Ninety-second Post ~ Easy Peasy Veggie Pizza!

I had one of those nights that just got away from me - and before I knew it, it was 9:00 and I still hadn't stopped for dinner.  I needed something fulfilling, quick, and not too rich.  Here's what I came up with.

You'll need:

~ Flatbread (or pita - I've become a huge fan of Kontos Multigrain Flatbread - it's a great afternoon snack cut into triangles, toasted, and served with hummus)
~ Pesto of any sort (I used Wegman's sundried tomato pesto)
~ Veggies (mushrooms and zucchini for me!)
~ Grated parm
~ Drizzle of black truffle oil
~ Fresh parsley

Preheat your toaster oven on 400/broil.  Spread about a tablespoon of pesto over the flatbread.  With a mandoline, thinly slice some zucchini.  Place the slices around over the pesto-spread bread.  Slice up some mushrooms, and lay them on top.  Drizzle on a little truffle oil, sprinkle on some parm, and spread fresh parsley over all.  Broil in your toaster oven until the veggies are beautifully cooked and sizzling!

While the veggies themselves were a delectable roasted sweetness, the best part of this pizza to me was the crust!  The flatbread toasted to a perfectly crispy finish, and the parm was just golden - savory, flavorful, wonderful!

I served this easy-peasy meal with a crisp, peachy pinot grigio by Vetter Vineyards.  A perfect compliment!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Ninety-first Post ~ More Mussels (with a citrussy flair!)

If you're sick of reading about the many virtues of a dinner of mussels...

...Then skip this post.

I wasn't going to blog about this, because it is rather similar to some of my past posts, but I feel like this batch was TRULY the perfect combination of herbs and other flavors.  Here's what you'll need:

~ Mussels, of course.  I make a pound per serving.
~ White wine (I used a "melange" of sorts of some leftover dry Riesling and Pinot Grigio)
~ Salted butter.  Lots o' butter.
~ Herbs: Fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, fresh parsley, fresh, fresh, fresh.
~ Chives to top
~ Two crushed garlic cloves
~ Coarse-ground sea salt
~ One slice lemon

In a pan, add a generous bit of wine.  I'd say a little over a cup.  Start the butter melting.  When all is said and done, probably about three or four tablespoons.  Add the fresh herbs, and don't skimp on the parsley.  Add the slice of lemon and the garlic.  By now, your nose should be telling you that you're doing something right.  Add the course-ground sea salt.

Wash and dump in the mussels.  Slap a lid on and walk away for 3-4 minutes as you slice your baguette.  Come back, take off the lid, and SAVOR the aroma!

Top with lots of snipped chives and enjoy with the bread and a glass of dry riesling.  It is a perfect, perfect meal.

Yours in the love of food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Eighty-seventh Post ~ Lemon Thyme Sea Bass with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Tonight's meal was simple to prepare, easy on clean-up, cooked in one pan, and was delicious.  What's not to love?

Here's what you'll need:
~ One small fillet of sea bass.  Mine checked in at a quarter pound.
~ EVOO
~ One smallish lemon
~ One sprig thyme
~ One pearl onion (per fillet)
~ Coarse ground sea salt
~ Surprise spice

: : PAUSE : :
I have two locations for my spices.  One is a 1970s era spice cabinet, where pretty spice bottles stand proudly on display and are used on a regular basis.  Then I have my "spice drawer" which might be a cousin of the "junk drawer."  It contains all of the lesser-used spices - the cayenne powder, the marjoram, the white pepper.  I reached in and grabbed what I thought was paprika.  The handwritten label (I inherited this bottle, so who knows...) was badly worn.  I popped it open and sprinkled a little what I thought was paprika over the fillet... and then wondered why I was having strong memories of Christmas... Peering closer at the label, I saw it said "nutmeg."

Oh well.  A little nutmeg never hurt anything, I say.

: : UNPAUSE : :

...And here's what you'll need for the Brussels sprouts:

~ Tiniest Brussels sprouts you can find, cut in quarters
~ EVOO
~ Sea salt
~ Jarred or crushed garlic

Preheat your toaster oven broiler to 400.  Spread some foil over one pan.  Make a wrinkle in the middle so you have a nice divider.  In a bowl, toss the quartered Brussels sprouts with the EVOO, salt and garlic.  Toss them into one of the divided halves and start broiling them for about 5 minutes.  In the mean time, prepare the fish.

