Wow on Wednesday

There are a lot of recipes coming your way tonight! Sometimes when you mix and match, it doesn't work out, but tonight they all went together splendidly.

Tonight's entree was herbed lamb chops. The recipe comes from Elie Krieger's "The Food You Crave" cookbook. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/marinated-lamb-chops-recipe/index.html. It wasn't actually the recipe I was looking for - that one includes herbes de Provence - but I couldn't find the other one and the notes I made in the cookbook next to this recipe said "Yum!!" so I knew it was good. And it was!! I followed the instructions to the letter, except I made it for just two people with one large chop apiece.

To go with that, I made a spinach salad, using a recipe to make spiced pecans but otherwise just putting in what I want. I've mentioned the spiced pecans before, in an Asian Pear salad. I didn't make that salad, just the nuts, using the canola oil, pecans, sugar, cinammon and cayenne pepper. Here's the whole recipe: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/748680-Asian-Pear-Salad. On top of the spinach, I put one thinly sliced plum tomato, some crumbled feta cheese (I would have preferred goat cheese, but the goat cheese in my refrigerator was, shall we say, blue cheese) and the pecans. I made a maple-mustard vinaigrette I gleaned from my Eatingwell cookbook. Recipe here: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/maple_mustard_vinaigrette.html. It went really well with everything in the salad.

For dessert, I used up some of the extra shortcake recipe I posted yesterday and made a tiramisu trifle in Sandra Lee's "Semi-Homemade Desserts 2" cookbook. I haven't been able to find the exact recipe online to link to, but I changed a few things anyway so here's what I did:

1. Combine 3 cups milk (fat-free) with one 6-serving box of instant vanilla pudding mix (fat free-sugar free). Whisk for two minutes, then let stand about 3 minutes or until thick. Stir in mascarpone cheese (recipe calls for an 8 oz container... I had used some already so was short of the full container by two or three good-sized spoonfuls. It didn't seem to make any difference). Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until smooth.

2. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup boiling water with 2 teaspoons instant espresso crystals. Add 6 tablespoons liqueur - the recipe calls for Kahlua. I had on hand a bottle of a chocolate-hazelnut no-name liqueur and I used that. Set aside the hot mixture.

3. Spoon the vanilla pudding mixture into the bottom of a trifle dish to cover the bottom. Add leftover shortcake - cubed to bite-sized and dunked into the coffee/liqueur mixture - on top of the pudding. Spoon thawed Light whipped topping on top of the shortcake.

4. Repeat step 3 until you either run out of one or more of the ingredients or run out of room in the trifle dish.

5. Dust top with cocoa powder.

6. Eat and say YUM!!

A better shortcake

I found a great recipe I want to share with you. Actually the website is pretty cool too, from what I've seen. If you want to eat smarter, check it out. They use the word "healthify" - it's what I've been trying to do to my diet, although I have to admit that cheese is still a weakness.

I found strawberries on sale and looking great recently, so wanted a shortcake to go with them. The recent "lump of dough baked on a cookie sheet" shortcakes weren't making my mouth water. Then I found this. http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/healthified/healthified-strawberry-shortcake-squares.aspx. Yum!! Very light but tasty. I used the no-sugar added applesauce instead of the oil and it turned out just perfect. I ran out of strawberries before I ran out of cake, so used some of what remains in tonight's tiramisu trifles. I still have three small squares remaining and I think I'm going to put those in a baking dish and top them with some canned peaches and cinammon and nutmeg.

By the way, the tiramisu picture and recipe will come later today.

Catching Up

I'm still here. I haven't stopped cooking (or eating, although I really should probably at least slow down.

We ate out a bit this past weekend, but here are some of the things I've made since my last entry:

Chinese chicken and noodle salad: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chinese_chicken_noodle_salad.html. I didn't take a picture of it though. We really liked it and I'll make it again. I didn't have almonds, so omitted them (none of the nuts I had on hand sounded like they'd really work with the rest of the ingredients). I also used canned chicken breast meat instead of poaching a breast and shredding it, which kept me from needing to cook much on a really hot day!

Saturday night we ate the rest of the sweet potato raviolis from Monday, which I had frozen. They were every bit as delicious after having been in the freezer for a few days.

Sunday one of our meals was turkey keilbasa subs with peppers and onions. I saved the remainder of the veggies for use in fajitas, which we had for lunch on Tuesday (John telecommutes one day a week when he can).

We went out for lunch Monday, but I continued the Meatless Monday brand new tradition for dinner by making polenta and eggplant pie. That's the picture at the top of the blog entry. The recipe comes from Epicurious.com, on my phone app. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Polenta-Pie-with-Cheese-and-Tomato-Sauce-234993 I did not have the spaghetti sauce with eggplant, so I cut up half of a small eggplant, diced it and put it in the sauce (arrabiata) to simmer for awhile. It was okay. The cheese was the best part (one can never have too much cheese). If I make it again, I will choose a sauce with a little bit less attitude. It gave me heartburn.

I didn't take a picture of dinner Tuesday night. We'd had a good sized lunch and were still fairly full. I made tuna sandwiches (on homemade potato bread - yum!) and a salad. I don't think any of you need a visual on that - if you do, you're beyond my help in the kitchen :-)

Wednesday Pork Chops

This recipe is one of my go-to recipes when I have pork chops thawed. The original came from the Food section of the Washington Post many years ago. And whadya know, I found it online courtesy of the Post too: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2003/04/30/1144-pork-chops/. It really works, and it's really easy!

I didn't find the sauce recipe online (I looked, but I'm not going to claim I scoured the internet...). It was published in the Post the same day as the pork chop recipe. I've also made the Bourbon and Mustard sauce that's linked to the page the pork chop recipe is on - it's also very good, although I have a slight preference for the mustard-marsala one.

Mustard-Marsala-Cream Sauce:

1/4 cup marsala

1 Tbl coarse grained mustard

1/2 cup half and half (recipe calls for heavy cream - it's just as good with half and half)

When you remove the pork chops from the pan, add the marsala to deglaze it, upping the temperature of the burner to get it boiling and reduce it a little. Add the mustard, then the cream. Pour on top of pork chop. It's also ridiculously good on the veggies!

