Range Warfare

Honey and Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

2010-07-20T15:21:00.004-05:00

I know, I’ve been slacking again. I’ve just been too busy watching Wimbledon, and the World Cup, and I’m now in the process of remodeling my kitchen. Well, not me personally, not yet anyway, I won’t get involved until the painting stage, thank goodness. But, last week, I had the men in tool belts in installing my new counters, and very nice they are too, the counters that is, not the men in tool belts.

I think the old counters had been in here since the house was built, these days, some might consider them to be quite retro, but to me they were bloody horrible. The next job will be tiling the walls around the counters. They were covered with some equally horrible laminate, which we had to rip off prior to the advent of the counters. The walls are now a lovely nicotine brown from the old glue, they remind me of many pub ceilings I saw in England – in the pre-smoking ban days, of course.

Anyway, enough of the waffle, and on with the recipe. You can also cook this dish on the BBQ, just place Mahi Mahi on a piece of heavy-duty foil and baste the fish with the marinade during cooking.

Incidentally, the marinade for this fish is equally yummy with chicken, pork and beef. Just increase the ingredient quantities depending on the size of your cut of meat, (I use about ¼ of a cup, honey, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar), and use fresh ginger for extra pep.

Honey and Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Black pepper, to taste
2-4 Mahi Mahi fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

In a shallow dish, mix together first 6 ingredients, add the Mahi Mahi, cover dish and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Turn the fish over halfway through the marinating process.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add fish to skillet reserving marinade. Cook for about 5 minutes each side, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove fish to a warm serving plate and keep warm.
Add marinade to skillet and cook, stirring continuously, until reduced to a glaze. Pour glaze over fish and serve.

Chicken with Leek and Asparagus

2010-06-15T14:55:00.002-05:00

Snakes alive! This is rapidly becoming the year of the snake. Remember, a couple of posts ago, I told you about finding a snakeskin in our roof space? Well, since then we have been finding the real thing. This one was in our shed, yikes!

We have been reliably informed that he is not poisonous, and we should leave him alone as he will kill any mice in there, although I'm sure the cats won’t be too pleased about the competition. We have named him Hissing Sid. Needless to say, I give the shed a very wide berth and let Mick deal with him.

This chap had to be evacuated from our garage, fortunately, he left with good grace.

Anyway, snakes aside, on with the recipe. This is another one from the BBC, but I made quite a few changes to it. In the first place it called for the chicken to be flambéed in brandy. Now, I don’t know about you, but if there’s any brandy lying around the kitchen it does not go in the food! And, I didn’t like the idea of flambéing, as I would probably burn the house down, so I just bunged in some white wine.

Also the original recipe said to use asparagus and shallots, but having enjoyed the leek and asparagus combo in the tart, I decided to use leeks. Anyway, if you’re interested in burning your house down and want to have a go at flambéing, be my guest, you’ll find the original recipe here:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10599/flambed-chicken-with-asparagus

This is my version, and the end result was really rather nice, Mick declared it a keeper.

Chicken and Asparagus

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
A few tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Black pepper, to taste
2 leeks, white and pale green parts only, sliced
¼ cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
10-12 asparagus spears, halved
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chopped basil

Directions:

Coat chicken with flour
Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over a medium heat, add chicken and a generous grind of black pepper and cook until browned on both sides. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
In same pan, sauté leeks for a couple of minutes until softened.
Return chicken to pan, add the white wine and cook until wine has reduced a bit.
Stir in the stock and bring to boil, reduce heat and cook chicken for about 15 minutes.
Add the asparagus and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Stir in the cream and chopped basil and cook for a couple more minutes until cream has warmed but don’t let it boil.

Serve with some steamed basmati rice.

Leek and Asparagus Tart

2010-05-20T12:07:00.002-05:00

I saw a recipe in the BBC Good Food newsletter for a Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Leek and Almond Tart and wanted to try it. I didn’t have any broccoli, so I substituted asparagus, and it was so good I made it again the following week. The leeks and asparagus made such a great flavor combination that broccoli is out the window now. As you can see in the pic, the pastry got a tad overdone, but it was still yumptious. You can find the original BBC recipe here:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/335627/purple-sprouting-broccoli-leek-and-almond-tart

I served this tart with Mediterranean potatoes, which you can find here:
http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2009/05/mediterranean-potatoes.html
and the remaining asparagus, which I roasted and served with a drizzle of lemon juice and a dash of Parmesan.

Leek and Asparagus Tart

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks (white and pale green parts only) thinly sliced
1 sheet puff pastry
10-12 asparagus spears, trimmed
2 eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup Parmesan, shredded
1 ounce sliced almonds

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425F
Heat the oil in a skillet over a medium heat, add leeks and a generous dash of black pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes. Set aside while you prepare pastry.
Cover a baking tray with baking parchment and grease with a little butter.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry into a rectangle. Place pastry on baking tray, and score a line about ½ an inch from the edge around the pastry sheet. Don’t cut right through the pastry.
Spread the leeks out evenly within the scored rectangle, and bake for 10 minutes until the edges have puffed up.
Reduce oven temperature to 400F
Arrange the asparagus spears on top of the leeks, and sprinkle with Parmesan.
In a small bowl, beat together eggs and cream and pour over the veggies.
Sprinkle with the sliced almonds and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Cod Mornay

2010-05-03T14:43:00.003-05:00

I know I am always bemoaning the fact that we can’t get any decent fresh fish here in Oklahoma, and that’s still true. But since I started going to Sam’s Club (a discount warehouse store), in Joplin, Missouri, I have at least been able to find some pretty good frozen fish. I do like to have meat free meals, be it something fishy, eggy or veggie, once or twice a week. This is one of my fishy dishes.

Even if you’re not a huge lover of fish, I guarantee you’ll like this one. I served this with some baby red potatoes for soaking up all that yummy sauce, and some roasted asparagus, which after cooking, I sprinkled with a little lemon juice and Parmesan cheese.

Cod Mornay

Ingredients:

3 – 4 cod fillets, or other white fish such as sea bass or halibut
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup sharp cheddar, shredded
Chopped parsley for garnish

For the Sauce you will need:

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
¼ cup sharp cheddar, shredded

Directions:

Make sauce. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Remove pan from heat and gradually stir in flour to make a smooth paste.
Return pan to heat and gradually add milk, stirring continuously until sauce thickens.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cheese until melted. Set aside.
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Melt butter in a large skillet over a medium heat, add fish to pan, sprinkle with a little lemon juice, and cook for 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets. Turn fish over half way through cooking.
While fish cooks, gently re-heat sauce.
Grease a baking dish with a little butter. Transfer fish to dish, pour over the sauce, and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily.
Top with chopped parsley and serve.

Saint George's Day and Jam Roly-Poly and Custard

2010-04-23T17:53:00.002-05:00

This recipe is an entry for Family Recipes; Memories of Family, Food and Fun! Hosted by Lynda at: http://lyndasrecipebox.blogspot.com/ Here’s what she says, Make a dish that is a favorite of your family's, whether it's yours, your moms, an aunt, cousin or whoever, and submit it to me. I’m not to sure if this qualifies as, while it’s a favorite, it is a traditional rather than an original recipe. Anyway here goes.

A few months ago, for some strange reason, Mick and I were reminiscing about junior (elementary) school lunches. Back when we were kids, school lunches were really good, absolutely no fried or fast food, just good wholesome grub. But it wasn’t really the main courses that we remembered so much as the puddings (desserts). One thing we both agreed on was that jam roly-poly was one of our favorites. It was obviously the same for the other kids at school, ‘cos if second helpings were in the offing, one could get killed in the rush.

Anyway, I decided to have a go at making jam roly-poly. And I must say, that it’s a good thing I’ve lost my sweet tooth, because if I was to make stuff like this all the time I’d be built like a house-side. I did cheat with the custard, and used Bird’s Custard Powder, which while better than the instant stuff, isn’t as good as homemade.

And another thing, it’s Saint. George’s Day today (he’s the patron Saint of England, in case you didn’t know), and what better way to celebrate it than with a traditional English pud!

You can find Bird’s Custard Powder here:
http://www.britishdelights.com/prod_d3a.htm
And the Atora Vegetable Suet here:
http://www.britishdelights.com/atora-vegetable-suet-m1.htm

The recipe I used is from Brian Turner’s book, Favourite British Recipes. It was actually a recipe for Spotted Dick (no, I am not making that up!). Spotted Dick is basically the same pudding except that it’s filled with currants and raisins instead of jam.

Jam Roly-Poly and Custard

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
A pinch of salt
½ cup vegetable suet (the book uses beef suet but that isn’t available in the US)
Approx. ½ cup water
Approx. ½ cup raspberry jam

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400F
In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, then rub in the suet. Add the water gradually and mix to a dough.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into 10 x 6-inch rectangle. Spread the dough with a thin layer of jam leaving a ½ inch border. Don’t spread the jam too thickly or it will ooze out when you roll it up. Brush the border with water.
Turn the two short edges in and seal, then roll up carefully from a long side.
Rinse a clean kitchen cloth in boiling water and wring out. Sprinkle cloth with flour and shake off the excess. Roll the pudding in the cloth and tie the ends with string.
Set the pudding on a rack in a roasting pan, add water to the pan, just enough that the water isn’t touching the pud. Cover the pan with foil and place in the oven to steam for about 2 hours. Top up water occasionally, as you do not want the pan to boil dry.

NOTE: Exercise extreme caution when removing the pudding from the oven.

Serve hot with custard sauce – it must be custard, I will accept no substitutes. :-)

Custard Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups milk.
3 large eggs.
1 tablespoon cornstarch.
2 tablespoons sugar.
½ tsp. vanilla extract.

Directions:

Reserve 4 tablespoons of milk and put remainder in a saucepan. Heat to just below boiling point.
In a medium sized bowl mix cornstarch with a little cold water to form a smooth paste. Add eggs, sugar and reserved milk and whisk until smooth. Add hot milk to mixture and whisk together.
Return mixture to the saucepan and cook over a medium low heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens. Stir in vanilla extract.
Serve hot over jam roly-poly.

Leek, Bacon, Mushroom and Pasta Bake

2010-04-13T11:43:00.004-05:00

Lately, we’ve been busy tidying up the garden after the ravages of winter. It’s hard to believe that only three weeks ago it was snowing, as this cardinal will attest.

Now the leaves are on the trees, along with peach, pear and apple blossoms. My daffodils have bloomed and gone, and the tulips are taking their bow. I hope that winter is a distant memory where you are too.

Leek, Bacon, Mushroom and Pasta Bake

This is a yummy recipe containing one of my favorite veggies, leeks. It also has a lovely cheesy, mustardy sauce, which enhances the flavor of the leeks, and the fresh breadcrumbs give it a nice crunch. For the breadcrumbs, I usually toast 2 slices of wheat bread and Mick crumbles it up into chunky breadcrumbs. Well it gives him something to do when he’s loitering around the kitchen getting under the feet. :-) You can, of course, pulse them in a food processor, if you prefer.

For a veggie version, omit bacon, use 4 leeks instead of 2, 8 ounces of mushrooms instead of 6, and vegetable stock instead of chicken.

Ingredients:

2 slices wheat bread
6 slices bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 leeks, sliced
8 ounces penne pasta
1 cup chicken stock
1½ tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground mustard powder (use 1 if you don’t like it too mustardy)
½ cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded and divided
6 ounces mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F
Toast bread, crumble into breadcrumbs and set aside.
In a medium saucepan covered with a lid, simmer leeks in chicken stock for about 5 minutes.
While leeks simmer, put a pan of water on to boil for the pasta, and fry bacon until crisp. Set bacon aside to drain on kitchen paper.
Drain leeks and set aside, reserving ¼ of a cup of stock.
Add pasta to boiling water, reduce heat to medium-high and boil gently for 5 minutes. Drain into a colander and set aside.
While pasta boils, make sauce. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over a
medium heat. Remove pan from heat and stir in flour and mustard powder. Gradually add the ¼ cup of stock until you have a smooth paste. Return pan to heat, gradually add milk, then cream, stirring continuously until sauce thickens.
Remove pan from heat and stir in half the cheese.
Grease a 7x11x3-inch baking dish with a little butter. Add pasta, leeks, bacon and mushrooms to dish and mix to combine the ingredients. Pour over mustard/cheese sauce, top with remaining shredded cheddar, and finally top with breadcrumbs.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Rice Pudding

2010-03-20T16:41:00.003-05:00

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks at the old homestead, we have been redecorating our living room, or remodeling as they call it around here, but that sounds rather grand for slapping a bit of paint on. Though we did also install a ceiling fan in preparation for the summer, and replace the door. It’s only taken us three years to get round to it – but there’s always a real shortage of those round tuits around here. :-)

Speaking of the ceiling fan, we had a bit of a close encounter of the reptilian variety. While mucking about in the roof space, we came across a four foot long snake skin – Yikes! Fortunately, there was no sign of its previous owner. (Wipes sweat from brow).

Anyway, enough of the decorating adventures (or misadventures). As you already know, I don’t make many puddings (desserts), but it has been such a cold winter this year that I was craving some nursery food, and rice pudding fit the bill. Whenever I had rice pudding as a kid, I would always put a big dollop of strawberry jam in it and mix it up until it looked like there had been a nasty accident. Nowadays, I prefer to eat it with a few raisins sprinkled on top.

Incidentally, it looks like comfort food will be on the menu for a little while longer yet. Just as we thought that spring had sprung – for the last two days it’s been sunny and a balmy 73F – today it’s been snowing all day. It’s about six inches deep at the moment, with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Oh hum! But that’s Oklahoma for ya!

Rice Pudding

No, those aren't rabbit droppings you can see!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided 2+1
½ cup short or medium grain white rice
3 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325F
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add rice and cook for one minute, stirring constantly.
Gradually add milk and cream. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract and bring to a gentle boil.
Transfer pudding mix to a 7 x 11 x 3-inch baking dish, bake uncovered for a total of 1½ hours, stirring mixture every 15 –20 minutes. Bake undisturbed for the last 30 minutes.
Remove pud from oven dot with slivers of remaining butter, sprinkle with brown sugar (you can also add a dash of nutmeg if you like), and place under broiler until surface is golden brown.
Serve sprinkled with raisins, or a dollop of your favorite jam.

Tortellini Soup

2010-02-25T17:43:00.005-06:00

Thank you everyone for your messages and e-mails of condolence, I really appreciate your kind thoughts and comments.

Beth at http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ was asking if I got caught in all the snow during my recent trip to England. Well yes, I did, but other than a very scary drive to Manchester airport, and then the worry that my brother might not be able to get home, I didn’t experience too many problems. I did have to spend my last night in an airport hotel, as the snow was so bad I feared I wouldn’t get to the airport if I left the trip until morning.

Amazingly, despite the airport having been closed for most of the previous day, my flight left after only an hour’s delay. I did, however, have a 5-hour delay in snowy Cincinnati for a 1½-hour flight to Tulsa, where incidentally, it was a balmy 55°F (13°C) at 9:30 at night.

Snow on Christmas Day-Note the Union Jack (British flag)

That didn’t last long though, it snowed here on Christmas Eve, which was all very lovely except that it stuck around until the middle of January, and then the next lot moved in. This has been the coldest winter I have experienced since moving to Oklahoma. In early January we were getting daytime highs of 13°F (-10°C) and nighttime lows of -16°F (-26C), brrrrrr, but perfect for a drop of this hearty pasta soup.

The good news is though, my tulips and daffodils are beginning to sprout, so spring is just around the corner, then I’ll be moaning about the heat. Ho hum! Anyway, enough of my weather witterings, on with the recipe, this is so easy to make and cooks in no time at all, perfect for a mid-week meal. Also, I guess if you use vegetable stock, this dish would be suitable for vegetarians.

Tortellini Soup

Note: I used my tomato gloop mix in this recipe as it already contains tomatoes, peppers, and onions and makes a great base for all sorts of dishes. See recipe here:
http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
½ green pepper, cut into small chunks
2 carrots, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock.
1 14½ -ounce can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
A couple of teaspoons dried basil
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup green beans, cut into bite size bits
½ cup frozen peas
1 15½ -ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 9-ounce pack of refrigerated three cheese tortellini
Shredded Parmesan to serve

Directions:

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over a medium heat. Sauté onion, green pepper, and carrots for 3 minutes, add garlic and sauté for a further minute.
Stir in stock, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, black pepper, and basil, bring to a gentle boil then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add green beans, peas, cannellini beans, and pasta, return to a gentle boil then reduce heat and simmer for another 7 minutes.
Serve with a sprinkling of freshly shredded Parmesan and crusty bread.

Sad to say...

2010-02-11T16:58:00.003-06:00

I know it’s been a long time since I put in an appearance around here, but my dad died on December 8, and I was back in England until just before Christmas. Dad had not been in the best of health for some time, but the last six months of his life were extremely worrisome.

And the sad news doesn’t end there, I’m afraid. The day after I arrived back in England, Mick phoned to say his mum was seriously ill in hospital, and three days later she died. So we both lost our one remaining parent within a week of each other. Needless to say, Christmas and New Year were a very subdued affair around here. In many ways 2009 was not a good year for us, and it ended in the worst possible way.

Since then, I just haven’t felt like blogging, to tell the truth, I haven’t felt like doing much of anything. But, that’s going to change, and I will be catching up with y’all real soon, in the meantime here’s a recipe.

Chicken and Bacon with a Mushroom and Tomato Sauce

There is some chicken under there somewhere - trust me!

Ingredients:

4 slices thick bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
½ tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Black pepper to taste
1 beefsteak tomato, seeds removed and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Chopped parsley to garnish

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F
Cook bacon in a large skillet over a medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside to drain on paper towel. Drain all fat from pan but do not wipe clean.
In same skillet, heat olive oil over a medium heat. Add chicken and a generous grind of black pepper and brown for about 3 or 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a greased 11x7-inch baking dish and bake uncovered for 20 minutes.
Add mushrooms to the same skillet and sauté over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, basil and another dash of black pepper and sauté for a further minute. Stir in the bacon.
Remove chicken from oven, spoon tomato/mushroom mixture over the chicken and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Return dish to oven to bake for a further 10 minutes.
Serve with egg noodles, pasta, or rice.

Bonfire Night and Meat and Potato Pie

2009-11-05T17:45:00.002-06:00

An American arriving in England on November 5th could be forgiven for thinking the Brits had taken leave of their senses. For on that night, throughout the realm, bonfires blaze, effigies are burned, and fireworks illuminate the night sky. And this has been happening every year since 1605. We do this to celebrate a foiled terrorist attack which would have blown up the Houses of Parliament, killing our King and his government.

On November 4th 1605, Robert Catesby and twelve other conspirators planted 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. A fellow collaborator, Guy Fawkes, was left behind to light the fuse when King James I and his government entered the Houses of Parliament the following day.

Somehow the King discovered the plot, and in the early hours of November 5th, Fawkes was caught red handed and imprisoned in the Tower of London. His fellow conspirators were quickly rounded up, and all were later tried, convicted, and executed (they were hung, drawn and quartered), for the crime of high treason.

When the public learned of the thwarted plot, they lit bonfires to celebrate the King’s safety, and the event has been commemorated ever since.

Because of the Gunpowder Plot, the reigning monarch only enters the Houses of Parliament once a year, at the State Opening of Parliament. And prior to this event, the cellars of the Palace of Westminster are still searched by the palace guards.

I have many fond memories of Bonfire Night.

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November.
Its gunpowder plot,
We never forgot."

So went the rhyme my friends and I sang in childhood, usually in an effort to raise money for fireworks. The other tried and trusted way of obtaining firework money was to make a “guy” ― which usually consisted of some old clothing belonging to one of our dads, stuffed with newspaper. This dummy represented Guy Fawkes, who we would then wheel around in an old pram asking, “Penny for the guy.” Later we burned the guy on our bonfire, which was made from wood, old furniture, and any other combustible material we could find. The bonfire was always situated on some waste ground in our neighborhood.

It wasn’t until the actual night of November 5th that adults would become involved in the proceedings, with dads setting off fireworks and supervising the bonfire, and moms making all sorts of goodies to eat. My mother always made a big meat and potato pie, parkin, (a sweet, sticky cake), and treacle toffee, (a dark caramel candy), or plot toffee as we kids called it. And when the fireworks were gone, and the bonfire had died down, we would bake potatoes in the fire’s embers.

Bonfire Night was a real community affair and went on the length and breadth of Britain. Nowadays, for safety’s sake, the trend is more towards organized firework displays, and, sad to say, the event is rapidly loosing its appeal.

Now, whenever I make meat and potato pie, while the pie bakes, the rich aromas still evoke fond memories of my childhood and the wonderful Bonfire Nights we all shared.

Below is my mum’s recipe for meat and potato pie, although, unlike me, she did make her own pastry. If you make it, try to imagine a land ablaze with bonfires and a sky alight with fireworks, smell the wood smoke and the gunpowder and, "Remember, remember, the fifth of November."

Meat and Potato Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb. stew beef
¼ cup all-purpose flour, seasoned with cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups beef broth/stock
1 large onion, divided, half chopped into big chunks, the other half just chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves

1 rutabaga peeled and cut into bite-size chunks
4 carrots, sliced
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size chunks
1 refrigerated pie crust (or make your own if you prefer)
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons cold water

Directions:

Put flour in a Ziplock bag, season with cracked pepper, add the beef stew meat and toss until coated.
In a large soup pot, or Dutch oven heat olive oil over a medium-high heat. Add the flour coated beef to the pan, season with more black pepper, and sauté until lightly browned. Add the large chunks of onion (reserve the smaller pieces to go in with the veggies) and sauté for a further minute or so. Add the beef broth/stock to the pan, and bring to boil. Add Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves then reduce heat and simmer covered for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, throw all remaining veggies into the pan. Return to boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for about 30 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon transfer meat and veggies to a pie dish. Get all the meat out but you will have some veggies left over, you can serve these as a side dish to the pie. Allow filling to cool for about 20 minutes before topping with the pie crust. Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 400°F.
Add crust to pie, brush with beaten egg, cut a couple of slits in the top to allow steam to escape, and bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
About 15 minutes before pie is ready re-heat stock and vegetables. For a thicker gravy mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with a little water and add to stock. Serve the veggies and gravy with the pie.

Cajun Chicken Burger

2009-10-19T13:40:00.003-05:00

This has been another favorite grilling recipe this summer, these burgers have a lovely mild curry flavor.

Cajun Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon paprika
Black pepper, to taste
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 slices bacon, cut in half
2 slices Swiss cheese
2 Kaiser rolls
Mayonnaise
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced.
2 handfuls of mixed greens

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ to low
On a small plate mix together cumin, coriander, paprika, and black pepper.
Brush a piece of heavy-duty foil with a little olive oil. Cover chicken with plastic wrap and beat with a meat mallet or rolling pin until slightly flattened. Brush chicken with olive oil, and dip in the spice mix until coated, then place on foil.
Take another piece of foil, fold up the edges to make a small baking tray and add the bacon.
Put chicken and bacon on grill and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes, (grills vary so cook to desired doneness), bacon should be cooked until crisp.
Place cheese slices on top of chicken until cheese begins to melt. Toast buns at the same time.
Spread buns with mayo and top with the cheesy chicken and bacon. You can also add the salad greens and avocado to the buns if you like, but I prefer my salad on the side.

