I am about halfway through food prep for Easter. This will be the first time I host a “family holiday gathering – but I’ve done plenty of parties, so its more fun than trouble. Except for the housecleaning…

Here is the menu:

Appetizers

veggies and dip
hummus and crackers
shrimp cocktail
others brought by guests
assortment of olives and pickles (with meal, also)

Meal

Orange-glazed ham with rosemary
Tarragon Chicken
tomato and green bean salad
asparagus parmasan
baked creamy mashed potatoes

Dessert
Assorted brought by guests

The menu is actually very easy. The potatoes are already mashed and in the fridge – just pop them in the oven tomorrow. Chicken is done except the sauce. Hummus is made. Lori is doing the veggies and dip. I’ll blanch the green beans and make the vinegarette in the morning for the bean and tomato salad. Aspargus is WAY easy. Ham is WAY easy. Even if I waited until after church to do the salad stuff, it can all be done easily while the ham cooks for a few hours.

The problem is cleaning the house (a formidable task given that I am terrible at keeping up with housework and I am still recovering from close to three years of CONSTANT complete house rennovations…. dust, dust, still dust everywhere!) and attempting to create enough space for 12-14 people when I still have two (yes two!) upright pianos AND an organ just about as big in my living room. Don’t ask…

Ovbiously, this will be a buffet-style meal. 🙂 I’ve figured out a way to have “food stations” in different rooms since there is no place for even a buffet table sort of thing.

Luckily, my dear friend Lori, who lives upstairs had been helping a bunch and is even going to clean my stove and preheat the oven for me while I am at church. And, between the two of us, there will be enough dishes and all. That reminds me, I have to look for my Mom’s crystal. It is in the attic…somewhere…

I seem to be averaging once a week here. Well, better than not at all!

So, I had some pork chops. Thick cut, but regular cut would work fine. I just knew I didn’t want the rice and mushroom thing going on this time. What I did was potato, apple, and onions. Really good!

First, I prepped/sliced everything. I always do all my prep first, including lining up any herbs or spices I may be using.

Then I browned the chops. I do think that keeps them more moist.

I sliced the potatoes really thin. Now, they may have cooked enough as is, but I did the precook in the microwave trick. Melt some butter (about 45 seconds on high but watch it carefully!) in a glass bowl big enough to add and toss the potato slices in it. Do that – microwave on high for 3 minutes, toss again, and another 3 minutes in the microwave, just so the bend easily but are still firm.

While that was going on, I was sauteing the thinly sliced onions and apples for a few minutes in a bit of olive oil. Then I put all three items in a baking pan and topped off with the chops. I did keep some of the apple and onion to scatter on top, too. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for around 50 minutes. This was really good!

The chicken accompanied with the avocado and tomato salad was good, too. That was described in the previous post – I just have not had time to comment on it until now.

Now I have to go finish dinner for tonight. A quicky – chicken sausage (about a pound) fried up with some chopped onion, green pepper, and celery – to doctor up the sauce from a jar. That’s barely bubbling (using a heat disfuser since I have a gas stove) while the pasta water heats up. Then, poof – dinner!

🙂

WELL!
I was just happily following along the instructions of a recipe I found online, and realized that – HEY – this is not right!!!! (I’ll be nice and not reveal the source because I never had a problem with this source before and of course, errors happen once in a while – but ALWAYS really carefully read and think through a new recipe before you start!)

Chicken and rice – how easy should that be? Except, the recipe called for 2 cups of water to be mixed into the rice and celery, then later adding the peas….which was correct to get the rice cooked – but later said in the instructions to use another 1 1/3 cups water in the sauce – and that amount was not in the ingredient list!

But, while the results of the recipe are still in the oven on warm before we eat, I know I was able to make this recipe work just fine.

I put 1 cup long grain rice (yeah, the white kind – need to give some extra time and use whole grain next time!) a bit more celery than asked for – I put about 1 1/2 cups sliced celery, 2 cups water (that amount of water was called for in the ingredient list) and a tsp salt together in a saucepan and brought to a low boil and then simmered for 8 minutes.

After that, I added the 1 1/2 cups frozen peas asked for and let simmer on LOW for another 8-10 minutes.

Now, the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups cooked diced chicken (although it is not very clear about the details…)

I had 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Before starting the rice, etc., I cut each one into thirds and sauted them in a nonstick 12″pan with no oil. Once they were browned, I turned them off for a bit and then got them going again when I added the 1 1/2 cups frozen peas to the saucepan rice mix and let the whole saucepan mix simmer on low for another 10 minutes.

