anniemiz

Mmm Mmm Monday: Apple Crumb Pie

Kevin made this tasty apple crumb pie (recipe from allrecipes) to bring to Thanksgiving Dinner.  We went to Kevin's brother, Chris, and Chris's family, wife Kirsten and daughters Ashley and Sydney.  He followed the recipe exactly so I'll just copy and paste it below.

Ingredients

• Pastry for a single-crust 9-inch pie (Kevin made the crust from a recipe at allrecipes, but I can't find the particular recipe at the moment)
• 6 cups chopped, peeled tart apples
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cold butter (he added a little more butter)

Instructions

1. Line a 9-in. pie plate with pastry; flute edges. In a large bowl, combine the apples, butter, sour cream, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon into pastry shell. For topping, combine flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling.
2. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the apples are tender. Cool on a wire rack.

He also broiled the pie for a few minutes after baking in order to brown the top a little.

Mmm Mmm Monday: What a Lucky Man He Was

Kevin has been such the lucky dog lately.  He's won his fantasy football league weekly thing 4 times already this season.  He won 5 tickets to watch a game from a fancy pants corporate box at the new Mets stadium (he and his buddies had a blast...I like when he goes out with the guys...he comes back buzzed, overfed, stinky, and generally presents himself in quite a foul state, but he's had so much fun!...they go out 1x or 2x/year...one time some of them ended up in the Hudson and one guy lost half his clothes there...as long as they get themselves a car service and stay on the side of legal activities for the most part, I don't care what they do).

One of the best things he's won lately was a big electric roaster.  We went to the annual tricky tray dinner fundraiser for PATCH, the cat shelter.  With your dinner ticket purchase, you get a sheet of tricky tray tickets (say that two times fast).  Kevin put ONE ticket in the bag for the roaster.

Here's my strategy for these things: I know it's all for a good cause and all that bs, but I admit that I like to come home with at least one thing.  I cruise the aisles of prizes and settle on one item and put all my tickets in there.  Yes, I put all my eggs in one basket (sometimes it seems like it all comes back to chickens).  Usually, there's one thing that grabs my fancy right away.  Not this time, although if I were familiar with roasters I would have put my tickets in it's ticket bag tout suite.  I finally did settle on the roaster.  I put in the whole sheet of tickets included in the dinner ticket price plus $60 worth of extra tickets (and here I stop to emphasize, once again, that my Thursday Thrift posts are really more of an academic rather than practical exercise).  And the winner is......Kevin with his ONE ticket.  Here's the roaster:

He's made a number of things already.  He's using very basic recipes at first, just to get the feel of the thing.  Here's a chicken (again with the chicken) pre-roast:

Post-roast:

All that yummy goodness in the bottom of the roaster, just begging to be deglazed:

 Pork roast:

An early Thanksgiving meal:

 And yes, I generally fall off the vegetarian wagon when Kevin cooks this kind of stuff.  For some reason, I've developed more of an aversion to eating pork and beef than chicken (!) and poultry.  I don't think I had any of the pork roast; I prolly had at least a few bites of the chicken; I definitely had the turkey...that's my plate right there.

The roaster does exactly what the oven does, but it seems so handy!  I think I like (in theory, not in practice, bc I haven't actually used the thing myself):

• it's portable; you can move it into another room if you like; when Googling about these things, one guy says he likes to put it outside during hot weather bc it avoids heating up the kitchen and they often eat outside anyway
• bc you put it wherever you want, e.g., on the counter, it's at a convenient height: no bending or lifting
• you can wash it in the sink which is easier than cleaning an oven; even a self-cleaning oven needs to have the residual stuff wiped out of it which requires that one get down on one's knees

Pretty much any oven recipe can be made in the roaster, but here are some links to roaster recipes found via Google:

• cooks.com
• Nesco
• Rival

Mmm Mmm Monday: Black Bean & Salsa Soup

This Black Bean & Salsa Soup recipe from allrecipes is so good and so easy!  This time I made it pretty much according to the instructions; it probably lends itself to variations and additions.  It's fast, too: the stated "Ready In: 20 min." is right on.  The 4 servings are on the small side.  Dunno if you can tell from the picture, but that's 1 serving and it's in a shallow bowl.  I.e., the 4 servings here might satisfy 2 teenage boys.  Might.  As always, changes in italics.

