It’s easy. Not as easy as cracking a jar of ready made stuff, but easy enough and O! So delicious!
Here we go (makes enough to feed for with leftovers for lunch)
1 pound ground beef (I like ground round when I can find it on sale, because burns ensue when I try to drain fattier stuff)
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 heaping soup spoonsful of minced garlic (the stuff from the jar, delicious like fresh, no mess)
a generous handful of basil and oregano from the garden (not a handful of each, but combined)
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
several grindings of black pepper
some red wine…I’m guessing about a 1/2 cup because that’s about what was left in the bottle.
Brown the beef in a big pot. Add the tomatoes and paste and stir well, until the paste is all mixed in well. Add everything else, stir well and bring to a low simmer. Cover and get to work on the rest of the meal.
This sauce works well in lasagna, or any sort of Italian-American style meal.
I cook a pound of noodles to go with, even when (like tonight) there’s only 3 of us eating, because the leftovers are highly desireable amongst the heathen offspring.
Also, garlic bread is lovely:
1 large loaf french or Italian bread, sliced into 1 inch thick pieces
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup good olive oil (or that garlic oil mentioned in another post)
garlic powder
onion powder
black pepper
dried basil
dried oregano
Mix the butter and olive oil. Brush onto each slice of bread. Sprinkle with the seasonings. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until toasty. It’s nice to throw some parmesan shreds on there too, if you want. No pictures, because Heathen Offspring #3 is on the way home from the store, fetching me a loaf of french bread.
This household loves bread salad, in whatever incarnation happens at whatever day. I prefer the toasted crunchy bread kind over the soaked-in-water stale bread type. In fact, the soaked in water type is, in my opinion, kinda gross…but if you like it, that’s just my opinion, and you are welcome to yours. It’s what’s on the table tonight!
Bear in mind it’s a little different every time I make it, depending on the contents of the veg drawer and pantry, but it is always a bowl full of chopped fresh vegs and toasted bread cubes all tossed in a simple garlic oil and vinegar (sometimes red wine, sometimes balsamic) dressing. I’ll put down tonight’s incarnation, with notes at the end.
Panzenella, Rootie Style
1 big loaf french bread, cubed
about 1/4 cup olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper (kinda coarse)
Toss the bread cubes in the olive oil, salt and pepper. Toast on a cookie sheet at 325 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until they’re dry and showing brown edges. Set aside to cool.
Toss with oil, salt and pepper, toast until brown
In a big bowl (I use the same one the bread bits were tossed in) mix together:
6 oz fresh mozzerella, cut into small bits (OR! those little bittly pearl mozzerella balls! Those are great! But Terry bought the mozz this time and I wasn’t going to make him go back) (also, it’s hard to have too much fresh mozzerella. If you want more than 6 oz I certainly won’t complain)
3 carrots
1 bell pepper
1 cucumber
3 scallions
1 large tomato
1 can medium black olives
1 can quartered artichoke hearts
3 grilled chicken breasts (excellent use for leftover chicken! Or a rotisserie chicken from the store!)
Chop all the vegs except the olives and artichoke hearts, make them smallish bits, you want stuff to be about the same size, and throw them into the bowl with the cut up cheese. Mix it together.
Then..
Finely chop 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley and 6-7 leaves of fresh basil…chop them good and fine. Stir into the vegs.
Then…
make the dressing:
1/2 cup good olive oil (I use garlic oil* that I make up every now and then and keep on hand for just such a thing)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Whisk together until it’s well blended and pour over the vegs. Stir it up good.
Right before serving, mix in the bread cubes, stir up really well so the bread soaks up a bit of the dressing. Eat immediately, otherwise the bread gets soggy.
Terry likes leftovers for lunch the next day, and due to the soggy bread issues, I’ll dip out some of the vegs and pack the bread bits seperately for him to mix up when he’s ready to eat.
Commentary:
Any sort of vegs do, if they’re fresh. Avocadoes are excellent in this. So are those baby corn and water chestnuts in the Asian aisle.