Once the chicken pieces were making noise cooking again, I added, in this order, the 1/8 tsp pepper (well, I estimated while grinding) a tsp of salt, then 2 Tbsp flour until all was mixed. Then I added 2/3 cup evaporated milk (I had regular open, but low or nonfat would be fine, I am sure) and 1 cup chicken stock. [NOTE: the recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups water in the directions, but NOT in the recipe list! I figured the stock, since I had it on hand, would add a nicer flavor. And, since the original recipe didn’t even have that other 1 1/3 water in the ingredient list, I thought is best to hold back on the amount.]

AGAIN – the recipe says to bring the liquid in the saucepan to a low boil until thick and then pour over the “chicken and rice mix.”…It never says to remove the chicken from the pan where the sauce is being made!

Anyway – I put the rice mix in a 9X12 baking pyrex dish, then put the chicken, then, when the sauce was a bit thick, poured it over it all, then sprinkled 1 or so cups of shredded cheese over it all. (the recipe calls for mild cheese – HAH! New York Sharp for this household. )

I baked it at 375 for about 20-25 minutes and it has been on “warm” since. I think it will be fine.

OH – I added about 1/4 cup chopped onion to the rice/celery, etc mix. Just couldn’t see a recipe without onion in it. 🙂

I am making an avocado and tomato salad, too. But, those details will have to wait… time to put that together and serve the meal!

I am not shy about saying that I am a good cook. But I have never made ANY claims about my baking ability except to say that I did not inherit my Mom’s amazing baking talent, nor her love for baking. Although, funnily enough, the one item my Mom never felt she did well was pie crust – and the two times I made pies, the crust came out perfect… She always said she missed getting HER Mom’s fantastic Pie crust making gene. I guess I got it. However, those two times may have been flukes of good luck… Someday I’ll try pie crust again.

BUT, I made some really super chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I was truly amazed. I made some a few months ago and they were decent, but too crunchy. I have a terrible habit of leaving cookies and other baked goods in the oven to long because they don’t look done to me. I need to remember that, like meat, they keep cooking after being removed from the oven!

WELL, this time, I took them out before I thought they were done. Voila! That’s the trick I have to remember when baking! Also, here is what I did. I went on the Internet to look for tips and incorporated a few while using the standard Nestle’s Toll House cookie recipe.

First – and this probably has nothing to do with it – I needed more cookies than one batch would make and not enough of ingredients to double the recipe, so I just increased all the ingredients by 50%. Good thing, too, otherwise my mixing bowl would have been overflowing!

I let the eggs and butter come to room temperature (1 1/2 hours, I believe). Then, I melted the butter, being careful not to burn it, and let it cool a bit while still keeping it in liquid state before using in the recipe.

First, I measured and stirred to mix the flour, baking soda, and salt into a smaller bowl.

Then, I measured out the white and brown sugar and mixed them together with my hands in a big mixing bowl so I could use my fingers to break down as many lumps as possible in the brown sugar. (I had light brown sugar on hand that had not formed into the proverbial block, but it was a little lumpy.)

Then, I quickly added the vanilla (I used double the amount proportion than called for) to the somewhat cooled melted butter and poured the butter into the sugar mixture. Using a hand electric mixer (a stationary would have been easier, I am sure!) mixed/beat the sugars and butter until creamy.

After being absolutely certain the mixture was not at all warm anymore from the butter, I added one egg at a time, thoroughly mixing/beating each one in before adding the next.

Then I gradually added the flour mixture while still using the electric mixer. WELL, the poor mixture started getting bogged down towards the end because the batter was REALLY thick! Rather than risk burning out the motor, I used a fork to briskly mix/beat in the rest of the flour. (I doubt that made a difference – most folks probably have better electric mixers!)

I hand stirred in the chocolate chips – didn’t use nuts.

THEN – I covered the bowl of dough and stuck it in the fridge for about 4 hours. When I took it out (after pre-heating the oven to 375) it was REALLY stiff – almost hard. I was a bit apprehensive. But, it was really easy to work with. Well, a little tough spooning it out, but it didn’t stick to everything. I am trying to remember/think of a way to describe how much dough I used for each cookie…I was even going to weigh a few to be exact! But, I didn’t… I guess a heaping Tablespoon amount… The dough made 4 dozen for the coffeehouse (why the heck else to you think I was baking? You think I’d bake without someone saying they REALLY needed more cookies for a concert show? ) and ten more cookies for my husband. So 58 – well, actually 59 because one of them (being so soft when just out of the over, drooped over the edge of the cooling rack and was so disfigured that I had to eat it immediately to hide the evidence of my coordination blunder.

