Honey Mustard Dressing

February 14, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

I am part of a small group of the very awesome women who get together once a week for lunch and knitting and we call ourselves the Knit Wits. We have the most incredible pot lucks and parties. Sometimes our pot lucks are out of control because we never just each make one thing. Everyone brings along Rubbermaid containers so we can take leftovers home! We all love to cook and bake and share recipes. One of my Knit Wit friends served us a gorgeous salad with honey mustard dressing and the dressing recipe has become one of my favorites. Easy to make.

Ingredients:

6 T mayonnaise

3 T Dijon mustard

3 T honey

3 T white wine vinegar

1 T grated onion

I combine all of the ingredients in my mini food processor and pulse a couple of times.

Voila! Awesome honey mustard dressing.

It’s what was for dinner last night along with smashed cauliflower and herb crusted pork loin.

Enjoy!

Pork Steaks and Onion Gravy

February 13, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

One of my favorite memories of dinner at my Grandparents involved pork chops fried in a cast iron skillet with the darkest, richest onion gravy and mashed potatoes. I’m sure the pork chops were organic and locally raised before that even became a thing. My grandfather was a real meat and potatoes guy and this was one of his favorite meals as well. I don’t think the carrots would have made his plate. I remember my grandpa (and my uncle when he visited) eating the fat from all our chops. The fat was fried crispy and I’m sure it was very tasty but the rest of us trimmed it off and passed it down.

Tonight I used pork steaks rather than chops and I marinated them which my grandma would not have done. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate her chops and gravy but to me our dinner had a little taste of nostalgia.

Ingredients:

4 bone-in pork chops or pork steaks

1 cup strong, black coffee

1/4 cup molasses

2 T cider vinegar

2 T Dijon mustard

2-3 garlic cloves sliced

salt and pepper to taste

2 T canola oil

2 T butter

1 large onion rough chopped

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups mushroom or vegetable broth (my grandmother would have used the water from boiling the potatoes)

Combine coffee, molasses, vinegar, and Dijon in a bowl and whisk together.

Slice the garlic cloves and add to the marinade.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the marinade. Season the chops or steaks with salt and pepper, put them in a gallon zip lock bag along with the rest of the marinade and seal. Allow the meat to marinate for 1-2 hours occasionally turning the bag.

Once the meat has marinaded, heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat and sear the meat on both sides.

Once the meat has been seared on both sides remove it to a platter and add the onion to the drippings in the skillet. Cook the onions over medium heat until they are tender and beginning to brown.

Add the butter and the flour to the onions and continue stirring. Slowly add the broth and the 1/2 cup of marinade continuing to stir until it thickens and you have a nice dark rich gravy.

Put the chops back in the gravy, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Serve with smashed potatoes and a vegetable side and enjoy this simple, old fashioned dinner.

NOTE: I cooked my potatoes with the skins on and added a couple whole cloves of garlic to the cooking water. I smashed the potatoes and garlic along with a tablespoon of horseradish for a little extra zip.

Even though, to my knowledge, my grandmother did not marinade meat she would have approved of my use of strong black coffee. Coffee was almost always the beverage of choice at their house.

Jambalaya

February 11, 2015February 11, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

Mardi Gras a little early. We should have worn our beads at dinner.

The organic farm I get my meat from makes a great andouille and I had some in my freezer. While I’m not a huge fan of highly spiced foods my husband loves the heat. I decided to use my andouille and some shrimp I also had in the freezer and make a jambalaya. Cooking for me is almost always about improvising…putting my own spin on things. Improvising also becomes a necessity when you don’t have all the ingredients a recipe calls for and the grocery is a 30 minute drive.

Ingredients:

3 T olive or canola oil (divided)

4 links of andouille sausage

2 doz shrimp with tails

1 large onion rough chopped

1 orange sweet pepper rough chopped

3 stalks of celery rough chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic sliced

1 pint stewed tomatoes

8 oz bottle clam juice

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup flour

2 T franks hot sauce

1 14 oz can red beans

Spice Mix:

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt to taste

In a large heavy skillet heat 1 T of the oil over medium high heat. Slice the sausage and sear both sides.

Once the sausage has been seared on both sides put on a plate and set aside. Put broth, clam juice and tomatoes in a saucepan and heat. Add remaining oil to the skillet with the pan drippings and heat. Whisk in flour to make a roux. Continue whisking over medium heat until the roux turns a golden brown taking care not to burn. Whisk about 10 minutes.

Add the celery, onion and pepper to the roux and continue stirring over medium heat.

