Dan in the Kitchen -- Ranch Burgers

Yesterday, I made a batch of brioche buns with hamburgers in mind. But, they turned out to be small and biscuit-like, so I decided to eat them for breakfast instead, maybe slathered with a little jam or cherry butter. Problem is, there are a lot of buns, and I don't actually eat breakfast much. Dan doesn't either, unless it's a muffin or bagel. Hmm.

My main concern with using the brioche buns for burgers was that they wouldn't be sturdy enough to stand up to a thick, juicy patty. Dan thought they would work though, so...hello, Dan in the Kitchen #4! I'm always happy to stand aside and let someone else cook dinner.

These ranch burgers were inspired by one of the Ranch dressing commercials -- you know, the one where a woman is cooking dinner for her family and she decides to throw a packet of Ranch powder into a bowl of ground beef to give her burgers extra flavor. Seemed like a tasty idea, so we decided to give it a try.

Honestly? Couldn't really taste the Ranch. The burgers were juicy and meaty, but I think our beef to Ranch ratio was too skewed in favor of beef to taste anything other than cow. We'll have to try using two packets of Ranch next time. (Oh, and the buns held up just fine! They're sturdier than they look.)

Ranch Burgers

Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb ground beef

- 1 to 2 packets Ranch dressing powder

- 2 brioche buns

Steps:

(1) Fire up your outdoor grill, or set your indoor grill to "high."

(2) In a large bowl, mix Ranch powder and ground beef until well mixed.

(3) Divide your ground beef into two portions, and shape them into patties.
** Note from Dan: Ground meat is really gross, and working with it by hand is not the greatest sensation. But, you have to suck it up and pack your patties firmly, or you'll end up with a crumbly burger.

(4) Grill your patties for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Resist the urge to flip constantly.
(5) Slice brioche buns in half, and lay them on the grill for about a minute.
(6) Slide your burgers onto your toasted buns.
(7) Eat hot, with all the fixings.

Meatball Sub

Looks like Hurricane Irene is the new Snowpocalypse -- everything is closed, traffic has ground to a halt, and everyone is holed up in their homes. The only difference, I guess, is that we're actually prepared to battle the forces of nature this time around.  Maybe a little too prepared. BJ's was a mad house yesterday! I was just there to get some snacks, but it seemed like everyone else was stocking up on enough bottled water and dry foods to survive the Apocalypse. I almost caved in to the peer pressure and got some water myself, but I was on foot and couldn't possibly carry all that back home. Besides, the storm is only supposed to last a day or two, and I've got a full Brita, orange juice, Gatorade, and lots of soda.

Anyway, with the storm a' brewin' outside, all my weekend plans have been canceled, so there's nothing left for me to do but watch the Ghost Whisperer marathon on WeTV, terrorize the cats, and cook. The TV is on, my cats are currently in hiding, and it's just about time for dinner. Dan hasn't had much of an appetite lately, so I really want to make something yummy to tempt him into eating a full meal. Seems like kind of a perfect time to make some homemade meatball subs. What could be tastier than warm, crusty bread, gooey cheese, and juicy meatballs smothered in savory red sauce? Nothing at all, especially in this weather.

Hope you guys are having as much fun during the hurricane as I am!  In the meantime, stay dry, be safe, and I'll see everyone on Monday when this all blows over.

Meatball Sub

Ingredients:

- 1 lb beef

- 2 tbsp onion powder

- 1-1/2 tbsp salt (more if you like your food salty)
- 1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
- 1 egg

- 1 container tomato sauce (I used Prego)

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 325.

(2) In a large bowl, combine all ingredients until well-mixed. The meat should be very malleable, and not sticky.
(3) Roll meat mixture into balls, 1-inch in diameter. Place balls on a greased pan. Don't crowd the pan, but you don't have to worry about these meatballs spreading, so you can line them closer than you would if you were working with cookie dough.
(4) Bake meatballs for about 8 minutes.
(5) While meatballs are baking, start heating the pasta sauce in a large sauce pan.
(6) Take the meatballs out of the oven and scoop them into the bubbling sauce. Leave the oven on.
(7) Cook meatballs in sauce for about 3 minutes. Turn stove off.
(8) Cut a 6-7 inch wedge off the end of a loaf of French bread. Slice length-wise without severing the loaf all the way in half.
(9) Line the bottom half with provolone cheese. Scoop about 4-5 meatballs into the middle, and top with more provolone.
(10) Place your sandwich onto a baking sheet and slide back in the oven. Bake for about 1 minute, or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with chopped or dried parsley.
(11) Eat immediately, with a lot of napkins on hand.

For other great recipes, click here, here or here.