I cooked the cookies for about 9 or 10 minutes, took them out and let them sit on the tray for 2 minutes (yes, I used a timer for this part, too) then removed them to the cooling racks.

And, they came out GREAT! Chewy and all but definitely done. I think that melting the butter and chilling the dough thoroughly really made a difference. Also, rinsing the baking trays with cold water before reusing.

Here is the link I found with all the great tips – of which I only used a few:

https://www.well.com/~vard/cookies.html

If you read this at some later date than when I posted it and the link doesn’t work, email me because I have the article saved to a file.

Now I am off to experiment with a braised lamb recipe… shoulder blade chops. If it comes out well, I might use it for Easter. Now, that will be a whole other story as I get ready to host a family holiday gathering for the first time! I’ve done parties and all and cooking for a crowd, but this is the first time I will have done a HOLIDAY thing.

Anyway – happy baking if you are inspired to try out the toll house cookie tips!

Okay, my husband says THIS is the keeper! I made variations of it before, but I think I am ready to present an actual recipe….

NOTE: Many pressure cooker recipes don’t clue you in that it can take 15-25 minutes to come to pressure and also that much time to come back down to “natural release” pressure after cooking. It all depends on how full the pressure cooker is. [Never fill a pressure cooker more than 2/3 full – unless the bulk of what is filling it is a watery veggie like cabbage, etc. ] Pressure cooking is still quicker than stove-top in most cases, but do incorporate the “up to pressure” and any “natural pressure release” into your cooking to serving schedule!

Okay, here is a great recipe:

around 3lbs chuck cut up in chunks – maybe 1 1/2 inch or so pieces, give or take.
1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp or so olive oil
4 or 5 medium onions, halved and sliced thin – 1/8 inch or so
8-1o oz fresh sliced mushrooms
3 smallish carrots, diced (1/8 inch or so – not an exact science, here!)
1/2 cup red wine (can substitute apple juice in a pinch)
1 smallish butternut squash, peeled and cut in 1 1/2 or so inch chunks
1 cup stock (whatever – beef, chicken, veggie)
2 or 3 bay leaves, depending on size
thyme – about a tsp – to taste (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and then brown the beef in the pressure cooker. Stir a lot at first – it sticks! About 6-8 minutes (or so) until all sides are browned. Remove beef and set aside.

Scrape up any bits from browning the beef and put onions in pressure cooker over medium heat and cover (just a regular cover, not with the total pressure cooker with gasket!), in between stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. (If it seems really dry, add a dash more olive oil) Then add diced carrots and sliced mushrooms and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Do this at least until onions are starting to turn brown, but not getting burnt.

Add the wine (or apple juice) and cook until the liquid reduces by half.

Add stock, butternut squash, bay leaves, and the browned beef and put pressure cooker cover on and heat on high until it comes to pressure. Reduce burner temperature to high medium or whatever keeps the pressure on high. High pressure for 15 minutes, then remove to a cold burner and let pressure reduce naturally. (Do not ever do a quick pressure release with beef! It will make the meat tough!) [Quick pressure release can be done by running the pressure cooker under cold water – a technique used in and useful for many recipes – but NOT for beef!]

Once the pressure has gone down and you can open the pressure cooker, stir to find and remove bay leaves and also to get the butternut squash to dissolve into the broth. Yes, the squash will just dissolve – no chunks will be left. This is my inadvertant invention when I wanted to use up some squash a time back when I was messing around with this recipe. The squash thickens the broth and adds all sorts of nutrients without being obvious.

If you are on a low-fat diet, you can strain the liquid and degrease it, and then add it back before doing the following.

Bring the stew to a slow simmer, and add thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for at least 5 minutes to let flavors meld. (If you used apple juice instead of wine, a bit of lemon juice and parsley will go well, in addition to or instead of the thyme)

This is a low carb recipe. I didn’t mean to create it as such, but, no potatoes, no rice, no flour or cornstarch, or even kudzo (!) to thicken it…it is low carb since the butternut squash thickens it. And, my “meat and potatoes” husband loves this beef stew. A keeper in our family, anyway!

Well, nothing like starting a part-time job outside of the home to slow down blogging! I just finished my second week, so hopefully I am settling into my new schedule and will post more often again.

