Rome without a 6 Hour Flight

 

 

Traveling to Europe, many moons ago, taught me about the simplicity that we as Americans don't know about Italy. Not everything has to be covered in sweet tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese! This type of dish illustrates exactly what you would enjoy sitting in a quaint restaurant in Rome enjoying a glass of wine. I wrote this dish as a truly 30 minute meal for a busy weeknight dinner that you can shop for early in week because the ingredients will stay fresh for days in the refrigerator. Touche, to my friends who are yelling at their screens noting that there are no vegetables included in this one (it's a rarity for me these days). To lighten things up, Hubby to Be and I trimmed salad greens from the garden outside and seasoned them with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar for a light side dish.

 

Recipe of the Day: Authentic Fusilli with Alfredo Sauce

 

1/2 lb fusilli noodles (the long curly ones with a hole through the middle)

2 large handfuls from a small container of shredded parmesan cheese

2-3 tbsp half and half

1/2 stick butter

fresh ground pepper

1/2 c leftover pasta cooking water

 

Boil the noodles for the time indicated on the bag. Prior to draining the noodles, reserve 1/2-1 cup cooking water. Return the noodles to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot immediately, tossing with tongs (don't mix it with a spoon, you don't want the noodles to break down) until well combined. Serve hot with a green salad to balance the meal. Feel free to add more or less of each of the ingredients to achieve the consistency you're looking for.

Buffa-slow chicken

Recipe of the day: Buffa-slow Chicken

For me, true buffalo chicken is a tad spicy. But it is a classic as well as a well-known "man food", so I put a creamy spin on this crock pot recipe which requires occasion add-ins during the cooking process. Your whole family will love this mild version, served on top of rice with shredded cheddar or on a sandwich bun.

2 frozen chicken breasts

½ bottle hot wing sauce
1 8oz brick cream cheese
1 12 oz can beer (any kind-I used light)

Slow-cooker time: 8 hours-varied temperature noted below

Place in slow cooker on high for 2 hours, then switch to low for 4 hours. Stir occasionally.

Get ready to add after the 6 hours:

2 carrots, peeled finely diced

½ onion, thinly sliced

Continue to cook on high for 1 hour.

Last but not least:

1 cup frozen corn.

Switch to low. Add 1 cup frozen corn, stir. Cook 1 more hour, then keep on low until ready to serve.

To Grill or Not to Grill

We have all, in the recent past, learned the lesson the hard way that one, Pinterest comes up with some bad ideas, and two, some things do not belong on the grill. There had been a huge increase in popularity lately for grilled watermelon. A recent Pinterest search pops up hundreds, if not thousands, of recipes on achieving this supposedly succulent creation. Watermelon appears to be one of those items. To me it tastes like a food item sorely forgotten at a family picnic, having spent hours in the sun becoming nothing more than a breeding ground for three days off of work from food poisoning. Refrigerating the watermelon after grilling and sprinkling lightly with coarse sea salt (with some sorbet on the side) seems to solve that problem, but why bother grilling it in the first place if you are going to do that?? (smh)

So instead I offer a more appropriate solution, with beautiful summer grilled peaches. The brown sugar balances the smoky taste of the fruit, and a little ice cream on the side adds a creamy kick that makes this feel like a more complete dessert. Easy, simple, Pinterest-follower friendly.

Recipe of the day: Grilled Peaches with Brown Sugar

4 peaches
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil (enough for drizzling)
1/4 cup granulated brown sugar
4 tbsp butter (1 tbsp for each peach)
ice cream, for serving

Preheat the grill to medium/medium low (too hot and the fruit will burn and stick without softening). Slice the ripe peaches in half and twist away from the pit. Lightly drizzle the cut side of the peaches with vegetable or canola oil, and place cut side down onto the grill. Cook for 3-5 minutes until well-browned but not burnt. Flip over onto skin side, place pats of butter in the middle of each peach, and sprinkle lightly with granulated brown sugar. Close the lid to the grill, turn down to low flame, and allow to cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until fruit is softened and the butter is melted. Serve fruit while it is still warm with ice cream on the side.

Enjoy!