Caesar Salad with Chicken and Bacon

2009-10-18T17:20:00.003-05:00

Do you ever have one of those weeks? - I know you have - where if something can go wrong, it will. First of all the vacuum cleaner started making the most bloody awful noise, then the fridge gasped its last and gave up the ghost. So, then you’re waiting for the third thing to go wrong, because we all know these things happen in threes, right? In our case the third thing was the chainsaw, so then we heaved a sigh of relief because at least one of the cars didn’t conk out. Suffice it to say that the local Lowes store did very nicely indeedy out of us.

Anyway, enough of that! I know I’ve been very lackadaisical (isn’t that a lovely word?) over the past few months, but I do have a couple of recipes I want to share with you before I wave the summer goodbye. Not that I’m sorry to see the back of it – as you all know, I hate the hot, humid weather. Now that it’s turned cooler I will be seeking out the heat of the kitchen, and curling up with my computer while we get down to some good old comfort foods.

But before that, a farewell to summer. The first recipe is a Caesar Salad with chicken and bacon. This has been my absolute favorite salad this summer, and I’m sure it will be making a few encores over the winter. The second, which I’ll post tomorrow, is a Cajun Chicken Burger, it’s a BBC Good Food recipe that I adapted to cook on the BBQ.

Caesar Salad with Chicken and Bacon

Ingredients:

For the croutons
½ a French baguette torn into bite size pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
A sprinkle of sea salt, to taste. (I know I never use salt but I do here).

For the rest

3 slices of bacon, cut in half.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite size chunks
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 romaine lettuce, torn into large pieces

For the dressing

½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded + 2 tablespoons for topping
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Black pepper to taste

Directions

Pre-heat BBQ grill to low.
In a medium bowl mix bread chunks with olive oil.
Take a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and turn up the edges to form a small baking tray. Brush with a little olive oil, place bread on foil, crust side up, in a single layer. Sprinkle with sea salt and set aside.
Make another small baking tray from foil and add the bacon.
Cook croutons and bacon on BBQ for approximately 20 minutes, or until both are crispy. Turn bacon and croutons halfway through cooking. Remove both from grill and allow to cool, drain bacon on paper towel.
Meanwhile, (back at the range), heat olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat and add chicken. Sauté until no longer pink, reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for a further 5 or 6 minutes until golden brown. Add garlic and sauté for a further minute. Remove chicken and garlic to a plate and allow to cool.
While everything cools, wash, dry, and tear lettuce and add to a salad bowl.
Also prepare dressing. In a small bowl, mix mayo, white wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and Parmesan. It should look about the consistency of yogurt, if it’s a bit thick, add a few drops of water.
Top lettuce with half the chicken pieces, half the croutons, and crumble over half of the bacon. Toss with ¾ of the dressing. Scatter the remaining chicken and croutons on top, crumble over the bacon, drizzle with the rest of the dressing, top with 2 tablespoons of shredded Parmesan, and serve. YUM!

Lemon Chicken Chow Mein Salad

2009-09-03T11:24:00.003-05:00

I’m sorry to have caused concern and consternation, amazingly, the way things have been going this year, I have not been ill, just busy with other things. My good friend Vicki (see Victoria’s comment on the last post), called me the other day and told me I needed to get back blogging as you guys were missing me. I’ve missed y’all, too, so thanks for the kick up the bum, Vicki. :-)Anyway, we have a long weekend coming up, and I have nothing planned, so I’ll be visiting with you real soon.

In the meantime, I'll leave you all with this scrummy salad recipe, and hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Lemon Chicken Chow Mein Salad

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
Juice from ½ a lemon
Black pepper, to taste
A drizzle of olive oil
1/2 a package (about 3 ounces) chow mein noodles
A handful of sugar snap peas, (about 4 ounces) halved lengthways
½ yellow (red or orange) pepper, thinly sliced
A handful of beansprouts
A couple of sprigs of fresh basil, leaves removed and torn

Salad Dressing

3 tablespoons olive oil
Zest and juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Pre-heat BBQ grill to low.
Brush a large piece of heavy-duty foil with olive oil. Place chicken on foil, drizzle with the juice from ½ a lemon, and add a couple of grinds of black pepper. Seal foil loosely around chicken.
Place chicken on BBQ and cook to desired doneness. Remove from foil a few minutes before end of cooking time and brown a little on the bars.
Meanwhile, cook chow mein noodles according to package directions, transfer noodles to a colander, rinse under cold water and allow to drain.
While noodles drain, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl mix all ingredients together and whisk lightly with a fork.
Divide noodles between 2 bowls, throw in the sugar snap peas, peppers, bean sprouts and basil. Pour a little of the dressing into each bowl and toss lightly to coat.
Slice the chicken breasts and arrange on top of the salad. Drizzle with remaining dressing and serve.

Potato Salad

2009-07-09T17:05:00.003-05:00

I haven’t been around much this past couple of weeks, largely due to being glued to the tennis at Wimbledon. Needless to say, the token Brit, Andy Murray, got knocked out in the semi-finals. (Sob!) It’s something like 72 years since a British man won the singles at Wimbledon. And the last British woman to win was Virginia Wade back in 1977, which incidentally was also the year of the queen’s silver jubilee. Anyway, better luck next year, Andy.

Also, I want to thank Pam at http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/ for kindly allowing me to use her recipe for Portabella Burgers in my recent article about a mushroom farm. If you’re interested you can find the article and Pam’s recipe here: http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature1.php

This recipe for potato salad features baby red potatoes from our garden, which were absolutely delish – still are in fact, as we haven’t used them all yet. Tragically the plants did die, but we were able to harvest a decent amount of new potatoes before they finally popped their clogs. Fortunately, however, our robust russets are robust and thriving, so many more spuds to come.

Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 lbs. red potatoes, unpeeled
1 rib celery, sliced
¼ of a red onion, sliced
3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
¼ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Black pepper, to taste
Dash of paprika

Directions:

Cut potatoes into halves or quarters depending on size, place in a saucepan and bring to boil over a high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and boil gently for 10 – 15 minutes until potatoes are slightly tender. Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with mashed potato salad. Boil eggs while potatoes cook.
Allow eggs to cool in cold water. Drain potatoes, and leave to cool for 10 – 15 minutes.
In a small bowl mix together yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and black pepper.
Put potatoes in a salad bowl with the celery, onions, and eggs. Add the dressing and toss gently to coat. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Before serving sprinkle with a little paprika.

Amalfi-Style Shrimp

2009-06-25T17:39:00.004-05:00

Many moons ago, I had a fabulous vacation not too far from the Amalfi area of Italy, staying in a lovely place called Sorento. While there I had the opportunity to visit many historic places such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Monte Casino, and even revisited one of my favorite cities, Rome, for a weekend. I also went to the top of the still active volcano, Vesuvius, and to the island of Capri, so I have many happy memories of this region.

On a less happy note, it’s been sweltering here this week, we’ve been melting in 100°F temperatures, which were further compounded by high humidity. Even at night, temps have been in the low 80’s so it’s been thoroughly unpleasant.

Anyway, it's no use moaning, 'cos I can't do a damn thing about it. Today’s recipe is another one from good old Auntie Beeb and another winner. As usual I changed it up a bit, the recipe said to marinate the shrimp for 1 hour, but I thought that was too long as I felt the mint would completely dominate the flavor of the shrimp, so I only did them for 10 minutes. Personally, I thought that was just right, but by all means marinate them for longer if you like.

I highly recommend this dish, the shrimp were finger-licking good. Also, they only took 5 minutes to cook on the grill, so poor old Mick didn’t have to spend too long sweating over a hot BBQ. Try these, you’ll be glad you did.

Amalfi-Style Shrimp

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 sprigs of mint, (about 15 leaves) finely chopped
Black pepper, to taste
25-30 large uncooked shrimp
¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

Peel shrimp, but leave tails on.
In a medium bowl combine the olive oil, garlic, mint, and black pepper, add the shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Pre-heat BBQ to low.
Thread 5-6 shrimp onto skewers, (I used metal ones, but if you use bamboo you’ll need to soak them in water for a few minutes).
Place the breadcrumbs on a plate then press the skewered shrimp into the crumbs.
Brush a piece of heavy-duty foil with olive oil. Place the skewers on the foil and grill for about 2 minutes a side, until shrimp have turned pink, and breadcrumbs are golden.
Serve with lemon wedges.

Parmesan Chicken

2009-06-20T15:53:00.002-05:00

It’s 95°F here today, and as humid and sweaty as an old sock, despite this we are still being battered by severe thunderstorms on a regular basis. Last week we had a particularly bad one with straight-line winds that brought down one of our persimmon trees.

We had a really nice grouping of three of these trees, when they were all in leaf they looked like one magnificent tree. These trees have had an unfortunate year; one was struck by lightning and will have to be cut down – now this.

The remaining one looks totally forlorn without his chums. But on a brighter note, we have had a bit of a tree planting frenzy this spring, and have put in 14 new trees. Admittedly, they are not much more than twigs right now, but one-day. :-)

Anyway, on with the food. We have finally had some luck with some salad greens. Yay! We’ve tried growing lettuce and spinach before with very little success. The weather here in Oklahoma changes from warm to baking hot so rapidly that the plants always bolted before we had a chance to eat them. This year Mick planted some mesclun greens which did very well indeedy, in fact, they grew back almost as fast as we could pick them. Mesclun mixes vary, ours was made up of arugula and dinky little spinach leaves. Although they kept us in salads during the spring, that avenue of pleasure is now closed, as they too have bolted in the heat. Oh hum!

To this mix of salad greens, I added a few baby Swiss rainbow chard leaves from our garden, some chopped tomato, a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar, a dash of cracked pepper, feta cheese. You can also add a few toasted slivered almonds for a little extra crunch. I served this salad with the Parmesan chicken. This chicken is light but full of flavor. We cooked it on the BBQ, but you could do it in the oven at 350F, for about 10-15 minutes.

Parmesan Chicken

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Cracked black pepper, to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

Pre-heat grill to low, or oven to 350F
Mix Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and a dash of cracked black pepper on a plate.
Beat egg in a shallow bowl.
Slice chicken in half into 2 flat pieces.
Dip chicken in egg, then into parmesan/breadcrumb mix.
Place chicken in an ovenproof dish, or if grilling, on a double sheet of heavy-duty foil, greased with olive oil. Grill or bake for 10 – 15 minutes.

Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce

2009-06-07T17:08:00.003-05:00

I’ve been having a bit of a break from writing, and catching up on some gardening (yay!), and housework (yuk!), both of which needed some attention after all my recent bouts of illness. But I still found plenty of time for dossing around (English slang for idling about) enjoying a glass or two of wine on the porch in the evenings, reading, doing crosswords, watching some telly, and of course, cooking.

I usually get my gardening and flower planting done much earlier than this, but the weather this spring has been pretty dire. Lots of storms, rain of biblical proportions, and the odd tornado scare thrown in for good measure. Not that I mind gardening in the rain, if the Brits allowed a little rain to stop them they would never garden. :-) Mick’s veggie garden is coming along great, if you’re interested you can check out his blog here: http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/

This week, however, has been largely hot and sunny, though we did have one day that was really cloudy and cool, thus a perfect gardening day for me. I loathe laboring in the heat. This type of weather always reminds me of summer days in England, endless gray skies, with the ever-present threat of rain.

Anyway, enough of my drivel, let’s get on with the recipe. As many of you know, I am often bemoaning the fact that I can’t get any decent fresh fish here, and my experiences with frozen fish have not been very good. Anyway, the last time I went to Sam’s Club, I picked up a bag of frozen wild cod that turned out to be surprisingly good. They had a number of other varieties of fish by the same producer, so I will definitely be checking those out next time I go there.

Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14-ounce can whole tomatoes (I used my tomato gloop, recipe here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html) As the gloop already contains peppers and onions I didn’t need to add them, but I did throw in a few chopped spring onions).
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Black pepper
3-4 wild cod fillets
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F

Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onions and green pepper and sauté until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, (break them up a little with the spoon), tomato paste, olives, oregano, and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes.

Brush an 11 x 7-inch baking dish with a little olive oil and add cod fillets to dish. Spoon the tomato mixture over the fish and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily.

To serve, sprinkle with feta cheese and chopped parsley.

Pasta Bolognese Bake with Garlic Bread

2009-05-24T16:57:00.005-05:00

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had written an article about a local botanical garden for Oklahoma Living Magazine. If you’re interested you can find it here: http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature_3.php

And whilst I’m on the subject of writing, last week, I got my entries back from the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation contest. I won a big fat zero this year, not even so much as a measly honorable mention. Oh hum. On the plus side, I did get some excellent marks from the judges and some very favorable comments, but I guess others just did better. Oh well, you can’t win them all, and there’s always next year.

And continuing the literary theme, a couple of friends from my writer’s group were recently bemoaning the fact that though they like lasagna, they find it a fiddle to make. I told them I had a much easier pasta bake recipe, personally I prefer it to lasagna, and any leftovers freeze beautifully. So this one’s for you Sharon and Margaret.

If you like you can leave out the baking stage and use this as a pasta sauce. Omit the cheeses, and just sprinkle the finished dish with a little shredded Parmesan.

Pasta Bolognese Bake with Garlic Bread
Serves 4

Ingredients:

8 ounces penne pasta
½ tablespoon butter
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 – 3 teaspoons chili powder
1 14½ ounce can whole tomatoes (I used my tomato gloop, you can find that recipe here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
A couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 level teaspoon sugar
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (divided)
½ cup sharp cheddar, shredded

Note: Seasonings, spices, and herb quantities are all guesstimates, I just tinker around until it’s how I like it.

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

½ a French loaf, cut in half lengthwise
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped – use less if you want, but I like garlic bread that tastes of garlic
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, + about 2 teaspoons butter.

Directions for pasta bake:

Cook pasta for about 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a deep-sided skillet, over a medium-high heat, add ground beef and saute until browned.
Reduce heat to medium, add onion, and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and chili powder and sauté for a further minute.
Add canned tomatoes, and break tomatoes in half, bring to a gentle boil. Stir in tomato paste.
Add Tabasco, Worcestershire sauces, oregano, black pepper, and sugar, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 350F
Spoon a layer of about a 1/3 of the sauce into an 11x7-inch baking dish and top with ¾ of the mozzarella.
Stir pasta and mushrooms into remaining sauce, and transfer to baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.

While pasta bakes prepare garlic bread.

Spread each half of French loaf with approximately 2 teaspoons butter, and place on a baking sheet covered with foil for easy clean up.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add garlic, and sauté for 1 minute.
Spoon garlic butter evenly over bread, and set aside.
When pasta is out of the oven, heat broiler to high.
Place garlic bread under broiler for 2-3 minutes until bread is golden brown. Keep a close eye on it, as it’s easy to burn it.

Mediterranean Potatoes

2009-05-17T15:31:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone for all your commiserations and good wishes after my recent illness. You are all so kind, and tolerant of my erratic posting and commenting. I’m afraid I’m still playing catch-up as I had an interview to do, and an assignment to write last week for Oklahoma Living. My editor had extended my deadline because of my recent bout of flu, but it was still a bit of a push to get it done in time. Sometimes the writing just refuses to flow. This piece was about a local mushroom farm – a fascinating place to visit – but tricky to write about.

Until I started doing research for this article, I had no idea what a complex process growing mushrooms is. If you’re interested you can take a short video tour of a mushroom farm here: http://www.mushroominfo.com/aboutmushrooms/howmushroomsgrow.html
The site also has lots of information about mushrooms, and some great recipes.

I did include a recipe for portabella burgers with the artcle, but this one was courtesy of Pam at:
http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/ Thanks so much for allowing me to use your recipe, Pam, you’re a brick.

Today’s recipe, however, contains no mushrooms. It’s based on a recipe I saw in the BBC Good Food newsletter for Spanish Potatoes, I changed it up a bit and called it Mediterranean Potatoes. These were super, the leftovers were also good cold, so you could serve them as a potato salad during the summer.

Mediterranean Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon paprika
A few dashes of hot sauce, Franks or Tabasco
2 lbs. russet potatoes, cut into chunks
1 bulb (head) of garlic, leave skin on but top and tail each clove.
Cracked black pepper, to taste
Juice of ½ a lemon
A handful of chopped parsley

Directions:

Put potatoes in a medium sized saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium high and par-boil for 4 –5 minutes or until potatoes are very slightly softened. Drain and allow to cool.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F
When potatoes are cool, mix olive oil, tomato paste, paprika, and hot sauce in a large bowl, add potatoes and stir to coat.
Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to a roasting pan and heat in oven. When oil is hot carefully add potatoes and garlic cloves to pan, and season with cracked pepper.
Roast for about 40 minutes, turning half way through cooking, or until potatoes are crispy on the outside. Sprinkle over the lemon juice and roast for a further 5 minutes.
Transfer potatoes to a warm serving dish, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Vegetable Samosas

2009-05-07T17:39:00.004-05:00

The wanderer returns. I think I’m going to have to stop saying, I’m back, as every time I do that something else goes wrong. By now, I’m sure you all must think that I’m a complete hypochondriac. The truth is, ordinarily I am not a sick person, but these past few months it just seems to have been one thing after another. (Sigh!) The latest ailment was the flu, and it was a bad one. Anyway, I’m not going to bore you with the details, suffice it to say, I’m okay now, and hopefully will stay that way for a while.

I now have a lot of catching up to do on both the work and the blog fronts. I’ve really missed everyone, but I will be visiting with y’all over the next day or two.

This is another recipe inspired by Jason at http://jasoncooks.blogspot.com
we obviously share the same love of Indian cuisine. I love veggie samosas, and I have tried making them before using frozen filo pastry. They were a disaster, they just fell to pieces. Jason had the ingenious idea of making samosas using egg roll wrappers, I tried his method and they worked beautifully. I did use my own recipe for the filling though. Also, I have to confess that I deep-fried them in the traditional Indian way, naughty – but ever so nice. Next time I will try baking them, honest. ;-)

Vegetable Samosas

Makes about 10 – 12 samosas

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
3 – 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons red curry powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 Russet potatoes, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 cup frozen peas
½ cup vegetable/or chicken stock
1 package egg roll wraps
Sufficient vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for a further minute.
Stir in all spices and sauté for another minute.
Add potatoes, carrots, and peas and stir until coated.
Add stock, and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for about 30 minutes until veggies are tender and liquid has almost evaporated.
Allow mixture to cool, and place in refrigerator until cold.
Place a tablespoon of the mixture in half of the wrap, dampen edges of wrap with water and fold into a triangle. When folding the triangle leave a little extra pastry at the edges to fold over and seal the triangle.
In a deep fat fryer or wok heat vegetable oil to 400F, deep-fry samosas in pairs until golden brown, about 3 – 4 minutes.

Welsh Rarebit or Rabbit

2009-04-17T17:55:00.002-05:00

There is some controversy as to whether this dish should be called Welsh Rarebit or Rabbit. It’s generally supposed that the term Rabbit came first, and Rarebit was a later corruption of the word. In the Welsh language it is called Caws Pobi, which means roasted cheese, so no clues there.

The term Rabbit seems to make more sense, as according to Wikipedia: "It may be an ironic name coined in the days when the Welsh were notoriously poor. Only better-off people could afford butcher's meat, and while in England rabbit was the poor man's meat, in Wales the poor man's meat was cheese."

There is a long tradition of cheese making in Britain, and British cheeses are amongst the best in the world, small wonder then that cheese appears in so many of our recipes. We have been toasting, baking, grilling, and roasting cheese since time immemorial but, as with most classic British dishes, the secret lies in the ingredients.

Welsh Rabbit is a simple dish, Americans would call it, grilled cheese, but it is anything but grilled cheese. What lifts this recipe out of the ordinary is the use of good quality ingredients, or the best you can find. Trust me you’ll notice the difference.

This recipe is taken from Brian Turner’s Favourite British Recipes. My hubby, being an engineer, calls this Rev A, as the first time I made it I didn’t read the instructions properly (so what's new?), hence the need for revision. :-) The recipe said to refrigerate the cheese sauce overnight – whoops -but I was ready to rock and roll. The first version, slapped on the toast right out of the pan was goood, but Rev A knocked it out the water. So here we go.

Welsh Rabbit - Rev. A

Ingredients:

¼ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon beer or ale. It's best to use a British beer such as Bass ale, Newcastle Brown, or even Guiness. I used Newcastle Brown, (or Nuclear Brown as it is affectionately known). You may think that a bit extravagant when only using 1 tbsp. but use Budweiser, or any other home grown, at your peril. At a pinch you could use a good micro-brew, but why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar?

1 teaspoon English mustard – I used Coleman’s English, but if you can’t get that use a good Dijon – anything but that yellow paste mustard.

8 ounces mature cheddar, shredded. If you can get an English cheddar do, but the best I could come up with here is Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar, or a New York Cabot would work.

A dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

4 thick slices of bread (in England we call these doorstops), from an unsliced loaf. The best I could come up with was a sourdough loaf, and that worked out pretty good, but use bread that doesn’t come pre-sliced.

Directions:

Heat cream in a medium saucepan over a medium heat until tiny bubbles form on surface. Stir in ale and heat again.
Remove pan from heat and stir in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and cheese. Return pan to burner on a low heat, and stir constantly until cheese melts.
Remove pan from heat again and stir in eggs until fully combined.
Pour into a bowl, and allow mix to cool. Refrigerate until following day.
Place 4 thick slices of bread on a baking sheet and toast (one side only) under a hot broiler. Spread cheese mixture on untoasted side of bread, and return to broiler until cheese is golden brown.

Variations: You can add a poached egg on top of the cheese, this is known as a Buck Rabbit.

Or for a little more pep, spread the bread with a little HP brown (or A1 steak) sauce before adding the cheese.

Creamy Leek and Spinach Pasta

2009-04-07T23:37:00.005-05:00

I’m back! At long last.

Thanks for asking about the article Paula, and yes it is you at: http://itsallgouda.blogspot.com/ who won the giveaway, just in case there was any doubt.

My latest story for Oklahoma Living Magazine is about a local botanical garden, which seemed to have me thwarted at every turn. Not only did I have a stinking cold, but the weather conspired against me as well. Every time I arranged an interview and a visit to the gardens there would be a thunderstorm, or a snowstorm, or freezing conditions, and it would have to be postponed. I had a few hairy moments when I thought this story would never get written, but this time I just snuck in under the wire.

I’m still doing well with my quit smoking campaign; it’s been just over 5 weeks now. Yay! I won’t say I don’t miss the ciggies, because I still do. Though I do now go for quite long periods without thinking about them. The worst times are still when I am writing under pressure for a deadline, then I could absolutely murder one. I was as grumpy as hell this past weekend, so I kicked Mick, and shouted at the cats. :-) Oh well, nobody said it was going to be easy.