Lay the fillet on a plate or cutting board.  Squeeze lemon over it and then lay a sprig of thyme on top.  Mince the pearl onion and scatter over it, and drizzle on some EVOO.  Grind on some salt and lay a slice of lemon on top.  Sprinkle on some paprika, nutmeg, or whatever other spice you have lying around badly labelled.

By now, your Brussels sprouts have probably started sizzling, so open the oven and put the fish in your other divided spot.  Broil for roughly 10-15 more minutes until the Brussels sprouts are fork-tender and the fish is cooked through to your liking.  If the veggies finish early, take them out and put them in a bowl and continue to cook the fish.

Once on the plate, I squeezed a little more lemon juice over the sea bass, because I love lemon on seafood.  Speaking of citrus, I served the meal with a Pinot Grigio by Vetter Vineyards - which had a wonderful citrus overtone of pineapple and lemon, which complimented the fish beautifully!

...And the nutmeg?  It ended up complimenting the warm, roasted nutty flavors in the veggies and the fish!  Who knew?

Yours in the love of good food and wine (and a little accidental experimentation),
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Forty-third Post ~ Cornish Hen with Wild Rice and Mushroom Stuffing and Fingerling Potatoes

I've been wanting to make a Cornish hen for a while for two reasons: Reason 1: It just seems like it would be fun to make a Cornish hen. Reason 2: My mom and I cooked some up years ago together, and I thought it would be fun to come home on a Friday armed with two birds and a bag full of ingredients and surprise her with a home-cooked dinner made from my own original recipe.

So this week, in strategizing my meals, I realized that I'd be making a box of Uncle Ben's rice to go with my pork: BAZINGA! Instant stuffing. This was my moment. This was my chance to test my poultry prowess.

So here's what you'll need to make what I had hoped would be (and I guess still kinda was) an easy-peasy-one-two-threesey Cornish hen:

~ Cornish hen (obviously)

~ Cooked long-grain wild rice

~ Fresh herb of choice (rosemary is in season in my refrigerator at the moment)

~ Spoonful of jam (you know how much I love apricot)

~ One scallion

~ Handful of mushrooms (I used washed baby pearls)

~ Fingerling potatoes (not familiar? Go to Wegmans. My mom and I discovered them over break and tried them out eagerly, not knowing what to expect. Weroasted them with a pork loin and, oh, were they good. Slightly creamy in texture, each color yields a slightly different flavor. I'm a fan.)

On your chopping block, chop up some mushrooms, one scallion, and one small sprig's worth of rosemary needles. Start a little olive oil and white wine heating up in a pan. Add everything with a dash of salt. Add a good helping of the wild rice and stir everything around a bit. If you made the rice like I did for yesterday's dinner, you've added ginger and cinnamon to the rice as it cooked, so all of these aromas will meld together beautifully. Add a spoonful of apricot jam. As it looks evenly heated, take it off of the heat.

Pierce the fingerlings and place them on a piece of parchment in a pan. Over pan, place a cooking rack. Open the package containing your hen.

:: PAUSE ::

Giblets. Did NOT know Cornish hens came with giblets. Unlike other kids, I was the one picking the giblets out of the stuffing - out of the pan of stuffing - so I could get extras. I love them. So even though this was not on my agenda tonight, I really could not simply toss away all that savory, vitamin-packed goodness. So I got out a second pan and melted some butter and cooked up the giblets. Once they were done I added the stuffing and stirred it all around a bit. If I had known Cornish hens came with giblets, I would have done them first, then sautéed the rest of the ingredients for the stuffing and only had one pan to wash. Live and learn.

:: UNPAUSE ::

So, now that the stuffing is done, rinse off the hen and stuff it. Secure the closure with a toothpick. Years of watching my mother stuff turkeys (we have about four a year) has given me a good sense of how much stuffing can fit in a bird - and that you can always, always, ALWAYS find room for more to fit SOMEWHERE.

