OK I know what you’re thinking… another chili recipe?!@? Yeah, but this one is really really good. I’m a big chili fan and always keep my eye out for variations. This one has cinnamon and cloves in it along with more traditional chili seasonings and almost has an Indian-esque flavor to it. It also has beer in it 🙂 We both really loved this one. Really.
Posted in Beef
Tagged beer, bon appetit, boneless beef chuck, chile con carne, cinnamon, cloves, cubed, cumin, diced tomatoes, dutch oven, garlic, ground ancho chiles, masa, onion, oregano, recipe
This was a quick and easy soup to prepare that packed some great flavor with very few ingredients. 6 to be exact. It was also the first time I have ever cooked with leeks. I’ve been meaning to for a while and now that I have I don’t know how or why I waited so long! Leeks are like jumbo green onions, but you don’t use the dark green parts. They have an onion flavor that is nice and mild. They are really pretty too.
You see that gravy on the plate there? I have been calling it liquid gold because it was so, so good. You will be licking your plate clean, I can almost guarantee it. We recently received a Staub and this is another recipe from Molly Steven’s All About Braising using the cocotte. This was definitely a dish of a lot of firsts for me. This was the first time I ever cooked a whole chicken before, made stuffing from scratch (cooked inside the bird), and made such a delicious pan sauce. This may have been the best thing I ever made and it really was not too difficult at all. Like the pot roast it entailed many steps and a good few hours, but nothing was too technical or intimidating to take on. Again, this was a time consuming Sunday cooking event. I tried to time it so we ate before the AFC Championship game, but it took a little longer than expected and we ate at half time. Luckily since the Steelers had taken such a big lead my nerves were calm enough that I was able to eat!
Tagged All About Braising, bacon, baked ham, bay leaves, brasied, bread stuffing, carrots, cocette, gizzards, heart, homemade, lemon zest, Molly Stevens, neck, onions, recipe, rendered chicken fat, rosemary, schmaltz, staub, thyme, whole chicken
I found this recipe in the February 2011 issue of Bon Appetit and was instantly intrigued. I think I ended up making it the very next day after first reading it! It was a nice twist on a weekend breakfast and tasted rather gourmet when in reality was a breeze to make.
Posted in Breakfast
Tagged bon appetit, bread crumbs, creamed spinach, dijon mustard, dippy, eggs, mustard, olive oil, recipe, sunny side up eggs, thyme
For the holidays and our first anniversary present my dad gave us a Staub cocotte. My dad is an avid at home chef as well and he did the research for himself and went with a Staub over Le Creuset and thus gifted us with one as well.
It’s a nice big one too!
He also gave us two cookbooks: All About Braising by Molly Stevens and Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. Â So, needless to say this pot has become quite the superstar in our house lately!
The first recipe I made was courtesy of the Molly Steven’s book: Zinfandel Pot Roast with Glazed Carrots & Fresh Sage. Not only was the recipe easy to follow but she also gives good advice on selecting the right cuts of meat, step by step instructions on how to tie it correctly, and even how to select good parsnips. I found the tips on meat selection to be especially helpful as I was sifting through the meat choices at the supermarket. She suggested some cuts and stressed the importance of not selecting others. It gets really confusing to me so that was really nice.
As she suggested, I went with boneless beef chuck. The cuts at the store were on the smaller side so I bought two of them.
We are big fans of roasted cauliflower so when I saw this recipe for ‘bacon-flower soup‘ on Aarti’s blog I was instantly intrigued. Aarti won the show- “Next Food Network Star” and she is a food blogger in addition to being a TV chef nowadays. Pretty cool. This was the first recipe of her’s I’ve tried. Overall it went well despite having to google what a “rasher of bacon” was. Other than that though it was very easy to follow and the soup was good. Very interesting flavors all around.
Posted in Soups
Tagged aarti, bacon, cauliflower, cauliflower soup, entree soup, rasher of bacon, recipe, roasted cauliflower
On New Years Day our friends (and Wisconsin alum) Â invited us over to watch the Rose Bowl. The Badgers didn’t win, but they made an awesome lasagna using Ina Garten’s turkey lasagna recipe. It was so good and we were so impressed that I literally made it for us the very next day… with a twist of course. Instead of using lasagna noodles, I used spaghetti squash. If you are a fan of spaghetti squash and lasagna then you will truly love this recipe! No noodles at all and you won’t even miss ’em. There’s also goat cheese in this recipe. Need I say more? It is a match made in heaven as far as I am concerned!
This was another dish we made for our Christmas feast. I had some leftover marscapone from the stuffed mushrooms I made and thought I’d try to use it to make creamed spinach. As if creamed spinach needs to be more decadent?! It worked out well and everyone loved the spinach.
Posted in Sides, Vegetarian
Tagged creamed spinach, fresh spinach, garlic, leaf spinach, low carb, marscapone cheese, nutmeg, parmesan cheese, recipe, side dish, vegetarian
When we were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, my sister made these stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer and I absolutely loved them. It was just a matter of time before I found the perfect occasion to make them myself. I decided to give it a go on Christmas day and served them as an appetizer. They’d also be a great side dish.
As you can see from the photo I super stuffed these mushrooms, stacking extra filling on top. I still wound up with some extra stuffing despite this and they were not the most photogenic or pretty as they could have been, but I figured more stuffing > pretty mushrooms. After later conversing with my sister, she suggested having some extra mushroom caps handy to stuff, as it will be inevitable to have extra stuffing. Good to know! Â Continue reading
Posted in Appetizers, Pork, Sides
Tagged appetizer, bread crumbs, easy, garlic, homemade, Ina Garten, Italian sausage, marsala, marscapone, olive oil, panko, parmesan cheese, parsley, pork, recipe, recipe idea, Sausage stuffed mushrooms, side dish, stuffed mushrooms
For Christmas eve Greg and I were asked to bring a salad and veggie option to our family party. I thought it over and decided to make a homemade caesar salad, with fresh made dressing and croutons. Homemade dressings make such a difference. You can taste each ingredient and they are just far superior to any bottled dressing you find in the grocery store. Making caesar dressing was easy and and the outcome was delicious!
Greg got a loaf of bread from Mancini’s- tomato basil bread to be exact- and I made croutons with it. I don’t see any pictures of them on my camera so I guess I forgot to snap a few. Croutons are easy to make. I cut the bread into small cubes and placed them on a lined baking sheet. I brushed the pieces of bread with olive oil and baked them at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
Starving Kitten 