Anyway enough of my rambling, on with the recipe. The inspiration for this recipe was good old Auntie Beeb again, but I’ve made so many changes that I’m claiming it as my own. The good thing about this recipe, besides its tasting divine, is it’s ready in less than 30 minutes. For a vegetarian meal, just omit the bacon stage.

Note on cleaning leeks. Leeks can have a bit of a gritty texture, but if you prepare them this way that won’t happen. Top and tail your leeks - just use the white and pale green flesh - then slice them down the middle length ways, but don't cut them right through, then rinse them under running water for a minute or two and they'll be great.

Creamy Leek and Spinach Pasta

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon, chopped into small pieces
8 ounces penne pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 large leeks, thoroughly cleaned, and sliced
Black pepper, to taste
3 garlic cloves
8 sun dried tomatoes, sliced
¾ cup heavy cream
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon ground mustard
½ cup feta cheese, diced, or if using pre-crumbled use the large pieces + 2 tablespoons to serve
A couple of handfuls of spinach leaves, about 2 cups - ish.

Directions:

In a large skillet over a medium high heat, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan, drain on paper towels, and set aside. Drain bacon fat from skillet, but don’t wipe pan.
Set a saucepan of water to boil to cook penne pasta. Cook on a rolling boil for about 7- 8 minutes until al-dente.
While pasta cooks, over a medium heat, add butter and olive oil to skillet and sauté leeks for 3 minutes. Season liberally with black pepper. Add sun-dried tomatoes and sauté for a further 2 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.
Drain pasta.
Add cream, sour cream, and ground mustard to leek mixture and stir to combine. Stir in feta cheese. Heat until cheese begins to melt.
Add pasta to skillet and stir to combine. Add spinach and toss until wilted.
Transfer to warm plates, top with additional feta and bacon, and serve immediately.

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!

2009-04-01T19:06:00.002-05:00

My profound apologies to everyone for the delay in posting the winner of my blogiversary give-away. I thought I was going to escape flu season unscathed this year, but it wasn't to be. The past few days I have been pretty ill with a miserable cold, still am really. :-( I also have a rapidly approaching deadline for my next assignment for Oklahoma Living Magazine, unfortunately there are no sick days in this job.

Anyway, without further ado, (pause for a drum roll), the winner is PAULA! Many congrats to you. If you e-mail your address to rangewarfare@gmail.com I'll get that in the snail mail ASAP.

Meanwhile a big thank you to all of you who read this blog - despite my erratic posting and commenting - I appreciate each and every one of you. Cheers!

Toodle pip for now. I'll be back with another recipe, sooon!

It's my Blogiversary

2009-03-26T22:48:00.007-05:00

It’s late, but I simply had to post today as it is Range Warfare’s first birthday. Can you believe it? Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? As a big thank you to all you folks who take the time and trouble to visit my humble abode I’m giving away a hardback copy of Ina Garten’s book, barefoot contessa at home.

I wish I could give everyone a gift, but when you’re a poor and struggling writer like moi that’s just not financially viable. One day I’ll write that best seller and we'll all have some fun. :-)

Anyone who leaves a comment on my blog between now and midnight on Monday (Oklahoma time), will be eligible to enter. All names will go into a hat, and Mick, (or one of the cats) will select a winner. I’ll post the name of the winner on Tuesday. Bonne chance mes amis.

And without further ado:

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Feta Cheese, Leeks, and Garlic. (And don't forget the bacon).

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin – sorry, I’m not sure how much this weighed, I’m guessing about 1½ lbs. prior to cooking
½ a leek, cleaned and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tablespoons feta cheese
3-4 bacon slices
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 450F
Slit the pork down the center, but don’t cut right through. Spread leeks, garlic, and feta evenly over the meat, but not right up to the edges. Fold the meat up and tie into a parcel using kitchen twine. Season generously with black pepper, then wrap the bacon slices around the pork.
Brush a baking dish with vegetable oil, put meat in dish and roast for about 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 375F and cook for a further 20-30 minutes, possibly longer depending on size of pork loin. Don't worry if you think you've overdone it - the bacon keeps it nice and moist.
Allow to rest for 10 minutes or so before carving.

That’s the meat I’m talking about there. And while it rests, what the hell, pour yourself a glass of wine or whatever else floats your boat, and put your feet up for a few mins. You all deserve it. And, Cheers, Bottoms up! but make mine a large one. ;-)

Lamb Curry

2009-03-21T17:25:00.003-05:00

Jason at http://jasoncooks.blogspot.com/ has been making a few Indian dishes lately, and it reminded me that I haven’t made a single curry this winter, a situation which needed to be rectified immediately.

We Brits have had a love affair with Indian cuisine ever since India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. It has even been claimed that fish and chips is no longer our national dish, having been replaced by Chicken Tikka Masala, I’m not so sure about that, but it’s definitely a close second. If you’re interested you can find the recipe for it here:
http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicken-tikka-masala.html

If further proof is needed of the wonderful quality of curries to be had in Britain, it is provided by my Indian boss at one of the places I worked in California. He told me the best curry he had ever eaten was in England, at a place called Bradford in West Yorkshire! It just so happens that my hubby Mick was born there – though he claims no Indian ancestry. :-)

Unfortunately, many people assume that all Indian curries are too hot to handle, this is not so. Most of them are made from a subtle blend of spices that go together to create fabulous flavors that titillate the palate, rather than overpower it. Sure, you can create really hot, spicy curries if you like; it’s all a matter of personal taste. I like hot curries, Mick not so much, so this one is quite mild, but in no way tame. This recipe is kind of an amalgamation of several curry recipes, and I have to say, I thought this was one of the best curries I have ever made, hubby certainly concurred.

As many of you already know, I have great difficulty in obtaining lamb (amongst other things), around these parts. But last year, just before Thanksgiving, we did manage to persuade a local butcher to procure us a leg of lamb, which he chopped into joints and chops for us. At the time we were packing it away in the freezer, Mick looked at the skinny part of the leg, (it was larger than a lamb shank, but not as big as joint) and said he didn’t know what I would do with that. I, on the other hand, immediately earmarked it for a lamb curry, and this is what happened to it.

Lamb Curry

Ingredients:

Don’t let the cast of characters put you off making this, most of them are spices.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large lamb shank, or a couple of smaller ones, whatever you use it should have bone in for more flavor. Make some deep slices in the lamb to enable the meat to better infuse the spices.
1 large onion sliced
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons garam masala
3 teaspoons red curry powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle, or 1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle, or 1 teaspoon ground coriander. These seeds came from some cilantro that I grew last year.

½ cup chicken stock/broth
1 large can whole tomatoes. I used a 3-cup container of my tomato gloop, which I make every summer from homegrown tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and herbs, and which I always use in place of canned tomatoes. That recipe is
here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html
½ cup tomato paste
½ cup plain fat-free yogurt
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
3 - 4 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
½ cup raisins

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over a medium high heat. Add lamb to pan and keep turning meat until evenly browned. Remove lamb from pan and set aside.
Reduce heat to medium, and sauté onions until translucent, add garlic and sauté for a further minute. Stir in all spices except crushed coriander seeds.
Return lamb to pan, stir in crushed coriander seeds. and turn meat in spices to coat. Add a splash of chicken stock if mixture is too dry, and cook for a couple more minutes.
Add canned tomatoes, (or tomato gloop) and chicken stock, bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer covered for 1½ hours.
In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, tomato paste, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, stir into the pan, along with potatoes and raisins, and simmer for a further 45 minutes.
Transfer to a warm serving dish and serve with hot Basmati rice. I had intended to make some naan bread, but left it too late, so I heated some flour tortillas which served as chapatis for scooping up all the delicious sauce.

BTW, Like all stews, curry leftovers taste even better the following day.

Sausage and Veggie Hash

2009-03-15T17:29:00.002-05:00

It’s now day 15 since I quit smoking, and I am still smoke free. Yay! I can’t say I’m out of the woods yet though. There are still times when I could murder a ciggie, especially after a meal, and I still find it hard to remain focused when I’m writing, but It is getting easier. On the plus side, food tastes so much better now, I don’t get as breathless, and I’m sure my gums are healing better, as my teeth don’t feel as sensitive as they did. Anyway, I’ll find out whether it’s done any good when I see the periodontist in early April.

So, on with the show.

This recipe is loosely based on one I saw on the Beeb, www.bbcgoodfood.com
Theirs used leftover veggies, which this doesn’t; I also added a few ingredients which weren’t in the original. I used some Spinach and Asiago Chicken Sausage that I had picked up at Sam’s Club and stuck in the freezer, they were delish, but you could use whatever sausage you like.

Sausage and Veggie Hash

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5 Spinach and Asiago Chicken Sausages
3-4 potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon butter
1 leek, white and pale green parts only, thoroughly cleaned and sliced
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 – 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Black pepper, to taste
½ -1 cup sharp cheddar, depending on your serving preference.

Directions:

Put potatoes in a pan of water, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-high and parboil for about 3-5 minutes until potatoes are very slightly softened. Drain, set aside and allow to cool.
Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add sausage and cook for about ten minutes until nicely browned. Cut sausages into chunks and keep warm in the oven on a low temp.
Clean skillet, then heat another tablespoon of oil over a medium-high heat, add potatoes and sauté until golden brown. Remove from pan and keep them warm in the oven.
Wipe skillet clean with paper towel, then melt butter over a medium heat. Add onion to pan and saute for 2 minutes, add leeks and saute for a further 2 minutes, finally add garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir mustard into the mix and season with fresh ground black pepper.
Return sausages and potatoes to pan, and toss gently with onion etc. Remove pan from heat, sprinkle on half the cheese and stir to combine.
Transfer mixture to a warm serving dish, you can serve at this point, which looks like the first photo and uses less cheese. Or you can top with remaining cheese and put dish under a hot broiler for 1-2 minutes until cheese melts. Either way it’s yummy.

Beef Stew

2009-03-07T17:52:00.002-06:00

Once again, the weather here has been all over the place. Last weekend, we had a high of 25°F (-4C), with snow, and bitterly cold north winds. Saturday, we were eating beef stew, and Sunday, roast chicken with all the trimmings. The past few days our temps have been in the 70’s and 80’s and we’re considering rolling out the BBQ.

Weather aside, this has been a horrendous week for me as I am trying to quit smoking. As of this moment it has been 6 days, 16 hours and 39 minutes since my last cigarette, and believe me, I have suffered through every waking moment. %-(

I have been thinking of quitting for some time, but the recent problems with my gums gave me the kick up the arse I needed. The dentist told me my gums would have more chance of healing if I quit smoking. But the real clincher was, he told me if they didn’t heal I would need surgery for bone grafts on three of my teeth. Needless to say, that scared the shit out of me, and gave me the impetus to do something about it.

This week, I have found it very difficult to do any writing, I just can’t do it without a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray. I find myself unable to concentrate, and end up wandering listlessly around the house, gazing out of the window, or fiddling with pens and pencils, or crushing a piece of silly putty to a gloopy mess. Nothing satisfies though, as there is something missing from my life. It’s not that I’m craving nicotine, because this patch is feeding me a regular dose of that, but I am craving the simple pleasure of smoking.

I do so agree with Mark Twain’s sentiments,
"...when they used to tell me I would shorten my life ten years by smoking, they little knew the devotee they were wasting their puerile words upon -- they little knew how trivial and valueless I would regard a decade that had no smoking in it!"

But that’s because I’m an addict. Addictions, however, can be broken, and I am determined to do the best I can to break mine. Wish me luck.

BTW, I should mention, that I am back on solid food again. The only things I have to avoid are crisps/chips, hard fruit such as apples, and uncooked veggies like carrots.

Anyway, enough of my driveling on, time for some beef stew. In this recipe you can pretty much use whatever veggies you have hanging around the fridge.

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef stew meat
¼ cup all-purpose flour, seasoned with cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups beef broth/stock
1 large onion, divided, half chopped into big chunks, the other half just chopped
½ a rutabaga peeled and cut into chunks
3 carrots, sliced
1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 leek, white and pale green parts (thoroughly cleaned) and sliced
1 parsnip, peeled and sliced

Directions:

Put flour in a Ziplock bag, season with cracked pepper, add the beef stew meat and toss until coated.
In a large soup pot, or Dutch oven heat olive oil over a medium-high heat. Add the flour coated beef to the pan, season with more black pepper, and sauté until lightly browned. Add the large chunks of onion and sauté for a further minute or so. Add the beef broth/stock to the pan, bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, throw all remaining veggies into the pan. If more liquid is required add another cup of broth, or just a cup of water will do. Return to boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for about 40-45 minutes until all veggies are tender and stew has thickened.
About half way through this period of cooking check seasoning and adjust if required, toss in a bit of paprika if you like.

Serve with crusty bread. I, of course, couldn’t resist adding a few dumplings during the final 25 minutes of cooking. :-)

Pancake Tuesday on Sunday!

2009-03-01T23:51:00.002-06:00

Actually, I did make these pancakes (crepes) on Shrove Tuesday, (February 24th, Mardi Gras here), but I’m such a slacker that I am only just getting around to posting about them.

Shrove Tuesday is so called in England because it used to be a day of confession and forgiveness, or shriving, prior to Lent, a forty-day period of fasting which began the following day on Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is also synonymous with pancakes. In earlier times eggs and dairy products were forbidden during the Lenten fast, and pancakes were the perfect way for housewives to use up these ingredients.

In England, many celebrations are held on this day, but perhaps the most famous is the Pancake Day Race held at Olney in Buckinghamshire, an annual tradition since 1445. Legend has it that a woman cooking pancakes heard the church bells summoning her to confession. She ran to the church still clad in her apron and carrying her frying pan, thus starting a custom which continues to this day.

The rules of the race require the contestants, all women, to wear traditional housewifely garb of dress or skirt, apron, and hat or scarf. They must also toss their pancakes at the start and finish of the 415-yard dash. The winner receives a kiss and a blessing, "The peace of the Lord be always with you," from the vicar of the parish.

In 1950, the race became a transatlantic affair when the townspeople of Liberal, Kansas, became involved. After seeing press photographs of the race, Liberal challenged Olney to a contest. Ever since the two towns have competed annually.

I remember cooking pancakes for Mick, in the first year of our marriage ― and it almost became our last. Far from being able to toss my pancakes, I struggled to turn them over at all, and they fell to pieces when I tried to remove them from the pan. Despite assurances from Mick that they tasted great, I became more and more frustrated with my efforts. To make matters worse, I had to watch hungrily while he ate one after another of my pathetic offerings. I was so angry I could have cheerfully whacked him with the frying pan.

In the end, Mick saved the day. He sat me down with a glass of wine, and cooked dinner for me ― not pancakes, I hasten to add. Things have move on a pace since those early days, I now wonder why I found it so difficult. Oh hum!

Pancakes

Ingredients:

½ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk mixed with ¼ cup water
1/2 stick butter

To serve:

Superfine or confectioner’s sugar
1 lemon, chopped into wedges

Directions:

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour break the eggs into it and whisk. Gradually add milk and water mixture, and whisk until the batter is smooth.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter to the batter and whisk it in. Use remaining butter to grease a 10-inch sauté pan before you make each pancake.
Get pan really hot, reduce heat to medium. Using a pastry brush smear a little butter around base of pan. Add ¾ of a soup ladle (approx. 8 tablespoons) of batter to pan. Tilt pan around to get the base evenly coated with batter.
After about 1 minute or so lift the edge of the pancake with a spatula, it should be a golden brown. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook the other side for about 20 seconds.
Slide pancake out of the pan onto a plate. Sprinkle with freshly squeezed lemon juice and fine sugar, roll the pancake up and serve immediately.

Ham, Leek, and Pasta Bake and an Award

2009-02-22T23:13:00.002-06:00

This is just going to be a quickie post today as I have an award to give out. Hurray!

Many thanks to Cheryl over at: http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/

Cheryl cooks up some fabulous recipes, as well as giving us weekly money saving tips, and allowing us an insight into the life of her pampered pooch, Martha Anne. If you’ve never visited her, I suggest you get your arse over there right away, if not sooner.

The rules for this award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 (like Cheryl, I am doing 5) blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Pause for a drum roll, the lucky winners are:

Beth at http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ I have been following Beth’s blog since she first started blogging. She’s a lovely lass and a great cook.

Jan at http://whatdoiwant2cooktoday.blogspot.com/ Jan loves Greek food, but also likes to put a new spin on many classic British dishes.

Sara at: http://saraskitchen.blogspot.com/ Sara creates some wonderful dishes, and her presentation always looks so professional.

Lynda at: http://lyndasrecipebox.blogspot.com/ I have only just discovered Lynda’s blog, and it turns out we live quite close by each other. She has only been blogging for a few months, but she already has lots of tasty treats on her site.

Jo at http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/ This isn’t a cooking blog, which is perhaps as well as Jo is on a diet at the moment. But her blog isn’t all about dieting, Jo is one busy lady, and is lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful areas of England, the Lake District.

Check them all out, you’ll be glad you did.

Okay dokey, without further ado, I’ll get on with the recipe. The picture doesn’t do this dish justice as it was really rather yummy, and a great way to use up leftover ham.

Ham, Leek, and Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

8 ounces penne pasta
2 - 3 leeks, white and pale green parts only, sliced
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups of leftover ham, diced.
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon ground mustard
Black pepper, to taste
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
½ cup Italian style breadcrumbs

Note. Leeks have a bit of a gritty texture, but if you prepare them this way that won’t happen. Top and tail your leeks - just use the white and pale green flesh - then slice them down the middle length ways, but don't cut them right through, then rinse them under running water for a minute or two and they'll be great.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F
Add pasta to a large pot of boiling water, reduce heat to medium high, boil gently for 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, sorry I couldn't resist. Put stock in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat to simmer and add the leeks. Simmer for about 3-4 minutes until leeks are tender. Drain and reserve stock in a jug.
Mix leeks and ham together in a 9 x 11 inch baking dish and season with fresh cracked pepper.
In same pan, melt butter over a medium heat. Remove pan from heat, stir in flour and mix to a smooth paste. Return pan to heat, and gradually add stock, stirring continuously. Add mustard, cream, and half the cheese, stir until thickened.
Add pasta to the sauce. Pour mixture over ham and leeks, top with remaining cheese, and the breadcrumbs, and bake for 30 – 40 minutes.

P.S. For those of you following the ongoing saga of my dental dilemma, on Wednesday, I progressed from the liquid diet onto a soft foods diet. Yay! Incidentally, my first meal was poached eggs, with soft bread and butter. I’ve never been so pleased to see a poached egg in my life. But it’s back to the dentist on Tuesday for yet more tooth grinding. (Sigh)

Apple Crumble with Custard Sauce

2009-02-15T17:04:00.005-06:00

I made this pudding (dessert) a few weeks ago, but as I am only eating soups at the mo, I thought I’d post it now. As you have all probably realized by now, I eat very little sweet stuff, which is perhaps as well considering my present dental predicament, but apple crumble (I also love this made with rhubarb) is one of my favorite puds, surpassed only by jam roly poly. In England, both these puddings would be called "nursery food," as only children, and adults who have never grown up, enjoy them. :-)

I have included a recipe for custard sauce, which I have made before, but on this occasion I cheated and used a pack of Bird’s instant custard. The homemade stuff is much better, although I do like Bird’s custard powder, if I can get hold of it. You can also serve it with fresh cream or vanilla ice cream if you prefer.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients:

3-4 apples, I used Granny Smith’s
1 tablespoon sugar
Juice of ½ a lemon
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar, I used ½ a cup as I don’t like it too sweet
¾ cup butter, softened

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
Grease a 9 x 11-inch baking dish with butter. Peel, halve, core apples and cut into wedges. As each apple is cut up, layer in baking dish and sprinkle with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over apples, you can also add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon at this stage, if you like the stuff.
In a large bowl, mix together flour and sugar, then rub in butter using tips of fingers until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add crumble mixture to dish, and bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until top is golden brown.

Custard Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
3 eggs
3 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix cornstarch with a little water to form a smooth paste. Add eggs, 4 tablespoon of the milk, and whisk together until smooth.
Put remaining milk in a medium saucepan and heat to just below boiling point. Pour hot milk into bowl with egg, cornstarch, milk mixture, and whisk together.
Return custard to pan and heat gently over a medium low heat, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in vanilla extract.

Serve hot over apple crumble.

Look what my Sweetie Pie got me for Valentine's Day.

Dental Dilemma

2009-02-12T17:24:00.002-06:00

Well folks, it’s been fun and games around here these past few weeks. To say I’ve been having a few problems with my teeth would be putting it mildly. Although it’s not so much the teeth that are the problem as the gums. Apparently, when you get to my age it’s not tooth decay you need to worry about, but rotting gums.

It’s my own fault, since moving to the US I’ve been very erratic about dental visits, back in England, I used to go religiously every six months. But here it’s just so bloody expensive, even when you have insurance. Hell, you need to re-mortgage the house just to get your teeth cleaned. Mind you, sad to say, I hear things have gone much the same way in England. What’s the National health Service coming to, I wonder?

Anyway, when I began experiencing some discomfort in an area of my gums, I thought, uh oh this feels expensive. But I did go and get it checked out – even though I did have to wait five weeks for an appointment. They took a whole bunch of x-rays, and scared me to death by telling me I definitely had something going on back there, but they didn’t know what. Of course, in my mind it had to be cancer of the jaw, at the very least. They also said I had lost quite a bit of bone around my teeth, so they were referring me to a periodontist. Needless to say, the nearest one was 50 miles away in Joplin, Missouri. (Sigh!)

To cut a long story short, it turns out my bite was out of line and needed correcting, and I had gum disease which was causing the bone loss. This resulted in spending four (yes, 4 hours!) in the chair on Tuesday, having my teeth sandblasted, sorry, deep cleaned and ground back into place. By the time I staggered from the office, my jaw felt like I had gone ten rounds with Mohammed Ali.

But it gets worse, she put all this packing around my gums, and put me on a liquid diet for a week, and soft foods for a week after that. "What about my blog?" I wailed, "my readers don’t want to look at a can of Ensure." It was to no avail, so I told Mick to get extra wine in, and resigned myself to my predicament. ;-)

Fortunately for me I have lots of tomato and basil soup in the freezer, thanks to Cheryl’s lovely recipe, and you can find more yummies here http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/ It’s also a good thing that it’s winter, and I can still make soups, and pop them in the blender.

But if any of you have any recipes that require zero chewing for this week, and little chewing for next week, I’d be much obliged if you’d pass them along.

I’ll be back later with something I prepared earlier, in those halcyon P.D. – Pre-dentist days.

Cheers.

Cheese Board and Onion Tart

2009-02-01T16:27:00.002-06:00

This was another recipe from good old Auntie Beeb. It’s supposed to be a way to use up left over cheeses from the festive season, but I ask you, who ever has any left over cheese? I know we don’t. And while we’re on the subject of cheese, I must tell you about some delicious English cheese I got from Sam’s Club, in Joplin, Missouri. It was Wensleydale cheese, layered with Stilton, and what a fantastic combination it was. I have to say, this was the best cheese I’ve tasted since the last time I went back to England.

