Kinder Surprise

I've told you how much I love Joe Caputo's grocery store. Let me tell you how much. I dunno if you've read between the lines here, but Chris and I were seriously considering a move to Portland, which is just a wonderful place (now we'll find out if Chris' mom is really reading this blog.) We have 80-85% decided against it, and for Chris the big reasons are because his family and his sports teams are here. For me, the reasons to stay are the theatre scene and the extra-work I've been doing here, the fact that I am a true cold-weather jogger, the job that I love, and Joe Caputo's. Not necessarily in that order. I also just know that my cat wouldn't go poo for the entire three days it might take to get out there, and then he would detonate. He's a nervous poo-er.

So I got to take Ma into Caputo's when she was here, and she loved it, too. In the checkout line, which is always long, I freaked when I noticed this:



Ma has a degree in French, and she's always loved all things French. When Dave and I were kids, she had Asterix and Obelix hardcover books around the house, which she would generally have to read to us (as they were in French, and I think the Romans spoke in Latin.) The names translate to Asterisk (because he is the small one), and Obelisk (because he is the large one.) Anyway, later on, cartoons of the two appeared on the Disney Channel, if memory serves... And they were hilarious. The cartoon is based on Gaul's resistance to Roman occupation. The Gaul's drink a potion that makes them stronger, all except for Obelix -- who fell in a vat of it as a baby.

Caputo's has a wide selection of not only Italian stuff, but lots of imported food. So I had to grab one of the egg toys, for old times sake. They were little chocolate eggs with a prize inside of "Asterix and the Vikings."



When you open it, there is a little egg capsule inside the chocolate:



And inside the egg capsule is a figure and a comic! I was hoping to get Obelix, but I got a Viking. Still neat.



Le Gaulois en vie long!

Fish Tacos

Chris and I both love fish tacos, so I tried making them at home for the first time. I had some frozen cod, courtesy of Market Day, and I decided to use that.

First I thawed out the fish. The Market Day cod kind of comes in these little log shapes, so while they were defrosted and still wet, I rolled them in seasoned flour. Then I browned them in just a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, not messing with them at all until they were ready to turn. I browned them on four sides. They fell apart a little bit even with the minimal turning, but that was part of my master plan: to just scoop out the crunchy bits and the fish all together and drain them on paper towels. My plan worked.



I had asked Chris to try and get the cole slaw mix to use in place of the traditional shredded cabbage, but he came home with a head of cabbage saying he couldn't find any mix. So I shredded it in my food processor, but the shredding blade I used was the one that chops very fine. I decided to mix in the lowfat, spicy ranch sauce I was going to put on the tacos and just have a sort of coleslaw. Not traditional, really, but at least we could eat the leftovers as cole slaw the next day (I mean, it's easier to use than leftover shredded cabbage). And they were both going on the tacos, anyway.



I used some buttermilk, some ranch and mexican seasoning , and some lowfat mayo, salt, and sugar. It took quite a bit of sugar to taste the way I wanted it, which to be honest, was something like KFC's cole slaw with some spiciness to it.

We used corn tortillas, and topped the fish with salsa, some cheddar, and the cabbage/cole slaw. We doused them in fresh lime juice, too. They were crunchy, spicy, cool, hearty and refreshing. (That's lots of things for one dish to be, but they were!)

Butterscotch Sauce

Hello again, everyone! I am going to do a brief "comeback" post tonight, as a prelude to more in the coming week. I have been gone for a couple of weeks, here and there as I said, and in the last two days we have had a price negotiation, followed by an acceptance of an offer on our place. I am so excited. Chris, of course, has found a January move to be a new source of things to get nervous about and dread. But that's just his brand of anticipation.

I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment, brought on by a feast of a Thanksgiving... But more on that later. For now, let me show you one of the sinful indulgences that brought on my currently healthy diet: butterscotch sauce. Oh, and pie. And ice cream.



At Chris' parents' house, I didn't have something to put on my ice cream (besides the raspberries, but you know, I mean something bad.) So I stuck some butterscotch morsels and a spoonful of milk in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds, and stirred them until they melted. Oh Katie, bar the door. Anyway, I came home and by happy chance, I had some butterscotch chips in the fridge, too! And I made myself a petite sundae each night with Slow Churned Light Praline until all the morsels were gone.



Hoo boy. I am going to be very, very good for awhile. Until David gets here at Christmas.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I find it is a bit intimidating to use new spices, but my curiosity about food tends to drive me over that fear. And I'm always pleasantly surprised to find that most dishes, the world over, contain plenty of familiar ingredients. The "base" for this dish could be the same as any number of Mexican or Italian dishes you may have made before. The only thing that may be new to you about it is the garam masala spice, which is available in most grocery stores now.

Give it a shot -- if you like warm, medium-heat dishes like chili with seasoning that is a bit more complex in flavor, you'll like tikka masala. I've changed and simplified a few things from the recipe I have, and the following recipe reflects my changes.