Ingredients

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (used a whole can which is 14 oz....it was fine)

1 cup chunky salsa (you could prolly increase or decrease heat to taste via the salsa; I used a medium salsa today)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion (forget to get this so didn't use)

cilantro

Instructions

1. In an electric food processor or blender, combine beans, broth, salsa, and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth. (I used a blender.)
2. Heat the bean mixture in a saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated.
3. Ladle soup into 4 individual bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sour cream and 1/2 tablespoon green onion.

Notes for next time:

• Reserve some beans -- maybe 1/2 can -- and do not put these through the blender.  Heat them along with the blended stuff.  I think it would have a nice look and texture with some whole beans in it.
• Add in some other veggies to zhuzz up the color and add some other tastes, e.g., corn, diced red pepper, diced carrots, etc.  Small pieces and don't put them through the blender.
• I put some dried cilantro on top, mostly for garnish.  Next time I would put some fresh cilantro in the blender.
• As with other recipes, I might add some spinach in toward the end of the heating time.

Mmm Mmm Monday: Veggie No Boiling Lasagna

Today I made this Veggie No Boiling Lasagna recipe from allrecipes.com.  All Recipes seems to be the place for me to get recipes lately.  I was going to make a slow cooker lasagna recipe from somewhere else on the internet, but this recipe used up more ingredients and, due to a sale on mozzarella and ricotta, I had a bunch on hand.  Here's the recipe; changes are in italics.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

a few garlics

1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced - didn't use this

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced - didn't use this 

2 (15 ounce) containers ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 10 oz. pkgs frozen chopped spinach, thawed

2 small cans sliced mushrooms, drained

Italian herbs to taste

2 (26 ounce) jars Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce - used whatever sauce I had on hand

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook onion, garlic, red pepper and zucchini, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, combine ricotta cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. eggs, spinach, mushrooms & herbs in medium bowl.
3. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Layer 4 uncooked noodles, then 1 cup sauce, 1/2 of the cheese etc. mixture; repeat. Top with remaining uncooked noodles and 2 cups sauce.
4. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake uncovered 10 minutes or until the cheese browns ever so nicely. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This turned out pretty darn well.  I suspect I ended up with more cheese etc. filling mixture than the original recipe, what with adding the spinach and mushrooms.  And my pan floweth over a bit due to all that cheesy goodness.   I would definitely make this recipe again and expect that it lends itself to variation, e.g., broccoli instead of spinach.  I do think that I may need to add sauce when I heat this up for leftovers, but I won't know that until tomorrow.

Pictures will have to come later bc my laptop is in use on Kevin's lap as he follows his fantasy football team while watching Monday Night Football.

BTW, last week's recipe, Slow Cooker London Broil, did turn out well.  I will definitely make it again; in fact, I bought and froze a coupla London Broil just in case of an emergency that requires that one cook a London Broil.  We had this with some supah fresh potatoes from the farmers' market...they were heavenly.  I think the meat in that recipe would also shred well after cooking and do well over egg noodles (of which I also have an emergency package at the ready).  It ended up with a lot of gravy, as in way too much gravy, so I would reduce the liquid in the future, although one does want to keep the salt factor from the soup mix in mind.  As some reviewers suggested, you can play around and make your own seasoning if you prefer that to the mix or don't have the mix on hand (yes, yes, I have the mix on hand...I am so ready to make this again!).  Even with less gravy, I might increase the Worcestershire sauce and I might add in some other things to shuzz it up a bit.  As it is, it's a very meat and potatoes kinda meal.  Not that that's a bad thing.

(Maybe) Mmm Mmm Monday: Slow Cooker London Broil

I'm just turning on the crock pot to get this recipe going to be ready for Kevin at dinner tonight (Kev's on his own for dinner on Monday nights bc that's my night at work).  It's Slow Cooker London Broil from allrecipes.  It sounds very retro, what with the two canned soups and the one onion soup mix.  It's got 4 out of 5 stars after 474 reviews so I'm inclined to try it.  This very classy reviewer only gave it 3 stars:

For me this recipe was just "ok"...sorry. Ingredients reminded me a lot of my simple, yet amazing Pot Roast, only with the tomato soup.

Sounds like that old joke where the movie star says to their conversational partner, 'But enough about me.  What do you think of my new movie?'

