Follow the Litre...of Cola

Well, I told you I made sausage all day on monday.  I don't know how many more times I am going to do that all by myself.  it's a little bit of an undertaking.  I think I spent about 4 hours doing all of it (20 lbs!).  I did get quite a bit of kielbasa and linguica out of it though. Don't get me wrong, I love sausage more than anything. It's just that after doing that much, I'm over it for a while.  Good thing I bought that freezer...

To the foods:  The sausage dish is German meal revisited (aka, the Reitz stuff).  Wife was telling me that I would have been pals with her gramps.  They used to invite everyone over and make tubs full of sausages, which makes me agree wholeheartedly.  The other dish is a variation on my teriyaki bowl.  Since it is glorious blood orange season, I decided to make a little blood orange teriyaki sauce.  This particular bowl has some flaked salmon, sauteed snow peas, and collard green chiffonade.  I have really been digging the collard greens lately.  Most times, you just think of braising them or whatever, but I have been trying to get the most out of them.  This way was a pretty big hit.  Topped the bowl with some segmented blood oranges, it was a nice finish to round out the fatty (that's good fat, fools!) salmon. serve it over jasmine rice and digs.

other newsworthy news:  I added a "follow this blog" tab to the page.  So, sign up...all the cool kids are doing it.  

DISH recommends:

Cuisinart 4 cup rice cooker.  I know, it's kind of an extravagance, but I like having a rice cooker, dagnabit!  also nice that it has a warming feature so you don't make krispies...around 50 smackers.  www.cutleryandmore.com

Blood orange teriyaki sauce:

juice of 2 blorange

2-3 tbs oyster sauce

couple healthy dashes soy

1-ish tbs sugar

combine all this glorious stuff in a bowl, and mix well, then reduce in a very hot pan until desired consistency achieved.  try it, you won't regret.

Because sometimes I make sausage all day long...or EUREKA!...I...um...forgot...

Weekend eats. Tasty treats. We were so cold and hungry on saturday night. Needed something substantial to ward of the frigid briskies (also my band name, don't even think about stealing it, hipsters.) Steak was the solution. booyah achieved. Sunday morning around our house means breakfast. We take sunday morning breakfast pretty seriously. This time, it was Croque Madames. Wife had a great idea to make a smoked gouda bechamel. It turned out great. I liked it quite a bit. A Croque Madame is basically a grilled sandwich with an egg on top. I suppose you could put whatever you wanted in the layers, but I usually do some ham, bechamel, and cheese. the top gets a little more bechamel, cheese, broiled in the oven until melty and finally an egg (and you better make that over easy, over med. at max!:). ok, so you won't find it on any Weight Watcher's menu, but sometimes you have to treat yourself. Everything in moderation, man. Oh, we usually don't eat lunch on sundays, just a snack or something.

Notice the beautiful egg yolk on that pic. If you haven't given free range eggs a go, you really should. In this country, chickens are treated like animals (oh, ...wait a minute), I mean, well, they're treated very poorly. take comfort in the fact that these get to actually have beaks and run around doing chickeny stuff. It makes a difference. If you don't believe, then I will give you some of mine and you can do a side by side taste-off with your stodgy old beakless birdy eggs. Also made some authentic chicken tortilla soup. I did this because I had some free range chicken to use up and I had wanted to make this for a while. I did it the old school way, with epazote, roasted ground chiles, thickened with charred corn tortillas. excellent. It was as good as any I have had. If anyone's interested in the do, let me know, I have to go make 20 pounds of sausage now. no, seriously, I am. Either I am a fool, or just someone who is up to my deeps in pork butt...or both...foolishly up to my deeps in butt. pieces.

DISH recommends

LeCreuset Stock pot. I think that mine is a 12 quart. Not quite sure, but I don't want to go look right this minute. It's bomb proof. and can hold enough to feed a militia. usually around 60-99 clams.

EGGLAND'S Best Cage free eggs. Super Creamy,dark, velvety egg yolks can be expected when you cook up one of these conveniently packaged treats. Highly recommended. A little pricey, but suck it up. don't buy so much soda or something, quality only hurts once, or in my case, about every two weeks.

"Fox in the Snow" or "The Big Schlep!"

Wife and I had been craving thai food.  However, since we have committed to dining out once a month, we had to figure this one out on our own.  I had tried to recreate this dish from our favsies place, but had never succeeded.  I called up my cousin Lyndi (who was born and raised in Thailand) for some tips and was quite pleased with the outcome.  My main problem was that I wasn't using enough Oyster sauce.  The dish turned out really well.  The veg was a tad overcooked, but that was my fault (I forgot wife was going to do Pilates after work:)  

Snidenotes, I mean sidenotes:  We took a hiking photog trip to the platter river on saturday afternoon.  We made sure to bundle up as it was ridiculously cold.  Snapped some sweet shots.  I know marth will get the chops reference, I mean fox reference, anyone else?  I thought the railroad shot was pretty cool.

