Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I apologize for my “lack of blog’ content today.  I had a super busy day, and it’s still going.  All I can say is  …. Life happens.  We all just have to roll with the punches, and live it.  Live it now, while it is happening, not in the past when it is too late or in the future when no ones knows what will happen next.  Fear not though, there are still many, many fabulous dishes yet to be cooked and enjoyed.  I’ll catch you all on the flip side.

There are some food combinations that just seem to be perfectly paired.  They are good on their own, but so much better with their partner; burgers and fries, bacon and eggs, chips and salsa, and of course, chili and cornbread, just to name a few.   The other day when our Colorado blizzard came to town, it was perfect day for both chili and cornbread.  A Bowl of Chili  It was very cold on the outside, but warm and cozy on the inside.  My mother was a Texas girl, and cornbread was a staple.  I grew up on cornbread and I love cornbreads of all kinds, but I also love to shake things up and break out of the mold.  One of my favorite cornbread recipes is cornbread with a pecan stresuel topping.  It just perks up the flavors and has its own unique Southwestern personality.  “Cornbread is very accomodating stuff, welcoming a host of add-ons that only seem to make it more satisfying”.  (p.214 – The Southwestern Grill, Michael McLaughlin)  This cornbread has it all; a little sugar and spice along with some toasted pecans and everything is very nice.  A little taste of this, and you will know you are living the good life.

Cornbread with Red Chili-Pecan Streusel

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 TBSP med. hot chili powder

1 TBSP cinnamon

6 TBSP cold butter, cubed (This time I used some of the cinnamon butter we brought home from our nephew’s wedding.  Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Caramel Sauce  I definitely liked it with the addition of cinnamon and will be doing this again.)

Combine all the ingredients in the food processor and blend, except the chopped pecans.  Once everything is coarsely mixed together toss in the chopped pecans and mix thoroughly.  You want the mixture to be crumbly.  Chill until ready to use.

Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal

1 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375* F

Spray an 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray

Mix together all the dry ingredients.    Whisk the eggs and buttermilk together.  Then mix in the melted butter and combine with the dry ingredients.  Mix everything together until just blended.  Do not over mix.  Pour the corn bread mixture into the baking dish.  Spread it evenly in the dish.  Then evenly cover the cornbread with the streusel topping.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the the edges of the cornbread start to pull away from the edges of the pan, or when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

My grandfather used to love his buttermilk, and he drank it all the time.  When I would visit, I wanted to be like “Papa” so I asked for some buttermilk too, thinking if papa likes it it must be pretty good.  WRONG!!!   After one or two small sips, I was cured from that for life, and have never touched it since.  So when I bake, I use the dried buttermilk, because although I love to bake with it, I absolutely detest drinking it on its own.  This way, I just mix it with milk and I have it when I need it and none gets wasted.  It is easy to find, in the baking aisle of your local grocery store.  The directions call for mixing it with water, but I prefer mixing it with milk.  It makes it creamier and richer.

We had a blizzard here yesterday.  There were complete white-out conditions, it was frigidly cold, the roads were a complete disaster and the sky dropped 10 inches of snow at my house.  This was all in the morning hours of the day.  I was out and tried to brave those conditions before turning around and calling it a day.  Once I was safely at home, there was no way I was going back out into that mess.  NO WAY!  But as bad as it was for those few short hours, by the afternoon, it was back to blue skies and sunshine.  As I sit here looking out my window right now, most of that slushy mess on the roads yesterday is gone and the snow is already starting to melt some.  Awwwww! Life in Colorado!  As bad as it was on the outside though, it was perfect day to stay inside and cook up some good heart warming chili and cornbread.

I love a thick, strong and bold chili.  And I love it with a lot of meat.   I almost always a steak or a roast rather than hamburger meat.  If I do use hamburger meat, it is combined with the steak to add more texture and richness.

