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!

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.

Coleslaw

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

This weekend we had an at-home fish fry with friends. They brought the walleye and fried it up and I made the sides. For me an essential side with fish is coleslaw. I also like coleslaw on my fish tacos. I have had some really awesome slaws and some very mediocre…or worse…slaws. I like my coleslaw to have crunch and to be a little tangy, a little bit sweet. It’s something that should be made a bit ahead so the flavors can marry. It even makes a great midnight snack, speaking from experience!

Ingredients:

10 cups, approximately, of shredded or finely chopped cabbage

1 cup of matchsticked carrots

1/2 cup of matchsticked radishes

1/2 cup of red onion chopped (more or less based on personal taste)

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup half n half

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 T white wine vinegar

2 T fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

You can shred your own cabbage or purchase a bag of shredded cabbage (2# bag). Shred or use a mandolin to matchstick your radishes and carrots. Chop your onion.

Mix your vegetables together in a large bowl.

Whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour over the vegetables. Toss well and refrigerate. Mix a couple more times before serving.

Enjoy!

NOTE: Like any salad you can add or delete items. Just don’t delete the cabbage or it wouldn’t be coleslaw. According to NPR the term coleslaw came from the Dutch term koolsla… “kool” means cabbage and “sla” means salad. We anglicized kool into cole. While it’s best served cold, it’s coleslaw, not cold slaw.

Barbecued Beef Brisket

November 18, 2014February 13, 2016 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

I had a beautiful beef brisket from my organic farm and decided that would make a perfect Monday night dinner. My dad is spending a couple of weeks with us and he is pretty much a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I make a rub for my brisket, sear all sides and then make a wet sauce that has a little bit of a kick.

A friend once told me that her daughter and son-in-law were gourmet cooks and I asked her what exactly that meant. She said gourmet cooking means smaller portions on larger plates. There is a little truth to that I think. I looked up gourmet in the dictionary and one definition was “a connoisseur of fine food and drink”. A gourmand can also mean “one who enjoys food in great quantities or even a gluttonous eater”. It’s all subject to interpretation. I consider my brisket fine food and the IPA I enjoyed with it fine drink. And we are all pretty full if that constitutes gluttonous eating. You be the judge. But if someone asked me I would call our dinner tonight “plain home cooking”. Barbecued brisket, smashed potatoes and butter roasted carrots…it’s what was for dinner tonight.

Start out with a nice beef brisket.

Rub ingredients:

1/4 cup paprika

1 T chili powder

1 T cumin

1 T brown sugar

1 T kosher salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

fresh ground black pepper

With a little whisk or a fork thoroughly mix all of the rub ingredients together in a bowl. Rub spice mix on all sides of the meat.

Heat 2 T of olive oil in a heavy skillet or Dutch oven and sear all sides of the meat.

Preheat your oven to 325. Now you’re ready to make the barbecue sauce.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups ketchup (I always use Brooks)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup chopped onion (or more if you like)

3 T cider vinegar

3 T Worcestershire

2 chipotles in adobo sauce finely chopped (or more if you like)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

Chop your onion and chipotle peppers.

Combine all of the sauce ingredients and whisk together to combine.

Pour the sauce over your beautifully seared brisket, put the cover on your Dutch oven, and put it in the oven for approximately four hours.

You will want to flip the brisket over from one side to the other a couple times during the cooking process. Once it’s done remove it to a platter and let it rest a few minutes before slicing it against the grain. Serve with the barbecue sauce. We all had seconds!

If you’d rather be less “gourmet” you could make really awesome barbecued brisket sandwiches and serve them with chips and cole slaw or a little potato salad.

Citrus Vinegarette

November 17, 2014November 18, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

A friend generously shared some salmon with us that he caught on a charter in Lake Michigan and I decided to cook it for dinner tonight. I prepared it very simply. I always soak fish in milk for 30 minutes or so. I dried the fish off, tossed it in a zip lock bag with a little flour, cornmeal, and lemon pepper and pan fried it in a cast iron skillet with a little canola oil and butter. Fish cooks very quickly so make sure the other components of your dinner are near ready when you start cooking your fish. But this post is about the citrus Vinegarette that I decided would be light, refreshing and would add a little interest to the salmon.