If you like celery, add that. Use red peppers and well as green. Try simmering shallots in the oil for a different flavor dressing. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, used bottled Italian dressing. Once I made it with rare grilled steak, cut into little bits and barely warmed up. YUM! The main thing is to have about 2 parts bread cubes to 1 part vegetables, and a good simple vinagrette dressing. Next time I make the cornbread salad, I’ll share that recipe too. (it’s got a South-of-the-border vibe with roasted corn, jalapenos and cheddar cheese.
*garlic oil- a friend’s husband went to Italy last summer and brought back a limoncella bottle that he gave me, knowing my fondness for odd bottles to use for neferious culinary purposes. I found it perfect for garlic oil, because the neck is skinny and the garlic won’t come out when I pour it. So, to make garlic oil (write this down, it’s complicated), Seperate and peel the cloves on an entire head of garlic and stuff them into a bottle with a lid (cork, top, whatever) Fill the bottle with olive oil. Let it sit, giving it a little shake now and then, for a week or so before you use any. Whenever you use it, give the bottle a bit of a swirl first. When the bottle is about 1/2 empty, refill it with more oil, and give it a swirl now and then. You can do this with just about anything that’s aromatic and you want to use to flavor oil. rosemary oil is lovely, or a multi-herb oil with rosemary, thyme and oregano that’s amazing brushed on a steak before you grill it. Oh, throw in a few whole black peppercorns too…tasty!
Filed under: Supper
I make out menus Thursday-Wednesday, because I despise buying groceries on Saturday, when everyone else is doing it, and order is necessary. Making menus means the ingredient are on hand, and making them one week at a time means this small kitchen isn’t required to try to hold more stuff than there’s room for. This week involved going through The Notebook. When I find an interesting recipe in a magazine or the Williams-Sonoma catalog, it gets ripped out ad stuck in the notebook. Sometimes it gets printed off the internet and stuck in there. Why not save it on the computer? Because computers are unreliable, and die. And I am unreliable about backing things up to a disc. Ergo, the notebook. Sometimes menus are made from the un-backed up bookmarks on the computer, sometimes the notebook, sometimes the assorted cookbooks, sometimes general-knowledge recipes (like spaghetti or tacos). This week, the notebook. It’s a satisfying task, to sit down with the calendar, the grocery list book and the resources. I’ll flip through until something catches my eye, give it a read-over, and write it down. Meats are rotated. This night will have chicken, the next one pork, another is meatless, whatever. Summer means salads and sandwiches, grilled things. Winter involves soups and stews, Spring means fresh peas and greens from the garden. Anyway, this week…The Notebook. Let me know it you want a recipe and I’ll put it down for you.
Thursday- curry roasted drumsticks, basmati rice pilaf, pineapple salsa
Friday-grilled flatiron steak with chimichurri, roasted potatoes, greens salad
Saturday- pulled pork tacos, napa slaw
Sunday-I Don’t Cook
Monday-sesame noodles with pulled chicken, fresh veggies
Tuesday- Bistecca sandwiches with roasted red pepper and gorgonzola mayonnaise, home fries
Wednesday-Chicken souvlakia with tzatziki and fresh veggies
It’s chicken and rice. It think nearly everyone has a recipe for it. It works for a throw it together meal, or a plan ahead meal, you can cook it in the oven or a crock pot, it’s simple enough on it’s own and there’s myriad things you can do to fancy it up! I’ll give you the basic recipe, and put the fancy-it-ups in parentheses. I make this stuff for church potlucks and there’s rarely any left. Here we go (no pictures, as I forgot to take any while it was being put together).
White Trash Chicken
4 cups chicken broth (I used 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillion chicken base in 4 cups water)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or 2 cups homemade bechamel with chopped shiitake mushrooms*)
2 cups rice (a blend of brown and wehani rice)- white rice is fine
8 chicken thighs, skinned (boneless, cut into bite sized pieces) or 4 chicken breasts. (I prefer thighs, plus they’re cheaper and I love cheap)
1 tablespoon dried tarragon**
black pepper
Pour the broth and cream of mushroom soup in a greased casserole or a large crockpot and stir until well mixed. Add the rice and stir a bit more.
