How cocktails fit into a healthy diet

Sometimes it's hard to come up with a new thing to eat every night. I find myself falling back on the same things, but with variations. For example, right now nachos are a frequent dinner because it's easy - take whatever leftover meat you have, put it on some tortilla chips and top it with cheese. About 20 minutes in the over, and dinner is served. I also made some meatloaf on the grill. It was really delicious, a mix of pork and beef, lots of herbs, and topped with BBQ sauce. It had a little smoke flavor from the grill which put it over the top. But these dishes don't sing to me. They don't really ask to be photographed either. They're the work horses of the belly - filling and comforting, but not always sexy to photograph. I'm not sure that today's blog is sexy either, but it was good and the cocktails were cold.

For dinner last night, we switched it up and made some fish. We had some red snapper in the freezer, so we thawed it out, salted both sides, and sauteed it on the stove top. While that was going, I cut up a red pepper, some broccolini, and some butternut squash, and sauteed them on the stove with some chive oil that I made and a bit of ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce - If you haven't tried it, I'd highly recommend it). When it all came together, it was a very simple dinner, but filling and light.

We also made a couple of cocktails - right now, I'm really into gin. Brown liquor feels like winter to me, and when it gets warmer, I go to gin and rose wine mostly. My current favorite cocktails are the vesper or a 50/50 martini. Walter's go to remains the manhattan - he's less affected by the weather in what he drinks. 

Signing off now - I'll think of something more exciting to show you later in the week. Who knows, could be tomorrow!

Brioche is not the same as other bread

It should go without saying, but I'm going to say it - some breads  are harder than others. Brioche is one of these breads. For those of you that watch the Great British Baking Show (and those of you that don't, why???), I'm guessing you've watched the contestants freaking out and being unsure of whether what they are doing is right. And if you're like me, you may sometimes think, or even say out loud, "what are they freaking out about? You've made bread before. How hard could this type of bread be?"  Well, I have now learned a valuable lesson. It can be pretty different and hard. 

Brioche is what is called an "enriched" dough. This means it has a lot of butter, eggs, and some milk in it. This makes for a really light and delicate bread that is very flavorful. It also means that you work the dough a lot less and it's pretty sticky. It also spreads out much larger than I thought it would. I started as usual, by searching out lots of different recipes, and finally settling on this one from Delish (https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a28848483/brioche-bread-recipe/). One of the first things I noticed is the sheer amount of butter and eggs (2 loaves of bread, 6 eggs, 2 sticks of butter), but hey, things that taste good often have lots of  butter. The recipe starts by having you make a sponge - flour, yeast and milk together to give the yeast a chance to activate before putting  it in the dough. This is important because having this much fat in your dough can retard the yeast growth. There's also a longer rise time involved - these loaves rose twice for 90 minutes each. 

I had  the idea that I was going to make hamburger buns out of 1/3 of the dough, but they turned into mini loaves, as seen here, but other than that, this bread came out amazingly.

With that, I'm off  to take care of some other projects around the house. And think about what's for dinner tonight. Stay happy and healthy. 

Remember when canned food was good?

I remember when I was a child, canned food wasn't looked at the way it is today. I remember liking some things out of cans, and I still do. Not everything, mind you. I remember loving asparagus in a can. It was a special treat. We'd warm it up, and (literally) slurp it down. Now, I don't like my asparagus cooked that long, or that color, so I buy it fresh and cook it myself. I still like corn from a can, and I still like Spam. It does need to be sliced thin and fried until it's crispy, just like when I was a kid. Another thing I like is corned beef hash. 

There is really nothing like the corned beef hash that comes out of a can. The potatoes are teeny tiny squares, the corned beef is smooth and salty, and you have to scoop it out to put it in the pan. Once you get it there, we smash it down so that it's almost a flat layer in the bottom of the pan. There's just enough fat in there to make it amazingly crispy on the outside while it stays moist in the middle. MMMM!!!

Walter and I tried to recreate that experience with the rest of the corned beef he made last week. We ground it up in the food processor, and combined it with some hashed brown potatoes. It was close, but no cigar. We decided there's just no substitute for some things.

Almost right!

Today I'm back to bread making - I'm trying brioche. I think it looks right - we'll see how it turns out on tomorrow's blog. Until then, I hope you have all you need, and much of what you want!

