Quinoa and Corn Salad

Quinoa and Corn Salad
From Ezra Pound Cake 

As an avid lunch packer, having a cold salad in the fridge all week can be invaluable.  When I'm scrambling to throw something in Tupperware at 7am while simultaneously whipping up breakfast sammies and figuring out who's going to walk this rascal, cold pasta and grain salads are my go-to.  John is too manly to pack a lunch for the office, but since he works from home a few days a week no one has to see him secretly eating leftover homemade salads for lunch on those days.

This salad is really refreshing and a great way to use what's left of summer corn.  If you've never cooked quinoa (keen-wa) before, it's not as scary as it looks.  You can get it in bulk at Whole Foods, and most normal grocery stores sell it now too.  Try the organic or natural aisle, or just ask an employee.  If you can't find it or aren't feeling adventurous, this would also work with couscous, bulgur, faro, or any other small grain.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa
• 6 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (this was about 6 limes for me)
• 1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded, or more to taste
• 1 garlic clove, grated (use a cheese grater - it prevents bites with big pieces of raw garlic, which can be pretty gross)
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 cup scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
• 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer for at least 45 seconds, shaking the strainer to make sure everything gets rinsed.  This step is no joke - quinoa has a weird, soapy tasting film on it naturally, and you definitely want to wash it off.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet.  Add rinsed quinoa and saute over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
3. Add 2 cups of water to the quinoa and bring to a boil.
4. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cook 18-20 minutes, until all water is absorbed and the quinoa looks like it's uncoiling.
5. Remove from heat and let stand, uncovered, until cool.
6. Toast cumin over medium heat in a small skillet for 3 minutes.
7. Combine toasted cumin, 5 tablespoons olive oil, lime juice, jalapeno, garlic and salt in a large bowl.  Whisk to blend.
8. Stir in cooled quinoa, corn kernels, tomatoes, scallions, avocado and cilantro.

Serves 8 as a side dish or light lunch.

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Chorizo Bean Dip

 

Chorizo Bean Dip
From Cooking Light 

 

We've got one last surprise entry from the book club extravaganza.  I call it a surprise because it was too busy getting its groove on in the oven to make the teaser picture I posted last week.  On top of that, the book club version was made following the Cooking Light recipe verbatim.  It was devoured at book club and we thought about posting it as is, but we had a hunch we could make it even better.

 

So we scrambled to find a reason to test out the improved recipe before I moved on from my series of book club posts.  Just as we were about to resign ourselves to a bean dip dinner for two on Friday night, opportunity came a knockin' in the form of a Bears game cook out.  The main change was swapping out Spanish chorizo for the raw, crumbled Mexican variety.  It makes for a much smoother texture and adds smokey chrorizo flavor to every bite.  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz Mexican chorizo (it comes raw in a tube and you can squeeze it out and cook it kind of like ground beef)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Serrano peppers, or any fun hot pepper you want to try out, chopped (we removed about half the seeds, this depends on your chili and your preference for heat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 3/4 cup Mexican cheese blend (we used reduced fat)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add chorizo crumbles, breaking up with a wooden spoon.  Saute for about 5-7 minutes or until cooked, stiring occasionally.  Remove chorizo from pan, set aside.
3. Using the same pan over medium-high heat, add onion and jalapeno to chorizo drippings.  Saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add salt, cumin, red pepper and garlic.  Saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5. Stir in broth and beans and bring to a boil.  Cook 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
6. Mash beans using a potato masher.  Stir in reserved chorizo.
7. Spread bean mixture in an 8x8 baking dish, coated with cooking spray.  Top beans with tomatoes and cheese.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melty and starting to brown.

Serves 6 (1/2 cup servings).

