Who Needs a Recipe?

Unlike the rest of the population, I am NOT a football fan.  Well, let's just correct that statement.  Unlike the rest of the population, I am NOT a sports fan.  Okay, one more try.  Unlike the rest of the population, I am NOT a sports watching fan (I do enjoy participating in a game of 'fill-in-the-blank' ball - like volleyball or softball...just don't make me WATCH it on TV!).  I think you get the picture here.  Given that background, you'll understand why I duck and/or walk the other direction when people start talking about THE football game of the year.  Not interested.

Thankfully, God (in His infinite wisdom) didn't saddle me up with a man who is an avid sport watcher.  He doesn't hate watching sports, he just doesn't go out of his way to watch sports. Most of the year, I'm in good shape. Until late January or early February.  This is when he'll waver.  People who never invite us over are suddenly asking if we want to come over and watch THE game.  Not just one invitation, either.  Many.  In the 20+ years we've been married, I think I've only had to watch THE game three or maybe four times.  I promise you, I have not missed much!!!  It's usually hours and hours of time outs and pile ups, punctuated with mass quantities of food.  Not regular food - like a meal - mostly junk food or 'nibbles' as my friend Miz Margaret would call it.  Usually, I'm happy to send my husband off to watch THE game with the invitors while I stay home and clean out a closet (or some other spectacularly fascinating project).

I'm happy to report that there is one aspect of THE game that I don't mind.  It's usually my salvation.  I ALWAYS offer to bring food.  Then I have an excuse for not watching THE game.  After all, I'm very very busy fussing with the food.  A few years ago I made about 50 sliders.  It took forever.  And the game was on in the OTHER room!  :)  See, I have my ways.

This year he roped me into going with him. Oh, I was happy to spend time with the lovely friends who invited us over. And, I was happy to visit and laugh and eat. But, in the background THE game was on and I felt obligated to watch occasionally. Happily, we talked and laughed enough that we totally missed the 'lights-out' event until it was well towards its mid-point. So, you see, I wasn't suffering.

You might ask, what did I bring this year?  Well, as I was jetting through the grocery store the morning of THE game, I found they had tomatoes, limes, onions, cilantro, jalapenos, & avocados stacked up near the giant tortilla chip display.  Somehow the thought of fresh salsa and guacamole popped into my head.

Once home with my bag of freshness, I just started chopping and stirring.  It wasn't until 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave for the friends' home that I thought, "Huh.  I wonder if I should have looked for a recipe?"  In hindsight, I've discovered that I may have left out one ingredient.  But, in truth, I didn't miss it.  And, I don't know that it would have made any great difference in the taste.  Maybe I'll use a recipe next time.

 

Salsa

INGREDIENTS

½	sweet onion, minced very fine (I don’t like raw onion, so it has to be invisible)
2	cloves garlic, minced very VERY fine
1-2	jalapenos, seeded & minced very fine (it should feel warm in your mouth, you don’t want to find giant chunk of hot)
4-5	tomatoes, diced
¼	c lime juice (from one lime – I also added the zest from that lime)
½	bunch cilantro, washed, leaves picked from stems, and minced.
½	t kosher salt
½	t freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Note: Put away your food processor and get out your chef's knife. This has to be done by hand or you'll have tomato mush.

When you're done with all the chopping, mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Let them get acquainted for about an hour (at room temperature) before serving with tortilla chips.  I used 'Hint of Lime' chips...yummy! 

Guacamole

INGREDIENTS

½	sweet onion, minced very fine (I don’t like raw onion, so it has to be invisible
2	cloves garlic, minced very VERY fine
1-2	jalapenos, seeded & minced very fine (it should feel warm in your mouth, you don’t want to find giant chunk of hot)
1-2	roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
¼	c lime juice (from one lime – I also added the zest from that lime)
½	bunch cilantro, washed, leaves picked from stems, and minced.
8-10	avocados, cut in half, pits removed, cut into large chunks (in their skins), and scooped out with a spoon
½	t kosher salt
½	t freshly ground black pepper

Directions

NOTE:  Time to use your knife skills.  Get out that chef's knife and start chopping.  Until you get to the avocado, then use a small paring knife.

 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Resist the urge to smash the avocado with a fork!  It will break down a bit because of the lime juice and doesn't need any help.  Let the ingredients get acquainted for about an hour (at room temperature) before serving with tortilla chips. I used 'Hint of Lime' chips...yummy!

Didn't know I needed one

“It should be able to do more than one thing.” Miz Margaret claims that any kitchen gadget worth buying should be multi-functional.  And, I agree.

I love my kitchen gadgets.  In fact, my kitchen gadget drawer is loaded to overflowing (which just sends my husband over the edge when he’s putting things away after their trip through the dishwasher – we have a deal, I load and he unloads). I like gadgets that are really useful. You know, ‘necessary’. I’ll admit there may be a thing or two way at the back of the drawer that doesn’t see much action. But, for the most part, I use them all. And, I like to make sure my friends have all the gadgets they need, as well.

