What You Should Have Eaten #22

Sliced Herb and Garlic Tagliata
over Shaved Portobello, Celery, and Parmigiano-Reggiano Salad

This is a big undertaking for me. First, it’s the first time that I’ll be cooking steaks on my grill. I’m nervous and excited. Second, I’m throwing in some sweet potato fries. Why not? Third, the cocktail I’m having is something that I created.

I went the obvious route with the drink. The advocaat I’m trying to get rid of is egg based, so why not French Toast? Plus, with the ingredients and the fact that it’s a mixed drink, it’s also a play on words.

It’s a simple drink: advocaat and cognac with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon. Ooh, it looks like I’ve sorely underestimated my cognac supply. I could punch it up with a little brandy, but I think I’m just going to make it a shot.

When I travel, I like to get a new shot glass from wherever I’m visiting. It’s given me a small but interesting collection.

I didn’t plan on the shot being layered, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Looks kind of neat. And as a shot, it tasted pretty good. After last week’s debacle, I don’t think I can deal with an entire drink that’s mostly advocaat. It’s just too thick.

This is the first time I’ve actually chopped fresh garlic rather than using my jar of minced. Meh, too much work. I’m sure the minced would have worked just fine.

I didn't have much luck with the charcoal on my first few grilling attempts. I don't want to use lighter fluid, so I used rolled up newspaper pages as recommended by the little Weber booklet that came with the grill. Then I picked up this package of  Strike-A-Fire. It's like a giant, slow-burning match, and it's wonderful for getting the charcoal started.

I’m using baby portabello mushroom caps because they were a LOT cheaper.

I thought the steaks turned out wonderfully. Nicely done with a bit of pink in the middle. It was good by itself, but also nice with the salad.

I was most impressed with the sweet potato fries. I only used the recipe linked at the top for a basic guideline. I sliced up two sweet potatoes into somewhat thin fries. I tossed them in a bowl with some olive oil, then spread them on some aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. I then generously sprinkled some Seasonall all over them. Baked at 420 degrees for 45 minutes with a quick flip halfway through, and they ended up being delicious. Two out of the three kids liked them.

My sister wasn’t too keen on the idea of chocolate chip snickerdoodles, but she ended up having a few. She also named them. Since I used regular and white chocolate chips, we’re now calling them moo-doodles. I love it. 

What You Should Have Eaten #20

Make-Up Pecks

(Yeah, I went British with my title so I could get it to sound like make-up sex. I'm that guy.)

I realize I’ve been lax in my food-related postings. Work has been pretty hectic since about Thanksgiving, and my blog suffered. While work is still busy, it’s slightly LESS busy, and I’m hoping to get the blog a bit more regular, starting with the food posts. So here's a run-down of what I've been cooking lately. Click on the titles to go to the recipes.

Kentucky Bourbon Brownies

Island Bird: Pineapple-Rum Chicken

Jack Daniels Bread Pudding

Chicken, Corn, and Black Bean Stoup

Larfleeze's Orange Lantern Cookies

 

Turkey Club Super Mashers

Pork Chops with Grainy Mustard and Raisin Sauce (Let me know if you're interested in this one. I couldn't find the recipe online, so I'll get a picture from the book if you want it.)

Ginger-Soy Chicken on Shredded Lettuce

Peasant Soup

Spring Chicken with Leeks and Peas Served with Lemon Rice

Chicken and Rice Stoup

Swedish Meat Dumpling Stoup (with grilled ham and gouda sandwiches)

And just for kicks and giggles, here's some of what I was drinking when making these. Thrown in here is a shot of my liquor cabinet. It's well-stocked, and there's some vodka in the freezer, some advocaat in the fridge, and some aromatic bitters and grenadine on the top shelf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What You Should Have Eaten #17

Ham and Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

These cooking posts are going to be a little less stream of consciousness because I’ve moved my laptop out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. That means these aren’t usually written until I’m about to post them.

 

 

No cocktail tonight for two reasons. One, I’m cooking with wine, so usually that means I’m drinking it, too. Two, I’ve been feeling like crap for the better part of a week, and I don’t usually like to drink then. That’s not saying that I haven’t been, though. Upon the advice of my boss, I’ve found a tasty recipe for a Hot Toddy, and I’ve been having one of those before bed. Now, I’m not saying that they’ve been making me feel better, but I’m also not saying that they’re not helping at all.

 

 

 

 

I pour a shot of Jack into a coffee mug and punch it up with a little lemon juice. Since I don’t have a tea pot or kettle, I have to setting for nuking some water in the microwave. Before pouring the hot water into the mug, I drop some whole cloves and a cinnamon stick in there. Then I stir and add some honey. Like I said, I don’t know if it’s helping me any, but it tastes fantastic.

 

 

The dessert for this meal is some homemade chocolate chip cookies. After the success with the pumpkin pie, I’ve decided that I do indeed like baking, and my oldest son loves to help. We whipped up some cookies while the rest of the house napped. They’re great, and we’re pretty proud of ourselves.

The biggest problem I had with the cookies was cook time. I ended up making them bigger than recommended. It took longer than 10 minutes to cook them through, and I only got 42 instead of 60 cookies out of the batch.

On to the dinner.

I forgot to buy a bottle of wine while doing the grocery shopping on Saturday. Two things I dislike about living in Tennessee involve alcohol: 1) The only alcohol you can buy in a grocery or convenience store is beer (conversely, you can’t buy beer in a liquor store) and 2) liquor stores aren’t open on Sunday. So I had my sister pick up a bottle on Saturday night, and she got a Gato Negro Sauvignon Blanc. Since I wasn’t drinking anything harder than orange juice, I only had a swig of it, but it was passable enough, especially for the price.

 

I used two of my favorite foods in this recipe: smoked Gruyere and maple-glazed honey-coat ham, both by Boar’s Head. The Gruyere is seriously the best cheese I’ve ever eaten, and the ham is what I’d buy every week if I could afford to buy fresh, deli-sliced lunchmeat all the time.

Slicing the pork chops was one of the nastiest things I’ve ever done. I actually had to hold the raw chops in my hand while slicing down the side. I’ve made this meal before, but I must have bought boneless, butterflied chops then. I would have remembered doing this.

Next time I make this meal (because it WILL happen again), I’m going to use smaller pieces of Gruyere, and I might go back to the pre-cut chops. I had a difficult time getting these things fully cooked through. Turns out that what I was seeing as uncooked meat was actually pink from the ham, I don’t know, transferring to the pork chop. I may have actually over-cooked the stuffed part of the chops while undercooking the tiny part that I didn’t slice open.