Thanksgiving, Course 2: Southwestern Potato & Veg

Next round!

Southwestern Potato and Veggie Medley

Corn tortillas
sprinkle cheese (topping)
handful cilantro, torn

1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
4 mushrooms, thickly sliced
5 small/medium red potatoes, THINLY sliced
5? tbsp EVOO
2 pinches of red pepper seeds
1/2 jar green chile sauce (medium or hot)
salt & pepper

Coat large saute pan with oil; heat. Add potatoes; cook on medium 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, cook another 2  minutes, approx. Add onions, tomatoes, belle pepper, mushrooms and half the cilantro. Cook another 5 minutes, adding oil when necessary.

When potatoes are slightly browned, add green chile sauce and red pepper seeds. Salt and pepper to taste; cook down until sauce has taken slightly sweeter, smoky backnotes (some brands you may want to add a pinch of sugar while cooking).

 Meanwhile, heat tortillas until pliable.

Split veggie medley and sauce amongst tortillas. Add cheese and cilantro. Serve immediately.

Thanksgiving, Course 1: Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Dates

Prepare for flavor overload!!! As I just love cooking, and this is a really special holiday for me, I've kinda went minorly crazy. I'll be posting recipes as I go along, because I'm kinda doing the pantser thing. Ready?

Here we go!

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Dates

Any number of medjool dates
Matching number of bacon strips

1/2 pomegranate seeds

1/3 cup honey, approx

1/2 cup torn cilantro, approx
1/2 cup salty/sharp/acrid cheese

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup browned butter

In a bowl, combine most of the pomegranate seeds (saving a few for garnish), most of the cheese, almost entirely all of the cilantro (garnish). Stir. Add teensy splash of wine. Stir. Add a couple squeezes of honey; stir again. Set aside.

Brown butter in small sauce pan over low heat. Remove and set aside.

Slit, pit and stuff dates with above mixture. Preheat oven to 400.

Heat remaining wine to low boil in another small sauce pan. Add most of honey (to taste). Cook alcohol off. Set aside.

Wrap each date with bacon slice. Place in baking dish, bacon edge down (slit up though), evenly spaced apart. Bake for 3 or 4 minutes, flip. Bake 3 or four minutes/until bacon is cooked through. Flip again; sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake just long enough to melt.

Meanwhile, arrange serving plate like this: squeeze honey onto plate in design. Sprinkle plate with last of cilantro and pomegranate seeds as garnish.

When finished, place dates on serving dish. Splash dates and dish first with the granules of browned butter, then with the white wine honey sauce. Serve immediately and enjoy!

ohmygodyumohmygodnoreallyyum...



Friday Fave: Late Night Thanksgiving Goodies

In honor of the coming holiday, this post will contain two favorites. And again, I'm going with recipes, but don't worry--nothing complex, as these are meant to be whipped up after all the other Thanksgiving goodies are gone or no longer sound tasty. Or when you need your relatives to shut up and get a little tipsy. *laugh* Whichever comes first.

I'm referring, of course, to the all-star combo of  Apple Betty and Hot Whiskey.

*happy sigh*

Apple Betty

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

***

4 apples, cored and cut into sixths

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup flour

1/2-to-1 stick butter, melted

Few pinches cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to approximately 375. Coat a baking dish (I like small, deep ones for this, but any size/shape works fine) with cooking spray; fill with apple pieces. Combine dry ingredients and toss slightly. If you want a  "crust," you can add more oats and sugar to the top and not toss. Gently pour melted butter over the mixture, paying special attention to the oats. Bake 20-30 minutes.

and then drink some of the following when you eat it!

Hot Whiskey

Difficulty: Easy peasy until drunk

Prep Time:  2-5 minutes

***

1 1/2 oz of  [decent] whiskey.

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp honey

1 lemon wedge

4 cloves

1 cup boiling water

Puncture lemon with cloves. In mug, combine whiskey, brown sugar, and boiling water; stir. Dizzle in honey; stir. Give lemon-clove wedge a good squeeze and drop into mug.

YUM! Also good for sore throats, by the way.