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Deviled Eggs

 

Deviled Eggs
From Ezra Pound Cake 

 

Next up from the book club menu is deviled eggs.  I love deviled eggs, but have never attempted making them myself before.  And I have to admit, I may have over committed myself on this one.  Deviled eggs pretty much have to be made right before the party, since the yolk center gets kind of crusty if it sits around too long.  This isn't the end of the world for, say, a Saturday party, but for a Tuesday at 7pm shindig...boy was I like a chicken with my head cut off.  I had boiled the eggs before leaving in the morning, but when I got home at 6 I still had to peel them, scoop them, blend up the filling, and re-fill them.  This is normally where my sous chef/husband comes into play, but as I mentioned in my Salted Toffee Squares post, he had wisely fled town before book club.  I had the best intentions to pipe the filling back into the eggs like the lovely Rebecca Crump did...but at 6:45 that really wasn't in the cards.  So spoon plopping it was.  Actually, with a sprinkling of chives I don't think they looked too shabby after all.

 

Ingredients

• 12 large eggs, preferably not too fresh, for easier peeling
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise (I used the canola kind)
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp cayanne pepper
• coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped chives, plus more for garnish

Preparation

1. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover the eggs by about 2 inches.
2. Bring pot to a gentle boil, then immediately remove from heat and cover.
3. Allow eggs to sit, covered, for about 18 minutes.
4. Place eggs in an ice water bath for about 5-10 minutes.
5. Peel eggs immediately, or place in the fridge for later peeling.  FYI, peeling 12 eggs is a pain.  Eventually I came up with this decent strategy: crack the egg on the top and bottom, and then all around by rolling on the counter.  Start chipping off the shell at the fat end, and make a little chipped off tunnel up to the skinny end.  Then, using the side of your thumb, try pulling off larger sections as you work around the circumference of the egg.
6. Slice eggs in half long ways (hot dog style, if you remember paper folding guidelines from grade school).  Slice little slivers off what will be the bottom of each egg, to help them sit still on the platter.
7. Gently scoop out yolks with a spoon.
8. Using a food processor or blender, combine yolks, mayonnaise, butter, Dijon, cayanne, and salt & pepper taste.  Mix until very smooth and creamy.
9. Add chives and mix just until combined.
10. Using a pastry piping bag or a zip lock baggie with the corner cut off, pipe filling back into egg whites.  Or, if you're me, plop it back in with a spoon...
11. Sprinkle chives over eggs.

Makes 24 egg halves.

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Salted Toffee Squares

Salted Toffee Squares
From Martha Stewart 

I LOVE my book club.  I can't think of any other institution that affords me an excuse to read a great book, enjoy fabulous company, drink copious amounts of wine mid-week, and gorge on special occasion party food - all on a monthly basis!  And once or twice a year it even gives me a chance to play hostess and finally make all the appetizer and dessert recipes I tend save without purpose.

This month marked my fourth book club hostessing experience, and the very first to take place in the new house.  True to Honeymoon Kitchen form John helped me prep most of the goodies the day before, but then he wisely headed out of town for work before 8 wine-drunk ladies descended on the house.

Since this book club is nothing if not decadent, I'm starting this series of posts by serving up dessert first.  And speaking of desserts, I'll be the first to admit I'm a pretty lousy baker.  Not a lot of blog-worthy desserts are likely to come out of the Honeymoon Kitchen.  But THESE, I can do.  I can do them well.  Like crave-worthy, can't stop eating them well.  But it's not because I'm good, it's because they are that easy, and because the genius that is Martha Stewart created them, and because they contain 2 sticks of butter and a half cup of sugar.  Yeah, that last one is probably the key...

