A swing and a miss....

Well, maybe that's not quite fair. 1 for 2?

I made chicken with black olive butter today, and you could really only fairly call it "incredibly boring"

After mixing together black olives, lemon juice, room temperature butter, and italian parsley and smothering skinned chicken breasts with it, I broiled the chicken, sprinkled with thyme, rosemary, and black pepper, 8 inches from the heat for about 20 minutes. Then topped with a little more of the aforementioned chilled herb butter. Borrrrrrring.

On the bright side, today began my experimentation with re-creating the moon dusted potatoes from the Flying Biscuit. I diced potatoes and cooked them over high heat in a non-stick skillet with just a dash of olive oil. My first version of moon dust consisted solely of the stuff I can tell is part of the original: rubbed thyme, paprika, salt, pepper, and cumin. Attempt #1 turned out fantastic, but not identical to the ones in the store. More moon-dusting experiments to come...

Back...and in full effect

I know you missed me.

Cooking has definitely become my coping mechanism, which I'm pretty happy about. I mean, think about it. Some people cope with tough times by drinking. Getting angry. Other non-productive actions.

I throwdown in the kitchen. Not too bad, I think.

So when Roommate asked me if I felt like cooking for some (now mutual?) friends tonight, I was happy to do what I do and take it to the next level.

Gametime started with some mini appetizer fajitas. (PS-many props to Guests 1, 2, and 3 for the role they played). We soaked some chicken, shrimp, bell peppers, and onions in a mixture of lime juice, rum, salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and chili powder. Tossed the shrimp into one frying pan and everything else into a second. While it was cooking up a bit I tossed together some freshly chopped onion, tomato, and cilantro, some lime juice, and a dash of cayenne to make a little pico de gallo. Finished the two skillets with a bit of flambe to get that crispy feeling on the outside. The fajitas were definitely a major victory and will enter rotation as part of my personal dinner cookbook.




Up next was a salad. Much credit to Roommate #2 for putting together the bulk of it. In fact, I don't even really know what was in it, except that it was fantastic. I can recall peaches, sun dried cranberries, a mix of phenomenal greens, goat's milk feta cheese, onions, and cucumbers. But I know I'm not doing it justice.

The only role I played was in the from-scratch vinaigrette. My new blender got balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, pepper, basil, and olive oil. Top notch. I'll be looking to perfect that into a recipe sometime soon, because this was a huge favorite.



Main course was chicken stuffed with prosciutto and herbs. I butterflied some chicken breasts, smashed them down a bit with some salt and pepper, laid a slice of prosciutto on top, and covered with grated romano, parsley, and basil.



Then rolled them up, fastened them with a couple of toothpicks.



Sprinkled some freshly chopped rosemary and italian parsley on them and baked them with some cremini mushrooms and a garlic chicken stock, basting often.


Removed the toothpicks, sliced them, and finished with some freshly ground pepper and grated romano cheese.



Yeah. Food was definitely 100% on this Sunday evening.

I want my baby back baby back baby back

Chili's, eat your heart out.

I started cooking ribs almost a full year ago at the request of CK, Kretzalicious, Roommate Patrick, and A. Balthrop as preparation for this year's Memphis in May. You see, the aforementioned had just attended last year's Memphis in May and came away with the only logical conclusion.

T, you should enter.

I'm not one to turn down a good competition. Plus, this seemed so far out there that maybe I could actually have some success with it. After a few months and countless batches of almost-right barbeque sauces, I settled on a homemade recipe that I could fall in love with. And I was about 1/3 of the way into mastering ribs on the grill.

Unfortunately, the motivaiton and interest level waned, as these things are prone to do. Ribs once a week became too much for even my roommates, and experimenting with ribs certainly can be tough on the pocketbook. And none of us were rich. So the end result--a phenomenal barbeque sauce and the ability to make above average ribs on the grill.

I digress. Fast forward to Arlington, VA, where the property manager has made it very clear that there is to be no grill on my balcony, or else risk a multi-hundred dollar fine. Grrrrrrrreat. So today I do ribs in the oven.

Fortunately, I already know my way around an oven and how to cook things to perfection in there, even if it won't give me the smokey flavor of charcoal and hickory on a grill. I covered the bottom of a baking dish in 12 ounces of beer (I used Yuengling) and liquid smoke and placed the ribs meat side down in the baking dish. 275 degrees for three hours while covered in aluminum foil let the beer and liquid smoke steam the meat tender. This technique is tough to do on a grill, but makes the meat so fall-off-the-bone tender it's hard to get them from the dish to a plate. I must say. But after you're done baking them, remove the aluminum foil, flip them over, baste them lightly with barbeque sauce(The sweeter your barbeque sauce, the less you should lose right here. Sugar burns quickly.), and broil them for 10 minutes until they start to get crispy on top. Take them out, rebaste with your BBQ sauce, et voila! These ribs were A++ on a scale with a peak of A++++. I'll get the last two pluses if I can find a way to get that charcoal and hickory flavor in there. I'm already brainstorming. But don't let the lack of perfection fool you. They. Were. Good.