Anyway, on with the recipe. I have dispensed with the pastry making instructions, because as you all know, pastry and me don’t get along, but by all means make your own if you’re that way inclined.

I also made a few other changes, I thought two eggs was a bit on the stingey side, so I used four. I also chucked in a few chives for good measure. The recipe also called for the pastry to be cooked before adding the eggs, but whenever I make quiche I just bung everything in the pie, and stick it in the oven, so that’s what I did here. The oven temp also seemed a bit low at 320F, so I upped it to 375F, the edges of the crust did get a bit well done, but what the hell, it still tasted great. Hubby said he’d let me make this again. He’s just too kind. :-)

Cheese Board and Onion Tart

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury dough pie crust
2 onions, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
3 ounces each, Stilton, Brie, Sharp Cheddar
Black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon chives, chopped

Directions:

Roll out crust and place in a pie dish, trim any excess pastry from edges.
Pre-heat oven to 375F
Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onions and cook until golden, approx. 10 minutes.
In a large bowl beat eggs and cream, season with black pepper, and stir in the chives.
Chop the soft cheeses into small pieces, and shred the cheddar.
Scatter the cheeses in the pastry case, top with the onions, and pour in the egg mix. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes until set and golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Szechuan Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

2009-01-27T16:50:00.003-06:00

Another big freeze has hit the mid-west. The freezing rain began yesterday afternoon, continued into the night, and started again this afternoon. As of now, it is not as bad as last winter’s ice storm when we lost several trees, and other trees suffered a lot of damage. Today’s high was 21°F (-6°C), with a forecasted low of 13°F (-11°C). There is also snow forecast for tonight, which on top of all this ice will be treacherous.

We Brits are often accused of being obsessed with the weather, and it’s true, but that’s because the weather in Britain is awful most of the time. Oklahomans are equally obsessed with the weather, but that’s because we seem to suffer such extremes of it. Baking hot and humid in the summer, and perishingly cold in winter, with tornadoes an ever present threat in spring and fall.

Also, Oklahoma seems to grind to a halt in snow or icy conditions, as they don't bother gritting/salting or plowing the road. Well, not round here they don't. And to make matters worse, the power seems to go out at the drop of a hat, though that hasn’t happened yet. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I’ll type faster, just in case. So what’s the recipe for today, Jan?
Hubby’s company gave him a box of steaks as part of his Christmas bonus, and to be honest, neither of us are huge fans of steak. Most of them will be chopped up and included in other recipes, such as this one.

Breaking News - In the time it's taken me to type this, it's begun snowing, very heavily. Brrr.

Szechuan Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

2 steaks, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into wedges
½ cup Szechuan sauce
¼ cup water

Directions:

In a wok or large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over a medium-high heat. Add steak and half of the garlic, and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Remove beef and garlic from the pan, and keep warm.
In same wok/skillet, heat remaining oil over a medium heat. Add onion and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add garlic, stir-fry 1 minute. Add broccoli, 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Cover pan with foil and cook for two minutes.
Add Szechuan sauce, ¼ of a cup of water, tomato wedges stir-fry for 2 minutes. Return beef to pan and stir-fry for a further minute.

Serve over Basmati rice.

London Particular

2009-01-22T18:27:00.004-06:00

Once again, apologies for not posting in eons, I will get my act together one of these days. :-)
Last week I was interviewed by Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ So, on the off chance that any of you might want to know more about the reluctant cook, you will find the interview on my other blog here: http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com/

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of posts about all the high-tech kitchen gadgetry other food bloggers have received at Christmas, and thought I would share my latest gadget...

...no batteries or electricity required, this baby is powered solely by elbow grease.

Anyway, without further ado, on with the recipe. You’ve probably gathered by now that we had ham at New Year – don’t worry it’s not still hanging around. I made this a couple of weeks ago, but am only now getting round to posting it, damned shirker that I am. In Victorian London, this soup was known as London Particular as its name derives from the thick fogs, known as pea-soupers, that were around at the time..

Pea and Ham Soup

Ingredients:

1 ham bone with a decent amount of meat still on it
1 large onion chopped, divided
4 cups of chicken broth/stock
3 cups water
Cracked black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 lb. dried split peas, rinsed and drained
3 carrots, sliced
A handful of chopped parsley

Directions:

Place first four ingredients in a large saucepan or soup kettle (use half of the onion), and bring to boil. Add bay leaves and season with pepper, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 1 hour.
Remove ham bone from pot, allow to cool, and shred meat from it. Retain all stock in pan.
Re-heat stock to boiling, add split peas and remaining onion to the pan. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
Add carrots, parsley, and return ham meat to pan. Adjust seasoning if required, and simmer, covered, for a further 30 minutes.

Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.

Roasted Roots

2009-01-14T12:29:00.003-06:00

I’m busy , busy again, this time getting my contest entries ready for the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest. It’s been really difficult to get myself kick-started after a long lay off due to the cat bite, and then Christmas and New Year getting in the way. It’s an up-hill struggle, but I am now editing and revising some old material, and trying to write a new short story. Wish me luck.

Today’s recipe is another one from good old Auntie Beeb at www.bbcgoodfood.com I am really into their recipes at the moment, and receive a weekly newsletter from them. I did change it up a little bit, but not too much.

This recipe was in their Christmas edition, and the roots are supposed to be cooked in goose fat. I didn’t have a goose, so I just used vegetable oil, and they turned out great. The best thing about this recipe is all your veggies cook in the same pan, and you know how much I like easy. I served these alongside some leftover ham from New year’s Day.

I always love roast potatoes, but I really loved the roasted parsnips. Parsnips have been a sadly neglected vegetable at my table, but no more, they also add an excellent flavor to soups and stews. The recipe also called for celeriac root which I didn’t have, so I substituted rutabaga. I would have used some homegrown kholrabi, but we’d eaten it all. Note to Mick, we need to grow more of them next year.

Roasted Roots

Ingredients:

4 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks.
1 small, or ½ a large rutabaga, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 large carrots, scraped clean, and chopped into large chunks
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375°F
Put all veggies into a large pan of cold water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium high and boil gently for about 5 minutes, or until veggies just begin to soften slightly.
Drain into a colander, and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Sprinkle veggies with flour and black pepper and toss well to coat.
Heat vegetable oil in a roasting pan. Add veggies to pan and toss to coat with oil.
Roast until crisp golden brown, approx. 45 minutes, turning them half way through cooking.

Ham, Leek and Potato Pie

2009-01-07T19:02:00.003-06:00

I had a lovely New Year, I hope you did too. And, for once, I didn’t have a raging all day hangover, so cooking dinner was a breeze. I made roast ham, nothing very interesting or novel about that, even if it was delish and paired perfectly with my garden vegetable bake, which you can find here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/09/green-garden-veg-pie.html

The ham leftovers, however, proved to be much more interesting, especially this Ham, Leek and Potato Pie, which I came across here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8812/ham-leek-and-potato-pie

I only made one or two slight adjustments to the recipe, and I’ve translated from metric/centigrade for my American friends.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but hubby has a penchant for pies, and this one was definitely love at first bite. I’m pretty sure it will be making a return appearance to our dinner table in the not too distant future. Trust me, you’re gonna love this one, it’s sublime.

Ham, Leek, and Potato Pie

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 leeks, finely sliced
2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup ham stock/broth, or use chicken
Black pepper, to taste
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons ground mustard
2 cups cooked ham, diced
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten or milk to glaze

Directions:

Melt butter in a large skillet over a medium/low heat, add onion and leeks and sauté for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, cover pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add flour to skillet, and gradually add stock, season with pepper, and stir constantly until slightly thickened.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cream, mustard, and ham. Allow mix to cool for 10-15 minutes before spooning into a baking dish. While mixture cools, heat oven to 400°F.
Roll out pastry, brush edges of dish with beaten egg or milk. Slap the pastry on the dish, press down edges, trim any excess. Brush pastry with beaten egg or milk, and cut 2 slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bung pie in oven for approx. 30 minutes until crust has risen and is golden brown.

Serve with seasonal veggies. We had buttered, peppered cabbage, it was absolutely scrummy.

Yorkshire Pudding

2008-12-31T13:31:00.002-06:00

A Very Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had a fabulous Christmas. Ours was quiet, but lovely, apart from a tornado warning (What the hell? This is December!) at 7am on Saturday morning. Our weather has been all over the place this past couple of weeks. Last week, Sunday – Tuesday, we had night time lows of 0°F and highs in the low 20’s. On Christmas Day we had a high of 62°F, and on Boxing Day 72°F.

(For more info on Boxing Day, check out my other blog: http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com )

Saturday a cold front moves in bringing storms and wild winds, but fortunately, the tornado passed us by. Then the past few days, temps have been back in the mid 60’s. Weird weather! Anyway, here endeth the weather report for NE Oklahoma.

Today’s recipe is Yorkshire Pudding. Don’t be misled by the title, this is not a dessert it's a batter pudding, like a pancake batter, but baked in the oven, and served with roasted meats and gravy. In England, Yorkshire Pudding is traditionally served with roast beef, but it makes a great accompaniment to any roast meat. I made these to have with our turkey on Christmas Day, and they are totally yumptious. Hubby is a Yorkshireman, and even he admits that for a Lancashire lass I make a mean Yorkshire Pud.

Yorkshire puds are also great served cold. I use them to make sandwiches, which hubby calls "pudding pots," with any leftover meat and stuffing. Or they can be served as a sweet with jam, preserves, or lemon curd.

If you’re interested, here is a little history of the dish.

Hannah Glasse is credited with creating the first Yorkshire pudding in 1745, and the original recipe appears in her book The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy. Back then, meat was cooked on a spit over an open fire and a tray was placed under the meat to catch the drippings. Hannah Glasse hit on the idea of adding a pancake batter to the drippings and Yorkshire pudding was born.

Yorkshire pudding became very popular among the working classes who served it with gravy as an appetizer ― in reality a filler ― because meat was very expensive.

Yorkshire puddings traversed the Atlantic to the USA with the early pioneers and settlers. In this country they became known as Portland Popovers, individual muffin-sized puddings, and so named because the batter swells over the sides of the pan during cooking. The original Yorkshire pudding, however, was cooked in a large, shallow-sided baking dish and then cut into slices for serving.

Today, in England, you are more likely to find individual, muffin-sized Yorkshire puddings ― more akin to their American counterpart, popovers ― than their larger ancestor.

Yorkshire Puddings

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
12 teaspoons vegetable oil.

Note: Most Yorkshire pudding recipes require half these ingredients, but I like my Yorkshire puddings to really "popover" during cooking.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Put flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well and pour in half the milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Pour in remaining milk and beat with a fork, or whisk, until bubbles form on the surface. Place batter in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
In a 12 case non-stick muffin pan add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to each case, and place in the oven until the oil is smoking hot.
Meanwhile, remove batter from refrigerator and whisk again until bubbles form.
When oil is hot, quickly add batter to muffin cases, and return pan to the oven.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Do not open oven door during cooking as this will cause the puddings to go flat.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

2008-12-23T19:01:00.003-06:00

It’s Christmas Eve Eve. I hope you’re all ready for Santa, because if you’re not ready now, you’re not going to be. I, for one, have done all I’m gonna do, except cook Crimbo dinner. Here’s a festive joke recipe, I think it will give you a giggle.

HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE

With Christmas coming, here’s a fruitcake recipe that will help take the stress out of this normally stressful time.

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 oz lemon juice
1 cup nuts
1 gallon Absolut Vodka

Directions:

First sample the vodka to check for freshness. Take a large bowl. Check the vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality.

Pour 1 level cup of the vodka and drink it. Repeat. Repeat again.

Turn on electric mixer; beat 1 cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add water, eggs and 1 tsp sugar and beat again.

Make surr the vodka is still OK. Cry another tup.

Turn off mixers. Chuck in the cup of dried fruitt or something. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck on the beaterers, pry it loose with a Drewsciver.

Sample the vodka to check for consistancity.

Next sniff two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares?

Check the vodka. Now sniff the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin 350 degrees. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Whip the bowl out the window. Check the vodka again.

Go to bed. Who the hell likes *!#&*^$ fruitcake anyway.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone. (hic)

Cream of Mushroom Soup

2008-12-13T18:20:00.004-06:00

Jo tagged everyone who reads her blog at http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/ and as it’s nearly Crimbo, I thought I’d enter into the spirit and play along. Feel free to join in, if you wish.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I’m one of those sick individuals who actually likes wrapping presents.

2. Real tree or Artificial? It has to be real, messy, but I love the smell.

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend before Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? On the twelfth day of Crimbo.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, it’s too sweet.

6. Favourite gift received as a child? A doll’s house.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mick, he’s easily pleased.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards. Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When I first moved to California, my mother-in-law always sent me tights (hose), in that ghastly shade of American tan. (Well, she was in her late 70’s then, bless her, and I suppose they were cheap to mail). The thing is, I hardly ever wore tights in California, and certainly not American tan.

12. Favourite Christmas Movie? The Great Escape. I know, I know, it’s not a Christmas movie, but they used to show it every year in England at Christmas, so I always associate it with the holiday.

13. When do you start shopping? Usually, end of October through November. I like to get everything sorted out before Thanksgiving. I can’t bear the madding crowds of Black Friday onwards. This year things didn't go according to plan. :-(

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t think so, though I may have put some in the bin.

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey with all the trimmings.

16. Lights on the tree? Of course, but not the flashing ones, I hate those.

17. Favourite Christmas song? There are a few, all ancient, but I like them anyway. Do they know it’s Christmas by Band Aid, Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard, I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday by Roy Wood, and White Christmas by Bing Crosby. For carols, I think Silent Night.

18, Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. Christmas in England is always so much more fun than the US, but I hate travelling in winter, and I hate flying anytime.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, I don’t put anything on top of the tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The crowds, and the commercialism.

23. Favourite ornament, theme or color? A few miniature sweaters I knitted myself, which hang on the tree on mini hangers. For some reason, the cats take special delight in knocking these off the tree.

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and all the trimmings.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For a publisher to show some interest in my book.

Okay, enough of all that Christmas humbug, on with the recipe.

It’s been pretty cold around here this past week, with highs in the low 30’s F (approx. 1-2°C). Monday they are forecasting snow, with a high of 27°F (minus 3°C), and a low of 15°F (minus 9°C). Brrrrrrr. Soup is definitely the order of the day.

I have been making this cream of mushroom soup for so long that I have no idea where the original recipe came from. The original does use a full stick of butter, and a cup of cream, I use slightly less butter, and half the cream, and it is still creamy and delish. Served with lots of crusty bread, it’s a meal in itself.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. mushrooms
6 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, fairly finely chopped
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
Black pepper, to taste
½ cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Remove stems from mushrooms. Slice mushroom caps, and chop stems.
Melt butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over a medium heat.
Add sliced mushroom caps to pan, and sauté until mushrooms are tender, approx. 5 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer mushroom slices to a plate and set aside.
Add onion and mushroom stems to same pan and sauté until onion is translucent.
Stir in flour and ½ cup of broth until flour is blended. Gradually add remaining stock, stirring constantly until thickened.
Transfer onion/mushroom mixture to a blender and puree.
Return pureed mix to pan, add mushroom caps, season with a little black pepper, and reheat for 5 minutes.
Add cream, and heat gently for a further 5 minutes, do not allow to bubble.

Kohlrabi and Chicken and Vegetable Bake

2008-12-08T18:31:00.002-06:00

This strange looking vegetable, which bears a striking resemblance to a sputnik, and looks like something that might have landed from outer-space, is a kohlrabi. I first read about kohlrabi on David Hall’s blog at: http://bookthecook.blogspot.com/ and wanted to give it a try. Of course, it isn’t available in our sleepy backwater, so hubby grew some from seed, and planted it this fall as it doesn’t like our hot summer temps.

Kohlrabi proved to be a huge success, particularly as the Oklahoma bugs left it alone and devoured all our cabbages and Brussels sprouts instead. This fall and winter I have used this veggie in all sorts of soups, stews, and casseroles. It has the flavor of a cabbage heart, but is milder and sweeter, it also has undertones of turnip and celery, and the texture of a rutabaga or swede. In fact the name kohlrabi is German and means cabbage/turnip.

Today’s recipe is based very loosely on one in the BBC Good Food magazine, as I changed the type of chicken, most of the veggies, and the herbs.

Chicken and Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup flour, seasoned with black pepper
6 chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin and fat
2 lbs. red potatoes, cut into ¼ inch slices
1 bulb of garlic, separated into cloves, topped and tailed but unpeeled
½ a kohlrabi, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 red pepper cut into chunks
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 beefsteak tomato cut into wedges
1 orange cut into segments

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F
Coat chicken thighs with seasoned flour.
Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat, and fry chicken until crisp and golden brown on both sides, approx.8 -10 minutes.
Heat remaining oil in a roasting pan. Transfer chicken to roasting pan, along with potatoes, garlic, kohlrabi, peppers, and rosemary. Roast for about 20 minutes, until potatoes start to soften.
Add tomatoes and orange segments and roast for a further 5-10 minutes, until chicken and potatoes are thoroughly cooked.
To serve, bring the roasting pan to the table and let everyone help themselves.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T19:34:00.005-06:00

I know all you cooking bloggers out there will have had a busy old time today, but I hope it’s been a happy one, and that you are now stuffed with turkey and snoozing on the sofa.

I am often asked what we do in England at Thanksgiving. My answer is always the same – nothing, because we have bugger all to be thankful for in England. Only joking folks. :-) Personally, I think I won the lottery of life being born British. But, Thanksgiving is all about Pilgrims in a new land, many of whom were escaping what they perceived as religious persecution/intolerance in Britain, and the festival, therefore, has no place in British culture.

Anyway, I have a few reasons to be thankful right now. My right arm is finally mending. Most of the bite marks healed up after about a week, but there was one that just would not heal. It was so bad that I feared Alvin had done lasting damage. Yet, after a month of ministrations from nurse Mick, I now have full use of my arm again. Also, the insurance company are going to cough up the money to repair our car. Hooray!

I also have lots of other reasons to be thankful. I have a wonderful hubby, three fine boys (my cats), a great family, and many good friends. And last, but most definitely not least, thanks to you folks who take the time and trouble to come and read my blog, I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

It being Thanksgiving, I actually donned my baker’s hat. I know!!!!! Stands back in amazement, Jan has actually baked a cake. These cranberry walnut bars are a firm favorite in our house, and get wheeled out every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our neighbors get these every year for their Christmas box. One year I tried giving them something different, and they all wanted to know what happened to the cranberry and walnut bars. Oh hum!

The original recipe came from a lady I knew in California. On this occasion, I made two cakes and Mick took one to work. His co-workers loved them, and he said he could get me a few commissions if I was interested. I don’t think so. After all, I am the reluctant
cook. ;-)

On a little side note. I know a few of you have expressed an interest in the Zen Spoonmaster’s cooking utensils, but it seems they have now disappeared from their web site. When I checked it out, I noticed that they have updated the site, and I have e-mailed Jan Meng to find out what’s happened to the spoons. I’m sure it’s just a temporary glitch, and I’ll get back to you about it as soon as I hear.

Meanwhile, on with the show.

Cranberry and Walnut Bars

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted
1¼ cups fresh cranberries
½ cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with a little butter.
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until thickened.
Gradually add sugar, beating until blended.
Stir in flour and melted butter.
Add cranberries and walnuts, mixing gently until combined.
Spread evenly in pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and cut into bars.

Chicken with Creamy Bacon Penne, and an “Oh Deer” moment

2008-11-23T17:44:00.003-06:00

It’s true what they say, it doesn’t rain but it pours. Not only am I still having problems with my arm, but last week, Mick hit a deer on his way to work. He was driving on a two-lane highway, with a 55-MPH speed limit, when the deer ran right out in front of him and stopped. He had no chance to brake, or swerve to avoid it. The deer went right across the bonnet (hood).

The result:
Damage to Mick – zero
Damage to car – bad, but repairable
Damage to deer – terminal.

At first glance, the car doesn’t look too bad, but one headlight is smashed, the bonnet (hood) is dented and warped, and the side panel is cracked and hanging loose. But at least Mick was only shaken, not stirred, and that’s the main thing. Still, one cannot help but wonder, what else is going to go wrong?

On a brighter note, my latest article for Oklahoma Living Magazine can be found here:

http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature_3.php

The article is about a recent visit to a local arts center called, Hungry Holler, home of renowned artists, Jan and Marc Meng. Jan is a self confessed gourdphile, who creates beautiful works of art from homegrown gourds. The article shows some of her work on exhibit in their small rustic gallery. If you’d like to see more, check out their web site at: http://www.hungryholler.com/

Marc is known as the Zen Spoonmaster as he lovingly handcrafts cooking utensils from woods such as maple, wild cherry and walnut. Each spoon he creates is totally unique and will last a lifetime. Also the spatulas are made for right and left handed cooks.

I have begun my own collection as you can see below, and will be adding to it on my next visit. Why not treat yourselves this Christmas? You’ll be glad you did, these spoons are a pleasure to work with.

Anyway, without further ado, on with the recipe.

This is another recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine, so kindly sent to me by Beth at: http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/

I did make a few alterations to the recipe, the main one being I didn’t cook the bacon with the chicken. American bacon is of poor quality compared to British bacon, and cooking the two together would have resulted in a lot of bacon grease. Also the quantities of wine and cream seemed a bit stingy, so I increased those. The result was fabulous. Mick absolutely loved this dish, and pronounced it a definite keeper.

Chicken with Creamy Bacon Penne

Serves 2

Ingredients:

5 slices thick bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil, and a little drizzle
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup heavy cream
8-ounces penne pasta
Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Boil pasta for 5 minutes, drain into a colander, drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent it sticking together.
In a large skillet, over a medium high heat, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, and set aside on paper towels to drain. Drain bacon grease from pan, but don’t wipe or clean pan.
In same skillet, heat olive oil over a medium heat, and cook chicken for about 5 minutes each side.
Pour in wine and allow to bubble until half the wine has evaporated.
Add peas, cream, penne, and bacon to skillet, and season well with fresh ground black pepper. Do not add salt as the bacon already creates a salty taste.
Cover pan and cook for a further 5 minutes, until chicken is thoroughly cooked and all other ingredients are heated.

Serve immediately. Yum!

Pickled Red Cabbage

2008-11-16T15:16:00.003-06:00

This summer, one of Mick’s co-workers gave us a couple of lovely homegrown red cabbages. As it is traditional to serve pickled red cabbage with Lancashire Hotpot, I decided to try my hand at pickling, something I have never done before. So, although I made this back in July, last week was the first time it was sampled, and it made an excellent accompaniment to the Hotpot.

The recipe for pickled red cabbage came from Isabella Beeton’s 1861 cookbook entitled, Book of Household Management. The following information about Mrs. Beeton comes from Wikipedia.

"Isabella Mary Beeton (nee Mayson; 12 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), universally known as Mrs Beeton, was the English author of, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, and is one of the most famous cookery writers in history.

Popularly known as Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, it was essentially a guide to running a Victorian household, with advice on fashion, childcare, animal husbandry, poisons, the management of servants, science, religion, and industrialism.