Slowly pour in the sauce pan of clam juice, tomatoes and broth continually stirring until gravy begins to thicken. Stir in the spice mixture and salt to taste. Add the andouille and red beans and simmer uncovered over low heat for about 15 minutes.

Add the shrimp and simmer for a couple of minutes until the shrimp is heated through. I used pre-cooked shrimp. Uncooked shrimp will require a couple more minutes to cook through.

Ladle your jambalaya into bowls and top with rice. Garnish with fresh parsley or sliced green onions and enjoy!

For those that want additional heat put the Franks or Tabasco on the table. But this had plenty of kick for me. Tasted really great with a nice cold beer.

NOTE: I used long grain rice and cooked it in chicken broth for a little extra flavor.

Seared Tuna with Mushrooms, Snow Peas and Sweet Red Peppers

February 6, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

My absolute favorite ocean fish is tuna. The only kind of tuna I was exposed to growing up came in a can and was packed in oil. We ate it with miracle whip, chopped onion and maybe a little pickle relish on Bunny bread…Bunny bread was the UP Wonder bread. We also ate it mixed with egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup and peas. The infamous tuna noodle casserole. In the early 1970s I was following a Weight Watcher’s diet which required 5 fish meals a week (shell fish for only one meal a week) and tuna in a can was my best friend. I wish I still had my Weight Watcher’s recipe cards because there were some truly bizarre concoctions using tuna!

This recipe is pure awesomeness and involves neither a can nor Weight Watchers.

Ingredients:

8-10 oz tuna steak

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

4 scallions sliced thin

2 cloves garlic grated

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger grated

2 T peanut or canola oil for searing

With a microplane grate both the garlic and ginger.

Whisk together all of the ingredients.

Place the tuna in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over the tuna.

Allow the tuna to marinate for 30-60 minutes. While the tuna marinates prepare the vegetables.

Ingredients:

2 T canola oil

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 1/2 cups snow peas

1 sweet red pepper sliced thin

1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated

2 cloves of garlic sliced thin

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 T hoisin sauce

1 T pickled ginger

1/2 cup ginger ale or fresh squeezed orange juice

green onions thin sliced for garnish

Heat canola oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and peppers and cook until lightly browned, 4-5 minutes.

Add the garlic and snow peas and cook until the peas are lightly charred.

Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and stir to combine. Deglaze the pan with the ginger ale or orange juice. Keep warm while searing the tuna.

Heat 2 T peanut oil or canola oil in a heavy skillet like cast iron. Remove tuna from the marinade and pat dry. Season both sides with fresh cracked pepper. When the oil is very hot sear the tuna, one minute per side.

Remove the tuna from the skillet and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Slice the tuna.

Serve with rice. Spoon the vegetables over the rice along with some of the sauce. Put the tuna on the plate and garnish with the green onions.

One of my favorite meals!

NOTE: When I buy a piece of ginger I peel it, cut it into pieces and put it in zip lock bags in the freezer. Ginger is easy to grate when it’s frozen.

Rice Pudding

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

For years we regularly went to a little diner called the Virginia. Their specialty was coney islands and whenever you went there you left smelling a little like onions and coney sauce. The Virginia made great steak and eggs for breakfast and waffles shaped like the state of Michigan. Their French fries had just the perfect amount of grease and they made a tasty liver and onion dish. Part of the charm of the Virginia was the regulars…some real characters, and the waitresses who had all worked there for years and years. But one of the best memories of the Virginia was their amazing rice pudding. No matter what you ate there was always room for rice pudding!! This recipe is good but does not quite replicate the Virginia’s rice pudding. This rice pudding was made in a pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

2 cups whole milk

1 14oz can coconut milk

1 cup water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup golden raisins (or dried tart cherries)

Put the rice in a colander. Rinse and drain.

Place the rice, milk, water, sugar, salt and cinnamon in the cooking pot.

Select sauté and bring mixture to a low boil stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, cover and lock the lid in place. Select low pressure and set the timer for 15 minutes. After the beep use the quick pressure release to release pressure. When the float drops remove the lid away from you and stir in the vanilla and raisins.

Place the cover back on the pot but do not turn on. Let stand 15 minutes while the raisins plump up. Stir and serve. Garnish with a little cinnamon and whipped cream. If we were at the Virginia the waitress would bring a handful of the little half n half containers to pour on our rice pudding.

I will definitely make this again in my pressure cooker because it was fast and very tasty. But I would make a few modifications. Today I added about a half cup of half n half at the very end to make it a little creamier. Also I would wait and stir the cinnamon in at the very end.

Rice pudding, it’s what’s for dessert.

But I still kind of miss the Virginia.