Ingredients

• 16 graham crackers
• 1 8-oz bag toffee bits (it has to be pure toffee bits, not chocolate and toffee bits mixed together - Heath Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits is what I always use - it can be hard to find, so I stock up when I do)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds, toasted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coarse salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Thoroughly line a baking sheet with foil.
3. Break graham crackers into squares and arrange them on the baking sheet in a single layer.  I try to get the absolute most out of this recipe, so I may break some of the graham crackers into the smaller, quarter segments to make sure I can fill the whole baking sheet.  I usually end up using about 16 full sized crackers, broken into squares or quarter strips.
4. Sprinkle toffee bits and almonds over graham crackers.
5. Place sugar and butter in a small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer for 2 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until the mixture is syrupy.
7. Immediately pour butter mixture evenly over the graham crackers.
8. Bake for 10 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips and salt over graham crackers.  Return to oven for 2 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool completely. 
11. Break into squares and prepare to eat WAY too many in one sitting.
12. If there's any left (doubtful) store them in an airtight container for up to a week.

Makes about 30 squares.

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Book Club

Book Club tonight! Preview of the spread. Recipes coming soon to a blog near you!

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Bacon Kale

 

Bacon Kale
From Emeril Lagasse 

 

Kale is healthy.  You should eat it because it's healthy.  One serving has like a million percent of your daily Vitamins A and K.  Have I convinced you to eat it yet?  Yeah, John neither.

 

Then I found this recipe.

 

Bacon makes everything better.  Fact.  John actually proclaimed this to be the best item on his plate when we had it as a side dish...to BEEF!  Men love beef and have never heard of kale, so this is no small miracle.  Please make this side dish for your health...or for your love of bacon.

 

Ingredients

• 6 slices bacon
• 1 small white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
• 1 1/2 lbs kale, tough stems removed, roughly chopped, washed and left damp
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat.  Cook bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels.
2. Add butter to bacon fat and melt over medium high heat.
3. Saute onions and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the damp kale and stir to combine.
5. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine.
6. Cover pan, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Uncover and increase heat to medium high.  Add cream and lemon juice.
8. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is cooked off.
9. Add bacon, salt and pepper.
10. Stir and serve hot.

Serves 4.

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Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

 

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto
From Cooking Light, May 2002

 

Oh Cooking Light, I'm sorry we have strayed from you.  When we first started dating CL was our cooking bible.  The recipes are well explained, use easy to find ingredients, and almost always turn out awesome.  Once we even tried to cook every recipe in an issue, ala Julie and Julia (we only got though about 1/4...our attention spans aren't that long!).  Heck, we gave housewarming subscriptions to any friend who moved for about a year back in 2010!  But alas, over time we have purchased a myriad of cookbooks and become devoted followers of a number of cooking websites, and now sometimes months go by and we don't make a single recipe from an issue.

 

Well, tonight we put an end to that and it felt so good!  Despite owning a cataloged collection of every issue since 2007, I found this recipe on the internet.  It's an oldie but a goodie, and a great way to get a little more grilling in before summer's end.  And bonus, the pesto is good on other meats, sandwiches, or pastas, just beware garlic breath after!

 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp slivered or chopped almonds, toasted
• 1 serrano pepper, roughly chopped (we left the seeds in for extra heat...your call)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 3 Tbsp plain fat-free yogurt (we used Greek, I think anything would work as long as it's PLAIN, not vanilla)
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1 1-lb flank steak, trimmed
• additional salt and pepper, for meat

Preparation

1. Heat grill to medium heat.
2. Combine cilantro, almonds, serrano, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, and garlic in a blender or food processor.  Process until finely chopped.  Side note on device choice: I am enthralled by my new, huge food processor, but I think it was the wrong choice here.  The amount of stuff is too small, and it just kept getting stuck to the sides.  Go with a mini food processor or magic bullet if you have something like that.
3. Add yogurt and lime juice to pesto.  Process until smooth.
4. Salt and pepper flank steak.
5. Grill 6 minutes on each side, or until desired degree of doneness.
6. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to sit for at least 3 or 4 minutes.  This will trap all the yummy juices.
7. Slice meat AGAINST THE GRAIN, so you have long strips.
8. Serve with pesto sauce.

Serves 4.

