Revelations & Epiphanies!

For the last 15 months or so I’ve been wracking my brain on what I want to say in this blog. Do I want to use it as a writer’s platform? Do I want to have fun with food? Do I want to flip out on politics? Do I want to show my art? Do I want to promote myself as a job seeker? Do I want to tell of my love of Des Moines?

How do I find my voice?

Like a bolt of lightning it hit me. Why stop at one blog? Why not have a blog for all of my “voices?” I could write faithfully every day because I would write according to the whims of my… erm. “Personalities.”

I think I’ve unleashed a monster.

Up With The Chickens

5:30 am. If there were any chickens around, they’d be getting up about now too. What’s got me out of my warm bed at this hour? Well, chickens. Confused? It’s another cold, snowy day in Iowa and there’s nothing like warm, solid comfort food to soothe the soul. Lightly seasoned with kosher salt and cracked black pepper, this little guy will be front-and-center on my table this evening.

I admit I haven’t had a lot of success with crock-pot cooking. Crock-pots are great for things like hot dips and keeping mashed potatoes warm, but in my experience, you can’t make a good beef roast in one. You won’t get the same rich, brown the gravy you’ll get from a nice slab of chuck you’ve been babying in the oven for four hours. Crock-pot cooking is fix-it-and-forget-about-it cooking, but lets face it; a memorable dinner is worth a little time and attention. I can however, boast of one great crock-pot achievement: Crock-Pot Chicken, simply and aptly named by my finicky daughter who adores the moist, flavorful meat that is the result of ten hours of hands-off preparation. Easy and delicious? It’s hard to argue with that.

Speaking of comfort food, I have yet to make Booyah this winter. While not technically Booyah, which is a stew prepared over the course of several days by many cooks and made to serve up to thousands (!), that is somehow the name attached to my French grandmother’s simple stew. I don’t have a crock-pot large enough to use for Booyah, but it always comes out perfectly on the stove top. If you’d like to try it you’ll need:

1 whole chicken, washed

2 large onions, peeled and quartered

8 whole carrots, scrubbed

4 celery stalks, including leaves

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

Salt & pepper to taste

Put the chicken and vegetables in a large stock pot. Add water until the chicken is nearly covered. Bring to a boil. Skim off fat. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for two hours or until legs move easily. Add the tomato sauce and simmer for an additional 15 min. Remove chicken and vegetables. Discard celery and reserve carrots and onions. Clean chicken off the bones, discarding bones and setting chicken aside.

How to serve Grandma Lucy’s Booyah:

Ladle the broth into bowls. (As a child, I broke bread into pieces and added them to my broth. I called them “fishies.”) Serve the meat and vegetables as the main course; along with boiled potatoes and some warm French bread. (You could cook the potatoes in the Booyah mix if your stock pot is large enough.)

Grandma Lucy’s Booyah takes the fancy out of French cooking. It’s simple, country food that makes you feel satisfied and warm on even the coldest winter night.

You Art What You Eat

Is it food blog? Is it an art blog? It’s both. It’s neither. That’s the Beauty of the Blog.

I had an amazingly creative day yesterday. After two trips to K-Mart (don’t ask) I came home, willed myself to forget about the wet laundry awaiting the dryer, and set about pulling together a new collage. I’d been sorting through images for weeks but nothing sparked my interest. Over the weekend however, I happened upon some new material in the form of historical old newspapers from 1968-2001. Shazaam! In other words, I hit the jackpot. After a couple of hours trying different combinations (it’s  like putting a puzzle together without the jigsaw effect) I came up with this.

Because I liked the way they went together, nothing more.

The bottom layer is the front page of the Des Moines Register, the day after Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination. Sirhan Sirhan is pictured in the middle. Of note (or not), the extent of Kennedy’s wounds were unknown at this time. The middle layer is from a photo portfolio of a palace in France that I found in an old magazine (coincidentally, also from 1968). The man on the right is Robert Kennedy. The man on the stairs was on the streets of NYC shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center. He’s covered in ash and has an American flag in his right hand. The boy on the stairs is in the palace photo and the other guy just looks awesome.

I can’t wait for the next inspiration.