Burger: Impossible

Rachael Ray does them. Bobby Flay does them. Guy Fieri does them. I, apparently, cannot do them. I read hundreds of recipes to see what kind of process is behind getting the cheese that is normally on the outside of a burger on the inside. Seemed pretty simple: form the patties, stuff with cheese, throw em on the grill. Oh so wrong. It was nothing short of a messy disaster which utilized every dish and utensil we have in our kitchen. What I served was not quite as close to accomplishing the goal of a stuffed burger, and its in need of a little bit of "reworking." Let's begin.

Recipe of the day: Stuffed Burgers

1 1/4 lb 80/20 ground beef
1 tsp Rachael Ray burger seasoning (use whatever seasoning you like)
2 tbsp bottled barbecue sauce
1 small wheel herb Boursin cheese
coarse ground salt and pepper
Toppings: ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, lettuce, tomato
Kaiser rolls

In a bowl, mix the beef, burger seasoning and barbecue sauce together until well incorporated. Score the meat with your hand while it is still in the bowl to form an X (this way your burgers end up evenly proportioned). Take that quarter of mixture, and divide it in half again. Form a thin patty with half the meat and place on a cutting board. Create a well in the middle of the burger to make room for the cheese, place a large slice of the cheese in the middle of the well, and top with the second half of the quarter-ball of meat that was removed from the bowl. Essentially, you will make 8 patties out of the meat mixture, one on top of the other to make a total of four ~4oz. burgers. Once formed, season the burger surface well with coarsely ground salt and pepper. This (should) form a crust while the burger is cooking on the grill.

This is when the trouble began. We heated up the grill outside and placed the burgers over a medium high flame:

And at this point, we ran out of propane for the grill. So into the kitchen we went directly into a hot pan with a little melted butter:

Its at this point that the burgers separated into two patties, and the cheese melted out. But I stuck with it, continuing to cook the burgers until they were well-cooked through charred little hockey pucks. I served the burgers as pictured at the beginning of this blog. The flavors were successful as a whole, but the cheese staying on the inside of the burger is a life mystery I have yet to solve. Hopefully you will have better luck than me, and I am open to any suggestions you Pinterest folks and fellow bloggers may have on how to improve this recipe.

hot dogs for Foodies

Few will watch the Food Network and see hot dogs fawned over like fois gras...but since those hosts don't actually have to feed "normal people" on a regular basis (no, the guy behind the camera doesn't count), it begs the question of what everyone will really want to eat at this year's shortly upcoming barbecue, picnic, or dinner get-together.

First is a recipe that many of you will have to try to believe in. It's combination is interesting at best, but the sauce that develops with leave you wondering how you've ever gone so long without it in your life.

Recipe of the Day (Part 1): Crockpot Cocktail Dogs

1 package mini-hot dogs or Lil Smokies
1 jar grape jelly
1 bottle Heinz 57

In a fitting crockpot (you don't have to use the largest one you have), combine the above 3 ingredients and cover. Set to low for 4 hours, though you will not need it to cook for that long. Stir occasionally, about once every 15 minutes or so, to prevent scorching. The hot dogs are done when a thin, but smooth, sauce has melded together and the hot dogs are heated through. You absolutely cannot "set it and forget it" with this recipe, as I have done in the past, because you will come back to hot dogs looking something like charcoal briquettes with a crockpot that will need more than a pack of Brillo pads to save it.

Recipe #2 of the Day: Pigs in Quilts

The crescent dough in this recipe bakes up to be much more fluffy than y'all are probably used to, and it doesn't have the opportunity to burn because of their increased surface area. Not to mention that it sometimes feels like take a rocket scientist messing around with a pizza cutter to cut the dough down further to fit the mini hot dogs that you're used to seeing at dinner parties. These are a great way to serve hot dogs that kids can eat without having to worry about the bun sliding around and making a mess.

1 package large hot dogs
1 container refrigerated crescent roll dough
Preferred condiment for dipping

Pop the can of crescent roll dough, and separate the triangles along their perforated edges. wrap the triangle completely around the large hot dog, sealed the edge together to prevent it from baking off. Place wrapped hot dogs on baking pan covered with nonstick aluminum foil. Bake according to package directions, until the dough is golden brown and cooked through. Serve hot with condiment of your choosing for dipping.

When Harry Met Sally

Though everyone may remember the famous orgasmic scene from When Harry Met Sally, later in the movie Harry makes a reference to Paprikash. When comparing what brings about that reaction (a sandwich from Katz's, which I make no pretense to be able to beat such a long standing tradition of amazing deli food), this is the at-home-attainable recipe that will do it.