Chili Con Carne

2 1/2-3 lbs steak or roast , cubed

1/2 cup (more as needed) flour

1 onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2-3 jalapenos, diced fine

2 TBSP garlic

1 can dark red kidney beans, with the sauce

1 can stewed tomatoes, with the sauce

salt & pepper to taste

2 TBSP tomato paste

3-4 TBSP chili powder

2 tsp cumin

4-5 cups beef broth

1/2 cup red wine or vinegar

oil and or butter to cook the meat

Remove the excess fat from the meat and discard, then cube then the meat into bite sized chunks.  Add the flour  and salt and pepper to taste and coat the meat.  This is to help it coat the meat brown it as well as thicken the chili.

Once the meat is coated, in a hot skillet with enough oil and/or butter, add the meat and cook until completely browned, stirring frequently.  When the meat is browned, add the vegetables and continue to cook until the vegetables are semi-soft and the onions are translucent.

Once everything is cooked, transfer the meat and the vegetables into the slow cooker and set aside.

Mix together all the wet ingredients and the spices, then add to the meat and vegetable mixture.  Combine thoroughly.  And let cook at the low speed/temperature for 6-8 hours.  Stir occasionally, to make sure nothing sticks and the flavors incorporate well together.

Once the chili is cooked, serve it alongside some warm cornbread and take away all your chills.

Just when I thought I was feeling better, the crud came back with a vengeance.  This has been going on now for over three weeks.  I am so done with it.  I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  There is no other way to describe it except to call it “The Colorado Crud”.  As much as I have wanted to be in the kitchen, it just hasn’t happened.  However, I will be making some chili today.  It is perfect chili weather.  This is what it looks like right now.  This is the view from my back deck, overlooking our first frozen pond.  This snow just came in late last night and into the wee hours of the morning.  Now this being Colorado, most of it will be gone by tomorrow, but at the moment, we are in almost complete white-out conditions.

This is from my front porch.

The view from the office, upstairs.

We are in almost total white-out conditions.  I tried to make it in to work this morning, and made it about 8 blocks.  It took me 30 minutes to make those 8 blocks, and I saw at least 15-20 cars stuck and skidding all over the place.  So I called in and said NO WAY!  Then it took me another 30+ minutes to make it safely back into my garage.  For all of those driving in this today, be safe, be smart and be careful.

Many, many years ago, when I first got out of culinary school, people used to ask me all the time “if now that I am chef, do I still like burgers and dogs?”  ABSOLUTELY!  Especially when they are good burgers and dogs.  The sad thing though, is that it is getting harder and harder to find good burgers, unless of course, I am willing to spend an arm and a leg for them, which I am not.  So, we make them at home.  Yes, you need good beef, but you can doctor them up anyway you like to make them even better too.  About 6-8 months ago, we went in with some of my husband’s siblings and bought a quarter cow.  We have it stored in the freezer, and pull it out when we need it.  With this quarter cow, we got A LOT of hamburger meat too.  So …. burgers are on the menu fairly often.  We also like bold and flavorful burgers, which are hard to find when dining out, but then we like bold and flavorful foods no matter what they are.  Today’s burgers were served with bacon and sauteed mushrooms and onions that I sauteed in the bacon grease, along with some garlic fries.  Yummy!

I mixed the ground beef with all these seasonings to make them delicious gourmet burgers.

Spicy Gourmet Burgers

2 lbs ground beef

1 TBSP garlic

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 TBSP dried onions

1 TBSP steak seasoning

2-3 whole roasted chili peppers, skinned and seeded, chopped fine

Mix everything together well.  Using your hands and really mashing everything together is actually the best way to get all the flavors incorporated into the meat.

Once everything is incorporated together well, form the meat into patties to your desired thickness and size.  I made the patties about 1/3 lb each.   The higher the fat content of the meat, the higher the shrinkage rate will be when the burgers are cooked.  This beef has a higher fat content than what we usually like, at about 80%, so the burgers did shrink a bit more during the cooking process.  Usually we like leaner beef, but these sure were tasty burgers.  Fat does taste good!

Once the burgers are shaped, slap them on the grill and cook to perfection.  I love mine on the medium rare side, with just a touch of pink left on the inside.