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Wiener Schnitzel

Wiener Schnitzel
From Alfons Schuhbeck 

After a recent visit to Chicago’s fabulous German Day Festival I found myself craving some of the Bavarian treats I used to enjoy when I studied abroad in Salzburg, Austria during college.  Unfortunately, 20-year-old me didn’t have the foresight to write down any recipes while I was there, so I was forced to find a suitable one here.  The thing is, I have this weird penchant for authenticity and I just couldn’t be convinced that an American chef would know the first thing about wiener schnitzel.  Before I knew it I was cruising German recipe sites pretending to remember the 5 years of German I took back in the day. 

Apparently this Alfons Schuhbeck dude is kind of the man when it comes to German cuisine – I read about him on Wikipedia in English, so I feel pretty confident about that much.  His recipe, however, I could only find in German.  So with the help of an online German-English dictionary and some educated guessing, I created this rough translation of Mr. Schuhbeck’s schnitzel.  I can’t be 100% sure it’s exactly as he wrote it, but I can tell you for a fact that it was awesome.  Guten Appetit!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream
• 5 slices fresh white bread, crusts removed
• 8 small veal cutlets, about 2 ounces each (should be from the top round cut in the leg; purchase either very thinly sliced pieces or normal sliced pieces pounded out; don't be afraid to talk to your butcher about what you're making and what to buy, they're super friendly meat-loving people, I promise!)
• salt & fresh ground pepper
• flour for dredging, spread out on a plate
• lemon wedges, for serving
• berry jam, for serving

Preparation

1. Turn butter into clarified butter.  This will result in slightly less than a cup of clarified butter, which is fine.
2. In a bowl wide enough to dip the veal cutlets in, whisk together eggs and cream.
3. Grind bread into fine bread crumbs and pour them onto a plate.  I use my food processor for this.
4. Salt and pepper the veal.
5. Set plates up in the order of flour, eggs, bread crumbs.  Take the first cutlet and dredge it in the flour, making sure it is coated, but excess is shaken off.  Then dip it in the egg mixture, followed by the breadcrumbs.  Make sure bread crumbs stick all over the veal, but try not to press them into the meat.  Set the finished cutlet aside and continue the process with remaining cutlets.  One helpful hint from our family's dedicated dredger of meats (aka John...I avoid the dirty work!): keep one hand dry and one hand wet.  For example, use your left hand to dip it in the flour and drop it in the egg, use the right to move it around in the egg and drop it and move it around in the bread crumbs.
6. Heat a large, high sided frying pan over medium heat.  When pan is hot, add clarified butter.
7. Place as many cutlets as possible in the pan, but do not let them overlap.  This may require several batches.
8. Cook cutlets until golden brown on the bottom, and then flip CAREFULLY...breading will fall off if you're too rough with tongs.  I think next time we'll use a spatula.  Continue cooking until other side is golden brown.  Ours took about 4 minutes per side.
9. Remove finished cutlets (CAREFULLY...see note in step 8) and allow them to drain for a minute or two on paper towels.
10. Serve with lemon halves and a berry jam of your choice.  Lingonberry is traditional, but we couldn't find that so we went with a mixed berry.

Serves 4.

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Corn Soup

 

 

Corn Soup
From 101 Cookbooks 

 

September might be my favorite cooking month of the year.  The farmers markets are chock full of great produce, and there's a nip in the air that warrants comfort foods I've missed all summer.  This recipe embodies that combo.  It takes fresh corn, which is still in abundance at Midwest farmers markets, and turns it into a thick, hearty, warm soup.

 

I made it on a whim for dinner one night because I had a TON of corn left over from the Labor Day BBQ (I guess everyone filled up on the pork and forgot to eat their veggies!).  It made a fabulous dinner and I went to bed happy.  Then I woke up the next morning hungry and inspired.  I took Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks' advice and served it up over a bed of cooked farro.  And then, since we feel incomplete without eggs in our breakfast, we topped it with a fried egg.  And life was so good.