I didn't take a picture of dessert. I made "Magic Bars" - basic recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/magic-cookie-bars-from-eagle-brand/detail.aspx . This is a recipe that lends itself well to whatever goodies you have on hand. I used chopped macadamia nuts, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, in addition to the coconut. I used fat-free sweetened condensed milk. We both liked it. A lot.

Nothing Fancy tonight

Today started out dreary and chilly, then after an afternoon rain squall, turned somewhat sunny, hot and humid. Perfect salad weather, and since I'd had a busy day it also needed to be a quick and easy meal.

Buffalo chicken salad is the best of both of those worlds - lots of flavor with little effort. I purchased a jar of wing sauce and poured it into a zip-lock bag. Then I cut up a couple chicken breasts into "tenders" and tossed those in the bag with the sauce, and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

The salad fixings might be made up of different things from time to time, depending on what I have on hand. Today it was romaine lettuce, Roma tomato, a little bit of a banana pepper, carrot and celery. And a pinch of crumbled blue cheese. Top it off with the chicken after sauteeing it in a pan (no added oil) and some blue cheese dressing and voila! Easy meal!

Dessert was another piece of the blackberry frozen yogurt pie I made yesterday.

Meatless Monday

We're going to give this "Meatless Mondays" idea a try. It should help our waistlines as well as out budget (although I'm not saying that fresh veggies are cheap, ya know?). If it helps the planet, so much the better.

Today I used a conglomeration of recipes I looked at. First, I roasted three sweet potatoes at 425 for about 55 minutes, until they were nice and mushy inside. To the mashed taters I added about a teaspoon of chipotle powder and about 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese. I didn't measure those - I added according to visual and tastebud approval. Added a little salt & pepper, and put 1 teaspoon filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper. Then I wet the edges of the wrapper and affixed another wrapper on top and sealed them. I used a fluted pastry wheel to trim the edges up pretty-like.

The sauce I got from this site: http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2009/10/sweet-potato-ravioli-and-spinach-in.html. I substituted half-and-half for the heavy cream.

It was OUTSTANDING!! I might add just a tad more chipotle to the ravioli the next time around. It was discernible, but pretty tame. I don't want overpowering, I just want a little better balance to the sweetness of the potato and cheese.

For dessert, I had made blackberry frozen yogurt from these directions: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/berry_frozen_yogurt.html. After churning it in the ice cream machine, I turned it out into a purchased chocolate graham cracker pie crust. It's very tasty, but the directions did not mention straining after processing the berries, and next time I would add that step as the seeds were very noticeable and they took something away from the enjoyment of the dessert (like "crunch" when chewing, for instance).

Thursday, on time this time

Playing catch up here...

In my introduction to myself and this blog, I mentioned that I take notes when I watch Iron Chef America. Tonight, I used those notes to make our main entree.

We record Iron Chef every week, and once in awhile, we'll sit down and watch a bunch of them. So, although it aired some time ago, it was just last week when Iron Chef Jose Garces was competing and the secret ingredient was blue cheese.

I actually took several notes from that show. It doesn't hurt that Chef Garces actually lives and cooks within striking distance to us (in Philly - we have reservations for a paired beer dinner at one of his restaurants in August but are unlikely to be able to attend due to a work conflict of John's... but we WILL eventually make it to one - or more - of them!).

One of the courses that intrigued me involved not only blue cheese, but chorizo, onion, garlic, and quail. I've never had quail. I've never seen quail for sale at any of the grocery stores I frequent. But I have chicken on hand, and I'm not afraid to use it.

I had two half-breasts, which I flattened as best as I could so I'd have some space to roll up the filling. The filling was about a half cup of sweet onion, diced, and two chorizo links, crumbled, and sauteed in a skillet with a dollop of olive oil. when those were mostly cooked through I added a large spoonful of the "secret ingredient" - some Danish blue cheese. Chef Garces had used Maytag blue cheese, but my store didn't have that - it had this Danish blue cheese and a plastic container labelled "blue cheese". Pathetic.

By the way, how, exactly, can you tell when blue cheese has gone bad??

Anyway, I took the filling and put a couple spoonfuls on each chicken portion and rolled it up, and secured with a couple of toothpicks. Each portion was huge enough to easily feed both of us, so this would have served four. I put both pieces in a small casserole dish which I'd sprayed with cooking spray, and baked it at 425 for about 25 minutes.

For a veggie, I julienned one yellow squash and one zucchini and stir-fried them in olive oil and dusted them with oregano.

For dessert, I got my inspiration from another Food Network persona - Sandra Lee. I have a couple of her cookbooks and although there was no recipe, there was a picture and short description of a pie-like dessert that sounded really easy.

I purchased a tube of crescent rolls, ready-to-bake, and unfurled that, placing one triangle in each of 8 ramekins. On top of that, I put a couple of spoonfuls of canned cherry pie filling. The 8 ramekins took exactly 2 cans of pie filling. I dusted them with some pink sugar crystals I bought a long time ago and don't remember why, but they're in my pantry so why not... and baked as recommended for the crescent rolls, at 425 for 12 minutes.

I don't know if the blue cheese in the chicken/chorizo enhanced it in any way. But I plan on trying this again down the road without it, since I am not constrained by any secret ingredients.

And we both liked the dessert, which is easy enough for anyone to make!

Day late again - does this means its leftovers?

Here's our Wednesday night meal. I looked at three or four recipes and borrowed from each of them for this chicken and mushroom enchilada.

I should probably preface this by mentioning that my interest in Mexican food is rather new-found. Where I grew up, in Vermont, we did not have anything resembling Mexican food. To this day, I do not think there is even a Taco Bell in town or in any of the surrounding towns (probably in Rutland or Brattleboro, both 40+ miles away, in different directions). Heck, my town didn't even have a McDonald's until I was almost out of High School!

Therefore, I hadn't even tasted Mexican food until I was away at college, and I didn't like it then. I still find I am not too fond of "Tex-Mex" - at least the kind where it's all about the spice and the heat. But since I've enjoyed Mexican food IN Mexico now, I'm getting rather fond of it. Not that I'm making authentic by anyone's imagination, but I need to start somewhere, and I'm not enough of a culinarian to attempt Rick Bayless' 20-ingredient mole just yet.

