Steak Mania!

Hmm, so I don't know how to place pics where I want them in the post on my phone, and I'm updating from my phone cuz it's been way too long since our last post. This week's post is brought to you by STEAK. Juicy, red, flavorful, awesome steak.  For reals, this is good eats, folks.

So we finally broke down and bought a cast iron skillet yesterday to cook up the highland beef strip steaks we got at the farmer's market this weekend.  We sat down like good little culinary students and watched the Good Eats episode about steak (Steak Your Claim: season 1, episode 1).  Then we went out, put our new pan in the 500 degree oven, got it piping hot, moved it to the burner on high heat, got our steaks ready with some oil, salt, and pepper, popped the steaks into the super hot pan...and found out how quickly we can fill an entire apt with smoke. I kid you not. PLUMES of smoke billowing out of the pan the instant we put the meat in. Apt filled in less than 60 seconds. And it turns out our kitten REALLY doesn't like smoke. She hid behind the elliptical meowing pathetically until I locked both cats in the bathroom and opened every window in the apt and disabled all the smoke detectors.  Fortunately that worked, the fire dept WASN'T called, and the apt cleared out in half an hour or so. In the meantime, we enjoyed some AMAZING steak. Despite all the smoke it turned out really well. Dante seared his for 30 seconds on each side then put it in the oven for two minutes per side. Currently the second pic in the lineup at the end of the post, like I said, not sure how that's working on my phone. For mine, given the smoke insanity, we opted to just put it in the hot pan in the oven.  It still turned out really well.  Just no crust. Oh, and we had them with baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, bacon bits, and green onion.  No sauce on the steak. Didn't need it.

Tonight, Dante wanted to try again with a less glamorous cut of meat to see if it was just the really good beef that was to credit for the amazingness of the dinner.  I, I will freely admit, was a little nervous about the whole idea after the smoke debacle of last night. So... we went to the store, picked up some loin ball tip steaks (very cheap and relatively lean cut of meat), and some GRAPESEED OIL!  Grapeseed oil, unlike vegetable oil, has a very high smoke point, which is good for high heat cooking.  We also used less oil and slightly lower pan temp, and it worked amazingly. No billows of smoke.  There was smoke, but it was a manageable amount.  Dante's were again two minute rare (very good, very tender, a little rare for my taste). Mine was three minutes per side in the oven and came out a beautiful medium, and despite being a cheap cut, they were once again mouth-wateringly amazing.  Tonight with sauteed mushrooms with wolf moon garlic and shallot and a side of smashed yukon gold potatoes with garlic, shallot, and asiago cheese.

So... live long, prosper, and eat more steak!

Happy cooking!

BBQ Bean Quesaritos

Yup.  BBQ Bean Quesaritos.  Nifty, huh?

Basically, I was hungry when I got back from a walk, watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network, thought the BBQ Chicken Quesadillas looked good, one thing led to another, and ... well... these happened.  But apparently they were a hit, cuz I gave Dante a bite of mine and he immediately asked "Can you make me one!?"  So, score one for improvising!  Pics will have to come later, since I wasn't sure how mine would turn out and I forgot to snap a shot when I made Dante's.

Beans:
1 can Great Northern Beans WITH liquid
~2 Tbsp Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
~1/2 tsp Weber Kick'n Chicken Seasoning
~1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
~1/2 tsp Onion Powder
Dash Kosher Salt

Quesaritos:
1 Med. Flour Tortilla
1/2 cup beans (above)
~1/2 cup spinach
~1 oz Fontina Cheese, shredded

Directions:
1. Fold tortilla in half.
2. Sprinkle one side with the Fontina cheese.
3. Place open tortilla into a hot pan (sprayed with nonstick spray).
4. Spoon beans on top of cheese.
5. Add spinach on top of beans.
6. Fold tortilla over on top of filling.
7. Cook until lightly browned/crispy on one side.
8. Flip and cook until lightly browned and crispy on second side.
9. Transfer to plate and top with extra juice from beans.

Happy cooking!

The best chowder ever... and a darn good grilled cheese!

So, still behind.  Always behind.  le sigh.  BUT... Catching up!

A while back, despite the beautiful weather, a creamy chicken soup sounded good.  And if I remember correctly, the weather actually cooperated and cooled down a bit the day we made it.  Thanks, Mother Nature! (This was at the end of May, not terribly recently.)

A lot of this was "What do we have in the kitchen that would be good in this soup?"  But I was really REALLY happy with how it turned out.  It was DELICIOUS.  But it took us a while to figure out what to call it, so we're settling on "Earthy Chicken Chowder" for now.  If you make it and come up with something better, comment and let us know! (Also, not the best picture, but believe me, it tastes better than it looks.)

Earthy Chicken Chowder

3 Chicken Breasts

8-10 c. Water

4 Chicken Bouillon Cubes

2 Potatoes, Cubed

2 Carrots, Chopped

3 Stalks Celery, Chopped

3-4 Cloves Crushed Garlic

1/3 c. Green Onions, chopped

1-2 T. Olive Oil

1/2 c. Fresh Parsley, Chopped

1 large sprig Rosemary

1 pkg Dried Wild Mushroom Mix

1 T. Black Truffle Pieces in Oil

2 c. Fat Free Half and Half

1/4 c. Rosemary Asiago, shredded

4 T. Butter

1/4 c. Flour

1/2 c. Fat Free Half and Half (Yes, it's here twice on purpose!)

