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English: Green, yellow and red bell peppers fr...

English: Green, yellow and red bell peppers from the capsicum annuum plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone knows that chicken soup is good for a cold.  I don’t really know why although I’m sure if I Google it, I could find out what qualities it contains that help alleviate some cold symptoms.  Maybe it’s just because it’s hot and warming, maybe it’s because we believe it will help or maybe…

  • Chicken soup. Chicken soup might help relieve cold and flu symptoms in two ways. First, it acts as an anti-inflammatory by inhibiting the movement of neutrophils — immune system cells that participate in the body’s inflammatory response. Second, it temporarily speeds up the movement of mucus, possibly helping relieve congestion and limiting the amount of time viruses are in contact with the nose lining.

Ok so I did do the Google thing and now we know why Chicken Soup is just what mother and the doctor ordered.  Therefore let me do you one better;  I have a recipe for Red Hot Chicken Soup, a guaranteed cold buster.

1 head of garlic

2 TBS olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 green bell  peppers ( I used orange and yellow – I hate green peppers), chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

3 TBS grated fresh ginger

8 cups of chicken broth

1 whole poached chicken breast ( poach breast, remove skin and pull meat from bones)

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

Salt, Pepper

4 TBS lemon juice

Preheat toaster oven to 350 degrees, separate unpeeled cloves spread on baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes.  Cool, then press garlic out of skins and mash.  Put aside.

In 4 Qt heavy sauce pan , heat olive oil, Add chopped onion and cook over low heat, stirring for 10 minutes.  Add green, red and jalapeno peppers, mashed garlic, grated ginger root and cook stirring for a couple of minutes.  

Add chicken broth, simmer for 3-5 minutes.  Add chicken pieces and cilantro and cook a couple of minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add lemon juice just before serving.

I can’t remember where I got this recipe otherwise I would give credit where credit is due!

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“All my life’s a circle…” Sunday morning I got up and went right to work in the kitchen.  This was my day to make some soups.  As soon as the sun is low in the sky, the leaves are tinged with gold and red and there is a chill in the air once the sun goes down, I start thinking about cooking and more cooking.  

My neighbor in New York left a big butternut squash at my door last week so I brought it with me to the cottage and decided to make Roasted Butternut and Chicken Soup.  I knew I was going to want to post this recipe because it is good, heart healthy and hearty too.  The more I thought about it, the more I began to remember making this last year and probably posting it.  Sure enough, last October 5th I made the soup (on a Sunday!) and posted the recipe to my blog.  

Here’s the link with the recipe – I hope you’ll check it out. I can’t believe it was a year almost to the day that I made this soup and here I am again.  I left a container with my friend, Alice, who gave me the squash.  I’m looking forward to her comments. 

ENJOY!  The recipe link is below the photo.

Cucurbita moschata 'Butternut'. Original descr...

Butternut Squash photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup and…

 

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Oh wow, what a great time I had last night.  I was in my glory and in full possession of the remote.  Well if not the remote exactly, I did pick all the shows we were going to watch on Sunday evening.  I had it all planned out and then the football game  screwed up the line-up.  It started out with 60 Minutes  starting late and running over past 8:00.  I wanted to watch The Amazing Race, the only reality show I think worth watching, so since I also wanted to watch The Good Wife, my solution was to DVR both of them as I was watching them BECAUSE Masters of Sex and Homeland  followed at their regular times.  Oh my,  such planning;  Two TV’s on two different floors and only one with DVR capacity.  Such is life in the 2000 millennium.  

My plan did not quite work;  We watched the shortened version of 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race and three quarters of The Good Wife.  I happily went upstairs to watch SHOWTIME, content with the knowledge that afterwards, I could go downstairs and find out what Alicia was going to do as she was caught in the middle of a fiduciary dilemma.  Best laid plans and all that jazz, I just never took into account that the DVR  didn’t know that the football game had run late, it recorded The Good Wife from 9:00 to 10:00 and therefore the ending was never recorded! 😦

There was just enough chill in the air to warrant closing the window and making a hearty soup for dinner.  The soup was  Escarole, Canellini Beans and Sausage and it hit the spot on this fall Sunday evening.  I served it with some great chewy Italian bread.

