recipe – Page 2 – Sheila365

How’s it hanging?

I’ve crossed off another project from my growing wanna-do list in my head this weekend. As you may have come to know through this blog, we like to make homemade pasta. A lot. Spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, waddevah. It’s the food of the gods. Over the holidays, I ran across a fresh pasta hanger on Amazon and it looked so simple and easy to make, that I refused to put it in my cart. We have a gynormous wood shop out back. So I did a little recon and found what I needed already in the shop and… voila! Ye olde pasta hanger. I made it without glue, so I can take it apart to store easily in the cabinet.

Tonight I tried it out. So, here’s how it went down:

2 1/4 cups flour

3 eggs

stir / mix with a fork, blending the egg & flour crater from the inside out. You may not need all the flour. When the dough stands on its own, knead by hand for 10 minutes. Till it looks a like more or less like this:

Wrap dough ball in saran wrap and let sit at room temp for 30 mins or so.
Afterwards, I cut the dough ball into 3 equal-ish sided pieces, ready to put through the pasta roller.

I used our Kitchen-Aid roller, starting on setting 1 – ending on setting 5. Rolling and dusting the dough with flour several times on each setting. After rolling each of the three balls into a sheet at setting number 5, I cut each in half. I found that each of my six pasta sheets ended up making about 2 ounces of pasta – a serving. So 3 eggs + 2 1/4 cups of pasta yields approximately 6 servings.

Next, I put the fettucine pasta cutter on the Kitchen-aid

I hung each section on my new, handy-dandy pasta hanger. (Awesome!)

Then I threw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. I sauteed the other bits in a skillet with some olive oil and I let the flavor develop.

Yummm!

Currying f(l)avor.

We roasted a whole chicken the other day and I took both cooked breast pieces and transformed them into a magnificent, mouthwatering curried chicken salad.

Simply delicious.

Here’s more or less what went in. It made 2-3 cups of chicken salad.

Curried chicken salad

2 cooked/skinned/boneless chicken breasts, diced
1/2 c mayonaise (I like Duke’s light olive oil mayo, tastes just like regular)
1/2 c sour cream
5-7 tsp curry powder
salt & pepper to taste
2 scallions sliced finely
1 apple (I used a sweet, crunchy gala), peeled and diced
1/8 c sliced almonds
juice of half a lime

Mix well so everything is coated with yellowy goodness. Then put it in the fridge – for several hours before serving, to make the flavor pop. Be patient, it’ll be worth the wait.

By the way, the baguette came from Baguette House over on North Lamar. They make the best baguettes I’ve ever tasted. Hands down. Go get you some.

Bringing back the bread machine.

We received an awesome Breadman Ultimate breadmaker for a wedding gift way back when. And I used it for several years but stopped for some reason. I was probably traveling a lot at the time.

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out the pantry, and rediscovered it. I have since stocked up on wheat flour, gluten and other ingredients and am back in the bread making groove. The 1.5 lb loaves are perfect for the two of us for several days.

The light whole wheat bread loaf is delicious.

This one’s hot out of the machine:

And this is a link to 100+ page PDF for the bread machine with many recipes.

Beef burgundy.

Today winter seems to have relaxed its grip. Temps were in the 50s for most of the day. Monte and I headed outside and trimmed, pruned, tilled and sowed. A great day.

I’ve dug out my crock pot recently and have been making recipes from way back when. Tonight I made Beef Burgandy. And Monte made homemade noodles to go with. Oh my. Delicious!

Beef burgundy ala crockpot:

– 2-lb beef round steak, cut in 3/4″ cubes

– 1/4 c flour

– 1/2 tsp salt

– 3 Tbsp butter

– 2 c red wine, Bordeaux or burgandy

– 1 c beef broth

– 1 c chopped onion

– 6 oz white mushrooms, rinsed dried & quartered

– 2 bay leaves

– 2 cloves garlic, minced

– 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Coat beef with flour and salt mixture. Melt butter in skillet. Add beef and brown on all sides. Transfer browned meat to crock pot. Deglaze hot skillet with a little bit of wine and put those tasty bits in the crockpot, too. Combine all other ingredients in crock pot and stir.

Cover. Cook on high for 2 hours, then reduce to low for another 2 -3 hours, until meat is tender.