Cayenne-Cinnamon Baby Back Ribs

Whoa, two posts in one day, what's going on??? Unemployment, that's what. No, I wasn't fired. And no, I wasn't laid off. My judicial clerkship ended yesterday. Can you believe how quickly a whole year passed? It's been over a year since I graduated law school, one year since I took the bar exam, and 8 months since I got sworn in as a brand spanking new attorney. Oh, how time flies...

So, what's next? Nothing just yet, but I'm looking. It's kind of scary to be moving forward without a concrete plan, but I'm pretty sure it'll be OK. I've got a solid resume with a lot of good work experience, there are plenty of legal job search directories out there, and I've got Dan + my parents rooting for me. In the meantime, I'm just going to be a job application-mailing, food-blogging machine.

Anyway, enough about me. Lets get back to the really important stuff -- ribs. Juicy, meaty, glazed ribs. Ribs that ooze fatty, salty, porky juices with every bite. Ribs that were rubbed, roasted, glazed, broiled, and ready to eat in under two hours. Ribs so good that between dinner last night and lunch today, all 6 pounds of them are gone.

This was my first time making ribs, and I was under a bit of a time crunch. Usually, stuff like this need to cook for several hours on low heat to get that lovely fall-off-the-bone quality. Unfortunately, I didn't have several hours. I didn't get home from work until after 6pm, and my guests were scheduled to arrive at 7:30. Luckily, the Steamy Kitchen blog had a rib recipe that involved cooking the meat at slightly higher heat for less time. 

Because I was cooking 6 pounds of meat instead of 3, I actually had to keep my ribs in the oven for a little longer than the recipe called for -- after one hour, some of the meat was still bloody. I probably should have cooked everything even longer than I ultimately did, because the meat didn't fall off the bone like it was supposed to. Still, the ribs were still very tasty, and my guests had no complaints. I think my friend Andrew ate over a pound of meat by himself! Awesome.

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Steamy Kitchen blog.
(Her pictures make these ribs look way more delicious than mine do...)


For other great recipes, click here or here.

Dan in the Kitchen -- Creamed Spinach

Dan's back in the kitchen folks, and this time he's making creamed spinach for a cozy little dinner party. As my "sous-chef", he technically had a hand in every other dish served -- shredding cheese for the mac n' cheese, mashing potatoes for the garlic mashed potatoes, etc. -- but this was the dish that he was entirely responsible for from start to finish. I actually wanted to put him in charge of cooking the pork ribs, but he said that was more of a "Tina in the Kitchen" endeavor. Oh well. Next time...

Creamed spinach is one of our favorite steakhouse sides -- it's creamy, savory, and super delicious. But, considering how cheap the ingredients are and how easy it is to make, especially if you're using pre-cooked/chopped frozen spinach, it's kind of a rip off that most restaurants charge $7 for a bowl of the stuff.  

All you have to do is saute some garlic in butter, dump cooked/chopped spinach into the pot, add cream, stir, season, and let the whole thing simmer into perfection. 

Voila, creamed spinach! So easy, a caveman -- or, an inexperienced cook who needs very exact, step-by-step instructions** -- can do it. 

** Based on suggestions from numerous people, I showed Dan the "Cooking for Engineers" blog. Unsurprisingly, he found the cooking flowcharts to be incredibly logical and understandable. We'll definitely have to start using recipes from that blog!

Creamed Spinach (Adapted from Emeril Lagasse's recipe)

Ingredients:
- 1 package frozen pre-cooked/chopped spinach, thawed
- 1 cup cream
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp minced garlic

- A pinch of nutmeg

- Salt/pepper to taste

Steps:

(1) In a pot, melt butter on medium heat.

(2) Add minced garlic, cook until lightly soft and fragrant, about a minute.

(3) Scoop all the spinach into the pot, and stir to allow the greens to soak up the garlicky butter, as well as break up any lumps in the spinach. Cook until liquid is released.

(4) Add cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cook until the liquid has reduced to approximately half the original amount, about 4-5 minutes.

** Seasoning note from Dan -- if you're adding salt straight from the canister, do so with a gentle side to side shaking motion rather than a down-up pouring motion. This will help you control the speed at which salt is added, as well as the amount of salt that goes into the dish. Gently shake a little salt over every part of the pot, stir, and taste. If it's not salty enough, add more.
(5) Remove from heat and serve right away.
** Since this dish comes together so quickly, it's best to make it last so that it doesn't just sit around and congeal while the other food is being cooked. 