The other night, I made that old stand-by: pork chops baked on a bed of rice and cream of mushroom soup. My husband loves it – and it certainly qualifies as “comfort food” for all of us brought up in the 50s and 60s. Although, I suspect that it still makes frequent appearances at dinner tables. It is so easy! BUT – I am getting bored….

So far, this is what I do: four bone-in regular (versus thick-cut) pork chops. [on Manager’s Special sale at Shaw’s, of course!]

I always use bone-in chops for this.They add flavor, as well as entertainment at dinner for those who like to knaw on bones. 🙂

4 pork chops
3/4 cups long-grained rice
1 can Campbell’s Healthy Choice ™ cream of mushroom soup
1 cup water
3 medium carrots, chopped about an inch thick
1 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper
paprika

I mix the soup and water right in the casserole (9×12 or so), then add the rice and spread around, then the carrots and peas.

For the first time, I browned the chops first, first seasoning them with salt and fresh ground pepper. I think it made the chops more flavorful and more tender. The browning seals in flavor and moisture and helps keep the chops from being steamed versus roasted, I think.

Place the chops on the other stuff, and sprinkle with paprika. Then, cover tightly with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until done. It can sit for a bit in a warm oven, too, if folks aren’t quite ready for dinner.

Fresh mushrooms are an option that I have used before. Cream of celery soup with the fresh mushrooms is good, too. BUT – I need some seasoning ideas… Perhaps a curry flavor?? Nah – that would be too weird a change for comfort food – that would be a whole new recipe sans cream of anything soup. Anyway – I’ll keep thinking on it. Be nice to spice it up a bit (so to speak).

Tonight I am doing roast chicken – butterflied and cooked at 500 degrees. I have about 2 1/2 lbs of yukon gold potatoes sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch tossed in 1 Tbsp of olive oil and salt and pepper in the bottom of a broiler pan lined with oiled foil, with the chicken on the top part of the broiler pan – rubbed a bit of olive oil on the chicken, too and sprinkled with pepper. This recipe is courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated magazine. The taters roast up basted in the fat from the chicken above it. VERY yummy! I am going to steam asparagus (on sale at Farmland til Sat 3/25) to accompany.

When butterflying the chicken, I cut the backbone out. I’m saving that to make chicken stock, along with the carcass of the rest of the chicken after it is consumed. Or, maybe I’ll do one stock with the carcass and use the uncooked backbone to supplement a veggie stock… Decisions, decisions!

Well, it was worth the wait. I had a three lb boneless pork shoulder roast. the netted kind. Not on sale (unusual for me!) but it is an economical cut. Geez, maybe it was on sale. I know I paid just around $6 for it… Anyway…

The first time I prepared this sort of roast, I used a recipe from my Meat cookbook (see link of cookbook) that calls for browning the roast on all sides in olive oil, putting it in a covered casserole just big enough for it, pouring off the fat from the frying pan and adding white wine (or vermouth – I always keep that on hand) chicken stock, and maybe something else, bringing it to a boil and pouring it over the roast. BUT, I forgot! This recipe calls for 40, yes 40! peeled whole garlic cloves to be put in with the roast before pouring the liquid in. I did that last time and it was super. But this time:

I sliced a few apples and onions thinly, used a bigger covered casserole to accommodate the extra ingredients, and only put a few garlic cloves in before pouring the boiling liquid over the entire dish. Covered, let it slow roast at 350 for about 1 1/2 hours, and removed the roast and put the apples/onion mix in a saucepan. Hmmm, I let it cook down a bit. But I can’t remember if I added cornstarch to thicken… No, that was the cabbage and green bean side dish…

Along with very simple mashed potatoes (just a little butter, salt and pepper, and room temperature milk (creamier taters if the milk is warm or room temperature – I use evaporated milk that I keep in the fridge and thin it with hot water) I discovered a VERY COOL veggie dish.

So, I still had red cabbage in the fridge. And frozen french cut green beans…. I actually found a recipe for cabbage and green beans online! I really have to start getting these recipes up on another site to link to from here… But, if I remember correctly, it had a stock base with … dang. Some liquid base that also included vinegar…and cornstarch. Cook menstrum til thick, add the cabbage, and simmer for 1/2 an hour or so, then add the beans. Oh, now I remember…The recipe called for chicken bouillon and the reserved liquid from canned beans. I used chicken stock and some vegetable stock that I had on hand.

It was really good, and it well-complimented the apple/onion sauce that went over the pork.

Very delightful meal. Steve didn’t even complain about having it two nights in a row! definitely a keeper. Just scrumptious, as my dear friend Lori would say about a really tasty meal.