DISH recommends:

Nikon D40 SLR:  My camera of choice.  For the avid snapper (photos, not the flaky to firm whitefish) this is a pretty sweet beginner's slr.  I will be upgrading to a different lens soon, but I have been more than pleased with the quality of my pics.  Around $500, stores everywhere.

Thai do's:  serves 4ish 

1 lb meats (chicken, pork or beef, or tofu) (I used chicken thigh meat)

about a cup or so of broccoli florets

5-6 scallions, cut on the diagonal in 3 inch pieces

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin (goodfellas thin)

handful of snow peas

 ""mung bean sprouts

dry pint of mushrooms. quartered.

1 cup chiffonade collard greens

1/3 cup oyster sauce

couple dashes fish sauce

about 1/4 cup stock

1-2 tbs soy sauce

splash white vinegar

sprinkling of sugar

heat up a skillet and put in some veg oil.  add your scallions, garlic, and mushrooms.  saute for a couple of minutes.  add your broccoli, and go a little longer. now add your chicken, collard greens, oyster sauce, fish and soy sauces.  once this has all incorporated, add the snow peas, stock, vinegar, and sugar.  cook until the chicken is done and thickened as you like.  add the sprouts 2 minutes before serving.  you can always add a little more stock to thin out.  serve over jasmine rice. or you could do noodles too.  I like rice, it's twice as nice.

The mysterious dinner sillies

Maybe it was the fact that we both love tostadas.  Maybe we had both had really long days.  whatever the case, tostada night turned into a laugh factory.  I don't remember how it started but we started laughing and couldn't stop.  I call this a case of the dinner sillies.  They come out of nowhere, sometimes in public, hopefully in private.  guard yourselves...

anyway, yeah tostadas rock.  these were flank steak. I usually try and make them out of some type of leftover meat, but we were really craving them, so I just made them right out.  notice my proper drinking etiquette...nice.  it looks like wife's aim is off on that bite:)

here's your do:

get a cast iron really hot and add some thinly sliced peppers and onions, garlic, olive oil to the pan.  season with cumin chili powder, coriander, salt and peps. add the chosen meat (not necessarily a meat selected by a higher power, just what you are hungry for:) and saute until starting to brown.  add a small can of tomato sauce, some stock (matching your chosen meat), and let reduce until thick as you like.  adjust seasoning if necessary. at the last minute throw in some cilantro.  top with avocado, sour cream, shredded cheds, salsa, and cilanch.  pieces

DISH recommends:

cast iron skillet by lodge.  usually under 20 clams.  These will outlast you, cockroaches, and even keith richards.  You can usually even pick one up at a garage sale or the Teej.  the best part?  you don't have to clean them.  after you are done, just rinse with hot water, throw in some kosh and wipe it around with a paper towel.  sounds gross?  not hardly, squeemsters.

Hey, who are ya? H.R. Puffandstuff?

Sorry, Sorry...I meant to post a while back, but I have just been busy with my new exercise/life schedule.  I started doing yoga on non-lifting days and it seems to eat up a lot of time.  However, I like it quite a bit.  It's pretty intense.  I'm usually pretty drained by the end.  So, on to the food.  Last saturday at work, we made some prototypes with our new puff pastry recipe.  things turned out pretty well. (from left)  We made a cherry turnover, blue cheese and walnut crisp, I forgot how to spell this (sounds like pom-ee-ay), and apple basket thingy. as you can see they all have pretty technical names:)  they were pretty delicious.  we thought that the cinnamon was a little strong in the apple thing, but otherwise they were really good.  hopefully we can get a more permanent thing going with them.  The two dishes pictured here are the elk stew from last week and "chicken Madeline", a dish I came up with for our friends. the chicken dish is really tasty, recipe below.

ps. don't you think that the apple thing looks like a "luchador" mask?

Dish Recommends:

Cuisinart Chef's classic 12 in. skillet w/ helper handle.  www.cutleryandmore.com.  I use this thing a ton.  It's got perfect weight and really nice and even heating.  Mine has been going strong for about five years now.

Chicken Madeline: serves 4

1 pound boned and skinned chicken breasts

2 crowns broccoli, cut down into bite sized pieces

salt and peps

chicken broth/stock

couple splashes heavy cream

1 shallot diced small

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

cut the breast meat in half lengthwise (like a butterfly cut, but go all the way through) and then into thirds (so you end up with naked chicken strip looking things).

season with salt and peps and then saute in olive oil until browned on both sides (but, not necessarily all the way done). remove from pan and set aside.  in the same pan, add a little more oil and then add your shallot and garlic, and let them just start to brown.  Add your broccoli and saute until starting to get really green.  add a couple of splashes of stock and then keep cooking until tender/crisp.  return the chicken to the pan, add a bit more stock and then the heavy cream. let reduce until thickened (about 4-5 min).  If you are having trouble thickening the sauce, you can always remove the chicken and broccoli with a slotted spoon and just have the liquid in the pan.  Sometimes I throw in some grated parm.  this dish is great with roasted tates, but would be equally good with pasta or rice.  have some friends over and enjoy.  food tastes better with friends. make them bring dessert.