Friday Fave: Cold Weather Soup

It's finally chilly here, with gray dawns, gray days and brilliant sunsets. Which means it's nearing winter, and time for cold weather soup. Yum. So this week--yet again--my Friday Fave is a recipe.

Cheater's Potato Soup

Difficulty: Easy!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:  20? minutes

***

Four potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 small mushroom cap, diced (optional)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 stick butter (butter, yum!)

1/4 cup-ish instant mashed potatoes

1/4 cup-ish water

2 cups-ish milk or heavy cream

healthy amount of parsley

pinch nutmeg

salt

pepper

Cheddar cheese for topping

In medium saucepan, melt 2 tbsp of butter. Saute onions until soft; add mushroom and saute until soft and onions are lightly browned. Add potatoes and remaining butter, bring heat to med-med-high. Add water, salt, pepper and parsley. Lid and simmer until potatoes are done al dente, stirring occasionally. Add splash of milk to moisten, then add instant mashed potatoes and nutmeg. Pour in remaining milk slowly, stirring and pouring until just a little more liquefied than you actually want it, as it will thicken. Cook for another minute or so, stirring gently.

Serve immediately with cheddar cheese and hunk of sourdough!

Pasta with Butternut Squash in Alfredo

First: YUM. I love squash. Squashie squash squash. Squash in my mouth. Down into my belly. Nom nom nom.

I foresee plenty of you non squashers to be wrinkling your noses right now. Don't. I repeat: DON'T! I've found butternut squash to be the most squash hater-friendly of all squashes, shorty followed by spaghetti squash, which you can sneak into lasanga and nobody will be the wiser. Butternut squash is extremely sweet, but it's a mellow, nice sweet. Tasty sweet. Tasty, period. You can doctor it up a thousand different ways, either ignoring the sweet back flavor and going for herbal or salty, or you can coat it with honey and coconut oil and brown sugar and go to town that way. It's just damn delicious.

Alright, enough. Here's the recipe:

Pasta w/ Butternut Squash in [Cheater's Beschamel] Alfredo

Difficulty: Moderately easy

Prepping time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Friday Fave: Buttermilk Scones

I love to bake. Love, love, love. And one of my all time favorite things to bake — and eat, of course — are scones. NOT those hard, dire concoctions you find in popular coffee chains; I’m talking about real scones. You know, the kind you actually want to eat. And eat. And eat … In fact, I would have a picture included in this post, but they're already gone, lol, no joke.


I had planned to save this for later in the year, because it’s great for getting the kids involved during holiday get-togethers, but after making that batch realized I couldn’t wait.

By the way, you’re gonna want an apron for this.

The Best Scones Ever

Difficulty: Moderately Easy (but messy)


Prep time: 30 minutes?


Cook time: 8 minutes


Glaze time: 2 minutes


***

3 cups Self-Rising flour
2/3 cup table sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 cold stick of butter
4 tbsp buttermilk powder
1 cup H20


Cereal bowl of powdered sugar
Splash of milk


First, pop the butter into the freezer, and cover your work space with wax paper (when finished, just fold up the wax paper, and viola! The mess is gone!). Preheat oven to 450.

In a large glass mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Remove the butter from freezer and cut into tablespoons; cut each tablespoons into fourths. Add butter to dry ingredients and cut (smash and crumble) together with hands until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Make a well in the center; pour in the H20. Stir with fork until combined and the dough is pliable. *

Spread a generous layer of flour on the wax-papered counter space, and turn dough onto surface. Knead for approximately 2 minutes, until the dough is smooth (if dough feels too wet, don’t worry, just add more flour and knead). Pat into a ball and flatten until approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick. Use the medicine cup to cut bite-sized scones; place on non-stick cookie sheet. Re-knead and re-ball the edges and continue cutting until all dough is gone. Bake for 8 minutes, watching closely as they burn easily. When scones have light golden tops, they’re done.

While dough is baking, prepare glaze by combining the powdered sugar with splashes of milk until the consistency of slightly runny icing. Remove scones from oven; coat with glaze. Serve with clotted cream and curds/jam. And of course, a fat pot of tea. Yum!