The linked recipe calls for a 2 lb. flank steak, but I had defrosted a twin pack that had a 2 lb. and a 1 lb. for a total of 3 lb.  I could have done just the 2 lb. steak, but then I'd still have a defrosted 1 lb. steak just sitting around waiting for someone to cook it.  Ideally, I should have separated the steaks before freezing bc how much steak do two people (and one of them a sorta vegetarian) need?  Here's the recipe; changes to the linked recipe are in italics:

Ingredients

• 3 lb. flank steak
• 2 (10.75 oz.) cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 (10.75 oz.) cans of condensed cream of tomato soup
• 1 (1 oz.) package of dry onion soup mix
• 2 c. vegetable broth (some of the reviews said the gravy was very thick, i.e., too thick; since I didn't want it too thick and I had more meat I added in some veggie broth I had thawed out for something else)
• 2 T. Worcestershire sauce (one of the reviewers suggested adding W-sauce and it seemed to be a popular edit among the reviewers)

Instructions:

1. Spray the empty crock pot with cooking spray or brush with oil.
2. Put into the crock pot: condensed soups, onion soup mix, broth and W-sauce.  Stir.
3. Add meat to crockpot; cut to fit if necessary.
4. Cover, and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours.

The original recipe uses 1 can each of mushroom and tomato soup and 1 pkg. of onion soup mix.  A number of reviewers felt that the amount of onion soup mix made it too salty, so I doubled the amount of canned soup while keeping the dry soup mix amount the same.  I did that to:

• have enough liquid for the extra meat and
• try to avoid a too salty gravy.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

(Sort of) Mmm Mmm Monday: Lentil Soup

Okay, peeps, today's recipe is another allrecipes.com contribution: Lentil Soup.  It came out okay; I thought it wasn't very flavorful although the recipe got great reviews at allrecipes so I'm probably doing something wrong.  I would make it again, esp. if I have ideas for shzuzzing it up.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Anyway, here's the recipe; changes in italics.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil (probably didn't use 1/4 c.; that's kinduva lot)
• 2 carrots, diced (probably used more; I like carrots in soup)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups dry lentils
• 8 cups water (used veggie broth - homemade!)
• 1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced (used more; didn't slice it; just put it in at the end and let the heat wilt it)
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (used balsamic; used more than 2 T.; maybe 4 T.?)
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• added some cumin to shzuzz it up a bit, flavor-wise

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes. (sauteed the veggies in a separate pan bc I needed to thaw the broth over heat and didn't want the veggies to over cook by being in the broth that whole time)
2. Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.

Servings: a lot. The recipe says 6 servings, but it seems more than that.

Forgot to thaw out the veggie broth so did it over heat:

Sauteeing the veggies in that wondrous wonder, the cast iron skillet:

Everything together:

Possibly the biggest bay leaf I've ever seen:

 In goes the spinach:

My soup looks very different from the allrecipes picture bc I used an immersion blender to smoosh some of it; I prefer my lentil soup (and most bean-based soups) with at least some of their contents smooshed.

Mmm Mmm Monday: Barley, Mushrooms, Beans & Spinach...Thing

We're back, with more beans and better than ever.  So I have all this stuff in the pantry: canned beans, dry lentils, dry pinto beans, barley, canned tomatoes, vinegars and oils, herbs, spices, etc.  I guess it's a good thing to have the basics on hand, especially as a budding vegetarian, but then I see all these half-empty containers of grains, beans, etc. and a half dozen cans of a half dozen kinds of beans and so on, and the Junior OCD in me wants to clear stuff out.  So I rooted around allrecipes.com for recipes to use up some stuff and found Barley and Mushrooms with Beans, which I then proceeded to hand over to Kevin to cook for us the other night.

As always, the link is there, but here's the recipe, too, along with changes Kevin made noted in italics.

Ingredients

• 1 t. olive oil (didn't use this bc he didn't saute the veggies at the beginning)
• 3 c. sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 1/2 c. chopped celery
• 1/4 c. chopped sweet red pepper (mostly for color)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. uncooked barley (1 c. uncooked barley)
• 3 c. vegetable broth (homemade!)
• 1 15.5 oz. can white beans, drained (cannellini beans...are these different from white beans?  I dunno)
• fresh spinach
• grated parmesan
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in medium saucepan and stir in mushrooms, onion, celery & garlic; saute until tender.
2. Mix barley & broth into the saucepan; bring to a boil; cover & reduce heat.  Simmer, 40 - 45 minutes, until barley is tender.
3. Stir beans into the barley mix; cook about 5 minutes, until beans are heated.

