New Blog Features

So, I haven't really cooked anything new this week. Just things I've already made, and told you how to make. I decided we needed something new on the blog. Something different, and maybe fun.

Starting next week, I will be posting the weekly menu at our house on the blog. New menus will appear on Sunday, with the recipes following during the week. I'll also be posting pictures of the food sometimes. And, eventually, there will be "instructional" videos which will consist less of cooking and more of me drinking and yelling about stuff while I cook things.

Now, since we're not cooking anything new this week, I thought I would show you pictures of all the things we ate at Thanksgiving. May I present...the most fantastic Thanksgiving meal I have ever eaten.

Here is the turkey, while it's frying. This was our first fried turkey, and it was amazing.This is the cornbread dressing, made from scratch. SUPER good, but next time I'll cut the mushrooms smaller.


This was my favorite thing we had all day. It's lobster mashed potatoes. I just made a simple pot of garlic/parmesan mashed potatoes. Then I made a butter sauce (just a light roux and a stick of butter melted down) and tossed a container of pre-cooked lobster in it to just heat through.
Finally, here is the actual star of the show, the completed fried turkey. See how brown the skin is? That's what makes it awesome.

This is probably all for this week. Check back Sunday for next week's menu. Think of it as a preview of all the recipes that will be coming up.

25 Things

Everybody has done this on Facebook, I'm going to do it on the blog. And all about food.

1. I love bourbon. I like it served over ice with a little water. NOT with Coke. Some of my favorites are Woodford Reserve, Blanton's, and my all time favorite, Knob Creek.
2. I also love Jim Beam and Coke. ONLY Jim Beam goes with Coke. It's the rules.
3. I could eat sushi every day, all the time. There are so many different things you can order, and the combinations are seemingly endless. LOVE IT.
4. Jason makes the best burgers ever. The only burger I have ever had better is from Dearman's Drug Store in Baton Rouge. If you are ever in Baton Rouge, go to Dearman's, at the corner of Jefferson and Corporate in the Bocage shopping center. According to my mother it has re-opened, and the burgers are still the same. Otherwise, I guess you'll just have to come have burgers here.
   
5. I do not like sandwiches. I'm not sure why, but I don't. I will eat the occasional panini, French Dip, muffuletta, or REALLY good deli sandwich, but that's a rare thing. Maybe once a month.
   
6. This does NOT apply to breakfast sandwiches. I love all breakfast sandwiches all the time. This is because:
7. I love breakfast and brunch. They are the best meals ever. And not just because Brunch means you get to drink in the middle of the morning. It's because you get to eat awesome stuff like casseroles with bacon and sausage and cheese and eggs, and you get hashbrowns, and I swear I could talk about breakfast and brunch for hours. Seriously.
8. Speaking of brunch, I once made one for Jason and I that included a pork chop and broccoli omelette and a weird mimosa substitute made with white wine, passion fruit juice, and Sprite. Both of these things were some of my favorite brunch things I have ever made or consumed.
   
9. Scrambled eggs are my kryptonite. I cannot cook them worth a crap. They just don't cooperate with me.
   
10. I don't actually follow recipes, even though I give them to you. I basically never make anything the same twice. Everything is always a little different.
11. After a 15-year hiatus, I have resumed eating pork products. I will never give them up again. Bacon is too important to me.
    
12. I still do not eat ham. I think it tastes funny.
13. I love cocktails. They make me feel special to drink them because they're pretty and served in nice glassware. Some of my favorites are a well-made cosmopolitan (NOT the super sweet sugary things people call cosmos), the Plum Collins at PF Changs, the French 75, mojitos, and the Filthy Martini from Stray Cats (which is the only place on earth I will drink martinis).
14. Pasta is one of my favorite things to cook and eat. If something will hold still long enough, I will probably saute it in olive oil and garlic and serve it over pasta with parmesan cheese.
15. I miss living in Louisiana so much sometimes that I can barely stand it. The food is just better there. ALL the food.
16. Surprisingly, I do not cook a lot of Cajun food. Nor do I deep fry that much. I don't know why that is, but I'm looking into getting a deep fryer so I can start.
    
17. I love fried pickles, but only pickle chips. Not pickle spears. I also love pickle flavored potato chips. And pickled green beans. And olives. And cocktail onions. Pretty much anything that tastes like brine really.
18. Even though it's totally cliche, salmon is my favorite fish. I try to cook it once a week if not more. I love it. Grilled, baked, poached. All of it.
19. I'm currently off beer. Every once in a while, I want a really good quality beer. But only one or two. I can't drink a lot of it anymore.
    
20. The only sandwich I've ever really loved was developped in college. It's a BARELY toasted plain bagel with turkey, the white cheese they serve in the caf, and a caesar salad with olives on top. I miss this sandwich more than words can express. I have never been able to replicate it with other bagels, turkey, cheese, and salad. It's not the same.
21. I don't like meat that looks like what it is. Ribs, chicken legs and wings, cornish hens. They freak me out.
    
22. Other than that, I really love meat. I started buying in bulk because it works better for me. We bought a second fridge so I could have another freezer for meat. It's magical.
23. Nothing about cooking intimidates me. I will try to cook anything once, no matter how complicated it seems. I think that's why I'm good at it.
24. Until about 2 years ago, I was a terrible cook. I think it USED to intimidate me, and that's why nothing was ever very good. When Jason and I got together, I could burn Hamburger Helper. Now? Pretty much everything is good all the time.
25. I am a compulsive cookbook buyer. I have more than I could possibly ever use. I also subscribe to both the Food Network magazine and Southern Living, which I seriously get only for the recipes.
    