* If you chose to add dry ingredients, such as fruit, poppy seeds, nuts or mini-chocolate chips, do so at this point. Just eyeball it, maybe a couple tablespoons or so. Classic combinations include strawberry-poppyseed, apple cinnamon, chocolate chip, cranberry-chocolate, lavender or cherry-almond.

Walnut Chicken with Balsalmic Glaze

Okay, so Hy-Vee has some suspiciously large chickens--I'm talking Frankenchickens. Still, a sale is a sale, and I've been trying to come up with more creative ways to clear out that mass of bird in the freezer, especially ones that won't harden my arteries while I chew, lol. This I served with edamame (yum) and brown rice (double yum), but anything in that range would work just fine...

Anyway, here's my latest:

Walnut-Crusted Chicken with Balsalmic Glaze

Difficulty: Moderate

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes? (depends on cut of bird)

***

2 large carrots, cut matchstick style
1/2 large red bell pepper, cut matchstick style
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 good size double-handful walnuts, crushed
1 cup balsalmic vinegar, approx.
1 egg white, whipped to froth
1 handful of strawberries, sliced
1 good size handful brown sugar
3 tsp dried basil, approx (I used my own from the garden; it was two full-sized dried stems of it)
1 tsp dried ginger
1 tsp dried nutmeg
2 twists of pepper from grinder
2 handfuls flour
EVOO  as needed
2 Frankenchicken breasts (approx. 3 lbs chicken)

Preheat oven to 425. Place jelly roll pan in oven while preheating.

Line up three pie tins. In pie tin 1, place flour, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, and 2 tsp of basil. In pie tin 2, place frothy egg white. In pie tin 3, place crushed up walnuts. Coat raw chicken with the flour mixture--on the meaty side, not the bony side--and then coat that with the egg white, and then coat that with the walnuts. Remove jelly roll pan from oven, brush lightly with oil and place the Frankenchicken breast nut-side-down onto it. Bake on a low rack for, say, 20 minutes. (This is approximate. Bake until 3/4 of the way done, basically.) If it smells like the nuts are burning or the chicken, dry, you can add EVVO in drizzles, at will, while baking.

While chicken is baking, combine balsalmic,  approx 1 tsp of EVOO (again, approximate), remaining basil, and brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently. Once boiling, keep at a roll, stirring constantly. Smell occassionally; when it no longer makes your eyes and nose burn, it's done. Very scientific, I know. Should have a texture similar to warm caramel when ready for serving.

Once chicken is baked 3/4 way done, remove from oven. Layer onions, carrots and bell peppers on top of the nut-less sides. May need to add EVOO. Drizzle with balsalmic glaze and place in oven; finish baking.

As chicken is baking, arrange sliced strawberries in beds on plates. Drizzle thoroughly with balsalmic glaze.

When chicken is finished, remove from oven. Using tongs, take the veggies from the top; these will be the minor/second side dish. Flip chicken. If the walnut crust sticks to pan at all, lightly lift with a spoon or spatula and rearrange on top of chicken. Slice chicken as desired, making sure each person gets some of the walnut crust, and place atop the bed of strawberries. Drizzle with glaze.

Serve immediately with choice of appetizer and main side!

Friday Fave

Okay, so this Friday Fave has nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with summer fun. The days are starting to get considerably cooler (shocking, I know; I can't remember the last time August had temperatures under 100, but there you go, this year), and I have yet to share my fabulous margarita recipe.

I know, I know. Everybody knows how to make a margarita. Yeah, yeah; you and your mother. Ha! Just kidding. You'd be surprised how many people can butcher this classic cocktail. So to me, the real question is, do you know how to make the perfect margarita?

I do. And soon, so will you!

The Perfect Classic Margarita

on the rocks

Difficulty: Easy until drunk, then extremely difficult

Time:  3 minutes?

***

1 1/2 jigger gold tequilla. Don Julio or 1800 are my faves for margaritas.