Kale with Dried Cherries

February 3, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

This is a little different take on kale; a little sweet and a little sour. Kale is rich in vitamins A, C and K. Some recipes refer to it as a super food. I used curly kale and dinosaur (Dino) kale in this recipe. Even people who aren’t sure about eating cooked greens might like this combination.

Ingredients:

4 cups of washed, torn kale leaves

2 T olive oil

1/2 cup minced red onion

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1 T Dijon mustard

1 T granulated sugar

2 T cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup dried cherries

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until the onion is softened but not browned.

Add the stock, vinegar, sugar, and dijon to the skillet and bring to a simmer.

Add the kale to the skillet, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover, add the cherries and simmer for 15 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half.

I served this with chicken piccata and quinoa. But I think it would be an excellent side with any pork or poultry dishes.

Enjoy your greens!

Chicken Piccata

February 3, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Chicken cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley and butter. And, in my interpretation, a few other ingredients. Yesterday was a snowy winter day and even though we weren’t snowed in, today was a great stay at home day watching cooking shows and HGTV. I had taken a chicken breast out of the freezer and was inspired to make the piccata because of a dish I saw prepared on The Chew today. On the Chew the chicken was marinaded in lemon juice, grilled and then topped with a mixture of parsley, garlic, capers, and olive oil. Sounded wonderful.

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts sliced thin

2 T olive oil

4 T butter, divided

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest

3/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup capers rinsed and chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic sliced thin

1/4 cup parsley chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil has heated add 1 T of butter to the skillet. Dredge the chicken in the flour or put in a zip lock bag and shake to coat. Cook the chicken a couple minutes per side and set aside on a platter. Continue until all of the chicken has been lightly browned. You don’t want to over cook the chicken.

Once the chicken is done add the chicken broth, lemon juice, capers, 1T of lemon zest, garlic, and parsley to the skillet.

Scrape up any browned bits in the skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken back into the skillet and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the chicken to a platter or casserole dish. Add the remaining 3T of butter to the sauce and pour over the chicken.

I served the chicken with quinoa cooked in chicken broth with a bit of garlic and kale cooked with dried cherries. Proved to be a great combination of tastes! It’s what was for dinner tonight.

NOTE: It’s easiest to thin slice your chicken breasts if they are still slightly frozen.

Lemon Bars

February 1, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

This is Super Bowl Sunday and I was asked to bring something sweet to the party. I thought about making football shaped sugar cookies or some clever sports themed cake but vetoed both for lemon bars and chocolate chip cookies. I have had this lemon bar recipe for ages and am not sure where I first got it. Simple to make. Very rich. Very sweet.

Preheat oven to 325.

Ingredients for the crust:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup melted butter

Ingredients for the filling:

4 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

4 eggs beaten

2 cups granulated sugar

4 T flour

Whisk together the flour and powdered sugar.

Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Put the crust into an ungreased 9×13 pan and, using your fingers, pat the crust down evenly. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

While the crust is baking prepare the lemon mixture. Whisk the flour and sugar together. Whisk the eggs well.

Squeeze the lemons. Mine were particularly juicy and I got more than 4 T from one lemon.

Once the crust is baked increase the oven temperature to 350. Whisk together the lemon juice, eggs, and flour/sugar mixture. Pour over crust and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Put the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Cut into bars and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy! I’m thinking they’re yummier than football shaped sugar cookies.

My contribution to the last football Sunday of the season.

(You can find the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies in an earlier post.)

Sweet n Sour Stuffed Cabbage

January 31, 2015January 31, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Sweet n sour cabbage rolls, smashed new potatoes and homemade applesauce. It’s what was for dinner. I think my actual favorite thing about this dish is the cabbage and sauerkraut “gravy” that you cook the cabbage rolls in. I’m thinking that all of the leftovers would make an awesome pot of soup for the next day. This is another dish that I did in the pressure cooker but you could do this on the stovetop and finish it in the oven or even a crockpot and it would be every bit as good. What makes this recipe for cabbage rolls a little unique is the addition of sauerkraut And balsamic vinegar to the mix. See what you think.

Ingredients:

large head of green cabbage

1 pound or so of ground beef, pork or lamb

1 large sweet onion divided

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1 cup cooked long grain white or brown rice

1 large egg

fresh mint chopped

2 T canola oil

2 cups fresh (refrigerated) sauerkraut

1 can tomato sauce

1 pint stewed tomatoes

1/2 cup chicken broth or stock

2 T balsamic vinegar

3 T granulated sugar

Carefully separate the large outer leaves of the cabbage and dip each leaf in a pot of simmering, salted water to soften. This will make the cabbage leaves much easier to work with. Chop the remainder of the cabbage and set aside.

