February 2021 - New winter ideas?

Had stuffed peppers, calamari salad and Italian bread as a pusher.

Cannoli for dessert.

Cookin Lore wrote:




What is BLT pasta?

Here's the recipe I start with.....then I adjust with what I have at the particular time.



BLT Pasta

2 Slices Bacon, chopped
1 ½ c. Grape Tomatoes, halved
½ t. Sugar
½ c. Leeks, cleaned & sliced
¼ c. White Wine
½ c. Chicken Broth
1 t. Red Wine Vinegar
¼ t. Red Pepper Flakes
½ t. Fresh Thyme, chopped
2 c. Fresh Baby Spinach
4 oz. Spaghetti, cooked al dente
1 c. Panko Bread Crumbs
2 T. Butter

Prepare browned buttered Panko crumbs. Reserve.

Brown bacon, remove & reserve. Soften leeks, add tomato halves & ½ t. sugar (to caramelize).
Deglaze with ¼ c. white wine and reduce. Add ½ c. chicken broth, 1 t. red wine vinegar, ¼ t. red pepper flakes and ½ t. chopped fresh thyme. Return bacon to pan. Add cooked pasta and stir to combine. Add fresh spinach and toss to combine.

Plate and top with ¼ c. buttered & browned Panko crumbs per serving.

Serve immediately. 4 servings

I decided to make a breakfast for myself this morning.....a childhood favorite: Corn Fritters.

I can remember many a Sunday lunch (after church & Sunday school) at the table when Mom would man the cast iron skillets at the stove trying to keep up with four hungry kids eating the fritters as fast as she could cook them. It was also a weeknight meal, often served with side pork (now referred to as 'trendy' pork belly) or homemade sausage patties. The fritters were always served with Imperial Margarine (which Mom called butter) and pancake syrup, many times made in a pot with water, brown sugar and imitation maple flavoring.

There was a 'quick' way and a 'better' way to make the fritters. The 'quick' way was to drain cans of corn or thaw home-frozen corn kernels, add some eggs, stir in some flour, salt & baking soda and mix it all up, fry in a bit of Crisco in the cast iron skillets. The 'better' way was to separate the eggs, whip the egg whites up with the hand crank egg beater and then mix the yolks with the corn, flour, salt & soda ~ finally gently folding in the stiff egg whites. The 'better' way took longer but ended up with thicker, lighter, more tender fritters.

So, this morning I made the 'better' ones ~ I even used Grandma's egg beater (so much faster for me than using a small whisk in a little bowl) to get my single egg white nicely whipped to stiff peaks.
I didn't use the Crisco but the grapeseed oil I had in the pantry. And for once I didn't have the skillet too hot so I didn't get the corn fritters too browned.

When we went out Friday night a couple of people ordered the Mushroom Brie Soup (Dane & I shared a cup of Lobster Bisque) and the Mushroom Brie Soup got a conversation going about the recipe Rich sent me for Golden Mushroom Soup. So, since then I've been hungry for it. So tonight we're going to have a bowl of Golden Mushroom Soup and a fresh salad.

Here's the soup base simmering ~ it will simmer for about an hour and then get strained of all the solids used for flavoring the soup and then I'll add the browned crimini slices and some heavy cream. I think the "Hmmmmm, what IS that?" ingredient is the grated nutmeg. I did take license with the recipe and I added a few sliced shitake mushrooms to the soup stock because I wanted even more mushroom flavor and I think they add a lot to the flavor.




Here's the recipe with some additions & notations I've made over the years:


MUSHROOM SOUP FROM THE GOLDEN MUSHROOM RESTAURANT
(Chef Kevin Enright, Oakland Community College Culinary Studies Institute)

Chef Kevin was a chef at the Golden Mushroom restaurant and shared the recipe for their famous mushroom soup with us.