Recipe of the Day: Chicken Paprika

½ c flour

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp onion powder

S&P
2 bone-in, skin on chicken breasts

1 box chicken stock

2 large yellow onions, quartered

¾ c sour cream

Season flour with paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Coat chicken breasts with seasoned flour.

Set a wire rack inside a large baking pan, and place chicken breasts on top of wire rack. Scatter quartered onions around the bottom of the pan. Pour chicken stock into bottom of pan. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked completely and juices run clear. Remove chicken from pan and allow to cool.

Remove skin from chicken and shred meat off the bone. Return shredded meat to the pan with the stock and onions also from the original pan. Season again with paprika, salt, and pepper as needed.

Add sour cream and stir to coat chicken. Serve hot.

There's a first time for everything

Looking back at all the blogs I couldn't believe I've never done a post about chicken wings. We are talking about some of the best wings ever, having won firehouse cookoffs and being requested at holiday parties. Granted, these wings are on a different level than your typical plain old buffalo wings. They are fall off the bone tender, sweet and sticky, and a pleasant breakaway from what you're used to. For those health nuts out there, they're not deep fried (though I wouldn't go so far as to say they are a healthy food...just an upgrade in the saturated fat category). It's safe to say I don't think you'll find a recipe quite like this one.

Recipe of the day: Sticky wings
1 package chicken wingettes
S&P
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c honey
2 tbsp ketchup

Toss the wingettes in the oil, line up in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for an hour, turning every 15 minutes to prevent sticking until golden brown.

Stir together the honey, soy sauce and ketchup and pour half of the sauce onto the wings and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, pour remaining sauce over wings, then serve immediately.

Julie/Julia revisited

Since my better half came down with some sort of fluish head cold ick, I thought I would take advantage of needing great soup without too much in-kitchen time and make a classic: Potato Leek Soup. To be fair, it is very vegetarian and fits into the 5 ingredients or less category. To be unfair, it is extremely not carb free. Sorry ladies. But even the pickiest of critics seemed to enjoy it, and that is a win in my book. The recipe was originally written in 1931 by Irma Rombauer, well loved by Julia Child as one of her go to recipes, and trimmed down by me to fit into a teensy weensy pot in a teensy weensy kitchen.

Recipe of the day: Potato Leek Soup (Potage Parmentier if you want to get fancy with it)

1/2 stick butter
3 leeks (white and light green parts), sliced about 1/4" and soaked in water
4 russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cups fat free low sodium chicken broth
Fresh ground pepper

Melt half stick of butter in a large pot and add sliced leeks. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes stirring frequently (see first photo) until very soft.

Add in stock, sliced potatoes, and pepper and cook for 30 minutes: use the back of the wood spoon to lightly mash when you go to stir it. (See photo 2).

Serve hot with toasty bread with melted mozzarella for dipping (last photo).

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. And so good!

Making Life a Little Easier

A while back I posted a recipe for honey soy chicken, and it is still my fallback in terms of being something easy to throw together with flavors that even the pickiest of eaters will enjoy. But now that work seems to frequently interfere with how much free time I have to cook, I wanted to convert my go-to favorite to something that doesn't require much attention.
Recipe of the day: Slow Cooker Honey Soy Chicken Thighs

2 lb pkg boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c honey
1 tsp sesame oil

Place chicken thighs in the bottom of your slow cooker, overlapping if necessary. Add sauce ingredients on top of slow cooker and cover. Set to High 4 hours.

Occasionally, turn the chicken thighs over. If you are not around to do this frequently don't worry, they will be fine.

After four hours, your chicken will be tender enough to shred with tongs or two forks with minimal effort. If you had time to flip the chicken through the cooking time, this should happen on its own after a few hours.

We served this with 5 minute fried rice and a mix of frozen peas and steamed fresh broccoli. Total prep time for the entire meal was about 15 minutes. Enjoy!