Vinegarette Ingredients:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 T honey

1 medium shallot minced

2 T fresh parsley chopped

5 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Combine the orange, lemon and lime juices in a small sauce pan and simmer until reduced by half.

Pour the citrus reduction into a bowl to cool. Meanwhile, mince the shallot and parsley.

Once the the reduction has cooled whisk in the honey, shallots and parsley and salt and pepper.

Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking.

Drizzle a tablespoon of the Vinegarette over each piece of salmon and put the Vinegarette on the table so you can add more if desired.

Oven roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts and pan fried salmon with citrus Vinegarette. It’s what was for dinner.

Any left over Vinegarette will be great served as a dressing for salad.

Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad

November 3, 2014 / featherheadlady / 3 Comments

This is a favorite salad recipe that a good friend shared with me. It has so many flavors that I love…basil, mint, lemon, garlic. How can anything with those components not be good!! I have increased the “greens” in her recipe but other than that it remains as shared.

Salad Ingredients

10 scallions, white and light green parts thinly sliced

1 cup ripe cherry or grape tomatoes halved

1 cucumber seeded and diced

1 16-oz can of chickpeas rinsed and drained

1 cup fresh parsley

1 cup fresh mint

1 cup fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

5-6 cloves of garlic minced

kosher salt and black pepper to taste

8 oz feta cheese in 1/2 inch dice

Wash all the herbs well. I like to use my salad spinner.

Remove all of the stems. I use a few pulses of my food processor to chop the herbs.

Diced the the cucumbers and halve the tomatoes. I used small salad cucumbers so I diced three of them.

Rinse and drain the chickpeas.

I had no green onions on hand so I diced some red onion. Either works well in this salad.

Combine all the minced herbs, vegetables and chickpeas in a large bowl. Mince the garlic, squeeze the lemons for 1/2 cup of juice, and measure out a half cup of olive oil. Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil and garlic together and pour over the salad. Gently toss to coat the vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Dice the feta cheese and toss in the salad.

This salad is perfect served with warm pita bread or on lettuce leaves. Or just sit down with a fork and a bowl and enjoy. I served it tonight as a side with sweet potatoes and smoked pork chops. It’s what was for dinner tonight.

Tomatillo and Pork Chili

September 3, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

I love to go through cooking magazines and find recipes that look interesting, have lots of veggies, and different spice combos. I’m fortunate that I have a husband who eats almost everything and anything. This is a recipe that I found in Eating Well. I’ve made a couple modifications…one on purpose, another quite by accident. But I’ve made it several times and we always enjoy it.

Tomatillo and Pork Chili…it’s what’s for dinner tonight.

In a large Dutch oven heat 3T of olive oil over medium heat. Add:

1 large onion diced

1# ground pork (I used ground pork breakfast sausage)

Cook until meat is no longer pink.

Add:

3 cups diced tomatillos

1 cup diced pablano pepper (about 2 medium)

Now add your seasoning:

2 T minced chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

3 T dried oregano

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

Now add the canned goods:

1 15 oz can cannelloni beans (white kidney beans)

1 15 oz can white or yellow hominy

Rinse the beans and hominy before adding.

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used my home canned stewed tomatoes)

Finally, add the liquid:

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

OR, as I mistakenly did,

3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth and

1 12-oz bottle lager style beer 🙂

Bring to a boil and reduced heat to a simmer. Cook on low partially covered for about 50 minutes until the liquid is reduced and thickened.

Serve this chili with any or all of the following garnishes:

Sliced black olives , cheddar or jack cheese, diced green onions, diced avocado, or jalapeños. Like me, you can modify to your personal taste. I’m fortunate that I have an awesome organic farm very near by where I get excellent meats. I love their breakfast sausage and tried that as an experiment and it worked!

Now I need to make us some cornbread to go with the chili. I’ll post the cornbread later.