Garrick's Birthday Dinner

Every year for Garrick's birthday I make him a special dinner on his actual birthday. For the last 3 years he has wanted fried chicken and mac n cheese. This year he said he wanted something different. He wanted pork. Of course. He loves pork; I don't really care for it. So we went to Borders to check out the cookbooks and see if there was anything he wanted, and I would get the cookbook. Well, he did find something he wanted but the book was some $30 and I wouldn't be able to make hardly anything from it simply because the ingredients were either too expensive or not available here in Kansas. So what did I do? I pulled a receipt out of my purse and wrote it down. That's right, I stole it. It was pork medallions with goat cheese and an apple raisin compote. He wanted that and sweet potato fries (another food I don't particularly care for), and I decided that we needed something green so I put together a spinach salad.

Here are the recipes:

Pork Medallions with Goat Cheese and Apple Raisin Compote
 For the pork:
3 lb pork loin, cut in 1/4" slices and pounded to 1/8"
1 1/2 cup flour with seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 oz goat cheese, crumbled

For the compote:
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp unsalted butter

1. Melt butter in grape seed oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dredge the pork in the flour mixture, and cook in the skillet for 2 minutes on each side, undisturbed. Place pork on a plate and cover with tin foil. Leave juices and oil in the skillet.
2. Cook the apples and raisins in the same skillet for 3-4 minutes. Add the wine, and simmer to cook off most of the alcohol. Add the vegetable stock and cinnamon and cook 5 more minutes. Add butter.
3. To plate, place pork medallions down, and cover with the compote, then top with the goat cheese.

I had kind of a hard time with the prep for this recipe. It's a pretty straight-forward recipe but I forgot to peel 4 of my 6 apples so after I sliced them I had to go back and cut off the peel. I do stuff like that all the time because I tend to skim through the recipe then realize too late that I missed something. That and like half of my apples ended up being rotten on the inside.

The sweet potato fries I cheated and bought frozen and just baked them :)

Spinach Salad
1 bag of spinach
1 fuji apple
1/3 cup scallions, sliced
3/4 cup balsamic glazed walnuts (recipe below)
red wine vinaigrette (recipe below)

Balsamic Glazed Walnuts
This recipe is adapted from How Sweet 
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup walnuts

Combine vinegar and brown sugar in a small saucepan, and cook over medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add walnuts and stir to coat. With a slotted spoon, transfer the nuts  to wax paper and leave out until they dry, an hour or two.

Red Wine Vinaigrette
I got this recipe from Garrick's sister.
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp dry mustard
2-3 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Now I'm not a huge fan of salads. I think they tend to be monotonous, uninteresting, and not nearly filling enough. But I could eat this salad as a meal every day. It's so good. The sweetness from the apples help to cut through the vinegar, while the mustard adds a little zing, and a nice crunch from the nuts...I could go on. I love it.

If you're a fan of pork you should give the recipe a try. And I don't care what you're into - try the salad.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

This is the dessert Garrick and I brought to Thursday night dinner. And it was incredible. Our friends said it was the best chocolate pie they've ever had and raved about it all night. They even took a couple of pieces for the next day! It's a little involved, but totally worth it. And it's so rich and velvety.

French Silk Chocolate Pie
From The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010

1 pie crust (I bought a package of 2 at the store and froze the 2nd)
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and softened

1. Move an oven rack to the lowest position, and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough out, place in a 9-inch pie plate, folding the excess under and using one index finger to press the dough into the other hand's pinched thumb and index finger to flute the edges. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Remove the pie plate from the refrigerator, line the crust with heavy-duty foil, and fill with pie weights (dried beans are a classic). Bake on the low rack for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and weights, rotate the pie plate, and bake until the crust is golden brown and crisp, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
3. In a large bowl, whip the cream with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until frothy, about 1 minute. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and continue to whip until the cream forms stiff peaks, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to a small bowl and refrigerate.
4. Combine the eggs, sugar, and water in a large heatproof bowl set over a medium saucepan filled with 1/2 inch of barely simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until the egg mixture is thickened and registers 160 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes (*this will about double the size of the ingredients, so make sure you choose a large enough bowl to start). Remove bowl from the heat and continue to beat the egg mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.
5. Add the chocolate and vanilla to the cooled egg mixture, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using a spatula, fold in the whipped cream until no streaks of white remain. Scrape the filling into the pie shell and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours. Serve.

Like I said, it's a little involved, but relatively cheap to make and so very, very tasty. My pie shell ended up being a little too small for all the filling, so poor me had to just put the filling in a container and take it in my lunch for dessert the next day. Boo hoo.

