Crabs Marinara, Xmas eve

Baby it's cold outside

Long live chili!

No fear

Don't be afraid of the rutabager. Embrace weirdness. Peel it, cube it, boil til fork tender, then sautee it in butter and drizzle honey on top to finish. tremendous side dish to a hearty beef dinner. Also great in stews like potato.

chick stew

Slow Cooker recipe

Chicken Stew with Thighs and Legs, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions.

Since Thighs and Legs are practically free I buy them despite my wife not liking them. I love dark meat on all peasants especially chicken so I made myself a chicken stew, real simple.

If you have a slow cooker even simpler.

Sear chicken until skin is crisp and it renders out some fat, remove from pan (chicken simply salted), sautee veggies in the fat for about 10 minutes on low, you just are coating the veggies with the fat and season with rosemary, thyme, pepper, salt. Add chicken to slow cooker (yes i ate some of the tight crispy fat) and add veggies to slow cooker once nicely shiny. Add one can of a tomato puree you like, stew for 7 hours on slow. Add cloves of garlic and three or four bay leaves...

Now, I made this recipe up but next time, I will do half a can of puree and half stock to have a thinner stew, almost like a soup. Also next time after I remove the chicken and while the pan is still very hot, I will deglaze it with either white wine or a sherry wine vinegar. Sorry forgot to take finishing pic.

Muffin Me

Oatmeal muffins. Recipe to come if you want.

Suites

Leftover Suite potatoes? Add some brown sugar, butter and syrup to the sumbitches, top with marshmellows and bam. Fucking goods.

punkin* pancakes

Pumpkin pancakes. Use Libby's canned pumpkin, 3/4 of it and fold it in to any of the pancake mix you use. I doubled the serving so that's why 3/4 of the 12 oz can. they came out extra orange but really good. I added cinnamon, a little nutmeg and vanilla to round out the taste. I also added some chopped walnuts for texture. I love pancakes.

Cabbage and Corn

Cabbage and Corn. Make a wonderful combo.
Braise some cabbage in olive oil with onions and few garlic cloves.
Then add corn and bake for 20 minutes. Superb side dish.

Porky Roasty

Apple Chutney was eaten with this beauty of a Pork Roast.

Roasted for about an hour and twenty minutes, rubbed with Brown Sugar, Ginger, Granulated Garlic, Black Pepper, Salt and Crushed Bay Leaves. For the gravy I surronded the roast with onions, apples, ginger and fennel seeds. Add a cup of water. Once the roast was done I strained the liquid and started a roux with flour and butter. Add the liquid to the roux, got a boil and served steaming hot. Garnished with mint and apples.......

I don't have to tell you it was good do I? It was a lil dry so thank god for the gravy and apple chutney. I think 45 minutes is a better cooking time but my wife is DEATHLY afraid of undercooked pork.

Mise en place

I made an apple chutney to go with something I'll post tomorrow but here is a pic of how I practice Mise En Place which relaly just means set all your shit up so you can get things done.

Wiki Mise En Place

6 apples, peeled (and cored eventually)
Raisins
Brown Sugar
Apple Cider Vinegar
Ginger and Ground Ginger
Whole Cloves
Butter
Mint
Dash of tangerine juice (my own touch, it's gay but it works for me)

Sautee apples in butter and brown sugar until soft.
Stir in grated ginger/teaspoon of ground and raisins.
Reduce heat to LOW and add in Apple Cider Vingear and a few cloves.
Cover, continue to cook over very low heat.
It's done when the liquid tightens a bit, maybe 20 minutes.
Splash with the citrus juice of your liking...clementines are in season.....
And finish with MINT.

Serve with biscuits, pork, chicken, turkey (add cranberries!!) or anything you lil heart desires.

Veggie Pasta

Any and all veggies with garlic/oil tossed over pasta is a great quick go to weekly meal. and makes for a good lunch the next day. Here I had some broccli, black olives, grape tomatoes and asparagus.

pasta and peas

I started out making pasta and peas, which is simply crushed tomato, peas, broth, seasonings and ditalini's but it turned into a vegetable soup. I added corn, spinach and some carrots. You can almost call this a minestrone. Almost.

Either way it was delicious and very good for you.

Sautee one med onion until soft. Add 3 cloves garlic, sautee until soft.
Add one large can of crushed tomato, season with basil fresh or dry, oregano, salt, pepper, parlsey. Let simmer.
Add peas after about 15 minutes, then a quart of chicken stock.
Come to a boil.

In a seperate pot, boil up some Ditalini's (round peg looking macaroni, tiny) or Elbows or your pasta of choice. Do not add to soup because macaroni will swell and take on too much liquid. When you are ready to serve just add to your serving.

That's pasta and peas.

Adding spinach and corn and carrots? Do so when you add the peas and add a cup of water to thin it out. You want soup not vegetable sauce.

Serve with fresh Italian bread from your favorite baker. Maybe some grated cheese to top.

Nother flank steak merinade*

Flank steak, marinated with Balsamic Vinegar, basil, salt/pepper, touch of honey.

Roasted Chicken

Raw Bird.

Cooked Bird.

4 lbs. 2 hours, 350 degrees, rubbed with olive oil, thyme, garlic powder, rosemary, salt, pepper, fennel seeds and oregano. Cavity stuffed with apples, garlic and onions. Added 1/4 cup chicken broth in pan...saved and strained later for gravy.

Cusinart and me are in love

I love the Cusinart Grill/Panini maker. Saturday for lunch I had some leftover chicken fajitas and was tired of them in that form so I simply made two burritos the next day and grilled those suckers in the Cusinart machine of love and bam, toasty mexican burrito thingy's. Unreal. It's amazing what crunch can turn a meal into.