Put the chicken on top of the rice (it will be covered with the broth mix) and sprinkle the seasonings on top. The broth is salty, so I wouldn’t add any salt to it. People can always salt it to their taste. Bake it at 350 degrees for an hour, covered with foil. Then uncover and bake for about 15 minutes longer. Check to make sure the rice is done and all the liquid is absorbed. OR (and this is how I did it) Put everything in the crockpot in the order above. Cover and set on low to cook for 10-12 hours (overnight) or on high to cook for 6-8 hours.
*Bechamel sauce is just milk gravy made with roux:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms
melt the butter in a pot and stir in the flour. Stir over medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes, until the flour *just* starts to brown. Stir in the milk, and stir constantly until it starts to thicken. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for a couple more minutes, then take off the heat, and mix it in with the recipe above.
**I love tarragon with chicken, but you can use oregano, basil or dried mixed Italian Blend. You can add sun dried tomatoes in with the rice if you like, and/or garlic, dried onions or sliced green onions. It is essentially a blank palate where seasonings are concerned. You could slide in a Mexican direction by adding corn to the rice and sprinkle something like Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning on top, or an Italian way with Mrs. Dash Italian Medley (can you tell I’m a fan?).
This morning I decided Pot Roast was going to happen. I have (had) a nice chuck roast, bone-in so I would be able to make some beef stock later. James Beard recommends lardoons soaked in cognac to stud the roast (that sounds sinful in more ways than one), and I didn’t have lardoons but I did have some peppered smoked bacon ends and that’s kind of like lardoons, right? What goes great with bacon and beef? Onions and garlic. That’s what. And James Beard’s Quick Brown Sauce. (recipe at the bottom of the link). Somehow this time the whole is less than the sum of the parts. It doesn’t smell like it will taste delightful, and anything I eat has to get past my nose. So, in the interest of making it better, I added a half bottle of cheap merlot and a couple of bay leaves. It’s better, but not enough to convince me it will be delicious. In fact, my mind-reading husband called from 30 miles away, right as I was griping out loud about the unsatisfactory aroma odor, to offer a dinner of tacos at the local El Sombrero. He didn’t even know I’d made a disappointing roast, but probably felt the waves of personal disapproval across county lines and came to my culinary rescue. El Sombrero has excellent tacos. They’re cheap and yummy and you get a big basket of hot corn chips and their tasty fresh salsa to boot.
Rootie’s Disappointing Pot Roast Recipe
1- 3 pound chuck roast, bone in
1/2 pound peppered bacon end pieces
2 yellow onions
6 cloves garlic
6 cups Quick Brown Sauce
half a bottle cheap merlot
2 bay leaves
brown the bacon pieces in a large skillet over low heat. Brown the pot roast in the rendered bacon fat. Put everything except the wine and bay leaves in a large crock pot set on low, and let cook for several hours.
Sniff the odor with disappointment, and add the wine in an attempt to improve things. Add the bay leaves. Put the top back on and grumble. Answer the phone when your husband calls, and cheerfully accept his offer totake you to El Sombrero for tacos and iced tea.
Thank your 11 year old when he says the meat smells fine, and offer it to him for lunch the next day, forgetting that he goes to a Christian school and wine soaked victuals might not be the best idea.
Filed under: Philosophical
I hardly ever measure anything. I pour until it looks right, add pinches until it smells right, brown until it’s brown…I never keep track. The only thing I ever actually meausre is when biscuits are being made, and even then it’s kind of not measured. I know about what 3 cups of flour looks like, and how big a spoonful of shortening (or lard…holy crow, lard biscuits are fantastic especially if you use whole fat buttermilk. Yes my arteries clog as I am writing this) and how much buttermilk to pour.