Of the 1,112 pages, over 900 contained recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is Mrs Beeton's Cookbook. Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that is still used today. It is said that many of the recipes were actually plagiarised from earlier writers (including Eliza Acton), but the Beetons never claimed that the book's contents were original. It was intended as a guide of reliable information for the aspirant middle classes. Mrs Beeton is perhaps described better as its compiler and editor than as its author, many of the passages clearly being not her own words."

Below is her recipe for Pickled Red Cabbage.

Ingredients

red cabbage
salt
water
2 pint vinegar - to each quart add 1 tbsp ginger, well bruised
1oz whole black pepper
a little cayene, if liked

Method

1. Take off the outside decayed leaves of a nice red cabbage, cut it into quarters, remove the stalks, and cut it across in very thin slices.
2. Lay these on a dish, and cover them plentifully with salt, then cover with another dish.

3. Leave for 24 hours; turn into a colander to drain, and if necessary, wipe lightly with a clean, soft cloth. Put them in a jar; boil up the vinegar with the spices, and when cold, pour it over the cabbage.

It will be fit for use in a week or two, but if kept for a very long time, the cabbage is liable to get soft and discoloured. To be really nice and crisp, and of a good red colour, it should be eaten almost immediately after it is made. A little bruised cochineal boiled with the vinegar adds greatly to the appearance of this pickle. Tie down with bladder, and keep in a dry place.

The only changes I made were:

I used some salt, but not plentiful amounts.
I used ground ginger instead of fresh.
I didn’t use cochineal.
I used a screw top lid on the jar, not a bladder.

And, despite having been made three months earlier, it was still crisp, and a good red color.

I'm Back! (Kind of)

2008-11-09T16:17:00.005-06:00

Well, I’ve had better weeks. Not only did I have problems with my arm from the cat bite, but last weekend, the bottom half of my face swelled up until I looked like a hamster who’d had lip enhancements. Needless to say, I went back to the doctor who told me I’d had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, so she put me on a different one. My arm has since slowly improved, but is still not completely healed. One of Alvin’s teeth went particularly deep, and I think it may have damaged a tendon or something. This area is still very red and swollen, and pretty sore. I think if it doesn’t improve in the next day or so I will have to go back to the doctor.

Anyway, Mick, le petit chef, did a great job in the kitchen for those few days I had to keep my forearm elevated, and has since been invaluable for chopping, stirring and the like. It’s quite frustrating not being able to do things myself, but I am adapting to my supervisory role. :-) And thanks to all of you for commiserating with my misfortune, I have really appreciated all your good wishes.

Also, I must thank Nicole at: http://www.testkitchenrecipes.blogspot.com/ for giving me this award.
I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to acknowledge it, I'll be passing it along next time. Thank you Nicole.

Today’s recipe is Lancashire Hotpot, a traditional dish from my home county in England. The origins of Hotpot are a little vague. Some claim it has its basis in the Lancashire cotton industry, as it is a simple dish to prepare and has a long cooking time. Women mill workers could prepare it in the morning, leave it to cook all day, and it would be ready when the family came home from work. Others say it originated with the miners, who would take the pot to work wrapped in a blanket, where it would keep warm until lunchtime. Still others suggest it was prepared for shepherds to eat while tending their sheep on the moors.

But, one thing historians generally agree on is that Lancashire Hotpot made its first appearance during the industrial revolution of the mid 19th century. Hotpot is certainly mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel, North and South, which was first published in 1855. Mr. Thornton, a mill owner in the novel says of Lancashire Hotpot, "I never made a better dinner in my life." I hope you all enjoy it as much.

Originally, Hotpot was made with mutton and oysters, both of which were very cheap in 19th century England; nowadays we use lamb and exclude the oysters. I’m afraid I have deviated even more from tradition and used beef. I did actually manage to get some lamb – but that’s a whole other story – and we have now become so accustomed to the beef version that we actually prefer it. I guess you could say that my Lancashire Hotpot is a variation on beef stew, but what ever it is, it’s darned tasty.

Lancashire Hotpot

Ingredients:

1lbs beef stew meat
½ cup seasoned flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
2lbs russet potatoes, thinly sliced
1-cup beef broth/stock
1 onion sliced
3 carrots, sliced
1 turnip or rutabaga, sliced
4 tablespoons melted butter, divided

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

Put flour and beef in a resealable plastic bag, and shake to coat.

Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat, add beef and sauté until browned.

Transfer the meat to a tall-sided casserole or Pyrex dish and top with a layer of potatoes. Use the smaller pieces, reserving the larger ones for the top layer.

In alternate layers add, onions, rutabaga, carrots, and top with remaining potatoes.

Pour in the stock.
Brush the potatoes with half the melted butter. Cover dish and bake for 1½ hours.

Remove the dish from the oven, and brush the potatoes with remaining melted butter.

Return dish to the oven, and cook uncovered for a further 30 minutes or until potatoes are browned. If the potatoes don’t brown evenly pop the dish under the broiler for a few minutes.

Damn Cats!

2008-10-31T13:13:00.001-05:00

I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately, and this is going to be the case for a while longer. On Monday and Tuesday, I wasn’t feeling very well. Then on Wednesday, my cat Alvin was ill, so I took him to see the vet. Unfortunately, while the vet took Alvin’s temperature, I held his head. I thought I had a firm grip on him, but he managed to get loose and sunk all his teeth into my arm.

As it was a very nasty bite, I went to the doctor for a tetanus shot. She also gave me antibiotics and painkillers, as she was particularly concerned that Alvin might have passed his infection onto me. She also told me to keep my forearm elevated for 2-3 days, so I’m not supposed to be typing, but I just wanted to let you know what was happening.

My right arm is red and swollen from the wrist to the elbow, and is extremely painful. It was so bad that I couldn’t get the childproof caps off the antibiotics and painkillers, and had to wait for Mick to get home from work before I could take any. :-) But the good news is, Alvin is recovering from his infection, so hopefully, normal service will be resumed with me very soon.

Leek, Bacon, and Potato Soup

2008-10-23T16:39:00.003-05:00

Wouldn’t you know it? I no sooner get through gloating about how wonderful our weather is when a cold front moves in. Yesterday, we had thunderstorms and torrential rain all day. Our temperatures plummeted 30 degrees in just a couple of hours, and went even lower overnight. There could be no better time for some soup.

This is one of my favorite soups. Leek and potato soup has been around for yonks (years) in the UK, but the addition of bacon and some cheddar cheese gives it an extra dimension.

I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but leeks don’t seem to be very popular in Oklahoma. Whenever I buy them, the cashiers at the store always have to ask me what they are. So if you’ve never tried them, give them a whirl, they add a wonderful flavor to all manner of soups and stews.

Leeks are a member of the onion family, and in fact, look much like very large spring (green) onions, but their taste is quite different to onions.

Just to digress a moment. Last winter, I made this soup for my husband to take to a pot luck at work. No one got to try it though. On his way to work, with the crock-pot on the floor of the car, someone pulled right out in front of him, and Mick had to jam on the anchors. Result – soup all over the bloody car. Oh, hum.

Anyway, without further ado, on with the recipe.

Leek, Bacon and Potato Soup

Just a word of advice about leeks before we begin. Leeks can have a bit of a gritty texture, but if you prepare them this way that won’t happen. Top and tail your leeks - just use the white and pale green flesh - then slice them down the middle length ways, but don't cut them right in half, then rinse them under running water for a minute or two and they'll be great.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

6 slices thick bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots sliced
2 leeks chopped
4 large russet potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups chicken broth
A dash of cayenne pepper (approx.1/8 teaspoon)
1 cup of sharp cheddar, shredded

Don't add salt to this recipe as the bacon tends to make the soup salty enough.

In a large saucepan, or Dutch oven, fry bacon in its own grease until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, drain on paper towels, and set aside. Discard bacon grease and wipe pan thoroughly with paper towels.
Add olive oil to pan, and over a medium heat sauté onion for 2 – 3 minutes, add carrots and leeks and sauté for a further minute, or until onion is soft but not brown.
Stir in chicken broth, potatoes and cayenne pepper, bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for about 30 minutes.
Return bacon to pan, and reheat for about 5 minutes.
Reserve a little of the cheese to sprinkle on top of each bowl, and add the rest to the pan, stir until cheese has melted, do not allow to boil.

Served with crusty bread this soup is a meal in itself.

Cheesy Potatoes on the Grill

2008-10-20T17:26:00.002-05:00

It was a beautiful weekend here in my little corner of northeast Oklahoma, lots of sunshine, clear blue skies, and temps a balmy 75°F. Just perfect for dragging out the BBQ for what will probably be the last time this year.

This is not terribly exciting, it's only a spud recipe, but they are pretty darned good. The cheesy potatoes, were cooked on the grill alongside some chicken on the ribs. We also have some rainbow chard growing in our garden at the moment, so I sautéed some in butter and garlic.

Cheesy Potatoes on the Grill (or in the oven if you prefer)

Ingredients:

3 large russet potatoes, thinly sliced about 1/8 inch
1 small onion, thinly sliced
½ cup mozzarella, shredded
¼ cup sharp cheddar, shredded
Black pepper, to taste
2/3 cup milk, warmed
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

Pre-heat grill to low, or oven to 425°F
Grease an 8 x 8-inch foil tray (or baking dish) with butter.
Arrange smaller potato pieces in layers in bottom of dish, top with a layer of onions, then a layer of cheese, and add pepper to taste. Layer larger sized potatoes on top. Pour in the warm milk, brush top with melted butter, and sprinkle over the Parmesan.
Bake on grill for about 50 minutes, then put the foil pan under a hot broiler for 2 –3 minutes to brown the surface.
Or bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. These potatoes usually brown okay in the oven without recourse to the broiler, but if they don’t you know what to do.

Quiche Lorraine Plus

2008-10-14T21:49:00.003-05:00

Who was it that said, real men don’t eat quiche? To tell the truth, I have no idea, but they obviously didn’t know my husband. He would eat minced tires as long as there was a crust involved.

Also, I’m sure I’ve told you before, but me and pastry don’t mix. I just can’t make it. And when I do, I can’t get it off the board and into the dish without it falling to bits. Well, we can’t all be perfect, and I know my limitations, so I just buy those ready made pastry sheets now.

This is a bit of a variation on the traditional Quiche Lorraine, (which incidentally, was called bacon and egg pie when I was a kid), as I’ve added bell peppers and mushrooms, some mustard, and some chives.

Quiche Lorraine Plus

Ingredients:

6 slices of thick bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ red pepper, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
6 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon ground mustard powder
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 refrigerated Pillsbury dough piecrust, brought to room temperature

Directions:

Fry bacon in a large skillet over a medium high heat until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. Discard bacon grease and wipe pan with paper towels.
In same skillet, heat olive oil over a medium heat, add peppers and onions to pan and sauté until onion is translucent. Remove veggies from pan and drain on paper towels.
Allow bacon and veggies to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 375°F, unroll pastry from package, and roll slightly with a rolling pin. Place crust in pie dish, and trim any excess pastry from edges of the dish.
In a large bowl whisk eggs and milk together, stir in mustard, chives and black pepper.
Add a layer of bacon to pie crust, then a layer of onions and peppers, then a layer of sliced mushrooms. Top with cheese, pour over egg mixture, and bake for 35 – 45 minutes.
Allow quiche to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken and Bacon Casserole with Dumplings

2008-10-10T15:26:00.002-05:00

This recipe has been a favorite winter warmer in our house for several years. Earlier this week it was cool and rainy, which gave me the perfect opportunity to make this casserole. Good thing I did as the cool weather didn't last long, it’s now back to sunny and 83°F.

The original recipe came from a packet of Atora (English) suet, but it has been tweaked quite a bit over the years. Please don’t let the mention of suet put you off, this is nothing like the stuff you Americans feed the birds. That said, beef suet is contraband over here, but a good friend sent me a couple of packets after his last trip to England, so I got to use some of my stash for the dumplings.

Now if you’re feeling adventurous you can get Atora vegetable suet on-line, it’s a good substitute, and you can find it here:

http://www.britishdelights.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=D22

Alternatively, you’ll find a recipe for suetless dumplings at David Hall’s blog, Book the Cook, which you’ll find here:

http://bookthecook.blogspot.com/2008/04/legless.html

Or just use whatever dumpling recipe you would normally use, but if you’ve never tried suet dumplings you are missing a real treat. Suet can also be used as shortening and makes great tasting pastry.

Chicken and Bacon Casserole with Dumplings

Sorry about the photo, this is straight out of the oven so the picture doesn’t really do it justice. But trust me, this is a great tasting casserole.

Ingredients:

6 slices thick bacon, chopped into 1-inch chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, fairly thickly sliced.
1 onion, sliced
1 green pepper, cut into chunks
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth/stock
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
12 button mushrooms
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into wedges

Dumplings:

½ cup self-raising flour
¼ cup Atora suet
Cold water to mix, approximately 4-6 tablespoons

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F
In a large saucepan (use a Dutch oven if you have one) fry bacon over a medium high heat until crispy. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Discard bacon grease and wipe pan with paper towels.
In the same pan, heat olive oil over a medium heat, add chicken and cook until no longer pink, about 3-4 minutes. Remove chicken from pan, and set aside.
Add onion and green pepper to pan and sauté for 3 minutes until onion is slightly softened. Add garlic and sauté for a further minute.
Sprinkle over flour, stirring continuously. Gradually add broth/stock, stirring continuously. Return bacon and chicken to the pan, add bay leaves and season with pepper. (I would not recommend adding salt as the bacon already gives this dish a salty flavor). Bring to the boil.
Transfer mixture to a 2 quart casserole/baking dish, top with mushrooms and tomato wedges. Cover dish and place in oven for 30 minutes.

To make the dumplings:

In a large bowl, mix together flour, suet, and salt, gradually add water until dough is of a soft, elastic consistency.
Divide dough into 8 equal pieces, and roll into ball with floured hands.
Add dumplings to casserole, cover and return to oven for a further 20-25 minutes.

Rosemary and Garlic Chicken

2008-10-04T17:42:00.002-05:00

My apologies, I’ve been a bit remiss with my blogging this week. I got an e-mail from the editor at Oklahoma Living Magazine on Monday asking me to send in a list of article ideas for next year’s editorial calendar, by Friday! And, truth be told, I didn’t have a single idea in my head. Anyway, after a lot of brainstorming, a lot of research, and a couple of sleepless nights, I did manage to put a list together, and got it in by the deadline. (Phew, wipes sweat from fevered brow).

To make matters worse, I’ve been plagued by allergies this week. By Thursday night, they were so bad I was convinced I was coming down with a cold. But enough of my moans and groans, on with the recipe.

This is yet another one from the BBC Good Food Magazine. There are some seriously good recipes in here; the only one I’ve blobbed (failed) with so far was the marmalade chicken. I over-cooked the sauce and it ended up like sticky toffee chicken. I will try it again though, as the bit of sauce that didn’t totally caramelize tasted pretty good, I will just have to take a little more care with it next time.

This recipe, however, was a success. It was so easy to make, and tasted bloody marvelous if I do say so myself. I did make a couple of minor changes to it, and hubby pronounced it a definite keeper.

Rosemary and Garlic Chicken

Note: The recipe recommends cooking the garlic with the skin on, as the slow cooking makes it soft and sweet. Then just pop each clove out of the skin and squish it in the sauce as you eat. Yum!

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs, bone in, with skin
½ cup flour, seasoned with coarse ground black pepper
1 head of garlic, peeled if you prefer.
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 stalks of rosemary, my rosemary plant has up and died on me so I used dried.
1 cup dry white wine
Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Trim away any excess skin and fat from the chicken, and toss in seasoned flour.
Separate the garlic into cloves, I didn’t peel it, but I did trim the ends off each clove.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat until searingly hot. Add the chicken skin side down, and fry without moving until skin is brown and crisp. (I reduced heat to medium after 2-3 minutes). When skin is browned and crisp, turn chicken over and brown other side.
Add garlic, rosemary, pour in wine, and season with coarse ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low, cover pan, and simmer for 40-45 minutes, until chicken is tender and sauce thickened.

I served this with basmati rice, and buttered spinach.

Pass On the Salt

2008-09-28T18:05:00.002-05:00

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I never use salt in cooking, and the only time I ever use it at the table is on chips (French fries), and Emiline http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/ asked me why? To be honest, it was always just a matter of personal preference, and it wasn’t until I decided to write an article about it that I discovered the American Medical Association is advocating a low salt diet. I wrote this article two years ago, and never succeeded in getting it published, so here it is.

Pass On the Salt

It is not a new health threat. Doctors have been advising us to reduce our salt consumption for years. Yet salt is set to become the latest bad boy on the dietary chopping block. In 2006 the American Medical Association called for drastic reductions in the amount of salt we eat. They agree that excess salt contributes to high blood pressure. This in turn leads to hypertension, and can ultimately result in heart disease, still the number one killer in America today.

How much salt is too much?

According to the National Academy of Sciences, the human body requires a minimum of 500 milligrams of sodium per day to maintain health. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, sets a maximum limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, (or approximately 1 teaspoon of salt). The levels for adults over fifty, and people with high blood pressure, cardiac disease, or other medical conditions are actually much lower, 1,500 milligrams per day.

Most Americans, however, consume as much as two or three times the maximum recommended dose of sodium every day. The main reason for this is our over-reliance on convenience, restaurant, and fast food. Pre-prepared foods are loaded with salt.

Dr. Rohack, a practicing cardiologist and board member of the American Medical Association explains, "Just one cup of canned soup can contain more than 50 percent of the FDA recommended daily allowance. A serving of lasagna in a restaurant can put a diner over their recommended daily sodium allowance in just one meal. These examples stress the importance of a national reduction in the amount of sodium in processed and restaurant foods."

Why are so many of us addicted to salt?

The human body requires salt or sodium to maintain good health, and since prehistoric times, man has obtained salt naturally from the foods he ate. But, despite being one of the most common minerals on earth, salt wasn’t widely used as a food additive and preservative until the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Chinese learned how to mine it. The high cost of transportation, however, made salt a very valuable commodity, so much so, that Roman soldiers received part of their pay in salt. The English word salary is derived from the Latin, salarium, meaning salt. Salt was such a valuable commodity because of its importance as a food preservative, and preserving food was essential to survival.

Yet, despite modern day refrigeration practices, our love affair with salt continues. The main reason for this is we are usually exposed to salt at an early age and that predilection continues throughout our lives. Even if you eat a diet of fresh meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables, and don’t add salt to your food, you are still exposed to high levels of sodium in: breakfast cereals, bread, cookies, cheese and salty snacks, such as potato chips and nuts.

How can I reduce the amount of salt in my diet?

Until the American Medical Association’s recommendations for a 50% reduction in the amount of sodium in processed and restaurant food are adhered to, the only way to reduce your sodium intake is to retrain your taste buds to prefer less salt.

Expect that it may take several weeks for your palate to adjust, but if you persevere, you will find your tolerance for salty foods diminishes. If you have ever given up taking sugar in your tea and coffee you will understand that it only takes a week or two before sugary drinks become unpalatable.

Healthier alternatives do exist that can add flavor to your food without recourse to salt. Experiment with fresh herbs, spices, and citrus fruits in your recipes.

Doctors agree that following a low-sodium diet is one of the most beneficial things you can do for the health of your heart. So, don’t wait for the American Medical Association’s recommendations to become law. Take control of your eating habits now. Eat a healthy diet of fresh meat, fish, and produce, and avoid convenience and fast food. You owe it to yourself and to your heart.

Tips on reducing your salt intake:

Read the labels on the products you buy to check for high sodium levels. The amount of sodium quoted is per serving, not per box or can.
As a rough guideline:
If a product contains 500 milligrams of sodium or more per 100 grams that is a
lot of salt.
If a product contains 100 milligrams of sodium or less per 100 grams that is a little salt.
Buy low or no sodium products whenever possible.
Experiment with herbs and spices.
When ordering food in restaurants ask the chef not to add salt to your meal.
When visiting fast food chains ask for information on the nutritional values of their products, or check out their web sites.
If after several weeks, lack of salt still causes culinary consternation, add salt at the table rather than in the cooking process. That way you will still get the salty taste you crave, but the level of sodium will actually be much less. And, always taste your food before you reach for the salt shaker.

Green Garden Veg Pie

2008-09-25T19:15:00.002-05:00

Just a quicky post tonight, as I have a deadline to meet with my latest article for Oklahoma Living Magazine. This is another recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine, (God bless Auntie Beeb, and all who sail in her), and it’s a definite keeper. As usual, I made a few changes to it. The original recipe included cauliflower, which I didn’t have, so I substituted mushrooms. It also required that all the vegetables be partially cooked before being baked, other than the potatoes, I didn’t think that would be necessary, and it wasn’t. You could serve this as a vegetarian main course, or as I did, as a side dish.

Green Garden Veg Pie

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground mustard powder
1 pint milk
¾ cup sharp cheddar, shredded, divided
2-3 large russet potatoes, sliced into thin rounds
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets
6 ounces mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed and drained
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 420°F
Put potatoes in a pan of water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 3-5 minutes, until slightly tender. Drain into a colander and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over a medium heat. Take pan off heat and gradually stir in flour and mustard powder. Return pan to heat, and gradually add milk, stirring constantly until sauce thickens.
Remove pan from heat and stir in ½ a cup of cheese.
Reserve the largest of the potato slices to place on top of the dish. Put all remaining veggies in a 3-inch deep, 11x 8-inch baking dish, top with cheese sauce, sprinkle over chives, and a dash of fresh ground black pepper. Top the dish with reserved potato slices, and sprinkle with the remaining ¼ cup of cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes until topping is golden and crisp.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

2008-09-21T16:07:00.002-05:00

Mick made an amazing discovery recently, we can download British TV programs from the internet and watch them on our TV (telly to us Brits). If you want to know more about it, see my post on http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com

This week I have been watching British chef, Gary Rhodes, in a series called "Rhodes Around China," and what a fabulous series it was. Gary Rhodes was just coming to prominence as a TV chef when I left England, and I loved his punk rock spiky hair-do and his cheeky grin. Obviously he’s older now, but aren’t we all? The spiky hair has gone, but he is still one kick-ass chef. I really look forward to watching more British telly, and more British cooking progs in the future.

Last night we had pasta for dinner, Mick always calls this dish, bacon and egg pasta. It’s a popular Italian dish in England, though I don’t recall ever seeing on an Italian menu here. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, I lead a sheltered life. ;-)

And the good news, after a short lay-off my neighbor, Corky’s hens have begun producing again, so we had free-range eggs for this recipe. We have been buying organic eggs at the store but they are very expensive, so keep up the good work girls.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

This dish is not terribly photogenic, but believe me it tastes great!

