chicken and yummy crisp but tender potatoes. Don't mind the icky pile of green stuff. That was our adventure in frozen artichoke hearts. All I can say is, 'DON'T.'

Breakfast Monte Cristo - Cheesecake Factory Style

2008-09-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Chris and I were headed out for the day and decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I wanted breakfast but since it was Sunday we were in luck because Cheesecake has an awesome brunch, only on Sundays. I decided to get the Breakfast Style Monte Cristo, which was scrambled eggs, bacon, Canadian bacon and Swiss cheese on French Toast. Let me tell you that it was so friggin' good. Their French Toast had corn flakes masterfully integrated onto the outside, forming a delicious crunchy crust on the French Toast. Upon seeing and tasting this, Chris immediately said 'I have to try and make that at home'. Fast forward a few weeks and here were are:

We decided to skip the two kinds of bacon and go for ham instead. Since the Jewish Holiday of Rosh Hashahna was coming up, we were able to get some beautiful, fresh Challah bread at our local supermarket. Along with your regular French Toast Fixins (a technical term) of vanilla, cinnamon, eggs and milk, we had our new additions of corn flakes, Swiss and ham. Don't forget your favorite tea!
We did the usual method of scrambling some eggs with a little milk, vanilla and lots of cinnamon, dipping in the bread and letting each side soak for a little bit (around 20-25 seconds since our bread was sliced pretty thick). Then it was a quick dip in the crushed up corn flakes and into a buttered, hot pan. We found that crushing up the corn flakes cooked more evenly and gave us a golden brown finish. See below:

Yummy!

It came out so good! Not exactly like the Cheesecake Factory but very close. Molto Bene! Note the finish of powdered sugar that Chris put on. It was VERY filling. I only ate one slice of the bread and most of the stuffing parts and I was absolutely stuffed. I cut up the rest and spread it around my plate so it would look like I ate more than I did. Shh! Don't tell Mom!

Renée's Football Sunday Chili

2008-09-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday Football in our house is a big deal, especially when the NY Giants are playing. This past Sunday it was kind of a cooler NY September day, not like the extended summer we have been having. The perfect day to watch some football, hang out with our friends and make some spicy chili. I did not use a recipe for this, I made it up, but I will tell you how I made it. It came out perfect.

In your crock pot (I think mine is 6 or 7 qts) combine, 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 2 lbs of cooked ground beef, 1 lb of cooked Italian sausage, 1 can of corn, and 1 bunch of scallions chopped, green and light green parts only. Add 1 cup of water and mix it all together. Then I added the spices: chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, garlic, onion powder, paprika, oregano, thyme, sea salt, black pepper, Cayenne pepper. For everything except the salt and Cayenne pepper, I used the "cover the top" method of seasoning. This is how my Great-Grandmother taught my Mom how to add spices. She doesn't measure, she just coats the top of whatever it is she is putting spices in until you can't see what's underneath. It's definitely not an exact science so I would suggest tasting often to see if you want to add more of something. For the salt I added two big pinches and for the Cayenne pepper I just sort of sprinkled it on top. Cayenne is very hot and can easily overpower the rest of the spices, so use a light hand with it, you can always add a little more.

NOTE: I used onion powder because our friend Anthony does not like onions. If he sees them in his food he will typically not eat whatever it is. He told me that he wasn't a big chili fan and I didn't want to push my luck by adding big onion chunks. Feel free to skip the powder and add real onions. I may try grating the onions next time. I would use 1 medium Spanish onion for this dish.

I added four rounded tablespoons of sugar at this point. The sugar helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

I had the crock pot on high for two hours and then turned it to low until we were ready to eat. Since the meat is already cooked, you are really just waiting for it to heat up and let all of the flavors come together.

You can top yours with whatever you'd like. I prefer shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Things you might like to add to your chili: black beans, kidney beans, different peppers, salsa, veggies that hold up well when cooked for a long time such as eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms, chicken.