You have got to be kidding me

I'm watching Paula Deen cook away fiercely on tv as I get ready for a long night of work and I am simply horrified. She is complaining of having no time to cook with a busy work schedule, so her solution was sautéing cabbage in bacon grease and  a stick of butter, then crumbling in corned beef from a can. It popped out of its container like a jello molded egg for Easter and held its shape so well then she has to break it apart like she was clawing at the last piece of meat on the planet. Are you kidding me? Now we are all very, very busy with work but I doubt that the solution rests in cans of spam and "potted meats" as she described so fervently on her program today. So we shall focus on a popular yet traditional meat dish as well, that has not yet been ruined by excessive sodium, sugar, and fluid overload that probably takes less time to prepare as that cabbage thing she calls a recipe.

Recipe of the day: Mini BBQ Meatloaf

1-1.5 lbs 85% ground sirloin
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
S&P
1 egg
1 cup Honey Bear BBQ Sauce (see recipe from post on 5/27/11), divided
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Place the ground beef, chopped celery, chopped onion, salt, pepper, egg, half of the BBQ sauce, and the breadcrumbs. Use your hands to mix until well combined. Divide the meat into six equal parts, and form each into an oval shaped mound. Place mounds on a baking sheet covered with nonstick aluminum foil, spaced equally apart. Place in a 350 degree oven, and bake 8 minutes. Remove from oven and coat each meatloaf with a small amount of the remaining BBQ sauce. Place back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes, until the juices are running clear out. Remove from oven, and coat in BBQ sauce one more time prior to serving.

I served this with frozen peas and quick mashed potatoes for a true 30 minute meal. Enjoy!

Quick, sweet, and to the point

I'm quickly becoming even more of a leftovers fanatic. As mentioned yesterday, I made pasta salad as one of the side dishes to have with the grilled pork over the weekend. It is very difficult to turn pasta salad into anything besides just that, but I think that the recipe itself should count as a repurposed recipe because it combines pasta salad, which on its own can be very bland and boring, with broccoli slaw similar to the "stolen broccoli slaw" recipe featured earlier this year. Combining these two ideas together created something I had never really experienced before in one bowl. And for those who were sitting at the table that evening hopping on the "I don't like fruit in my salad" train, pooh on you because you don't know what you're missing. And after having tuna sandwiches for dinner last night (no, I couldn't bring myself to blog about that. Next you'd see a recipe on the blog for peanut butter and jelly with a glass of milk and I don't need to stoop to that level yet at this point in my cooking life), the tuna salad and this pasta salad came together in the same bowl to make the perfect 'run out the door to go take care of the Chicken Nugget kindergarteners' kinda meal. The sweetness of the cranberries is really what makes this unique, and will make a great side salad all summer long.

Recipe of the day: Broccoli Slaw Pasta Salad

 

1/2 pound bowtie pasta, boiled in salted water to al dente
Half of a 10 oz. bag broccoli slaw
3/4 cup mayo
1 tbsp honey
4-5 dashes Frank's hot sauce
1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (enough to thin out the mayo but not make it too soupy)
S&P to taste
2-3 handfuls dried cranberries
1 package of plain ramen noodles, flavor packet removed (crush the whole bag, and put half of the contents into the salad)

While the pasta is cooking, mix up the dressing. Combine the mayo, honey, Frank's, cider vinegar, and S&P in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

Drain the pasta. Add the pasta back into the bowl, and add about 2 tablespoons of dressing to keep the pasta from sticking together. Place in refrigerator to cool.

Once cool, add remaining dressing, broccoli slaw, dried cranberries, and stir to combine. Place back in refrigerator to cool until ready to serve. Once ready to serve, add ramen noodle crumbles, toss to distribute and serve. Leftovers keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container. You can also add sunflower seeds for an extra crunch, though I did leave them out of this version because I didn't feel like going back to the grocery store for a third time.

A Fig Tree for the Blog's Birthday

The blog turns one today...I feel awful that it's taken me more than two months to write again but I can't believe how crazy busy I've been and how time really flies when you're having fun. So for a few updates and then a very quick recipe or two that I can't really call recipes at all, more so than guidelines to really good and really fast not-deep fried (most of the time) food.

The Garden:

 

Enough said.

The new fig tree:

 

And you say to yourself, who actually eats figs? I said that too until we were standing around at the family reunion at about 11:00 at night absolutely starving after eating what they called chicken for dinner in the dining hall. Maybe it's like having a cup of ramen noodles at 3am when you're in college, or warm cookies and milk as a preschooler, but slices of french bread with brie and fig jam is probably my newest obsession and the greatest thing that more than a few of us experienced that weekend:

Grocery shopping:

Yeaaaa not going that great either (can't say I bought 2/3 of those items either but I am fortunate enough to have a very loving, understanding family including a boyfriend who just shakes his head, goes to the store so we don't starve, and says we are going to add it to the "things to work on" list of goals along with vacuuming which I hate because of the dreadful noise-still waiting on that Swiffer btw ;) ).