 

Ingredients

• 6 ears fresh corn, husks removed
• 8 cups water
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 lb potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• large pinch of salt
• 4 medium shallots, chopped (I used 1/2 a white onion, cause that's what I had)
• 3 medium garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
• 2 tsp salt
• pepper, to taste
• plain yogurt, to serve
• cayenne pepper, to serve

Preparation

1. Bring water to boil in a large pot.
2. While water is coming to a boil, cut the kernels off the corn cobs.  Reserve corn kernels.
3. Place the naked cobbs in the boiling water.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-30 minutes, or until you prep the rest of the ingredients.
4. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
5. When fat is hot, add potatoes and a large pinch of salt, stir to coat.  Saute for about 7 minutes, or until potatoes are nearly cooked through.
6. When potatoes are nearly cooked through, add shallots and garlic and saute for another 3-4 minutes.
7. Remove cobs from corn broth; discard cobs.  Add potato mixture, reserved corn kernels, and 2 tsp salt to the corn broth.
8. Simmer for 2 minutes.
9. Allow mixture to cool slightly.
10. Place mixture in blender and puree.  I like my soup pretty silky, so I split my soup into two blending batches, making one a complete velvety puree, and the other mildly chunky.
11. Return soup to pot and heat.  Taste and correct for salt and pepper.
12. Serve with a sprinkle of cayenne and a dollop of plain yogurt.  (Even if you don't think you like yogurt, it really brightens the flavors and doesn't taste like yogurt if you stir it in.  My yogurt hating roommate confirmed this).

Serves 4 heaping bowls as soup.  If you serve it over the farro with a fried egg it is EXTREMELY filling, and would easily make 6 servings.

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Macaroni Salad

 

Macaroni Salad
From Food Network Kitchens 

 

A lot of the food bloggers I follow are really kind, sweet people.  From what I can tell, they live their lives on an advanced holiday schedule, graciously vetting and posting all holiday-themed recipes as much as a week before said holiday.

 

I am not those bloggers.  Hence, 1 week after Labor Day, as the weather spirals further and further from anything remotely resembling BBQ inspiration, I am finally posting the macaroni salad I served last weekend.  On the plus side, summer will (theoretically) return one day, and Chicago's 9 month winter should afford me enough time to figure out how to set up a recipe search feature.  So catalog this one in the back of your brain, and then come back and search for it come June!

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry elbow macaroni
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
• 1 Tbsp minced flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup diced vine-ripened tomato
• 4 oz block of mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 3/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• additional salt + pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Cook macaroni according to box.  Dry well and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine macaroni, celery, onion, parsley, tomato, and cheese.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together mayo, mustard, sugar, vinegar, sour cream, and salt.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to combine.  Season with more salt, plus pepper, to taste.
5. STORE IN YOUR FRIDGE TILL TOMORROW!!!  Promise me you won't eat this on the day you make it, and then think, huh, this wasn't very good.  Cause I'm telling you right now, it NEEDS a night in the fridge to meld together.
6. While I'm at it, double the recipe so you'll have leftovers, cause if it tastes 100% better after one night in the fridge, it's 200% better after two nights!

Serves 6 generous side helpings.

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Bacon Blue Cheese Guacamole

 

Bacon Blue Cheese Guacamole
Adapted from The Best Thing I Ever Ate, on Food Network

 

Yes, you read that right.  And yes, it's awesome.  Unless, of course, you hate blue cheese, as does my roommate (that's what I choose to call him when he makes poor life decisions such as this).  But no worries, that just means more for me and the other sane people out there!

 

I made this gem for our big Labor Day BBQ and it was a huge hit.  People tended to take one bite, shoot me a quizzical look, and then exclaim "Oh my God, is there BACON in this?!?"  And then dive back in for more...