First I took the tortillas I was going to use and softened them by wrapping them in a damp paper towel, wrapping them in a tea towel and nuking them for a minute or two. Then I got the pan ready by putting down a couple spoonfuls of the picante sauce I was going to top the dish with. That way the enchiladas don't stick (as bad anyway).

I had roasted a chicken a couple days before and raided the carcass for about 2 cups of meat to dice up. I also thinly sliced a package of baby bella mushrooms and one red pepper that was in the bin marked "jalapeno" at the grocery store. I had to come online to a chile identification table to make sure that's actually what I had, as most of the jalapenos I've seen are green.

The pepper and mushrooms went into a skillet with some olive oil cooking spray and I cooked those down until the mushrooms were soft. I spread a small spoonful of "lite" sour cream on the tortilla, then laid down a handful of chopped up chicken (both white and dark meat) and a spoonful of the mushroom/pepper mixture. Then I added about a tablespoon of a "Mexican" cheese blend and rolled up the tortilla and placed it in the pan. I did this six times, which used up all the ingredients I had prepared.

When all six bundles were lined up in the pan, I poured the rest of the jar of picante sauce over them and added a few more handfuls of the Mexican cheese blend to cover it. Then I baked it at 350 until it was warm and bubbly, which took about 30 minutes.

BTW, the leftover enchilada I had for lunch today was possibly even yummier than it was last night!!

Tuesday, better late than never

Give me a couple of days off from blogging, and it's like I never started! Out of sight, out of mind, I guess!

Anyway, Tuesday's dinner was not late, just this re-telling of it. We've had quite dreary weather, and Tuesday (and Monday before it and Wednesday after it) were without sunshine and much more like March than May. Probably as a result, I've been feeling a little less than inspired and/or motivated. When I get in moods like that, it's comfort food I want to eat.

John cannot eat beef. Well, he can, but at great expense - it causes his gout to flare up painfully. Being as how he's awfully nice to me, I choose not to put him into pain. We don't often eat red meat at all, even though some of it does not affect his gout. The last time we had any red meat, it was a leg of lamb at Easter. His gout is also why we'll never go completely vegetarian. He cannot eat beans either. He shouldn't drink beer... but he's not willing to sacrifice a good microbrew or two. There are limits to what a man (or woman) is willing to do.

Thankfully bison is genetically different enough from beef that it doesn't cause him pain. It's also much leaner! About the only thing bad about boof is that it costs considerably more than beef.

I call beef "boof". Because it sounds funny. And because many people call bison "buffalo", which it is not. From the Italian cheese mozzarella di bufala (which is actually water buffalo, but it's the pronunciation of boof-ah-lah I'm getting at). It has nothing to do with the Red Sox signing a pitcher named Boof Bonser in the off-season. Although I did get quite the chuckle out of that one.

So Tuesday I had some thawed ground bison... thawed ground boof... available to use and boofburgers sounded easy and good. I made us each a 1/4 lb patty and put it on the griddle pan. When they were done, I added a few crumbles of blue cheese to the top. We had a salad to go with it.

For dessert, I made a cake. Yellow, with chocolate frosting. Betty Crocker, mind you, not from scratch. My grocery store had a great sale.

Roasty Goodness

Today was a good day to fire up the oven and make some roasted stuff for dinner. Stuff. Commonly known as roast chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted asparagus. Pretty simple but tasty stuff.

For reasons unknown, my photograph didn't make it to my email, and my phone is currently offline, out of gas. But I'm reasonably confident you all know what a roasted chicken, et al looks like.

No fancy recipe. My "trick" to roast chicken to keep it moist is to spray it with butter-flavored cooking spray. Then just simple salt and pepper.

I threw a couple handfuls of red fingerling potatoes into the roasting pan when there was about 50 minutes of roasting time left. Then with about 35 minutes left, I put in a pan in which I'd put asparagus, olive oil, salt, pepper and just a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. They all finished at the same time.

For dessert, earlier in the day I'd sliced strawberries and let them soak all day in a couple spoonfuls of sugar and a glug (scientific term right?) of chambord. Bisquick can take the credit for the shortcakes.

Sometimes simple is so nice and tasty.

The vote is in

It was close, but tonight's winner is Eggplant Parmesan. Ok, I didn't really count the votes - I ended up with a compelling (to me anyway) reason why Szechuan eggplant wouldn't be the ideal entree today. I'm making salmon tomorrow, and the recipe I found for that would have too many similar Asian tastes to the Szechuan eggplant recipe.

Tonight's dish is one I've made before, and it was good enough to make it into "Becky's Book of Yum" - the photo album where I compile all my favored recipes. Here it is: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-parmesan-ii/detail.aspx

Now you can make it yummy too! I added a simple salad to go along with it. I was thinking of doing some garlic bread but planned on having leftover bread pudding for dessert and thought it a bit redundant.

Trial and Error

Did some trial and error with the entree and dessert for tonight's dinner.

The barbecue sauce on the chicken thighs was the success part. Well, yeah, so was the corn, but how hard is it to open a can, empty it into a sauce pan and heat it?

The sauce came from a recipe called bakingbites.com, but the last time I tried to navigate to that site my anti-virus software told me it had fended off an attempted attack on my computer, so I won't publish the link.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

pinch ground pepper, or to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth.

I put 4 chicken thighs in a casserole pan I'd sprayed with olive oil spray and poured the bbq sauce over them. Put that in the oven for an hour at 350, and they came out perfectly!

As for the side, it was my executive (chef) decision to have corn... it was what I was in the mood to have!

I attempted a duo of desserts, and this is the "error" part of the trial and error title. I'm not too happy about the way either of them turned out.

Since I've now found a couple sources for the tamarind concentrate (haven't found paste, but figured out how to use the concentrate) I decided to use some of it to make a granita. I thought about a sorbet, but really wanted it light in texture too. Granita sounded right.

I mixed a cup and a third of the concentrate with a quart of water, and added about a half cup of sugar. Froze that, forgetting to stir it every hour to keep it from getting solid. So it was real solid when I went to use it after eating the main course. I "shredded" it with a fork, and scooped up the loose ice crystals.

It was refreshing, but I'm not certain how much a person who's not used to the flavor could eat of it. It's definitely an acquired taste.