Sometimes things just don't work out

Salmon under salt

I like trying new things - recipes, hobbies, beverages, you name it. Sometimes those things work out beautifully. Sometimes they don't. One example of when they don't work out is my latest new thing - lox. We bought a large salmon filet, and I decided to try my hand at lox. I read through several recipes, and finally settled on one because it was written by Alton Brown. I really like how he breaks things down - process, chemical reactions that are happening, timing, everything. So, I pulled his recipe (courtesy of Food and Wine magazine, https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/aspen-2004-gravlax) and got to work. I mixed the salt and sugar, and added in some fresh ground coriander and caraway because I didn't have dill. I covered the filet with salt, wrapped it, and flipped it diligently. And when I pulled it out on Saturday, it was close to a disaster. It's so very salty, and harder than lox should be. I talked it over with my resident curing and grilling expert, Walter, and here's what I did wrong. I put too much salt on it. The amount of salt was specifically measured for the amount of fish to cure. Because I didn't know better, I thought the curing process was independent of the volume of salt. It's not. So, although it's not a complete disaster, that lox will have to be mixed into other things, and maybe shaved. I'm thinking I'll use it more like bonito, or bottarga, grated over pasta or eggs. Who knows? Maybe it's the start of a new food adventure!

Because chocolate

Over the  last week, I also made a flourless chocolate cake for a friend of mine because she and her husband lost their dog, Nelson. Nelson was awesome, and he was a complete jerk. He looked a lot like a mogwai from the movie Gremlins, and sometimes he was a gremlin. He didn't like skateboards, cats, or children. He did love Zia, and treats, and me. And I loved him. Zia also loved him, and she loved  to go visit and hang out with him. She had several overnight stays when we were out of town, and always looked forward to going over, and sometimes seemed a little reluctant to come home! Nelson got cancer a couple years ago, and they treated it. But it came back, and this time, the treatment was going to be more aggressive, and so they decided to keep him comfortable. He was a trooper, and it was finally time to say good-bye. So, I made the cake for her and her husband, as an "I'm sorry" because they lost their friend. I'm hoping it was a little bit of love on the inside, and that for a minute, it made them feel better.

Finally, we made chicken wings on the BBQ this weekend. Walter is usually the king of the BBQ, and I just stand back and let him do his thing. However, he was working on his bike at the same time, so I asked if I could help. He likes doing a traditional St. Louis BBQ, like his dad and older brothers did in the backyard when he was growing up. He grills the meat until it's done, then puts it in a pot with some BBQ sauce and a little beer, and lets it sit on the fire until the sauce has thickened up and the meat is juicy and tender. He and his family do this with pork steaks and chicken, and it's tasty every time. Suffice it to say, I need to ask more questions before trying to take over the grilling duties in our household. I added too much beer, and well, it was a little more juicy than he liked it to be. It all turned out well, and we enjoyed our wings with some potato pancakes made from a leftover baked potato and a polenta cake made from some leftover polenta. Add in some celery and carrot sticks served with blue cheese dressing, and we even had a vegetable!

That's all from my dining room table under cloudy skies. Stay safe and healthy. Remember to be grateful for all you have, and for the things that you don't have as well.

Nelson and Zia at leisure

Oh so many days of food

I feel like so much has been happening, and at the same time, nothing seems to be happening at all. I've been busy with yard and house projects, and have definitely been eating (my scale will verify that), but have run out of time to get online and tell you all about it. So, there are three days worth of food and stories here. 

Starting out as I like to begin - with dessert. It seems that cookies are my go to, although I wouldn't have said that was true a few months ago. Apparently having a set of scoops that make uniform cookies with minimal effort makes things better. Or maybe I've just gotten more patient with the process. After all, I get delicious results. Anyway, I was tired of chocolate chip cookies, and we had a jar of almond toffee chunks we bought at Costco, so toffee cookies it was. I used a basic chocolate chip recipe, and subbed the broken up toffee pieces for chips. And yeah, they are super delicious.

Since I've been off of work, Walter is usually the one that makes breakfast for the two of us. It's a great routine that we have - usually he cooks breakfast, we sit down and watch "The Daily Show," and then he goes to work and I clean up the kitchen before getting on with the rest of the day. On Friday, he asked me if I wanted him to cook a corned beef that we had frozen for the next morning. I love corned beef hash, so I said YES!.  He thawed it out and put it in the smoker overnight. The next morning, all I had to do was dice some potatoes, toss in the corned beef, and make a couple pieces of toast. It was all smoky and rich, and the potatoes were soft and creamy. That man sure can smoke some meat!! It went especially well with cartoons on a cloudy Saturday morning.

Finally, as I've said before, sometimes simple food is the best. One of the best examples is tacos or burritos filled with familiar ingredients. On Sunday night, I fried up chorizo with some diced potatoes for taco filling. We cooked some flour tortillas, added some cheese, and put the whole thing into the toaster oven to melt the cheese and make the tortillas crunchy. It was so good, we had it again last night! I'm not usually one for leftovers, but there are always exceptions, and this is one for sure. 

Stay healthy and happy - remember when you're thankful for all that you have, be thankful for all that you don't have as well!