Marinade

• 1 cup plain yogurt


• 2 T. lemon juice


• 2 tsp. mediterranean seasoning, or just 2 tsp. cumin, and 2 tsp. cinnamon


• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes


• 1 tsp. salt


• 1 tsp. ginger


• 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into strips or large cubes

Sauce

• 1 T. butter


• 2 T. flour


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• 1 jalapeño chili, minced


• 2 tsp. ground coriander


• 1 tsp. each: ground cumin, paprika, garam masala spice


• ½ tsp. salt


• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce


• 1 ½ cups fat-free half-and-half


• ½ cups chopped cilantro

Combine everything on the "marinade" list, including the chicken. Marinate in a plastic Ziploc gallon bag in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is better.)

If you have a grill pan like I do, you can just grill the chicken on it directly. If you have a charcoal grill, thread the chicken onto skewers first (tastes better is you got the coals). My recommendation, either way, is to only partially cook the chicken. It goes into the sauce and will cook the rest of the way. If you thoroughly cook the chicken first, you will probably find it a bit dry after it goes in the sauce. I know it is a little creepy purposefully undercooking chicken, but trust me, it will fully cook in about a minute in the sauce.

Set the lightly grilled chicken aside on a plate (don't re-use the plate, just wash it later), and make the sauce. Melt the butter and flour in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and jalapeño, and stir for a minute. Stir in the seasonings, and salt. Combine the tomato sauce, and stir for one minute. Add the fat-free half-and-half, and simmer until the sauce thickens.

Add the chicken to the sauce (remove it from the skewers if you did this) and let simmer for a couple of moments. If you want to be sure that it is cooked, just take one of the thicker pieces out and cut into it. Don't overcook it.

I like to serve this over egg noodles with the cilantro over the top, but I think it would also be good with potatoes and peas. With the fat-free half-and-half instead of cream, it is really a healthy dish, and if you do the marinade the night before, it is also pretty quick. I served it with avocado slices with lemon, salt and pepper once -- and now I consider this to be a must-have accompaniment!

Apologies

I've been gone so long!

Chris and I went back to Portland, this time together. We both loved it. I got back on the train the day after we flew back here, to go to my mom's. And that was lots of fun, too. I'm really blessed to have the type of family that likes to sit around and laugh (on both sides). I only have two first cousins in the whole world (how un-Italian-like, and they're on the non-Italian side of my family), and they are funny, funny people. I feel very fortunate.

Anyway, I have pics of Portland (again), and I don't know what-all, since I haven't been able to face the prospect of unloading my camera and phone of all they contain. Tomorrow and Tuesday I work two long days (that's okay considering I have taken so much vacation -- the practice has been slow, anyway), and then off to Bourbonnais for Thanksgiving. My boss is giving us each a turkey for our families, so I will be hauling that down in a cooler for Wilma and I to cook!

Anyway, I will post today, and my apologies again if I am in and out all week (or out, mostly.) The funny thing is, I am up to a record number of hits-per-day and growing, so it doesn't seem to matter so much whether I am here of not. :)

Talk to you soon!

Gina

Brooke's Artichoke Dip

Now that I've posted about baking something from scratch (even if I didn't do the cooking), I have to post about something simple to make, or I may end up with a rash. And, eyw, no one wants that.



When I was a freshman in college (age 19, I think), my friend Brooke would also be home, because she was still in high school. Her house was on my way back to route 17, which I took through Dwight and over to I-55 to Bloomington. And what a sad, dark journey that was, especially in winter. So Brooke's house was something I could look forward to, and help stave off the inevitable homesickness I got from going back to school on a Sunday night. I don't remember the particulars surrounding this visit, or what season it was, but I do know she and her mom sent me back to school with two slices of "white pizza" with artichoke hearts. I unwrapped the slices from their tin foil before I went to bed that night. That's because when I was 19, what I really liked to do was stay up too late, eat too much 'round the clock, and complain about why I was gaining weight, sluggish, and still a virgin.

Anyway, I was totally knocked out by what I was eating. I thought it was one of the tastiest things I'd ever eaten, and it wasn't even warmed up, as I was instructed to eat it. Brooke gave me the simple recipe, and I've used it countless times since:

2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan (FINELY grated -- the powdery kind)
1 cup mayonnaise (I now use Hellman's Reduced Fat, the greatest lowfat mayo ever)

To that, you can add:

1 bag of rinsed-until-thawed artichoke hearts, broken up a bit with your fingers (canned works too, but the frozen ones are much fresher-tasting), as Brooke taught me originally,
or/and
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained (I started doing this sometimes later),
or/and
1 jar drained mushrooms
or/and
a little smoked shredded jack cheese across the top (this is a "new" alternative)
and
garlic seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

Pat dry any veggies you are using with a bunch of paper or one "real" towel. Mix well until combined, and then, in one version, you can place the dip in an oven-safe container (as in the photo above). Bake it for 45 minutes or so at about 350, and check on it. I like to put it under the broiler for a minute or two at the end, and serve it with pita bread or chips. Alternatively, you can spread it on a Boboli crust instead of the casserole dish, brushed beforehand with olive oil, and with some crushed garlic scattered about (then you can serve it as a white pizza).