1 pkg (1 1/2 #) Italian mild pork sausage patties ( I used hot poultry sausage)

3 TBS basting oil divided

8 oz chopped onions

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 pkg (15 oz) escarole

Salt and Pepper

1 carton chicken stock

1 can cannelloni beans, drained

1 cup ditalini pasta

lentils + escarole

ESCAROLE  (Photo credit: joannova, a/k/a foodalogue)

2 TBS lemon juice

Cut each sausage patty into 6 pieces and roll into balls.  Heat 1 TBS basting oil in a large braising pan on MED .  Add sausage balls and cook, turning to brown on all sides 3-4 minutes.  Remove sausage from pan and set aside. Discard pan drippings.

Return pan to heat, add remaining 2TBS of basting oil. Add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally 2-3 minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic, cook, stirring till softened-1 min.  Add escarole, cook, stirring, 1-2 minutes until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in stock, beans and browned sausages.  Heat to boiling on MED-HI.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Add pasta, simmer 10 minutes.  Add parsley and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper.

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I had looked up this recipe and thought what a nice meal this would be and I asked our friend Michael to join us.  He opted for Sunday morning breakfast out instead but I decided to make the dish anyway.  It looked quite simple and I’m not saying it was at all difficult because it wasn’t and you will see for yourself, however, it took more time than I thought and we ate about 9:00 last night.   That’s not a problem for us New Yorkers who are used to eating later than most.  I hope you will make this dish;  Just give yourself the time it takes to cook!

Chicken Hunter-Style  a/k/a Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Hunter-Style
a/k/a Chicken Cacciatore

BRAISED HUNTER-STYLE CHICKEN

3 # split chicken breasts, drums and thighs

Searing flour (it’s like Wondra)

2 TBS vegetable oil

8 oz white mushrooms sliced

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 pkg of mirepoix (7oz) – (mirepoix is diced celery, onion and carrot)

1 1/2 cups of kitchen-cut Roma tomatoes with basil (You could probably use any cut up or diced tomatoes with basil)

2 tsp Herbes de Provence

2 cups dry red wine

1 carton chicken broth (32 oz)

Salt and Pepper

1TBS fresh tarragon chopped ( I used dried)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees:  Halve chicken breasts; dust with pan-searing flour.  Heat  oil in large braising pan on MED. Add chicken, brown on all sides, 8-10 minutes.  Transfer chicken to a clean platter.  Discard all but one TBS of pan drippings.

Add mushrooms; cook 2-3 min.  Add garlic and mirepoix; cook 2-3 min, stirring.  Add tomatoes and herbes; cook 3 min.  Add wine, cook 7-10 minutes till liquid is reduced by a one-third.  Add stock; season with salt and pepper.  Return chicken to pan; heat till simmer.

Cover; place on center rack in oven.  Braise one hour.  Carefully remove lid; cook 20 minutes uncovered, till meat is fork tender and sauce is thickened.

Transfer chicken to clean serving platter.  Stir tarragon into the sauce and pour over chicken.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine Fall 2013

WHAT I LEARNED!   I followed directions and times carefully, however, the sauce did not thicken.  Perhaps if left in the oven for longer than 20 minutes uncovered, it would have.  We had too much sauce and it was not thick.  I think I would use less chicken broth next time and see what happened.  Once I realized how much sauce I had I made some rice to go with the meal and that was a great idea.  Spooning that delicious sauce over the rice was yummy.  I also sauteed some broccoli florets in garlic and olive oil as a  side dish.

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A cooked rasher. Raw bacon rashers are an esse...

Mmmm bacon, bacon, BACON

OH what a good time we had!  Well I had a good time anyway, not so sure about Janet and Marian.  I say this because Marian had actually specified a couple of weeks ago, that we eat out -“No grilling”!  I wasn’t planning on grilling but I also didn’t particularly want to go out to dinner because we would never be able to “hang” out there for a long time.  I haven’t seen my cousins in more than a few months.

We have our rituals (thank goodness for some).  READ Janet and Danny brought all the mixin’ s for Mojitos.  What can I say?  Mojitos are the perfect summer drink, hands down.  If you remember from a previous post my cousin Janet travels with a well-stocked pantry, er I mean trunk.  You just never know what might come out of there!  So out came the simple syrup, the bunch of fresh mint leaves, the white rum, the bag of limes AND their own muddler.  Really!  I’ve said it before and will say it again, Danny is the master mixer of Mojitos.  Tart and slightly sweet, icy cold and laden with limes and mint, this drink just refreshes you with every sip.  We even got I-only-drink-gin-Peter to try one. Clearly he didn’t have as much rum in his as I had in mine (but then again no one else does have as much rum in theirs as I have in mine) because he was slurping that down like iced tea.  And then he made himself a martin-some things never change.