Up in the corner, you are seeing some garlic mashed potatoes. Always use yukon gold potatoes for your mashing. They've got the perfect amount of starch for creamy, smooth mashed potatoes. I like mine cooked with the skins off in water with cayenne and garlic cloves and mashed with heavy cream, butter, salt, pepper, and a bit more cayenne. Not hard to tell I got my major food on.

Packs a Wallop!

I loved the title of this recipe when I first stumbled across it on recipezaar a couple of years ago. And "packs a wallop" is right. This ish is SPICY. I don't even know why it took so long for me to make this again, cause it's a fantastic stew. Thick, hearty, spicy. I'd make it if I were you. It's got a great thickening method: cooking potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers in beef broth, pureeing them with a great mixture of spices, and then adding more veggies and the beef, letting them slowly cook, and getting my food on. Kinda makes me wonder how it would be in a crock pot. Speaking of which, I brought a crock pot a month ago and haven't used it. Anyone have any ideas?



Oh, and I tried another slice of that pie. Worked out quite a bit better this time. So by "chill for several hours" they actually meant "24." Jack Bauer wouldn't have made that mistake.

2 out of 3 ain't bad....

Three completely and totally unrelated foods on the menu today.

It's a Sunday afternoon--what else would I do?

So first and foremost, a chocolate peanut butter pie that I've been craving for days. But this is no ordinary chocolate peanut butter pie. This one has.....

Tofu.

Yeah, no joke. Tofu+peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla, and sugar. All into my brand new sexy food processor. Wait, did I just call my food processor sexy? It's been way too long--might need to see a therapist about that one.

Anyway, the recipe only says to let it chill for "several" hours so after about three hours I tried to cut a slice. It didn't turn out so well...



I'll let you know tomorrow if it settles a bit more. On the plus side, the taste is fantastic, but I'm still going to see if this is the first big failure of my DC cooking.

The rest of the day went a bit better. I made my first DC batch of my barbeque sauce. No recipes here though, kids. This one's under wraps in case Caren (aka CK aka DJ Dirty Red) can ever hook a brother up with a bottler or a distributor.

So if any distributors are reading, callllll me!

Oh, and no pictures because honestly, who wants pictures of barbeque sauce?

Finally, my Kung Pao Chicken (with variations) kept me satisfied late into the night.



I don't really like roasted peanuts so I dropped those and replaced with celery, water chestnuts, and baby corn. Plus some soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, thai chili paste, and crushed red peppers. Dinner+Lunch. I got my SERIOUS food on.

Oh, and by the way, my roommate ain't no joke either. Check him out:

Impromptu Stir Fry Entertaining

I knew that 20 pound bag of potatoes from Costco would come in handy.

So I come home and my roommate has some friends over. I'm hungry, and thinking about putting a little something together for me. But hey, why not cook for everyone?

Who else thinks like this?

Of course, I haven't shopped for entertaining, so I can only work with what I've got on hand. Oh, and one of the girls is super-calorie conscious, so the deep frying has to be held to a minimum (notice I said "minimum" and not "nonexistent")

Some frozen chicken breasts, snow peas, carrots, and potatoes.

Yikes.

Stir fry+french fries was the only thing that made sense to me. I don't even remember what I used, except I stayed mild. The only interesting things about this dish were the fresh cilantro added at the end, which I've decided I LOVE in a stir fry. It adds this freshness to the stir fry that totally changes the final product. And a bit of finely grated parmesan at the end.

Steak. Period.

It doesn't get much more classic (or good) than steak and fries. And the best purchase I've made since I've been here (yes, period. Above and beyond the apartment, the living room furniture, the bedroom furniture, or even the wok) definitely comes in handy.

A deep fryer.

Toss in the sliced potatoes at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, and you've got some fantastic fries.

Steak on the grill? In the broiler? Oh no. I pan seared my steak in melted butter for about 3 minutes on both sides, sprinkled on lots of freshly ground black pepper and some various seasoned salts, a pinch of cayenne, and stuck it to bake in the oven for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees for medium rare. I suggest checking using the Bobby Flay method of poking with your finger to estimate donness (the squishier, the rarer). And the butter seals in the juices in the steak while it bakes, so it comes out with all the juices sealed inside. Always remember to let the steak sit for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven while it continues to cook. It lets the juices cool and thicken just a bit so when you cut into the steak ALL the juices don't come out....and I can get my food on.