 

Ingredients

• 4 ripe avocados, pitted and mashed
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 2 large Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapenos, chopped (seeds in if you like extra heat - we do!)
• 3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• 6 strips bacon, cooked until crispy and chopped into bits
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup blue cheese
• 1 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Mix all ingredients together.  (If you want to get some extra prep work done the night before, you can chop and mix everything except the avocados and store it in a bowl over night.  Then right before serving, add the avocados and possibly extra salt and pepper.)

Serves a crowd of blue cheese loving guac enthusiasts!

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Pulled Pork Sandwiches

 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
From Food.com 

 

My husband is a Man.  And as of 4 weeks ago, he's a Man with a CostCo card.  And on Labor Day weekend this resulted in me being a woman with 15 pounds of pork shoulder to deal with.  So naturally we whipped out our brand new, extra-large (thank God) crock pot and let it do most of the work for us.  We were able to cram about 9 pounds of meat into the thing, so you can expect the 6 remaining pounds currently in our freezer to make a blog appearance sooner or later.  Maybe later, since we're going to be eating leftover pulled pork for the next month.  (FYI, it makes a darn good breakfast sandwich meat!!)

 

Ingredients

• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4-6 lbs boneless pork shoulder
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• your favorite BBQ sauce
• buns
• coleslaw (optional)

Preparation

1. Place quartered onions on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Combine brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper.  Rub over the meat
3. Place meat on top of onions, in crock pot.
4. Combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper, sugar, mustard, garlic powder, and cayenne.  Whisk to mix well.
5. Drizzle 1/2 of the vinegar mixture over the roast.  Refrigerate the remaining mixture.
6. Cook on low for 8-16 hours.  It really depends on your crock pot.  Ours is like a super turbo model or something, because we checked on it after 8 hours, and low and behold it was totally tender and cooked through (which resulted in a pork pulling frenzy at midnight...)
7. Remove meat from crock pot and allow to stand for 15 minutes or more.
8. Remove onions and finely chop.
9. Use to forks to pull meat apart.
10. Mix onions back into shredded meat, along with some of the juice from the crock pot, to moisten it.
11. Add just enough BBQ sauce to give it distinct BBQ flavor.  Provide additional sauce at the table or in the buffet line.
12. Serve on buns, topped with coleslaw!

Serves a bajillion people.  (Online recipe says 18-20).

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Labor Day BBQ

Labor Day BBQ tomorrow.  Preview of the meat situation...

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Lucy Goose

Lucy Goose, pining for our breakfast sandwiches

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Mix and Match Breakfast Sandwich

Mix and Match Breakfast Sandwich
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

First and foremost, I have to give a shout out to my FABULOUS new sister in law, Mary, for changing the entire course of Honeymoon Kitchen's future.  Ok, well maybe it's not that drastic, but it's pretty awesome.  She gave lent us her amazing Nikon digital SLR camera for use in the Honeymoon Kitchen!!  AND she's been showing us some nifty Tumblr tricks, so hopefully we'll have some cool new features pretty soon.  She's also our one-woman PR team, and thanks to her we've got a following of like 5 people.  Sure, they're all related to us, but still!

Now, back to the lovely mix and match breakfast sandwiches at hand.  We are those people who get up 6/7 mornings a week and make a real breakfast.  What can I say, I wake up hungry!  Sometimes we get creative, but most days we fall back on some sort of breakfast sandwich.  The beauty of this thing is its ability to clean out your fridge.  Today's version was pretty classic, with ham, egg, and cheese, but there are SO many alternatives out there.  Basically, if you've got it in your fridge, heat it, salt it, stack it, and you're golden!