Dan in the Kitchen -- Grilled Cream Cheese and Colby Jack Sandwich

So, I'd like to introduce a new series of posts called "Dan in the Kitchen," where I document Dan's forays into the kitchen. I figure since I'm not always in the mood to cook, but we still need to eat, everyone would benefit from Dan gaining some cooking skills. Until we moved in together, pretty much all Dan ate was buffalo chicken subs from the student center deli, Cheez-its and pasta with bottled spaghetti sauce. To this day, if I'm not around for dinner, or if I don't feel like cooking, he'll just have a few beers and a pack of Oreos. So unappetizing, not to mention super unhealthy. I have high hopes that this "Dan in the Kitchen" thing is really going to turn things around for his eating habits. At the very least, this will add some variety to his diet. And, it's going to be fun to teach Dan how to cook!

I'm convinced that Dan could actually be a great cook if he put his mind to it. He's an engineer, so he deals with long, complicated instructions and handles delicate circuitry for a living -- surely he could follow a recipe with equal skill and finesse! I mean, constructing a meal is not so different than building a satellite, right?

The first recipe from Dan in the Kitchen is the humble grilled cheese sandwich, jazzed up with cream cheese and colby jack. OK, so maybe this isn't "healthy" per se, but we have to start somewhere, and this is a straightforward, frills-free recipe that's super delicious and satisfying. Just butter some bread, throw on some cheese, and cook it all on a hot pan. The cream cheese was my idea -- Dan was deeply skeptical, but he was nice enough to let me bully him into using it. 

The cream cheese turned out to be a fantastic idea. It added a whole new level of goeey, tangy, cheesiness to the sandwich that provided a wonderful contrast to the crunchy, buttery bread. The bread was perhaps a little too crunchy, but Dan has always liked his breads a little more toasted than I do. Either way, delicious! Not a bad start for Dan in the Kitchen.

Grilled Cream Cheese and Colby Jack Sandwich

Ingredients:
- 2 slices bread, buttered on both sides
- 1 slab cream cheese
- 1 slice of colby jack cheese

Steps:
(1) Heat a pan on medium heat. When the pan is hot, slap on both pieces of bread.
(2) Toast one side of the bread to golden brown, then flip over and layer with cheese -- cream cheese on one slice, colby jack on the other.
(3) Cook for about 30 seconds, until cheese is slightly melted, then place one piece of bread on top of the other (cheese to cheese) and press down until the two cheeses are molded together.
(4) When the bread is toasted to your satisfaction, and the cheese is perfectly melty and gooey, take your sandwich off the heat and slide it onto a plate.
** If you find (as we did) that your colby jack doesn't melt as nicely as you hoped, stick your sandwich in the oven and broil on low heat for about 3-4 minutes.
(5) Cut in half and enjoy hot with a cold soda and some chips.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

(All pictures in this post were taken by Alex Hsu.)

A few weeks ago, right after my Japanese-Style Strawberry Shortcake post, I got a message from my friend Alex asking if I would cook him delicious food for his birthday. He lives in Jersey City and I live in VA, so my first instinct was to say "Haha...good one...no." But, I'm a sucker for compliments about my cooking, and I like to feed people, so I told him I'd do it. I didn't think to run the idea by Dan until after I had already committed us to a road trip, but to his credit he just rolled his eyes and said "Guess I need to take some time off on Friday..."

When I asked Alex what he wanted for dinner, his response was "Meat. Lots of meat." Well. That's helpful. I knew he was inviting a bunch of people over, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it to Jersey City before 5pm, so my main concern was feeding a lot of people and being done with all the cooking by the time everyone showed up at 7pm. I knew right away that my sides would be chive-garlic mashed potatoes, baked mac n cheese, and roasted carrots -- they're easy to make, very filling, and I can pretty much put them on the stove and forget about them while I cook the main course. With those sides decided, it was pretty clear I was going to have to make fried chicken to accompany all those carbs. Alex was going to get a good ol' Southern-style birthday dinner.

Have I ever made fried chicken before this dinner? Nope. Is it a good idea to cook something totally new and unfamiliar for a lot of people on short notice? Not really. But hey, lets live on the edge a little. Fortunately, Alex's roommate bought all the ingredients a few days ahead of time, and our friend Andy was hanging around the apartment all day, so all I had to do was tell Andy to soak the chicken in buttermilk and we were good to go.  When Dan and I finally made it to the apartment, I got right to work on the chicken. I tossed together large amounts of flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder for the breading, threw the buttermilk-soaked chicken directly into the dry mixture to coat, and pan-fried everything in very hot vegetable oil. I honestly didn't have high hopes, but the chicken turned out to be amazingly delicious. At least, the pieces that I didn't flip obsessively and actually cooked all the way through were delicious -- there were definitely some pieces that were kinda sorta really raw near the bone. Oops.