3/4 jigger Grand Mariner, plus extra for a floater

2 limes, juiced

few splashes Sweet & Sour

few splashes of Rose's Lime

margarita rim salt

ice

Smear a little of Rose's Lime onto the margarita salt container lid, then use it to coat the rim of the margarita glass; dip the glass into the salt. Set aside. Fill a shaker 3/4 of the way with ice. Pour in 1 1/2 jigger tequilla, 3/4 jigger Grandma, the Sweet & Sour,  Rose's Lime and fresh lime juice. Lid and shake hard for minimum 30 seconds. Pour carefully into margarita glass. Gently top margarita with a floater of Grandma.

*To do a floater w/o those handy pour spouts used in bars, pour the liquor slowly over a spoon that is positioned at the edge of the glass, moving the spoon around the surface to keep it even--of course, most people don't care if you can't actually see the color difference of the floater, so only do that for the picky types.

*If you are determined to sully this Perfect, Classy Margarita into a froo-froo-frozen drink *curses*, I recommend using the Welch's Strawberry Breeze, from the frozen section, blended with ice that's all chipped up like they have at Sonic--otherwise the liquors won't blend well with the ice and you get, half-runny, half-ice-chunky margaritas. So yes; Welch's Strawberry Breeze, nice ice, and omit the Sweet & Sour and lime juices.  Don't forget the umbrella, you tequilla tourists.

Yuumyumyumyum.

I lurrve margaritas.

Simple Ginger Soup

Who would have thought I'd see 60 degrees in August? Wowee. With all this cool, delightful rain (and my stubbornly remaining sore throat issue), today is a perfect day for a nice, light soup. This is similar to those soups you get in the Japanese steak houses, where they cook the meal at the dining table. 

Simple Ginger Soup

Difficulty: Easy Peasy

Prep Time: 30 seconds

Cook Time: 5-10 minutes

***

3 cups H20
1 tbsp chicken bouillon
1 capful soy sauce, approximately
1 mushroom (just the regular button kind)
1 small handful of french fried onions
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger, approximately.
1 twist of black pepper

In a small pot, combine the H20, bouillon and soy sauce. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally; at same time, thinly slice the mushroom. Once boiling, add in remaining ingredients. Stir and boil maybe 30 seconds; you don't want the mushrooms and onions to become mushy. Serve immediately.


TCE stories should be up later today/wee hours of the night (depending).

Mushoom Sauce with Sangria and Cream

Yay, recipe time! Today I whipped up an insanely good mushroom sauce--I poured it over brown rice but it should go well with pretty much anything except fish, as long as this sauce carries the bulk of the flavor...it packs quite a punch!

If you like mushrooms (I'm a fanatic! Fanatic! Fanatic!) you simply must try a version of this for yourself. The flavors are bright and earthy, just like summertime food should be, but the cream lends it this homey weight like something you should only get at Christmas. Ooooh, yeaaahh. lol. I tend to get very excited about new concoctions.

On a side note, this was fly-by-night as I was trying to clean out some random stuff in the fridge; all "measurements" are only the vaguest of approximations. Hopefully you'll get the idea...

Difficulty: Moderately Easy


Prep time: 5 min.

Cook time: 30 min., approximately

***
1/4 cup H20
4 tbs butter
splash lime juice
1 tbsp ham stock/some other gelatinous meat base
coriander & rose flavored salt
1/6 cup chopped green onions
1/3 container sliced mushrooms (a handfull or so)
2 tbsp heavy cream
pinch of corn starch
3/4 tbsp sangria

Bring H20, 2 tbsp butter, lime juice and a pinch of flavored salt to a boil in small sauce pan. Toss in mushrooms, lid, and simmer/boil for a few minutes. Unlid, pour off the liquid for later. Add in heavy cream, corn starch, 1 tbsp butter, and pinch of salt. Melt, bring to simmer, stirring almost continuously. Toss in green onions. Continue simmering and stirring. Add in ham stock, last bit of butter. Continue simmering and stirring. When mixture begins to stick to pan, add in the poured off liquid. Continue simmering and stirring until mixture begins to stick again, then deglaze with a splash of sangria. Continue simmering and stirring. Deglaze 3 or so more times with splashes of sangria, according to taste, and cook on a very low simmer, stirring constantly until the sauce is a texture just shy of gravy.

