Finally starting to blog...

Mmm Mmm, Brussel Sprouts!

Tonight, I’m going to make some brussel sprouts.  Yup.  I bought some a while ago, and unfortunately, they haven’t gone bad.  So, time to use them up before I clean out and restock the fridge, which I’ve needed to do for some time now.  I made brussel sprouts about a month ago, following a recipe that was for a brussel sprout casserole.  Anything that has the word casserole in it implies creamy, cheesy goodness, at least to me, so smothering the brussels with cheese meant they would taste good, right?  Yup—I was right!  But I don’t think the dish was as healthy as it was cheesy and creamy and, well….fattening.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but…

Moving on to a slightly healthier version, I’m going to combine two recipes I found on the food network.  One is from Ina Garten and the other from Sunny Anderson.  My mom and I both adore the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, and sometimes, when I’m at the gym and her show is on, I drool a little.  Don’t worry—I catch myself before it hits the equipment.  But I love her cooking, so I’m trusting her brussels.  With a twist.

Sunny Anderson’s recipe calls for bacon, and I kind of wanted to add pancetta or bacon to my dish because it’s delicious, and because I’m also making pork chops so it will complement their flavor, so I just read her recipe for inspiration.  Bobby Flay had a recipe linked to both of these using pancetta, but his involved potatoes, and I don’t like potatoes.

My recipe essentially is:

1 lb brussel sprouts, stems and yellow leaves removed, cut in half

2 tbsps olive oil (going to estimate this one)

a good sprinkling of kosher salt

a sprinkle of white pepper (black pepper triggers the acid reflux)

2-3 garlic cloves, sauteed

4 slices of BACON!

My plan is to cook the bacon and then set it aside on a plate with paper towels to drain, chopping or crumbling it once drained.  Then I’m going to line a baking sheet with tin foil, pour the prepped brussels onto the sheet and toss them in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle them with the salt and pepper and toss on the finely-chopped garlic.  I’m going to cook this for about 45 minutes, tossing the whole lot occasionally, and when the brussels seem crisp, I’m going to take them out of the oven, toss in the bacon crumbles and then serve with some pork chops and rice.  We’ll see how this goes!  

I want to start posting photos of my cooking, so hopefully I’ll remember once all is said and done, and post a pic of this delicious and fairly healthy meal.  Time to get in the kitchen!

Delicious Eggplant Dip!

After searching for and applying to a few jobs, I realized I was starving. I went into the kitchen to make some scrambled egg whites (skim milk and egg whites + fat-free non-stick spray into the pan = lots o’ protein….and I’m full!). While in the fridge, I saw the sad eggplant that I bought about a week ago. I’m a big believer in using veggies before they go bad, because they cost so much and because when don’t you need more veggies?!

So…while my eggs were cooking, I preset the oven to 350 degrees. It’s just my default if I’m not following a recipe. Then I cut off the leafy tip to my large Italian eggplant and then cut it in half. I put it cut-side down a baking sheet covered in foil, drizzled a little olive oil over top and threw on a sprinkle of kosher salt. I popped that in the oven, plated my eggs and some leftover broccoli from last night and sat down to eat and look at eggplant recipes. The one I settled on was an app, because one Italian eggplant doesn’t provide all that much meat, and I chose it because the ingredients sounded sort of like the contents of my refrigerator.  You can find the recipe here:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/roasted_eggplant_feta_dip.html

I glanced through the recipe and then decided to do my own version.  After baking for about 45 minutes, I pulled the eggplant out of the oven and scraped the meat out of the skin into a bowl with a fork.  The recipe I read called for feta, but I only had herbed chevre in my cheese drawer.  Close enough!  I had about 2-3oz, so I dumped it all into the eggplant and whipped that up with a fork.  THe recipe suggested a food processor, but mine is in the top of my closet, very precariously balanced amongst other items like wrapping paper, paper bags, old financial documents…not something I wanted to battle with in the middle of a sunny day.  So, I used my trusty fork.  After whipping in the cheese, I added the juice of half a lemon, whipped a bit more, and then tasted.  DELICIOUS!  I actually said that out loud…to my dog, of course, not talking to myself!  So good.  I decided to sprinkle on a little bit of cayenne, white pepper and a touch of kosher salt, and a little drizzle of olive oil to smooth things over.  Whipped all of that together and tasted again…very good!  I’m so amazed at how quickly I put something like this together, and now I have an appetizer for when my husband comes home from work!  Sure it might be more tasty if I added some fresh basil and parsley as the recipe called for, but I don’t have any at the moment.  In fact, I should work on my “herb garden” planters right now, so next time I want to whip something up, I’ll have fresh herbs on hand!  Yum.

