A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Oktoberfest All Week: Jagerschnitzel

One of the things I find most intriguing about exploring culture cooking is that we all eat the same things, we just call them different things and prepare them in slightly different ways.  I'm talking about things like finding out as an adult that the exotic-sounding  polenta is really the cornmeal mush of my youth, or that tonight's Jagerschnitzel is pounded pork chops with delicious mushroom gravy.  I admit the jokester in me sometimes enjoys giving Gene that hour or two of wondering what in the heck we're going to be eating and then seeing the relief in his eyes when the odd sounding "Oktoberfest Jagerschnitzel" meal I made was just his beloved pork chops and mushroom gravy, although really rich gravy since it's made with sour cream instead of just corn starch thickening the pan drippings.

Leftovers: Vodka-Marinated Pork Roast Enchiladas

Had some of the vodka-marinated pork roast leftover from the other day and wondered "What to do? What to do?"  We'd already eaten sandwiches and still there were yummy chunks sitting in the fridge.  I hated to waste it but we were getting a little tired of it in it's current incantation. 

I remembered a trick my beautiful friend, Sher of What Did You Eat?,told me she used as a waste not/want not trick. Any time she had leftover meat or roasted chicken that she didn't want to waste, she'd grab a few tortillas and whatever else she had in the fridge for filling, make up enchiladas and then freeze them individually without sauce and keep them in marked gallon freezer bags.  Then, on nights she didn't feel like making dinner into a big a production she'd grab a couple each for her and Bob,  sauce them with whatever salsa she had in the pantry for just that purpose, layer some nice melty monterrey jack on top, and voila, dinner is served.

I followed in her footsteps except I did go ahead and sauce mine.  The batch of two became my work "lunch" one night last week and the second batch went into a foil pan into the freezer so that all that has to be done is for it to be thawed and thrown in the oven.  I ran out of tortillas at the end so the rest of the pork ended up being spooned around the sides, just more porky goodness.

There is no specific recipe for this.  But here's how I did it:  I chopped up the remaining pork roast, added the half jar of red salsa I happened to have in the fridge, and a handful of shredded cheese.  Sher used to also add any beans she had leftover, corn, potatoes, whatever sounded good to her mixed together.  I put a couple of large spoonfuls of the mixture into the center of the tortillas, rolled them up, and placed them seam side down in a sprayed baking dish.  Then I poured over a jar of salsa verde (gre) I had in the pantry and topped it with another handful of shredded colby/monterrey jack mix.  From there or once thawed if frozen, it's just a matter of baking them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered and then another 10-20 minutes uncovered until cheese is slightly browned and the everything is hot and bubbly.

Originally the second pan (freezer ones) were made for Auntie Miranda but since she wasn't able to drop by the day she thought she would, I just stuck them in the freezer...we'll see who ends up feasting on them, her or us, depending on who gets out of the mood to cook first.

Kitchen of Light: Vodka-Marinated Pork Roast

 Last weekend I played around with a couple of new cookbooks. This pork roast recipe came from Kitchen of Light by Andreas Viestad of the PBS cooking show of the same name. The cookbook is just as fun to read as it is to cook from so far so I'll be making more dishes from it soon.

One of the things I liked about this recipe is that the vodka based marinade seemed to more effectively carry the herb flavors into the center of the meat than other oil/acid marinade combinations I've used in the past.  There was no taste of vodka or alcohol but the fresh herbs seemed brightened by the alcohol as a base.

There was a cute story attached to the recipe where Andreas said he made it for the show Scandinavian Cooking in Svalbard, an Arctic island north of Norway.  He said that out of all their supplies to prepare the dish, the only thing that didn't freeze was the vodka.  I'm thinking he's lucky he had any left for the recipe. I think in the Arctic I'd be downing the hooch to warm up.

Niece Jordan's Birthday Party

 

It might seem a little odd that most of the family parties are at my house but I think it's about me being the oldest of our five kids and our mom having passed away 20 years ago. I've become the matriarch of my little family, sort of Grandma by Proxy.  So for many years, the niece and nephews have all expected to have their birthday parties at "Aunt Gonnie's". 

Since I make the cakes and do most of the cooking, it's very convenient for me.  I've always felt a little guilty that I'm the one who learned to cook but, being the oldest, I was the sergeant-at-arms in my mother's kitchen for as long as I can remember, and my little sister, Jordan's mom, being six years younger was mostly kicked out to go play.  Lucky her in ways!  Not that she's a bad cook, she just didn't get the same experience I did in the large family/trial by fire way I did.

