Let it snow

Let us call it Winter's first snow. We did have some snow a few weeks ago, but since the Christmas decorations were not up yet I am calling privilege and saying today it the first snow.

Were we live- we barley qualify for the Dusting / 1-3 inch line. In fact, I think we are the line. However, WBZ is calling it the first winter storm so lets go with it. With the snow outside it would seem to be a perfect time to talk about the salsa verde I made about a month ago. It is loosely based upon the recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen for Salsa Verde with Green Tomatoes, Avocados, and Cilantro.

The conundrum we had at the end of the summer was that the tomatoes left in the garden had not ripened. With Fall coming we could not risk loosing them. The sou chef made the call and she picked the few remaining tomatoes.

The ingredients were simple enough to pull together, a few tomatillos, small onion, the green tomatoes, avocados and a chili pepper. The red tomato was added for some color.


All of the vegies got rough chopped and the limes were reamed for the juice.

To the veggies, I added some sea salt, some olive oil, about a teaspoon of garlic, chopped fresh parsley and mixed it all up.


We plated it up in a chip dish with contrasting chips and the salsa in the middle.

so lonely, yet so delicious

Dhu

In my opinion the best cooking magazine around is having a book signing at the home of America's Test Kitchen. ATK is probably the best pure play cooking show around and the companion show to Cook's Illustrated. For the record Saveur is probably the best food magazine around.

Not sure if the RSVP link works, if not you can call the number listed at 617-232-1000. See you all there!

Viva Las Vegas

I am traveling for work this week to ...


I get back at the end of the week so look for some new posts next week and as we all know Thanksgiving is right around the corner so who knows what this year has in store. Anyone for Turducken?

Can I get a little ZZ Top to rock us out of here?

Popcorn Time

Not sure you heard, but there is only one undefeated team left in the NFL

When you can make catches like that, why wouldn't you still be undefeated?

The Colts are a very good team but I doubt that they would have been able to overcome the level of bogus penalties that New England faced during the game. Faceguarding, come on that used to be a penalty but has not been in years, next time roll out the A team for the umpires.

The Dallas / Pats game was really not a call for popcorn regardless of what TO had to say. However, truth be told, any time we have an excuse to make some popcorn we jump on it. Both the sou chef and I are huge fan of popcorn, or as we say in Massachusetts, we think popcorn is pissa!

About a year ago I wrote about our love affair with popcorn and the fantastic Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper. So we got on the step stool climbed to the top of the pantry and pulled ol'reliable down.

In terms of actual popcorn we have tried pretty much everything. From the organic stuff at Whole Foods, which was not that good, to the fancy White Cat Popcorn at Williams-Sonoma. The best, most reliable popcorn is still Orville Redenbacher popcorn. We use a half a cup of popcorn, a shake or two of sea salt, about one tablespoon of oil and one tablespoon of unsalted butter. All of this goes into the Whirley and away we go.

The sou chef went to town on cranking away

a few minutes later out came the fluffy white gold.

Rather then just have the standard popcorn we did a little combo action. We made four varities of popcorn; 1) black pepper, 2) lime popcorn, 3) hot sauce and Parmigiana cheese and, 4) plain or just salted popcorn.

A little bit of all the variations

You can see the hot sauce trapped in the popcorn


Hard to show 'lime' popcorn but you get the idea

The easiest way to add anything to popcorn is to scoop some into a lunch size brown paper bag and the add the topping or flavor. This way you can shake it up really well and the bag takes any excess oil away. For the hot sauce and Parmigiana cheese, I add a good four to five shakes of sauce and then maybe a tablespoon of cheese. You can use cayenne pepper as well but I like the way the sauce gets trapped. Add the sauce first then the cheese, shake it up real well and the when you pour it into a serving bowl make sure the excess is kept in the bag.

We have also made kettle corn, which is basically adding sugar at the very moment of popping, but that takes over the whole batch. If you want to pretend you are at a fancy restaurant I will make some with truffle oil and charge you $12 for the serving.

popcorn, truffle, cheese, hot sauce

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Talk about a scary photo - thankfully we won the Series and all is fine with the world.

We did our usual carve the pumpkin last night and saved the seeds to make roasted / toasted pumpkin seeds. There are hundreds of overly complex recipes for doing this on the internet. Me, I like to keep it simple

Remove as much of the pumpkin stuff from the seeds as possible, then fill the bowl with water. If lucks has it, most of the stuff sinks and then you can scoop up the seeds.

I then like to toast them in a large non-stick skillet for a few minutes over medium heat to remove as much moisture as possible.

After that into a 350 degree over on parchment paper for about 20 minutes or so.



