Adventures in Food
Random Thoughts on Cooking
Guest post: Squid kid
May 12th
My oldest about to eat a guava
My oldest did a guest post this week just in time for Mother’s Day.
Ever since I was little, I’ve loved food. From corn dogs to duck confit, I’ve always been excited to try it. Mostly because of my awesome parents, who encourage me to try new things. It’s sort of become the norm. Like it or not, you can’t say anything until you’ve at least tried a bite.
Getting my friends to understand this little philosophy isn’t always the easiest but the lunch table has become my place to share. First I started with simple stuff, like homemade tortillas or Japanese candy and soon it became the thing at my table to see what I’ll bring.
And when I do bring something, I can never expect to eat it all, because an open package of food in front of hungry teenagers is doomed.
The best part, by far, about getting my friends out of their food comfort zone, is when they find something they genuinely like. Like when I discovered that my two best friends are appalled by the thought of coconut. That just wouldn’t do. So, I did what any good food-savvy friend would do, and brought in the chocolate banana coconut muffins my mom made. But, they didn’t know what was in it. Like usual, they helped me finish it of within a couple of seconds.
A couple days later, I couldn’t help but laugh when they both requested that I bring those muffins on a road trip we are going on. When I told them about the coconut in it, they both were amazed.
And getting to make cool food with my friends is so much fun! At their house, it’s not uncommon for me to be foraging through their fridges for any leftovers, and making dinner for us. I still remember when I used the pulled pork they had leftover and made spicy pulled pork nachos, with every cheese they had! And at my house, we got another spicy punch as we all made salsa with my mom.
Now, instead of “Let’s go to a restaurant,” I get to hear “Let’s go to Kayla’s house!”
And I love it, because food with a friend is always better.
Cooking tip: Garlic pasta
May 8th
Awhile back I posted about making Thai Coconut Soup from the Sriracha Cookbook. The recipe called for minced ginger, but feeling lazy I just put in a whole piece, peeled, on a skewer. I figured the ginger flavor would seep into the boiling broth and I could get out of mincing.
Making pasta the other day I thought I might try the same idea: put a large garlic clove into the boiling water and let the flavor give some zest to my plain-old penne.
Well I didn’t want to waste a perfectly good clove of softened garlic, so then I smushed it with a fork after the pasta was done and added it to my sauce. Often when I use raw garlic I tend to add it too soon or too late to sauces and sautes–either burning it (and trust me, burnt garlic is not tasty) or inadvertently leaving little, pungent uncooked chunks of garlic that surprise and repulse my kiddos.
Now as far as giving the pasta a garlic kick, well, didn’t happen. Or at least I didn’t notice any change in the pasta flavor. Ditto for my family. But I did like using the cooked garlic in whatever else I was making to go with the pasta like sauteed veggies, creamy sauces, or even smushed then mixed with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese and stirred into the pasta. One last idea: you can easily blend it with butter to spread on Italian bread.
Lately, I just toss the garlic in and fish it out once the pasta is cooked
Foodie ideas from The North Carolina Museum of Art
Apr 25th
Iris restaurant inside the North Carolina Museum of Art
My kids couldn’t join me on my trip to Raleigh and Fayetteville, North Carolina, for the Midwest Travel Writers Association conference. But, I’m trying to get as many ideas from my travels–and tastes–as I can to bring back and try with them.
Here are just a few from my stop at Iris, the North Carolina Museum of Art‘s restaurant where I had lunch. The seasonal menu had plenty of tempting dishes, but I always try to choose something I can’t do at home, so I went for the risotto. From the menu: farro piccolo risotto, lemon, thyme, dijon parmigiano-reggiano cheese garlic sauteed broccolini crispy fried leeks.
Whew, what does that translate to on your plate? A whole grain cooked like risotto, generously doused with Parmesan cheese, fresh lemon and hints of thyme and mellow dijon mustard. To the side, the tender broccolini, slightly cooked in butter and garlic, all topped off with thinly sliced, fried leeks (think gourmet French’s fried onions).
At home: I’m going to try using whole wheat berries more in savory dishes. My kids grind wheat berries for flour, but I’ve been meaning to try them
Farro risotto
toasted then tossed into salads. Maybe one of these days I’ll even try making them into risotto…
For dessert at the NCMA (you didn’t think I was going to skip it, did you?) I had the apple tarte
tatin with roasted cinnamon ice cream. Presented in deep white bowl with a web of spun sugar, the combination of warm apples and cool cinnamon paired perfectly. Now, if I were to try spun sugar at home, I’d like set off all the fire alarms with the smoke I’d create trying to get the cooked sugar to that just-right temperature where it was melted, but not burned.