I have discovered, however, that there are some gadgets that are not up to Miz Margaret's standards. Here’s a perfect example: Is it really necessary to purchase a ‘banana keeper’? I mean, what else could you use it for? It’s yellow. It’s the size of half a banana. It’s curved like a banana. What else would fit in there? And, really, wouldn’t a piece of plastic wrap or a zip top baggie do the trick?

Another example: Will my life be complete if I don’t buy an avocado scooper/slicer? Let’s think this one through. You’re holding an avocado in your hand. You have a small knife in your other hand. You cut stem-to-stern around the avocado. You swivel the two halves apart. You whack the knife into the seed and twist to remove it. Now you have a choice. Should you put down the knife (which already has avocado on it) and dig around in your overflowing utensil drawer to find the ‘Super-duper thing-a-ma-bob scoop-n-slice-all-at-once’ gadget? Or, I don’t know…just use the knife that’s already in your hand to slice the avocado and then give an ever so gentle squeeze to the release the pieces? Hm…

Or, how about this one: Can I live without lobster-shaped butter melters? You’re going to love this… I was shopping at a well known kitchen gadget/supply store and ran across these red lobster-shaped ‘dish’ that sits atop a blue stand that holds a tealight. The idea being that you load up the lobster with butter. You light the tealight, which warms the lobster dish, which melts the butter. And now you can dredge your lobster bits through the liquid butter in your lobster-shaped butter melter. Oh! Did I mention that these were sold in sets? Each person at your table should have their very own lobster-shaped butter melter! I got to giggling a little too loud and the very nice clerk in the store thought something was wrong with me. This prompted a phone call to Miz Margaret. After I explained the set up and she hopped online to see them for herself, we were nearly in tears laughing. I haven’t been back to that store since then. I’m afraid they still remember me.

So, with that background information, you’ll be surprised to learn that I gave Miz Margaret a cherry pitter for her birthday. (I know…her birthday’s in February but I didn’t give this to her until July…what can I say?...I was horribly LATE!) The reason I gave her a cherry pitter was so that we could make this salad. We like cooking together and trying new recipes. And, this calls for fresh pitted cherries. Well! What an opportunity! Of course, any new recipe requires a trip to the store for produce. But, a recipe that requires a trip to the kitchen gadget store? Well, that’s one hum-dinger of a recipe! The only problem was this gadget pretty much only has one use. I was able to rationalize it by figuring that if she ever needed to pit olives, it might work for that as well.

When I gave her the cherry pitter I got this look.  You know...the stare with the raised eyebrow.  I quickly started extolling it's virtues and explaining how useful it would be.  In truth, I wasn't too sure that it would ever get used beyond the one recipe we were planning to make that day.  But, I need not have worried!

We got started working on the recipe.  I made the dressing and washed up the Butter lettuce while Miz Margaret went to work on the cherries.  Oh!  You should have seen it.  She put that first cherry into the pitter and gave a might squeeze.  Out popped the seed and a spray of cherry juice splattered into the sink.  Her eyes flew open and she starting giggling in delight.  By the time she was done (two cups of cherries), there was cherry juice everywhere in that sink.  It looked like she had butchered a small animal  and she was laughing and waving that cherry pitter around as though she had conquered the world.  If there had been anymore cherries in the house, she would have pitted them, too.

The recipe turned out to be a new favorite.  And I've made it several times for a take-along dish.  Each time, I'd borrow the cherry pitter from Miz Margaret.  But then, she up and moved!  I had to go out a buy myself a cherry pitter.  I didn't even know I needed one until she moved away!

Well, whether you know it or not, you need a cherry pitter, too.  Especially if you plan to try this wonderful salad.  I've made it with and without the chicken depending on where I was taking it.  The dressing is mild and creamy and the cherries really are the stars of this recipe.

By the way...the cherry pitter works great on Kalamata Olives, as well.  So, there you have it.  A gadget that does more than one thing!

 

Cherry-Chicken Salad

INGREDIENTS

Salad:

2	T vegetable oil
1	lb chicken breasts
1	head Butter lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
½	lb (2 cups) Bing cherries, pitted & halved
¼	cup walnut pieces

Dressing:

½	cup sour cream
½	cup crumbled fresh goat cheese (2 oz)
2	T snipped fresh chives
2	t white-wine vinegar
	Salt
	Freshly ground pepper

Directions

1.     In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream, goat cheese, chives, vinegar, and two tablespoons water; season with salt and pepper.  Set dressing aside.

2.      In a large skillet, heat oil at medium-high.  Season chicken breast with salt and pepper.  Cook until opaque clear through (about 2-3 minutes per side).  Slice chicken very thinly crosswise.