Taking a healthy turn…

I decided to be healthy this week.  Normally, I consider myself a fairly healthy person, more so maybe than the average person.  But this week, I’m talking no alcohol, very little meat, and only very lean, unprocessed meat at that, low carbs, no sugars, no dairy….and lots of fruits and veggies.  I just feel like my system needs a few days to detox and reboot.

Like, say, my lentil soup-covered computer.  Yup, lentils…unusual for my repertoire, but nonetheless healthy, full of fiber and thus very filling.  I’ll explain why they got on the computer later.

This morning after quite a long work-out, I walked to my favorite local market on Essex and Delancey.  I stocked up on all kinds of vegetables and a few fruits, along with the lentils, some black beans and some garlic, ginger, fresh basil and thyme.  When you’re not using as much butter, suger, meat, etc., you need something to make your dishes taste good!  

After walking the dog and throwing together a quick salad for lunch, I looked for jobs, as usual, to no avail.  Feeling the usual defeat coming on, I quickly put on some Bravo TV and flipped between that and the Food Network….which got me to pull out my laptop and start plotting a few recipes for all the fresh veggies stuffed into the large drawers in the bottom of my fridge.  I happen to have a ton of cookbooks, but most days I turn to websites like Epicurious, Recipezaar and the Food Network to come up with dishes.  To get into it briefly, I love being able to type in a few ingredients, like “tomato eggplant peppers” and have a plethora of recipes pop up that use all of those ingredients in different ways.  I do love my cookbooks, and do turn to them at times, but…sometimes the internet is the easy way to go.

So, the two recipes I settled on (why two, I don’t know) were “Lemon Rice and Eggplant-Chickpea Curry” and “French Lentil Soup.”  You can reference them here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/lemon-rice-and-eggplant-chick-pea-curry-recipe/index.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/French-Lentil-Soup-236772

I changed them up a bit according to my tastes and what I had in the pantry and fridge, but mostly played by the rules.  I have to be honest—I thought lentil soup without bacon or ham was going to be blah.  NOPE!  This soup is fantastic.  I followed everything to a T, except for using chicken stock in lieu of vegetable stock…and I only used 4 cups.  The recipe suggests that you puree the soup once it’s simmered for about 35 minutes, and…that’s where the computer got slimed.  I did the pureeing in my blender, not a food processor, and the first time, only put in about two cups of soup, which came out just fine.  The second time I filled the blender all the way up.  Oopsa.  I didn’t put the lid on perfectly and had my hand on top as always, but not pressing down firmly.  Soup extravaganza.  Luckily, no damage has been done, from what I can tell so far anyway.  I put the pureed soup back into my Le Creuset pot and simmered on low while eating the other dish that I created while the soup was initially simmering for 45 minutes.

The lemon rice and eggplant-chickpea curry.  Hmmm.  It’s a Rachael Ray recipe, who I actually really like.  I used to watch her talk show while I was at the gym on my study break while preparing for the bar.  She makes me laugh, and she makes cooking seem really easy.  And she’s big on pinches of this and handfuls of that, which I am a big proponent of as well.  But when I think Rachael Ray, I think homestyle cooking, American or Italian cuisine.  Not so much curry.  But, what the heck, I gave it a try as I had everything I needed and felt like staying in the kitchen, and no other recipes were jumping out at me that didn’t involve dairy or fats or meats….yum….

I cut down on the amount of rice used and of course the accompanying liquid mostly because I was near the end of my chicken stock at this point, but also because I like a lot of sauce and veg and not as much rice.  I also omitted the lemon zest because I don’t have a zester.  I know—ridiculous.  But my husband doesn’t seem to understand why I need all these funny tools and I just haven’t gotten around to picking one up when he’s not around.  I followed the recipe fairly closely, and the curry actually developed some really nice flavor.  I used green curry paste as no particular color was specified, though looking back red might have been better.  I threw in a handful of hand-torn fresh basil at the end as I love basil in curries, and I thought it was a really nice complement to the flavors.  