This week it's our turn to host dinner. I'm thinking about doing a 3-course dinner. Course 1: Cucumber Watermelon Soup (refreshing and a palate cleanser) Course 2: Bifteck Saute Bearnaise (Pan-broiled Steak with Bearnaise Sauce)  a la Mastering the Art of French Cooking with potato balls sauteed in butter and green beans Course 3: Dessert and espresso drinks. What do you think? Sound good? I have the day off so I might actually have the time to make this :)
 

Happy Birthday x 2

This week I have two important birthdays. The first one, Tuesday, is my brother's 28th birthday. A couple months ago he casually asked me to sew some bags to hold nails and screws for him (he works in construction), to which I lovingly replied "Hell no!" Well, I reconsidered and thought it might be nice for his birthday. Once I had settled on doing that for him, I asked him how many he wanted. He says "A bunch." A bunch? I said "How much is 'a bunch?' Is it 10 or is it 50?" He says "Somewhere in between there." Oh God. What did I get myself into? I decided I'd get 3 yards of heavy canvas, and whatever that made is what he would get, thinking I might be 25 or so out of it. No, I got 40.

After a few failed tester bags, I spent a good part of my Friday and Saturday afternoons sewing the 38 others.

You can't tell, but there are, in fact, 38 bags in that pile. I haven't put strings in the drawstring, mostly because I don't have any string and Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays.

I'm pretty sure I deserve the "Sister of the Year" award for this. And I'm never doing it again.

Anyway, the second birthday of the week is Wednesday, and it's Garrick's birthday. He already got his present from me. I got him this really awesome espresso machine and some espresso beans. I also talked to a couple other people and got them to give him some necessary accessories (tamper, frothing pitcher, thermometer, coffee grinder). I don't have pictures of it yet, but I will put some up when I get some. Suffice it to say, it's preeeetttttyyyy. It's stainless steel, and I found it on Amazon for about 62% off it's original $240 price tag. I consider it a steal.

I had my first mocha made with it today and it was delicious! It was a good buy, I say.

In other news, Garrick and I have started having dinner with 2 of our newlywed friends on Thursday nights. We switch off hosting and cooking the main meal, while the guests bring dessert. After dinner we talk, play games, or take a walk. It's really nice, and gives me an excuse to try new recipes. My next post will be about the dessert I brought this last Thursday, so look forward to that!

Malibu Chicken Bundles

I know I've been posting a lot of recipes lately. I will get back to crafty sewing things. I currently have 39  nail and screw pouches cut out to make my brother for his birthday, and 3 skirts and 2 pairs of pants and one vest cut out to sew, and 2 more pairs of pants waiting to be cut out and sewn. I am prepared. Now, I just need to find some time...

Also, I think I should tell you that I'll be moving sometime very soon and therefore will not have access to my sewing machine for a bit, so expect a lot of recipes in the coming month :) Oh, and last week is my last week of summer before trainings and teacher report week, and a new round of classes, so my life is about to get a lot more hectic in general, so posting may be a bit more irregular than it is now.

As for today's post: Malibu Chicken Bundles. These little beauties are SO GOOD. I adapted the recipe from on I got in a Taste of Home Healthy Recipes magazine.

Malibu Chicken Bundles:
4 chicken breasts
4 slices swiss cheese
4 thin slices ham (you can see where this is going already, can't you?)
1 small can of crushed pineapple, drained very well
honey mustard
bread crumbs
toothpicks
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 - 1/2 cup low fat sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean and trim your chicken breast. Between 2 sheets of plastic wrap/wax paper/parchment paper/anything similar, pound out the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
2. Spread about a teaspoon of honey mustard on one side of each breast. Top with 1 slice of ham, 1 slice of swiss cheese, and 1/4 of the can of drained crushed pineapple. Roll up the chicken breasts, and put a toothpick in to secure.
3. Rub 1 tsp of honey mustard on the outside of the chicken breasts, and roll them in the breadcrumbs (I use plain, but panko or seasoned would surely be good too). Place the chicken bundles in a square baking dish, and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 160 degrees.
4. While the chicken bakes, prepare the sauce. Combine the contents of the can of cream of chicken soup and the sour cream and stir until blended. Heat on low until heated through. Note: Sometimes I add a bit of seasoning to the sauce, like a little shake of Mrs. Dash Original, so if you want to do that you can, though it doesn't necessarily need it.
5. Place about 1/4 of the sauce on a plate, then place the chicken bundle on top, and serve with your favorite veggies. Enjoy!

This really is one of my go-to recipes. I love that you can prepare it ahead of time, then just throw it in the oven when you're ready. Great for weeknight dinners. And so good, too.

Gnocchi with Alfredo Sauce

I have this minor obsession with homemade pasta; every time I go to an Italian restaurant I almost always get some kind of filled pasta. It is my firm belief that nothing is better than fresh pasta. So I really want to make my own pasta, except I don't have a pasta machine. And I've tried rolling it by hand - yeah, right, never doing that again.

In come gnocchi. Now, I know that gnocchi is really more of a dumpling than a pasta, but I decided it would do to fill my homemade pasta void.

So I tried my hand at making some. And it was gooooooooood.

I used this recipe from Sugarcrafter as my guide, though it was really more of a rough guide.