At home: For all the flavor of this dish, without all the work, you could peel then saute apple slices in butter and sprinkle them with a little fresh lemon and cinnamon before serving. Instead of making cinnamon ice cream from scratch, soften vanilla bean ice cream until you can stir in ground cinnamon (I’d throw in a little nutmeg and a hit of cayenne too). Then you can either re-freeze the ice cream or serve it just after you mixed in the spices. Place the ice cream atop the sauteed apples and in lieu of the more dramatic spun sugar, my thought is to dress up each individual portion with a cinnamon stick.
Apple tarte tatin
Your turn: do you have a family favorite dish (or dessert) inspired by one of your travels?
A world of chili sauces
Feb 25th
On a dare my teen once drank a glass of Cholula, a vinegary Mexican hot sauce that’s spicer than Tabasco. She was used to dousing her food with the hot stuff anyway so it didn’t seem like a big deal to have a drink. She downed the Cholula in a few gulps, reached for a glass of water and then downed that too. I should probably mention that my middle child was the one who suggested the dare. And me? Well, I just sat back and watched the whole thing unfold.
This is NOT the way I’d suggest introducing your kids to hot sauce. My advice is to go gently. One dab at a time. Mix a little into stews or sauces to give them a bit of a kick. Add a drop or two to sandwiches. Why hot sauces? To put it simply, they give food an added dimension of flavor. They wake up your taste buds. Turn up the heat in your food by trying out one of these sauces:
Cholula sauce: This bright, deep orange-red Mexican sauce is thin and vinegary. Use it in place of Tabasco sauce on sandwiches or mix it into guacamole to turn the heat up just a bit.
Valentina sauce: Another Mexican hot sauce. But this one is slightly thicker and spicier than Cholula. I noticed a chef at Caffe Lola in Niagara Falls mix it into marinara and I’ve been doing the same ever since. The heat isn’t overpowering just enough to give you a tickle in your throat.
Chili Garlic Sauce: You can see the red peppers seeds right in this pungent sauce that combines heat and garlic. This Vietnamese sauce works well in Asian dishes. But you might also mix it with mayo to use it either as a dip for chips or a sandwich spread.
Sriracha sauce: The standard variety available in the U.S. has a building heat that envelops the middle of your tongue–and stays there. Mr. Squid is a huge Sriracha fan and sneaks it in whenever he gets a chance. The consistency is almost like ketchup and you can use it as you would ketchup. Just remember that it packs a kick. Use it in Italian, Asian, Indian, Mexican … well, you get the idea. This is one versatile hot sauce.
Frank’s RedHot sauce: I had to add one all-American favorite. This sauce is synonymous with the place where it was created: Buffalo. It’s a must if you’re making wings and it’s a perfect match with bleu cheese. I like to dabble it on salads that have creamy dressings too.
Your turn: What’s your go-to hot sauce–or do you prefer to go without the heat?
Black out dinner
Jan 21st
Ah, it was dinner by candlelight on Tuesday night. Now before you go thinking this was some romantic meal that I planned for Mr. Squid, truth be told I have a wind-drenched snowstorm to thank for our hours by candelight. That’s right, our power was knocked out for most of the afternoon and into the evening.
The occasional power outage doesn’t bother me. I’ve got my forehead camping light stashed in my nightstand and enough candles to keep things cozy when I need to use ‘em for light. And it just so happens that I’d already put dinner in the slow cooker earlier in the day so our meal kept warm even though the power went out a few hours before dinnertime.
Our dinner? One of my favorites because it’s simple, healthy and easy enough to make with limited visibility. I add four frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts to the slow cooker along with two jars of pasta sauce (per Cooks Illustrated picks, I’ve been using Classico lately). That’s it. Let it cook on low for five to six hours and then make a pot of pasta to serve with it. Luckily, we have a gas range so I was able to light the burners no problem and even made some garlic bread for dipping.
You’ll notice the strange blue glow in the picture above. That’s not my camera flash, but the light from my forehead flashlight.
Your turn–has anyone else been without power lately?
Cookbook Review: The Parchment Paper Cookbook
Nov 16th
Nearly back-to-back parent teacher conferences. Somehow the day I planned to make the stuffed chicken breast recipe from The Parchment Paper Cookbook fell on the same day I had about 20 minutes at home between conferences.
Originally, I had intended to take my time figuring out how to neatly fold the parchment paper like the examples in the cookbook, it didn’t quite work out that way: Instead my pepper shaker was poised between the pages showing how to fold the paper while I madly cut each chicken breast in half and then squished the stuffing inside.
