Have Fork, Will Eat

Roasted mushroom spaghetti

Lauren — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:10:56 +0000

I’m a simple person. I don’t want much in life. A warm home, a happy family, an elephant, and a few good, simple meals. This dish basically evolved out of me wanting a tasty, light dinner but also not having gone grocery shopping in a week and not having any meat or anything thawed.

I had a few odds and ends in the fridge, including a tub of cremini mushrooms that I’d originally bought to make this garlic butter roasted mushroom recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Instead of making the recipe as is, I decided to use it as inspiration for this pasta dish. I want all of you health enthusiasts to note that there is no butter in this dish at all. So there.

Oh, but there are two tablespoons of duck fat. Yeah.

Also, as my gift to you (and Josh…mostly Josh), I’m going to leave you with this inexplicable, time-honored internet meme:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI

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Roasted mushroom spaghetti

Ingredients

1lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tbs duck fat
2 tsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cups fresh baby spinach
8oz spaghetti
3-4oz shredded manchego cheese (or romano would work)
more salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450F.
Cook spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.
While that's going on, put mushrooms in a glass baking dish with the duck fat, olive oil, dried thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and toss everything together well. Place the pan in the oven and roast the mushrooms for 10 minutes, give it a good stir and let it roast another 10 minutes.
Pull the mushrooms out of the oven. Add in the lemon juice and spinach and then toss the entire mixture in with the pasta. Add more salt or pepper as needed. (I like to pepper it up, myself).
Enjoy.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Lauren — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:00:22 +0000

That’s it. Tomorrow’s the big day. T-Day. A day full of food, football, family and full glasses of bourbon just to deal with it all. At this point you probably have all of your sides planned, maybe some even started. And let’s face it, you’re probably already two drinks in, ya lush. And that turkey, that’s all planned out. You got the right size, it’s thawing out as we speak, you’ve got your brine planned–

Wait, what’s that? You don’t brine your turkey? Mother of God. That’s like saying you hate puppies, or that Ron Swanson isn’t a god amongst fictional and nonfictional men. Brining is essential. It is the easiest way to awesomize a turkey that there ever was, and it won’t burn down your house either (unless you’re doing something really, really wrong). I know you’re already stressed out and, like Jack Bauer, you’re running out of time! (I’m full of tv references today), but that’s ok. This will only take a few minutes and you probably already have everything you need to do it.

So let’s tart with the basics. What is brining anyway?

Brining is the process of soaking a piece of meat in a salt water solution that is often enhanced with flavor additives like sugar and spices. Brining hydrates the meat via osmosis, making it moister once it’s cooked, and can enhance the flavor.

At the very least, you need water and salt. That’s it. You would have a perfectly moist, delicious turkey once you’re done. I like to add other flavors though. You can either buy brining mixes or make your own–I’ve added links to some recipes below to give you ideas. Josh and I brine all of our turkeys, and sometimes chickens too. For Thursday, I’m doing an apple cider brine. Basically, I’m going to

use apple cider and chicken stock in place of water, and mix in salt, brown sugar, pepper, sage, a cinnamon stick and apple peel. All of that will be boiled together until the salt dissolves and then cooled downl
put a fresh garbage bag in a bucket or a clean trash can. Put the turkey, cleaned (and empty the cavity, too) inside the trash bag.
pour the brining liquid over the turkey, close the bag and let it sit overnight or up to 24 hours in a cool place.
pull the turkey out of the brine when I’m about ready to put it in the oven, drain the water and pat it dry
cook my turkey as normal (which in my case is roast it first at a high temp of 450-500F for a half hour, then lower the temperature to 350F and cook for about 20 minutes per pound).
nom nom nom!

That’s easy, right? Right.

Well here’s some recipes to get you started:

Cider Brine from MyRecipes
Apple-rosemary brine from Babble.com
Maple brined turkey from Burp Recipes
Citrus and herb brine from SkinnyTaste
PatioDaddioBBQ’s Ultimate Thanksgiving Brine
Soy sauce brined turkey from Gastronomy Blog
Hate a wet bird? Try this dry brine from The Galley Gourmet
Or this orange dry brined turkey from The Local Kitchen Blog

So try it. Believe you me, your tastebuds and grateful family members will thank you. And most of all…have a happy, healthy, tasty holiday and try not to stress too much. It’s just a bird.

Beer and Pizza

Lauren — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:00:29 +0000

I don’t know that I’ve ever made pizza crust from scratch before, mostly because I suffer from a relatively serious case of selective laziness. Make my own caramel and nougat for homemade snickers bars? Sure! Make pizza dough? Ha. Why? Whole Foods sells theirs in neat little packages.