Ward Off Winter Blues

The winter of ’09-’10 will be one to remember. Snow has covered the ground in Des Moines since early December. If, like me, you just can’t get motivated to go out in these single-digit temps, cabin fever can get pretty serious. Keeping my mind occupied makes the days go by just a little more comfortably. This winter, I’ve found several things that have helped.

Clean something. Pick one room in the house and clean it. Start with a dust mop. Go around the ceiling and get rid of cobwebs. Get on a step ladder and clean those ceiling fan blades. Take all the nick-nacks off shelves. Dust the shelves and the nick-nacks. Rearrange a little if you want. Take cushions off the furniture and vacuum inside and out. Vacuum the floor, moving any furniture you can to get the rug clean underneath, too. It’s really not that much work, and when you’re done you’ll have a small accomplishment to celebrate.

Read something. Make a cup of tea of coffee. Pick up that favorite book, you know, the one that pulls you inside the pages. Settle into your favorite chair with a blanket on your lap. If you have a cat, he’ll probably join you. This is good.

Create something. Color a picture or begin an oil painting. Write a poem or start a novel. Or do one of the many things that might fall in between.

Watch something. Close the curtains and forget about all that snow. Put on a favorite tropical-theme movie, perhaps a romantic comedy.

Cook something. (The best part is that “eat something” is guaranteed to follow.) This one has saved me several times this winter. I love cooking, and in winter my favorite room is the kitchen. I love to pull out cook books, rewrite recipes (even on the first try, I always seem to find something I want to change), roll up my sleeves, and spend an entire afternoon in the kitchen. By the time dinner is ready the windows have steamed over. The kitchen smells heavenly. Bon Appetit.

Last night I made Penne Pasta with Vodka Garlic Tomato Sauce, and oh, my goodness. I wish my blog had taste-o-vision. Seriously; I can’t tell you how yummy this sauce is. If you want to make it yourself, find the recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/you-wont-be-single-for-long-vodka-cream-pasta-recipe/index.html

I’m sorry I didn’t photograph last nights’ dinner prep but you won’t need it; the recipe is super-easy. I had enough sauce left over that we’ll have it again tomorrow night, maybe this time with chicken or shrimp. Tasty!

Clean something. Read something. Create something. Watch something. Cook something. Now that I’ve doled out advice for warding off the winter blues (and made myself hungry in the process), I suppose I’d better follow some of it myself. First, the living room. After that? I have a blank canvas and a pile of images waiting for me.

Stay warm.

Cooking With Cats

Cooking with cats? More on that in a bit.

I’ll admit it; I like tuna and noodle casserole. Yes, I’m talking about that concoction of egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, and canned tuna. With potato chips on top. I recently ran across a recipe that takes the old stand-by in a new direction. For the record, I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, even on the first try. If I’m comfortable, I’ll change it up to my own tastes. I’ve done that with this recipe for Creamy Tuna & Leek Pasta. And, you can have it all on the table in less than 30 minutes!

And now, for tonight’s beverage of choice… Yep. Guinness, again. I’m trying out all the Beatle’s glasses. And that’s my friend’s copy of The Artist’s Way, which I managed to read between dinner prep steps.

Ready to get busy? Here’s what you’ll need:

13-oz dried penne

2 T extra virgin olive oil

2 leeks, sliced

2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 7-oz cans tuna in oil, drained

1 C dry white wine

1 C heavy cream (I just realized the cream isn’t pictured!)

salt & pepper

Before we get started, here’s a tip for cleaning leeks: Cut them in half length-wise before slicing. The pieces break apart and the leeks will get much cleaner. Just stick them in a cauldron and rinse well. Pat dry between layers of paper towels.

Okay, put a pan of water on to boil for the pasta. Once that’s started, add the olive oil to a preheated skillet. Add the leeks and garlic and cook gently for 5 min. It looks pretty and smells wonderful! I can’t get enough of garlic!

Toss the pasta in the boiling water and cook until al dente, 11-12 min.

While the pasta is cooking, finish the sauce. Flake the tuna into the leek and garlic mixture. Stir well and let cook for 5 min.

At this point, I’d like to share the fact that one member of my family was keen on watching every minute of the dinner preparation this evening. He was rewarded for his good behavior (meaning he didn’t jump on the stove).