My twisting technique ended up looking more like a king-sized tootsie roll than the neat folds described in the cookbook. I was sure that the sauce was going to leak out and I was going to have a messy plan to clean up despite the books plug that these are ‘no pots, no pans, no mess’ recipes. It didn’t. No leaks! The chicken breasts turned out moist with stuffing cooked inside and coated in a light, mustard sauce, despite my lack of folding skills. I’m looking forward to trying more recipes, especially the s’mores crepes. I’m including my tweaked recipe of Stuffed Chicken Breast from The Parchment Cookbook by Brette Sember. You can find more of her recipes at NoPotCooking.com. And for easy dishes for Thanksgiving, there’s even a 99-cent ebook of no-mess recipes available through November 19th.
Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Breast
Prep time: 20 minutes (or less:)
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
3 tablespoons walnuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 teaspoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped ham
3 tablespoons bread crumbs or panko
6 teaspoons chicken broth, plus 4 tablespoons reserved
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 tablespoons white grape juice (or chicken broth)
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon white Balsamic vinegar (optional; any light vinegar will do)
lemon (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut three 20-inch pieces of parchment paper.
- Line your baking sheet with foil (just in case ).
- Put the chicken breast on the parchment and carefully make a slit into the side, careful not to cut all the way through.
- In a small food processor, chop up the nuts with the ham, rosemary, garlic then toss in the olive oil, 3 teaspoons chicken broth, bread crumbs, paprika and salt and pepper to taste.
- Divide this mixture equally among the slits in the three cut chicken breasts.
- In a small bowl combine 4 tablespoons chicken broth, white grape juice, vinegar, cornstarch, and mustard. Divide and pour equally on the three chicken breasts.
- Fold the parchment according to the instructions.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Open the packet and serve. I also squeezed a little fresh lemon over each chicken breast.
Recipe note: This recipe was originally to serve one, but I tripled it for three chicken breasts. My chicken breasts happened to be pretty big so I cut them in half for serving (it took about 10 more minutes to cook too). Also, I poked a digital meat thermometer right through the parchment and into the meat so I knew when it was done. I fixed wild rice and green beans to go along with the chicken.
One more note: I wanted to thank Brette Sember for passing along a review copy of her latest cookbook–she has two more in the works!
Don’t forget to check back in tomorrow when I’ll be announcing the winner of the Hardwood Oak Cutting Board Giveaway.
Dinnerware tips from socks
Oct 12th
Photo credit: Target.com
Sock trend update: mismatches are in. Thank goodness! I know, I’m probably one of the few diligent sock watchers out there. But here’s the deal, with three school-aged squid-eaters around my house socks disappear and reappear on a regular basis. And despite my push that socks come in two colors–white and black, which are easy to mix and match, my kids go for socks with various designs, colors, sizes. Inevitably these socks come in packages with one pair of each design. Once you’ve lost one of the set, the other used to be doomed to either become a sock puppet or a dusting cloth.
No more–mismatched socks are all the rage right now. Watch any episode of iCarly to confirm that not only are clashing socks in, but mismatched patterns with clothes too. (Note to self: I was ahead of my time when I used to wear plaid shorts with striped shirts in middle school.)
So what does this have to do with your dinner table? Time to mix and match. Red plates, green, yellow, white, different patterns, sizes, use ‘em all in one setting. Especially when guests come over. Hey, even the experts at Fashion Week are calling clashing ‘in’: ‘Rainbow Colors: The New Neutral.’ Love it. Not that I’m a style-watcher (did you see the comment about middle school?!), but any excuse to let my kids get creative in the kitchen from the food prep, right down to the plate settings.
Your turn: Do you mix and match your place settings?
DIY flower pepper
Aug 26th
Strange, I don’t like growing flowers, but I like using them in food. This summer I’ve been experimenting with lavender. It has a hint of spiciness that reminds me of anise and the aroma is more soothing than floral.
But where do you find supplies of dried, edible flowers? It took me awhile but I found plenty of dried flowers available in bulk at a local grocers, Mustard Seed Market. The flowers were intended for make-it-yourself tea, but I saw other possibilities…
I’ve been mixing lavender in with fresh strawberries or peaches, but when I 
ran across Flower Pepper at Trader Joe’s I started understanding the savory potential of lavender. Now doing a little online digging I found that apparently there’s a Chinese spice called Sichuan, or flower pepper, that’s added to dishes in various forms and has the effect of numbing your tongue. Never tried that, but it sounds interesting. It’s neither a pepper, a flower or even a chile pepper. And this isn’t the kind of pepper I’m making here. Instead, I’m suggesting adding some zing to the sometimes underwhelming tabletop pepper. Yeah, see where I’m going?