I served myself a plate of rice (sans scallions) and the curry, then threw in some chicken that I had cooked over the weekend for my husband’s serving.  I let it heat up a bit, then we both sat down and enjoyed.  It was good.  Maybe a little too mushy, but very flavorful!  I’d make this again, though I was really surprised that I liked the lentil soup more than the curry!  

That’s about it for tonight.  I’m about to watch the new episode of Gossip Girl, my guilty pleasure of mindless TV.  Works almost as well as a glass of wine! 

Bad day=spaghetti and meat sauce….

So, today was horrible.  I had a guest at the restaurant yell at me about absolutely nothing.  It’s a long story, but suffice it to say, it went on for over 15 minutes and the servers AND TABLES all around me heard…and they all had nothing but pity for me and recognized that it wasn’t my fault.  

After two amazing happy hour-priced cocktails at Savoy with my fantastic co-worker Anna, I was ready to head home and make some dinner.  It’s still in the works, but here was the plan: comforting Italian like my mom would have made (note: my mom is German, but still makes some mean Italian dishes).  I swung by Whole Foods—only because it was too late for Essex Market—and picked up the ONLY things I needed: meat, garlic, olives, brie, baguette and a “Gourmet Blend” of mushrooms, which has baby bellas, shitake and oyster mushrooms.  Sweet. 

Get home, pour myself some Chablis and look around the fridge….my onion is moldy.  That’s fine…just need to use more garlic.  Open the pantry…no spaghetti!  Text my husband to grab some on the way home.  Check.  Put a giant pot of boiling water on to get going and start chopping my garlic.  

I made about one cup of finely diced garlic, then roughly chopped the entire package of mushrooms, which resulted in about 2-3 cups when chopped.  I started about 2 tbsp olive oil in a heavy pan, added the garlic and sauteed till just before it browned, 3-4 minutes.  Then I threw in the mushrooms after turning the heat down to about medium-low.  I like to cook my mushrooms until they give up their juice, about 5 minutes at that temp.  Time to add the meat!  

I love ground meat.  I know it’s not the best choice health-wise…the less processed your meat is, the better.  Regardless, I picked up just under a pound of 85/15 ground beef at Whole Foods (I love me some antibiotic-free meat!) and added that to my simmering garlic and mushrooms.  I cooked all this till my meat was browned, about 5 minutes, then drained the meat of all the grease.  I added a little white wine (the Chablis I was drinking, about half a cup) and some dried rosemary, thyme and oregano, along with about 3/4 cup of tomato puree I had made last week (canned plum tomatoes with the sauce they came in, blended in my awesome blender).  Turn the heat up to high till the sauce bubbles, let it go for about 2-3 minutes, then turn in down to medium low heat.  I added some more chopped garlic that I didn’t need for my garlic bread, then just let the sauce simmer.  It was looking a little low, so I threw in some Classico Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce.

I have a bit of an issue using store-bought tomato sauce when I have just taken the time to develop flavor in my own, homemade sauce, but in a pinch, it works.

Okay—sauce is simmering, throw in the angel hair pasta for about 3-4 minutes, and now it’s time to make the garlic bread!  My mom rarely ever made garlic bread at home, but I got a baguette and brie as an app for when my hubby walked in the door from work, so I figured, why not make a little bit.  I cut about 8 inches of bread from the loaf, then sliced in along the width of the bread, as if I was to make a sandwich.  I spread some butter and olive oil on the inside of the bread, then sprinkled some freshly chopped garlic all over each side, along with some salt, Italian seasoning and dried garlic.  I closed up the bread, wrapped it in tin foil and put it in my toaster over for about 5 minutes on “bake.”

Put my bowl plates on the stove top to warm up, set the table, poured a little more wine for myself and my husband, then got ready to eat.  I always let my husband serve himself first.  He goes for more pasta and less sauce, and I’m the opposite. I whipped out the garlic bread, threw it on a cutting board and cut it into pieces.  A little heavy on the salt (oops) but otherwise really good.  The sauce was AWESOME.  Could have been a little saucier—maybe add some more white wine and tomato puree next time.  I also top all Italian food, and all my pizza, with a healthy dose of grated Parmesan cheese.  I think it makes everything better:)

Overall, we had a GREAT dinner, and it was exactly what I needed after a day like today.  Now it’s time to watch a little TV and get ready to face more psycho-patrons tomorrow.  Oy vey.