My mother-in-law flew out from Oklahoma to visit us and see our new house for the first time, so I've been off from the day job since Thursday and don't go back till Wednesday. It's been wonderful having her here, and such a relaxing week. Usually when I use vacation time, it's to go somewhere. That won't change--I love to travel for its own sake, and I've got family to visit and conferences to go to on top of that. But I have to say, it's nice to have six full days to wake up and neither be in a hotel or spare room nor have to scramble to get myself out the door for work.
I haven't been doing much cooking, either. We've gone out--last night Mr. Fraser and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary at Cafe Juanita, and Miss Fraser insisted we take Grandma to Blue C Sushi, where the food comes on conveyor belts. Also, my mother-in-law made chicken fried steak, as she always does when she visits (SO delicious), and Mr. F grilled steaks one evening.
But yesterday for lunch I decided it was my turn. We had leftover mashed potatoes from the chicken fried steak dinner, so I made them into patties, dipped them in panko, and fried them over very low heat in butter. The potatoes were a little soupier than ideal for such a preparation, so they tended to break apart, but they tasted great, especially with sour cream on top (and bacon and fresh pineapple alongside). Next time I think I'll add some flour for thickening, or maybe just use less butter and milk in the mashers to begin with. I like to make them with roasted garlic, which gives them plenty of flavor even without gobs of dairy.
Then for dessert I made the S'mores Stuffed Brownies that Angela James tweeted about on Saturday. They turned out scrumptious and rich, though I think next time I'll leave out the Hershey Bar--there's plenty of chocolate from the brownie batter without it, and the Hershey Bar re-solidifies as it cools and doesn't add to the flavor and texture the way the graham cracker and marshmallows do.
Showing posts with label Saturday cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saturday cooking. Show all posts
Monday, September 5, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Weekend cooking, GrillFail edition
This week's Saturday cooking day happened on Sunday, since we had Mariners tickets Saturday evening. And it was far from a culinary triumph. Let's just say I haven't mastered the art of the grill yet.
(No pictures until I replace my stolen Mac and can easily synch them from my phone again.)
I decided it was time I tried something other than steaks or boneless chicken and settled on turkey burgers. Mark Bittman had a column on grilling a couple years back, and one of his suggestions was to add flavor to turkey burgers by mixing in cooked, crumbled bacon.
That sounded tasty. While my bacon crisped, I did a google search to figure out how long to cook the burgers (burgers not being something I do often enough to have a gut feel, especially with not-beef where it's riskier to go rare). One recipe I found suggested adding various ingredients for flavor and moisture, notably mayo, mustard, and worcestershire sauce. "Why not?" I thought. "More moisture and flavor is a good thing, right?"
Well, yeah, except when they're so moist they fall into pieces, as I discovered halfway through the cooking process when I attempted to flip them. Normally I give up and order pizza at this point, but last night I decided to salvage instead. I brought the sloppy burgers inside and made...turkey-bacon sloppy joes. Which weren't half bad, really. All that flavoring and moisture that made my burgers fall apart created a reasonably tasty sandwich filling.
Undaunted, I tried grilling marshmallows for s'mores by suspending them on the same contraption we use to make kebabs. Disaster was narrowly averted when I checked them after 5 minutes and found them about to droop off the skewers. I managed to rescue them, but they were just gooey and warm, not hot enough to melt the chocolate, so they didn't taste like proper s'mores. I think to make it work you'd have to stand over the grill rotating like you do when roasting marshmallows over a campfire, and for that I'd want a far longer skewer.
(No pictures until I replace my stolen Mac and can easily synch them from my phone again.)
I decided it was time I tried something other than steaks or boneless chicken and settled on turkey burgers. Mark Bittman had a column on grilling a couple years back, and one of his suggestions was to add flavor to turkey burgers by mixing in cooked, crumbled bacon.