Thankfully, Alex ate the good pieces and was pretty happy with his meal. He had multiple helpings of everything, and that made me happy. But when he told me I should open my own fried chicken joint, I just laughed nervously and casually slid the under-cooked pieces away from his plate. What he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients: (I sort of haphazardly threw ingredients into a bowl when I made my chicken, so these measurements are my best guesses for how much of everything I used.)

- 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or, just a whole bunch of wings/legs/whatever)

- 3 cups buttermilk

- 2 cups flour

- 1/4 cup garlic salt

- 1/8 cup paprika

- Lots of salt and pepper (I like my food salty, so I used a lot of salt -- probably about 1/2 cup)

- Lots of vegetable oil (peanut oil would be great too)

Steps:

(1) In a large bowl, pour buttermilk over chicken and soak overnight, or at least a few hours.

(2) In a separate large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients until well-combined.
(3) Fill a wide, heavy-bottomed skillet about half-way full of oil. Heat until very hot -- if you flick flour into the oil, it should immediately sizzle/bubble up.
(4) Throw buttermilk-soaked chicken directly into the bowl containing the flour/seasoning, and toss to coat. Shake off excess breading, then slide the chicken into the bubbling oil.
** The chicken should be mostly covered, but it's fine to have some of it peaking out above the oil. The longer you fry, the less oil you'll have anyway, and you'll be flipping the pieces eventually.
(5) Cook chicken until golden-brown, about 8-10 minutes on each side. Don't overcrowd your skillet -- 3 to 4 pieces at a time is best.
** I would say it's better to over-cook than under-cook in this situation. Do NOT flip your chicken obsessively like I did. Just throw it in there, walk away for a while, then flip once and leave it alone again. The breading will keep the meat nice and juicy, so it's fine to cook the chicken longer. There's nothing grosser than biting into raw/bloody meat near the bone...
(6) Set cooked pieces aside on your serving plate -- don't use paper towels or your chicken will be soggy. Keep frying until all your chicken is done.
(7) Eat immediately with sides of your choice.
** I suggest buttery mashed potatoes, biscuits, greens, and creamy mac n' cheese.


For other great recipe ideas, click here.

Loco Moco

Two of my college friends got married in Hawaii recently. (I know. So jealous.) Sadly, I wasn't invited to the wedding -- ahem, Sonia -- but I've been facebook stalking the photo albums of the people who went, so it kind of feels like I was there too. Note to self: must go to Hawaii soon.

From what I can tell, when the wedding guests weren't watching the two love birds join in holy matrimony, they were stuffing their faces with yummy Hawaiian food. Everything looked delicious, but it was the pictures of loco moco that really had me drooling. Rice, gravy, hamburger, and a fried egg? I'm so there! 

The ingredients for loco mocos are simple, the recipe is straightforward, and I was chowing down on a delicious Hawaiian meal in less than 45 minutes. The only way I could have enjoyed this more is if I were eating it in Hawaii. Sigh. (Just kidding -- congratulations, Sonia and Kevin!)

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Jun-blog.
** Note: I thought plain ol' meat gravy would be too boring, so I made a cream-based mushroom gravy instead. Super delicious!

Cheesy Creamy Shrimp Spaghetti

So, it's been a while since my last post, huh? Yeah. Things have been a little hectic around here. So, unsurprisingly, Dan and I have been doing a whole lot of Chinese delivery-ing, and very little cooking. I made fried chicken last weekend for my friend Alex's birthday in NY, but...all the pictures are on his camera, and he has yet to send them to me. (Get on it, Hsu!) 

In other news, did you know that it's Mob Week this week? I know everyone is super excited about the shark action going on at the Discovery Channel, but who wants to see sharks attacking a fish decoy when there are classic mobster movies on TV? And, guess what else premieres this week? The Jersey Shore, Season 4: Italy! The most famous guidos on the planet take over Florence! Coincidence? I think not. 

With all the Italian madness on TV, I'm really craving a big bowl of pasta. Something creamy, in fact. Thankfully, I have about five pounds of dried spaghetti in the pantry from our last BJs run, as well as a tub of Savory Garlic Philadelphia Cooking Creme that comes with a Creamy Shrimp and Rice recipe that's easily converted into a pasta dish. A little chopping, a little stirring, and thirty minutes later, Dan and I are happily slurping piping hot bowls of cheesy creamy shrimp spaghetti while we finish watching Scarface. Not exactly the kind of meal you'd expect to have on a warm summer night, but very delicious, and very satisfying.

Cheesy Creamy Shrimp Spaghetti (Adapted from the Philadelphia Cooking Creme recipe)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 box spaghetti
- 1/2 a red onion, diced
- 1/2 a red bell pepper, diced

- 1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined
- 1/4 cup milk (I didn't have milk, so I used heavy cream. Very tasty!)