Ingredients:

8 ounces spaghetti
8 slices thick bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 eggs
½ cup + 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped + a little for garnish.
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add spaghetti, and boil gently for 6 -7 minutes until spaghetti is al dente. Drain and toss spaghetti with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside.
While spaghetti cooks, in a large skillet over a medium high heat fry chopped bacon in its own juices until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels.
Discard bacon grease and wipe skillet clean with paper towels.
In the same skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add onion and sauté over a medium heat until onion is translucent.
Add garlic and sauté for a further minute.
Return bacon to pan, add reserved spaghetti, cream, parsley, and season with black pepper, heat gently, stirring often.
In a small bowl beat eggs, add to pan and toss all ingredients with a large fork. Cook until eggs begin to set.
Add ½ cup of Parmesan cheese, and toss mixture again until cheese is combined.
Transfer spaghetti carbonara to a warm serving dish, top with remaining Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Cottage Pie

2008-09-17T18:23:00.003-05:00

Lately, I’ve had a hankering for mashed potatoes and gravy. I’m getting fed up of barbecuing and salads, and I’m ready to start eating some cold weather food. Although our temps have cooled quite a bit, and a few leaves are starting to turn on the trees, the warm weather isn’t quite done with us yet.

On Saturday, however, the remnants of Hurricane Ike moved through our area and gave us a good old soaking. It started raining on Saturday afternoon and didn’t stop bucketing it down until Sunday morning. All that rain and the cool weather allowed me to satisfy my craving for mash with some good old British comfort food, Cottage Pie, lovely.

The difference between Cottage and Shepherd’s Pie is in the choice of meat. Cottage Pie is made with minced beef, and Shepherd’s Pie with minced shepherds, sorry I couldn’t resist, actually ground lamb. I think I’ve mentioned before that lamb is as rare as rocking horse poop here in Oklahoma, hence Cottage Pie.

Another thing, although I have said to use corn starch to thicken the gravy, I actually use a British product called Bisto gravy powder. According to their mantra, Bisto browns, seasons, and thickens all in one go, it’s what my mum always used, so I was weaned on it. But, I should point out that I have made this dish exactly as in this recipe, one time when I couldn’t get hold of any Bisto, and it was still good. If you’re interested you can check out Bisto here:

http://www.britishdelights.com/bisto.htm

Cottage Pie

Ingredients:

1lb ground sirloin
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 lbs. mashed potatoes, mashed with milk and butter
1 onion, chopped.
3 carrots, sliced
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
A generous dash of fresh ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F
In a large skillet melt butter over medium high heat and brown meat.
Add the onion and sauté for two minutes.
Add carrots and beef stock. Bring to the boil, add Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and bay leaves, and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon transfer the mixture to an 11-inch x 7-inch ovenproof dish, reserving most of the stock, and removing bay leaves. Add about ½ of a cup of stock to the meat. I know a lot of people prefer to add most of the stock to the dish, but I find this make the mash to soggy. I like my mash to stay firm, but it’s a matter of personal preference.
Cover the mixture with mashed potato, and form grooves in the surface with a fork.
Bake for 50 – 60 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown.
Skim any fat from surface of reserved stock. Mix cornstarch with a little water and add to stock. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until gravy thickens, add more seasoning if required.

Serve pie with seasonal vegetables and lashings of gravy.

An Award!

2008-09-13T15:17:00.004-05:00

A big thank you to Beth at http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ for giving me this award:

Time for me to pass it along.

Cheryl at http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/

Pam at http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

Paula at http://itsallgouda.blogspot.com/

Emiline at http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/

Candy at http://thecourageouscook.blogspot.com/

Blackened Szechuan Chicken

2008-09-10T16:34:00.004-05:00

Whoops-a-daisy, I just realized I published the last post without a recipe.

Blackened Szechuan Chicken

Ingredients:

¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup szechuan stir-fry sauce
Juice of 1 small orange and a couple of teaspoons of zest
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
2 chicken breasts with ribs

Directions:

Combine first six ingredients in a small bowl. Pour 2/3 of the marinade into a gallon size resealable plastic bag, add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours. Cover and refrigerate remaining marinade.

Pre-heat BBQ to low.

Drain and discard marinade from chicken. Grill chicken, ribs side down, directly on the bars, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Cook times will vary according to size of chicken breasts, and outside temps, so just grill to desired doneness, and until juices run clear.

The British One Hundred, and an Award

2008-09-10T15:00:00.007-05:00

In response to the Omnivores One Hundred, Helen at Food Stories: http://helengraves.co.uk/ has created The British One Hundred. I love lists so I couldn't resist having a go.

Here are the rules if you would like to play along:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Link back to Food Stories, if you would be so kind.

1. Grey squirrel. (Having eaten crocodile, wilderbeast, and zebra in Kenya, I think I’d give it a try).

2 Steak and kidney pie

3. Bubble and squeak

4. Spotted dick

5. Hot Cross Buns (A traditional Easter favorite)

6. Laver bread

7. Toad in the hole

8. Shepherds pie AND Cottage pie

9. Scotch egg

10. Parkin

11. Welsh rarebit

12. Jellied eels

13. Stilton

14. Marmite (I hate this stuff)

15. Ploughman’s lunch

16. Cucumber sandwiches

17. Coronation chicken

18. Gloucester old spot.

19. Cornish pasty

20. Samphire

21. Mince Pies

22. Winkles

23. Salad cream

24. Malt loaf

25. Haggis

26. Beans on toast

27. Cornish clotted cream tea

28. Pickled egg

29. Pork scratchings

30. Pork pie

31. Black pudding

32. Patum Peperium or Gentleman’s relish

33. Earl Grey tea

34. Elvers

35. HP Sauce

36. Potted shrimps

37. Stinking bishop

38. Elderflower cordial

39. Pea and ham soup

40. Aberdeen Angus Beef

41.Lemon Posset

42. Guinness

43. Cumberland sausage

44. Native oysters

45. A ‘full English’ breakfast

46. Cockles

47. Faggots

48. Eccles cake

49. Potted Cromer crab

50. Trifle

51. Stargazy pie

52. English mustard

53. Christmas pudding

54. Cullen skink

55. Liver and bacon with onions

56. Wood pigeon

57. Branston pickle

58. Oxtail soup

59. Piccalilli

60. Sorrel

62. Chicken tikka masala

63. Deep fried Mars Bar

64. Fish, chips and mushy peas

65. Pie and mash with liquor

66. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

67. Pickled onions

68. Cock-a-leekie soup

69. Rabbit and Hare

70. Bread sauce

71. Cauliflower cheese

72. Crumpets

73. Rice pudding

74. Bread and Butter Pudding

75. Bakewell tart

76. Kendall mint cake (horribly sweet)

77. Summer pudding

78. Lancashire hot pot (I'm from Lancashire, I was weaned on this)

79. Beef Wellington

80. Eton mess

81. Neeps and tatties

82. Pimms

83. Scampi

84. Mint sauce

85. English strawberries and cream

86. Isle of Wight garlic

87. Mutton

88. Deep fried whitebait with tartare sauce

89. Angels on horseback

90. Omelette Arnold Bennett

91. Devilled kidneys

92. Partridge and pheasant

93. Stew and Dumplings

94. Arbroath smokies

95. Oyster loaves

96. Sloe gin

97. Damson jam

98. Soda bread

99. Quince jelly

100. Afternoon tea at the Ritz

I think I would add Bangers and Mash, Kippers, Victoria Sponge, and Jam Roly Poly.

Which ones have you tried, and are there any you would like to add?

Also, Beth at: http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ has given me this award

Thank you so much, Beth.

I’m a little pressed for time right now so I’ll be passing this on at the weekend.

Tuna and Pasta Bake

2008-09-06T19:02:00.003-05:00

As I said in my last post, mid-week we had a lot of rain and our temps cooled tremendously, so I got the opportunity to make some soup. I had seen this recipe for Tomato and Basil Soup http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/2008/09/tomato-basil-soup.html on Cheryl’s blog at: http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com and wanted to try it.

We still had loads of fresh heirloom tomatoes from our garden and tons of fresh basil so here was the perfect opportunity. I have to say this soup was absolutely delicious. The only changes I made to her original recipe are, I didn’t add any salt, as I don’t use salt in my cooking, I added a green pepper as well as the red, and I very naughtily doubled the amount of cream. This recipe is a definite keeper, and I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more over the fall and winter. Thanks a lot Cheryl.

Now I have a favor to ask of y’all. It’s my birthday mid-month (don’t even ask!), and I’d like hubby to get me a new cookbook for my presi, so I’m looking for some recommendations. I just want something that has great everyday recipes, nothing fancy or gourmet. Can you help me out?

Anyway, enough of that birthday humbug, back to the recipe. On Thursday, as it was still cold, and as I didn’t plan to make my pilgrimage to the store until Friday, I made this old store cupboard stand-by.

Tuna and Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

8 ounces tri-colored rotelle, or rotini pasta
1 jar of Alfredo sauce
1 12-ounce can albacore tuna
6 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1½ cups sharp cheddar, shredded, or sufficient to cover the top of your baking dish.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F
Add pasta to a pan of boiling water and boil gently for 5 minutes, drain.
While pasta drains, in a medium saucepan, heat Alfredo sauce, tuna, mushrooms, basil, and black pepper over a low heat until sauce bubbles gently.
Add pasta and combine.
Pour mixture into an 11 x 8½ -inch baking dish, top with cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the cheese gets a bit crusty looking.

Slow Roasted Pork with Garlic and Onions

2008-09-03T18:22:00.003-05:00

Yes, you are in the right place! I’ve had to do a bit of a re-vamp on the old blog, because the margins on the other one were too narrow for the new Foodie Blogroll widget. It was overlapping my recipes, and that will never do.

After bitching on everybody’s blogs that it was too hot here to make soups and chilies, would you believe it’s suddenly got cold? Yesterday, it was 90°F, but it started raining last night, and has chucked it down all day today, the temperature has now plummeted by 25 degrees. But I have a sneaky suspicion that the weather is only teasing me into thinking fall has arrived. I’m sure there will be more hot weather lurking around the corner for me yet, but hopefully low 80’s instead of 90/100’s.

Even though the rain has never stopped the intrepid Brits from barbecuing before, I’m still going to cook something on the stove tonight, just for the sheer novelty value. But more about that later. Today’s recipe is what we had for our Labor day feed.

Slow Roasted Pork with Garlic and Onions

The slow cooking of this meat allowed the onions and garlic to virtually disintegrate into a galze, and to infuse the meat with their lovely flavors, it also kept it really moist.

Ingredients:

I pork joint, I think this one was called a boneless ribeye roast, but I’m not 100% certain.
1 onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped.
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ to low.
Place a layer of sliced onions on a sheet of heavy-duty foil and top with pork.
Drizzle pork with olive oil, a generous amount of black pepper, top with garlic and another layer of onions. Wrap foil loosely around meat.
Roast on grill until the little thermometer thingy pops out, approximately 1hour & 20 minutes. Unwrap foil parcel and cook for a further 20-30 minutes until browned.

I served the pork with roasted rosemary potatoes, I think I’ve posted these before, but they are so good here they are again. We also had a salad, but you can figure that one out yourselves.

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Ingredients:

6 red potatoes cut into quarters.
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only.
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh ground black pepper
A drizzle of vegetable oil

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ to low.
Brush the center of a large sheet of heavy duty foil lightly with oil, add potatoes, pour over wine, sprinkle them with rosemary and black pepper, and dot with butter.
Seal package loosely, and grill over a low heat, stirring frequently, for 45 – 60 minutes.

Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad

2008-08-31T15:54:00.004-05:00

I saw this recipe for Balsamic Chicken and Peach Salad in the chicken recipe booklet that came with the Good Food magazine, and I thought I would give it a whirl.

A few days ago, Mick came home with a big bag of homegrown peaches that one of his co-workers had given him. They were absolutely delicious, and I thought this recipe would be a perfect way to use a couple of them. Wrong! When I checked the bag there was one tiny little peach left in there.

As there are only two of us in this house there are no prizes for guessing who’d scoffed them all, and it wasn’t the cats. Smart as they are, I don’t think they’ve mastered the art of fridge cracking yet, although Alvin can open cupboards and drawers. And even if they had managed to break into the fridge, I don’t think peaches would have been high on their list of priorities.

The peach situation called for a little improvisation. We had plenty of oranges so this recipe became Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad, and very tasty it was too. Also the recipe said to cook the chicken under the broiler, but we grilled it on the BBQ.

Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small orange for juice and zest
A handful of fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 small oranges, peeled and cut into segments
2 cups spinach

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ to low.
Put one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in each of two small bowls. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to one bowl and two to the other. The first bowl is the marinade and the second bowl is the salad dressing.
Grate about a teaspoonful of orange zest into each bowl. Cut orange in half and add the juice from each half to each of the bowls. Add a dash of black pepper to both bowls.
Chop about a quarter of the basil leaves and add to the salad dressing only. Cover and store in refrigerator until required.
Brush a little vegetable oil on a sheet of heavy duty foil.
Dip chicken in marinade until thoroughly coated, and place on foil. Grill for approximately 15 minutes each side until golden brown.
Spread spinach leaves over a serving platter, top with orange segments and remaining basil leaves. Slice chicken and scatter it over the top. Drizzle the salad with the reserved dressing and serve.

Cheesy Dribblers

2008-08-26T21:22:00.002-05:00

I want to say a great big thank you to Beth at, http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com for sending me a copy of the BBC’s Good Food magazine, what a fantastic publication this is. I was positively drooling over it last night, and will definitely be making some of those goodies. But not tonight, as I’m too busy reading. There was another little booklet with the mag containing 40 yumptious chicken recipes, and as we eat a lot of chicken at this house it’s given me plenty of ideas. And as a special little bonus, there was also some Cadbury’s drinking chocolate and Bird’s custard powder lurking in the envelope. Yum!

Okay, tonight’s recipe is not rocket science, it’s only burgers, but they were pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself. I only made 3 burgers as we have one each for dinner and Mick takes one for his lunch, but you could make 4. The addition of the tomato while the burgers grill makes them nice and moist.

Cheesy Dribblers

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
½ cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. I’m guessing a bit here because I just splash it in until it looks like there’s enough.
2 -3 teaspoons McCormick grill mates, spicy Montreal steak flavor, divided
3 thick slices beefsteak tomato
3 slices Swiss cheese
3 Kaiser rolls

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ grill to high
In a large mixing bowl combine beef, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and 1 teaspoon of the grill mates seasoning. Mould into 3 or 4 patties. Sprinkle more of the seasoning mix on each side of the burgers.
Grill burgers directly on the bars for 5 minutes. You will need to reduce cooking time if you have 4 patties.
Reduce heat to low, turn burgers over and add tomato slices. Grill until tomato cooks, and burgers are of desired doneness. Add cheese slices, toast buns on grill while cheese melts. Serve immediately.

An Award!

2008-08-24T12:53:00.002-05:00

I’ve been given another award, this time from Beth at:http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com Thank you so much, Beth, I’m honored.

It’s an Arte y Pico award which originated at this site: http://arteypico.blogspot.com

Here are the rules that accompany this esteemed award:

Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contribute to the blogging community.
Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.
Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
The award winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
Show these rules.

Many thanks to everyone who reads this blog, I would like to give this award to all of you, but I can’t, so here are a few of the blogs I like to visit.

Leah, http://acornerofmykitchen.blogspot.com for her interesting posts, great recipes, and lovely presentation.

Dhanggit, http://dhanggitskitchen.blogspot.com for her sweet treats and beautiful photography.

Lori, http://therecipegirl.blogspot.com for her creativeness in the kitchen, and her beautiful presentation.

These two are not cooking blogs, although they both feature recipes from time to time.

Denise, http://anenglishgirlrambles.blogspot.com for the wide variety of topics she covers and her lovely photography.

Plantgirl, http://squarefootgardenblog.com for sharing the ups and downs of square foot gardening.

Brocolli & Apple Salad

2008-08-21T17:59:00.003-05:00

This is just a quickie post today. The recipe is also a quickie, and another one of hubby’s favorite salads. I think the original recipe came from A Taste of Home, but as usual, I’ve tweaked it a bit.

Broccoli & Apple Salad

Ingredients:

1 broccoli crown cut into florets
1 Fuji apple, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup red onion, chopped
½ cup plain yogurt
A handful of raisins
A handful of chopped walnuts

Directions:

Put apple in a salad bowl and drizzle with lemon juice.
Add broccoli, onion and yogurt, and toss to coat.
Top with raisins and walnuts.

Cordon Bleu Crunch

2008-08-15T17:24:00.003-05:00

Another quirky thing about me that I forgot to mention, I don’t like handling raw meat. If I can toss it into a pan, or slop it onto some foil I’m okay, but if it requires, chopping, slicing, dicing or molesting in anyway, Mick has to do the manhandling.

This recipe is a case in point, I can manage to dip the chicken in the egg, and cornflake crumbs as I only have to grab hold of a little corner of it, but Mick has to do the actual slitting of the meat. If he wasn’t here to do it I guess I’d have to snap on latex gloves, a bit like the CSI folks on telly.

Cordon Bleu Crunch

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups of cornflakes, crushed
1 egg, beaten
A drizzle of vegetable oil
2 slices deli ham
2 chunks of cheddar cheese, I’m guessing about ½ an ounce each.

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ grill to low. Or heat oven to 350°F.
Put cornflakes in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Put crumbs on a plate.
In a small, shallow bowl beat egg.
Brush a sheet of heavy-duty foil with a little vegetable oil. Or if baking in oven, cover a cookie sheet with foil and brush with oil.
Make a slit in the top of each chicken breast, but don’t cut right through. Make 2 horizontal slits in each side to form a sort of pouch.
Dip chicken in beaten egg, then in cornflake crumbs until coated. Place chicken on foil, or cookie sheet.
Wrap a slice of ham around each chunk of cheese, and press into the pouch in the top of each chicken breast. Top with some more cornflake crumbs to seal the gap.
Bake chicken on the BBQ grill, or in oven, for approximately 35-40 minutes.

Another Tag

2008-08-11T17:00:00.003-05:00

I’ve been tagged by Jan at http://whatdoiwant2cooktoday.blogspot.com and I have to come up with six quirky things about myself, so here goes.

When I’m annoyed about something I have a tendency to mutter, and chunter to myself.
Toilet rolls must go on the toilet roll holder with the loose end facing the wall, not into the room. If I stay in a hotel, I always switch the loo roll round the other way, even though I know the maid will switch it back again in the morning. I know, that is really anal, if you’ll pardon the pun.
I loathe shopping, especially for clothes, and for shoes in particular.
I don’t like talking on the phone, I would much rather talk to people in person, or send a letter, or e-mail.
I am a terrible car passenger, even when I’m not driving, I’m driving. I can’t stare out of the window at the passing scenery, or God forbid fall asleep, I have to watch the road at all times.
I always have a piece of silly putty on my desk, it’s about the size of a grape, and when I’m thinking something over I squeeze the putty between my fingers. When I lived in England I used to use blue-tac which you can’t get over here, in fact when I was moving over here, my work mates bought me a huge pack of blue-tac as one of my leaving gifts. :-)

As usual I won’t be tagging anyone else, but if you’d like to play along feel free to do so.

This recipe is a bit of a swizz (English slang word for cheat), as who needs a recipe for fruit salad? None of you guys who read this blog that’s for sure. But there are just so many lovely fruits around at the moment, and the picture looked so pretty that I thought I’d share it. This fruit salad is a combo of honeydew melon, oranges, strawberries, and some lovely organic grapes I found at the store.

It’s delicious just as it is, or you could top it with ice cream, or cream, or both if you wanted to be really decadent. I didn’t have either. I know, I know! What sort of a domestic goddess am I if I don’t have ice cream and cream? One who lives a long way from the store, that’s what. Anyway I did have some plain yogurt and strawberries, so I swished a cup of yogurt and some chopped strawberries in the blender, and it made a yummy topping.

Raquel at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com had an interesting post last week about The Big Read, you can also find it on my other blog at http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com If you like to read I think you’ll enjoy this list.

Now Raquel, if you’re reading this avert your eyes, as this is a picture of some of our first homegrown watermelon.

This is called Sugar Baby Watermelon

Tomato Gloop 2

2008-08-07T17:55:00.003-05:00

I know I’ve mentioned this before but we have had rather an over abundance of tomatoes this year. Now I hate to waste good food, but canning is not for me. None of this slaving over a hot stove when it’s 100°F + outside, no siree. If there’s an easier way, believe me I’ll find it. All I do is bung my tomatoes in the in the slow-cooker/crockpot with a few veggies and herbs, cook ‘em and then freeze ‘em. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. And I guarantee you won’t break into a sweat, unless your A/C’s conked out.

This tomato mix makes a great base for all sorts of pasta dishes, chicken casseroles, and beef stews, and it means that you can still get all those homegrown flavors even in winter.

Tomato Gloop 2

Ingredients:

2 onions, coarsely chopped
2 green peppers, deseeded and cut into chunks
6 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped into chunks.
A handful of fresh basil, chopped
A handful of fresh oregano chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
A generous dash of coarse ground black pepper
1/3 cup of water

Directions:

Throw everything into a large slow-cooker/crockpot, and cook on a low heat. Then go do whatever you want for the next 3 - 4 hours while the slow cooker does its thing. Just pop back after about 2 hours to give it a stir. Allow to cool a little, put mixture into plastic Glad boxes (recipe makes enough for 4 3-1/2 cup sized boxes), or you could use freezer bags. Place boxes/bags in freezer until required.

NOTE: Paula noticed I made a mistake with my timings, thanks Paula. It should have read 3 -4 hours. Also, this recipe makes a chunky sauce, which we prefer, if you like it smoother cook it for longer.

Pasta Salad with Salami and Provolone

2008-08-02T13:00:00.004-05:00

You may have noticed that I haven’t been around much this week. You didn’t? Oh, all right then. It’s just been a bit of a hectic week one way and another. I’ve been working on an article for a kid’s history magazine about the Black Death of 1347 – 1351. It’s taken some wrangling, as how do you write about the Bubonic Plague without making it too gruesome for the kiddywinks? I’ve also had to do some more work on my book, no more rejections this week. (Yippee!)

Thursday I had to go and renew my driver’s license. What a nightmare that was, and I still didn’t get my license. (Spit!) I’ll post about that on my other blog though.

Then there have been things needed doing around the house, which are always at the bottom of my to-do list, as you’ll notice if you ever visit, housework is not my forte. My office ought to carry a health warning.

And on top of all this, it’s been hotter than a camel’s crotch in the Sahara around here, and set to get even hotter next week. Roll on October.

And, of course, there are all those dinners to be made. I tried one of Pam’s recipes this week, Portobello and Havarti Burgers with Caramelized Onions. I’m so glad I did because they were delicious. Mick said he liked them better than beef burgers. High praise indeed if they trounced my Cheesy Dribblers off the menu. No photos though, we were too busy tucking in. If you want to try them yourselves you’ll find them at: http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/
Anyway, tonight I’m having a night off; we’re going to have a pizza that someone else has made, (hurray).

So, without further ado, on with the recipe.

Pasta Salad with Salami and Provolone

Ingredients:

8 ounces 3 color rotini pasta
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into chunks
½ cup red onion, chopped
½ red or green pepper, deseeded and chopped
12 black olives, halved
2 ounces provolone cheese, cubed
¼ lb. Genoa salami, cut into quarters
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
Black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
(Use Italian salad dressing instead of oil and vinegar, if you prefer)
2 tablespoons Parmesan, shredded (optional)

Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain into a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.
In a large salad bowl combine pasta with all other ingredients, drizzle with oil and vinegar and toss to coat.
Cover and chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Top with parmesan before serving, if you like.