For the fries, I tossed them with parsley, salt and garlic immediately after I took them out of the fryer, while they were still hot.  The best garlic fries we have ever had were from Gott’s, a chain of restaurants in Northern California.  We have been trying to re-create them ever since.  I think we are very close, if not right on.

***On a different note ….  Thank you to all who wished me good healing thoughts.  I am almost back to 100%.  I still have a cough, but nothing like it was before, and all the other symptoms are almost completely gone as well.  I think it was the good healing energy coming from all of you that really helped.  Fortunately, I am normally very healthy, and I rarely get sick.  On those rare occasions, because I am normally so healthy, I do not take long to recover.

For the last couple of days, I have been bogged down with some nasty viral bug that has been going around.  I have had body aches, chills, fever, a hacking cough, and my throat has been completely raw and swollen.  I went to the doctor’s today.  The good news is it is not strep throat or the flu, like I feared.  The bad news is that we have no idea what it is, other than just some viral bug that should run its course in a few days.  Hmmmm.  Thanks for nothing.  That does me no good at all.  Don’t these doctors understand I’ve got things to do, people to see, and places to go?  I am way too busy to be sick.  So I called in sick at work both yesterday and today, and have pretty much done nothing but rest and take it easy.   That’s what the doctor told me to do today too.

I had the best medical care to be found.  Lucie and Vinnie are making sure mommy gets her rest.

Nicky and Otis are also watching over me to make sure I am alright.

Yesterday’s remedies, along with all the over-the-counter stuff.

Following doctor’s orders, along with more rest and staying hydrated.  I really wish there was more we could do, but I guess all I can do is wait until this nasty bug runs its course and hopefully that will be the end of it.

Au gratin is a term widely used in the culinary world, meaning to top something with a browned crust.  The term originated in France, but au gratin style foods are found all over the world.  Another accepted name for au gratin dishes is scalloped.  We’ve all heard of scalloped potatoes.  Scalloped potatoes is another name for potatoes au gratin, with a few minor, really undistinguishable differences.  Any dish, whether sweet or savory can be cooked au gratin style.  Usually sweet dishes are topped with any combination of eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, sugar or flour while savory dishes are crusted with cheese.  Depending on what I am making, I often add nuts to the top as well.  Though not much of a cheese eater normally, I do love the combined flavors of crusted cheese and toasted nuts.  I make au gratin or scalloped dishes quite often, especially on cold wintery days.  Anything goes when making a vegetable au gratin.  There are no right or wrong vegetables to use.  Just use what you like.

Zucchini-Mushroom Au Gratin

1 zucchini, sliced thin

1 yellow crookneck squash, sliced thin

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 TBSP garlic

1/4 cup sweet Spanish Peppers (optional)

salt & pepper to taste

1-2 tsp of dried herbs of your choice – I used basil, oregano, thyme and marjoram

olive oil/and or butter for cooking

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese or cheese of your choice

1/3 cup pine nuts or almonds (optional)

Saute the mushrooms, squash and garlic together until the squash is soft and tender.  Mix in the seasonings and the Spanish peppers and transfer to a shallow baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Add the cheese and the pine nuts, if using, and bake at 400* F for about 25-30 minutes, or until you have a crusty brown topping.  If you are roasting these with your meats, go by the temperature needed for the meat and adjust the cooking time as needed.  I like using shredded cheese rather than chunks of cheese.  I find it melts more evenly than chunks of cheese, but again, this is just a personal preference.

As I mentioned above, we eat this quite often.  This time I served it along side my herb roasted chicken with tomato-olive sauce. Herb Roasted Chicken with Tomato-Olive Sauce.  I always chuckle to myself when people think because I eat meat that I don’t eat a lot of vegetables as well.  In this meal alone, we ate 8 different vegetables, and we do this quite often.  Yes, we eat out meats, but we definitely eat our vegetables too.  In fact, we eat a much broader range and variety of vegetables than most vegetarians and vegans I know.