Sigh.
So it’s hard to cook something and write the recipe down because I worry that whoever is reading this is the kind of person who needs precision. I have a dear friend who requires precision and for her sake I try very hard but it’s not my way.
So bear that in mind when you use a recipe from here. Everything is approximate. Err on the side of caution to start with. If it says 1 tablespoon of something, you might want to start with a teaspoon and add a little bit if you think it needs more. If a biscuit recipe says a cup of buttermilk, it might actually be 3/4 cup or 1-1/2 cups. Start with 3/4 and add more as you need to.
I’m telling you…I don’t do precise and it’s why I’ll never write a real cookbook.
See, today was #4’s first day of school: 6th grade! Woop! and because his school is Quite Small (18 kids in the 6th grade…the whole grade, and it’s the largest grade in the school with like…4 or 5 in each high school class…but I digress) they rely heavily on parent volunteers for stuff so I agreed to work the car line which involves standing in the August-In-South-Georgia-At-3pm sun and writing down names so the dude wearing the tie can call the kids up to get in their cars without having the entire elementary school population running around and getting run over…anyway…it was hot. Not particularly arduous but i got to look official with a clipboard. And I got a wee bit tired so decided whilst #4 was sitting at the dining table doing his homework I would throw something tasty together for supper, that would allow me to kick back with a glass of tea and enjoy the A/C once dinner was in the oven O yeah.
And here’s the recipe:
Ridiculously Easy Italian-Type But Not Actually Italian Pasta Bake (I hate calling things “bake” because it sounds like something you’d find in a Betty Crocker email, but there it is.)
1 pound ground round (I like the lean stuff, and it was on sale for CHEAP)
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried basil (it was pouring rain and thundering, so I did not go to the garden for fresh. If you have fresh and don’t have to risk getting electrocuted to get it, more power to you. I’d probably use a small handful, chopped)
2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic (I LOVE the already minced stuff in the jar, and buy those ginormous jars from StuffMart)
a generous pinch of red pepper flakes
a few grindings of black pepper, good and coarse
About half a cup of red wine (cheap merlot, or whatever)
1 box whole wheat pasta (I used rotini, but macaroni or penne…whatever)
About 2 cups shredded mozzerella (y’know…generous handsful. I never measure cheese.)
Brown the meat and put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. While the water comes to a boil, and once the meat is browned, add the tomatoes to the meat, and all the seasonings except for the wine. Simmer the sauce for about as long as it takes for the water to come to a rolling boil. Put the pasta in the boiling water and cook according to the directions on the box (whole wheat rotini takes about 10 minutes). While the pasta cooks, let the sauce keep simmering. you want it to cook down a bit and get thicker. Taste it to see if you need more seasoning. When the past is done, drain it and rinse it with cold water. After you’ve done that, ignore it while you add wine to the sauce. I don’t think I’ve ever measured it…it’s kind of…hm…3 glugs (glug glug glug). Then stir it in good and simmer it for a teeny bit longer…not much, I mean you don’t have to go timing it for 4 minutes and 30 seconds or anything, but if you need to go off and do something else, this is a good time to. Just turn the stove way low and let it simmer.
To assemble it all, put half the pasta in the bottom of a deep and well oiled casserole dish. Put half the sauce on top and spread it around. Then put a generous handful of cheese on top and spread that around. Throw on some parmesan too, if you want, or use sliced fresh mozzerella, or shredded fontina (actually I never use fontina, but have found that muenster tastes almost exactly the same and costs half as much…or less)…y’know, throw some cheese in there. Then put the other half of the pasta on top, then the sauce, then more cheese. Bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or so. You can, if you want, put it together the day before and refrigerate, or even freeze it for an emergency…or use 2 smaller casserole dishes and eat one today and freeze one for later. It freezes really well and is a tasty gift to give someone who’s sick or had a baby. You could also use the commercially blended Italian Seasoning Herbs in place of the basil, but I am out of that and have a half pint jar of basil, so that’s what I used. It’s a very forgiving dish.