I think it's pretty safe to say that all of the rest of my successful time spent is devoted to work, so I'm trying to develop something similar to Sandra Lee's Round 2 recipes where food can be repurposed so you're not eating just plain old leftovers. This past weekend, I made grilled Asian pork tenderloin, broccoli slaw pasta salad, and grilled vegetable salad. In a hurry before work yesterday, I threw together a pork stir fry that tasted incredible and it only took about 15 minutes. So to celebrate the blog's birthday, and getting back to cooking that fits within a crazy busy work schedule, that's what shall be featured! Enjoy.

Recipe of the day #1: Grilled vegetable salad

• Whatever vegetables you'd like: (I went with onions, red peppers, green peppers, asparagus, and zucchini)
• Ken's Creamy Balsamic Dressing (feel free to make your own, but you don't have to)

Preheat the grill to about 300. Place pieces of aluminum foil over the grill grates to cover. Slice all of the vegetables in half-don't cut them in the shape you see above until the very end or they will be too difficult to flip over. Place the vegetables on top of the aluminum foil on the grill and cook until the vegetables have charred edges and they are soft enough to tear with your hands. Remove from the grill and allow to cool in a bowl in the refrigerator. Cut into equal sizes and serve with dinner!

Repurposed recipe: Pork stir fry

• leftovers from grilled pork tenderloin (if you have leftovers of another protein, go with what you have), cut into bite sized pieces
• leftovers from grilled vegetable salad
• 1/2 pound spaghetti, boiled and drained and sprinkled with sesame oil to prevent sticking
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth

Place the pork and vegetables into a hot skillet. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and chicken broth and stir until pork and vegetables are heated through.

Add the boiled spaghetti, and toss with tongs to distribute sauce onto noodles. This can be served hot, room temperature, or cold.

Put a Lid On It

Well folks, it's 2012. Yes, almost March, at that, but things have been ridiculously crazy with just about everything. Between the chicken nuggets (the 73 school aged childcare ones, not my own-the reason they got titled the nuggets in the first place to avoid any of that confusion), the EMT drumsticks (that was to be able to differentiate between the young kids and the can't quite call them grownups even though some of them are almost 30!) finishing their class amidst the start of the new curriculum, and being a real-life grownup working as a paramedic...the blog has been on pause.

But it's back to cooking, and my most recent adventure was defeating the always scary pork chop. Until yesterday, I've never really had a pork chop that tasted like, well, pork. My father's go-to meal was a one pot concoction of pork chops, sauerkraut with onions, and roasted potatoes baked to an oblivion until the pork chops could have been confused with shoe leather. He got points for trying, but I've always been nervous to try to cook them myself. Last year, I wrote a blog about grilling them, and they turned out juicy but not quite as tender as I had hoped (though if I'm going to go out on a limb and toot my own horn, the grill marks were picture perfect if nothing else). But with preparations for participating in barbecue competitions under way and fire extinguisher in hand, I'm hellbent of perfecting ways to stew, smoke, roast, braise, boil, broil, grill and saute every part of the once considered evil oinker that got us into hot water on the First Annual Halloween Birthday Celebratory Snow Pig weekend this past October (the only good thing that came of it was the meat was used in a chili cookoff where Don placed 2nd overall! Congrats btw)

It was with great success that these humble little pieces of porcine transformed into a tender entree that left many texting me, "why didn't you invite me over!?" as soon as the pic went up on fB. After almost 48 hours straight of being awake, it occurred to me that the answer to this was in front of me all along. Give it a little wine, and put a lid on it. Many would say that is a good piece of general advice, but particularly in this case where a few simple ingredients meshed together to form an aromatic balance of tart, sweet, and spicy flavors pulled together by a couple tablespoons of organic cranberry chutney that I purchased at Whole Foods.