Side note, I use this machine ALOT. Quesadillas, pressed sanwhich's, heros, grilled cheese, pancakes, etc. It's the bomb.

Last Night's Dinner

Grilled BBQ Pork Chops with Crispy Potatoes and Creamed Corn.

Chimichurri sauce, sexy and delicious

Chimichurri might be my favorite sauce/marinade right now. I'm starting to really perfect it and think that it is a perfect compliment to grilled meat. Especially steak. Preferably hanger, skirt or flank. Pictured below is a flank smeared with it. I grilled it then topped it with more. I failed to take pictures of the final product, i was too excited and forgot. Apologies. I'll have you know it was righteous.

Recipe, although i have to admit i dont measure shit so taste it as you go along. I just do it. It's memorized now. You can add crushed red pepper flakes if you like or a squeeze of lemon if desired.

1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup sherry wine vinegar
buttload of salt, half that of pepper
5 cloves of garlic
fresh flat leaf parsley half a bunch
3/4 of the whole bunch of Basil, fresh

Chili Dog

Galloping Hill, a landmark up the block from my mother in law's house. Serving up one of the best dogs i ever did have. The place has a ton of history and is at the top of plenty of lists. Even amongst the reviewers. I especially like the chili dog with a side of onion rings. The hot dogs are so money, they taste diffrent from every other hot dog, it's more like a traditinal German weiner (not cock).

God Bless America.

NY Times review.

Serious Eats.

Pickling

I made my own pickles with the help of Mrs. Wages Dill Pickle Mix. You can only find it online so search that shit and buy it. It's off the hook. Simply buy the packet and then go down to wherever you buy veggies and get you some pickling cucumbers. Follow the instructions which are simple and voila. 24 hour later you get quality fucking pickles that taste better than B&G or Mt. Olive or that stupid seagull.

One pan Omelette

A Fluffy three egg omelette. That is all. (it has bacon in it)

Apple Tarts

Quick and easy Apple Tarts.

Tarts:

2 cups Bisquick
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of butter

Filling:

One medium size apple of your choice, diced
1/4 cup of butter
4 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
1/2 cup of sugar

First cook the apples in the butter, adding cinnamon and sugar. Let cool.

Pre-heat oven to 450.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in the butter, mix well. Add the milk. With wet fingers form the tarts and indent a thumbprint in the middle for the filling. With room temp filling, fill the indent. Overflow if your feeling fat.

Bake for 10-12 minute depending how large you make them

Quick Glaze:
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, add a drop of milk and wisk until it glazes

Pasta and Broccoli

Love pasta with broccoli.

Viva!

Quesadilla

Cusinart Griddler Panini Press is a great kitchen gadget. Pancakes, pressed sanwhiches, grilled cheeses and more. Here I used it to make quesadillas.

Stuffed with chicken, peppers, tomatoes, black olives and onions. Cheddar/Montery Jack cheese blend.

quality pasta dish

Rigatoni with eggplant, tomato, onion, carrots, garlic in a white wine tomato sauce.

First pic sauce, sautee a small onion, once soft add carrots (chopped finely).

Then add the cubed eggplant, I used a half of one whole eggplant.

Then the tomato's once the eggplant gets soft.

Add chopped garlic, cup of olive oil, fresh basil or dried basil, salt and pepper.

Next white wine, go high heat until the pan is boiling a bit. You want the flavor of the dry wine with no alcohol taste.

Right before you add the pasta (boil pasta for 10 minutes in heavily salted water then add to sautee with a cup of the pasta water) put in a 1/4 stick of butter.

Finish with grated cheese.

This was one of the best things I ever made, tasted like it came from an Italian restaurant. No lie.

Peppino's

Why go to Grimaldi's when I can get even better pizza at Peppino's? Aw shit I said it. That's right this pizza was awesome and I'm going back. I'm going back often too since there are no ridiculous lines and since it's in Bay Ridge, 10 minutes from my house.

Peppino's location

It's almost as good Patsy's. Which I think is my favorite. Although I've yet to go to Franny's or Lucali's. Or Pulino's. And now Donatella Arpaia opened up her new pizza place and it got awesome reviews so I have work to do. Glad I got a good one in my own yard though.

Last Nights Dinner

Perfectly grilled Filet Mignon with Parmesean Mac and Cheese

Lunch

Best thing about cooking at home is bringing in lunch.

Last Nights Dinner

Marinated London Broil with Roasted Potato Medley and Beets

Marinade : Soy sauce, honey, fresh ginger, granulated garlic, pepper & lime. In a ziploc marinade that sucker for half hour before cooking, it seeps in quickly.

Roasted potato, slice add peas, onions and peppers. Salt/Pepper, olive oil and roast for 40 min @ 400 degrees. Alternatively you can wrap them in aluminum foil and grill them.

Boo boo

I was butchering the Pork shoulder pictured below when disaster struck. Careful kids. Even professionals cut themselves.

Wok it up

I got a Wok. Ikea son. Dont even trip.

Made sweet and sour pork with vegetables. Real easy, first.

2 teaspoons Canola oil, one teaspoon Sesame oil
Saute Pork until done (6-8 minutes if cut in strips/chunks like pictured)
Remove, saute veggies add 3 tablespoons of Soy sauce and tablespoon of Duck Sauce
When almost done add back the pork and Wok on high heat.

Your Wokcome.

Beer battered Tilapia

Beer Batter for fish:

1 Cup Flour, one egg, half a bottle of beer, salt, pepper, old bay seasoning.