Before serving, remove 1 c of liquid, heat over medium on stove; bring to a low boil. Wisk in 1 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp cold water, until thickened. Pour back into crockpot and stir.

Remove bay leaves. Serve over noodles.

Applebuttery goodness.

I have had a hankering for apple butter lately. My HEB has a poor selection. The only one they stock was full of multi-syllable chemical ingredients, and high fructose corn syrup. I couldn’t bring myself to put it in my cart. When I was a kid, apple butter was one of the many delicious things my mom would make and I would help her with the cooking and canning. So, i decided to make my own apple butter.

There were many different recipes online. I wasn’t looking to go the whole canning route, as I just wanted to make a small batch. Some recipes started with apple sauce. But I wanted to go as close to the good old fashioned way as possible. I found a recipe that sounded minimalistic and simple. I halved the original recipe, and it yielded 2 pint jars (i recycled some Bonne Maman 13 oz jam jars) of applebutter, which have a fridge life of about 2 weeks. Or could be frozen up to a month.

I’ll start with a picture of the result, to get your mouth watering, and follow with the recipe:

You’ll need a crock-pot and an immersion blender. Here’s the before:

You may want to use a variety of apples. I used mostly gala, which are on the sweet side, and mixed in a few red delicious which are less sweet. I also have one of these awesome contraptions, which makes peeling/coring/slicing the apples a breeze:

Crock-pot Applebutter (yields 2 pints)

3 1/4 lbs apples, peeled, cored & sliced
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 T vanilla extract

Place apple slices in crock pot. In medium bowl, mix sugars, and spices. Sprinkle dry mix over the apples and stir gently to coat apples and combine.

Cook on low, covered, for 12 hours.

Stir in vanilla extract and puree with immersion blender until smooth. For thicker applebutter, can cook on low another hour with lid ajar.

Cool and place in jars. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Tower o’ sprouts.

We hit the grocery store early today with our Thanksgiving shopping list: turkey: check….potatoes: check…green beans: check. Then I spied this spire and couldn’t pass it up. So we’ll have 2 green veggies on the table this year. 🙂 I love brussels sprouts and found this recipe from smittenkitchen.com earlier this year. I tried it once…with pork chops i think, and it was delicious.

Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4

1 lb brussels sprouts
1 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 T heavy cream
1 T dijon mustard (or more to taste)

Peel several of outer leaves off each sprout and halve lengthwise. In a large, heavy 12-inch skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat. Place sprouts in skillet, cut sides down, in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook sprouts, without turning, until undersides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. If sprouts don’t fit in one layer, brown them in batches, then add them all back to the pan, spreading them as flat as possible, before continuing with the shallots, wine, etc.

Add shallots, wine and stock. Once simmering, reduce the heat to medium-low (for a gentle simmer), cover the pot and cook the sprouts until they are tender can be pierced easily with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the lid, and scoop out sprouts (leaving the sauce behind). Add cream and simmer for two to three minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in mustard. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary with more salt, pepper or Dijon. Drizzle sauce over brussels sprouts and serve immediately.

Grill grub

Monte whipped up a batch of his pizza doughs this afternoon. Instead of our usual thin, thin crust in the oven on the pizza stone, he wanted to give it a try on the grill this time. We’ve tried grilled pizza before… once we put a pizza stone on top of the grate in a Weber charcoal grill and tried, unsuccessfully, to cook a loaded pizza dough on top. After that experiment, we ended up with 3 or 4 inedible pizzas that were black on the bottom and raw on top. And, the pizza stone eventually broke in 2 from the heat.

This time, he had something else in mind. We have a charcoal hibachi grill out back as well. This time he put one of our cast iron grill plates on the hibachi, and put the pizza dough on top of that. After turning it the dough once, he put sauce and cheese on top while the other side was grilling. It only took a few minutes per side – and it turned out great.

Viva la pizza!

Sláinte!

I drove into San Francisco with several colleagues for dinner tonight. I had fresh Dungeness crab, and after dinner we ordered a round of legendary Irish Coffees at The Buena Vista.

Deeee-licious!

The restaurant’s website has instructions on how to make one, if you want to try to make one yourself:

Buena Vista Irish Coffee
Fill glass with very hot water to pre-heat, then empty.	Pour hot coffee into hot glass until it is about three-quarters full. Drop in two cocktail sugar cubes.	Stir until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved.
Add full jigger of Irish Whiskey for proper taste and body.	Top with a collar of lightly whipped whipping cream by pouring gently over a spoon.	Enjoy it while piping hot.