I don’t claim to make sense.

I can now claim to have made pizza crust, though. And not just any pizza crust, but a very quick pizza crust that comes with a bonus: beer. The recipe is originally from King Arthur Flour and, I have to say, as easy as they said it would be. Also, the taste and texture were great. It’s the kind of crust that would lend itself really well to a generous seasoning of butter, garlic and parmesan. Sadly I didn’t think of that til after, but I’m going try it on the next one.

Josh, being the resident beer expert in this house, got to select the beer that went into the dough and he picked Bell’s Oarsman Ale, a sour wheat ale. I didn’t have any “pizza dough flavor” (what is that, anyway?) but I did have a ton of fresh thyme, so I threw several sprigs worth of that in there too. Also at Josh’s request, I made a bbq chicken pizza with Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce, a blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon and chicken that had been marinated in harissa oil, paprika and chili powder and then broiled. It was pretty delicious.

Pizza topping ideas

I was very happy that the crust was so easy to make. I’m actually on vacation from work for the next two weeks so I technically had time to try a long, convoluted recipe but I didn’t really have motivation to do that. With this recipe, I just put everything in my mixing bowl and let the dough hook on my mixer do all the work. Then I let it rise for a couple of hours, divided it into two, rolled out one half and froze the other. It cooked in the oven at 450F for about 5 minutes, then I added the toppings and let it bake again for another 12. And that was it. Yummm.

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Easy Beer Pizza Crust

Ingredients

Recipe from King Arthur
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor, optional
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 fl oz room temperature beer of your choice

Instructions

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir together until well-combined. If you have a stand-mixer, put on the dough hook and let it need the mixture for about 7 minutes or until the dough is soft, smooth and not sticky. Otherwise, knead by hand until you achieve that consistency, which will probably take 12-15 minutes.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise for a half an hour or up to 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 450F.
Flatten the dough to de-gas it a bit. For two pizzas, divide the dough in half. For one very large pizza, leave the entire dough ball intact. Roll the dough out to your desired shape and thickness. Poke a few holes in the dough with a fork.
Sprinkle a little olive oil and cornmeal on a pizza stone or large metal pan. Lay the dough on top and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Pull the crust out of the oven and put on your desired toppings. Place it back in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the toppings are hot, the cheese is melted and the crust is browned.

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Tortellini-Are-Little-Puffs-of-Heaven Stew

Lauren — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:13:28 +0000

Wait, make that “Tortellini-Are-Little-Puffs-of-Heaven and Italian Sausage Stew.” Kind of a long name, though. I’ll work on it.

It’s been a very soup-y fall for me, for a couple of reasons. 1)Fall just seems to need soup. I don’t know what it is but for some reason, fall is a soup season. 2)Soup recipes make a lot and it’s great for pouring leftovers into a jar and taking it work a couple days for lunch. 3)I rarely made soup before last year because I was convinced I was a failure at it. I’m not nearly as nervous now. Clearly if I can do, any idiot can. But I repeat myself.

This is one of my new favorite stews because it has everything in it that’s yummy. Cheese tortellini. Italian sausage. Spinach. Tomatoes. Garlic. Parmigiano. I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. I took some to work for lunch today and no joke, sat at my desk just slowly savoring the yumminess in a happified stupor. Happified wasn’t even a word before this soup came along. So there you go.

How do you fold homemade tortellini?

Interested in making your own tortellini? Maybe you’ve got the pasta part down but aren’t sure how to fold the little shapes. This quick little video below will show you how:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlBFWQH7de4

Note: This makes an excellent meal with maybe a small salad beforehand, a good chunk of bread drizzled with olive oil and herbs and a slice of plum tart with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.

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Tortellini-Are-Little-Puffs-of-Heaven Stew

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 pound hot or sweet Italian sausage (I used 1/2lb of both)
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced
2 large celery spears, diced
3 large or 4 small-medium carrots, diced
1/2 tbsp dried sage
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
32 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
64oz chicken stock
1 lb your choice of cheese tortellini
2 oz grated parmigiano reggiano and/or any leftover rind
3-4 cups fresh baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Brown the sausage in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Remove sausage from pan and let drain on some paper towels.
Add second tbsp of olive oil into pan. Add in onion, celery, carrots and dried sage. Sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic and sauté another minute or two.
Add in the butter and let it melt down before adding in 4 tbsp of flour. Stir everything together until the flour is totally incorporated.
Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add the sausage back in, followed by the tomatoes and then the chicken stock.
Let simmer for about 45 minutes. Add in tortellini, spinach, the cheese, and (if using) the leftover rind from the parmigiano. Add in salt and pepper as needed.
Let cook and meld together for another 15 minutes or so. (If you put the cheese rind in, remove it at the end of the cooking time).