Next time I make this I am going to try removing the casings from the sausages or buying crumbled sausage. The sausages were delicious and I wanted to have more sausage flavor in each bite instead of once or twice in a bowl (I had 8 sausages which I cut into quarters before I cooked them).

P.S. The Giants won :)

Haifang's Creamy Figs

2008-09-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Another hit at our East Meets West Labor Day BBQ was Haifang's creamy figs!

She cut the top off the figs and then cut them into halves.

after that she put a dollop of creamy goat cheese on top of each one. (It tasted a lot like cream cheese.)

That blur is Haifang putting a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar on top by putting her thumb over the opening from the bottle.

Viola! Haifang's Creamy Figs! When we asked, she said she made it up with a friend. The final taste is sweet from the figs, creamy from the cheese and a little tart from the vinegar. Very tasty!

Make Your Own Sushi Rolls

2008-09-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

We went to a friend's house for Labor Day. We had a BBQ that was half hot dogs and hamburgers and half roll your own sushi!

Koichi, the host, picked up all the ingredients that morning:

Rice for sushi is mixed with a special type of vinegar to give it flavor and help it stick together. That's the bottle in the back on the left.

Here we have tuna, imitation crab, and some other fish.

This is mint leaves and (since we're in California) avocado.

This is a special fermented soy bean mix. Knowing Koichi, it's probably something amazing that you can't buy because he just whipped it up.

And don't forget, Wasabi. Koichi told us once that this style of powered wasabi (mixed with water), is pretty much horseradish. And the actual wasabi in Japan has a different flavor because it's made from a different plant.

Notice that we've completely wrapped the bamboo roll in plastic wrap because we're about to make a California roll, which has the rice on the outside (not the seaweed). This keeps the rice from sticking to the bamboo

And Now, Koichi shows us how to make a california roll! (note, no sound on this one.)

Things to note:

see how Koichi pretty much folds the bamboo roll in half and makes the two ends of the bamboo roll touch, then he shapes the sushi inside the bamboo. That is a key element to rolling the sushi correctly.

It's not in the video, but to get that thin strip of seaweed, you *don't* tear it off the bigger sheet. Instead, you just fold the seaweed and it snaps cleanly.

And now, an easy mistake to make when rolling (and how to recover) (note: this one *does* have sound).

Now go back and watch Koichi again and you'll see how he folded it in half and pulled on the top to roll the sushi inside the bamboo (rather than just wrapping the bamboo around the sushi).

Next, Koichi shows us how to make Hand Rolled Sushi. (again, this has sound)

Note how he rolls it in a cone shape so the filling doesn't fall out of the bottom.

Later, we asked Koichi: "So does every Japanese kid learn how to roll sushi?" Koichi says, "No, not the kind with the bamboo. They know the Hand Rolled kind, because Mom's not going to roll it for everyone. You have to fend for yourself."

Here's a final look at the damage after our East meets West Labor Day BBQ!

Renée & Chris Try Danny's Diner Style Cinnamon French Toast

2008-09-01T09:14:00.001-07:00

Today, Chris and I tried to make Danny's Diner Style Cinnamon French Toast. It was pretty easy and came out really good. Chris likes his a little darker than Danny suggests so that's why the plate on the left is different than the plate on the right (mine).

All of our ingredients:

Soaking our bread for 15 seconds:

In the pan with some butter:

All stacked up:

We found another brand of sparkling lemonade at the store last night. It's by Simply Enjoy. I'm not sure but I think it may be the store's new quality-type brand (generic but fancy). It was in our regular supermarket, Stop & Shop, and says that it is also from France, just like the other brand we tried, Lorina. This one was really good, just not quite as good as the Lorina, however it is half the price of the Lorina brand. I would definately buy it again.