Perseids raft-up.

081112 — 1st raftup with Nirvana in the books.

It’s Sunday night, and the end of another great weekend. Yesterday my cousin Devitt and Aunt Joanne came over for a breakfast visit with Monte, Julie and I. Monte made french omelettes, Julia Child style. And we tried our hand at a potato recipe that we got from Devitt:

Browned Breakfast Potatoes

Large cast iron skillet
8 oz bacon, cut into 1-2″ pieces
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2″ cubes
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt & pepper

Cook bacon, onions and garlic in large cast iron skillet until browned. Discard bacon fat from pan. Add potatoes, salt & pepper. Cook another 10 minutes or so over medium heat on the stovetop. Then place skillet, uncovered, in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve and savor!

Afterwards, Julie headed home to study up for the last final exam of Summer session (good luck!), and we packed for the lake.

We planned to raft-up with friends overnight to watch the Perseids meteor shower. We made it to the cove by about 5pm and set our first anchor on the new boat. It was a good set. We were soon joined by Joe on Prelude, Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Nick, Laurene & Morgan on Kalliopi, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. Everyone was tied up by the time the golden hour was upon us. The shot above is of the 5 boats, stern to the sunset. Nirvana is in the middle.

After dinner and stories from the day, everyone grabbed a cushion and laid on the bow of their boats to watch for meteors. It wasn’t a knock-out show, but we did get to see some good ones. The night was peppered with random shouts of “There’s one!” every 10 or 15 minutes.

This morning everyone floated for a while and then people started peeling off at about noon. I’m pleased to report that we got the anchor up with little problem. I am loving the electric windlass to bring up the chain and anchor!

Monte and I sailed ALL afternoon. The breezes started out sluggish but filled in to some great wind that we haven’t seen in a long time on the lake. At about 3:30 we dropped sail and picked up Devitt at Arky cove to take him out for a sail. He did great, taking the helm as Monte and I worked the lines. We dropped him off back at the park around 5:30 and headed back to the marina.

By the time we got home several hours later we were pleasantly exhausted.

I can’t wait to get out there again. Friday soon come!

I love these.

I recently browsed back through my blog posts for the last month or so. I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any “photographic” or artistic images — more posts about what I’m doing from day to day. I do love looking for beautiful things to photograph. But, I suppose that I’ve been less focused on that lately. That’s ok – my life is full of both the beautiful and the mundane 🙂 so, you get a little of both here on sheila365.

Speaking of the mundane… I thought I’d share something that I enjoy with you. A few years ago my sister, Noreen, introduced me to a really easy to make smoothie. And I think it’s delicious. I have been making myself one every morning for the last several weeks. Try it, you’ll like it 🙂

Sheila365 Smoothie

1 cup (8 oz) V8 V-Fusion juice
1/2 to 1 cup frozen fruit

Pick the juice flavor and fruit you like best. Pour juice in blender, add frozen fruit and blend til smooth. That’s it. The first time you make it, you’ll have to play around a bit to find the fruit-to-juice ratio that works best with your blender. I find that it works perfect if I put in only enough fruit to stay below the level of the liquid… but if you add too much fruit, and your blender gets a bit bogged down, just add a little bit more liquid.

I avoid any diet drinks with aspartame, but found that I do prefer the V8 V-fusion Light version of the juice. The regular version is just too sweet for me. The Light version contains sucralose, though, so if you don’t want any of that, stick with the regular.

An added bonus: 8 oz of V8 V-fusion juice contains 1 serving of vegetable and 1 serving of fruit.

Spring rolls in Winter.

The cedar pollen is high in Central Texas. Which means I’ll be avoiding going outside for extended periods of time. Unfortunately, that means I can’t lend a hand with the yardwork. I used to go outside regardless, and dig in the dirt, trim brush and help with picking up leaves. But then I would be pretty much a sneezing, coughing, itching mess, clinging to a box of kleenex all week. So I’m hanging indoors this weekend. Monte cleared the front yard of leaves yesterday, and it looks great.
Today he is cutting down several very tall cedars along the back fenceline that have died from the last couple of droughts.