Combine the ground meat, rice, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion, egg, and mint.

Mix well with your hands and shape into 7 or 8 “footballs”.

Put one of the ovals on the core end of the cabbage leaf. Begin rolling it up folding in the sides to make a neat package.

Put the cabbage rolls seam side down on a plate and set aside.

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker over medium heat. Rough chop the rest of the onion and add the onion and chopped cabbage to the hot oil. Sauté for a few minutes to soften.

Add the sauerkraut, tomatoes, tomato sauce, stock, vinegar and sugar and stir together. I didnt have fresh sauerkraut and substitued canned.

Arrange the cabbage rolls in the sauce. Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Release the pressure naturally.

Serve the cabbage rolls with some of the sauce.

NOTE: A cabbage roll is a savory entree that you can stuff with a variety of ingredients. Instead of rice you could use barley or quinoa. You can add mushrooms or other vegetables to the stuffing. Cabbage rolls are part of the traditional cuisine of many European and Balkan countries. In Finland they are known as kaalikääryle. I don’t ever remember eating these as a child but apparently in Finland cabbage rolls are baked in the oven and are brushed with dark syrup. The syrup glaze is made with bacon, dark corn syrup, and tomato paste. I may have to try that next time. And of course they served them with fresh lingonberries or lingonberry jam.

Juustoa (Finnish Squeaky Cheese)

January 30, 2015January 30, 2015 / featherheadlady / 4 Comments

I have always loved juustoa. It’s a very mild, fresh cheese that “squeaks” when you bite into a piece, especially when it is still warm. It’s a cheese that you rarely see in a deli or cheese counter unless you live in the UP (of Michigan). I can’t buy it where I currently live so I decided I would make my own. I got on line and found some recipes and video instructions. The recipes varied slightly but overall were very similar. I have absolutely no cheese making experience but I always say, if you can read and follow instructions you can make anything. Well I’m not sure I still believe that. If you’re at all familiar with juustoa you will recognize the picture at the beginning of this post as bearing some resemblance.

Ingredients:

2 gallons skim or raw milk (the recipe I chose to follow stressed that whole pasteurized milk would not work)

1 pint heavy cream

3 T sugar

1 tsp salt

2 T cornstarch

1/2 vegetable rennet tablet or 1/2 tsp liquid rennet

I found rennet at my local food coop and organic skim milk from a local dairy. There is animal rennet and vegetable rennet. Rennet causes the proteins in milk to form a curd. You might not want to know what either type of rennet is derived from so I won’t go into that. It’s just important to know that it’s an ingredient essential in the cheese making process. I got out my big stainless kettle and heated the milk and cream over medium heat to exactly 90 degrees.

I removed the kettle from the heat and added the sugar, salt, cornstarch and rennet. The recipe said the milk should gel in 20-40 minutes. The readiness test is to insert the handle of a wooden spoon in the center and it should leave a hole. Its at this point the process failed. No “hole” after 20 minutes, 40 minutes or even 90 minutes.

I googled, “what if the rennet doesn’t set up”. It suggested I add half again the amount of rennet the recipe called for so I added another 1/4 tsp of rennet and waited some more. Now it’s been a few hours. I’ve rearranged the furniture in my house, done a couple loads of laundry. Still my milky concoction has not gelled.

I’ve invested too much money and time and I’m determined to make something of this mess. I got out a large mesh strainer and poured the pot of clotted milk into the strainer. I’m reminded of little miss muffet sitting on a tuffet eating her curds and whey. I cannot fathom eating the curds and whey. This was a real challenge to my weak stomach. I got rid of as much of the whey as possible and poured the curds into a round 9″ glass pan. I preheated the oven to 400 and put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. After about 10 minutes I checked and removed my cheese from the oven and siphoned whey with my turkey baster. A whole cup. I put it back in the oven, reset the timer for another 10 minutes. I removed another half cup of whey. But I’m finally getting a solid mass that is holding together pretty well.

Now I turned the broiler on and put the cheese under the broiler until it was browned. I took it out and waited until it had cooled down enough to flip and put side two under the broiler to brown. As soon as it had cooled enough I cut a piece off.

It tastes just like I remember. And it squeaked!!!

I’m going to do a little more research and try again. Even though my recipe said to use skim or raw milk other recipes did not specify skim milk. Organic vegetable rennet apparently has a 4 month shelf life. Since there was no date on my bottle perhaps my rennet was outdated and losing its potency. It was a little disappointing to have things go awry but I’m glad I was able to salvage enough to make a little juustoa. Sorry there aren’t more pictures but most of the process was not at all photogenic.