3.     Divide the letter onto four plates; top with chicken, cherries, & walnuts.  Serve with dressing on the side.

It was all a misunderstanding

Her name was Margo, but we all called her Gloria. When she first came to work at GSH&MC she was introduced to everyone by our very sweet (but most positively hard-of-hearing) co-worker, Alice.  As they trotted around from office to office, Alice would say, "This is Gloria."  And poor Gloria would say to her, "I prefer to go by Margo."  And Alice would smile and nod and turn around to the next office and repeat.  Of course, no on in the office caught on and dear Alice never understood what Gloria was whispering in her ear.  But, there was lots of smiling and nodding going on.  From that day forward, Gloria tried and tried to get people to call her Margo.  To no avail...the damage was done.  Anytime someone tried to call her Margo, Alice would say ''Who?"  It was all a misunderstanding.

Gloria was a wonderful secretary.  And, this was back in the 'olden' days when all the financial statements were typed (by Gloria) on an IBM Selectric II.  She was accurate, too, and never had much use for the correction tape feature on that fancy machine. She also was a great organizer.  And one of the things she organized was our occasional potluck lunches.  To top it off, she was also a wonderful cook.  We were fortunate that she was willing to share her recipes.  One of my favorites (and one that I've prepared many, many times as a take-along dish), is her Rice-Artichoke Salad.  I had never tasted anything like it before I met her.  It blew my socks off.

It's a sneaky salad.  It has ingredients in it that some people do not like.  But, somehow with this combination of flavors, you can slip those 'offending' participants past your picky-eater friends.

Example 1:  Miz Margaret will not eat anything with a bell pepper in it.  Not raw, and most certainly not cooked.  She claims she can taste a bell pepper if all it did was travel through the same serving dish five washes ago.

Example 2:  My husband loves a black olive.  But don't let a stuff green olive get anywhere near his plate.  This recipe has both - green bell peppers and stuffed green olives.

Oh! Almost forgot!  Example 3:  Me.  I don't like a raw onion in anything.  Doesn't matter if it a Walla Walla Sweet, a beautiful red, a innocent looking leek, a fancy shallot, or a mild little scallion.  I don't like 'um.  This recipe has green onions.

All three of us love this dish, as do many others.  In fact, this dish alone is responsible for my husband's grand olive turn-around.  He now likes (perhaps even loves) a stuffed green olive. He has been know to order a stuffed green olive pizza.  Now, that's a turn-around folks.

And, Miz Margaret?  Ya, she ate a pile of it...raving the whole time.  You should have seen her face when I let it slip that there were green bell peppers in there.  Horror is not a strong enough description.  But, she took a second helping without batting another eyelash after she got over the initial feelings of betrayal.

I still don't like raw onions in any form.  But, I have never left them out of this recipe.  I put them in there and I eat them happily because it just tastes right that way.  And I certainly don't want to mess with success!

Is it a wonder-dish?  Perhaps not.  But, it is delicious!  Give it a try next time you need to bring along something a little different to your next get-together.  You can thank Gloria, um...Margo, when the compliments start rolling in.

Rice-Artichoke Salad

INGREDIENTS

1	pkg (6.9oz) chicken-flavored rice (like Rice-A-Roni)
4	green onions, thinly sliced
½	green pepper, chopped
12	stuffed green olives, sliced
2	(6oz) jars marinated artichoke hearts
¾	t curry powder
⅓	cup mayonnaise

1.     Cook rice as package directs, omitting the butter.  Cool.

2.     Add sliced green onion, chopped green pepper, and sliced green olives.

3.     Drain artichoke hearts, reserving ½ the marinade.  Cut artichokes in half.

4.     Combine reserved artichoke marinade with curry powder and mayonnaise.  Mix well.

5.     Add curry dressing to salad, until well combined.  Add artichoke hearts and toss well.

6.     Chill.  Best made a day ahead.

Serves 6-8

Fennel? Really?

A couple of years ago Kelli, Renee, Miz Margaret, and I decided to take a few  cooking class at our local Sur La Table store.  We started with a Knife Skills class, and then moved on to Grilling Basics, Beginner’s French Cuisine, and others.  I’m sure they had fancier names for the classes, but you get the idea.  Right?

Knife Skills was fun.  We learned the cutting terms and how to do them: Coarse chopping, mincing, julienne, batonnet, chiffonade, and paysannel.  I discovered that watching all those cooking shows on PBS really paid off.  I did better than the average student in the class because I’ve watched hours and hours of Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, Caprial Pense, Ming Tsai, Rick Bayless, and Diary of a Foodie episodes.  (My poor husband has suffered through many a show with me.  But, it turned him from a “I don’t care at ALL what it is or how it tastes, I just eat because I have to” reluctant eater into a “I think I would have added a pinch of Basil to that soup and it really should have been seasoned more” food critic/ingredient detective.  But, I digress.)  Feeling all proud of myself and glowing, as humbly as possible, when the teacher praised my technique, I was eager to sign up for class no. 2. 