((The stirring is important because the best parts of the flavor will stick to the pan and you want them to remain part of the sauce.))

Serve immediately. Pour over meat, veggies or rice. Yum!!!!

I'm Hooked...

...on this new breakfast concoction. And wonder of all wonders, it's healthy! Go figure.

Fruit-and-Grain Breakfast

Difficulty: Easy peasy


Prep time: 30 seconds

***

1 banana
3/4-ish tbsp brown sugar
1-2 tbsp ground brown flax meal

Slice banana approximately 1/2 inch. Place in bowl, cover with brown sugar and flax. Stir gently until the fruit pieces are coated.


That was hard, wasn't it??! I don't like making complicated breakfasts (eating them is another story!), so this is ideal for people like me, and the flax makes it very filling (like oatmeal-type-filling; you can almost feel it expanding in your tummy). Plus it's heart-healthy and hair-healthy. Yes, I have a vain streak. Lol.

This should work for any fairly-soft fruit that isn't citrus (say kiwi, plum, peach, etc.); the flax tastes  like a combination of fruit-pie pie crust and granola when you mix it with brown sugar. Delicious!

Summer Yummy

So it was 89 degrees at about 9:30 this morning, with 70-some-odd percent humidity. For those of you lucky enough to live in a dry-heat climate, that feels effing hot. And it's now a lovely, blazing Friday afternoon, full sun, very little wind. I'm afraid to look at the thermometer on the back porch (it calculates heat index and wind chill, which makes it very intimidating!). LOL.  Call me Jane Austen (oh, that would be wonderful, wouldn't it??!?!), but weather can really effect a person's day.

On the other hand, it is perfect--and I do mean PERFECT--weather for Summer Beer.

The next time you're grilling, burning brush, hanging by the pool or just feeling ridiculously hot, try my following recipe. Be careful though; it's very smooth and if you have too many can really sneak up on you. 

Summer Beer Cocktail Recipe

Difficulty level: Easy peasy

Prep time: 30 seconds

***

2 unfrozen (or semi-frozen)  ice pops. I like the Jolly Rancher pop ice brand, and I use one pink and one blue. Pick your favie.

1 jigger  (1 1/2 oz) of vodka
1 beer (don't use "good" beer for this)

ice

very cold beer mug

straw

Fill the very cold beer mug with ice. Pour in jigger of vodka. Snip the top off the ice pops; pour in on top of  vodka until mug is half-full of liquid. Pour beer on top. Mix with straw. DO NOT SHAKE. ("Bubbles! Bubbles! Awwww....") 

Enjoy!

Oh m'God, this is a really good cocktail. Very refreshing (the vague fruit, the bubbles--yum!). For those of you who don't know/can't remember what an ice pop is, they're fruit-flavored, freezable popsicles encased in plastic; you cut the end off and suck them out the top, instead of unwrapping like other frozen treats.

This recipe actually cuts the alcohol content a teeeeensy bit, because usually you'd just pour in a flavored vodka and then beer. If you decide to make this for a shindig, it may be a lot of fun to let people pick their own ice pop flavors, but technically it would be more practical to go and buy a bottle of a flavored vodka and do it that way; if you chose to do the latter, keep it to one jigger of vodka to a mug--if you do more the texture gets weird, and if you do less you can't taste the flavoring.

In my opinion, since these are a drink for when it's ridiculously hot out, it's easy to accidentally drink a LOT of them, so it's a really good idea to lower that alcohol content. 

By the way, you won't finish the beer in the first mug. Which means you'll need to drink two or three. Or invite friends.

Salud!

Rose Martini

For any of you who grow roses and/or like an exceptionally special Sunday brunch, I've included the following martini recipe. True, it isn't very exact, but it can be easily adjusted for those who like less floral and more bite.

Rose Martini

(Start to finish. Those who already possess rose syrup, please scroll.)