- 1 container Savory Garlic Philadelphia Cooking Creme

Steps:
(1) Boil and drain spaghetti noodles, then set aside.
(2) In a large pot/skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high and add onions + peppers. Cook for about 4-5 minutes, until soft.
(3) Add cream and shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are pink and curled in on themselves.
(4) Mix in cooking cream. Cook until sauce is hot and melty.
(5) Add cooked pasta to the skillet. Toss until each noodle is well-coated with sauce.
(6) Serve hot, garnished with some green onions.

Cheddar-Stuffed Jalapeno Burger

Dan was jonesing hard for Five Guy's  and Ray's Hell Burger this weekend. Who can blame him? They've got amazing burgers! But, getting to Five Guy's meant spending 30 minutes in intense local traffic, and Ray's Hell Burger is always packed to the gills on weekends, so neither option seemed particularly appealing.  We didn't want to give up burgers altogether though, so we decided to buy ground beef and make/grill our own. What a great idea that was! The smell of grilled burgers is such a nice, summery smell, isn't it? And, the homemade burgers were unbelievably yummy -- juicy and bursting with flavor. So good, in fact, that we ended up making them for dinner two nights in a row.

This picture doesn't do a good job of capturing how massive this burger was, but trust me...it was huge. Dan and I each ate half and felt completely stuffed. And just look at that crispy bacon, thick patty and oozing cheese. So. Good.

Cheddar-Stuffed Jalapeno Burger

Ingredients: (Makes one very large burger)

- 2/3 lb ground beef

- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped into little pieces

- 1 handful of grated cheddar

- 1 tbsp onion powder

- 1 tbsp salt

Steps:

(1) In a large bowl, combined ground beef, chopped peppers, salt, and onion powder. Mix well, then divide into 2 portions of equal size.

(2) Take one portion of ground beef and shape it into a large patty, about 1/2 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter.

(3) Spoon grated cheese into the center of the patty, leaving about half an inch to 1 inch around the edges uncovered for sealing.

(4) Shape second patty into roughly the same size and shape as the first. Carefully lay it on top of the first patty, and press down on the edges to seal.

(5) Turn giant patty over and make sure there are no cracks in the meat. Shape to your satisfaction, then slap it on the grill!

(6) Grill on high for about 7 minutes, flipping after a couple minutes on each side.

(7) Serve on a large kaiser roll, with tomatoes, lettuce, and condiments of your choosing.

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

I woke up this morning with a mean craving for steak. I'm probably low on iron or something. Unfortunately for me though, the cafeteria at work doesn't serve juicy ribeyes. Instead, I had to settle for a slightly soggy egg salad sandwich with bland tomatoes. Very sad, I know.

I really wanted steak though. Thought about it all day, in fact. So, I dragged Dan kicking and screaming to the grocery store after work to buy some. I know he hates running errands with me, but he had to pick me up from the metro anyway and since we were already in the car, why not keep on driving to Safeway? Plus, we spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the store and he got a delicious steak dinner out of the bargain, so...tough shit.

When we cook it ourselves, Dan and I rarely eat our steaks with any kind of sauce. We prefer to have it with just a little salt and pepper (OK, a lot of salt for me), and drenched in its own juices. But, Steamy Kitchen had a delicious looking post on steak with chimichurri sauce last week, and I really wanted to try it. I'd seen chimichurri-sauced meat options on menus before, but never got them because I didn't know what chimichurri was. Without an explanation of the ingredients, it sounded vaguely sinister and little too close to "chinchilla" for comfort. No rodent for me, thanks! If only restaurant menus had pictures as pretty as Steamy Kitchen's for every food item. Or, you know, if I spoke Spanish...

The steak, which was a thinner cut than I usually go for, turned out to be tender and juicy, with a pleasing iron-y tang that satisfied my craving in a big way. The chimichurri sauce was OK, but I didn't go wild for it. Maybe because it had red wine vinegar in it, and I don't like sour/tangy sauces. My taste in food runs more towards the sweet and salty. Dan, however, loves spice and tang, and he enjoyed his steak and chimichurri sauce mightily. 

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Steamy Kitchen blog.

Baked Taquitos al Pastor

There is so much al pastor in my fridge right now, I almost don't know what to do with it. Almost. I'm toying with the idea of combining it in some form with kimchi, but I haven't quite decided which direction to go with that yet. For now, I'll have to settle for taquitos. Why baked? Because I just spent the weekend gorging on steak and lobster and brownies, and I'm feeling a little guilty. Nothing about this recipe is healthy, per se, but surely baked is less sinful than deep-fried?

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Pink Parsley blog. 