Recipe of the day: Stovetop Chops with Sweet-Spiced Demi-glace
4 thin cut pork chops
2 tbsp (total) olive oil
4 tbsp (total) dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tbsp cranberry chutney-use canned jellied cranberry sauce if you don't have any

Place the pork chops in a ziploc bag with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 tablespoons Djjon mustard, and generous amounts of salt and pepper to season. Seal bag and squish to coat. Resist the temptation to beat up the pork chops as they will become too tough.

In a nonstick pan over medium high heat, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan until it's almost smoking. (If the oil starts to smoke, your food will taste burnt so be sure to keep an eye on it). Gently place the pork chops in the hot pan.

After about 4-5 minutes, flip them over...

...and cook for another 4 minutes. If they are not completely cooked through, that's okay. Take them out of the pan anyway. In the same pan, add the chopped onions and use a silicone spatula to pull up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. There should be enough oil left in the pan to cook the onions, but use your judgement to add more if necessary. Cook the onions over medium heat until they are browned (not black) over medium heat, which should take about 7-8 minutes. Add in the wine, turn the heat back to medium high and using a whisk to stir the sauce continuously add in the mustard as well. Continue to whisk until the mustard dissolves completely. (If you skip this step, you will have giant bits of mustard floating throughout and I doubt your hungry eaters will find that too appealing). Add in the cranberry chutney, stir until dissolved, then add your pork chops back in.

This is where the magic is begins...place a lid on the pan and cook until steaming, about 3-4 minutes. This will create a quick-braise type of cooking that makes the meat fork tender. Remove the lid and serve hot. Mashed potatoes and applesauce went with the sauce beautifully.

The Best Sandwich Ever: Part II

So now it's time to get down to business...the nitty gritty of an amazing meal between two slices of bread. Be sure to have all of your ingredients gathered nearby...if you need a reminder here is the list from the shopping you did yesterday:

What You'll Need
fresh seedless rye bread
thousand island dressing
swiss cheese
thick sliced corned beef
sauerkraut
cracked black pepper
butter (for cooking)

Line up the bread and place 2-3 slices of swiss cheese, torn up, on each slice of bread and season with cracked pepper. Do not skimp on the cheese, as this acts as the glue to keep the sandwich together.

Spread a small amount of thousand island dressing on one side of the sandwich rows, and top with enough sliced corned beef to form a double layer and at a minimum cover the sandwich to the edges of the bread.

Top with more thousand island dressing on the corned beef side of the sandwich.

Top with enough sauerkraut on the corned beef side to leave a small amount of "squishing room" once the sandwich is pressed together.

Flip the cheese only side of the sandwich on top of the sandwich and squish down to compress.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium/medium low heat and add two sandwiches to the pan, one at a time.

Flip the two sandwiches within 30 seconds (it prevents burning on the first two sandwiches, not sure why but it really works!)



Then add the third sandwich, and adjust the heat as necessary to prevent burning. Cover and allow to cook about 2 minutes.

Flip sandwiches and recover to finish cooking for another two minutes or so until the cheese is melted and the bread is slightly toasty.

Remove from the pan and move to a plate and slice in half to serve immediately.



Follow these steps and the most amazing sandwich will be right at your fingertips before you know it. Enjoy!

The Best Sandwich Ever: Part I

Soon, you will hold the recipe to the perfect hot lunch or dinner sandwich. Your friends at work will even be jealous of your cold leftovers the next day. Although this may disappoint some of you, with some preparation you will never be able to eat this out at a restaurant or diner again. I will by no means promise that it is a quick meal to throw together.

I've separated the meal into a 2 part recipe: Part 1 will include prepping the corned beef and the thousand island dressing following a very thorough grocery store trip to make sure you have all the ingredients you need. Part 2 will consist mainly of the assembly and cooking of the sandwiches. It is possible to prepare this in one afternoon or evening, granted that you will need about 3 hours to spare. Most of that cooking time goes to the corned beef simmering, so if you insist on cheating to buy corned beef from the deli, that will cut down the total time to about 45 minutes. It makes a huge difference on your palate if you do all the cooking yourself, but it is up to you. Try it, and you will be amazed.

Grocery List:
1 lb sliced deli swiss (not too thick, not too thin)
fresh seedless rye bread
1 bag sauerkraut, drained
thousand island dressing (see recipe below)
Hormel raw Corned beef (it includes the seasoning packet)
celery stalks (if you have them, no need to buy them just for this)
butter, for cooking the sandwiches

For the Thousand Island dressing:
1 c mayonnaise
3/4 c ketchup
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sweet relish
1 tbsp kosher dill pickles, chopped
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2  tsp black pepper
1 tsp red wine vinegar

Combine the above ingredients below in a bowl. Refrigerate to chill until you are ready to build the sandwiches. This will last in a tupperware container for a week in the refrigerator. The recipe can be doubled if you think you need more dressing.