The other dessert was to make a vanilla-coconut frozen yogurt. I had just the right amount (3 cups) of vanilla lowfat Greek-style yogurt. I added 3/4 cup of Splenda, 1 tsp vanilla flavoring (if I'd had coconut extract, I'd have used that) and 1/2 cup of toasted coconut to the yogurt and chilled it, then churned it in my ice cream machine.

The consistency is good. The coconut is musted, and I think the Splenda is leaving an aftertaste I don't care for. At least it is definitely soothing (as was the tamarind granita) after that palate-firing barbecue sauce!

Warm is a Must

It's May 11th. Why doesn't the weather reflect that? I'm baking today, mostly so I had a reason to turn on the oven and warm up the kitchen. Warm things are most necessary tonight for supper.

I had made a roasted veggie frittata not long before starting this blog, but since it was prior to its inception, no recipe or description had made it here. That's being corrected tonight.

I had thought about making an eggplant parmesan lasagna for supper, but have NO room in my fridge for leftovers. So, in the spirit of getting rid of some veggies at least, tonight's meal was born.

I roasted a bunch of veggies I have on hand - a small quartered sweet onion, a zucchini and a yellow summer squash, an orange bell pepper and a handful of garlic cloves, on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed. They roasted at 425 for about 25 minutes. When I brought them out, the pepper went into a zip lock baggie to make it easier to peel. When everything had cooled down I chopped it up to bite-size and set them aside.

The egg portion was to be 8 eggs, but I used up the Eggbeaters I had thawed, and they amounted to six eggs, and I used 2 "real" eggs for the remainder. I whisked those together, put in the veggies to stir it up and put it into a greased (well, sprayed) cake pan. at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. At the end of that time, I let it sit out for 5 minutes to set up.

Dessert came about from my attempts to make whole grain French baguettes. The baguettes themselves came out ok, I think they could be better. But I had more than enough of them to use up one baton in bread pudding.

I cut up the bread into bite-sized pieces, about 5 cups of it all told. In a seperate bowl I whisked 2 eggs and 2 cups milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract and grated some fresh nutmeg on top. Poured the egg & milk mixture over the bread and let it soak for about an hour. Just before baking, I stirred in about a cup of caramel chips I picked up at a party/cake decorating store.

That baked for 45 minutes at 350. I had done that before supper went in, so when the frittata exited the oven and made its way towards our dinner plates, I shut off the oven and put the dessert back in to warm up. When it came out, I topped it with a spoonful of the Honduran cream I've spoken of in earlier blog postings.

Delicious!!

Thai Curry Shrimp

If any of my readers watch Top Chef, you may remember an episode, I think a couple years back in the year that Stephanie Izard won, in which a chef served a shrimp that was mealy-textured. Tom Colicchio asked if they cooked badly or shopped badly, and the chef's answer was that they shopped badly, meaning that no matter what they did in the kitchen, the shrimp was destined to end up sub-par on the plate.

I shopped badly also, and the shrimp I brought home (frozen, in a bag) were also mealy. I noticed it as soon as I started shelling them. But I didn't think it was such a bad problem as to discard them and re-plan the entire meal, and it was not. It didn't turn out badly, but it could have been better.

Aside from the mealy shrimp, my fiddling with the recipe could have led to some of its less-than-superbness. I got the recipe from Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Thai-Shrimp-Curry-109161. I didn't realize until I was into it already that I had no Thai Green Curry Paste. The one I had was Red. So I used the red (about a tablespoon and a half of it, emptying the small jar) and added green to my grocery list. I liked the broth. In addition to the poor texture on the shrimp, I wondered if the addition I made of some shredded Napa cabbage (to up its vegetable quotient) might have led to some bitterness. I did like the crunch the cabbage added however. I also added about a half cup of julienned yellow bell pepper.

For dessert, we had a few crunchy oatmeal-cinnamon chip cookies I made yesterday.

Cleaning out the fridge time

Every cook has done it from time to time. That is, looked in the fridge and pantry and decided they needed to figure out a way to use up the odds and ends that were hanging on from previous meals. For instance, I recently tried my hand at potato gnocchi (messy! but I will try it again) and had two russet potatoes hanging out in the recesses of my pantry. I also had a package of shiitake mushrooms in the fridge and one bunch of broccoli. As previously noted, I'm trying - so far successfully - at cutting back on meat so a vegetarian meal looked appealing (I'd made spaghetti and turkey sausage meatballs for lunch).

So I dove into Epicurious and other websites and looked around. The best looking recipe was a scalloped potato and mushroom dish. I decided a simple steamed broccoli side was in order. More on that in a bit.

I found this recipe through Google at Cooks.com: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1622,132182-244192,00.html. I dug into my soup bin and found but one cream of mushroom soup can. However, I had a cream of potato soup on hand, and what was in the dish with the mushrooms? So I figured that'd blend in better than cream of chicken or cream of celery, etc. That was the only change I made to the dish.

It was creamy, but I would like the potatoes to have cooked a bit more. The hour I gave it wasn't enough. I sliced them quite thin too, so I doubt I could get them much thinner. Maybe I should have gotten out my mandoline and used it. Or maybe just an extra 15 minutes would have made the difference. I liked it better than John, but that's unsurprising since I like potatoes in general much more than he does.

I decided the steamed broccoli side needed some zing to it. I'd read a recipe in one of Ellie Krieger's cookbooks about steamed green beans with a mustard sauce. So I put a couple tablespoons of stone-ground mustard into a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup and gave it a whisk to loosen it up. It definitely needed something to thin it out. So I searched my brain and my fridge... water? Boring. Chicken broth? That would take away from the vegetarianism of the meal. Bourbon? (I have a lovely recipe for a bourbon and mustard sauce to go with pork chops - and it's great on the veggies too - look for that recipe to appear on these pages). I thought the liquor would be too strongly flavored, but it was heading in the right direction.

So I turned to a mostly- used bottle of white wine, a chardonnay, in my fridge. I added a teaspoon or two to that - basically just splashed a little in and stirred it together until the mixture was still thick enough to cling to the broccoli but liquid enough to pour from the cup. It definitely had some zest to it! We both liked it!

For dessert, we had a couple of the cookies I made this afternoon - oatmeal-cinnamon chip whole wheat cookies. Recipe here: http://adashofsass.com/2009/02/10/whole-wheat-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/ . They're a little drier than I prefer. I'm glad I did not add the walnuts as they likely would have made them taste even drier.