Experiment: Herb Oil

2008-09-01T08:55:00.001-07:00

I had some left over fresh Thyme and Basil so I decided to make use of the cool sparkling lemonade bottles we have to make some herb oil. It's basically fresh herbs and olive oil sealed in a bottle. The book that I bought this spring to help me with my herb garden, Your Backyard Herb Garden by Miranda Smith, has a section on using herbs in oil, how to store them properly and how to minimize bacteria growth. Since I just made the oil this morning, I am going to let it steep a bit before I use it. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Two Ways With Poached Eggs

2008-08-31T18:01:00.001-07:00

Ever since Chris and I went to California to visit Danny and Tiffany in the summer of 2005, I have been ordering my eggs poached (in a cup!) when we go out to breakfast. This is because Danny let me have a bite of his Eggs Benedict one morning and explained that poached eggs were just like over easy eggs but without the butter used to fry them. Until this summer, when Danny came to visit us in NY, I had never attempted to make poached eggs at home. There was an episode of Good Eats on our dvr in which Alton Brown makes everything from poached eggs to poached fish and there are explicit instructions in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So one morning, I jumped in with both feet and made some for Danny and myself. They came out great. Here I have two different breakfast choices that I've made recently. The first was made on 8.28.08 and the second was made on 8.31.08.

The trick is to not boil the water. I use a 10 inch sauté pan and heat it over medium high flame until the bottom is covered in little bubbles. Like this:

Both Alton and Julia talked on the use of vinegar if your eggs are not super fresh as a means of holding the whites together. In the first experiment, (which are all of the pictures in the pan) I did use vinegar to see how well this theory works. Another choice would be to crack the egg into a ladle held in the hot water and dipping it a bit to allow some water to come in. Once the eggs has set a little bit you can slip it out into the pan. I prefer to crack the eggs right into the pan, but it must be done slowly and with full attention.

I usually use my slotted spoon to flip the eggs over once in the water. I have no idea if this does anything or not to effect cooking, but it makes sure that they don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once the eggs are cooked (which only takes about 2-3 minutes) you can lift them out with your slotted spoon, wait a few seconds for them to drain and then plate. If you used vinegar, you want to rinse the eggs before serving to get off the vinegar. Usually what I do is set everything up first. I take out the toaster, put the bread in (but I don't turn it on yet), if there is any meat to be cooked or anything like that I do that first while the water is heating up. Once I am ready to cook the eggs, I put the toast on, crack the eggs into the water, stand there and watch them, flip them once and then take them out. By then the toast has popped, I grab it, throw it on the plate and top it with the eggs. If I have other ingredients to construct on top of the toast, I put the eggs into a bowl with enough room so that they aren't on top of each other.

The first plate is a buttered English muffin with poached eggs on top and sprinkled with cracked pepper. The eggs did hold together very nicely with the addition of the vinegar, however, I either didn't rinse them enough or I just didn't like the taste of the whites because of the vinegar.

The second plate is an Arnold Sandwich Thin (I really love those) topped with a slice of swiss cheese, ham that was heated for about 30 seconds in a pan, poached eggs with cracked pepper and a side of Potatoes O'Brien. You can find Potatoes O'Brien in the frozen french fry section of the supermarket. It is basically home fries with onions and peppers. I add a little black pepper and thyme to mine for some flavor. This is the batch that I didn't use the vinegar with and the eggs were definately more tasty, although they were smaller.

Danny's Diner Style Cinnamon French Toast

2008-08-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing you can probably make french toast already. So, I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "why did this guy waste his time posting an entry on how to make french toast?" It's because:

This recipe is subtle!

It's easy, in theory, but takes practice to get right ("wrong" = "it's good"; "right" = "extra fluffy and tasty").

Ingredients:

eggs
bread (normally "white" bread, but if you want to experiment --go for it!)
butter/oil (your choice)
milk
cinnamon
syrup (make sure you have some before you start :)

How much of each ingredient? Figure 1 egg per slice of bread (2 triangles).

Here you can see I've got 3 slices of bread which means I'm using 3 eggs. I put them in a plate, not a bowl. This is how we did it when I was working at the diner. They don't have some giant bowl of pre-mixed eggs, they just whip out a plate, crack in a few eggs and make 1 order of French toast.