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Candied Almond Bars

Lauren — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:24:30 +0000

You know what I like about these bars? Everything. They were easy to make, very fast, tasty, they made the house smell delicious and they are a perfect fall treat for noshing on with a good sized mug of hot cocoa and whipped cream.

They came about because I was sitting home alone, bored, getting over a cold and therefore in sore need of some comfort food. I didn’t want the usual sort of snack–cookies, brownies, etc. Or more honestly, I didn’t have enough chocolate on hand for the usual snack. Instead, I sifted through the 300 or so recipes in my Evernote cookbook tagged with “dessert” and found a recipe for pecan pie bars.

I didn’t have pecans…but I did have a Costco-sized bag of almonds. Plus I knew that with a bit of extra cinnamon thrown in, the bars would basically be like eating candied almonds atop a shortbread crust. And yep, that’s pretty much what they are. Delightfully, they’re not too sweet at all–so they won’t push you into sugar shock if you eat one or two with a good helping of my homemade cocoa.

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Candied Almond Bars

Ingredients

Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

For the crust

2 c. flour
1/3 c. raw sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
12 tbsp cold butter

For the filling

3 large eggs
1 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. raw sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tbsp vanilla paste or 1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 c. raw whole almonds

Instructions

Heat your oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13" pan with baking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and butter for the crust. With your fingers, press the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs (or give it a few spins in a food processor).
Dump the flour mixture out into the prepared pan and press it down into a nice even layer. Bake for 20 minutes.
Beat the eggs, corn syrup, sugars, melted butter, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl until everything is well incorporated. Add in the almonds. Make sure they get thoroughly coated in the sugar mixture.
When the crust is done baking, pour the almonds and sugar mixture on top and spread the almonds out a bit. Put the pan back into the oven for another 30 minutes.
Let cool for at least an hour and then slice into bars.

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Make Me a Sammich: Chicken with Leek Confit

Lauren — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:38:26 +0000

“Make me a sandwich.”
“Poof! You’re a sandwich.”

You want jokes? I got ‘em. You want funny jokes? Try back next week.

Josh and I have been trying this radical new thing: “making our own lunches and taking them to work.” Innovative right?

You see, I work on a college campus that happens to be nicely situated amongst the city’s downtown area. I am surrounded by restaurants of all kinds--Indian buffets, sandwich places, Mediterranean joints, sushi places, pizza delivery, milkshake delivery and the best soup-shack this side of Heaven. It is, needless to say, very difficult for me to ignore all of that and eat a lunch I packed. If I packed. Hey, sometimes I’m too ~~lazy~~ busy to remember little details like that. But the down side of this genuine first-world problem of having lots of restaurants nearby is that it’s expensive to eat out all the time for lunch and frankly, eventually it gets boring.

Josh has a different problem. He has no restaurants really nearby, at least not ones he can/will eat at regularly. If he wants to go out, he has to order in or get in his car and go and sometimes with the parking situation around here, that’s not always possible. So bringing a lunch really saves him a lot of time and grief.

So with that all in mind, we returned once again to trying to pack lunches (and breakfasts) for the week, doing as much prep as possible over the weekend so that on weekday mornings, we can just “grab and go” for the most part. I’ll expound more on that whole thing another time. The important thing here is the food. Last week we did batches of cheesy chicken stew and beef chili. I decided this week would be the Week of Awesome Sandwiches.

Generally when we take sandwiches to work, they’re pretty basic. PB&J. Turkey or ham and cheese. Apple and peanut butter. Whatever. Good, adequate, but not like an awesome sandwich that I just want to nomnomnom all day long. This week I planned out some sandwiches with the goal of really making us look forward to lunchtime.

Today’s was roasted chicken with leek confit. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Protip: adding the word “confit” to any dish automatically makes it sound fancy, pretentious and expensive. So keep that in your back pocket for when you want to simultaneously impress and annoy people. Anyway, this makes for a very different, very onion-y sandwich. If you are a fan of alliums, this is the spread for you.

What’s “confit” anyway?
Confit is a French term for food preserved in some sort of substance. It could be fruits cooked in sugar, meats (like duck) cooked in their own fat, etc. Confits can last for months sealed and stored in a cool place.

