summer

Dear Mom,

Well summer is officially here!  The hubs and I decided to kick it off right this year by having a good 'ol fashion bbq rib show-down.  The challenge is simple: prepare your best bbq rib recipe and two sides and see who can make the best.  Of course, the judges are a little biased considering its yours-truly and the hubs, but we have a great marriage and we're very honest with eachother so there will be no smack-talking I'm sure...  (The sarcasm did not come across in that statement, but I assure you its there.)

So that we didn't fight over the kitchen, which is bound to happen when we're both cooking in our small apartment, and so that we didn't stuff ourselves silly with too much food, we decided to each take a weekend.  I took last weekend and John is going to "wow" me tomorrow with his bbq "prowess."  My humble submission was simple, straight-forward and effective, I utilized the tried-and-true crock pot.  Yes, that's right folks: the crock pot.  I'm sure somewhere in Kansas City or North Carolia or Texas people are weeping.  You know what else is just plain un-Amercian?   I used a pre-packaged bbq rub and sauce!  Oh, no!  Pray for my soul, I'm going to you-know-where!  (Although, it does so happen to be from a fantastic place in New York, that is pretty well known for its bbq: Dinosaur BBQ.)  As I explained to my husband, the reason I do these terrible things to my ribs, is because with out a smoker (which I do not own) its a great, reliable way to make fall-off the bone tender ribs.  I actually will be sharing another recipe with you, one of the sides, but considering I'm spending all this time talking about the ribs I should share with everyone how I make them. 

Its quite simple: preheat your grill to medium.  Soak approximately 2 cups of wood chips in water, beer or apple cider (mesquite, hickory or applewood are all good).  Drain the wood chips.  Tear off 3 sheets of aluminum foil, place a pile of the wood chips in the middle of each sheet and then gather the edges of the foil so you make little pouches, but leave the tops open.  Put the foil packs on the grill and then put your favorite rub on the ribs.  Brown the ribs in the grill, with the lid closed, and the foil packs in there too.  Allowing the grill to get a little smokey.  Remove ribs to the crock pot, cover in your favorite sauce and cook 8 hours until tender.  Done, perfect, tender, finger-lickin' good ribs, with only 20 minutes of prep. 

Minimal prep time allows us to take our time with the sides.  I was recently watching an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and he went to Kansas City for bbq.  He unequivocably stated that when in Kansas City one should skip the sides and only eat the meat.  Well, you can do what ever you want, Anthony, at my house the sides are an integral and valuable component of the bbq dinner.  Now, I have not been to Kansas City and I'm sure they make bbq that would blow my mind, but how is one expected to get through copious amounts of charred meat with out some kind of veggie, acid or starch to break-up or soak-up all of the goodness? Lots of beer!  No, that's the cheater's way out, I think some good sides are really the only way to truly enjoy good bbq.  For my submission to the competition I made corn casserole and Thai cucumber salad.  I think that to achieve the state of nirvana that bbq can induce, one needs a starchy side to soak up the grease and a vinegary side to cut the grease, this is the one true path to enlightenment.  My Thai cuke salad is easy, just sliced cukes (predrained with some salt), sliced red onion, rice wine vinegar, a little canola oil, low-sodium soy sauce, and chopped cilantro. 

The other side?  Corn casserole.  You know this one, Mom, its out of the first cook book you ever gave me.  Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook, a collection of recipes from one of our favorite movies Fried Green Tomatoes.  This is the kind of side that would do Paula Deen proud.  Corn, which is sweet and wonderful on its own, is mixed up with a box of corn bread mix, a can of creamed corn, and a whole stick of booooder (can you hear her now?).  I add some chopped basil to the mix.  This does a couple great things: a) basil and corn are great together it adds a herbacious, fresh note to an other wise sinfully sweet and rich side dish and b) the bright green color dotted in the bright yellow cake is attractive c) that green color is to Paula Deen what garlic is to vampires, it keeps her away. 

Happy Summer!

corn casserole

1 17-ounce can cream style corn
1-1/2 cups frozen corn
1 cup light sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 8-1/2 ounce box corn muffin mix
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine first 5 ingredients, add muffin mix and basil and mix to combine.  Spray a 12"x8"x2" baking dish with cooking spray, and pour in batter.  Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.

poor man's wellington

Dear Kristin,

I have a confession. I'm in love with a flake.

Before you say "I know - you married dad!", let me clarify.

Specifically, I'm in love with those lovely, flaky sheets of divine decadence known as puffed pastry. Whether it's sweet or savory, puffed pasty has the ability to elevate even the most mundane filling or topping to levels of epicurean delight that scream "I'm special" to the eager diner. Honestly - wrap it around a homely hot dog, and suddenly you have a designer dog that could win at Westminster!

And talk about versatile! Puffed pastry can be shaped into cute little cut-outs for appetizers, layered with custard or fruit for dessert, or in this case, formed into a pouch to hold an entree special enough for Sunday dinner, but easy enough to make on a Wednesday.