Tacos al Pastor

Second semester sophomore year, Ana's Taqueria took over the space formerly occupied by a mediocre crepe shop inside the student center, and my life changed. Not in an altogether good way, mind you. On the one hand, I was over the moon because this place had the best Mexican food in Cambridge. On the other hand, I loved the food a little too much too often, and put on ten pounds that semester. Two grande burritos and/or quesidillas per day will do that, I guess. It took me the entire summer to run those pounds off, but looking back, it was totally worth it.

The next year, I toned down my Ana's consumption, but it was Dan's turn, as a newly minted college man, to discover the joys of an Ana's grande burrito with everything in it. I bought him his first burrito at Ana's, but it wasn't long before he was there by himself for lunch and dinner multiple times per week. Of course,  lucky bastard that he is, Dan did not gain a single pound. What a jerk.

You want to know what the best thing on Ana's menu was? The al pastor burrito. And the al pastor quesidilla...and the al pastor tacos. Seriously, the al pastor was amazing. I'd never even heard of "al pastor" before Ana's, but one bite of the fatty, savory-sweet pork and I was totally hooked. And of course, I eventually got Dan hooked. These days we regularly have al pastor cravings that cannot be satisfied, because apparently none of the Mexican places in the area make it, and if they do it doesn't taste right. So sad.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to go wild and make my own al pastor. I marinated a slab of pork shoulder in chili-pineapple sauce over night, covered it with slices of fresh pineapple, and stuck it in the oven for 2 hours. The result was a mound of massively delicious, juicy, fatty pork that had a hint of sweetness and some heat from all the chili peppers I used in the sauce. So good. Not quite the flavor of Ana's, but close enough. 

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of Closet Cooking.

** Note: Two of my favorite blogs, Crumbly Cookie and Confections of a Foodie Bride, said that pineapples contain an enzyme that breaks down meat faster than normal and causes it to become mushy if you marinate the meat too long. I didn't know that at the time, and marinated my pork shoulder in chili-pineapple sauce over night. I don't know if it's because I kept the shoulder intact, while they both cut their meat into slices before marinating, but my pork wasn't mushy at all. Just something to think about...

One year ago: Chocolate Fudge

Aaron's Chicken with Rice and Beans

I know April showers bring May flowers, but...it's been raining all freaking day. Yuck. On days like these, the only thing I want to do is stay home and be lazy. And, maybe eat something simple and tasty. My friend Aaron's chicken and rice/beans dish is just that: no frills, super tasty. He made it for his housewarming party a few weeks back, and it's been on my mind ever since. I don't even like beans, but I was loving them in his chicken and rice! After some wheedling and cajoling, I finally convinced him to give me the recipe. And, because I am a great person, I am sharing it here with you, with some minor adjustments. Enjoy!

Aaron's Chicken with Rice and Beans

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1/2 can of tomato sauce (Not pasta sauce. Tomato sauce...from a can.)
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup red onions, chopped
- 1/4 cup Adobo spice
- 1 cup red beans, uncooked

Steps:
(1) Soak beans in water, 1 hour. Set aside.
(2) Throw chicken breasts, garlic cloves, onions, and Adobo spice into a pot. Cover with chicken broth and tomato sauce. Simmer for 1-1/2 hours.
(3) About 30 minutes into simmering, add red beans to the pot. Continue simmering.
(4) While the chicken is cooking, start cooking some rice. (I just use my rice cooker...I don't even begin to know how to cook rice on a pot.)
(5) The chicken is done when you can easily pull the meat apart. The chicken/tomato sauce should have also cooked down into a thick paste. Pull the chicken out of the sauce and shred the meat.
(6) Dump cooked rice into the pot with the saucy chicken, and mix well. Eat while hot.

One year ago: Simple Artisanal Bread

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

Dan and I have a friend visiting from Hawaii this week, and he came over for dinner today. Originally, we were supposed to go out to eat but, (1) the weather stinks, (2) we've spent way too much money on restaurants lately, and (3) I stumbled across this recipe in my Gmail recipe archive and I just had to make it. 

Yeah, you read that title right. It's not a typo. There are FORTY cloves of garlic in this chicken dish. Forty! Forty deliciously fragrant cloves of garlic, slow-cooked until they melt in your mouth. Mmm. So. Good. Just don't make any romantic post-dinner plans. 

Kissing jokes aside, this dish is actually not overpoweringly garlicky. The cloves infuse the chicken and cooking broth with lots of flavor, but garlic is really not the main focus of the dish -- it's the chicken and the yummy broth. Seriously, this is a really great recipe. Even though I used a pack of drumsticks instead of butchering a whole chicken into several pieces, the meat turned out to be incredibly juicy and tender. And the broth...oh man. It was packed with flavor. Great for bread dipping. Or, you know, drinking through a straw. As for the garlic...well, who doesn't love roasted garlic? I think I ate about twenty cloves in a row, plain, before I realized that certain male individuals in my life may not appreciate the aftermath. Oops. Pucker up, sweetie!