I also encourage you to NOT crack open more than 4 eggs into the plate at a time. There's no need to make an overflowing plate of eggs. Crack a few eggs, make a few slices of bread, then crack in a few more as you go.

What's great about this is, it's easy to NOT waste food. Rather than mix-up a bunch of eggs only to find yourself with left overs as people get full, you can stop adding eggs the moment you feel you have enough French toast for everyone --or you can run back to the kitchen and make a few more without mixing up another giant batch of eggs.

Also, look back at that splash of milk. Realize that in the picture, the milk had time to spread some before I could grab my camera, that looks like more milk than it is. Imagine how much milk you put in coffee via those half-n-half creams you see on the table at restaurants. I put in the same amount of milk as liquid in 1 of those little half-n-half containers. One container's worth per egg.

Here's the first subtle part! DON'T BEAT THE EGGS! Lightly scramble them with the fork. I broke the yolks and then pass the fork through the eggs about 10 times. That's it. Not 50 times and not at some high speed blender rate. Lightly scrambled. See the big patches of egg white in the pictures? *Lightly.*

Here's the part you'll be repeating. Cover the top with cinnamon. Lightly mix it into the eggs. Then put a few triangles of bread in the eggs. This is another subtle part. The next subtle part: leave the slices in for 10 to 15 seconds per side --not 30 seconds or a minute per side. The bread will absorb the eggs if you just give it some time, you don't have to over compensate but you do have to give it a moment.

I find that the best result is when the eggs are NOT soaked through all the way to the middle of the slice of bread. When you get them that soggy, the middle doesn't cook very well and you end up with soggy, raw-egg middles while you're eating.

Remember, Here's what you repeat:

put some oil or butter in the pan
make sure you have enough eggs in the plate
sprinkle on some cinnamon and lightly mix in
10 to 15 seconds a side.
go directly into the pan.

Don't sprinkle any cinnamon over the pan. It will just burn and make later slices of French toast taste burnt as well.

I use triangles because they are easier to fit in the pan and easier to share when you put a big stack of french toast on the table for a group of people. Above I have 3 triangle because I wanted to cook half at a time. If you take the corners that are 90 degrees (the original corners of the bread that were not cut in half) and put them in the center of the pan, you can easily fit 4 triangles in the pan with the longest, cut edges facing outward.

The last subtle part: Cook until golden brown? No, cook until golden brown -buts still white. What's that mean? Look back at the picture. See how you can still see the white of the egg even though a lot of the toast is golden brown? That's what I mean. It's easy to over cook them and make the whole side golden brown, which actually ends up tasting a little burnt. It's also easy to over-brown one side which still effects the overall taste. So stay with them and watch *both* sides carefully.

Here's my assembly line. In the next picture, if you look closely at the slices in the center, they are overcooked because I was busy taking that last picture while they were still in the pan. See the subtle difference in color?

As they finish, I stack the triangles directly on top of each other to keep in the heat. Right before they go out is when I arrange them on the plate to look nice. This way they are usually steaming when they're placed on the table.

If I'm at your house, please don't put a big pat of butter on top of mine at the last second. I don't like that very much. You may want to ask your guests how they feel about it before you add the final pat of butter, or you can let them do it themselves at the table.

Variation: Omit the bread and just make lightly scrambled eggs with cinnamon. They're a little sweet and go great with bacon.

Enjoy!
~Danny

What could make a kitty turn upside down?

2008-08-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Steak of course!

Tenderized and rubbed with Chris' Sweet with some Heat Steak Rub that is...

We weren't planning to blog tonight's dinner (so don't mind the messy plate!) but who can resist a purrrfect photo op?

Baked Pork Chops with Apples

2008-08-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

This was an idea I had based off of some stuffed pork chops I made last winter. Those are a little tedious to make and I didn't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen after a long day at work. So this is what I came up with.

First, we tenderized the meat with our new totally awesome Jaccard meat tenderizer (now with even more blades!). (This was our first time using our new toy, thanks Danny and Tiffany!)