I have always said you will never have your last cookbook.  And as much as I love my cookbooks, and believe me, I have a ton, sometimes my favorite dishes to prepare and cook are those that I make up by using what I have on hand at the time.  Those dishes are the ones that really get my creative juices flowing.  It is almost like creating a piece of edible art.  You just never know how it will turn out until you taste the finished product.  Of course I make “mistakes” that won’t be repeated, but more so than not, the dishes come out really good and everyone is asking for more.   The difficulty in this, however, is that when we really like something that I just made up on the fly, is remembering what ingredients I used or how I made it.  But this is how I learned to cook many, many moons ago.   And if things come out slightly different than they were before, so be it.  It just adds another layer and a new variation is created.

I had some bone-in chicken that I knew I wanted to roast, but I wasn’t sure of the sauce I was going to make.   It did not take long to decide on a light tomato sauce, and I had some olives I wanted to use as well, voila!  Herb roasted chicken with a tomato-olive sauce was created.  It is very similar to a Spanish style roasted chicken.  I served it over farfelle pasta with some zucchini au gratin, along side some warm bread with an olive oil and balsamic dipping sauce.  And of course there was wine.  I served it alongside a cool crisp chardonnay.

Herb Roasted Chicken with Tomato-Olive Sauce

2-3 lbs bone-in chicken, breast and rib is probably best

1-2 TBSP of mixed dried herbs – I used basil, oregano, and thyme

2 tsp paprika

1 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, then generously rub the seasonings all over the chicken.  Pour olive oil over the meat and rub everything into the chicken.  Let set in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours before cooking.

Once the chicken is ready, preheat the oven to 375* F and add the chicken to the center rack of the oven.  Roast for about 45 minutes, or until a bit of a crust forms on the chicken and the juices are clear.  Baste the chicken with the juices periodically to keep it moist.  You can eat the chicken as is if you prefer not to make a sauce to go with it.  I am a “saucy” kind of girl though, and I love sauces on my foods.

While the chicken is cooking, make the tomato-olive sauce.

Tomato-Olive Sauce

5 tomatoes, diced medium

1 TBSP garlic

1 shallot, sliced thin

1/2-3/4 cup pitted olives cut in half – I used a variety of olives

1 TBSP basil

1 TBSP oregano

2 tsp thyme

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

Saute everything together in a hot skillet for about 10 minutes, at a medium-high heat.  Then reduce the heat and simmer for another 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The tomatoes will break down and this creates the sauce.  It’s fine if there are still tomato chunks in the sauce.  That will just add more depth and character to the sauce.

When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven.  On a bed of cooked farfelle pasta (or pasta of your choice) add a bit of the sauce, then place the chicken on the pasta.  Top the chicken with more sauce and dinner is served.

The stock show is a very big to-do here in Denver.  It has been a part of Denver’s history for the past 113 years and counting.  Ranchers and farmers come from all over to be a part of and to participate in the Denver Stock show.  The stock show lasts for about 2 weeks, and is great family fun.  I have been living in the Denver area for 19 year now, and last night was the first time I had ever been to the stock show.  We went to the Grand Prix or the horse jumping event with our friends Janet and Bob.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening and the event.

Before heading out to see the horses, we decided that BBQ for dinner was the most appropriate dinner choice.  We decided on Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ.  It is a family owned and operated BBQ house.  The decor of Smokin’ Dave’s is very rustic and western.  It is a very fun, casual setting.  Chef/Owner Dave Oehlman is always around, and is usually at the grill cookin’ up the vittles.  There are a few Smokin” Dave’s BBQ houses in the Denver/Boulder areas of Colorado.  We went to the Denver location last night.  We have also been to the Lyons location, on route to Estes Park, Colorado as well.  The food is very good and full of flavor.  Whatever you decide to feast on, make sure to sauce it up with one of Smokin’ Dave’s famous BBQ sauces.  Or better yet, try them all.  As soon as we sat down, we were given some delicious home-made potato chips to munch on while we waited for our food to arrive.  This was also a way for us to sample all the sauces.  All four of us decided our favorite sauce was actually a combination of two of the four sauces.  We all liked a combination of the spicy sauce mixed with the tangy sauce to create our own version.