Place the stuffed hen on the cooking rack over your fingerlings. The juice that drips off of the bird will give a nice savory taste to the potatoes.

Bake for between 35 minutes and an hour (depending on the size of the hen), checking here and there. Work on schoolwork, wash dishes, play with puppy, check email, etc. I am becoming a huge fan of "hands-off" dinners that have to be left alone for a while. When the juices run clear, it's ready to go!

:: PAUSE AGAIN ::

My apologies for the multiple pauses. But this tale merits telling. So I poked it a few times with a knife, and all juices ran clear. Onto my plate it went. First slice, and it was evident that I had obviously not poked deep enough. So back into the oven it went with the stuffing spread out on a pan (which I had already consumed in forkfuls by this point - one of the many benefits of testing out a recipe before you make it for other people: if there's going to be food-borne illness-related death as a result of your cooking, at least only one person has to die). Out onto my plate it went, and I flipped it over this time (more meat to be found opposite the backbone; never was one for chicken anatomy) and the juices ran pinker than ever. Back into the oven. In the mean time, I ate the stuffing and the potatoes, which I figure, HAD to be done. Out came the chicken. At this point, I was pretty much full with the stuffing and potatoes, and had become so paranoid about the meat that I ate a few bites but then foiled the rest up and put it in the fridge to reheat and eat the next day Here's the moral of the story, folks: Invest in a meat thermometer.

:: UNPAUSE ::

So, while the chicken proved to be a bit of a logistical challenge, I can quite honestly and shamelessly say that the wild rice and mushroom stuffing was probably one of the best things I've cooked yet. So there is still hope for my mother's surprise meal.

I paired tonight's dinner with the last of the Pepperwood Grove's Pinot Grigio. It gave a nice acidic company to the herbs and fruit overtones in the stuffing and chicken, and in my opinion, was a natural pairing.

Yours in the love of good food and wine, and not letting the chicken win,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Forty-second Post ~ A Quick Rejuvenation for Leftover Pork

The other night my mom and I got a pork tenderloin from Wegmans. It was a honey mustard marinade, and quite honestly, we were a little underwhelmed with the mustard quality and a little overwhelmed with the black pepper. We agreed that we liked other Wegmans pork marinades (teriyaki RULES) but this one was a bit lackluster.

I got the rest of it as leftovers, and decided that this "leftover treatment," tried and true on other such meats, just might tone down the pepper and enhance some of the other more subtle flavors. It certainly worked for me.

So now, fine readers, I pass this trick on to you. I believe it would work well on pretty much any white meat, marinated or un-marinated, flavorless or flavorful.

Here's what you'll need for a pork-or-poultry-pick-me-up:

~ Brie

~ Jam of your choice (I think apricot jam and brie are a match made in heaven)

~ Fresh herb of your choice (tonight I used rosemary, but thyme works just as wonderfully)

Set your oven or toaster oven to pre-heat on 350. Prepare your side (I made Uncle Ben's Wild Rice fast-cook recipe and added a healthy dose of ginger and cinnamon) then the meat. Here's all you do:

Lay the meat slices out on a sheet of parchment paper (or tin foil). Lay one sprig of your fresh herb of choice over the meat. Next, set an ample slice of brie on top (I used Wegman's medium brie, which has a perfect texture for baking) and top it off with several spoonfuls of jam. Pop it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes, until the brie is melted.

Serve with your side, and enjoy a whole new take on leftovers!

I had an Italian Pinot Grigio with tonight's dinner, and to be honest, I felt it went better with Friday's dinner of mussels in tomato and wine sauce than with tonight's dinner. I'm starting to find that Pinot Grigio is kind of a "red wannabe" - it pairs well with those meals that you might normally think to grab a red for - tomato based sauces, parmesan-heavy, any seriously savory dinners go well with a Pinot Grigio. The subtle fruitiness kind of got lost against the apricot jam, and the brie disappeared next to the wine's solid structure. I think a chardonnay would have suited this meal better - but, hey - you live, you learn, you blog!

Yours in the love of good food and wine (and the rejuvenation of leftovers!)

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.