That sounded tasty. While my bacon crisped, I did a google search to figure out how long to cook the burgers (burgers not being something I do often enough to have a gut feel, especially with not-beef where it's riskier to go rare). One recipe I found suggested adding various ingredients for flavor and moisture, notably mayo, mustard, and worcestershire sauce. "Why not?" I thought. "More moisture and flavor is a good thing, right?"
Well, yeah, except when they're so moist they fall into pieces, as I discovered halfway through the cooking process when I attempted to flip them. Normally I give up and order pizza at this point, but last night I decided to salvage instead. I brought the sloppy burgers inside and made...turkey-bacon sloppy joes. Which weren't half bad, really. All that flavoring and moisture that made my burgers fall apart created a reasonably tasty sandwich filling.
Undaunted, I tried grilling marshmallows for s'mores by suspending them on the same contraption we use to make kebabs. Disaster was narrowly averted when I checked them after 5 minutes and found them about to droop off the skewers. I managed to rescue them, but they were just gooey and warm, not hot enough to melt the chocolate, so they didn't taste like proper s'mores. I think to make it work you'd have to stand over the grill rotating like you do when roasting marshmallows over a campfire, and for that I'd want a far longer skewer.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday cooking, 8-20-11
No pictures with this week's Saturday cooking post. I took them, but my iPhone died this morning. The Apple Store replaced it, since it was still under warranty, but there was nothing I could do about restoring anything I'd done after the last time I synched the phone earlier this month.
It got up to 85 yesterday, which in Seattle passes for a heat wave, so I cooked on the grill again. I chose a recipe for grilled steak with tomatoes and scallions from an old issue of Everyday Food. Very simple--just flat-iron steaks, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked on high for 4 minutes on each side, along with cherry tomatoes and scallions cooked at the same time in a grill basket, then seasoned with balsamic vinegar. My only change was adding a handful of chanterelle mushrooms picked up at the farmers market that morning.
It was pretty good. Neither Mr. Fraser nor I loved the grilled vegetables, though I liked the flavor of the chanterelles and scallions. For dessert we had angel food cake (bought at the store--I'm not that much of a baker and no way was I going to add heat to our AC-less kitchen to bake a cake), topped with a mix of strawberries and blackberries from the farmers market. Good stuff.
It got up to 85 yesterday, which in Seattle passes for a heat wave, so I cooked on the grill again. I chose a recipe for grilled steak with tomatoes and scallions from an old issue of Everyday Food. Very simple--just flat-iron steaks, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked on high for 4 minutes on each side, along with cherry tomatoes and scallions cooked at the same time in a grill basket, then seasoned with balsamic vinegar. My only change was adding a handful of chanterelle mushrooms picked up at the farmers market that morning.
It was pretty good. Neither Mr. Fraser nor I loved the grilled vegetables, though I liked the flavor of the chanterelles and scallions. For dessert we had angel food cake (bought at the store--I'm not that much of a baker and no way was I going to add heat to our AC-less kitchen to bake a cake), topped with a mix of strawberries and blackberries from the farmers market. Good stuff.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday cooking, 8-6-11
This Saturday I was neck-deep in editing a proposal for my latest historical romance (a Waterloo story!) to send to my editor, so I didn't go as elaborate with the cooking as last week. I did, however, try out our brand new grill, just installed on our brand new deck. I combined a couple of suggestions from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and marinated some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in sesame oil, soy sauce, and lime juice, then threw them on the grill. They came out looking like this:
Tasted almost as good as they looked, too, served with leftover rice from Friday's Thai take-out and broccoli and green beans cooked (and, frankly, slightly burned) in a grill basket.
I could get addicted to this grill business. At least for a simple cut of meat like this, it's so quick and easy, and easier to clean up than the same recipe broiled or sauteed.
Tasted almost as good as they looked, too, served with leftover rice from Friday's Thai take-out and broccoli and green beans cooked (and, frankly, slightly burned) in a grill basket.
I could get addicted to this grill business. At least for a simple cut of meat like this, it's so quick and easy, and easier to clean up than the same recipe broiled or sauteed.
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