I have another confession. I've never had real Beef Wellington. It's not something that appears on Denny's menu in the Senior Citizen's early bird special section, so I decided to try and make it myself, on a shall we say, somewhat less extravagant scale. Modest meatloaf is encased in pastry, and instead of topping the meat with a mushroom duxelles, the pastry packets are topped with a mushroom-wine sauce. This is about as fancy as I can get in my little comfy kitchen - but who needs fancy when dinner is just plain good?

poor man's wellington

For the meat:

1 lb. 80-20% ground beef
1 egg
2 Tblsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1 pkg. frozen puffed pastry

For the sauce:

8 medium sized white mushrooms
3 Tblsp. butter
1/2 c. dry red wine
1 c. plus 3 Tblsp. reduced sodium beef broth (divided)
1 1/2 Tblsp. corn starch
1 tsp. dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Make the meatloaves:

Spray 6 regular sized muffin cups with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375F.
Mix ground beef and next five ingredients gently in a bowl. Divide mixture into prepared muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until center is no longer pink. Run a knife along inside of muffin cups to loosen the
meat. Remove meat muffins from pan. Let cool while you prepare the puffed pastry.

Raise oven temp. to 400F.

Roll 1 sheet of pastry into a square approximately 12" by 12". (Or larger, if the pastry is thicker.) Divide square in half, creating two 12" x 6" rectangles.

When meat is cool enough to handle, cut each meat "muffin" into three slices. Arrange 1 and 1/2 meat muffin slices on lower third of one pastry rectangle, trying to arrange as evenly as possible, and leaving a 1" border between meat and edge of pastry. Moisten edges of rectangle with water. Fold pastry over, completely enclosing the meat, and crimp edges with a fork to seal.

Repeat with remaining pastry and meat muffins.

Bake pastry pouches for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown.

While pastry bakes, prepare sauce:

Clean and slice mushrooms. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and cook on medium heat for five minutes, or until mushrooms are softened.

Add 1/2 c. wine to mushrooms and continue cooking another 5 minutes.

Mix 3 Tblsp. beef broth with corn starch, making sure corn starch dissolves completely. Add this to the mushrooms along with the remaining cup of broth and thyme. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until sauce thickens and appears rich and silky. Test for seasoning, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Remove pastries from oven, and allow to stand for 3 to 5 minutes. Top with mushroom sauce. Serve additional sauce on the side.

Comfy's note: You can use your favorite meatloaf recipe for these, as long as it is not too moist, or so highly seasoned that it competes with the taste of the sauce.

birthday

Dear Mom,

I'm starting to turn into quite the slacker myself, like mother like daughter I suppose.  For whatever reason I was having trouble finding the inspiration to write.  Not that this recipe that I'm including isn't inspiring, I think I was just suffering from writer's block (or maybe blogger's block).

I think part of my problem is that I'm getting old.  This upcoming weekend I'll be mourning the loss of something...  My twenties.  It's truly tragic, but I suppose we've all been there, or will be at some point.  Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed the past three decades, and to be honest I think it was more depressing when I wasn't carded at a bar for the first time.  But still, I think women especially are expected to be particularly upset by this birthday, and maybe its just social pressure, but I'm not immune to it.

At any rate, I was thinking about trying to bake my own birthday cake.  I thought it would be fun, and I've never made a cake from scratch before.  I usually just grab a box of funfetti mix and two containers of frosting.  (One for the cake and one for late night musings about things like depressing birthdays.)  Although I've been thinking that baking your own birthday cake could possibly be bad luck, and I think its just too risky for this birthday.  But I did think about your pie, and I think the very nature of pie is relatively safe and free from negative superstition.  This recipe isn't exactly "All-American" apple pie, its more a rustic French version of pie.  It might be pie's predecessor, I'm not sure, you can Wikipedia it if your interested and get back to me; I'm too old and tired right now.  I do love your apple pie, what makes it so delicious is that strudel crumble topping that goes on it.  What makes this galette recipe so good is the crust, the marscarpone cheese gives it a rich, slightly tangy taste.  I chose to top this one with pears and raspberries, but you could really substitute any combination of your favorite fruits.

pear & raspberry galette

for the crust:
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold marscarpone cheese
1-1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp. ice water

for the filling:
2 pears, sliced (ripe but still firm)
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. lemon juice
pinch salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
1 small pack of raspberries
2 tbsp. raspberry preserves
1 tbsp. honey

1 egg, beaten

In a food processor pulse to combine the flour, salt and sugar.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Add the lemon juice and marscarpone, pulse a couple times.  Add the water and pulse until the mixture is moist and crumbly.  Dump the mixture on to plastic wrap and form into a disc, place in the fridge for 1/2 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix the pears, sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl, set aside.

Remove the dough from the fridge and place on a piece of parchment paper.  Place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and roll out to an 11-inch disc, about 1/4-inch thick.  Remove the plastic wrap and transfer the disc to a baking sheet, leaving it on the parchment paper.

Spread the dough with the raspberry preserves, leaving about a 2-inch border.  Layer the pear mixture on top.  Dot with raspberries and drizzle with the honey.  Brush the edges of the crust with the egg.  Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the crust is golden.  Cover loosely with foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.