As many times as I've made this, I've probably screwed it up just as many times. Benefit from my mistakes... Here are some things you should not do:

• Do not add the mushrooms/spinach/artichoke hearts until they are VERY dry, drained and then toweled off.


• Do not "eyeball" the measurements. Of COURSE I have attempted that, and it has always bombed, and the end result is "mayonnaise-y." When done properly, there is no hint of the mayo at the end. This was the first dish I made my husband, ever, and there was too much mayo in it. He was reluctant to try it again. (Now he likes it, knowing what it is supposed to taste like.)


• Don't over-salt it. The parmesan is already pretty salty.


• Do not forget the parmesan. Famously, I talked this dish up like crazy to my friends in college, made it, and served it to my friend Fred without adding the parmesan. The end result was too gross to even get into describing.


• Do not use shredded parmesan instead of grated parmesan. I find that it throws off the proportions.

Let ye all take heed. I know Brooke is laughing by now.

Anyway, when I make this for Chris and I as opposed to bringing it to a party, we have a lot left over. I found a third use for it: the dip makes great grilled sandwiches later on!



Just spread the cold, refrigerated dip between bread slices, or with grilled turkey as I've done here. Grill it as you would a grilled cheese. Delish.

Thanks for the recipe, Brooke! Hope I got it right. Love to you and your mom!

Mimi's Pumpkin Cookies

You all know how much I dislike baking. I dislike the powdery mess, the multiple dishes and bowls covered in the sticky mess, and most of all I dislike the measuring -- which I normally do not do any of in my cooking. I also dislike the subsequent weight gain. If I'm gonna gain weight, I'd typically like it to be from the consumption of deep fried cheeses. I get a lot more of a thrill from those items. That's just my bent.

But now, hello Diane, take a look at these cookies!



Aren't those beautiful cookies? Yeah, and you won't see me cranking out a product like that. And I didn't. Chris made these cookies. ALL BY HIMSELF.

If you haven't been reading very long, or if you don't know us personally, you may not be dropping your jaw to the appropriate level at this moment. I'm not trying to be condescending or rude to Chris. He's one fart smeller, and downright brilliant in a lot of areas. In one or two areas, he is actually Rain Man. But he's not so much with the cooking. So when he found a recipe in the Tribune for "Mimi's Pumpkin Cookies," I had my doubts. (UPDATE: scroll down for recipe). These cookies had FROSTING on them, for crying out loud. Oh, sure! And let's just turn the sofa into a rocket and fly our fat asses to the frigging moon while we're at it!



We had a bit of the "blind leading the blind" situation at first. It isn't that I refused to help, it was just that I wasn't much help. "Is pumpkin purée the same as pumpkin pie filling?" he asked when calling from the store. I had no idea. A call to his mom confirmed that the "pie filling" variety was probably seasoned, or had other things added. Ah. I should have thought of that, owing to my years of experience with canned puréed tomatoes, vs. "tomato sauce."

He came home and got to work, and there was only one further bump in the road. And it wasn't even his fault. The printed recipe had listed an egg, but didn't actually say when to add the egg. So once Chris realized this, he scooped up the dough he had already parceled out onto the cookie sheet and blended in the egg. Then he redistributed them. The only thing I added to the process was that I suggested adding a little ginger.



I'm not usually a fan of non-chocolate items, but these cookies were just about perfect. They were lightly spicy, crunchy and delicate. Chris was generous enough to bring over half of them to work, and he was more than a little insulted when they didn't vanish right away. "Don't they know how GOOD these COOKIES ARE??" he said when he got home.

Well, I do babe. And believe me, I won't forget it! In our house, the baker's crown is officially yours. "You complete me."

P.S. I should also mention that Chris took all the photos in this entry, too! My baby is all growns up and a food blogger...

UPDATE: I totally found it. I cannot believe I located this recipe, which I had clipped out but tucked into the pages of Saveur magazine, which I then took to my in-laws to make with the mac-and-cheese recipe in the magazine. Then promptly packed away and just UNpacked a year later. Anyway, here it is, out-of-print from the Chicago Tribune, and I hope they don't mind me reprinting it by popular demand! (And btw, Mimi is the name of someone's grandmother). My additions are in italics:

For cookies:
1 cup each: granulated sugar, vegetable shortening, pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp each: baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

For icing:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tblesp. butter, milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup confectioner's sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift (or whisk) the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl; stir in the vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside.

2. Beat sugar (and egg) and shortening with a mixer on medium speed until creamy; add the pumpkin puree. Beat until just mixed together; reduce mixer speed to low. Add 1/4 cup of the flour mixture, beating until combined. Repeat with remaining mixture, beating after each addition.

3. Drop by generous teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake until barely brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

4. For icing, combine the brown sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat on high (100% power) until brown sugar melts, about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Remove from microwave. Stir in confectioner's sugar until icing is smooth, adding a bit more milk if needed to desired consistency. Spoon icing over each cookie.