The whole thing goes together in about 10 minutes, even faster if you CHEAT and use premade sauce or that stuff from the jar. But the sauce is so simple and delicious and doesn’t have the God Knows What in it that the commercial stuff has, go ahead and make your own!! And keep a bottle of red wine in the fridge,to add to pasta sauces and pot roasts and anything that would benefit from the extra layer of flavor.
Also, if you think you’ve added enough cheese and you’re being all precious about calories and fat and cheese is scary about all that, get over it an add a little more cheese. Because really…you need the calcium for your bones.
Actually I have no idea if it’s Mexican or not, but it’s what Mom always called it. She would make it by scrambling up some sausage, throwing it into some cornbread batter, and baking that. I, in my culinary snobbishness, have expanded the recipe. Now it’s moist and full of veggies, but still REALLY easy. It can be thrown together in about 10 minutes, baked for an hour and here it is.
Mexican Cornbread
Put a 9 inch cast iron skillet, or an 8×8 inch baking dish with 1/2 a stick of butter in it into the oven and turn it on to 350 degrees. While it is heating up and melting the butter, mix together:
2 cups cornbread mix (I like Martha White)
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (or sweet milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar added)
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 stick melted butter from the pan in the oven (make sure the sides of the pan are coated with the butter before you pour it into the batter)
Mix all this together until it’s nice and smooth. If it seems too thick you can add a bit more buttermilk to it. THEN
1/2 pound sausage, cooked and crumbled
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper (red or green), chopped
In the pan where you cooked the sausage, brown the onion and bell pepper
Add the sausage and veggies to the cornbread batter. And add
1 cup whole kernel corn (canned or frozen, or fresh)
1 very generous handful shredded cheddar or colby (or co-jack) cheese
Stir all this up and pour into the hot pan from the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or so- check it with a knife or something to make sure the middle is done. If you want to, after 30 minutes, throw some more cheese on top.
Delicious served with salsa…if you want to..you can add about 1/2 cup salsa to the batter, it gives it a pretty color and nice flavor.
Facny it up however you want, serve it with the salsa and some sour cream, chopped cilantro…whatever. It is also excellent the next day for lunch!
I’m not really slacking, but life in general has been kinda kicking butt lately, and a few things have been shuffled to the back burner and ignored.
However, tonight, due to life’s buttkicking, I decided a tasty comfort meal was in order: Roasted chicken with tarragon, squash casserole, and mixed rice. OOO mah FAVORITE!
Roasted Chicken;
1 big roasting hen- like 5 pounds
Garlic oil (or regular olive oil if you don’t have garlic oil)
dried tarragon
black pepper
Smear the hen with the oil, and generously pat in lots of dried tarragon, inside and out, and black pepper. Put on a roasting pan. Roast at 450 degrees for 10 minutes per pound, then turn the heat down to 350 degrees, so you can cook the squash casserole in there with it.
Squash Casserole
4 nice yellow crookneck squash, sliced not too thin not too thick
4 leeks, white parts only, sliced thin
Put this in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Then turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze out the water in a handtowel.
In a bowl mix together:
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 sleeve ritz type crackers, crushed
After you squeeze the water out of the squash and leeks, mix it in with the sour cream stuff.
Grease a casserole dish and dump in the squash mix. Top with some more crushed crackers. Put it in the 350 degree oven with the chicken and bake for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is done.
Wild Rice Mix
4 cups homemade chicken broth
Wild Rice Mix: the leftover 1/4 cups of this rice and that, all mixed together. Mine has wild, red, basmati…whatever. you want 2 cups of rice to 4 cups of broth.
Cook on low heat until it’s done. Stir in some toasted almonds and whatever else you feel like adding. Thyme is good. So is oregano or some green onion or garlic…y’know…whatever.
This is an easy go-to comfort meal for me. NOTHING is simpler than a roasted chicken. Or tastier.
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