Ingredients

• BREAD: Today we used sandwich rolls that doubled as sausage buns the night before.  Other great options include English muffins, baguettes, ciabatta, bagels, or just regular sandwich bread.
• EGGS: Our favorite is to fry them up over-easy.  However, in our morning haze we often break the yolk or just forget to pay attention and they end up over-medium or just scrambled.  It's all good.
• MEAT: You don't need meat, since eggs are pretty filling, but if you've got some on hand, go for it.  This morning we used deli ham, but bacon, other deli meats, and even crazier things like summer sausage have all made appearances.
• CHEESE: This one has provolone, but of course any cheese will do.  Don't be afraid to think outside the box with something like a goat cheese.
• VEGGIES: Today's version skipped this section of the ole' food pyramid.  However, we do often include any left over roasted veggies from the night before, such as asparagus, zucchini, peppers, and onions.
• SAUCES & CONDIMENTS: Our number one condiment is giardiniera.  We LOVE it.  A lot.  Other than that, John is a devoted honey mustard guy, and I like to add a light layer of fruit jam if the mood strikes me.

Preparation

1. Toast your bread product so that it can handle any condiments or soft cheeses you'll be spreading on it without tearing or becoming soggy.
2. Add condiments to bread.
3. Cook or heat your meat in a skillet.  Even deli meats - the get a little crispy on the edges and release some of their oils - it should only take a minute.  Remove meat and place on bottom half of bread.
4. Add a little cooking spray or oil to the skillet.  If your meat was something like bacon and gave off a lot of grease, you can skip this step.
5. If your veggies need to be cooked or reheated, you can do this in the skillet now.  Remove veggies and place on top of meat.
6. Add more cooking spray or oil to pan if needed, and cook your eggs however you like.
7. Place cheese on sandwich, followed by egg and top half of bread.  Squish everything together, helping the hot eggs to melt the cheese and allowing beautiful runny egg yolk to run out if you went with over-easy.
8. Eat immediately and enjoy being full all morning at work/school!

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Veal Scaloppine

 

Veal Scaloppine
From Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

 

Our love affair with Marcella Hazan continues.  We have been meaning to try our hand at some of the more expensive and exotic meat cuts, but didn't want to waste our money by screwing it up.  So we put our faith in good old Marcella and we weren't disappointed.

 

She never fails to make us feel so much more Italian than we really are.  Her veal recipe is super simple, but she puts HUGE emphasis on the quality and cut of the veal, which is really the only non-pantry ingredient in this recipe.  She states that the veal MUST be top round.  No other cut will do.  Go to a real butcher for this, if at all possible.  Then she discusses the preparation of the veal into the scaloppine cut.  If you go to a real butcher, it is likely they can do this for you if you ask.  Whenever I imagine asking butchers for extra stuff I conjure up the image of Ina Garten in her Hamptons foodie haunts asking her bestie butcher to cater to her every whim.  But as it turns out, regular Joes (or regular Johns...since it's my husband that actually ran this errand) can get special things from their butcher too.  So definitely ask, it can't hurt.  If they can't scaloppine it for you, or you don't trust them to do it right, Google or You Tube the right way to do it yourself.  Marcella didn't make it sound hard, but she did make it sound like it had to be done right.

 

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 1 lb top round veal, scaloppine
• flour, spread on a plate
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine (seriously, find DRY! sweet won't work!)

Preparation

1. Place oil and 1 Tbsp butter in a cold skillet, and turn heat to medium high.
2. When fat is hot, dredge the scaloppine one by one in flour, dropping them in the pan as you go.  She makes it really clear that you should not dredge any of them in advance, or the flour will get moist and fail to create a crispy edge.  Also, don't allow any of them to overlap in the pan.  Do batches.
3. Each scaloppine should cook for approximately 30 seconds per side.  Adjust the cooking time based on thickness of the pieces (the thinner ones ended up being the tastiest, FYI).  As the pieces are finished, move them to a plate.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Once all scaloppine have been cooked, turn heat to high and add Marsala and remaining 1 Tbsp butter.  Be sure to scrape all the good bits off the bottom of the pan as you pour the wine in.
5. Cook sauce down until it looks, well, saucy.  This took us about 8 minutes.
6. Turn heat to low and return scaloppine to pan to mix with sauce and reheat a little.
7. Plate, serve, eat!!!

Serves 4.

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