This sandwich requires:

Bread. (This ain’t no KFC double-down kind of tragedy.) I used soft ciabatta rolls but any good, thicker bread will do. Try to aim beyond standard white sandwich bread and go for a roll, thick Italian bread slices, baguette, etc.
Whole grain mustard
Spinach, arugula or your other favorite sandwich green. Avoid iceberg. It’s crunchy but other than that brings nothing to this splendid table.
A good, soft cheese. I used provolone because it’s got flavor but not enough to be too competitive with the star of this show, the leek confit.
Roasted chicken. I roasted a couple of chicken breasts and sliced them; you could pull the meat off a rotisserie chicken if you preferred. You could also substitute turkey.
Leek confit (recipe below)
Optional: for a juicier sandwich, add a good drizzle of oil and herbs

Working w/ Leeks (click to open)

Leeks are a member of the onion and garlic family, and they have a soft, delicate onion flavor. You can eat the white part and a bit of the light green stalk.

They form as basically a bundle of sheaths. They are grown in sandy soil and can hold quite a bit of dirt and sand within their layers, so you want to wash them thoroughly.

When cooking with them, I like to cut off the bottom of the leek, and then the stalk, and discard any tattered outer layers of the base. Slice the leek in half lengthwise. Then dice it as fine as you wish. I like to put the chopped leeks in a colander and immerse that colander in a large bowl of cold water, swishing the leeks around a bit in it, so that the sand and dirt falls to the bottom of the bowl.

Then drain the leeks and use. Extra tip: they work marvelously in mac & cheese!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8glwRaS8OM

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Leek Confit

Ingredients

2 lbs leeks
2-3 cloves garlic
6 tbsp butter
2 tbsps olive oil, divided
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F.
Dice, wash and pat the leeks dry.
Smash the garlic cloves and remove the paper.
Place the leeks and smashed garlic cloves in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Place dollops of the butter around the dish. Drizzle the leeks with 1 tbsp of olive oil and the salt and pepper.
Roast the leeks in the oven for 1 hour or until soft and browned, stirring occasionally.
When they are done, pull them out of the oven and let them cool slightly. Scoop the mixture into a blender or food processor. Add the last tablespoon of olive oil and blend until the mixture becomes a slightly thick paste.
Serve hot on whatever you like, or spoon the mixture into a jar or container with a good tight lid and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.

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TEDTalk: Jennifer 8 Lee

Lauren — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:00:22 +0000

Josh sent me a delightful TED Talk by New York Times journalist Jennifer 8. Lee all about “Chinese” food in America. It’s not only extremely informative but witty and entertaining as well. It’s 16 minutes or so, but worth watching it all.

My favorite part? Learning about French and Italian Chinese food!

No related posts.

Candy Apple

Lauren — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:28:13 +0000

“I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body. Then I realized who was telling me this.” –Emo Phillips

The brain is clearly the most superior of all the organs, and I’m not just saying that because it told me to. Well I kind of am. Ok, I totally am, but with other good–nay, delicious–justifications. After all, my brain is what told me to buy a couple gallons of cider at the Dexter Mill a couple weeks ago and my brain is what told me to use that cider to make apple syrup, which was delicious, and my brain decided that if apple syrup is good then apple caramel sauce must be just as delicious and obviously, if the brain thinks it’s true, then it must be.

It’s like the Internet. The Internet would never lie to you. Right? Right?!

So a few days ago, I rigged together this little quick easy recipe to make caramel sauce out of leftover apple cider. I also made apple sugar candy. There was just all sorts of magic going on that day. Anyway, the caramel sauce is thick, creamy, caramel-ly with a hint of apple (more so when it’s hot and fresh) and perfect for pouring over ice cream.

The apple candy is crunchy and sweet and great for getting your friends’ kids hopped up on sugar before you send them home to their parents. Not that I would do that. Again. Today.

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Apple Caramel Sauce

Yield: About 1.5 pints

Ingredients

1.5 cups sugar
1/3 cup apple cider
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1.25-1.5 cups heavy cream

Instructions

Combine sugar, cider and cinnamon in a heavy medium-sized saucepan.
Cook on low until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Turn up the heat to medium and bring to a boil.
Let the cider boil for about 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, but be very careful not to let the sugar burn.
Very carefully, whisk 1.25 cups of heavy cream into the pot, simmering until the sauce is incorporated, thick and smooth, about 2 minutes. If you're going to serve it right away, this is fine as is.
If you want to serve it later at room temperature, add in the last quarter cup of cream, whisk thoroughly, pour into a jar and set aside.
I keep mine in a mason jar in the fridge for 3-4 days. To warm it up, I put the jar in a pot of simmering hot water until warmed through and melty.