The I sautéed half of an onion with one cubed Granny Smith apple in 1 Tbls of butter and a little olive oil. After they cooked for about two minutes I added some dried Thyme and a pinch of salt.

Next, I made some room in the bottom of the pan and added the pork chops. I browned them for about 20 seconds on each side. Then I put the whole pan, covered, into a 350° oven for about 20 minutes. (picture is before they went in the oven)

We made some baked potatoes and corn to go with and dinner was served! It was very good. Chris really loved it. I think next time I would add a little liquid to the pan before putting it in the oven, maybe some chicken stock or white wine. The chops got a tiny bit dried out. Also, I think I would brown them for just a little longer. They tasted fine and you can't really tell in the pictures but they were a little washed out and pale when they came out of the oven. A little more golden crust would make them looked even yummier. Lastly, I would peel the apples next time.

Definitely a great quick dinner.

Chicken with White Cream Sauce

2008-08-22T21:46:00.001-07:00

Tonight I made Chicken with White Cream Sauce from the Julia Child cookbook because we were having our friend Anthony over for dinner. I've made it once before and I think it came out better last time. This time we had a few things that didn't work out quite like I wanted.

1) I didn't realize that the bottle white wine I had in the fridge didn't have very much in it, so I ended up using less wine and more vermouth.

2) I didn't check how much Arborio rice we had left and had to send Chris and our friend Anthony to the store to get more when I had already put the chicken in the oven and started the onions for the risotto. The chicken was out of the oven for more than 20 minutes before we ate.

3) My camera battery died in the middle of me cooking so there are not a lot of 'in progress' pictures. This is a picture of the chicken breasts once I cleaned them, rubbed them with lemon juice and salt and peppered them.

This is the cream sauce bubbling after I added the heavy cream

The final product on a bed of risotto (also from the Julia Child cookbook).

The chicken came out a little drier this time (probably from being kept in the pan for too long while they ran to the store) but it was still really yummy. The risotto was perfect, in spite of me having to throw out the first batch of onions and start over once the new container of rice arrived. All served with a side of steamed broccoli.

For dessert I made Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache. Yuuuummmy. It was so good. Check out my baking blog for details on that.

Edit on 8.28.08 to answer Danny's questions:

For the chicken I used white wine (chardonnay) and vermouth because that is what I had in the kitchen. Also, I used chicken stock since I was making chicken (didn't make sense to me to use beef stock). I'm trying to remember but I'm pretty sure I read the recipe wrong. I thought it said a 1/4 c of vermouth and a 1/4 c of white wine, but looking at it now it seems to only say 1/4 of vermouth. Oh well, it was still yummy.

Next time I make this I am going to follow the variation recipe on page 269 for Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms and Cream, because that just sounds delicious.

For the risotto, I again used chicken stock because I was serving it with chicken. I don't know that I would change that if I were cooking beef only because beef stock can have an overbearing flavor and this risotto has such a delicate flavor.

Camper's Pizza

2008-08-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe for pizza-in-a-pan called camper's pizza and I had to try it. I just like things that involve getting craft with what you have handy.

This pizza-in-a-pan can be cooked over coals or in the oven. Mushrooms, ground beef and peppers are the stars of this version, but you can top with your favorite meats and veggies.

Estimated Time Needed:
Est. Preparation: 15 mins
Est. Cooking: 30 mins
Serves: 2 (sort of, see Danny's details below)

Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-oz.) can refrigerated crescent rolls
1 (8-oz.) can Pizza Sauce
1 (4-oz.) can mushrooms stems and pieces, drained and chopped
1 (2.25-oz.) can sliced pitted ripe olives, drained
1/3 cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Brown beef and onion in well-seasoned 11- to 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium coals. Remove to paper towels; season with salt. Pour off drippings from pan.

Separate crescent dough into triangles; place in skillet, points toward center, to form circle. Press edges together to form bottom crust and 1-inch rim up side of pan. Spread half of pizza sauce over dough; spoon ground beef mixture over sauce. Top with mushrooms, olives and green pepper. Pour remaining sauce over all; sprinkle with cheese and oregano.