Rose Syrup

Deflower approximately 3-5 large, heavily-scented roses. Deep crimson colored ones cook down the best; other colors will cook into brown shades. If like me you don't have access to red roses (I grow lavender roses) you can later remedy the problem with food dye.

Deflower by wrapping a soft-but-firm hand at the base of each bloom. Tighten grip slightly and pull petals away from the base. Sort through petals and discard damaged, worn or faded blooms. Trim off the white bases of all petals.

Set a few of the prettiest petals aside for garnish.

Place 1/3 of the good blooms in medium-sized pot. Cover just barely with water. Bring almost to a boil. JUST ALMOST! If you actually boil, you may lose the essential oils (scent and flavoring) of the roses. Cook down slightly, keeping at a barely-there simmer. Add 1/3 more petals; repeat; add last 1/3 and repeat again. (Just keep doing this in manageable increments if you are making a large batch.)

Now you have rose water. If you have oodles of roses, you can freeze this rose water to use in your martinis for extra flavor, or to add some sass to lemonades and teas.

In a small sauce pan, combine equal parts of rose water and table sugar. Bring almost to a boil, stirring frequently; don't allow to burn or scorch. Cook until syrupy.

Voila! Rose syrup.

Now for the cocktail.

Ingredients:
Rose Syrup
Vodka
Limoncello OR Vermouth (lends a more herbal, perhaps more "masculine," flavor)
Ice (possibly made from rose water)
Rose petals for garnish

Fill martini shaker with ice. Pour in an 8-count of vodka. Add 1-2 tbsp of rose syrup. Add generous splash of Limoncello or Vermouth. Shake, shake shake! (For 30 seconds.) Strain into martini glass. Garnish with the remaining pretty petals.

Enjoy!

Best Pasties Ever

Ahh, April. It seems like it's been raining for one hundred years, and so last night I whipped up some down-home comfort food. Warning: Those of you afraid of calories, stay away! I have a feeling this will clog even the most hearty of arteries...or at least make you wear your fat pants for the evening.

Feel free to alter the recipe to suit your leftover needs. Also, if you'd rather use all fresh, canned, or leftover veggies, simply adjust the sizes of the veggies to suit the cooking time required for the dough (or is it a pastrie? hmmm...)

Best [Chicken] Pasties Ever

Difficulty: Moderate

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

***

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup shortening

1 cup cold water

extra flour for dusting

1 cup cooked, shredded chicken (leftover)

1/4-1/2 cup diced red onion

1/4 cup frozen  corn

1/4 cup frozen  peas

1/4 cup frozen carrots

1 small potato, chopped

1 tsp crushed coriander

1/2 tsp rosemary

1 pinch celery seed

2 hefty pinches of paprika

1/4 cup chicken drippings/gravy/melted butter  (approximate)

salt to taste

pepper to taste

butter for serving

plastic wrap

rolling pin

large non-stick cookie sheet

***

In a large glass bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut in the shortening with hands or pastry cutter until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Slowly stir in water until you get a doughball. Wrap the doughball in plastic. Place in fridge while prepping.

Preheat oven to 350. In another large bowl, mix together chicken, onions, corn, peas carrots, potatoes, coriander, rosemary, celery seed and paprika. Add any other spices you may wish. If using chicken drippings, lightly drizzle the bowl; mix. If using gravy or butter, wait. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Remove doughball from fridge. On thoroughly floured surface, pound out dough and separate into six doughballs. Flatten each doughball and roll into 6-inch circles. Dust non-stick cookie sheet with flour.

Place even amounts of meat-and-veggie mix onto the dough circles. If using gravy or melted butter, drizzle now; be careful to not add so much that the dough is effected.

Fold the dough circles over the meat-and-veggies. Pinch the edges closed like pie crust. Poke each with a fork (I do three fork pokes per pastie). Place on non-stick, floured cookie sheet. To promote browning, brush tops with a bit of milk (optional). Bake at 350 for one hour, or until pasties are done.

Serve with a bit of butter melted on top and nice thick beer. Delish!



Cook-Out!

[This is another from the no-longer-existing recipe page.]

