Hiatus

I'm on hiatus... learning to be a wife, cooking around gall stones (ugh), and buried in life and work.. it's tax time again and I'm immersed in "pig fever" so while I'm cooking up a storm.. sadly I'm left with little energy to write about it. I'll be back... please, I swear ...

In the meantime, between work, knitting a sweater (my mental yoga), I am in search for the perfect sunday casserole, the ultimate cherry pie, I will be posting my very own "THE BEST" pulled pork, and trying to perfect my favorite ommelet... mmmm... stay tuned...

bb !

Winter Cometh !

Ah....winter... lovely, cold, wet, icy winter.... he has finally shown his wicked face... over night on Thursday into Friday of last week we enjoyed (yes that's sarcasm) a lovely ice storm in the capital district area of New York.

Thought I would share a few pics I grabbed while out and about. In my line of work that also meant working most of the weekend... and memories. In 1998, Northern New York (where I am from) suffered one of the worst ice storms in the history of New York... Ice Storm 1998 Pictures courtesy of David Bray... and it was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. It was also a turning point for me, because that was the storm that began this funky little career path of mine. Last week's ice storm was pertinent reminder of my purpose albeit it that it was less severe, but none the less had a huge impact. Disasters always have an impact.

See also The Great Ice Storm of 1998 - Weather Almanac

North Country Public Radio-A Retrospective

bb !

French Toast... mmmmm

One of my favorite things to make for my Hubby (to be) is French Toast. He loves my version. Everyone has a version of their own french toast though, each of use grew up with a way that it was done by our mother's or grandmothers, or a favorite restaurant or diner. The variations are unending, change up the bread, add some nutmeg or cinnamon, or maybe apple cider and how about stuffing it with caramelized applies or marscapone cheese. Serve it with fresh fruit or whipped cream. Have it for breakfast or dessert, the possibilities are virtually endless. Watch Iron Chef American and you can see how many different ingredients can be served on/with french toast! This is mine guaranteed to be good favorite

What You Need:

1 loaf of French Bread

3 eggs

2 and 1/2 cups of milk

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of good Vanilla Extract

2 tablespoons (or one good glug!) of Grand Marnier (invest in a small bottle, it's a little pricey but well worth it!

A good pinch of cinnamon

A small pinch of salt

Note: these measurements will increase depending on how much French Toast you're making, this recipe is good for 3-4 people

The How To:

I like to buy the french bread a few days before making the french toast, because well frankly - I like it nice and stale for this. I cut it into thick slices about 2 inches each. Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. You will need lots of butter or non-stick cooking spray (your preference), a good skillet piping heating on the stove and a cookie sheet either lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper, or one of those handy silpat things.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk and all the fun stuff.. Grand Marnier, cinnamon, salt, vanilla. Wisk this together - REALLY well, this should look like a nice pale yellow color. If it's too dark yellow add a little milk to lighten it up. Add your butter to the hot skillet and now we're ready to dunk !

Because the bread is stale it is going to sop up that gooey egg mixture like a sponge, hold each piece of bread in the mixture for a few seconds. I wait for the bubbles to stop, flip it over, and re-dunk. Don't worry about it getting water logged, we're baking these off in the oven. Add your now soaked bread to the pan. Your pan should sizzle. Dunk and repeat until you put 2-3 slices in your pan. Let these cook/caramelize on one side for a few minutes, give them a quick flip - wait 2 minutes on the other side and remove them from the pan and put them on the baking sheet. Don't put the sheet in the oven yet. Continue the dunking and cooking process until you're bread is done and your baking sheet is full.

Now - put your baking sheet into the oven and let these bake for another 15-20 minutes. Sometimes I sprinkle some of that Turbonado sugar (raw sugar) on top to give it a crystally crunch. Remove from the oven and serve hot with maybe a fried egg on top, or syrup, or even fruit and powdered sugar.

Note: another take on french toast to use all of the same ingredients, get out your favorite baking dish, preheat your oven to 350, put your sliced bread in the baking dish and pour the egg mixture all over the top. Squish the bread down with your hands to help it soak up all of the mixture. Similar to bread pudding. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes for a super soft gooey center or 45 minutes to an hour for a firmer center and golden brown crusty outside. This is my favorite breakfast casserole, and super easy !

Enjoy ! bb !

And She's Back !.... with a Great Chicken Stew Too !

So finally, after an all too long absence I am caught up at work and at home and am back to posting my accidental (and some not so accidental) culinary adventures ! This is a great one pot wonder recipe and very very VERY yummy with warm buttered crusty bread. Pull out your favorite cooking vessel and let's get started...

What You Need: Super Simple stuff

1 Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store, pull the chicken off the bone. You could also use left over chicken, cubed.