Place pan in center of grill over medium coals. Place cover on cooker; cook 20 to 30 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

Cooking Tips:
If cooked over an open grill or coals, cover pan securely with foil.

So I'm notorious for not quite following the recipe. In this case I picked up garlic crescents and used garlic pasta sauce instead of "pizza sauce". I also subbed in pepperoni instead of ground beef and used a whole green and red pepper instead of the 1/3 cup chopped bell pepper. As a result, it came out really tasty, but we had twice as much filling for the pizza than we needed.

BTW: before we start, turn your oven on to 375 degrees. Also, do you have stuff stored in there? We do, and it was already hot, hot, hot when we remembered.

Also, if you use a skillet like I did, make sure it can go in the oven (in other words, will the handle melt off your skillet if you put it in the oven?)

Here you can see, I've stir fried the filling together and used the crescent rolls to make a pizza crust shape. But I've got twice as much filling for that little pizza. However, since it was in a skillet, the crust was kind of rounded on the bottom. So it was lower in the middle and higher on the edges, which meant it held a lot more filling than I expected.

This was right before I covered the top with Oregano. Then I covered it again with Mozzarella and put the whole thing in the oven.

I baked it on 375 for 20 minutes, then watched it for the next 3 minutes to get the top browned just the way I like it.

Here's a revelation: "Crap! How am I going to slice this in the pan without ruining my pan!?" Luckily enough, those biscuits were greasy enough to let the whole thing slide out with minimal braking (remember, that crust is *very* flaky)

Because we had so much filling and we're lucky enough to have a rice cooker, the moment I realized we had too much stuff and that our pizza was kind of on the small side, I threw rice in the rice cooker.

So this is what we had for dinner and it was pretty tasty. The pizza itself was much more filling than we expected. We had two slices of pizza left over when the meal was done.

Next time I'll either do half and onion and only one pepper, or just buy a second tube of crescent rolls and make two pizzas.

BTW, of the ingredients in the photo at the beginning, I had 2/3 of a jar of sauce left over, most of that bag of Mozzarella, and of course, I didn't use the whole bottle of oregano. :)

On a side note, while stir frying everything, it occurred to me "I'm making sausage and peppers with *pepperoni* as the sausage --this sounds delicious!" So if you're looking for another dinner Experiment, give Pepperoni and peppers a try :)

Danny's Country Duo

2008-08-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is an experimental break fast with two rules.

make "country scrambled" eggs with a veggie (keep meat separate)
only use two spices when seasoning.

I used to work at a diner in South Carolina and we had a customer who'd always order "country scrambled" eggs. I don't know if that's his own name or a more popular name, but it basically means "scrambled eggs that are scrambled in the pan." The result is, eggs that aren't completely yellow, they still have bits of white in them and hence have more than one texture.

Next is my second rule, two (and only two!) spices. This comes from our recent visit to France. Our friend, who was hosting us, said, "in the U.S. they put on many different types of spices or 'toppings', but in France that gets looked down on. If you order ice cream, you order 1 -maybe 2 toppings, but not 3! As soon as you order 3 they will roll their eyes at you and think 'Americans!'" Of course I, being an ignorant American asked, "why?" He told me it was because as soon as you add more than two spices or toppings, you can't taste the food anymore."

So rule two is about learning to taste your food and the spices you experiment with. Many people default to salt and pepper with their eggs, but today, try dropping one or the other and look at your spice rack for something new to replace it. Stay away from your habit combination (mine is garlic, oregano and black pepper OR garlic, basil, and parsley, which I put in nearly everything :), instead stick with two, not more than two. And lay it on a little *thick,* --let this experiment make it undeniable what these two spices taste like together.

Here I've used a fairly good amount of black pepper and a lot of thyme.

I tried to choose mild veggies (a mix of corn, peas, carrots, and green beans) and got the pan going with just the veggies, olive oil, and my two spices. Note: NO MEAT. Meat is so over powering that it might as well be considered as another spice. If you want meat with your breakfast, cook it in a different pan --not with the scrambled eggs. One of the reasons we're using eggs for this experiment is that eggs have such a mild flavor and it helps you taste your two spices, as soon as you add meat, you will taste mostly meat.