Lazy Saturday night

We went out for lunch, to a brewpub about an hour from our house. I had a burger, John had a pizza. And we each had two beers and shared a bread pudding dessert. It was all delicious! But I knew supper had to be on the lighter side to make up for these indulgences.

I saw on their menu a salad that appealed to me - a chicken salad with balsamic vinaigrette, bacon, egg, cheese, tomato, cuke and roasted bell pepper. I thought to myself that I have all those ingredients at home, so why not make that for tonight?

I cooked up 3 slices of bacon and hard-boiled 2 eggs (only used one of them) about an hour before suppertime. About 30 minutes later I cooked a single chicken breast; which I'd cut in half to make thinner, in a teaspoon of canola oil. When that had cooled, I sliced it up to put in the salad. Tear up some romaine leaves, cut the tomato, cuke, pepper, crumble the bacon - this couldn't be easier! And we both liked it!!

Dessert is something I bought around Easter time as a special treat at the wholesale club we belong to. It was a package of 60 pastry treats like vanilla napoleon and truffles, frozen, and cost $9.99. They're really good, and I had forgotten they were in the freezer, behind all my ice cream fixings. We're waiting for them to thaw now before we dig into them!

What's not to like?

Sometimes I take some flack for having extra time to produce pseudo-gourmet meals. Tonight, anyone can do it. It's my favorite go-to 20 minute meal - and the tastiest chicken marsala I've ever had (yes, even better than most restaurants)!

I found it in an old Weight Watchers "Make it in Minutes" cookbook. I also found it online here: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Weight-Watchers-Chicken-Marsala-294720. Follow it exactly and you will have a very nice entree.

If I'm in a hurry, my favorite quickie vegetable to go with this is spinach. Buy a bag of baby spinach at the grocery store. Poke a few holes in the bag with a fork and nuke it for 2-3 minutes. Ta da. Some of them say to not nuke the bag of spinach. I do it anyway.

Tonight I made a side dish of broccoli with a soy-lemon-garlic dressing. I originally got it in the Washington Post many years ago. I found a copy of it here online: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/RCP00259/broccoli-cauliflower-soy-lemon.html

It's a nice quick veggie dish, very easy and tasty, although not as fast to put together as the spinach.

I was out and about a lot today so didn't make up a new dessert. We still have a little mango sorbet and ricotta-lavender-honey ice cream so we'll choose what to have from those two things.

(btw, I felt under the weather all day Thursday due to only getting about 3-4 hours of sleep all night, so we got pizza carryout... yes we do that too from time to time).

Feliz Cinco de Mayo, part Dos

The bulk of the cooking of yesterday dinner's main course didn't take place yesterday, it took place the day before. None of the stores in my area, despite one of them having two huge aisles filled with "International" food - most of it Latino flavored - carry achiote paste. All of them, even the podunk one, carry annato seed or ground annato. Annato is the main color and flavor behind achiote paste.

I started with this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Traditional-Achiote-Recado-15385 . I didn't soak the annato seeds in water since I was starting with an already-ground spice. I did toast it, and the other spices. In the process of making this, I completely used up my ancho chile powder. It was worth it!

Once I made this sauce (it was really a marinade, not a paste) I put it into a zip-lock baggie where I had about a 3 1/2 lb pork butt roast waiting. It went into the fridge on Tuesday to wait for Wednesday morning.

Come the morning of Cinco de Mayo, I got the crock pot out and put the meat and marinade into it before I even had coffee. I gave it 12 hours. It did not need that much time. I went to turn over the roast at about the 8 hour mark and it fell apart on the end of my fork.

After having the previously-mentioned appetizers (a margarita and chips and some lovely salsa), I put on some yellow rice and made a salad. I was planning on making a dessert yesterday, but just didn't have room for it in the fridge until the pan of tres leches cake was gone. Now that's gone so I can play with desserts some.

Later today, one of my very favorite simple but yummy recipes that takes less than 30 minutes to make!

Feliz 5/5

This is just the warm-up...

The salsa is quite interesting. A bit hotter than I usual eat, but well within my tolerance level (which, incidentally, has increased somewhat in the past few years). I bought 4 good-sized tomatillos yesterday. Had never boughten one previously. Not sure I'd ever even held one before! But at least I've eaten them, in salsas. I washed them up and put them on the broiler pan along with two jalapenos and 3 garlic cloves. Broiled them for about 6 minutes and let them cool. The skin peeled right off the jalapenos easily.

I put those ingredients into the food processor along with a chopped up sweet onion and a large handful of dried cilantro (it called for a cup of fresh - I don't often have fresh herbs on hand as they go bad so quickly). Added a couple pinches of salt and blended. Then I tasted it. And I remembered the trip we took to Playa del Carmen last December and the terrific pumpkin seed salsas I had there.

I looked up pumpkin seed salsas, and the recipes I found called for tomatillos. Garlic. Chiles. So I said "why not" (heh - yes I do sail on Royal Caribbean) and toasted about a cup of those and threw them into the food processor too.

Yummy.

The margaritas are each:
3 parts tequila (Don Eduardo silver this time around)
2 parts sour mix
1 part Cointreau
1 part Rose's lime juice

Shaken, not stirred.

The tortilla chips are store-bought whole-wheat tortillas (forgive me, I don't own a tortilla press. Yet.) which are cut with a pizza cutter, put on a cookie sheet, sprayed with butter no-stick spray and sprinkled with salt and baked at 400 for about 8 minutes.

The typos and verbose-ness are courtesy of the tequila. Gracias.

Fresh Pasta = good

I made pasta yesterday, of the spinach and ricotta variety. The recipe was one I found in a cookbook I have entitled "Truly Madly Pasta". I haven't found the exact recipe online, but the four or five I looked at are all reasonably similar. I took a bag and a half (10 oz bag) of baby spinach and washed them, and put them in a pot with just the water still clinging to them from the washing. Put on the lid, turned up the burner to medium for 5-8 minutes, and the spinach was cooked. Then I let that drain for an hour in a colander and tried squeezing it between two matched plates to get excess water out. I don't know how successful that was. Maybe next time I'll just use my hands so I can feel if it's still too wet.

Then I chopped up the spinach and threw in a couple good-sized spoonfuls of ricotta, some kosher salt and grated some nutmeg on it. I got my nutmeg this past winter in Grenada - gotta love getting it right at the source!