 

There was a lot of testosterone in the Grilling Basics class, as you might imagine.  Grunting and woo-hooing were acceptable forms of communication.  Thankfully, we were spared the body slams and fist pumps because they served wine with dinner – not beer.  Oh, did I mention that at each class we got to eat the food we prepared?  So, ya, that was the detail that clinched the deal when we were wavering over the price of the class. 

By the time we got to the Beginner’s French Cuisine, we were feeling pretty comfortable in the classroom and ready for some difficult French techniques.  We were not disappointed.  Béarnaise Sauce topped the list.  The delicate line between smooth, creamy sauce and broken clumpy sauce was crossed more than once.  But, we mastered it!  And, it tasted divine on top of our grilled steak. 

Somewhere along the way, perhaps during the Roasting class, we were introduced to a very different (new to us) potato salad recipe.  I confess, as I read over the recipe, I was prepared to dislike it.  No eggs, no mayonnaise, no pickles.  How could it even be called potato salad?  Well, okay, it had potatoes in it and it was a salad.  But, it was not your typical potato salad.  And, horror of horrors, it had roasted fennel in it!  What?!  Fennel?  Really?  I do NOT like fennel.  I do not like fennel because I do NOT like licorice.  This was going to be a big waste of time.  But, I slogged on (along with my faithful friends) following the directions exactly as demonstrated by our chef-teacher.  We used multi-colored baby potatoes, roasting them in a hot oven until they were blistered and starting to blacken.  Then we learned how to properly trim and core a fennel bulb.  They, too, were roasted into submission, then thinly sliced (good thing we took that knife skills class!) and added to the tortured baby potatoes.  A few scallion slivers, a handful of halved Kalamata olives, a pinch of kosher salt, a grind of black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil later, we tossed it all together.

 

I’m a sucker for the way food smells.  The aroma wafting up to me from that mixing bowl had the desired effect.  The potatoes and fennel were still warm, which gently released the bouquet of the olive oil and Kalamata olives.  I was in love, without even taking that first bite!

This is my new ‘go-to’ recipe for a picnic on a hot day (no refrigeration needed).  I’ve taken it to many an occasion where it is usually received with raised eyebrows and a seriously puzzled expression, followed by “Oh, my!  This is delicious!” and other similar comments.  So, to all my non-fennel fan friends I say: Give this one a try.  Who knows, you too may become a roasted fennel devotee.

Charred New Potato and Fennel Salad

INGREDIENTS

2	lbs small red potatoes
2	Medium fennel bulbs, trimmed, cored, & halved
	Freshly ground black pepper
1/3	cup pitted Nicoise olives
1/3	cup green onions, chopped
6 or 7	T red wine vinegar
	Salt

1.     Set broiler rack about 6 inches from heat.  Turn on broiler.

2.     Toss potatoes and fennel in ¼ cup olive oil; reserve and extra oil.  Spread in single layer on broiler pan.  Lightly season with salt and pepper.  Broil until blistered and slight blackened, turning once, about five minutes per side.  Bake in 400 degree oven until just tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Do not overcook potatoes.

3.     When cool enough to handle, cut potatoes and fennel into ½ inch dice.  Toss with all oil, 6 T vinegar, and remaining ingredients.  Season to taste.  Add remaining 1 T vinegar if needed.  Can be made several hours in advance and kept at room temperature or a day in advance and refrigerated, covered tightly.  Let come back to room temperature before serving. Adjust seasoning.

(NOTE:  I don’t think it tastes as good after being refrigerated.)

It wasn't my idea

It wasn't my idea to start a blog.  But once the words were out there...well, why not.  We're going to blame Miz Margaret for this.   It happened on my drive home from work the other day.

As I often do, I called her while I was driving.  (Now, before you get all wigged out about people who make phone calls while they drive, you need to know that I use a bluetooth earphone thingy.  So, I'm all legal.)  In our 'drive home' chats, we talk about everything.  We gossip.  We get up on our soap box.  We tell secrets.  We comisserate.  We share the contents of our day, week, or month.  We complain.  We brag.  We tease.  We dream.  This day was no different.

I was teasing her with details of my latest baking adventure.  She was oo-ing and ah-ing appropriately.  Then, out of no where, she says, "You ought to start a blog.  Post pictures of the things you bake (or cook) and give us the recipe."  I laughed and she said, "I'm serious!"  When I stopped laughing, I realized it wasn't such a completely wacky idea.  Other people 'food blog'.  Why couldn't I?

So, there you have it.  As I said, "It wasn't my idea."