The best part–you don’t need to buy flower pepper, you can make your own variety using whatever dried flowers catch your interest. The Trader Joe’s mix 
includes lavender, rose, calendula, and cornflower petals. The mix is 1:4 flowers to peppercorns. So far, I’ve used the flower pepper to marinate pork cutlets, but I can see how it would add interest to lean meats like tilapia and other white fish. To do this at home, simply place peppercorns into the grinder along with your selection of flowers. I’ve just started fiddling with pepper, I’m thinking of what dried Mexican jicama flowers might do to enliven enchilada sauce. Hmmm….
When mom gets sick…
Aug 24th
Normally I don’t get sick. (I credit my commitment to eating at least a little dark chocolate each day–hey, it’s high in anti-oxidants; it’s nearly as good for me as my daily vitamin. Really.) For the occasional sniffle, I pop in a cough drop or two, I’m done. Upset tummy, I grab a banana, I’m good. But my middle daughter gave me a doozy of a head cold that I’m still trying to get over. Excuse me while I grab yet another tissue.
While I don’t like being sick (I know, I know, no one does), I’ve noticed it’s had a few benefits. I wanted to share a couple–
Hot stuff in the kitchen
Mr. Squid believes hot, spicy food helps cure colds. I’m game, especially since my part in making the meal was staying in my three-blanket- deep cocoon on the couch while catching slight whiffs–between Kleenex rounds–of celery seed, cayenee pepper, tomato, paprika and a dozen other spices that Mr. Squid melded into a shrimp etouffee. He’d been wanting to try a Cajun dish for quite some time and seeing my red nose must have been inspiring. He served the etouffee over wild rice with tilapia and sauteed asparagus. Clean plates all around! Mine included.
Baking on her own
Meanwhile my oldest wanted to make a knock-out cake for a get-together with friends. I’ll admit, usually I’d be inclined to hover over her and give countless ‘helpful suggestions’ while she mixed. Well, I couldn’t hover, not with the Kleenex habit. We talked through the recipe together, I sent her in the kitchen and she whipped up her first cheesecake. Count me as a proud mama, especially since I got a slice out of the deal.
I’m sure I’ll get over this cold soon (no doubt another slice of cheesecake will help), but it’s been nice to enjoy a little foodie TLC in the meantime.
Inspired by Man v. Food: The Italian Melt
Aug 19th
Lately, when friends or family come to visit me in Cleveland they have one restaurant request: Melt. I’ve got to thank The Travel Channel and Adam Richman for that. When Richman visited Cleveland, he took-and won (sorry for the spoiler!)-the Melt challenge. The grilled-cheese-on-steriods packs 13 different cheeses, 3 slices of bread, and a hearty helping of fries to make for 5-pounds of food. Yikes! No way, I’d ever want to eat that much food in one sitting.
But what I did like about his trip to Melt, and the popularity of the restaurant, is that grilled cheese sandwiches are considered, cool, even trendy. Now I haven’t had a Melt sandwich yet (so far the lines have been way too long for me, despite the host assuring me, “It’s not too bad, 45 minutes or so, and that’s pretty short for us). I wasn’t up for waiting. Neither were my kids-so I grabbed some ingredients at the store and told Mr. Squid, “Surprise me.” He did.
Using a few finds from our garden (okay, my basil plant that has survived a whole month-that’s a record for me and growing greens), and sauces and such from the fridge, he came up with ‘the Italian.’ That’s the only name I could come up with for this creation, but if you have a better one, please do tell!
*Note: Mr. Squid has two ‘must-dos’ when it comes to grilled cheese. The first is that all of the main ingredients need to be heated before adding them (“No one likes to bite into a cold part of a hot sandwich”) and second that the slices should be crisped and the cheese melted separately before putting them together at the end.
Here’s how Mr. Squid put ‘the Italian’ together:
- First, he added a little basil olive oil to the griddle and then placed thin slices of Roma tomatoes, strips of fresh basil and grated Parmesan cheese on top. He let that heat just until the Parmesan started to melt and then set it aside.
- Next, he heated a combination of roast beef and smoked turkey on the griddle.
- Now that all the mixins’ were heated, it was time to put the sandwich together. He used thick cut Italian deli bread that he’d coated with a thin layer of butter. On the top piece he also added mayo mixed half and half with Balsamic vinegar.
- He placed both on the griddle then added the tomato-basil mixture to the top piece followed by sliced peperoncinis for a bit of vinegar spiciness and then a slice of Swiss cheese.
- On the other piece of bread he added a slice of American cheese followed by the deli meat.
- Once all the cheeses are melted, he carefully pressed the two sides together and pressed them down with the spatula.
There you go-grilled cheese worth the wait. Plus, I didn’t even have to tip the waiter. One of these days, I gotta go to Melt, but for now I’ll keep letting my hubby and kids come up with tasty grilled cheese combos.
Your turn-do you have a favorite grilled cheese creation? Are you a Man v. Food watcher?
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