So, since I’m not out there helping, i’ll feed him instead 🙂

Spring rolls are not your typical lumberjack meal… but that’s what he got for lunch today anyway. The shot above is of what went into them (minus the noodles and rice paper wrap), and the shot below is of how they turned out. Hopefully they’ll tide him over til dinner.

You don’t so much need a recipe as you do a shopping list.

Spring Rolls

– Rice paper wrappers (soak in warm water for about 5 seconds right before preparing the spring roll to soften)
– Rice vermicelli (boiled up beforehand, I use a small amount on each one)
– Veggies of choice sliced very thin (I like cucumbers, carrots, lettuce)
– Cilantro (fresh, chopped up)
– Shrimp (cook it beforehand, you can also use chicken or beef or whatever you like)
– Peanut sauce (for dipping)

Cut everything up ahead of time, cook your meat, boil the noodles. Soften a rice paper wrapper (one at a time). Put a little of each in the center of the circular wrapper. Fold down the top edge and fold up the bottom edge, and roll as snugly as you can. Repeat until you can’t eat anymore.

Enjoy!

Got pie?

Thanksgiving Eve preparations. Tidy up the house. Tidy up the yard.

We are having enough people over tomorrow that we needed a bigger table. But, no folding card table for us! Monte went into the shop and whipped up a free-standing shaker-style table the exact width and height of the dining room table, long enough to seat another couple of people. 🙂 After throwing on a tablecloth, it looks like one long table.

After dinner we whipped up some of the things that we could make ahead of time for dinner. I made the traditional pies. Here’s my recipe for apple pie:

Crust (makes 2: one for top and one for bottom)

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
6-7 Tablespoons cold water

Mix flour & salt in food processor (w/ plastic blade, not knife). Add butter cubes slowly while mixing. Mixture should be dry with pea sized chunks. Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time while mixing. Dough should start to roll into one large ball.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and divide into 2. Shape each ball into a hamburger shaped patty, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins.

Take out, let soften for a few minutes, and then roll each crust out.

Apple Pie filling:

6-8 tart apples
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
dash of nutmeg
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon butter

Peel and slice apples. Mix together with cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and flour. Place in pie crust. Dot with butter. Add top crust, seal and cut slits to let all the magic in. You might want to put a cookie sheet under the pie while it’s cooking to catch drips.

Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

Satay, you say?

The other night I had a hankering for chicken satay, so I looked up a recipe for the marinade and several hours later we had a tasty dinner. We ate them so fast that I forgot to take a photo.

So, I made them again tonight (making sure got get a photo this time) and they were even better. The peanut sauce is a *must have* to dip them in. You can make your own peanut sauce, or buy some… we had some on hand, so we didn’t have to make it this time. We have a little hibachi charcoal grill out back which is just perfect for cooking these.

Here’s the recipe, in case you want to try it as well:

Chicken Satay

Serves 2. Marinate 4-24 hours. Grill 5-6 minutes. Medium heat on grill.

1 lb. chicken breast tenderloins, or breasts that are boned, skinned & sliced into long strips

MARINADE:

2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp dried red chili pepper flakes

1 1/2″ fresh gingerroot, grated
1 lime, juice
1 tsp. coriander
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt

Peanut oil

Place chicken pieces in dish. Combine marinade ingredients and rub into meat. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 24 hours. If your skewers are combustible, don’t forget to soak them in water ahead of time! Thread meat onto skewers. Brush meat with peanut oil just before cooking. Grill 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve immediately with peanut sauce.

Jun 22, 2010

We love to grill. Year round. Weber kettles and charcoal, baby.

Tonight’s menu:

insalata caprese, grilled chicken, spinach risotto, and a decadent chocolate cake from Marty & Sue, who joined us for dinner.

Delicious!

Here’s how we do the chicken, in case you want to give it a try, too……

Grilled Chicken

1 whole chicken
a couple fresh rosemary sprigs
olive oil
kosher salt and ground black pepper

Prepare coals for indirect cooking (2 piles – on left and right side of grill). Clean chicken, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out, stuff a few sprigs of rosemary inside (and sometimes a chunk of onion, apple, ..), tie the bird up and put in the center of the grill breast-side down (though we’ve tried both ways, I think it’s juicier this way). Cook for about 15 minutes per pound. Remove from grill and let sit 10-15 minutes before carving.

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