In honor of spring, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite grill options, even though currently it's snowing lumps easily the size of silver dollars...I've honestly never seen snowflakes this big before. Still, it's a good day for grilling. Because it's always a good day for grilling!

I've set this for two people, and since it's a grill recipe it's easily adaptable. Avoid frozen products on this one.

Yummy Grilled Dinner

Difficulty level: Moderately Easy  but involves BIG FLAMES

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour (maximum; depends on weather and grill type)

***

2 med-large pieces of meat (not fish), room temperature, set on paper towels

2 one-to-two foot sections of tin foil

1 baggie Dutch Yellow baby potatoes, halved. They come in a mesh baggie in the smaller-sized section of your produce aisle.

1/2 onion, sliced julienne or chopped very large

2 handfuls green non-leaf veggies (your choice, but try to stay away from watery green veggies like zucchini; this method will turn them to mush)

1 handful baby/baby-cut carrots

2 cups shredded Mizithra cheese

1 garlic bud, split into cloves and peeled

EVOO

8 tsp dried thyme (this is a guess)

4 tsp dried rosemary (this is a guess)

2 tsp onion powder

salt (coarse if you have it) 

pepper

1/4 cup cognac

long lighter/matches (careful!)

***

Generously dust the meat (on the paper towels) with the coarse salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp onion powder per side, per piece, and 1 tsp thyme per side, per piece. Set aside.

Halve the portions of onion, potatoes, green veggies, carrots, garlic and Mizithra. Split these halves onto the two pieces of tin foil. Fold the edges up so to create a Tupperware-type shape. Drizzle very generously with EVOO. Sprinkle pepper, 2 tsp thyme and  2 tsp rosemary in each packet. Shake 1/2 cup Mizithra in each packet. Close the packets by folding the edges of tin foil together, carefully sealing out all air. Grill the packets for approximately 20-40 minutes, at approximately 400-425 degrees; you may have to check the packets frequently, especially on windy days. 

When the veggies are 2/3's of the way done, place the meat onto the grill. Drizzle with EVOO, grill (obviously this depends on the meat how long you want to grill it). Flip when lightly browned, do the same on second side.

Just before the meat is done/cooked to ideal temp, get the lighter ready, and splash some cognac onto the meat. *WARNING: STAND BACK.  Let the cognac burn off and finish browning the meat. If the flame of the grill does not flare without help, light the cognac yourself with the lighter. Again, STAND BACK while the cognac burns. Flip the meat and repeat on the other side. Have I mentioned to STAND BACK? Allow the meat to finish browning.

By now the veggie packets should be done; simply gather everything and serve with the remaining Mizithra sprinkled all over.

*Note: The Mizithra will not melt in the packets like softer white cheeses; without monitoring the temp however, it will burn. So will your eyebrows if you get too close to the cognac, by the way.

Cheater's Curry

I realized just posting recipes made much more sense than making one huge recipe page. So here is my cheater's version of a spicy-sweet curried rice dish, packed with veggies.

Bonus? If you choose to rinse the brown rice beforehand, save it and use that rice water (within two days) as a face tonic; it's chock full of nutrients.

Curried Rice with Onions and Greens

Difficulty level: Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

 ***

2 tbsp cayenne evoo
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ground red pepper (up this considerably if you only have regular evoo)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 cloves
1/4-1/2 an onion, chopped
one or two generous handfuls of greens/green veggies, uncooked
salt to taste

***

In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Dump in the rice and one tbsp of the cayenne evoo. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, add the remaining cayenne evoo, the onions, and 1 tbsp of the curry. Stir, and cover again. Simmer for five minutes. Add greens and remaining spices; stir and cover. Simmer another 5-10 minutes (if using leafy greens, stir and cook with the lid off to avoid overcooking; for regular green veggies, cover to simmer). Remove from heat, fluff, and let stand to cool. Salt if desired. Yum!


***If you don't have access to buying cayenne evoo, it's relatively simple to make yourself. Just mix the evoo with some ground cayenne in a lidded jar for a couple of days (leave in a dark, temperature-controlled location) until the blend has nice, spicy smell to it.