An aside – In conversation a month or so ago with my father-in-law, Grump mentioned proudly that his wife (sadly, now deceased) never served the same thing two nights in a row. Well…THAT explains my husband’s aversion to my following the way my mother cooked. You know – the roast on Sunday, same meal on Monday, and as many variations as she could think up for the following nights until all was used up! Luckily, I have adjusted – Steve will eat the night before’s leftovers for lunch. And, when it is something he REALLY likes, I can get away with just reheating for dinner the next evening. 🙂 Ah, the compromises of marriage!

Tonight – I got a good deal on New York Strip steak. Steve is always happy to grill, and I am making baked sweet potato “fries” and will steam some zucchini (to be served with melted butter with fresh lemon added as a very light sauce) to accompany. Why zucchini? Just happened to catch my eye at the store, today.

I’ll have an added challenge to meal preparation as of next week. I just got a very cool part-time job. Only Tues-Thursday and I’ll be home by 4:00 pm. But, sometimes I do start marinades earlier, and also start thinking about what to cook earlier (I work from home, otherwise) so I’ll have to do some additional pre-planning. Okay – this has gone on long enough!

Tomorrow, a boneless pork shoulder roast (the netted kind). Didn’t get going on it soon enough this evening.
Tonight, I am using the last pound of frozen chicken tenders from Trader Joes. Defrosted them on the counter for about an hour then chopped them up while still a bit frozen.

sauteed garlic in the wok (used peanut oil tonight) then added thinly sliced carrots – julienned but not really thin – and cooked til pretty soft. Removed the carrots, cooked the chicken. In the meantime, I cooked 3/4 cup rice in 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (made that the other day with leftovers backbone and wings from a chicken I cut up, skinned, and froze)

Removed the chicken, wokked the rice for a bit to get it halfway to crunchy. Added frozen peas, then some chopped parsley. A sprinkling of tamari and toasted sesame oil, too.

Smells good – will soon find out if it tastes good!

I was going to make pea soup tonight. However, my “mouse” wrist is killing me. It is also my “chopping” wrist. Okay, time to seriously try the left hand for the mouse. And do sausage and pasta for dinner – with not many ingredients in the accompanying salad!

Arrrgh. Well, pea soup tomorrow, then. I am going to use ham hocks for the first time. I usually wait until I’ve cooked a bone-in ham, but my favorite brand (Cooks) is not on sale and we did have one within the past month. I’m kind of a ham snob. I don’t by the kind with “water added product” or whatever on the label.

I finally discovered that Farmland (my favorite local market in Wakefield MA) has a stash of ham hocks in their freezer section! Assuming they do the trick, that means not having to wait to cook up a ham to make really good pea soup. I just don’t like it as much unless the peas are cooked with a ham bone of some sort.

About ham – have you ever heard this definition of eternity? Two people and a ham. But, if you freeze leftovers for sandwiches and make a nice pea soup with the bone and scraps, it goes a lot more quickly!

Okay – time to visualize a happier wrist. If I can’t use the computer and can’t chop veggies, I’m in big trouble!

I’m writing down everything as I go, and even started typing in the recipe on my yet-to-be-published and linked recipe page, but then realized that I have no idea how this is going to come out. It might take a few tries before I have a recipe worth sharing!

I loved the onion and mushroom based recipe (see 2/14 post Not Your Mom’s Beef Stew) but didn’t want to do the “many hours” of stovetop beef stew cooking. And, I didn’t feel like getting the specific sort of beer called for. And, I wanted to use up a modestly sized butternut squash.
SO – I am creating a beef stew based partly on the onion/mushroom recipe and partly on Lorna Sass’s guidelines for a pressure cooked beef stew – and using butternut squash instead of the usual carrots and celery. (By the way, her recipe is great as is – I just wanted to experiment.)

…well…it tastes good. I added dried and fresh parsley, dried dill, and a Tbsp of lemon juice. Not sure yet, but next time I’ll try doing all the onions and mushrooms in the pressure cooker. This time, thinking they might cook down too much with the 15 minutes high pressure for the beef, I reserved half of the onions and mushrooms and sauteed them and added them afterwards. They are just a teeeeny bit too firm for this stew.

The butternut squash was fine – yes, 15 minutes high pressure is too much for it if you want chunks, but it turned into puree and thickened the stew when I stirred it after letting the pressure come down naturally.

Hmm – I might publish the recipe in “beta” form before trying it again, but with few onions and mushrooms and having them all go for the full pressure instead of reserving half to add afterwards. The true test will be when we have dinner. 🙂