When the veggies are tender or browned to your liking, break an egg right into the pan. I used *wooden* chopsticks to scramble the egg in the pan because I like my pans and wouldn't want to scratch them up with a metal spoon or anything.

As you can see, I skipped the breakfast meat this morning because I just wasn't in the mood. However I did top it all off with some toast, fruit and a nice steaming Hot lil Pepper mug :)

Have fun!
~Danny

Chris & Renée's Sausage & Peppers

2008-08-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Monday night Chris and I made Sausage & Peppers for dinner. It is really easy to make and very yummy. First, you gather the ingredients. You will need:

Some Italian sausage (we got ours from the butcher but we also like the Premio brand)

Veggies, we like to use some red and yellow bell peppers, onion and garlic.

And some rice, we used Spanish style rice last night, but normally we use Jasmine rice.

We also cut up some cantaloupe for after dinner. It was so sweet and ripe, one of the best melons I've ever had. mmmm.

Start your rice first because that will take the longest.

Then grill and slice the sausages.

Cook the veggies in a little olive oil until tender but still a little crunchy. Then just mix the sausage in with the veggies. We simmered ours, covered, for about 5 minutes to let the juices come together and to make sure the sausage was cooked all the way through. Then, serve over the rice. Easy, fast and delicious.

Easy Shepherd's Pie

2008-08-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

I was looking for something different and realized I hadn't had shepherd's pie in a long time --in fact I've never *made* shepherd's pie! So I used the internet (which is full of "awesome") and I found this shepherd's pie recipe on elise.com

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Serves: 4
Prep time: 20-40 mins
Cook time: 45-60 mins
Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
1 onion chopped
1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

6 Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.

7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Serves four.

I had to run out to by everything, so I didn't get started until 7pm or so... then with all the prep and such, it was 9pm before it was moments away from taking out of the oven. I didn't do the math ahead of time. I saw "easy" in the title and assumed it'd be fast... 2 hours later I'm all OMG WTF TTYL GG BFF AFK. (translation for mom: "Oh My God, What The F***, Talk To You Later, Good Game, Best Friends Forever, Away From Keyboard.")

I tried to follow the recipe closely so when it said "other seasonings of choice," I chopped up a half clove of garlic! ^_^

Here's how the bottom layer came together.

Just butter.

Brown the onions and garlic.

Drop in the veggies.

After adding the meat, it also calls for a few table spoons of beef broth and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce (?!) --I put in at least 3 times that.

We peeled and boiled some potatoes.

Tiffany did the mashing :)

After we had both layers, I put it in the pan and then into the oven --but not as long as they suggested, which was 30 minutes. Instead I went with 20 minutes on "bake" and then flipped over to "broil" to brown the top for 10 minutes... oh wait... that's 30 --BLAST! Out smarted again!

Now I know what you're thinking. You're asking yourself, "Which bottle of wine complements Shepherd's Pie?" And the answer is: "Rum & Coke" :)

Final Thoughts

It was tasty, but next time, more spices and more Worcestershire Sauce.

Chris' Homemade Pancakes

2008-08-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

This morning Chris woke up and said 'I'm going to make pancakes and eggs for breakfast! How does that sound?' For me, any morning where I don't have to make the pancakes but I get to eat the pancakes, is a good morning. I convinced him that pancakes were enough and we didn't need eggs as well, which made it that much easier on him. So he found a recipe online, modified it to what he thought sounded good and viola! pancakes!

I happened to pick up this bottle of sparkling French Berry Lemonade at Scotto's Pork Store the other day, and we just went to get some fruit yesterday. Top that all off with, I had to go to the store to get Cleo's breakfast since we ran out (you know 'cause she'll just waste away without it!) so I picked up some sausages.