Afterwards, I toss lightly with some salt and into a Tupperware. I am snacking on some right now as I sip my Dunkin Donuts and write this post.

Delish!

And by the way, I seriously don't like candy corn

Mmm...cheesy

These games are killing me. The games start late and then they run late. Being a Sox fan I am never completely convinced we have won till the game is over. Last night I stayed up late for the entire game even though it was pretty clear that the Sox have won. Today the weather is damp, cold and that bone chilly. Great weather for a nice warm bowl of macaroni and cheese!

5 ingredients for GrandMa Tisch's macaroni and cheese:

-elbow noodles
-butter
-half a can of stewed tomatoes
-block of gruyere cheese
-finely chopped medium yellow onion

melt a whole stick of butter

add the gruyere cheese and slowly melt it down

over low heat melt the gooey mess down and add the boiled elbows, the 16oz can of tomatoes and the chopped onion.

keep stirring over low heat and serve.

Sticks to your bones and warms you from the inside.

Williams-Sonoma, cook books, coupons

For once, then, something

Summer has finally passed and with it we had the final harvest from our garden. As far as a first attempt at a garden the sou chef and I did a pretty good job. We lost the basil and the black eye peas to some sort of animal yet we saved the tomatoes and the cucumbers.

The garden was something that I really wanted to do and share with our daughter. You experience a lot of joys with children but introducing them to something like a garden where they can tend it, watch it grow and then enjoy the bounty is a treasure. Few things bring greater joy then hearing a 4 year old shout excitedly over the things they have achieved.

We decided to pick the tomatoes early rather then loose them to a frost. We decided to make
Salsa Verde with Green Tomatoes, Avocados, and Cilantro from the excellent blog Kalyn's Kitchen.

I have also been working on my photos and feel these are much improved.

looking good team!

Big, bigger , biggest

And since it is the end of summer (technically it is Fall but I am wearing shorts as I write this) who better then Robert Frost to escort us out-

For once, then Something
by Robert Frost
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

Glutney

Earlier this week I was in California for work. While I usually do room service for dinner, I prefer to eat breakfast out.

If you are ever in the Silicon Valley area Hobbee's is pretty much a California institution.

Below is what I had for breakfast for under $10.00



The crazy looking bowl of eggs is actually their variation on Huevos Rancheros. According to the menu it is:

"Huevos Rancheros: A tortilla topped with black bean chili, cheese, 2 eggs, sour cream, and tomatillo sauce.. Served with coffeecake, toast or Hobee's "Country-style" hashbrowns.($8.75)"

The huge slice of blueberry coffeecake is a standard at Hobee's.

So if you are ever in the Silicon Valley make sure to add Hobee's to your visit.

Sweet and Simple

Life has been ramping up lately. Work has been going at full speed, the sou chef started her second year of pre-school and her assistant (I guess that would be the line cook?) is now hitting 15 weeks.

Time for meals that are both wicked fast and can be frozen or kept for left overs later that week.

enter

the

chop-suey

According to Wikipedia the dish I ate growing up is not chop-suey at all. Rather it is just elbow macaroni, ground beef, diced yellow onion and 2 16 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes.

I don't care, I call it chop suey, my wife calls it chop suey and besides, meat and macaroni sounds a bit sketchy to me.

This could be a one dish meal if you cooked the meat in the same pot you used to boil the pasta. Basically it it is as simple as can be-

1 lb of ground beef
1 lb box of elbows
1 medium yellow onion diced
2 cans of stewed tomatoes

Mix and serve

We got a little fancy and added some parmigiana cheese to it for the wife and I.

The sou chef, who won't eat hamburger, ate up the 'meatballs' in the chop-suey.

I do like to make fancy dinners but during the week this hits the spot. It is cheaper then take out and there is enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

A brief programing note. The photos are something I have never been real thrilled with on Sauces and Stuff. Some of the blogs I read have really over the top photos. Over the next few months I will be working on the photos on the site.

Scalloped

So wasn't I a lucky duck! For my birthday (which was several months ago) my wife made me dinner! Usually it is a team effort around the house but this time I got to hang with the kids and let her have a go in the kitchen. The dish was scallops in a butter cream sauce. The cream component being creme fraiche.

First the scallops dredged in a flour.



A little bit of butter into the pan.

The floured scallops go into their nice little butter bath!

Just about 45 seconds or so per side over medium heat.

Out come the scallops and into the pan goes the creme fraiche, some more butter and some lemon juice.


Let the whole thing come to a boil to reduce.

Then add some salt and pepper, top with parsley and it is done!


She served this with a side of fettuccine and some steamed asparagus. This was a hit and certainly a dish that we could serve for company.