Back to business. Add the wine; cook until reduced by half. Add the cream and let cook for an additional 2-3 min.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pan. Pour tuna sauce mixture over pasta and toss. Garnish with chopped parsley or scallions. Dinner. Easy. Fast. Delicious!

I’ll have a Guinness and the Shepherd’s Pie, please.

I don’t know why I’ve been on a Guinness kick lately; the rich, buttery taste is somehow… warmer than a regular beer. I can’t explain it. But it seemed like a good idea to build a meal around the beer itself, and though I used ground beef instead of ground lamb (I like lamb, but the family doesn’t), the meal still pared quite well with the Guinness.

For the Shepherd’s Pie, you’ll need:

1 T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, diced

1 celery stick, diced

1 T fresh thyme

1 lb. ground beef (or ground lamb)

1 14-0z can diced tomatoes

4 T tomato paste

1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/3 C butter

3-4 T milk

3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375. Preheat a sauce pan on med heat while you’re preparing the onion, carrots, and celery.

Add olive oil, onion, carrots, celery, and thyme to the sauce pan. Stir gently for 10-min. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for an additional 10-15 min or until carrots are tender-crisp.

Add meat. Increase heat to med/med high. When meat is thoroughly cooked, drain grease and add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 30-min. Uncover and cook for an additional 15-min until thickened (you can add a little more tomato paste if you need to).

While the meat mixture is cooking, get the potatoes going. The smaller you cut them, the quicker they’ll cook.

When the potatoes are tender, mash them with the milk and butter. Add half the cheese and set aside.

Almost finished! Pour the meat mixture into an 8 x8 baking dish. Carefully spoon mashed potatoes over the top, using a knife to spread them smoothly – almost like frosting! Fork the potatoes and top with remaining cheese.

It goes into the oven looking like this…

Thirty minutes later, it comes out like this…

Serve it up with a tossed salad, warm French bread, and of course, a pint of Guinness. Take that, Old Man Winter.

Adventures In Cooking & Eating

Going out isn’t much fun in Iowa these days. With temps well below freezing, who wants to go out at all? Not this writer. When winter closes in like this, all I need is a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry. Thanks to that place I refer to as the Most Evil Place On Earth  - Walmart – I have both. A quick stop at Hy Vee for meat, and I’m ready to hunker down.

Yesterday was New Year’s Day, and I thought a special dinner was in order. Steak DeBurgo is legendary in the Des Moines area. Most agree the dish originated here, but there’s some debate on which family-owned and operated Italian-American restaurant did it first. And though there are variations on the sauce – some are olive oil based while others are butter and cream based, all include some combination of basil, oregano, and of course – GARLIC!

First things first; grab a cold one and get started. I like to have a little refreshment as I’m cooking. Check out one of four cool Beatles pint glasses.

Season two beef tenderloin filets with Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper.

For the DeBurgo sauce, you’ll need half a stick of butter and six thinly sliced garlic cloves. I used a whole stick of butter because I was winging it without a recipe. I ended up with a lot more sauce than I needed, so cut back to half a stick to save on waste and a few calories as well.

Melt the butter on med/low heat and add sliced garlic. Simmer on low until garlic is tender, about 20-min. Turn off heat and cover to keep warm.

As the garlic/butter combination filled the kitchen with a heavenly aroma, I sauteed this lovely fresh spinach in olive oil with a little chopped onion.

And, it’s time for the beef! Preheat a cast iron skillet on med. Add 2-3 T olive oil to hot skillet. Add beef tenderloins. For 1-inch thick steaks allow 9-11 min. total cooking time for rare/med rare or 10-13 min. for med well/well done.

While the steaks are cooking, finish the DeBurgo sauce. Bring the butter and garlic mixture back to a simmer. Add 1/4 C dry white wine (I used a Sauvignon Blanc). Cook one minute. Add 1 C heavy cream. Bring to a simmer. Add 1/8 t oregano and 1/8 t basil. Turn off burner and cover to keep warm.

Plate the steaks and pour sauce over. It’s creamy, garlicky, and indescribably delicious. Yum!

Stay warm, and happy eating!