I've been given an award!

2008-08-01T19:07:00.007-05:00

I’ve been given a Brillante Weblog award by Pam at: http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much, Pam, I appreciate it.

The rules for receiving the award are as follows:

Post the logo on your blog.

Add a link to the person who nominated you.

Nominate 5 other people for this award and add links to their blogs.

Leave a message for the people you've nominated

These are just a few of the cooking blogs I like to visit. They all make delicious food as well as sharing interesting, and amusing insights into their lives. And thank you all for the lovely comments you leave on my blog. Long may we continue to visit.

Paula at http://itsallgouda.blogspot.com/

Lisa at http://jerseygirlcooks.blogspot.com/

Emiline at http://www.visionsofasugarplum.com/

Jan at http://whatdoiwant2cooktoday.blogspot.com/

Eat at http://dinnersforayear.blogspot.com/

Come on down!

Salmon Cakes

2008-07-27T16:48:00.003-05:00

I actually cooked something on the range the other night, a rare event in these blisteringly hot summer days. But as these salmon cakes only take about 8 -10 minutes to cook, it wasn’t too much of an ordeal. We also had a salad made from some homegrown Swiss chard and yet more tomatoes.

This year has been our best year ever for tomatoes, so much so that we have done a few trades with friends and neighbors and exchanged them for corn, red cabbage, zucchini, and free-range eggs.

Also, in my last post, I told you about winning a writing contest with an outline for a non-fiction book. Well the judge’s comments were so favorable that I sent out book proposals to seven publishers, and this week received three rejections. Oh hum, it’s tough at the bottom. Looks like Mick won’t be giving up the day job any time soon. If you’re interested you can read more about it on my other blog http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com/

Anyway, back to the grub. This recipe originally appeared in Cappers magazine (several years ago), but I’ve tweaked it quite a bit.

Salmon Cakes

Ingredients:

2 slices of wheat bread, toasted, cooled, and coarsely crumbed (do this in a food processor if you like).
1 14½ ounce can red or pink salmon, drained, bones and skin removed
¼ cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped.
A squirt of fresh lemon juice
A dash of black pepper
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup of Italian breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

In a large bowl combine salmon, onion, parley, lemon juice, and pepper. Stir in sour cream, egg, and fresh breadcrumbs.
Put Italian breadcrumbs onto a plate. Shape salmon mixture into four patties, and dip in breadcrumbs to coat.
Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium and fry salmon cakes for 4-5 minutes each side.

For the Swiss chard salad.

Put some Swiss chard onto a dinner plate, and top with sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh basil and coarse ground black pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil and a dash of red wine vinegar, and top with some crumbled feta cheese.

I've been tagged!

2008-07-23T12:33:00.002-05:00

I just remembered. I was tagged a while back by the lovely Raquel at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com Sorry it’s taken me so long to get around to this.

Six random things about me:

I am as blind as a bat without my specs. I have been short-sighted since the age of seven, but in recent years I have had to start wearing specs with transition lenses, as I can no longer see to read. One of these days I’ll go to the opticians and he’ll hand me a white stick and a guide-dog.
I love reading and writing. In May this year I won first place in the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest with an outline for a non-fiction book. I also got a third place for an inspirational article entitled, You’re Looking Fine, Oklahoma, and an honorable mention for a young adult short story entitled, Play it again, Sam. I am also a regular contributor to Oklahoma Living Magazine.
I seldom make desserts, cakes or cookies, as I am fat enough without all that sugar.
Although I can bake, I can’t make pastry to save my life. Whenever I’ve attempted it in the past, I can never get it off the counter and into the pie dish without it falling to pieces and ending up looking like a patchwork quilt. My mother always made great pastry, and she told me I was too heavy-handed with it. That has never changed, thank goodness for Pillsbury pie crusts I say.
I have eaten bananas all my life, but last year, for some obscure reason, I developed an allergy to them.
Many people think that because I’m a British broad over here that I must be married to an American. Not so! Mick is from the county of Yorkshire, and I am a Lancashire lass, though sadly a lass no more. The War of the Roses continues to rage in our house. Well, occasionally.

I’m not going to tag anyone else, but if you want to play along feel free to do so.

More homegrown produce

Pizza Tomatoes

This side dish makes a great accompaniment to grilled sausages or bratwurst, and it uses up some more of those homegrown tomatoes.

Ingredients:

2-3 large tomatoes, thickly sliced.
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
A handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Direction:

Pre-heat BBQ grill to low.
Take a large piece of heavy duty foil and turn the sides up to make a sort of baking tray, brush lightly with oil, and layer tomatoes.
Top tomatoes with basil, black pepper, mozzarella, and a sprinkle of Parmesan.
Grill on BBQ for 20-30 minutes, until tomatoes are heated through and cheese melts.

More Homegrown Veggies

2008-07-20T14:35:00.002-05:00

Not only do we have a surfeit of tomatoes we also have plentiful peppers, so I used some up by making stuffed green peppers. These would have been much better with some mozzarella and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, but as I was out of mozzarella I had to make do with cheddar. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but my nearest grocery store is 16 miles away, so if one runs out of something one just has to improvise. They turned out pretty good anyway, and used up the leftover Tomato Gloop. (See gloop recipe below).

Gloopy Green Peppers

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 green peppers, halved and deseeded
12 tablespoons of tomato mixture, but avoid using the gloop.
A dash of black pepper
½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Grill peppers directly on the bars over a high heat for 3-4 minutes per side until slightly blackened. Reduce heat on grill.
Bring peppers back in kitchen, lay them on a lightly oiled sheet of heavy duty foil, and stuff with tomatoes. Add a dash of black pepper to each and top with cheese.
Return peppers to the grill, and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until cheese melts.

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

In England, in the spring, we always used to buy Jersey Royal potatoes, which are just about the most delicious spud I’ve ever tasted. They have such a wonderful earthy flavor. We are growing some russet potatoes this year, and we harvested some early. I have to admit they were a taste sensation, with the same lovely earthy flavor as the Jersey Royals.

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 baby russet potatoes (or baby red potatoes) cut into 4-6 chunks depending on size of each spud.
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Place potatoes in center of a large sheet of heavy duty foil, sprinkle them with rosemary and black pepper, and dot with butter. Crease up the sides of the foil, pour wine over potatoes, and seal package loosely.
Grill over a low heat, stirring frequently, for 50 – 60 minutes.

We also had grilled lemon and garlic turkey loin. This was already in a marinade when I bought it, so I added some additional garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, just to perk it up a bit.

Homegrown Tomatoes

2008-07-16T12:55:00.006-05:00

Tomatoes on the vine

All the tomatoes we grow are Heirloom varieties, this year we have three different types. A Giant Beefsteak that we grew last year, kept some seeds from one of the tomatoes, dried them, and planted them this year. That’s the beauty of Heirloom seeds, unlike the hybrids you buy at the garden center, they are recyclable, and each time you re-use them the strain becomes stronger. This year we decided to try an Old Virginia variety, and the nice people at Heirloom seeds kindly sent us a free packet of Big Red tomato seeds to try, so we did.

All our tomatoes (and everything else in our garden) are 100% organic, they have never even sniffed a chemical, and we only use our own compost for fertilizer. It’s a fact that you’re not going to get salmonella from these babies. For more information about our garden see Mick's blog at http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com

Giant Beefsteak, grown from our own seed stock

Old Virginia, small and perfectly formed.

Unlike this big boy, Big Red, who looks pretty gruesome. But don't be deceived by appearances, it still tasted great, and they aren't all as ugly as this one.

As we have an abundance of tomatoes we can now make a dish called Summer in a Bowl, created by Susan at http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/

It’s a wonderful combination of fresh tomatoes, red and yellow onions, also from our garden, garlic, fresh oregano and basil from my herb garden, red and white wine vinegar, a splash of olive oil, and black pepper. You just throw the whole lot into a bowl, and let it stand on the kitchen counter for a couple of hours. Do not refrigerate as this detracts flavor from the tomatoes. Just keep giving it a stir every time you’re in the kitchen, this allows all the flavors to mingle and infuse.

Despite Susan’s totally appropriate name for this dish, we call it Tomato Gloop, because by the time you eat it a wonderful tomato soupy sauce has gathered in the bottom of the dish, perfect for dunking chunks of crusty French bread in. Yum!

Summer in a Bowl, aka Tomato Gloop

Tomato Gloop

Ingredients:

5 tomatoes chopped
1 cup red and yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
1 glug of white vinegar, approximately 1 tablespoon
1 glug of red wine vinegar, approx. 1 tablespoon
A drizzle of olive oil, approx. 1 tablespoon
A generous dash of fresh ground black pepper

You can adjust the amounts in the dressing to suit your own tastes

Directions:

Throw the whole lot in your favorite salad bowl, leave on kitchen counter for 2-3 hours, and stir occasionally. Don’t forget some crusty French bread for dunking in the gloop at the bottom of the dish.

Les Oeufs et les Pommes Frites

2008-07-11T19:01:00.006-05:00

While I was incapacitated with my gammy neck and shoulder, Mick had to make dinner for a few nights. Now his culinary skills may be a little limited, but he can always be counted upon to rustle up a mean egg and chips. What would we do without this Great British standby?

For the uninitiated, British chips are not French fries, those slivers of deep fried potato by-product served up by all the burger joints, but slices of deep-fried real potatoes. In the good old days, these would have been deep-fried in lard or beef dripping, but nowadays, in our quest for healthier food (I use the term loosely in this case), they are deep-fried in veggie oil.

The eggs are also fried in a little veggie oil, we like ours over-medium, so the yokes are still runny, but cooked. Great for dunking your chip butties in.

For yer chip butty, you need two pieces of sliced bread, here we use wheat, but in England it would have to be thick sliced Warburtons white bread, heavily slathered in butter so that when you pack your chips in and eat it, the butter runs down your arm. I already mentioned that I am making no health claims for this dish.

You also need a dollop of HP brown sauce on the side of your plate, but if you can’t get that, A1 Bold and Spicy steak sauce will do (we don’t want any wishy-washy tomato ketchup here, thank you!). You also need to dose your chips heavily with salt and malt vinegar, chips are the only thing I ever use salt on, but I’ll talk about that some other time.

La pièce de resistance the Chip butty

Egg and Chips

Serves 2
Ingredients:

Chips

3 large russets
Sufficient vegetable oil for deep frying

Eggs

4 free-range or organic eggs.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

Pre-heat deep-fat fryer to 400°F

While oil heats, peel, wash, dry, and chip potatoes.

Add potatoes to fryer, when they start to brown, remove fryer basket of chips and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Doing this ensures a crispy outside and soft inside chip.

While chips rest, in a skillet heat oil for eggs.

Put chips back in oil until browned.

Fry eggs to desired doneness

Serve immediately with condiments and bread as noted above. Yum!

Come on down!

2008-07-09T17:15:00.003-05:00

I’m back! I’m feeling a lot better now, but I still have to limit my computer usage. Thanks for all your good wishes.

I’m conscious that Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com (I will get these linky things sorted out one of these days), did me the honor of presenting me with this Arte y Pico award which I need to pass on.

The award originated in Uruguay, and is given for creativity and design, see http://arteypico.blogspot.com for more information.

Here are the rules that accompany this award.

1. Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and their contribution to the blogging community.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Show these rules.

It’s been very difficult for me to select five people as I would like to give this award to everyone who reads this blog, and to the authors of all the blogs I read, but I can’t, so it’s no use moaning about it. Without further ado, in no particular order:

Raquel of Kitchen Mysteries, http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com for being such a lovely person, and for sharing her simple woman’s day book with us, and for the unusual delights (how to make rosewater), she cooks up in her kitchen.

Pam from for the love of cooking, http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com because she really does love to cook. She gives us easy to make recipes, and her presentation is always impeccable.

Beth from Jam and Clotted Cream, http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com who lives in the Duchy of Cornwall, one of the most beautiful coastal areas in England. Despite having a temperamental oven, she manages to create great dishes, and some lovely cakes and cookies.

Cheryl from Cooking, Dunkin Style, http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com who loves to get creative in the kitchen, and her food is always beautifully presented.

Jeena from Jeena’s Kitchen, http://jeenaskitchen.blogspot.com a fellow British ex-pat, who gives step-by-step instructions for all her recipes. She often features some great British favorites, and has a penchant for curries, which I also love.

Some time out

2008-07-03T11:32:00.000-05:00

I am under doctor’s orders to stay off the computer for a few days. Between researching and writing my book, and all the blogging I’ve been doing, I have trapped a nerve in my neck which is very, very painful.

I hope to be back real soon.

Chicken, Bacon and Pineapple Kebabs with Broccoli

2008-06-27T19:24:00.002-05:00

Although I don’t do much actual cooking in the summer months, as Mick does all the barbecuing, I do a lot of food preparation and making of salads. This is another meal that was done entirely on the grill.

I know I said there would be more recipes from the Old Broads cookbook, but I made a list of stuff I needed and then forgot to take it with me when I went to the store, oh hum. So bear with me, I will get back to them.

What I have found when posting grill recipes is it’s very difficult to give exact cooking times. It can vary so much depending on the outside temperature and the type of grill you use, so just cook stuff until it reaches your desired doneness.

Chicken, Bacon and Pineapple Kebabs.

(This recipe was originally from allrecipes.com but I have made quite a lot alterations to it).

Makes 3-4 skewers

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup red onion, finely chopped

1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
3 slices bacon, cut into quarters
12 large chunks of fresh pineapple
6 large mushrooms, cut in half
½ a red pepper, and ½ a green pepper, cut into about 12 chunks
½ large red onion cut into 12 chunks.

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix cider vinegar, soy sauce, honey, olive oil, and onions, add chicken and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2–3 hours.
Pre-heat grill to low.
Wrap each chicken piece about 3/4 of the way round with bacon, and thread onto skewers alternating with veggies and pineapple.
Brush a piece of heavy duty foil with a little vegetable oil, lay skewers on it, and grill for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear. Place directly on bars of grill for a few minutes to crisp up the bacon.

Broccoli:
Cut one broccoli crown into pieces, and place on a sheet of heavy duty foil. Add a ¼ cup of water and wrap foil into a loose parcel.
Grill for about 5 minutes, until broccoli is heated but still firm and crunchy.

Chicken, Apple, and Walnut Salad

2008-06-22T15:46:00.002-05:00

This recipe is not from the Old Broads' cookbooks, but there will be more from them later.

This is a lovely, crunchy, main course salad. I even had a go at making my own dressing, which wasn’t half-bad, if I do say so myself. Hubby thought it was great.

Serves 2

Chicken, Apple, and Walnut Salad with Dressing

Ingredients for Salad:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons fresh lemon
A drizzle of olive oil
A dash of lemon pepper
2 Fuji apples.
Enough chopped Romaine lettuce to cover 2 dinner plates. (This was actually lettuce from our own garden. It's the first time we have had any success with lettuce here in Oklahoma. I think it's due to all the rain, and cooler than normal June temps we've been having).
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F

Place each chicken breast in the center of a sheet of heavy-duty foil. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon, and a dash of lemon pepper over each chicken breast. Wrap foil parcels loosely, place on a baking sheet, and bake until juices run clear, approx. 20-25 minutes.

Remove chicken from foil and place on a plate until steam clears, cover with foil and refrigerate until cooled. Meanwhile make dressing.

For the Dressing

Ingredients:

¼ cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey
1 green onion, sliced
2 tablespoons feta cheese, or blue cheese, finely crumbled

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Back to Salad:

When chicken has cooled, cut into slices and arrange on top of lettuce.
Core and slice apples into wedges and arrange between chicken slices.
Top with walnuts and feta cheese. Drizzle with dressing and serve.

I've been Tagged

2008-06-22T14:56:00.003-05:00

Tommy Ticklemouse

I've been tagged by Raquel at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com so here goes.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was working as an Education Programs Coordinator at a museum in Northern California. Rather a grand title, but basically I was teaching kids about archaeology and local history. God knows how I swung that one, as I knew nothing about archaeology and very little local history, but I’m a quick learner, Mrs. Munro.

5 Things On My To Do List for today:

Answer this tag.
Update my other blog, Grand Lake Ink.
Call my dad in England.
Do some more work on my book.
Try to get a worming pill down one of my cats.

To see instructions on how to give a cat a pill visit my blog at http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com this really made me laugh.

The unsuspecting patient

Two of my cats, Alvin and Tommy Ticklemouse are outdoor/indoor cats. Lately they have been catching a lot of mice and baby rabbits, as evidenced by the entrails left on my porch. Yesterday, Alvin had to go to the vet for his annual injections, so the vet did the dirty deed on him. He always makes it look so easy, but when I try to do it it’s more like the episode described on my other blog.

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

I’m not really a snack eater, probably because most of the snacks I enjoy are English, but in no particular order

Lancashire cheese and branston pickle butties, (sandwiches if you want to be posh).
Caramel Wafers (chocolate or plain).
Jacobs Cream Crackers, with any sort of English cheese.
Walkers Crisps (plain, cheese & onion, or smokey bacon).
Soreen Malt Loaf with lashings of butter.

In fact, all the snacks I enjoy are English.

Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire:

I would prop up our flagging economy by doing my damndest to spend it all.
I would open a publishing house that dealt exclusively with new/first time authors.
I would give a whole bunch of money to my family, and set up trust funds for my grandchildren.
Give money to charities to alleviate hunger, homelessness, and cruelty to animals.
I have been very fortunate in that I have already traveled a great deal in my time, but there are still many places I would like to go, and many I would like to return to. I love travelling by train, so would love to go on the Orient Express, and the Trans-Siberian Railway. I also hate flying, so wherever possible I would travel everywhere by boat and train.

Five places I have lived:

Colne, Lancashire. England
Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, Southern Cal.
Benicia, Northern Cal.
Oxnard, Southern Cal.
N.E. Oklahoma.

Five jobs I have had:

Checkout Supervisor at an Asda supermarket.
Executive Officer in the Civil Service.
Education Programs Coordinator.
Administrative Assistant and Production Coordinator at an engineering company.
Freelance Writer.

I will skip on tagging anyone else, no disrespect to you Raquel, but I’m not really a fan of these meme things. However, if you read this blog, and would really like to take part, feel free to do so.

Not Half Baked No-Bake Cheesecake

2008-06-18T22:51:00.003-05:00

Okay, as promised, here is one of the recipes from the Old Broad’s latest cookbook, "Doing It...around the world.

It’s not often I make desserts, but this was really good. And I didn’t even need to switch the oven on, as this cheesecake cooks right in the fridge/freezer, perfect.

I like my cheesecake plain, but feel free to dress it up with fruit, chocolate, or whatever else floats your boat. And if you like this recipe there are plenty more in the cookbook. It’s only a measly $12, and all proceeds go to a great cause.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely ground honey graham cracker crumbs
1 cup finely ground pecan shortbread cookies
1 stick butter, melted
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
¾ cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Place crackers and cookies in a Ziplock bag and crush to a fine crumb with a with a rolling pin.
In a large bowl, mix cookie/cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press into a 9-inch springform pan. Place pan in refrigerator.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice.
In another bowl, whip cream until it forms peaks.
Fold cream into cheese mixture.
Spread mixture on top of cookie crumbs.
Cover pan with foil and place in freezer for 1 hour.
Remove pan from freezer and place in refrigerator for 1 hour before serving.

Doing It...around the world with Santa's Old Broads

2008-06-15T15:03:00.006-05:00

Sippin' and Signin' with Santa's Old Broads

On Thursday afternoon I went to a Sippin’ and Signin’ hosted by Santa’s Old Broads. Okay, it’s only June, and who wants to think about Christmas at this time of year? But Santa’s Old Broads, have to think about it all year round, as every year they work tirelessly to raise money to help disadvantaged children have a great Christmas.

The Sippin’ and Signin’ was to celebrate the launch of their new cookbook entitled, Doing It...around the world. The book is jam packed with recipes from around the globe, and lots of laughs. All the recipes have saucy titles, as do the chapter headings, such as: Foreplay (Appetizers), Raucous Romping (Soups & Salads), and Climactic Endings (Desserts etc).

There are also food related jokes and poems in the book, I particularly like the section called "Who Says Blondes Can’t Cook," that looks at a week in the life of a blonde cook.

"Monday: It’s fun to cook for Tom. Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls."

There are also lots of fun food related quotations dotted throughout the book, like this one from Erma Bombeck, "Think of all the women on the Titanic who said, ‘No, thank you,’ to dessert that night. And what for?"

In the Old Broads own words their cookbooks are, "Like us, just a little risqué and funny. These books require a sense of humor. If you find you are getting offended by the works of a bunch of ladies in their 50’s to 80’s, you might be a little square to begin with. It’s all about having fun and helping to make a brighter Christmas for the children."

The Old Broads also have three other cookbooks, Doing It...in the kitchen volumes one and two, and Quickies...in the kitchen.

At the Sippin and Signin’ there were lots of goodies to eat all made from recipes in the cookbooks, as well as wine and sangria for sippin’, and all the Old Broads were on hand to sign copies of their books. Everyone had a fun afternoon. What’s more, every penny of the proceeds from their book sales and other fund raising events goes to help children in need in at Christmas.

To date, the Old Broads have sold cookbooks in every state in America, and they have even shipped some overseas to England, Australia, and France. These sales have enabled them to help nearly 700 children have a better Christmas than they ever could have imagined. I know, I helped to wrap all these gifts last year, and would have loved to have seen those kids’ faces when they opened their presents.

Every child they help is outfitted from top to toe in quality, name brand clothing, and each receives toys or gifts from their own wish list. Moreover, the kids never know where the gifts came from because Santa’s Old Broads work in complete anonymity.

I would like to say a great big thank you to everyone who has supported Santa’s Old Broads by buying their cookbooks. If you haven’t already bought one, do so today – in fact buy all four, they make great gifts ― and know you have helped to bring a smile to a child’s face this Christmas.

For more information and to buy books check out the Old Broad’s web site at:

http://www.santasoldbroads.com/

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting a few recipes from these cookbooks, so y’all come back now, and check ‘em out.

P.S. You’ll even find a few of my British recipes in the new book.

Cornflake Crusted Tilapia

2008-06-11T18:06:00.003-05:00

We had some bad storms on Sunday night, beginning at 11pm, and the torrential rain did not let up until around 3:30pm Monday. It rained so much that the creek at the bottom of our garden burst its banks for about the fifth time this year and a lake formed down there, again. But at least it was blessedly cooler. The water has all subsided again now, and it’s back to roasting one’s arse off, and very humid. And there are more storms forecast for tomorrow and Friday. The good news though, our veggies, plants and flowers are loving it. So everything in the garden is lovely.

Anyway, when it finally stopped raining, we did drag out the barbecue and grilled some fish. Fish selection is very poor around these parts, I guess it’s because Oklahoma is so far from the sea. Where I used to live in California you could go down to the harbor and buy fresh fish right off the boat. There was also a fish counter in my local supermarket that had a really good selection.