3 medium or 2 large Leeks - dark greens removed, slice the whites and yellows into halfmoon shapes, put in a large collander and let soak for a few minutes, wash and discard the water. This gets rid of the sandy bits, for more information on preparing Leeks go to Bon Appetit How to Prepared Leeks

All cleaned and roughly chopped up - 2 Medium Carrots (peeled), 2 stalks of Celery, and 1 large yellow onion

4 tablespoons of Butter

1 clove of garlic - crushed

3 sprigs of fresh Thyme (1 teaspoon of dried if you don't have fresh)

3-4 leaves of fresh Sage - chopped up (2 teaspoons dried if you don't have fresh)

1 and 1/2 lbs (or roughly 5-6 medium) Russet Potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 32 oz container of Chicken Stock

The How To:

First step ! Melt the butter in your pot, I add a quick drizzle of olive when I melt butter for good measure (your choice though), then add your freshly washed leeks. Once these are translucent, add a quick sprinkly of salt and a few grinds of the pepper grinder, then add your carrots, onions and celery. Cook these until slighly soft and the onion is translucent. At this point your leeks will start to caramelize (which is good). Add your garlic, cook for 1 minute then add your chicken stock. Bring this to a boil.

Once the the pot comes to a boil add in your potatoes and cover. Let this stand at a rolling boil for about 5-6 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and low and let this simmer away partially covered, with the occasional stir for about an hour or even 2 (for extra crumbly soft potatoes). Add your shredded rotisserie chicken to the stew about 20-30 minutes before you serve it. Remember the chicken is already cooked, so we don't want to cook it to mush in the stew. 20 minutes is a perfect amount of time to let the chick come up to temp with the rest of the ingredients.

This is a perfect Sunday meal, in fact that's the last time I made it, a nice relaxing day. I made brunch that day and got everything in the pot about 12:30 and let it cook on low all afternoon. It was delicious. This a very hardy stew

Enjoy ! bb !

Happy Thanksgiving

Best wishes to everyone... and yes I'm having lobster ! Yum !

Enjoy ! bb !

On the Road...

This month has been crazy... if you consider the month of October merged with November. A few road shows and lots of wedding details to take care of...plus thanksgiving... so more soon ! I promise !

Enjoy ! bb !

Get Your Game On With Cornish Game Hens

Cornish Game Hens are an absolute classic dinner. They are impressive and dainty on the plate at the same time. They are like the perfect little roasted chicken in one serving. You get all your favorite parts of the bird, crispy skin, tender juicy breast meat, yum. If you've never tried these before, they are worth the 4-5$ a piece for a romantic meal for two (like I did here for Hubby and me) or a meal to make for family or friends that is both impressive but also heartwarming. The best part is that if you know how to roast a chicken the same rules apply.

So I am going to be out of town a few times this month, and Hubby and I ordered pizza and wings on Friday night (when I returned from the first of a few work road shows around the state), which I hate, because Friday night is our date night most of the time. I like to make some of our favorite casual foods, like big juicy burgers, or mini sliders and home-made fries, or stuff like my Friday Night Phillies, so ordering pizza, well just doesn't do "it" for me. But we cope, right ? Because we camped out most of the weekend I reheated some frozen Red Wine Beef Stew and had simple breakfasts. Sunday afternoon I decided we needed something special. I had two Cornish Game Hens in the fridge and decided to do this:

What You Need:

2 Cornish Game Hens Note: If you are making dinner for 4, 6, etc - just adjust the amounts below accordingly by two

1 heaping tbsp of Gourmet Garden - Italian Seasoning (you could substitute a regular tbsp of a typical all purpose Italian seasoning blend

1 tsp Kosher Salt

3/4 of a stick of room temperature butter (unsalted) Note: If you have salted butter, omit the tsp of kosher salt from your ingredients, add more later if needed.

A few turns of your favorite pepper grinder (or 1/2 tsp of black pepper)

1 Small Yellow Onion (quartered, you can also substitute a large shallot, halved)

6 Garlic Cloves (lightly bashed with the flat side of your knife, feel free to leave the skin on)

The How To:

This is toooooo easy, take your roasting pan, prepare your chickens (trim any excess fat off of the cavity, get out 2 small string lengths of kitchen string, make sure to remove the innards bag from the bird cavity, also making sure to pat the birds with a paper towel or kitchen towel to remove any excess moisture), stuff them with the quartered onion and garlic cloves, split the amount between the two and also only stuff as much as fits comfortably in the bird, no need to over stuff. In a small bowl, combine your softened butter and herb mix, add your salt and pepper. Using a basting brush, coat the birds in the butter mixture, salt and pepper if needed (depending on your tastes), but you should have plenty in the butter mixture. Place the birds in a preheated oven, uncovered, and roast until your cooking thermometer reads that the chickens have hit 165 degrees. Let these rest for about 5-10 minutes (cover if longer) before serving.