Last night at The Guys' House, we started watching Season 1 of House, MD. Our friends literally all gasped in unison when we told them that we didn't watch the show. They put it on immediately. Next thing we know, its 2am we watched 8 episodes and we are totally addicted. Our awesome friend Anthony gave us a copy of Season 1 because his mom gave him one for his birthday and he already had it and didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying he already had it. So we had a short debate about whether to watch House or Firefly over breakfast and quickly decided that House is too gory to watch while eating. Put it all together and it looks like this:

Did I mention the hot syrup? MMMmmmmmm.........

I Attempted Chris' Lemon Basil Chicken

2008-08-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

First off, it was kind of a kluge. I called Chris while I was standing in the middle of the grocery store and said, "Hey, what do I need to buy to make that awesome chicken?"

I'm not sure how close I got to Chris' recipe, but I basically juiced two lemons through a strainer, added a couple table spoons of vegetable oil (because we realized we didn't have olive oil), pressed in some garlic cloves and hit it with a dash of salt and pepper.

After I had the mixture, I poked holes in the chicken (w/fork or tenderizer), then submerged each chicken breast for about 30 seconds each, then covered the top with basil. (and I do mean "covered" --you couldn't see the top of the chicken.)

Next I put them into a hot pan with some butter and oil with the basil side down. Then I decided to just pour in what was left of the mixture, right into the pan. I figured, "why not?"

I tried not to flip them too many times. Actually, I only flipped them once. Not sure if that makes a difference, but I found it much easier to see that the chicken was a little more than half cooked through and then just flip it once, knowing that the cook time was basically half over.

We also boiled some artichokes (40 mins) and boiled some red potatoes (25 mins). Make sure you prep the artichokes correctly. We got the directions from the Julia Child book.

The dip for the artichokes is just melted butter (bottom 2 dishes) and then lime juice with salt and pepper (top dish). I ended up only dipping artichokes in the melted butter.... then also dipping the potatoes in the melted butter... then dipping the chicken in the lime juice only to decide it was better without it. So the lime juice experiment was pretty much a no-go.

The orange slices were last minute (because I decided to take a picture and wanted to look all fancy :)

Elsie Eggplant

2008-08-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Renée spotted this eggplant and had to buy it! She dressed it up to be the mascot for the BBQ Chris catered back on the 9th of August. You might think that nose looks like something else but you'd be *wrong* (Elsie is a girl)!

Renée's Birthday Cake for Mom

2008-08-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

This is the chocolate and custard cake Renée made for her mom on her birthday.

The cakes were made the night before, and now it's time to put together the chocolate icing and custard filling.

Mmmmm melted chocolate! (for the frosting)

After leveling the tops of the layers by slicing off the tops, Renée places the the first layer on parchment paper that she's cut into triangles. The triangles are arranged in a star so they can be easily pulled out later. She covers the cake with a very thin layer of apricot preserves (which she's pushed through a mesh strainer) to create a seal between the exposed cake and the custard she's about to pour on top of it. This keeps the cake from getting soggy and also has such a mild flavor that most people won't notice it's presence.

Not only did she get cherries, she got cherries that were already soaking in chocolate. Renée cut off the very bottoms of the cherries so they'd sit on the cake better without rolling over (since the icing is so thin and won't hold them up).

Notice the way the frosting is pooling around the bottom of the cake. When Renée pulls out those paper triangles, we'll be able to remove that and make the cake look perfect around the bottom.

Check out that nice thick layer of custard! It was delicious!

Holy Crap! Look at all those dishes! But more importantly, check out that Hot Lil Pepper mug!! That's so totally awesome! (I made it, you can get one too if you want.)

I'm glad I was visiting when she made this one!
~Danny

Introductions

2008-07-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Renée and Chris live on Long Island, NY. She bakes and he grills --so dinner at their house is a one-two punch of a savory meal followed by a sweet dessert.

Tiffany and Danny live in Silicon Valley, CA. Tiffany has a collection of dishes straight from China and Danny's just winging it.

Both couples are armed with a copy of Julia Child's "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking". Together, the four of them share ideas, recipes, and adventures.