Then I made the pasta. I use the recipe for egg pasta in my Stand Mixer Bible cookbook. It's just 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 4 eggs and a tsp salt. After letting that sit for half an hour I rolled out small sections of it. I rolled it to 6 this time instead of 5 so it was a little more delicate.

I let the rolled-out sheets dry just a little on the counter before filling them. I dropped small spoonfuls into the middle of each long sheet, wet the edges and the middle of the sheet and folded it in half, also pressing together in between the mounds of filling. I then made the mistake of taking them off the counter to clean it and putting all the pasta into the colander to await cooking. They were a bit wet and many of them stuck together. I won't make that mistake again.

I made a tossed salad while the water for the pasta heated up. Fresh pasta doesn't need to be boiled long - I think it was in there maybe 3-4 minutes tops. One of the raviolis exploded in the water. Actually I was surprised it was only one of them.

The sauce I used needs a bit more work I think. I toasted some pine nuts then removed them from the pan. Added half a stick of butter and melted that til it was nutty brown and added some sage. I would have liked to use fresh sage but I had none in the house.

It turned out pretty good, although I had hopes for better. For dessert we finished up the hazelnut ice cream I made last week.

Today is Cinco de Mayo, and I have cochinita pibil in the crock pot.

Feeling Krabby

No, no. I'm fine. I just wanted to use up some surimi last night. You know, the fish that's made to look (and taste, in theory) like crab. So some spell it krab to let you know they got the cheap stuff.

I got the recipe off Louis Kemp's website - http://www.louiskemp.com/recipes/seafood_enchiladas.php

I only used one package of krab since there are two of us and we are trying to cut back on meat portions. And I used the "Mexican cheese blend" instead of cheddar. It was okay, but I thought it was on the bland side. If I make it again, I will add some spice to it - paprika maybe, or crushed red pepper, or the jalapenos mentioned as a garnish.

A throw-together meal

But it tastes good. Back to cooking today after a couple nice nights off.

For lunch I roasted some veggies - a small eggplant, 8 baby bella mushrooms, half a red onion, a red pepper and some spinach - and made quesadillas. The spinach was a little dry. I'm not sure I'd do it that way again. And I forgot to put in a couple garlic cloves. And I forgot to take a picture of it.

Tonight's meal, it was time to use up some remnants. I had 10 shrimp, a small bunch of broccoli, and homemade pasta I'd put into the freezer when I didn't use it the day I made the batch. I cheated and used Knorr's Parma Rosa sauce, and sliced a clove of garlic and sauteed it along with the shrimp in olive oil.

The meal came together in about 20 minutes. One note to pass along - some of the pasta was clumped together like snarled hair. I guess I need to make sure it's a little drier next time before I put it in a zip-lock bag and stow it in the freezer.

This should be a fun week ahead!

Friday Odds and Ends

TGIF, friends!

A couple of notes:

I went out yesterday to the Asian market a couple towns over, only to find them closed. For good. No, for bad, since I'm not aware of any other Asian markets without driving some 30 miles. Possibly someday when we're out for a Saturday lunch we'll make our way to Falls Church, where there are more Asian markets than Caucasian ones. Until then, I have seen tamarind in my "regular" supermarkets and may have to try to make the paste myself. From what I've read it isn't difficult, just messy.

John told me last night he's been hankering for pizza. He denied being tired of my cooking ;-) But since I woke up with quite a headache today and it has yet to go away despite my best efforts, I think I'll take him up on that "let's go out for pizza" tonight.

I also get Saturday night off from cooking since we're heading to a baseball game. Red Sox vs. Orioles, in Baltimore. Also known as Fenway South. Since it's nearly impossible to get a ticket to see the Sox at home, a lot of people make the trip to Baltimore (thank you Southwest airlines!). Add that to the multitude of transplanted New Englanders and members of Red Sox Nation from other parts living in the DC metro area, and it's quite a fun event for a Red Sox fan. Listen for me to start a rousing "Let's go RED SOX" as soon as the strains of the national anthem fade away...

Como se dice "yum"?

I was in the mood for Mexican tonight, and getting ready with a kick-anatomy Cinco de Mayo menu for next week. There were a few varieties of meat in the fridge from which to choose: shrimp, surimi (aka faux crab), chicken. Since we had chicken last night, and since the shrimp have a short shelf life, it wasn't a hard decision.

I had a menu for tacos, but realized after I got out my food processor to get together some stuff for salsa that I had forgotten to pick up the tomatillos. So that brought about my first "back up 10 yards and punt" episode connected to this meal. I knew I wanted to make a flavored sour cream so I chopped up one chipotle pepper from the can of same in adobo sauce, and grabbed a couple teaspoons of the sauce while I was in there. Then I squeezed half a lime into the bowl and stirred it up and tasted it. It had a kick but it wasn't going to burn down our mouths. I decided to semi-ceviche the shrimp so I peeled them and put them into a bowl with the juice from the other half of the lime and some cilantro. Let them bathe in that for awhile as I got other components ready. I also chopped up a couple of tomatoes, some purple cabbage - very thinly - and at the last minute an avocado.

In the meantime, I made the salad. I peeled and julienned a jicama (exotic ingredient du jour) then cut up a cucumber in like fashion. The recipe (here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/crunchy-jicama-and-mango-salad-with-chile-and-lime-recipe/index.html ) called for peeled and wedged mangos. I had only one on hand but was sizing down the recipe in general anyway since there's just two of us. But as I got into the mango, I got worried. It was mushy. And overripe. Way overripe. It fell apart in my hands as I tried to cut it up. Punt time again. I haven't been watching Top Chef for years without reason. I mentally did inventory in my head as to what I had on hand that might have similarities to a mango. How about that cantaloupe sitting on the counter over there? I had another use in mind for it, but... I think I can use that. I followed the recipe closely other than that emergency swap of orange-fleshed fruit. It actually worked pretty well!

I did cook the shrimp for a couple minutes before putting them in the taco. Served it with the cabbage, avocado, tomatoes, spiked sour cream (low fat, I might add - but not the nasty fat free stuff) - all tasted pretty good.