I served this with steamed broccoli and zucchini, along side roasted red baby potatoes that I halved, tossed with salt, pepper, and little bit of olive oil and roasted in the oven along side the birds. Total cooking time took about an hour or so.

A few cooking NOTES for this one:

Here is a great cooking chart for poultry Poultry Cooking Times courtesy of Recipe Tips.com

I recommend one per person, so when shopping pick small to medium size birds and consider your guest (Hubby's) appetite, some people may prefer a smaller bird or half of a larger bird

Your preference, but you may decide to stuff these birds with an actual stuffing rather than the onion and garlic, absolutely try that! In fact, I think that will be next step. Yum!

Enjoy ! bb !

My "Italian" Uncle.... Remembering...

This post is one of remembrance. Just about two weeks ago, the day before our vacation started, my Dad called me to tell me that my Uncle (his brother) had passed away. He died suddenly, we didn't expect it, he hadn't been sick with anything. He was a quirky guy, and one my favorites. My Uncle had this 'italian' quality to him, almost as though he had probably in a past life been name Giuseppe and tossed pizza dough in the window of a small eatery somewhere in country side of Italy. We've had a clock/figure in my parents' kitchen for years that had the "Luigi" picture, we always attributed my Uncle with this little Italian dynamo.

One of my favorite memories of my Uncle is his White Pizza. I remember him visiting and making that on a few occasions, and it was delicious. I never got the recipe from him, I don't think I could recreate if I did. Maybe close, but he had magic in his old hands. I've linked some recipes that I found, I'll probably try a few, but none of them will be the same. He will be missed and he was loved very much.

Pizza Bianca, Cooks.com

White 4 Cheese Pizza, Epicurious.com

White Pizza, RecipeZaar.com

10 Minute White Pizza, Rachel Ray - Food Network.com

Gourmet White Pizza, Allrecipes.com

bb

Vacations... there and back again...

It has been over a week since we returned from our vacation. The first few days we spent laying like broccoli around the house, I made brunch for us and a couple that we are friends with, went out for dinner, saw a movie, basically just unwinding from work and enjoying our space. Then on wednesday we started our northern trek through Vermont.

Vermont has a great website for planning your vacation, Vermontvacations.com. You can find out about leaf peeping packages, ski packages, just about any package that is available. Fall is a great time to travel in northern New York, Vermont and New England. Not only is it beautiful (my very favorite time of year), but the weather is typically nice during the day, cool in the evening, you're surrounded by color, farmers markets, Octoberfests, and other fall festivals. We decided to keep it simple, a drive up Old Route 7 from just below Bennington, VT all the way up through Burlington, we stopped along the way in Manchester (for the night) and Rutland for a mindblowing 3 hours of vintage baseball card heaven (made hubby's vacation!).

To drive the full length of Vermont maybe would take a person about 3 and 1/2 hours, it's not a huge state, but it certainly packs a punch of things to do, so much so that we didn't actually stop at half the stuff that we wanted to because we either go so caught up in the leaf peeping, laughing and joking around with the each other, or simply couldn't decide what we wanted to do first. No worries though, we'll have a new list of things forgotten on this trip the next time we go, and trust me there will be a next time.

We stopped in Manchester for the night, which is famous for its Designer Outlets, views of the mountains, and simple beauty. I had booked us one night at possibly the most posh bed and breakfast that I have ever been to, The Reluctant Panther was not only beautiful, but the amenities that they offered make you want to curl up and stay in your room for a week of pure self indulgence. I won't list all of the amenities, but a few to remember were the REAL wine glasses and corker and silver service water bottles and ice bucket (you often find this in b&b's but the panther has the classiest display and offering that I have ever seen!) The dining room had a private party booked that evening, which was fine with us, getting out and checking out what was to see in town was really what we wanted. We found the famous outlets, I took advantage of on that was going out of business and bought some new clothes for work. We looked around some and decided we were hungry and wanted to get an early dinner so we could enjoy the room and relax. On some recommendations from our host we travelled up the road and stopped at the Ye Old Tavern (sorry no website). They offered nice fare but weren't open yet, so we decided to go back to this great looking mexican grill just up the road. What a find ! We had a delicious mexican inspired dinner outside at just about sunset at Candeleros. The food was delicious, we were also starving, so we decided to start with the calamar, which was delicious and tasted like it was just caught in the ocean. Hubby had the pulled pork dinner, and I had a threesome (their burrito, chili relleno, and a veggie taco), and a few cocktails. After stuffing ourselves to contentment we watched this little chipmuck helping himself to some fallen table scraps from a table neighbor, and admired the fresh growing jalepenos and poblano peppers in the small garden near the table.