What we Kevin really did:

1. Mix barley & broth into the saucepan; bring to a boil; cover & reduce heat.  Simmer, 40 - 45 minutes, until barley is tender.
2. When barley is almost tender, stir in mushrooms, onion, celery & garlic.
3. Add in some fresh spinach just before taking the saucepan off the heat.  Add the spinach at the very end so that it just wilts a little before you take it off the heat.
4. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
5. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Servings: 6

Notes:

• Some of the changes were suggested by reviewers at allrecipes.  There were other good suggestions; you might find some you might prefer to try.
• One reviewer noted that the veggies had lost their crunch by the end of the cooking process so they suggested cooking them separately and putting them in at the end which is kind of what Kevin did.  He put them in at the end, but didn't saute them at all; just let them cook as the barley finished cooking.
• Another suggestion was to reduce the amount of broth and/or increase the amount of barley bc it's kinda mushy otherwise.  Kevin increased the amount of barley.
• One such suggestion was to use red kidney beans instead of the white beans.  This is prolly yummy and it would add a little much needed color to a rather beige dish.  Another suggestion was to use a combo of different mushrooms; I bet that would add some interesting flavors.
• This could be a side dish or, as we ate it the other night, a light meal.
• This reheated well on the stove with a little liquid (I used broth) added to it; it seems to thicken up a bit by leftover time.  It did not reheat well in the microwave bc the beans blew up!

Mmm Mmm Monday: Smoked Salmon Snackage

Today's post is about one of the snacks Kevin likes to eat while watching football.  He has a small repertoire of snackage he enjoys on a Sunday during football season.  Today he went with the following:

• smoked salmon
• capers
• red onion
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• crushed black pepper

He also had some tasty, crusty sourdough bread dipped in olive oil and something or other on the side, but I don't have a picture of that.

 

Jacques Pepin did a guest shot on a public television beg-a-thon a year or so ago.  They showed some episodes from his show, Jacques Pepin: Fast Food, My Way.  I love watching him.  One episode he showed a bunch of different garnishes and my word, the things that man does with a tomato!  Another thing he did was to cure salmon himself.  I think this is what he did.  I Googled for the recipe, but couldn't find it.  He bought some supa fresh salmon.  Sliced it supa thin.  Spread out the slices on a large plate.  Sprinkled the salmon with coarse salt.  Covered it with plastic wrap.  After maybe 15-20 minutes, he pronounced it ready.  I dunno if I would do that myself at home bc I'd be petrified that I wouldn't cure it properly and serve food poisoning along with the salmon, although I have to say, he made it look incredibly simple.  I think I'm just too terrified of food poisoning.  I had it about 30 years ago and it was such a horrible experience I'd do anything, including overreacting, to avoid it.

We have a book of his at work, Jacques Pepin: More Fast Food, My Way.  Now, some of the recipes were decidedly not fast except, of course, if you're Jacques Pepin.  E.g., one recipe uses chopped lemon, but first you peel, section and then skin the sections.  That's a bit much for 'fast food'.  Still, the recipes often use fresh ingredients and are very yummy.  Jacques does seem to love his salmon and, since Kevin does, too, I will direct him to Jacques's website.  He could probably find himself some tasty new salmon recipes for future football Sundays.
 

Mmm Mmm Monday: Huevos Rancheros with Black Beans

Today's recipe comes from the cookbook, The Daily Bean, by Suzanne Caciola White.  I borrowed this cookbook from another library via the interlibrary loan system.  I highly recommend that system.  I took some likely sounding recipes from it and am trying them out little by little in my quest to incorporate more beans into our meals.  No visuals bc I ate first and thought later.

4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 t. canola oil (I think we used olive oil bc that's what we had)
• 2 green peppers, cut into strips
• 1 c. thinly sliced red onion
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced (normally, I would keep these out of at least my portion, but they weren't that hot; I couldn't even taste them; let someone w/a sturdy tongue taste them before you decide whether or not to include them)
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (we drained these bc it looked like it would be too liquidy with all the juice and I'm glad we did)
• 1 14.5 oz. black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 t. balsamic vinegar
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 T. finely chopped cilantro (we used dried -- and therefore less of it -- bc we didn't have fresh)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 4 medium (8") tortillas
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese (this is a lot of cheese; you could probably do with 1/2 c.)

Instructions

1. Heal oil in large nonstock skillet.  Add green pepper, onion and jalapenos; cook for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in tomatoes, bean, vinegar, cumin, cilantro and salt; cook 5 minutes or until it's heated through and veggies are soft.