3 oz. onion cut in 1/4 inch dice (about 1 medium sized onion)
1/2 stalk celery cut in 1/4 inch dice
4 oz. clarified butter
2 or 3 oz. dried mushrooms (whatever amount you can find ~ Asian Markets carry them)
5 or 6 Shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 large leek, clean well and cut just the white part into a 1/4 inch dice (I used a whole leek)
3 Tbsp. flour
2 qt. chicken stock
1 bay leaf
salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste (I used black pepper)

2 oz. clarified butter
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly (I used shitake caps only, not stems & crimini/baby bella)

1 c. half and half or heavy cream

"Sweat" the onion, celery and leak in butter until it is clear and the water is evaporated from the vegetables. Add flour and cook until it turns light tan in color and then set aside. In a large pot, warm up the chicken stock, dry mushrooms, bay leaf, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Add the vegetable and flour mixture and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40-60 minutes until thick (if soup gets too thick and a little more stock). "Sweat" the mushrooms in a small amount of clarified butter until almost dry (au sec). Strain the soup pot of all solids. Add the mushrooms to the broth and simmer for 10 minutes. Warm the cream and add to the soup. Adjust the seasonings. (makes 2 quarts)

Beth’s Notes:

I didn’t use clarified butter….but it’s important to use a nutmeg and grate it yourself using a microplane. I used about ¼ tsp. grated (approx. ¼ of a nutmeg) in the vegetable broth.

I used the stems/trimmings from the fresh mushrooms in the vegetable broth. It all gets strained out in the end when they have given up all their flavor.

If you want to freeze, do so before adding the cream. Then, when reheating add your cream at that time.

That soup looks so good. I would be making a batch too but Joe hates mushrooms.

Soup & Salad Supper was pretty tasty.....I went looking for 'bakery rolls' in the freezer, couldn't find any so I took out a couple slices of the 'Seedsation' bread from Whole Foods. Love that bread toasted ~ a great nutty taste. HE, who has difficulty with seeds, had buttered crackers instead.

Ana, my Brazilian friend, returned from Brazil yesterday and I picked her up at the airport so she didn't have to take the shuttle that takes FOREVER to get into The Villages ~ they do 'airport-to-door' service so it takes a long time to drop everyone off who lives south of us.

It's a long, long flight from Brazil ~ they don't fly into Orlando so she had to fly to Atlanta and then have a 2 hour layover at 7 a.m. before flying into Orlando. She was beat.

She just stopped by and I asked her if she got any sleep at the hotel ~ she said she fell asleep about 5 p.m. and slept until 5:30 a.m. She said she gets a nice breakfast at the hotel so she just picks things up at the grocery store to keep in the room refrigerator and warms it in the microwave. I gave her a couple hard cooked eggs and the leftover soup so she's set for a couple days. I know she's not fond of going to a restaurant alone and she can't come here for a meal tomorrow because I'll be with Lyn & friend, Sue, all day.

She has a lot of loose ends to take care of before she moves her things to Atlanta. It's not the best time to go looking for an apartment right now. So for the time being she'll probably stick around here for a bit.

So travel is pretty well as it was regularly before COVID? Anyone coming into Canada now has to show a negative covid test, then isolate in a government approved hotel for three days, and have another covid test.

Not ambitious today, I had a small pork chop, stuck that in the oven with some sauerkraut, and a potato for baking. It was good, but definitely not picture worthy.

Charlie made dinner tonight. I told him I was going to the Korean grocery because we needed rice and fresh kimchi. He told me not to throw out the old kimchi because he wanted to make stew with it. His best friend from high school had made some when he visited last and gave him the recipe. He gave me a shopping list that included Dasida ( seasoning blend) tofu and lite Spam. I also picked up some frozen, ready to cook spicy pork bulgogi.

Cookin Lore wrote:So travel is pretty well as it was regularly before COVID?  Anyone coming into Canada now has to show a negative covid test, then isolate in a government approved hotel for three days, and have another covid test.

Ana has citizenship in Brazil and USA so she's allowed to travel into both countries. She had COVID in December so she can't get the vaccine until sometime in March because of the natural antibodies. She did have a negative test and also the statement from the hospital about the antibody.

Going to a friend's house to get some sourdough starter (porch pickup) so sourdough bread is in my future. I had some about 40 years ago, and just got tired of baking. We'll see how long I last this time. I have two stuffed peppers in the freezer, I'll take those out for tonight.

I am on my fourth day with my starter. I have to feed it again.

So, tomorrow will be day one for me. I don't remember it being so involved before. Well, I have time.