I used 6 russet potatoes, and baked them in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes. They probably could have used a little more time, but I was anxious to get started. Instead of using a potato ricer like you're supposed to, because I don't know any home cook who has and uses one, I used my favorite new toy: my microplane grater.

Can I just comment on what a superior tool this is? I zested a lemon on it, and the lemon moved across it like butter. And I've never gotten that much zest from a traditional round-hole zester. It's amazing.

Anyway, it worked, though it's probably not the most efficient way to get the potatoes all mashed up because they kept falling apart when I'd get the the nub of it.

This is what I did to create the gnocchi:
Bake 6 medium-sized russet potatoes in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes. Peel while still warm, and grate on a microplane grater. Add enough flour so that, when stirred, clumps form. Add in 2 eggs, and blend with your hands. Add about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, salt and pepper (and nutmeg if you like it - I don't care for it), and add more flour so that the dough is no longer sticky. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, and let rest for another 5. Pull off pieces about the size of your fist, and roll into a "snake" about 3/4" wide. Cut pieces about every inch. Make the traditional ridges using a fork, and set on tin foil until all the gnocchi have been made. Also, if you desire, you can add fresh herbs to the dough. We added some fresh basil to about 1/4 of the dough.

This is how much gnocchi we got out of it. What we didn't eat for lunch was put in the freezer as you see it, then once it froze, was put into a resealable bag.

These are our basil gnocchi. I really liked having some with, and some without so that neither type got too boring.

The more traditional sauce to accompany gnocchi is a brown butter with sage sauce.

We decided to go with alfredo.

Again, I didn't follow an exact recipe, but it was roughly something like this:
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp garlic, minced
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add garlic, and cook, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add the flour, and cook another 1 to 2 minutes. Add milk, and bring to a boil to thicken, stirring often. Off the heat, stir in the cheese until melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. That's it!

And it was good.

But I could still go for some four cheese ravioli.

Color me excited

Good things are happening right now.

For one, the plan of study that my contract has been hinging on is finally going to be sent out. I might actually have a contract before new teacher orientation in 3 weeks, and I like that idea. So I'm not, you know, wasting my time.

For two, the $200+ in fraudulent charges from last weekend (lets not even go there - suffice it to say I didn't spend $208 at a Walmart in Nebraska before 9:15am last Saturday) was put back in my bank account. Thank God, I really didn't want to go after someone with something sharp and rusty.

For three, Garrick's birthday present came yesterday and I'm SO EXCITED. I'll write about that after he gets it, since his birthday isn't for another 2 weeks or so.

For four, I just finished the book Sh*t My Dad Says and if you haven't yet, you must read this book. The one-liners on facebook and twitter are good, but the stories behind them are even better. In case you're not familiar with the phenomenon surrounding this book, it has a lot of profanity. But hilarious profanity.

For five, I just found this blog: http://www.howsweeteats.com/ and I think we should be blog buddies. Because everything her blog is, is everything I want the food portion of mine to be. You should really check it out.

When I told Garrick about Sweet Eats, we had one of our typical conversations, which usually go something like this:

Me: Look what I found: http://www.howsweeteats.com/
Perfect for me - a love of food, but making it healthy :)

Garrick (direct quote, spelling errors intact): Looks like poop
Sweet tastey poop.
nom nom nom

Garrick again: bahah *insert shit-eating grin*

Me: You're not funny.




On a different note, I've been wondering: do you like things lumpy with texture, or smooth and creamy? You know, things like mashed potatoes or cream of wheat. My dad likes them lump free, but I intentionally make my cream of what lumpy. The lumps of cereal are the best part.

So pick your side: lumpy or creamy. Let's battle.

Buttermilk Waffles with Cherry Almond Sauce

Since I have Friday's off (for the time being), I decided it might be fun to make a tasty breakfast for myself and Garrick. I just happened to see a magazine at his work that caught my eye: bon appetit. And they had the most delicious sounding recipes, so I stole it. And I'm not even sorry.

Because I got to make buttermilk waffles with cherry almond sauce and it was delicious! So I'm here to share it with you.

This recipe is adapted from the March 2009 issue of bon appetit magazine.

Buttermilk Waffles with Cherry Almond Sauce
Sauce:

 1 12 oz bag frozen pitted dark sweet cherries (don't thaw)
1 cup cherry preserves
1/2 tsp almond extract

Waffles:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk*
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

*You can substitute buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp of vinegar to each cup of regular milk.

For the sauce:
Combine the frozen cherries and cherry preserves in a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium high heat, and stir until the cherries begin to thaw and juices form. Boil gently for about 3 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Remove the sauce from the heat, and add the almond extract.

For the waffles:
Heat your waffle iron. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl to blend. Whisk in the buttermilk, then the melted butter. Grease your hot waffle iron, preferably with unsalted butter, and pour about 1/2 cup of batter in each grid, and cook until golden brown and crispy on the outside. Top with cherry sauce and enjoy.

These are amazing, and really easy to make. Do this next weekend. You won't regret it