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.

One year ago: Caramel Cookie Sandwiches with Ganache Filling

Kale and Lemon-Pepper Chicken Pizza

(I got a new camera! Can you tell?)

Both the Pioneer Woman and the Crumbly Cookie assured me that their favorite pizza dough is at its best the longer it's kept in the fridge, so I took their advice and let the second half of my dough chill for a few days. I didn't have the patience to wait 3-4 days, but I figured that two days was plenty, so I pulled the dough out of the fridge today for another round of pizzas.

Now that I know what kale is, I'm eager to work it into my vegetable rotation. I bought a big bag of it at BJs the other day, but have been kind of at a loss as to what to do with it. I mean, I ate it bunch when I was younger, but I'm pretty sure my parents just sauteed it and served it with rice. Sauteed kale is delicious, of course, but there's gotta be more you can do with it, right? Toss it onto a pizza with chunks of tangy, savory lemon-pepper chicken, for instance?

Man, when I tell you this pizza was delicious...you really need to take my word for it. The dough, which had become even more malleable with a few extra days in the fridge, was perfectly tender and chewy, and had a smoother and more uniform consistency/texture than my last batch. The saltiness of the sauteed kale complemented the tangy-peppery-ness of the chicken, and in the absence of sauce, the gooey melted mozzarella was the deliciously fatty glue that held it all together. Nom nom nom!

Kale and Lemon-Pepper Chicken Pizza 

Ingredients: (makes 3 personal pizzas)

- 1/2 of the pizza dough from the Pioneer Woman's recipe
- 3 tsp olive oil + more for greasing baking pans
- 2 cups kale, chopped

- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

- 1 chicken breast

- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- Salt/pepper to taste

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 500.

(2) Grease two baking pans with olive oil, making sure entire surface is coated in oil.

(3) In a pan, cook kale on medium-high heat with a dash of salt until leaves are just wilted. Set aside.

(4) Cut chicken breast into strips, and season each side with salt and lots of pepper. Soak chicken strips in the lemon juice for about 10 minutes. Cut into bite size pieces, then set aside and start prepping the pizza dough.

(5) Cut dough into 3 pieces. Take one piece of dough, lightly flour both sides, and then stretch and smooth into the desired shape/thinness. Do this with all three pieces. Please stretched dough into baking pans. (I used a 13x9 cake pan + 9x9 square pan)

(6) Spread 1 tsp on the surface of each pizza.

(7) Divide 1 cup mozzarella between 3 pizzas.

(8) Divide cooked kale and chicken bits between 3 pizzas, spreading them evenly on top of the mozzarella.

(9) Sprinkle remaining cup of mozzarella between 3 pizzas, on top of the chicken/kale mixture.

(10) Bake for 8 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

One year ago: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Pepperoni Pizza

Mmm, pizza. Pizza pizza pizza. Is there anyone in the world who doesn't love pizza? Show me a person who says they don't like pizza, and I'll show you a liar. I mean, what's not to love about it? Tender (or crispy, or chewy) crust...tangy or creamy sauce...gooey melted cheese...and any yummy topping you could possibly want or think of...Is it any wonder that "Pizza Day" is basically every single kid's favorite day in the lunchroom?

Dan and I are very loyal Domino's customers (Pizza Hut has better wings, though), but I've been dying to make my own pizza for a while now. The Crumbly Cookie blog had a few tasty-looking posts about homemade pizza last year, and they've been sitting in my queue of bookmarked "must try" recipes since. But, with my repeated failed attempts at handling yeast, I had no confidence in my ability to make pizza dough, so I put off doing it, rationalizing that I couldn't make pizza properly anyway since, hey, no pizza stone. Then, this past weekend my stunning success making focaccia gave me a huge boost of confidence, and I figured, hell, let's try pizza!

(Yuck, this pizza did NOT photograph well...tasty though!)

I've been  really into the Pioneer Woman lately, so I actually went with her pizza recipe instead of Crumbly Cookie's, although as far as I could tell, their recipes were substantially similar if not identical. Yeast, flour, and salt mixed together, followed by a slow, cold rise in the fridge over night. My luck with yeast held, and the dough was wonderful. After many hours in the fridge it was more stretchy than sticky, despite not having as much flour as you'd expect, and it was easy to pull and stretch it into the shape and thinness I wanted. Awesome!