We had drinks and cheese and crackers and salsa and chips and all sat around in the air-conditioned living room – no beach, no front porch for us, no backyard barbecue – it was just too damn hot.  Actually I felt like I was recovering from heat stroke anyway from being on the beach for an hour.

I thought I had planned a fairly simple meal and I DID NOT ask either of my cousins to help me in the kitchen BUT even so, they meandered in and once again we had cousins cooking in the kitchen!  I think it’s great fun, I love having them there with me as we put together a meal.  I started frying bacon, Marian sliced tomatoes, I made a platter of lettuce leaves.  Somehow Marian felt putting the toast in the toaster was not befitting to her talents so instead she sliced the avocado and perfectly I might add.  Janet ended up finishing the bacon, I started getting out plates, platters and bowls.  There was a small problem;

My kitchen table seats four and we were six, the table itself could not hold all the food and the plates.  Janet figured out that if we put napkins and silverware on the plate we garnered a few inches and if we put the corn and salads on the counter and just put the sandwich fixings on the table it might work.  I’m sure this is a genetic characteristic she inherited from her mother, my Aunt Marian who always  managed to seat 24 people at table that sat 18 or some such number.  It has to do with exactly how much space (read width) one needs to be able to cut food using a fork and knife and get it into your mouth without bumping into your neighbor on your right. It worked.

Just in case you were thinking that the only thing we were serving was corn on the cob and BLT‘s, you’re wrong.  We had potatoe salad, two kinds of macaroni salad,  AND we had two kinds of bacon and tomato sandwiches.  You could opt for the traditional on white toast (the only acceptable bread for a BLT) OR you could have a bacon, avocado, tomato and sprouts sandwich on rustic Italian bread.  Yes I was channeling Martha, I admit it.

Dessert was a little of this and a little of that.  We had brandy cake backed by Marian, chocolate-covered strawberries from the ladies tea on Thursday, a few pieces of watermelon, and some cookies.  Sorry I even mentioned making hot tea….

Bob and Marian were considering taking the train home but Danny came to the rescue and offered to drive them back into the City before he and Janet wended their way back to their NJ hometown.  It being Friday night, I hoped they would make decent time – surely they would be going against the traffic.  

I did forget to mention one little thing and that is that although I think I am a cleaner-upper and put-it-away freak, my cousin Marian  has me beat.  If I was slicing something and laid the knife down for a moment to go into the other room and say something, when I came back the knife was washed and she was drying it!!! For Heaven’s Sake Marian!  I asked her to restrain herself till we at least were done with plates, pans and utensils before she was hell-bent on washing them.  I had to let her dry the dishes once the meal was over otherwise……..

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Sweet Tomatoes, Creamy Mozzarella!

Sweet Tomatoes, Creamy Mozzarella!

Sunday night supper!  A few days ago I happened across one of Lidia’s recipes and it seemed simple enough and was just perfect for simple supper after a day at the beach.  I thought the season was perfect for Garden State ingredients but I was slightly off.  I called one of our favorite Market Stands and I was told that it’s still too early for native plum tomatoes.  As you know I’m a huge fan of Wegman’s but there are some vegetables that I will only eat in season and bought from a fruit and vegetable stand and tomatoes are definitely in that category.  Well, at least I had the fresh basil growing in my backyard!  Lidia allowed for the fact that you might not be able to get your hands on 2# of fresh plum tomatoes so she suggested you use a 28 oz can of peeled Italian tomatoes – so I did.

This really is a quick and easy recipe  and so damn good!  

1/4 cup olive oil

8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

3 # fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded or 28 oz can of peeled Italian tomatoes

2 sprigs of fresh basil

pepperoncino (crushed red pepper to taste)

1 # Ziti

2 cups of mozzarella cubes ( 1/2″)

1/2 cup granna padano grated ( I used shredded Parmesan/Peccorino)

1/2 cup basil leaves, shredded and packed loosely

Bring a pot of  salted water to boil for the pasta.

Add the oil to a medium size saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook till lightly browned – about 2 minutes.

Carefully add the tomatoes and their liquid.  Add the basil sprigs.  Bring to a boil and season lightly with salt and crushed red pepper.  

About 10 minutes after the sauce has been up on the stove, add the ziti to the boiling water.  Reduce the heat for the sauce to a simmer and break up the tomatoes. Sauce should get chunky and thick – anywhere from 10-15 minutes.

Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings  Lydia says to remove the garlic and the basil sprigs.  I didn’t.

Drain the ziti and add to the sauce – toss till pasta is covered with sauce.  Turn off the stove, add the mozzarella cubes and the grated cheese.  Serve immediately and garnish with shredded basil leaves.

Recipe by Lidia Bastianich

 

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So many of the good and tasty recipes I get come from Wegman’s, my favorite grocery store at the shore.  At my store, they have an in-house chef who cooks up  a fabulous dish and hands out samples.  Of course the ingredients for this dish are within an arm’s reach of Gus. This week he was cooking organic kale and artichokes.  Such a simple combination, no heavy lifting, no exotic ingredients.  I bought the package of kale, I already had a big jar of artichoke hearts.  His recipe didn’t use marinated artichoke hearts so I asked him if he thought I could use them and he suggested that I use some of the oil from the jar in place of the olive oil he used.  

I covered the bottom of my braising pan with a little olive and sliced up a big clove of garlic and sauteed  it on medium low heat.  I cut the artichoke hearts in half and in thirds – they were loaded with oil and I tossed them into the pan.  I cooked them on slightly higher heat for about 3 minutes and then added the kale.  I put in a third of the package and after it wilted down, I added more.  After it was all in and wilted down I stirred it around to mix everything together.

I tasted it and it seemed slightly bitter to me. So I turned to the internet for the answer and sure enough it was there.  Unfortunately the way to reduce the bitterness is to blanch the kale first or to rub the leaves with salt, olive oil and lemon juice while still raw.

Guess what?  I added some salt and some lemon juice and it really did reduce the bitterness.  This is a very healthy dishe to serve;  Tonight it is the side dish to my tuna, fennel and cannolini bean salad.

English: Canned marinated artichoke hearts

Marinated Artichoke Hearts

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A whole and halved red bell pepper

A whole and halved red bell pepper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well this is a first for me.  I am in the process of cooking and posting simultaneously.  This could be interesting or disastrous.  I have to keep jumping up to stir the vegetables in the braising pan.  I spent some time prepping, sort of creating my own                  mise en place.  I thought it would be prudent to chop each of the vegetables ahead of time so I could add them to the pan in order of the time it would take for that vegetable to soften.  

So I started with some olive oil in the pan and tossed in the celery. I chopped two stalks.   Originally I was going to start with the sliced garlic, however, I somehow never quite soften garlic without browning several;  I let them sauté a while and then added the Vidalia onion.  I had cut up about 1/2 of a largish medium onion.  I didn’t chop it or dice it, it was somewhere in between.

The idea here is to  put in those veggies that take longer to soften and also add some of their own liquid.  Next came Red Bell Pepper. I used a whole pepper and sliced and cut it up in about 1″ pieces.  I  tossed in the garlic slices a few moments ago.  Probably the vegetables are supposed to be crisp but I think my husband is not going to like this dish if everything is a little chewy.  I just tested a piece off celery and clearly that should have been on its own in the pot for longer before I started adding other ingredients.  And what does a good cook do?  I put the lid on the braising pan which should quicken some of softening and also add some more liquid because basically what juices and oil in the pan are supposed to be my sauce!   Oh boy, we’ll have to see how this plays out.

ALERT! I should have turned the gas down lower when I put the lid on – it was only a few minutes but the onions turned brown.  

I removed the lid and added zucchini and yellow squash.  I used 3/4 of the yellow and about 2/3 of the zucchini.  I put the lid back on and lowered the gas and I see that I don’t have much liquid in the pan.  I think I’ll be adding pasta water to this thin sauce but I still have the tomatoes to add and they’re juicy – I am loving me those Jersey Tomatoes.  This vegetable sauce is really a work in progress and I am up and down and up and down, stirring everything.  

I just put the pot of water on to boil – I will be cooking linguine which is Peter’s favorite.  The water is boiling but I turned it off because since I have never made this dish before I don’t really know how long it’s going to take and the veggies can sit in the pan while I cook the pasta.  I added the tomatoes and the mushrooms.  I had chopped up two fairly large tomatoes and sliced about 20 white mushrooms.  I also put the lid back on.  The lid is going on and off about as often as I jump up to stir or check the pan.

The linguine is in the pot and I checked the vegetables – the tomatoes are doing their job and juicing things up.  Of course mushrooms are mostly liquid and they’re helping.  Gotta go in kitchen and stir the pasta.