After the sun started to set, and it got a little chilly outside we decided it was time to go back to the Inn and cozy up for the night. We ordered dessert to go (Choco-Taco's, chocolate mouse in a tortilla with homemade whipped cream), and stopped at a store to pick up a bottle of wine. Hubby relaxed with this feet up after a long roomy shower, and I took a jacuzzi tub (and started mentally planning my dream bathroom). We opted to not start a fire in the real fire burning fire place in the room (it was tempting though) and watched the baseball game and had dessert late and some wine. It was a perfect evening.

The next morning, the misty mountains were threatening rain, and rain we got! For about and hour and 1/2 or so, just enough time for us to have a great gourmet breakfast in the Inn's fine dining restaurant. We packed our things and made our plans for the rest of the day. We decided that we would stop in Rutland to visit this one baseball card shop, and boy did we get lucky. I indulged myself at Bath&Body works while hubby talked to the card shop store owner who just happened to know a guy that had a ton of cards that hubby needed for his 1952 Topps collection. Needless to say, three hours later, after going through the treasure trove of cards, and picking a bunch to buy, hubby has fattened his collection by better than 50 cards, and also made a great contact with this new dealer. I think the best part of that day was watching the two of them talk about baseball, the old days, and value of collecting.

After our stop in Rutland, we decided that we would drive through that night to my parent's house, it was still early afternoon, we decided to stop and eat in Burlington and hop the ferry to Plattsburgh. All in all the trip was beautiful, relaxing, and a perfect mid-week vacation. We finished the trip by hanging with my parents and having Canadian Thanksgiving and trotting the New York Route home on Sunday. Vacations are always too short... bb!

Mmm... The Perfect Porterhouse

Disclaimer - If you're not into food with faces, or red meat, this post isn't for you. Me, I'm a full fledged carnivore, and this is a red meat lover's dream of a recipe. The porterhouse steak (to me) is the ultimate steak, a great strip steak combined with a delicious tenderloin. Nothing fru fru about it. Also, this is simple technique based recipe that was inspired by one of the chefs and challenges of Bravo TV's Top Chef Season 4 contestant Antonia (her challenge winner is featured here Bone in Ribeye-Season 4 I like to make special meals for special occasions, and porterhouses average between $8 - $13 a pound, so this isn't a meal that I would make every week or even once a month, but for special occasions, like to kick off our vacation week, definitely a worthy pick.

What You Need:

2 porterhouse steaks (approx 1 and 1/2 lbs each, this is a big meal). Basically you want 1 steak per person.

1 stick of unsalted butter (real butter, don't do the margarine here folks)

2 sprigs of Rosemary

1 bunch of Sage, torn into pieces or chopped up roughly

One oven safe skillet or large stove top safe roasting pan, and a good kitchen thermometer.

The How To:

The purpose of the butter is to baste the steak in the herb infused butter, and cook to your desired done-ness. YUM! Trust me, this is simple, melt your butter and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. If you're planning to serve this with a baked potato, then bake your potatoes at 400 for about 45 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes) prior to starting your steaks. While you're waiting for the butter to melt (the whole stick), prepare your steaks. Now a good carnivore knows (wink) to take the steaks out of the fridge and let the chill get off the steaks before adding to the pan, lightly salt and heavily pepper (unless you have an aversion to pepper) one side of the meat. Once the butter is melted, turn your skillet/pan up to medium high heat, wait for the sizzle and add to the butter your rosemary and sage. Once you've got the sizzle working, add your steaks to the skillet/pan salt and pepper side down, salt and pepper the side up in the skillet/pan. Now, hold your breath and wait.... ok maybe not hold your breath, but you've got to let these puppies get a nice crust on one side. So we wait.

After about 4-5 minutes, using your tongs, turn the steaks over, baste them in the now browning butter and place these in the oven to roast. This is where your thermometer is come into play, the timing will depend on how you like your steak. During the timing you'll open the oven and baste the steaks a few more times.

Your cooking times:

Rare - (48.9°C/120°F core temp) The outside is gray-brown, and the middle of the steak is red and slightly warm.

Medium rare - (52.2°C/126°F degrees core temp) The steak will have a fully red, warm center. Unless specified otherwise, upscale steakhouses will generally cook to at least this level.

Medium - (57.2°C/135°F degrees core temp) The middle of the steak is hot and red with pink surrounding the center. The outside is gray-brown.

Medium well done - (62.8°C/145°F degrees core temp) The meat is light pink surrounding the center.

Well done - (73.9°C/165°F degrees core temp) The meat is gray-brown throughout and slightly charred.

I like to serve this with a nice baked potato, maybe a corn on the cob, or a nice green salad on the side. Definitely worthy of a special occasion !

Enjoy ! bb !