For the sauce, I cheated and went with store-bought Ragu. What can I say, I was feeling lazy, I didn't have crushed tomatoes or tomato paste, and Ragu is perfectly good pizza sauce in a pinch! Anyway. After saucing the dough, I loaded it down with shredded mozzarella, colby jack, parmesan, and pepperoni slices. 10 minutes at 500 degrees later, Dan and I were sitting down to a very delicious, cheesy, tender-crusted homemade pepperoni pizza. A very satisfying dinner, with plenty leftover for Dan's lunch. I still have enough dough for another pizza, so...keep your eyes peeled for another pizza post soon,  probably with white sauce and lots of vegetables.

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

One year go: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Homemade Pasta with Mushroom Cream Sauce

I've been on kind of a cook/bake/serve-ware binge lately. In the last 3 weeks I've purchased a set of 12 stemless wine glasses, a matching 90oz pitcher, a crust cutter, a cupcake corer (you know, for all those cupcakes that need stuffing), and a pasta machine. The wine glasses/pitcher haven't arrived yet, the pasta machine spent most of last week acting as a dead weight to smooth out my new rug, and I haven't gotten any use out of either the crust cutter or cupcake corer, since I've vowed to make fewer desserts. Before you start to think that all my purchases were a big waste of money though (they're not, honey), let me just say that I finally broke in the pasta machine last night, and it was great.  

(My friend Amy has long, slim arms that deserve to be photographed.)

So yesterday, Dan and I took some friends to a local vineyard for a wine tasting. We sampled eight delicious wines, then purchased a nice bottle of white (a 2009 Sommet Blanc) to help wash down the obscene amount of cheese we had brought with us.  When we finally made it home, stuffed to the gills, we realized that there were still two large pitchers of sangria to be addressed, as well as a freshly baked loaf of focaccia. The most logical thing to do, of course, was to drink all the sangria, eat all the bread, and make a huge batch of fresh pasta to round out the meal. Enter: Tina's new pasta machine.

As it turns out, pasta dough is just eggs + flour. Did you know that? I didn't. I thought for sure it was going to involve a lot more fancy wheeling and dealing, and possibly lots of butter. The whole process was very straightforward, though, and the only issue we had was getting the dough to the right consistency and remembering to let it to rest before rolling it out. Our first batch, which was under-floured, looked fine but turned out to be kind sticky, and stuck stubbornly to the cogs of the pasta machine. The second batch, which we kneaded with a lot more flour and allowed to rest for a bit before rolling, turned out much better -- the texture was smoother, and the strands came apart cleanly. 

When it came time to cook the pasta, there was a bit of confusion about cooking time. We knew homemade pasta was supposed to cook a lot faster than the dried commercial stuff, but cooked pasta doesn't look a whole lot different than its raw form, so there was a lot of guesswork involved. We ended up just boiling each batch for about 3 minutes, and the noodles came out kind of al dente. Personally, I prefer my pasta to be softer, but everyone else seemed to be fine with the texture and consistency, and I'm told Italians like their pasta al dente, so what do I know?

So, the verdict -- homemade pasta is delicious, but really labor intensive. Far too labor intensive to be a regular feature in my kitchen. I mean, it took me longer to mix/knead/roll/cut/boil one batch of pasta than it did to bake a loaf of focaccia, even taking into account the 60+ minutes of dead time to proof the yeast and allow the bread dough to rise. I'm not made of time, you know. Still, fresh pasta is admittedly very tasty, and I could see myself making it every now and then as a treat. Plus, I gotta get my money's worth out of that damned machine.

For a straightforward pasta recipe, check here, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

One year ago: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Shooter's Sandwich

So, miracle of miracles, this recipe was actually sent to me by Dan. Yeah. The man who thinks eating is a hassle and only sometimes gets excited for dinner if it involves dumplings and/or blueberry pie sent me a link to a sandwich. Must be one hell of a sandwich! Naturally, I had to check it out. 

OK, so what the hell is a "shooter's sandwich?" According to the article Dan sent me, it's apparently an English invention. It was originally created as a snack that a gentleman's cook would make the night before a hunt, to be eaten when the gentleman in question got hungry after a day of bloodthirsty entertainment. So, it's literally a sandwich for someone who shoots. Cool.

More specifically, the shooter's sandwich involves a hollowed out loaf of bread, lots of steak, and mushroom/shallots cooked in loads of butter. And it's delicious. Really really delicious. Steak is always wonderful, but when loaded with super buttery mushrooms and wrapped in crusty bread soaked through with meat/shroom juice...words fail me. Just try it. And if you happen to have dijon mustard on hand, use it. Trust me.

For the recipe and a wonderful slideshow of the step-by-step construction of this sandwich, click here.

One year ago: Bridal Shower Spread