Here in Oklahoma, only a very small section of the supermarket is given over to fish and selection is very limited, usually catfish, salmon and shrimp, and occasional offerings of hoki, tilapia, oh, and I did once manage to get some mussels. This time it was Tilapia.

This recipe takes only minutes to prepare and only 20 minutes to cook, perfect for a weekday meal. And if you don’t feel like lugging out the grill you can use the oven.

Cornflake Crusted Tilapia

Ingredients:

1 lb. Tilapia fillets
A few handfuls of Cornflakes, I’d say about 2 cups.
1 egg, beaten
½ a tablespoon vegetable oil
A dash of lemon pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

Pre-heat grill to low. (Or oven to 350°F)
Place Cornflakes in gallon size storage bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Put Cornflakes onto a plate, and beaten egg onto another plate.
Brush a piece of heavy duty foil with vegetable oil.
Dip fish in egg, coat with Cornflakes, and lay fish on foil. Sprinkle a dash of lemon pepper over each filet and top with chopped parsley.
Cook on grill over a low heat for 20 minutes.
(Or, place on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes).

Everything on the grill

2008-06-05T23:50:00.005-05:00

We actually cooked the pork on Sunday, and this is what we had on Monday to use up the leftovers.

The skewered potatoes were a recipe I came across on allrecipes.com and adapted. These are so good, make too many as they are good cold as well as hot.

The Corn on the Cob with Herby Butter I nicked from Sylvie’s blog at A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit, see link on left. Sylvie did hers on the stove top but I wanted to do this on the grill so I made a few alterations to her recipe. Thanks Sylvie, they were really good, I will definitely do them this way again.

Peppered Pork, Skewered Garlic & Rosemary Potatoes, and Corn on the Cob with Herby Butter.

Peppered Pork

Ingredients:

1 pork joint (sorry, I’ve forgotten what this cut is called), or pork loin.
Fresh ground black pepper, lots of it.
A drizzle of olive oil

Directions:

Pre-heat BBQ grill to a low heat.
Place pork on a piece of heavy duty foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and coat with black pepper. Wrap foil loosely around pork.
Cook on grill, turning meat occasionally, until the little meat thermometer pops out. Each time you turn the meat add more pepper.
Open foil and cook for a further 20-30 minutes, until the pepper looks a little crusty.
Remove from grill and allow to stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Skewered Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 lbs. baby red potatoes, we also included a few new potatoes from the garden.
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped. (this was also from the garden)

Directions:

Cut potatoes in half, or leave whole if they are really small, and place in a medium saucepan of water.
Bring potatoes to boil, reduce heat to medium high and simmer for about 10 minutes. Don’t overcook them or you won’t be able to get them on the skewers.
Drain potatoes and allow to cool a little, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, stir together mayo, wine, garlic, and rosemary. Add potatoes to bowl and toss to coat with the marinade.
Marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour
Skewer potatoes, place on a sheet of heavy duty foil, and cook on grill on a low heat for about 25-30 minutes. Turn them occasionally and brush with marinade.

Corn on the Cob with Herby Butter.

Ingredients:
2 corn on the cob, husks and skins removed.
2 tablespoons butter
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped. (these were also from our garden)
A dash of black pepper.

Directions:

Place corn cobs on separate sheets of heavy duty foil, and smear them with butter.
Squeeze lemon juice over them, sprinkle with chives and a dash of pepper.
Fold foil loosely around corn, and cook on grill over a low heat for about 20-25 minutes.

Popeye Pizza

2008-06-01T15:03:00.002-05:00

I’ve had one of those weeks this week, if you want to read more about it visit my blog at:

http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com

By Friday night I didn’t feel much like cooking so I made this, cuts all the corners, easy-peasy pizza. The only veggies I needed to chop were garlic, mushrooms and some oregano. Believe me, you can make this pizza in not much more time than it takes the pizza delivery guy to get to your house. Not that we can get delivery here in the back of beyond, but we're not complaining, this tastes so much better than anything you can buy.

Popeye Pizza

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated regular pizza crust
1/3 jar Ragu pizza sauce
1 8-ounce package shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
A generous dash fresh ground black pepper
½ tablespoon butter
1 9-ounce package spinach
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 ounces mushrooms, sliced.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F
Top pizza crust with sauce, sprinkle with oregano and black pepper. Add half the cheese and a layer of mushrooms.
Melt butter in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add spinach and toss with garlic until spinach wilts.
Add spinach and garlic mixture to pizza crust, top with remaining mozzarella, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Yum!

Tortellini Salad

2008-05-28T17:42:00.002-05:00

Memorial Day proved to be a complete washout in NE Oklahoma. Starting in the early hours of the morning, we had one thunderstorm after another, all day, and a couple of tornado warnings thrown in for good measure.

Also, one of our cats, Alvin, had hurt his leg or foot on Saturday night, (doesn’t it always happen at the holidays?), and we had been trying to get hold of the vet since Sunday morning. He, of course, was out of town, and we finally managed to reach him on Monday evening. My purse was $98 lighter at the end of Alvin’s treatment, but at least he hadn’t broken anything.

Because of all the torrential rain, grilling was off the menu, but it was still warm so we had a Tortellini Salad.

Tortellini Salad

Ingredients:

1 9-ounce package refrigerated 3-cheese tortellini
2 zucchini, halved and chopped into bite sized pieces.
1 bell pepper, whatever color takes your fancy, cut into chunks
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into chunks.
2 ribs of celery, chopped.
¼ red onion sliced
6 tablespoons Greek vinaigrette salad dressing (or Italian if you prefer)
1 tablespoon olive oil + a drizzle
12 black olives halved (I used manzanilla this time as I was out of black)
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

Cook tortellini according to package directions.
While tortellini cooks, heat 1-tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, and sauté zucchini and bell pepper until tender but firm, approx. 4-5 minutes.
Drain zucchini and peppers on paper towels, and allow to cool.
Drain tortellini, and drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent sticking, allow to cool.
In a large salad bowl, toss tortellini, zucchini, peppers, tomato, celery, onion and olives with salad dressing. Place in refrigerator and allow to chill for 30 minutes.
Before serving sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Serve with crusty French or garlic bread.

Honey Mustard & Rosemary Kebabs

2008-05-21T17:20:00.003-05:00

After pigging out at the restaurant on Saturday, we pigged out on Sunday, too, but we tried to do it in a bit healthier way. We had grilled honey and rosemary chicken kebabs; I got the recipe for the marinade from Taste of Home, and adapted it, as it sounded a bit too sweet. We also had rice cooked on the grill, and a spinach salad.

Honey Mustard Chicken Kebabs
Serves 4

I only used one chicken breast as I like lots of veggies on my kebabs, use two if you prefer more meat.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup honey
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 teaspoons prepared Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried rosemary.
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
A dash of black pepper
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 green or red pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, cut into chunks
6 large mushrooms, halved
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into wedges

In a small bowl, combine first 6 ingredients. Pour half the marinade into a gallon size plastic storage/freezer bag, add chicken turning to coat. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Cover and refrigerate remaining marinade.
Drain and discard marinade. Thread chicken and vegetables, but not tomatoes, alternately onto 4 metal skewers.
Brush a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil with a little vegetable oil and place kebabs on it. Put wedges of tomato between the kebabs. Place on barbecue grill and cook for approximately 20 minutes, (or to desired doneness), turning frequently and basting with remaining marinade.

Spinach Salad

Serves 4

I used fresh spinach from our garden, yum.

Ingredients:

I’m not sure how much spinach I used, probably about 4 ounces?
1 beefsteak tomato, sliced
A drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried basil.
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
If you want a little extra crunch add some pine nuts, or slivered almonds.

Directions:

Place spinach on a serving plate. Top with sliced tomato. Drizzle with olive oil and a slosh of red wine vinegar. Sprinkle with basil and a dash of black pepper. Top with feta cheese.

Rice on the Grill

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com and modified it a bit.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups uncooked basmati rice
1 celery rib, sliced
1/3 cup green or red pepper, chopped
1/3 cup red onion, chopped
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 cup chicken broth/stock
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter.

Put rice in a 9-inch square aluminum foil pan, layer veggies on top, pour in stock and water. Cut butter into thin slivers and dot them over the top.
Cover with foil, sealing edges tightly. Cook on grill for about 20 minutes. Serve hot, but is also great cold.

Foodie BlogRoll

2008-05-21T12:44:00.003-05:00

I've joined the Foodie BlogRoll.

For more information click on the link on the left.

Celebrating

2008-05-21T12:32:00.005-05:00

Turtle Soup, anyone?

On Saturday night, Mick and I went out to celebrate my success in the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest. If you’re interested you can read about it at http://www.grandlakeink.blogspot.com/

Much to our dismay, we found that our favorite restaurant had changed hands and is now a sports bar and grill. It was a really good place, too, but probably a bit too off the beaten track, hence their demise. Tables were far enough apart that you didn’t have to sit on your neighbor’s knee. Their food was superb, and they had a good wine list. They also had a lovely patio area overlooking a pond with a fountain, where you could watch the fish and turtles swimming about. Oh hum.

Instead we went to our second choice, The Roadhouse, on Monkey Island, (there are no monkeys, and it’s not an island, go figure). Now don’t be mislead by the name, the place is not full of cowpokes, in fact, there’s not even a whiff of fried chicken on the menu, and very other car on the parking lot was a Mercedes, so our little Saturn was in good company. Why is it that when people have pots of money they prefer to donate it to the German economy rather than prop up their own?

Anyway, this place is always jumping on a Saturday night, and we had committed the ultimate sin of not making a reservation, consequently they fobbed us off with a table in the bar. We ought to have left, but we were hungry.

Now, I have no complaints about the food or the service, both of which were excellent, but the table was extremely cramped, and the bar very noisy. But what really pissed me off is there were several empty tables, and they remained that way until we had finished eating. Now I appreciate that if people have made a reservation, they don’t want to be kept waiting, but we could have eaten and left before they even turned up. Or, we would have happily taken our coffee out on the patio, if they had showed up early.

I know I shouldn’t bitch, it’s our own fault for not making a reservation, but we hadn’t intended to go there in the first place. Anyway, I’ll let that be a lesson to me, and not go there again unless I’ve booked a table.

So what did we have? For starters we shared:

Escargots, dripping in garlic butter, with warm rolls for dunking.
Deep-fried breaded calamari, with a black bean dipping sauce.

This was followed by a salad, with hot honey mustard dressing.

Then I had, chicken and artichokes in a creamy mushroom sauce.
Mick had the rack of lamb, as lamb is as rare as hens teeth in Oklahoma.

We both had the Monte Carlo potatoes, which I’m guessing are baked potatoes chopped into bite size pieces, and then roasted with a honey glaze and some herbs, they were delish, and they came with steamed veg.

Needless to say, we neither of us had room for pudding/dessert, but then we’re not big sweet eaters.

Sorry about the layout, but blogger is having paragraph problems again.

Salad Days

2008-05-15T17:09:00.002-05:00

I know my great-great-grandma would recognize all the ingredients in this salad

Salad days are finally here. Well, most of the time. Truth be told, our weather is all over the place at the mo; tornadoes, severe thunder storms, torrential rain, but it is mostly warm, and we have had some sunshine.

The big advantage of salad days is we do most of our cooking outdoors on the grill, now when I say we, I mean Mick does most of the cooking on the grill. And this does mean that I get to unchain myself from the stove for a few months, and just make lots of lovely salads. At the moment, I’m still having to use mainly store bought ingredients, but as soon as everything in our garden ripens I’ll be able to use homegrown produce.

Last week, I saw an interesting article on Nightline. They interviewed a guy called Michael Pollan who has written a book entitled, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Pollan states that much of what Americans consume is not food. He says, "There is food and there is what I call edible food-like substances. These are things we've invented in the last 50 years or so that, you know, smell like food, taste like food, look like food, but they're very different than the kinds of things people ate a hundred years ago."

Pollan thinks that we shouldn’t eat anything that our great-great-grandmothers wouldn't recognize as food. And while he does recommend doing your shopping at Farmer’s Markets, he does understand that most of us have no choice but to shop at supermarkets. That being the case he says, the bulk of your food should come from the periphery of the store, i.e. fresh fruit and veg, meat and fish, and dairy, and not from the center aisles.

Well, I must be doing something right because I’ve had supermarket cashiers comment, "I bet you make everything from scratch, don’t you?" And mostly, I do. That’s usually followed by, "I wish I had the time." I don’t have the time either, but I make time, because it’s important. (I am, of course, far too polite to say this, but maybe I should).

The cashiers around here also don’t know their leeks from their rutabagas, because whenever I buy them they always have to ask me what they are. :-)

By way of a contrast to Michael Pollan you might want to check out the 20 worst foods in America. BTW, I can say without fear of contradiction, that I have never eaten any of these "foods."

http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/20-Worst-Foods/20_Worst_Fast-Food_Chicken_Meal.php

Summer Salad

Ingredients:

½ an iceberg lettuce, chopped into strips
2 ribs celery, chopped
½ green or red bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
¼ cucumber, deseeded and chopped
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, chopped.
6 radishes, halved.
12 manzanilla olives, halved

The radishes did come from our garden

Directions:

Throw all ingredients in a bowl.

You can use whatever salad dressing you like, I just drizzled this with some olive oil, added a few splashes of red wine vinegar, and a dash or two of fresh ground black pepper.

I served it with a peppered pork loin, and rice, both cooked on the grill. Those recipes will doubtless appear here over the coming months.

Spaghetti Bolognese & Garlic Bread

2008-05-09T10:30:00.009-05:00

I have a guest blogger here today, my hubby, Mick with his favorite recipe, actually the only one he can make. I jest, he is a master on the grill, so will doubtless be performing a great many culinary feats over the summer. Take it away, Mick.

Le petit chef, practising his semaphore in the garden. Don't ask! :-)

Sometimes Jan’s going to be late home from a writers meeting. Maybe she’s busy in her office trying to get that project finished for a fast approaching deadline, or simply "cheesed off" of cooking and wanting a night off. At these times I can always rustle up a Spag Bol.

It’s the usual guy meal, I know, but I try to put a little extra imagination in there too, so it’s not just a plain sauce and pasta meal.

I’m always impressed when I watch my wife cook. She calmly strolls around the kitchen pulling the necessary ingredients from fridge and cupboards, while pans boil and simmer as required. Everything seems to come together at the right time. If I did it that way half the meal would be raw and the rest burnt to a cinder. Hey, I’m a bloke. I need a plan, written down with precise measurements and cooking times. All the necessary ingredients must be out, lined up and ready to use. But this dish is so easy even I can make it on the fly. And it’s pretty tasty too!

Come and visit with me at my gardening blog sometime, I'll put the kettle on, I might even be able to rustle up a biccy.

http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/

Spaghetti Bolognese and Garlic Bread

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground sirloin
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 14½ ounce can whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 level teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano, (or 1 teaspoon dried)
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
8 ounces spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
4 ounces mushrooms, quartered
4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, shredded

Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

½ a French loaf, cut in half lengthwise
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, + about 2 teaspoons butter.

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, over a medium-high heat, brown ground beef, stirring constantly to break up meat. (This is a dry-fry method). Drain any fat
Reduce heat to medium, add garlic to meat and sauté for 1 minute.
Add onion, and sauté for a further 4 minutes.
Add canned tomatoes, and break tomatoes in half.
Add tomato paste and stir into mixture.
Reduce heat to low, add chili powder, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces, oregano, and black pepper, simmer for 20 minutes.

While sauce simmers prepare garlic bread.

Spread each half of French bread with approximately 2 teaspoons butter, and place on a foil covered baking sheet.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add garlic, and sauté for 1 minute.
Spoon garlic butter evenly over bread, and set aside.
Heat broiler to high.
Cook spaghetti according to package directions, drain thoroughly and combine with sauce.
Place garlic bread under broiler for 2-3 minutes until bread is golden brown and toasty.

Sprinkle shredded Parmesan atop the pasta and serve immediately.

Chicken Tikka Masala

2008-05-05T14:00:00.005-05:00

You're not going to eat that, are you?

Yes, I am. And very scrummy, yummy it

was too.

Don’t let the cast of characters put you off attempting this recipe, it’s basically chicken and tomatoes, with a load of spices thrown in. And don’t be fooled by appearances, curries are not terribly photogenic, tending to look like something the dog has thrown up, but believe me they taste, and smell, divine.

This is a very mild curry, so even if you’re not a fan of really spicy food, you’ll like this. You should allow the chicken to marinade for a minimum of four hours, overnight is best. You will also need 4 skewers for grilling the chicken.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients:

Marinade

1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
A generous dash fresh ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-inch fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine first 8 ingredients, and stir in chicken. Cover bowl, and marinade in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Curry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, deseeded and finely chopped (or if you want extra fire in your curry leave seeds in)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons garam masala. (I couldn’t get any of this so I used red curry powder)
1 14 ounce can whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 beefsteak tomato cut into wedges
1 cup cream (substitute yogurt if you want a lighter dish)
Fresh chopped cilantro for garnish. (Personally, I don’t like cilantro so I used parsley, fresh from my pot of herbs).
2 cups basmati rice, cooked according to package dierections.

1. Pre-heat grill to medium-high.
2. Thread chicken onto skewers, lay them on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil, and refrigerate until required. Discard marinade.
3. In a large, deep-sided skillet melt butter over a medium heat, add garlic and jalapenos and sauté for 1 minute.
4. Stir in coriander, cumin, paprika, garam masala, canned tomatoes, and tomato paste. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. While sauce simmers, put chicken skewers laid on foil on the grill and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Add cream and chicken to sauce and stir well, simmer for a further 10 minutes.
7. Garnish curry with cilantro and serve with hot, cooked basmati rice and naan bread.

I wasn’t too happy with the naan, I need to perfect it a bit, so I won’t be posting that recipe yet.

Chicken Curry

2008-04-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

As mentioned on Grand Lake Ink, here’s my recipe for chicken curry. You can also substitute beef or lamb if you prefer, but use beef or lamb stock not chicken. It’s also a great way to use up leftover turkey at Christmas, but if using leftovers, make the curry and then add the turkey.

Which curry powder you use is up to you, depends how hot you like your curry.

Chicken Curry

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons butter
An inch of fresh ginger root, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
½ cup plain yogurt
3 ounces tomato paste
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
A dash of Tabasco sauce
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed.
3 cups chicken stock/broth
1 beef tomato, cut into wedges
¼ cup raisins
2 cups basmati rice, cooked according to package directions. (Don't use California rice, or worse still any of that pre-packaged muck).

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir together yogurt, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce. Set aside.
Melt butter in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over a medium heat. Sauté onion, stirring continuously for 2 minutes, add garlic and ginger and sauté for a further minute.
Add spices (first 5 ingredients) and ¼ cup of the chicken stock/broth and sauté, stirring continuously, for 3 minutes.
Add chicken and saute, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.
Add yogurt mixture, potatoes, and remaining chicken broth to pan.
Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
Add tomato wedges and raisins, simmer covered for a further 10 minutes.

Serve over hot, cooked basmati rice.

Beef and Biscuit Pie

2008-04-27T16:34:00.007-05:00

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but my hubby has a penchant for pies, be they topped with pastry, potato, or biscuit. For any Brits out there reading this, that doesn’t mean topped with ginger nuts, or Mcvitie’s chocolate digestives.

When I first moved from England to the US and saw "Biscuits and Gravy" on a breakfast menu, visions of shortbread swimming in gravy sprang to mind, and I thought, that’s disgusting! I have, of course, since learnt that biscuits here look like scones, but taste like a cross between bread and pastry. If that makes any sense.

This recipe is still the only type of biscuits and gravy I eat, the sauce is delicious. It’s also really quick and easy to make, prep and cook time 40-45 minutes, so it makes a great mid-week meal, and keeps all pie loving husbands happy. :-)

Beef and Biscuit Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground sirloin
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 pint beef stock/broth
½ cup dry red wine (+ 1 glass to drink while cooking)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
A generous dash of Worcestershire sauce.
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste.
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 can refrigerated biscuits

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F.

Heat oil in a large, tall sided skillet over a medium-high heat. Add ground beef and sauté until browned.

Add onion to meat, and sauté for 2 minutes.

Add garlic, carrots, and basil to pan, sauté for a further minute.

Stir in wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock, and pepper. Bring to boil, reduce heat, add mushrooms, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer mixture to an 11 x 7-inch baking dish, reserving most of the sauce in the skillet.

Top mixture with biscuits, and bake for approximately 15 minutes, until biscuits have risen and are browned.

Reheat reserved sauce over a low-medium heat. In a small jug combine cornstarch and water, mix well, and add to sauce. Stir sauce until thickened.

Serve pie with sauce and seasonal vegetables.

By the way, I love this quote from WC Fields, "I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

The International Year of the Potato

2008-04-21T18:23:00.004-05:00

This year's potato crop in our garden

The UN Has designated 2008 the International Year of the Potato. As wheat, corn, and rice prices soar, developing countries are turning more and more to potatoes as a staple foodstuff.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, "... it is ideally suited to places where land is limited and labor is abundant, conditions that characterize much of the developing world. The potato produces more nutritious food more quickly, on less land, and in harsher climates than any other major crop - up to 85 percent of the plant is edible human food, compared to around 50% in cereals."

Potatoes have long been a popular food in Europe, but this hasn’t always been the case. The potato, first discovered by the Spanish conquistadors during an exploration of Peru, was introduced into Europe in 1570. It was not greeted warmly. Due to the potato plant’s resemblance to the nightshade genus of plants, it was treated with suspicion, considered unfit for human consumption, and used as animal fodder.

Today, we understand the nutritional value of the humble spud, which provides starch, is rich in vitamin C, high in potassium, and is an excellent source of fiber. Prior to 1800, the English diet consisted primarily of meat, supplemented by bread, butter and cheese. Very few vegetables were consumed as they were regarded as nutritionally worthless, and potentially harmful.

It wasn’t until the late 18th century, largely due to food shortages following the Revolutionary Wars, that potatoes came into common usage in England. The potato’s popularity increased still further during the Industrial Revolution, when much of the country’s rural populace moved into crowded towns and cities. There they toiled in factories, working twelve to sixteen hour shifts, which left them little time or energy to cook a meal. Easily prepared potatoes became a staple foodstuff, and remain so today.

To learn more about The International Year of the Potato visit:

http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html

Potatoes Dauphinois

Ingredients:

2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced.
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced.
1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese, (I didn’t have either so I used cheddar)
¾ cup of warm milk
2 tablespoons of melted butter. (And a little for greasing dish)
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.
Fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425°F.
Grease an 11 x 7-inch baking dish with butter.
Layer half the potatoes in the dish, add a layer onions, top with Gruyere, Swiss, (or cheddar) cheese, and a generous dash of black pepper.
Layer remaining potatoes in dish, and pour in warm milk.
Brush potatoes with melted butter, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
Bake at 425°F for 30 minutes, reduce heat to 350°F and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until potatoes are browned.

Update. I read this on the news today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_rice