  

Jordan requested her menu, which is our tradition, Ziti "with pepperoni" and "strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream and blue roses".  I can dig it.  Ever since Jordan was a toddler her favorite meal has been spaghetti but as she's gotten older she's added the spicy pungency of pepperoni to her favorites and strawberry cake has won her heart since she was a baby.  That I bought strawberry cheesecake ice cream to go with it was like a strawberry sugar nirvana shared by all.

The menu board to the left is a little freebie bank whiteboard give-away we got years ago that's always been my little party cheat sheet. It's on the fridge so that I, and anyone in the kitchen helping me, can consult to avoid the common after dinner "Oh crap! We forgot the ___" moment.

 

I'll give the recipe below. We found the Ziti with Pepperoni to be an excellent choice for a crowd, easy to prepare in advance and a hit with everyone. 

It is also my entry in this week's Presto Pasta Nights, created by wonderful Ruth at Once Upon a Feastand hosted this week by Sara of I'm a Food Blog .  On Friday of this coming week, be sure to stop by to see all the pasta doings going on.

Additionally on the menu:

 

Basic spring salad of leaf lettuces, chunked zucchini, celery, spring onions, tomatoes, shredded carrots, and edible flowers from the garden:  Sweet William and Purslane.

Accompanying the salad was a host of bottled dressings for the timid and a home-made lemon vinaigrette for Auntie Miranda and I, made from lemon balm and parsley fresh from the garden.  The recipe for this also, is below.

Later this week a post a few pics of the "garden", not traditional rows or square foot, my garden is a fairly ambitious collection of pots on the back porch...I'll also write a separate post on the cake with more behind the scenes pics of making the gumpaste flowers.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, vivacious, growing-up-way-too-fast, fabulous niece, Jordan!

Halushki

 

Gene and I were watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives a few days ago on Food Network and we were both struck by this dish served at a diner owned by a Polish family.  We both kept trying to get the name of it so I could Google it but the best we could come up with was that it rhymed with "push-key".  So instead I Googled "egg noodle and cabbage recipe" and Halushki popped up. Damn, I love the internet!

I ran to the store to get the ingredients, popped out an email to Auntie Miranda inviting her over for an "experiment" supper on her way from work, and it's now become a regular addition to our dinner repertoire.

I researched several versions of the recipe and found that the four common ingredients in all of the recipes are:  butter, onion, cabbage, and egg noodles.  You can make it from that simple vegetarian one pot meal (vegan if you sub out the butter), or you can add a few simple things to jazz it up a bit, like potatoes and/or bacon, thin-sliced cooked pork loin, chop, or ham.  I happened to have some proscuitto that needed to be used so that's what I picked and it was lovely.  Gene's comment was "Wow! I can't even taste the cabbage! I was a little worried about that!"  Okay, that made me laugh but he was right. It doesn't have an overwhelmingly cabbage-y taste.  The cabbage mixed nicely with the onions to create a simple sweetness to the noodles. Very comforting and homey.

It's also the perfect dish for my new quest for simplicity:  it's easy, quick, yummy, healthy, and cheap.  It doesn't get much cheaper than a $ .59 in cabbage, $ .25 egg noodles, $ .10 onion, and a few strips of bacon or in my case, some leftover proscuitto and the entire cooking time was maybe a half hour and most of that was cooking down the onion and cabbage.  The finished one pot meal fed the three of us and Gene and I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Hamming it up with Mac & Cheese

I baked a five pound ham the other night. For most people with kids that would be no big deal but for Gene and I that means several days of leftovers plus a bag of "ham for beans" in the freezer.  Which is fine. We both love ham, grew up on it, and would rather have a week of overkill after baking a real bigger ham, than to suffer through all the smaller processed versions that to us all taste like Spam. 

My friend, Jennifer, and I were talking about ham and she mentioined that she loves to sprinkle ground cloves, brown sugar, and honey on her ham before she bakes/crockpots it.  Of course I've seen all the pics of clove and pineapple studded hams before but never actually done that.  I like Jennifer's method. It cuts to the chase.  So I did as she said, only added cardamom and a small can of apricot nectar.  The juices were so nice to spoon over and smelled delicious while baking. Yum!

The first night we ate the aromatic slices with mashed potatoes, the second day for lunch we had ham sandwiches, and last night we had a down home casserole of ham chunks covered with homemade macaroni and cheddar.