Salt and Pepper to Taste 

(1 T. Onion Powder)

1. Boil chicken in large pot.  Remove from water and dice. 
2. Put dried mushrooms and 1 cup of the water the chicken was cooked in into a bowl to soak.
3. Boil remaining broth to reduce to 4-6 cups.
4. Add bouillon and potatoes.
5. In skillet, sautee carrots, celery, onions, and garlic in olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter with salt.
6. Chop soaked mushrooms and add to soup.
7. Add sauteed vegetables, rosemary, parsley, truffles, and any other seasonings you desire (we added onion powder) and simmer until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
8. Add half and half and asiago.
9. In a small pan, melt 3 tablespoons butter.  When melted, add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 3-5 minutes.  Add 1/2 c. Half and Half while stirring.
10. Add roux (flour mixture) to the large pot and stir in. 
11. Add chicken meat.
12. Remove rosemary stem (needles will have cooked off into the soup).
13. Warm through and serve.
 

SOOOoooooo worth making.  Really.  Would I lead you astray?

We had ours, as you might have noticed from the images above, with grilled cheese.  Cept our grilled cheese had a roquefort parsley butter (to be explained in a later post by Dante), Swiss cheese, and Morel and Leek Jack cheese.  It was a little rich, but very good.  Especially dipped in the soup.

So... there's an actual recipe for you to make up for not posting for so long!

Happy Cooking!

Anniversary Dinner

Dante cooked this awesome dinner for me for our anniversary.  Cuz he's awesome like that.

On the left are yukon gold potatoes cooked in a foil packet in the oven with butter and olive oil and topped with rosemary asiago cheese.  On the right is chicken stuffed with red pepper and smoked gouda, topped with bacon, creme fraiche and caviar.  It was an awesome dish, although I have since decided that creme fraiche is not my favorite. (Which Dante thinks means I didn't like dinner at all.  not true.  dinner was AMAZING).

We followed this up with a really tasty crumb-topped pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company.  Mmmmmmmm.

Edit: This is our 50th blog post!  YAY!! Go us!
Happy cooking!

Orange Chicken

This is one of Dante's creations.  And it is TASTY.  And super easy to make!

Basically, we had some oranges to use up, and this is what he came up with.  He cubed up some raw chicken, dipped it in beaten eggs then rolled it in crushed Club crackers mixed with chicken seasoning from Frankenmuth.  He fried these up in some oil on the stove to get a nice crust on them, then put them in the oven to finish off the chicken, which wasn't quite cooked through yet. 

For the sauce, he squeezed the juice from half a bag or so of oranges and cooked it down on the stove with garlic, onion, ginger, tarragon, coriander, allspice, kosher salt, and a bit of cayenne pepper.  It wasn't thickening as much as he wanted, so he added a little bit of powdered gelatin and cooked it a little longer.  This was drizzled over the finished chicken, rice, and a little bit of crumbled bacon.

Alton's Galette

Yup.  Alton Brown again.  He MAY be one of our favorite Food Network personalities.  Oh who am I kidding, he is Mr. Food Network.

At any rate, in Season 2 of Good Eats, he makes a galette, which is a free-form pie.  We decided it looked and sounded WAY too good to not make.  So.... We made it.  But with Apples and mixed berries rather than pears and blueberries.  It was truly GOOD EATS.  And, as promised, had a tender AND flaky crust.  Easily the best pie crust I've ever made, if not exactly low fat...

This was also super easy to make.  I highly recommend you try it, and here's the recipe if you want to make one up for yourself! 

Happy Cooking!

The English Inn

Thanks Grandma!!

My Awesome Grandmother, as a stupendous thank you gift for our help with events for her business, Fresh is Best (Go check it out!), got us a gift certificate to the English Inn in Eaton Rapids.  For us wannabe foodies, that was pretty awesome.  It took us a while to actually get down there to use it, but we decided it would make for a GREAT anniversary dinner.  And we were right! ;-)

We didn't actually take any pictures of our own, cuz it seemed a little tacky for the elegant dinner.  Maybe next time!  In the meantime, I'll link to a couple external images.

This is the building (a photo by Anne Ruthmann that I found via Google Image Search and am borrowing for the purposes of showing you where we were).

This is the room in which we were seated.  Very adorable, in my opinion.  We were seated right in front of the fireplace, which, being May, wasn't on, but was still quite pretty.  (I think it's actually the table in the lower righthand corner of the image, which is from the English Inn Website).

We started off with two appetizers: a Smoked Salmon Crostini, which had tomato and basil, and a Baked Brie with strawberries, crackers, etc.  Both were AMAZING, although the crostini actually had a tad too much basil for my taste. 

For dinner, Dante had Braised Duck with saffron risotto and seasonal vegetables.  When asked for comments, he says "It was DELICIOUS".  I agree.  lol.  He did then elaborate, saying "Each of the parts was basically what you would expect, but the best thing was eating them all together."  The risotto was creamy and the duck was amazing, and it was all around just awesome. (I'm noticing a very complementary theme here.... lol).  Unfortunately, they haven't updated their online menu to include this dish, or I might have a few more details for you.

My dinner was the Pork Gratinee, which IS on the online menu.  It is described as "Grilled bone in chop, caramelized onion, gruyere cheese, port wine reduction, daily vegetable, crisp polenta cake".  It was more than amazing, and like Dante's Duck, best when eaten together with the pork and some onion on a piece of the crispy polenta cakes.

By the time we got to dessert, we were both full, but there was NO way we were leaving without trying at least one dessert.  Unfortunately, we were a little too full to try more than one, so we opted for the lightest and most unique dessert on the tray, a white chocolate mango mousse.  It was very light and smooth, and a perfect end to our awesome dinner.

So in summary..... amazing food.  Thanks again, Grandma!