NOTE: When I added the tomatoes (which I had salted right after I cut them up so they would juice more) I added some salt and pepper to the mixture.  I’m going to sprinkle some Romano cheese into it also.

The pasta is almost done, I have scooped up a measuring cup of pasta water and turned off the sauce. It looks juicy and everything looks soft.  I’ve decided to serve it all in the braising pan.  I drained the linguine and put in the pan with the vegetables – It looks good!  I sprinkled some of the cheese all over the top and voila Dinner is served!

WHAT I LEARNED:

By writing a blog and cooking at the same time, I was really distracted and it was only when I opened up the refrigerator to get a beer, I saw the arugula.  Oh dear, that was supposed to be salad tonight-oh wellllllllll.

AND it was absolutely delicious!  I mean really delicious and we ate most of the pound of linguine I cooked.

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Linguine with Spring Vegetables

Linguine with Spring Vegetables

Pasta is such a seasonal dish especially when you cook it with vegetables.  The winter sauces are hardy, rich and often made with root vegetables.  Come Spring and Summer, we lighten up the dishes with lighter sauces and lots of garden fresh vegetables.

Coarse salt and ground pepper

3/4 lb linguine

1 lb asparagus (trimmed) and cut into 1″ lengths

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

4 oz sugar snap peas (stem ends trimmed), halved

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 TBS buter cut into pieces

2 TBS fresh tarragon leaves

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 4 minutes short of al dente; add asparagus, zucchini, and snap peas.  Cook until vegetabless are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  Reserve 1/2 to 1 cup of pasta water.  drain pasta mixture and set aside.

In the same pot, bring cream and butter to a simmer.  Toss in pasta mixture and enough pasta water to create a thin sauce (it will thicken as it stands).  Season with salt and pepper, and top with tarragon.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food

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Tasty Tidbits Tuesday has been missing in action more often than I would like to admit.  I made the pasta dish I featured a week or so ago – the Penne with Cauliflower and Swiss Chard.  OMG, I have to tell you it was sooooooo delicious.  It had a delightfully light flavoring yet strong enough that you could savor every bite.  I admit I couldn’t taste the  Swiss Chard but since it added a different texture and the goodness of a dark leafy green vegetable, I was happy it was in it.

Actually it wasn’t the ingredients as much as it was the cooking technique that brought such flavor into every mouthful.  If you recall, the cauliflower was blanched for 3 minutes in the pot of boiling water that would also be used to cook the pasta.  So when the pasta was cooking in the water that the cauliflower had been in, it absorbed a light flavor that was as I said, delicious!  

Well my passion for pasta got me thinking about how many of my Tuesday recipes were pasta dishes and so I’ve decided to make a new category on the blog; We Called It Macaroni.  And I’m going to be publishing a LOT of pasta recipes! I’m no Lydia however, I’m taking on the job of educating my readers to the joys of Italian cooking, particularly PASTA, and taking them beyond red sauce and meatballs!  You can now search the blog category We Called It Macaroni for any of the pasta recipes published previously.  “Mangia”

Lovely light and flavorful pasta dish.

Lovely light and flavorful pasta dish.

Orchiette with Brocolie Rabe, Oregano and Lemon

Coarse salt and ground pepper

3/4 orchiette or other small pasta shape

1 bunch broccoli rabe (1 lb) – trimmed, cut into 1 1/2 ” pieces

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 TBS fresh oregano leaves, for serving

2-3 TBS fresh lemon juice , for serving

In  a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to directions, adding broccoli rate 4 minutes before the end of cooking.  Meanwhile, in a small saucepan heat oil, garlic and red pepper flakes over medium heat until garlic begins to sizzle, 2 minutes.  

Drain pasta and broccoli rabe and return to pot.  Add oil mixture and toss to coat;  season to taste with salt and pepper.  * I always sprinkle a little Peccorino-Romano or other Italian grating cheese on top of my pasta dishes

To  serve, sprinkle oregano over pasta and drizzle with lemon juice.

** As you can see, this recipe uses only olive oil as the sauce for the pasta dish;  Therefore you should definitely use the small pasta shapes such as orchiette and secondly when I see a recipe calling for so little sauce I often save a cupful of the pasta water to add to the sauce. Also I would use as many garlic cloves as I wished and just shake the red pepper flakes in and not measure.

***  You can also add cherry tomatoes with the garlic and cook them till they burst, add yet another dimension of flavor and texture to your dish.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food

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