Then for dessert. John had, on more than one occasion, mentioned how delicious he thought tres leches cake was. With some assertive flavors in the meal, I thought it'd be a nice soothing dessert. Not to mention I had too much cream in the house from making ice cream. Now, I not only had never made tres leches cake before, I'd never even HAD it. So I needed a recipe I could trust. I found one from Alton Brown, but ran into a problem. I love Alton. He cracks me up. But I don't have all the gadgets he has. And I never will have. His recipe called for a certain weight of cake flour. I found a conversion into cups, but it was just too much math for me to do in my head, and I am not interested in getting out the calculator (especially at 10am) to bake. So I found another recipe. I think this one worked well. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tres-leches-milk-cake/detail.aspx

I did substitute some of the fat. I used Eggbeaters instead of 5 eggs (1 1/4 cups of Eggbeaters). I used 1 cup of fat-free milk and 1 cup half-and-half instead of 2 cups whole milk (probably came out to about the same damage). Both the evaporated milk and the sweetened condensed milk, I used fat-free. But I did use heavy cream for the whipped cream on top.

It is just stupid good. Then again, very little that's covered in about an inch of whipped cream tastes poorly.

I have found some very interesting things to try for Cinco de Mayo next week.

Where in the world...?

Does one find tamarind paste? I couldn't find it anywhere today. I wanted to make chicken Pad Thai and make the sauce myself, but without tamarind paste, I had to use a jar of "pad thai sauce". It was disappointing. I'll head out to an Asian market that's a few towns over before trying it again. It wasn't horrible, but it was unremarkable.

Vegetarian success!

With a couple of not-so-subtle suggestions from John's doctor about cutting back on meat, I started searching for ways to make some interesting meatless meals. I've done the occasional veggie stir-fry, quesadilla, mac n cheese, spaghetti, eggplant parmesan... but am always looking for something different and tasty. No, we are not cutting out all meat - going whole hog so to speak - just cutting back. It's a good idea for our waistlines and budget, and even the planet.

I found some of that while surfing my phone during a baseball game. Epicurious.com (yep, there's an app for that!) has the recipe, and you can find it here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Lentil-Stew-with-Ginger-Yogurt-107271

We really enjoyed the stew, which was nowhere near as pungent as I thought it would be. Actually the ginger yogurt wasn't needed. It wasn't a bad addition, but it didn't really add anything to the meal (maybe some calcium). I also made a pear salad - the recipe said make an Asian pear salad but none of the pears in my grocery store were Asian so a red bosc had to suffice. http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/748680-Asian-Pear-Salad. I have to warn you - what that recipe does to pecans is decadent!

I also made pita bread! Yes, from scratch! It was actually a bit easier than making yeast bread loaves. The first group in the oven didn't puff up as much as they should have so I had to increase the heat a bit. The second group in came out better. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pita-bread-recipe

The curried lentils recipe says what is good to serve for dessert, but I didn't listen to them today. I had my mind set on something else, and I'm glad I went my own way on this... I made the most yummy hazelnut ice cream ever!! It is to die for. And from. Although I did use half and half instead of light cream, I doubt that saved me too many calories. http://www.makeicecream.com/hazicecream.html . The only bad thing about it is how good it is - and trying to find willpower to "just say no".

What to do with a couple butternut squash?

The answer is - make lasagna! I was busy today, first roasting the squash, then making the pasta and rolling it out for lasagna. The recipe is here, although I got the one I used from Cooking Light and it used cooking spray instead of oil, and other lightened up features. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Butternut-Squash-Rosemary-and-Garlic-Lasagne-13479

I decided on a salad to go with this entree and thought a BLT sounded good, so I made a BLT salad. I fried 4 slices of bacon (our only meat in tonight's supper), and crumbled it on top of some torn and some whole (small) leaf romaine lettuce. Sliced up a couple tomatoes, and it's a salad!

Dessert was the finale for the mocha fudge bread pudding I made last week. It was all very good!

Supper

This was our supper tonight. I followed this recipe exactly, right down to the salad to go with it:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1867562

For dessert, I made honey-lavender ricotta ice cream. It'd delicious! But it's not something you can eat a lot of in one sitting - which could very well be a good thing!! Here's that recipe:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1734298

Sunday mid-day

Today's mid-day meal, so-called because some call it Sunday dinner and some call it lunch and I call it both about interchangeably but don't want to confuse you, was a nice turkey meatball stroganoff with a caprese salad. I glanced at a recipe in a magazine I received (unsolicited) last week called Cuisine at home, but didn't follow it. I have made stroganoff for years, but it's different almost every time.

This time, I took about a 1/2 pound of ground turkey, added salt & pepper, some A-1 steak sauce and dill and formed it into about a dozen small meatballs. I cooked those in a frying pan with some olive oil spray. When they were done I removed them and added some thinly sliced onion. I had the onion in the freezer leftover from another use. I also sliced up the package of baby bella mushrooms I had in the fridge. Sauteed those until done, and added a little white wine and chicken stock. I didn't measure but it was probably about 2 tablespoons of wine and about a cup of stock. It ended up being too much stock - the sauce was somewhat runny. I also added about a tablespoon of stone ground mustard (the idea I got from the Cuisine at Home magazine). Then I put in about a tablespoon of flour since it was SO runny.

I let all that cook together for a bit, and then boiled water for egg noodles. Meanwhile, I did some slicing for the salad - tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and a chiffonade of basil leaves. Drizzled a bit of balsamic vinegar on that and the salad was done.

I will make stroganoff again, no doubt, but today's sauce was too runny and I'm not convinced the mustard added enough zing to add it.

Tonight's evening meal (called "supper"" where I'm from) is still percolating in my brain.

Saturday

We went out today, for a ride. It was supposed to be just for lunch, but it was a nice day (if overcast) and we stayed out for supper too. So I didn't cook today. I did make sliced strawberries and topped them with some Honduran cream (heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream mixture). I ate it before I could get a picture :) Sorry! (but not very sorry)

Turkey Taco Salad

Here it is:



I didn't put any olives in. It looked full enough as it was. Oh, and I do not purchase tortilla chips. I purchase tortillas, cut them into quarters with a pizza slicer, spray them with butter spray and sprinkle salt on them. Put them on a cookie sheet in a 400 oven for about 10 minutes... tortilla chips!