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Apple Sugar Candy

Ingredients

1.5 cup sugar
1/3 cup apple cider
1 tbsp butter
you will also need: a candy thermometer

Instructions

Cover a rimmed cookie sheet or pan with freezer paper and spritz it down with baking spray.
Combine the sugar, cider and butter in a heavy-bottom, medium-sized pan over medium heat, stirring regularly until the sugar dissolves.
Cook until the mixture reaches 300F or hard-crack stage, stirring occasionally.
Pour the sugar mixture (very carefully! it's super hot) onto the prepared sheet pan. Let cool and set for at least 2 hours. Break into pieces. Crunch crunch.

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Cheesy Chicken Stew

Lauren — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:00:05 +0000

Sunday was a busy day. I got out of bed–and that was an effort, let me tell you–and made breakfast, prepared bread dough, did the week’s grocery shopping, found out my Twitter account was hacked (again, apologies to all involved), roasted chicken, made stock, made soup and still managed to watch Squid Invasion on Netflix streaming and thoroughly freak myself out.

But the important thing here is the soup. It’s my cheesy, chunky comfort stew. I originally made it for Paul and Josh last week for dinner. Paul and I had a very good trade going: if I made dinner, he would bring cinnamon pie for dessert. (I freaking love cinnamon pie and Paul makes it brilliantly.) And since I knew I was going to want to have a really large piece of pie for dessert, I figured I would make something for dinner that was simple (cause I was tired), quick (cause I was short on time), vegetarian (because Paul is not of the meat-eating persuasion) and filling without being super heavy (cause pie). Oh and delicious, of course, because that’s how I roll.

So I flashed back to the awesome soup tutorial I got from the Soup Queen herself, Miss Bee of the rightfully celebrated Beezy’s, and I made a roux base and threw in whatever veggies I had on hand. And then lots of cheese.

It worked out so well that I then made a second batch this weekend to have as lunch during the week, only this time with some shredded roasted chicken for extra protein and filling-ness. But whichever way you decide to make this soup, it’s delicious and easily modified.

I’ve listed the chicken version below. For the vegetarian version, simply omit the shredded chicken and substitute your favorite vegetable broth wherever chicken broth is listed.

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Cheesy Chicken Stew

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large leek, diced and washed
1 pound white wax potatoes, diced and washed
1 pound young carrots, diced and washed
1 pound chicken (your choice, white or dark meat), cooked and shredded
1 cup frozen peas
64 ounces chicken stock
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
A splash of cream (optional)
Pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt the butter in a large heavy soup pan and stir in the flour, garlic and basil, making a good thick roux.
Cook the roux for about 2-3 minutes and then slowly whisk in half the veggie stock, one cup at a time until thoroughly incorporated.
Add in the vegetables and shredded chicken and then the rest of the veggie stock.
Cook about an hour, or until the veggies are tender. Near the end of the cooking time, add in the peas and then slowly add in the cheese, bit by bit, until fully melted.
Finally add a splash of cream (optional). Add black or white pepper to your taste and serve.

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Thoughts on Grilled Cheese

Lauren — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:00:39 +0000

I was perusing one of my favorite online communities when I came upon the picture below:

First of all, I just want to say…

…How have I never thought of doing raspberry jam and cream cheese before? Brilliant grilled cheese idea. Even better if you subbed pound cake for the bread…

But anyway, it got me to thinking about the glorious, radiant divinity that is the grilled cheese sandwich. Especially because it is now just the right kind of weather for such a treat. You know, because every kind of weather is the right kind of weather for grilled cheese.

Did you know?
The origin of the grilled cheese sandwich has been pinpointed to about the 1920s in America when sliced packaged bread and American cheese became readily available. It became popular during the Great Depression.

My absolute favorite grilled cheese is the one detailed in a post I wrote long ago: grilled cheese with green apple on Italian bread.

And of course, we explored a few different delicious options at the inaugural dinner of the Melties, including the classic ham and cheese, fire roasted tomato and grilled dubliner.

But that picture above has me thinking of all the new possibilities for combinations as yet unexplored in my various rendezvous with the sammich world. Grilled bacon, cheddar and avocado? Grilled goat cheese and red onion? Grilled manchego and pear? And don’t get me started on THIS list of amazing sandwiches…that sound you hear is my drool pooling on the floor.

So I’m asking you guys…what are your favorite grilled cheese toppings? What do I absolutely need to try? I got a whole winter coming and plenty of noms to fill it with.