For the corned beef:
Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add pickling seasoning and chopped celery stalks. Place the beef into the water carefully to prevent spilling. Simmer over medium/medium-low heat for 45 minutes per pound (the package says 50 but the meat will be too dry if you cook it that long). Flip the meat once an hour to ensure even cooking on both sides.

Remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Trim off excess fat (it is a thick layer on top of the meat that needs to be removed to prevent the sandwich from being too greasy). Slice thickly at about 1/8" and set aside until ready to use.

You are now officially ready for the best sandwich ever...stay tuned for tomorrow's blog on how to put them together!

Iggy the Halloween Birthday Celebratory Snow Pig

Everyone I run into asks me how the pig roast went on Saturday. And when I mean everyone, I'm talking even the awesome custodians at the school where I work. Do you think I have been talking about it enough? It's only been about 6 weeks since we started seriously planning it! I am strongly considering giving up my position as social coordinator, because huge natural disasters seem to occur anytime I get near major holidays.

Return of the Bad Omen Vulture: Part I
On Friday (the very sunny, warm day before the roast) we barged into Restaurant Depot, where we had ordered the pig from our new butcher friend Brian three weeks earlier. The meat guy who was there that day, Ryan, announced when I asked for our order that they had no fresh pigs in stock. In fact, he suggested I try roasting a whole lamb. I assured him that Brian had called me on Monday to confirm the order, and very gently suggested that he double check. When he returned again, he said that the order had never arrived and the only pigs they had in stock were frozen...if only we had turned and walked out the door right then! Bright eyed and bushy tailed I planted myself in the manager's office. It took him about 30 seconds after telling me that he didn't have Brian's phone number to not only get him on the phone, but to get Ryan run into the cooler (with me chasing him) to fetch the poor pig that had been sitting there all along. Don was none to pleased to find that the box had been stamped with "Green Village Packaging," meaning we had just paid the middle man to give us a hassle. Long story short, my customer service experience at Restaurant Depot left something to be desired.

Return of the Bad Omen Vulture: Part II
Oh but Saturday was one for the record books. We had EMT class for a majority of the day, which driving home from involved turning the car around at least 100 times as there were trees and telephone poles blocking even the emergency snow route back from VoTech. We then arrived home to this:

...plus no electricity at the squad building. Don rigged up a very clever "pig-loo" to keep the barbecue box warm when adding the coals.

Apparently the barbecue box, which worked very well for us over the summer, doesn't come with directions for use during Nor'Easters and I think that this deserves some attention from the manufacturer. Regardless of how much fun we had, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to plan a pig roast in any season ever again.

As always, I had a very elaborate menu planned which I wasn't able to completely execute because of the lack of electricity. We rigged up the stove at the squad building to Greg's truck inverter, but while I was out on a call (because of course, it wouldn't be any fun unless the pager was going off every 20 minutes) the stove lost it's flame and wouldn't stay heated properly. We managed to heat the food (with special thanks to my mom for rotating all of the food in and out for two hours straight), but all cute details went out the window by about 3:30pm. This was probably okay, because all 30 of us ate crammed in the dark huddled around candles and I doubt anyone would have noticed.

I did manage to pull off a birthday cake that was supposed to resemble a pumpkin for Mark's birthday:

...which looking at it now looks like a Christmas present that got sat on by the same lady who sat on my coffee and stained the carpet orange during the first aid badge fiesta with my new Brownie troop chicken nuggets from Bernards Township. A little bird flew by my window and said that the cake seemed to be enjoyed by all during the overnight shift.

The successful Halloween recipe that will surely be making a return next year was the Witches Brew punch.

Recipe of the Day: Witches Brew
1 bottle sparkling wine (I used Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco)
1 bottle ginger ale
1 container rainbow sherbet

Right before you are ready to serve, Invert the container of the sherbet into a large shallow punch bowl. Pour over the sparkling wine, and the ginger ale. This will cause foam to form on top of the punch, resembling boiling "brew." Serve in cups with a ladle.