The inspiration for the ham, mac, & cheese night's dinner came from Ruth at Once Upon a Feast with her Presto Pasta Nights blogging event.  One night dedicated to pasta. I like that.  Pasta is so varied and versatile that I like being remineded that Gene can live without potatoes one night a week. Not that he's a jerk about it, he was just raised, like a lot of people, thinking that a meal wasn't a meal without a potato in it.

Check out Ruth's round up later this week by clicking HERE.

Sweet/Sour Pork for Auntie Miranda

Auntie Miranda had asked for sweet/sour chicken in the comments of my Springfield-style Cashew Chicken post.  This isn't chicken but the sauce is good. Not like our Springfield-style sauce that everyone in the take-out restaurants serves, but very good.  Less sweet and not as thick.  So you could prepare the chicken in the same manner as the cashew chicken recipe and then use this sauce...

This recipe is not authentic by any stretch of the imagination but it is good eats, as Alton Brown might say.  Mom made it for years and I remember sitting at the kitchen table during one of my college breaks at home, copying this down from her recipe box.  Mom died in '87.  One of the things I like most to do to remember her is to thumb through some of the recipe cards she wrote out and sent to me at college, or her notes in a couple of cookbooks and cake decorating books of hers that I own now. I love seeing where she's marked through and changed ingredient measurements.  I guess I come by all my tweakings honestly, right?  She also used to make little notes to herself, simply saying "very good" or "no".  Makes me feel closer to her to see her handwriting. I still make this recipe the same way she did. Okay, well, I added snow peas. I can't help it.  I can't cook inside the box, okay?    But neither could she.  We must have both gotten the "tweaking" gene.

Apple Bourbon Pork Tenderloin: A Manly Recipe

Everyone remember my buddy Chris from Respiratory school?  He of the white trash green bean and tater tot casserole? 

Chris has a new recipe to share with us.  I lifted the directions right off his very own blog:

<<<Apple Bourbon Pork Tenderloin

step one: get in your car 

step two:  drive to wal-mart 

step three: pick up a apple bourbon tenderloin 

step four:  pay for it 

step five: once home cook it for 35 minutes at 425 degrees.

step six: add your favorite sides (i chose green beans and shells and cheese) and enjoy!>>>

And now you all know his secret recipe.

Just for Torture: Goodbye to Mr. BLT, We Loved You Well

I forgot to do a post on this back when we all still had those juicy red luscious tomatoes from the garden, or the neighbor's garden, in my case.  At the time I also had yummy soft croissants from the bakery, thick-cut hickory smoked bacon from Schwan's, extra spicy clear-your-sinuses mustard, crisp boston lettuce, and a red onion with a bite.  Sigh.

I love everything about fall: the colors, the coolness, the food, the harbinger of the holidays, but I'm a bit sorry to say goodbye to summer as the cold weather moves in. It always makes me both energetic in that fall feels like the REAL New Year but always whistful to put an end to another summer.  Each year, I'm a little psychologically off balance for the first few weeks of cool weather, as if I've misplaced something in my life, and then one day I suddenly realize once again that, oh yeah, it was summer that I lost and it will be back again next year.

I finally got my daffodil and crocus bulbs in the ground today and had wear a jacket to do it.  That makes it an official goodbye.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce that tastes like it should be fattening (but it's not!)

So, as I've said, I've had a lot going on lately with friends, family, work, etc.  Not that I'm complaining or saying that my busy is any busier than your busy.  You know how it is. We all get overwhelmed from time to time. Or maybe it's underwhelmed--with the to-do list, that is, and can't seem to keep up.  But I'm feeling better, a little more energetic, and more in control of all the juggling balls in the air for the time being.

To celebrate the return to "my so-called life" (isn't there a movie with that name?) I decided to make Gene one of his favorite meals: Pork Chops and mashed potatoes.  To offset the triglyceride-raising starch in the potatoes, I bought the leanest, thinnest chops I could find and even though I decided to spoil him with a sauce, I faked him out by making it seem rich while it was really practically fat free and even had the extra boon of--what?-- a VEGETABLE!  I don't think he realizes that mushrooms count as a vegetable even though they're not green.  Please, I beg you, no one tell him, okay?  It will be our little secret. 

I'm kidding. He's not quite that bad.  And he's charming about his distrust of vegetables in his own little frustrating way. Frustrating to me, as in, I have to remind him every single spring "Yes, I swear on the family Bible you LIKE asparagus. I'm not kidding."  He takes a bite and then says, nodding, "Oh yeah. I remember now. I do like this."  Every year, folks. Every. Single. Year.