3. Spray a nonstick skillet w/cooking spray and heat over medium heat.*  Add the tortillas one at a time and warm for 1 minute on each side.  Remove from skillet and cover to keep warm.  **

4. Remove the skillet from the heat and respray with cooking spray.  Heat again over medium heat.  Add whole eggs and cook until whites begin to set, about 2 minutes.  Gently flip the eggs***, leaving yolks intact.  Sprinkle with cheese, cover pan and cook for approximately 1 minute or until cheese is melted.

5. Place a corn tortilla on each plate, top with the bean mixture and place an egg, cheese side up, on top.

6. Optional: "A dollop of guacamole on the side is a good addition to this comfortable dish."  Comfortable.  I like that.

     * Or put in just a hint of oil.

 **  We microved each tortilla for a few seconds to avoid having to clean another skillet.

*** It's all in the wrist!  A gentle caress of the egg upon itself rather than a flip.

Thoughts

• We like this recipe; it's in the rotation now.
• It makes a lot of bean mixture; you could stretch it to make 6 servings (and then cook up 2 more eggs).
• We had leftovers of the bean mixture; it reheats well.
• Don't need to eat it in a tortilla; the next night we had it w/o the tortilla bc we'd run out.  A biscuit or toast on the side is yummy or no bread at all.
• Seems suitable to variations, e.g., different peppers, other vegels, maybe some corn, etc.

• Yummy as is, but a little sour cream on the side is not unwelcome (but then again, is it ever?).

Mmm Mmm Monday: Preparations Begin

Home sick today with a cold/flu/whatever (I never remember what the difference is).  Today we'll talk strategy.  Kevin now knows that he's been entered into the town's Chili Cook-Off next month.  He took it rather well and when I noted as much he said he was surprised I hadn't entered him earlier.  Well, I had thought of it, but was held back by all that nonsense about him being his own agent, me having no right to commit him to something w/o his knowledge and consent, he might have important and valid reasons for not entering himself in the past, etc. etc.  In other words, morality got in the way yet again, gamely assisted, as is often the case, by overthinking the issue.  Well, what's done is done; we must move forward in common cause.

The cook-off is on Saturday, October 24, beginning at 5:30 p.m., a mere 40 days away.  This affords him several weekends during which to practice his chili.  He doesn't make his chili often.  It's not a go-to meal and it's not something you whip up.  In fact, I can't remember the last time he made it.  Probably over last winter.  He'll make it a few times before the cook-off.  I'm sure I won't forget the next few weeks of chili-mania.

He made a double batch on Saturday.  As noted in the rules & regulations, entrants must provide a minimum of 3 half-size chafing dishes.  That will probably mean a triple batch for Kevin's recipe.  Chili, like so many soups and stews, are best no sooner than the day after they're made.  My take on this first batch is influenced, no doubt, by having a cold/flu/whatever, but here goes:

• nice heat level -- not too strong so as to blow out your nasal passages, not so wimpy as to be unnoticeable

• nice balance between meat and beans

• nice color

• could have a little more moisture to it for visual appeal, although this won't be problematic for the contest bc you get these Dixie cup type portions that don't allow a panoramic view of the chili

• interacted well with tortilla chips

• interacted fairly well with the cheese; I think the cheese might have been a bit wimpy for chili, but that's not the chili's problem; again, prolly not an issue for the contest bc you don't get enough chili to mix in much cheese, chips, cornbread, etc.

• I think it's missing a flavor independent of the heat-producing ingredients.  I'm not sure what I mean here.  Hmmmm, let me think on this.  No, I most definitely don't know what I'm talking about here, but that's never stopped me before.  Maybe it could use a heartier and/or more flavorful base.  Maybe it could use a little sweet to party with the heat.

• Visually,  I like the look of discrete red kidney beans against the meaty background.  I know some chili and bean dishes remove some of the beans during cooking, mash them and then add them back in.  This changes the consistency of the dish.  It also makes some of the beans not so discrete.  I don't know that that would add or detract anything from this recipe; it's a variable to consider, though.

This batch will get some additional feedback from my co-workers.  Co-worker Laura (she of the Thursday Thrift appearance) came by to pick it up a couple of hours ago.  Another co-worker, Joe, just finished his MLIS degree and the staff is having a little celebration (any excuse for Stephanie to make punch).  Kevin made the double batch with the idea that I would bring some in to work today to feed the revelers and get feedback, but I was sick so Laura very kindly came to pick it up.  In the meantime, I will research ways and means to add a flavor, that certain je ne sais quoi, to the chili w/o losing or detracting from the essential chili-ness of the chili.  You understand.