I drove to Orlando to take Lyn's friend, Sue, back to the airport so she could fly home to Delaware. We did a bit of shopping and then found a little gastropub for lunch ~ a lovely little place with a huge assortment of sandwiches, salads & burgers. Lyn ended up with a Reuben Sandwich with 4 gigantic Onion Rings and I had a burger with really good sweet potato tots ~ tasted like a baked sweet potato formed into a small round and just lightly deep fried, with no seasoning to speak of, just the flavor of the sweet potato. Neither of us could finish our sandwich and we left probably a third of the tots ~ they were very generous with the amounts. We did, however, manage to each eat two large onion rings ~ LOL

I had a meatloaf thawed in the refrigerator so it was just a matter of sticking it into the oven when I got home. I had two small potatoes in the drawer, which was fine, and I steamed some broccoli in the microwave. I'm so glad my DD#1 taught me to put the broccoli or cauliflower in a serving bowl with about 1 Tbsp. of water, cover it with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes, let sit for another 3 minutes then drain, season & serve. It doesn't even stink up the kitchen!

You can see from my plate I really wasn't all that hungry ~ Dane ended up with half my broccoli & half my potatoes because he worked again today and didn't have the huge lunch I did.

Your meal looks so good, Imelda. I can only imagine how happy Dirk's mother is to have you take over kitchen duties.

The last package of pork shoulder steak I got had little 'baby' chops.....actually just the right size for our appetites. Seared them off and then let them go low & slow to tenderize in a bit of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, thinned out with water a couple times. I microwaved the sweet potatoes to get them going and then finished on a piece of foil in the toaster oven.....JUST in case they started to drip. The Swiss chard is from our patio pots.

Chicken Paprikash tonight for me and the couple in the building for whom I cook Wednesdays.  I used a recipe from Sheila Lukens' cookbook, but added potatoes and carrots to it.  My DIL's mother was Hungarian, and she always put those in.  Good, but I made too much again!

Tonight’s dinner for me and the couple here in the building. A combination of a chicken Paprikash from Sheila Lukas’ all around the world cookbook and my DIL’s recipes. Very good.

We had a lasagna bolognese from Omaha Steaks. Joe really liked it. Not as acidic as a heavy tomato based sauce. It made me go hunting for a lasagna bolognese recipe that I can make at home.

Bugster2 wrote:We had a lasagna bolognese from Omaha Steaks. Joe really liked it. Not as acidic as a heavy tomato based sauce. It made me go hunting for a lasagna bolognese recipe that I can make at home.

Have you tried the bolognese sauces made with cream? The lactose breaks down the meat and 'tempers' the tomatoes.....

I make lasagna with Bechemal that everyone loves.

I made Marcella Hazan's recipe for bolognese a couple weeks ago. Somehow it was lacking. Maybe it is because she didn't use any herbs. I have a Junior League recipe that is similar to a bolognese. The lasagna also uses a bechamel. It is good.
I don't no boil noodles. Is there something else that is similar to fresh out there?

When we were in Orlando earlier in the week I had a chance to stop at the Asian Market ~ I wanted to stock up on the Korean BBQ Sauce we like and get other odds & ends like dark soy, shaoxing wine, rice wine and a few other things. I always try to pick up some of their fresh vegetables and got a bag of bok choy. As I was walking along the produce I saw a Chinese mother return the bag of bok choy she had in her basket and pick up some beautiful 'butter' bok choy. It was stocked past the regular baby bok choy so, taking that as a hint, I also put back the bag of baby bok choy I had and picked up the butter bok choy. I'm using some tonight in a beef stir fry and as I was washing it I could tell why it was the better choice. It's super small, CLEAN, and very, very fresh. I'm looking forward to having it in a little while.

My beef stir fry with butter bok choy was a rousing success! Even HE, who claims to not care for bok choy, said it was "better than usual"......which is approval in a way. But I, who really DOES like any bok choy, thought it was fabulous! I used the last of the pea pods we grew in patio pots, added the few green beans that were ready to be picked (but not enough for a meal) and sliced carrots, celery & onion as always. The beef was just some thinly sliced sirloin that I marinated in a dusting of baking soda & flour with a bit of sesame oil.

I threw together a 'sauce' (because HE thinks it's necessary to flavor the really flavorful basmati rice) with some oyster sauce, sambal chili paste, ponzu sauce, brown sugar and chicken stock ~ thickened it with a light cornstarch slurry.

Once everything is cut and ready to go it's a 15 minute meal.