We all tried something different, and everything was finger lickin’ good.  Once I saw brisket on the menu, I stopped looking at anything else, and that was the dinner choice for me.  You got to choose two sides with your meal, and I chose red beans & rice and baked beans.  Both were delicious.  My meal also came with a corn muffin.   The corn muffin was so light and airy and just melted in my mouth.  Scrumptious!

My husband ordered the “man-handler” burger which was loaded with Angus beef, smoked pulled pork, bacon and cheese.  This was one tasty burger.  Bob and Janet ordered the pulled pork sandwich that was also very good.

The Smoke Ring, or menu.  The Smoke Ring and Smokin’ Dave’s is “dedicated to preserving and honoring the art of American BBQ”.

The Bar, complete with lamps made from converted license plates as lamps.

The chandelier made from old recycled bottles.

When you just can’t part with that old Ford truck, you make a bench out of it.

After dinner, we were off to see the horses.  This was the Grand Prix champ who had two perfectly clean shows and jumps.  He and his rider earned a cool $12,000 for their two perfect rounds.  The course was a tough course.  Only 3 of the 18 horses had perfectly clean rounds and jumps, and the grand champ was the only horse who had two perfect rounds.

Next time you are in either the Denver or Boulder areas, give Smokin’ Dave’s a try.  You’re going to love every bite.  You can find a Smokin’ Dave’s location by checking out their website at http://www.davesbbq.com.

Our weather has been all over the place this winter.  We go from cold and snowy to warm and sunny in the blink of an eye.  Friday, it was almost blizzard-like conditions and yesterday it was a bright sunny day and most of the snow has already melted.  It is supposed to snow again tonight and into tomorrow and then will clear up again the next day.  We Coloradans don’t know how to dress or to how to eat on these wacky winter days.  It goes from salad weather to roasting weather from day to day.  This unpredictability, though is one of the things we love about our beautiful Rocky Mountain State. You just never know what to expect.   The best thing you can do is to be prepared for whatever may come your way, at any given moment.  When cooking and meal planning, it is always best to have your refrigerator and your recipes stocked and ready to go for a little bit of anything and everything.  When it so snowy and blustery, it was the perfect time to have the oven on for a warm, inviting, roasted pork loin.  I served it with roasted vegetables and roasted sweet potatoes, and a cold, crisp chardonnay to make the meal perfect.

I gave the pork loin a bit of a Spanish personality by rubbing it with cumin, paprika and chili lime seasoning, along with salt & pepper and olive oil.  This is real easy, and real delicious too.  Pat the pork loin dry with a paper towel and rub the seasonings generously all over the meat, making sure to thoroughly coat it.  Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours before cooking.

Sear the meat in a hot skillet with cooking oil, making sure all the sides are browned and it forms a bit of a crust  all around.  Cook for about 4-5 minutes per side.

Preheat the oven to 375* F.

Spray a baking pan with cooking spray and place the meat in the pan.  Make sure the oven is hot before placing the meat in the oven, placing it in the center of the oven.  Roast the meat until the internal temperature reaches about 145* F and the juices are clear.  Then take it out and let it set for about 10 minutes before cutting.  The amount of time will depend upon the size of the pork loin.  I had a 2 lb piece of meat and I roasted it for about 40 minutes.

Once my meat had been cooking for about 20 minutes, I added the vegetables and the sweet potatoes and cooked them all together.

For the sweet potatoes, I used up some more of my cinnamon butter that we brought home with us from our nephew’s wedding, and tossed in some chopped pecans.  Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Caramel Sauce  It was a real simple, tasty way to make the sweet potatoes and went perfectly with the meal.  It was a simple, hearty meal, but it was perfect for a cold, blustery night.  Food does not have to complicated to hit the spot.  it just has to be good.  Sometimes, simple is best.

You may have noticed this label La Petite Tour in a lot of my pictures.  It is an inexpensive, very tasty wine that is a perfect everyday chardonnay.  It has hints of apples and melons and is currently one of my favorite everyday whites.  it goes with just about everything.