Speaking of pizza - that urge is gonna strike within a matter of days. I can cook an ok za, but I prefer going out for extra cheese and mushrooms. And a beer! Mmmm!!

TGIF!

Happy Friday!

Last night's dinner was loosely based on this recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=689925

I say "loosely" as it involved me seeing the title of the recipe only. I didn't read it. I just used chicken, mushroom and spinach inside a crepe.

Now for today. It's far too nice of a day to cook something hot, heavy & filling. Although the weather fixture in my tool bar is broken as my weather this morning is "N/A". I would've sworn there was weather out there.

I'm thinking Turkey taco salad for supper. I don't use a recipe for it - it started as a way to get rid of extra stuff in my veggie drawer and I still use whatever I have on hand, especially those small bits that aren't enough in quantity to use on their own.

I'll tear up some romaine lettuce for the salad base, and add celery, red peppers, tomatoes, maybe an avocado (I'd actually have to get to the store for that though), black olives. And brown up some ground turkey, adding taco seasoning. Put that on top of the salad, add salsa and a dollop of sour cream and voila! It's a meal! We still have chocolate frozen yogurt, mango sorbet or mocha fudge bread pudding to choose from for dessert.

We don't have any specific plans for this weekend. Hope yours is enjoyable!

Dinner happened!

Imagine that... :)

I had company today - a friend who's been trying to visit for nearly a year but for one reason or another kept getting stymied. Vehicle illness, snow, other appointments which were necessary not pleasure, etc. all kept us from spending time at my house until today.

We were supposed to make bread. She wants to learn. We ended up making crepes and pasta. The pasta went home with her to make lasagna with. The crepes ended up on our dinner table tonight. The recipe is loosely based on one I found in one of my Cooking Light Annual Cookbooks. I'll look it up tomorrow.



I had two chicken breasts thawed and cut those into bite-size pieces and sauteed them in some olive oil spray. In another skillet I sauteed spinach and a couple varieties of sliced mushrooms I had on hand - baby portobellas and shiitake. Only used salt & pepper as a seasoning. Next time I think I'd put in some thinly sliced garlic too. I added a couple spoonfuls of that Honduran cream I mentioned previously to keep the mixture from being too dry - the heavy cream/cream cheese/sour cream mixture. Then I put a crepe on each plate and filled it with the meat & veggie mixture, folded it up and drizzled it with more of the Honduran cream. Yum!! I also made a simple tossed salad to go with the meal. For dessert we enjoyed the last of the coconut sorbet I made the other day. Now that that's gone I can make the lavender-honey-ricotta ice cream I've been eyeing!! And hopefully next time she & I get together we'll actually get some bread made!

Tonight

Dinner will happen. That's about all I know so far. I have three or four possible meals in mind, but it all depends on how the day progresses. If I find time, I plan to make pasta and have lasagna. But then I'd need to find room in the fridge for leftovers, and space is at a premium there right now. Stay tuned.

Meh...

There is a pork chop under that pile of creamy leeks but you'll have to take my word for it.

The dish wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding. Suffice it to say it won't be making its way into Becky's Book of Yum based on this testing. The Book of Yum is a loose-leaf photo album I keep with clips of all the recipes that've wowed us over the years and are ones I turn to repeatedly.

I did find I had to make two substitutions in mid-stream. Possibly, those were involved in the "meh"ness of the dish, but I'm not sure. First, the alcohol I had on hand was not brandy, as I thought. It was sherry, so that had to suffice. Secondly, I taste-tested the Honduran cream and it was far too sweet and too liquid to use in this dish. So in went some lowfat Greek yogurt instead. Thanks for the heads-up on that idea, Michelle!

The dessert, although slightly dry, was a thumbs up. Although between the chocolate and the coffee in it, I hope we sleep ok tonight.

That bread pudding for tonight's dessert

Still warm... makes me want to dive in right now!

In the kitchen having fun.

So I've received encouragement to write a cooking blog. I love to cook. I do. I read cookbooks for enjoyment, at any time of the day or night. I take notes while watching "Iron Chef America". But, I must admit, almost none of what I cook come from my own ideas. I occasionally will vary a recipe, based on what I have on hand or to make dietary changes. But rarely will I concoct something out of the gray matter in my brain (I can't change its color like I can the hair on the outside). If you find it enjoyable to hear about what interesting looking recipe I'm trying tonight, this is the place to do it. Between the internet (favorite sites include epicurious.com and allrecipes.com) and my two completely filled-to-overflowing bookcases of cookbooks, I do find some pretty tasty things, I think. Because I'm not a willing plagiarist (my journalism background is too strong), I will link to the recipe when I can find it online, or give credit to where I found it if I cannot.

Tonight's entree is Pork Chops with leeks in mustard sauce, from Epicurious. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Chops-with-Leeks-in-Mustard-Sauce-352613
I'm using regular ol' pork chops (have never seen "heritage" ones for sale and don't think I want to know how much those are per pound), and I'm only making two chops. I'm going to use the full amount of leeks though, because veggies are good. Oh, and I have yet to find a store anywhere near me that carries creme fraiche, but I have one which has an awesome supply of Latin American creams. Seriously - they have Mexican and Guatemalan and Honduran. Maybe more. Are all those creams That much different from one another? They all looked like pretty much they had the same ingredient list. The Honduran has heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream, and it's in a thick liquidy form. I'm going to try that with this dish.

Along with that, I'm going to roast some carrots. I'll try to dig up that recipe but it's been a long time since I actually used the written word for it. Peel carrots - however many you want - and cut them into the approximate size and shape of those overpriced "baby carrots" they sell. Put in a casserole dish, drizzle olive oil on 'em and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 oven (not sure this is correct... I usually just put them in with anything else that needs oven time and take them out when they're neither raw nor mushy).

For dessert, I've made mocha fudge bread pudding. The recipe came from my Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007 cookbook, but the link I found is at allrecipes.com: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1227891
I only have fat-free milk on hand, not 1% (will make up the dietary difference by using that Honduran cream in the pork chop sauce, no doubt). I used a cup of coffee from my freshly-made this morning pot and it's half hazelnut, half French vanilla. And I used light brown sugar instead of dark. That was because I apparently needed to drink more of said coffee before beginning to cook and grabbed the wrong kind.

Pictures later - now it's lunchtime! Having leftover Thai coconut-butternut squash soup.