There are so many other things I could say about food and eating and drinking, but the meme is only 25, so that's it. Maybe one day I'll do another 25 things.

Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound macaroni
• 5 slices bacon, cut into small chunks
• 3 tbsp flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp Tony Cachere's
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 pound cheddar cheese

Steps

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  
• Bring water to a boil. Cook macaroni for 7 minutes. Drain. If it doesn't quite seem done all the way, that's fine. It will finish up in the oven.
• In a separate large saucepan, cook bacon over medium high heat until fat has rendered and bacon pieces are crispy. Remove them with a slotted spoon to a plate with paper towels on it to drain. Reserve drippings
• Turn heat on pan down to medium.
• Sprinkle flour into bacon drippings. Whisk constantly for 3 minutes.
• Add milk to roux along with salt, paprika, and Tony's. Bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes.
• Temper in egg. Add 3/4 of cheese and melt
• Grease a large casserole with Pam.
• Pour cooked macaroni into casserole dish. Fold in cheese sauce and bacon. Top with the rest of the cheese.
• Bake, covered for 30 minutes.
  

Manhattan Steaks

Ingredients

• Thick cut steaks, one per person
• Olive oil
• Montreal Steak Seasoning (I like McCormick Low Salt)
• 4.5 ounces bourbon (VERY good quality. If you think Kentucky Deluxe is good quality, stop reading immediately. We're not friends anymore)
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. butter, divided
• 2 shallots, minced

Steps

• Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.
• Sprinkle each steak with olive oil and coat with seasoning on both sides.
• When pan is hot, place steaks in it. Cook for 5-6 minutes on each side for medium rare.
• Remove steaks to pan and cover with foil keep warm.
• Return pan (with drippings) to heat. Add olive oil and 1 tbsp butter to pan. Melt together.
• Add shallots and cook 2 minutes
• Add alcohol. At this point you have two options. You can ignite it and wait until the alcohol burns down, or you can boil it out. This is up to you. When the alcohol is gone, add the final tablespoon of butter and remove pan from heat.
  
• Serve immediately over steaks.
  

Notes: This recipe is from Rachel Ray's 365 No Repeats cookbook. I didn't have shallots the other day, so made the sauce with garlic and it worked fine. I used Woodford Reserve bourbon, and it turned out really nicely.

Shrimp Martini

Ingredients

• Cooked shrimp (I like to pan saute with a little olive oil and garlic and lemon) with tails on. 6 per person
  
• 3 ounces cocktail sauce
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• juice of half lemon
• 1 ounce vodka
• splash worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper

Steps

• Combine cocktail sauce, lemon, garlic, vodka and worcestershire sauce in a measuring cup or pitcher.
• Place in fridge for one hour to allow flavors to combine.
• Freeze martini glasses, one per person.
• Hook shrimp tails on the rim of the glass, tail side out. Fill with sauce. Serve cold.

Notes: This recipe is from the Rachel Ray 365 No Repeats cookbook. Make sure to stir the sauce well before serving. It separates.

Beef and Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 quart beef broth
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2 small onion, diced (can be replaced with 3 shallots, diced)
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 pint mushrooms, sliced
  
• 1/3 cup red wine
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
  

Steps

• Heat beef broth in a small pot. DO NOT BOIL.
• Place a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add olive oil.
• Saute onion, garlic, and mushrooms for 2 - 3 minutes or until onion is translucent and mushrooms are small.
• Add rice. Saute additional 2 minutes, stirring well to combine veg, rice, and oil.
• Add red wine. Cook for 2 minutes.
  
• Begin adding broth to rice. I use a really big ladle, and add 2 ladles the first time.
• Cook until first broth has been absorbed, stirring very frequently.
• Continue to add broth and cook until absorbed, one ladle at a time. The whole process should take 20 - 25 minutes.
• When all broth has been added and cooked in, remove risotto from heat. Add parmesan cheese and stir in.

Notes: For the parmesan, use as much or little as you like. I like kind of a lot. This dish is really versatile, and can be a meal in itself. I also sometimes serve it with pot roast style beef tips, which is good and stretches it out for more people or meals.

Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds chicken breast (or 1 small whole chicken, if you like dark meat too)
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 pint mushrooms
• 1 can Ro-tel tomatoes (DO NOT DRAIN)
  
• 1 large can very small peas, drained (I like LeSeur)
• 1 pound Velveeta, cubed

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• Boil chicken for approximately 20 minutes. Remove, and shred with forks.
• For spaghetti: You have 2 options. Number 1, cook the pasta in chicken broth. Number 2, cool the broth made by cooking your chicken in step one, STRAIN IT, and cook the pasta in it. Cook until almost done. It will finish up in the oven.
• While chicken and spaghetti are cooking, saute onions, peppers, and mushrooms in olive oil.
• When the above are finished cooking, combine in a LARGE pan (9X13 doesn't quite cut it, unless it's super deep) that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Add Ro-tel, peas, and velveeta. Stir really well. Make sure no cheese is just sitting on top, or it screws up the sauce.
• Cover pan in foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Let rest 3-5 minutes before serving.

Notes: Awesome.

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. honey mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Steps

• Mix together vinegar, honey, mustard.
• Stream in olive oil, whisking constantly.
• Microwave dressing for 30 seconds
• Whisk again

Notes: I like to serve this over a chopped salad (bag of salad greens, chop up to thin strips) with bleu cheese crumbles and chopped walnuts. The vinegar I use came from a local winery in Eureka Springs. I recommend buying your vinegar the same way. Go check out a local winery and do a tasting. if the wine is good, the vinegar will be too.