Welcome Back

Hello again.  Miss me?

I needed this hiatus. My posts became increasing preachy and I needed some time to refocus.  I didn't know it would be a year, but there you are.

In the mean time, I've still been cooking.  We've been travelling (Florence, Venice, Slovenia, Marrakesh).   I took my first cooking class.  I've been experimenting with gelatin and agar agar.  I don't have an oven but I do have crazy good skills for finding alternate heating sources to cook food.  I've explored more wild foods.  We've fallen in love with even more restaurants.

I promise to share all of it with you. 

So where to go first?  How about a few recipes and then we ease back into all this?  Here's two.  Please enjoy.

Chicken & Mushroom Mac n Cheese
2 Chicken Breasts
1 large Clove of Garlic, minced
Olive Oil
Mushrooms, chopped
Butter
Cheddar Cheese, grated
Cream
Salt & Pepper
1 1/4 cup Orzo (dry measure), cooked and drained
Parsley, chopped and Cheese, grated

Slow cook chicken breasts, with salt and pepper in olive oil and garlic. Remove chicken from pan, leaving drippings and garlic. Add mushrooms and increase heat to sauté. When mushrooms have cooked, chop the chicken and add back to the pan, and reduce the heat to low.

In sauce pan on medium high heat, melt the butter, then add the cheese and cream, stirring constantly.  When the cheese is completely melted and the sauce is smooth, stir in the chicken and mushroom mixture. Stir in the orzo.

Serve with a little grated cheese and chopped parsley on top. 


Thai Chili Bitters
1 tsp Cloves
10 Juniper Berries
1 tbsp Allspice Berries
1 Bay Leaf
1 tbsp Black Pepper Corns
1/2 star of Anise
6 Green Cardamom Pods
2 tbsp Coriander Seeds
2 Thai Chilies
Gentian Root Extract
750 ml Everclear

Follow the basic recipe for Bitters that I posted in 2010. 

After you've strained and filtered the bitters, pour it into a large non-reactive pot.  Reduce it over a very low heat.  This is the purest alcohol you can get and it's extremely volitile.  It will reduce quickly and you want it down to about 1/5 of it's original volume.  Use extreme caution if you are using a gas stove, because it could explode!  Do not cover.  Don't stir.  In fact don't even make this recipe unless you've got the fortitude to wade across a lava flow carrying that old lady who was too stubborn to leave her home until it was too late, even though Peirce Brosnan warned her to go.  But if you decide to make it, you will be rewarded with a spicy little number to accent your gin or rye.

How Laundry Tells Us What We Need to Know About Cooking

Sundays are laundry days for us. It's one of those lovely days where an in-tune soul can live reminiscently through the past week's events in recognizing what he was wearing when those events took place. For example, I was wearing a black T-shirt with a Woodstock print (thank you Target for affordable around-the-house fashion) when I was browning the venison for a Texas Green Chili.

Eggs and custards; sauces, marinades and salad dressings; sautees and fried foods. My clothes bear witness to the stains of almost everything I make. While the memories are pleasant, grease, oils, berry juices and many protiens do not come out of cotton. My lovely wife Heather, being both an accomplished artist and seamstress, has a remarkable talent for cutting the image off of the newly stained T-shirt and sewing them onto another, new, plain T. This creates a a great layered effect of fabrics and print, but creates another, larger problem: I like this look.

And thus the dilema. I like having unique clothes that Heather makes for me and my current cooking style fast tracks this opportunity. But a responsible financial advisor such as myself shouldn't endorse the frivolous and wanton destruction of perfectly good clothing. So, should I live with stained clothes? Stockpile plain T-shirts with the hope that Heather will create works of art? Or perhaps other options?

The first potential remedy is covering up. An apron or a cooking jacket is not only a fashion statement unto itself (and even another canvas for Heather's art), but is a great and fairly inexpensive way to shield unwanted splatters from one's clothing. A nice full-sleaved cooking jacket or a full broad apron will assuage any splatters and bubble overs from the clothing beneath. For that reason each are also a good safety meassure around hot liquids and pans. And I'm serious about the fashion statement. An apron (or even better, jacket) gives a certain air of authority in the kitchen--you're the one giving directions, the one making decisions, creating a masterpiece. I've been told confidence is sexy, and frankly that's one of the things I do well. (Confidence, that is.) Since I'm not going to change my cooking habits, this is a great first step. Unfortunately, I don't regularly remember to cover up until it's too late. Which takes us to our second option.

JoAnn Fabrics (and probably other places) sells a little stain remover called the Magic Wand. Again, I confess, this is not my department. Heather buys and works the Magic. With time, a little elbow grease and The Wand, I've watched Heather remove tar from a linen shirt. Certainly, no mere grease stain could stand up to this kind of cleansing vigilanteism. . . . But alas, if the wearer is not diligent in removing that article of clothing and at least soaking it in cold water, immediately, well then, all hope is lost. While many of my shirts' lifespans have been prolonged with this wonderful creation, the Magic Wand cannot cure all.

So laundry is trying to tell me something about my cooking. Maybe I should be more aware of my sexy power in the kitchen and wear an apron. Maybe I should be more aware of when I make a mess and change and soak my shirt so the Magic Wand can do its magic. Or maybe, just maybe, I should change my cooking style? Less grease? Sauces cooked slowly and patiently so they don't bubble and splatter? Perhaps. But until then, Sunday laundry days will continue to describe the cooking adventures of the week that was. Leftovers, if you will.


Texas Green Chili

1 lb of Ground Meat (I use Venison)
1 large Onion, chopped
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1 16oz can each of Black Beans and Kidney Beans
2 tablespoons ground Red Chili
1 27oz can of Hatch Green Chili (what a weird size can!)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown the meat in a heavy pan. Add the onion and garlic and sautee until soft. Sprinkle with the red chili,salt and pepper and stir until evenly coated.

Add the beans and green chili. Stir and simmer at a low temperature. Keep cooking at a low temperature. Cook it a while longer. Take it off the heat and put it into the refridgerator until the next day. Heat it again. This is one of those meals that gets better with age. Leftovers rock! Serve with warm tortillas.