June 21, 2013 by stevesacooking

Everything is better with bacon

My Sister sent this to me today and I had to share

June 20, 2013 by stevesacooking

Bison Stuffed Red Bell Pepper

Last Sunday was father’s day, Mike and Laurel came over which was all I really wanted. I can’t explain how proud of him I am he has done well just want it to take off for him so to speak he has so much to offer and does. Laurel brightens any situation she is always so up and being a foodie puts her in a special place in my heart. Since I got what I wanted and Mikie was not going to be around for Lyn’s birthday on the 29^th I thought why not take advantage of this gathering and throw a surprise birthday party. Laurel, Mike and I thought about it and a new Nespresso maker that Lyn had been hinting about for years is what we decided on. Sunday morning I snuck out at 6:30 AM to pick up the Boston Cream Pie, her favorite, (I don’t bake) that I ordered from Ray & Dick’s Bakery. Then I thought to Facebook message a bunch of family and friends to have them text her Happy Surprise Birthday at 2 PM. It was success and for someone who normally does not get a lot of texts she was delighted. I love this woman and was happy to see her big fat smile for the text and the espresso maker. So enough of the mushiness. I cooked Missi’s Dill Chicken with Tomato-Dill Relish and ribs for Father’s day. The ribs I cheated bought pre-cook and wrapped in tinfoil with sauce and baked at 175 for hours and finished on the grill. Being a good father I cooked enough so that leftovers could be taken home which left me with this week of leftover meals. The ribs, I eat fatty meats very limited these days, I dove into on Monday only looking up to wipe my face when they were all gone. Lyn bought some macaroni salad for Sunday which I made a meal of the leftover and diced Dill chicken breast, the Blue Grass Coleslaw also from WholeFoods was added to my regular work lunch salad with chicken and 18 year old balsamic vinegar. That brought me to last night everything gone what to do. We had bought some ground bison and I had frozen two leftover patties so I defrosted them and add a few things to make a Stuffed red bell pepper.

Ingredients

1 red bell pepper slice in half length wise
1 carrot grated and minced
½ shallot minced
A few cherry tomatoes chopped fine

¼ lb. ground bison

Hoisin sauce
Salt and pepper to taste – I used very little
Red pepper flakes
Grated cheese – whatever you have on hand – I had parmesan

How:

Sauté the shallot and oils in a little butter and olive oil until shallots are slightly transparent

Add ground beef and a pinch of hot pepper flakes and cook until brown

Add tomatoes and about 1 tbs. Hoisin sauce

Stir to mix

Stuff the pepper halves and top with cheese

Roast in 350 oven for about 10-15 minutes until cheese melts

Then I ate! Was pretty good for a from the gut meal!

June 14, 2013 by stevesacooking

Saving leftovers

I go through spurts with cooking and have always tried to overcook, the amount not the food. I use leftovers as additions to my daily lunch salad, others freeze for another day in perfect one meal portions, while some I use for leftover meals, look at what I have and experiments on how to use.

We have a FoodSaver an ancient model and works fine for us.

Some of my best minced chicken lettuce wraps came about in this manner. This has come in handy recently especially with Lyn on her special diet. This is not to say I won’t cook during the week but I do tend to cook more on weekends. I think any Chicken or meat dishes freeze and reheats well especially the meatballs in or out of sauce.

After a while the freezer gets pretty full so I pull out my frozen menu for the week and place them on the frig shelf. It’s kind of fun when one can plan a week worth of meals just sitting there waiting to be reheated. Some things freeze and reheat well other do not American Chop Suey did not reheat well after freezing – the pasta got a little mushy but that Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai I made the other day did, I reheated in a fry pan added fresh peanuts and bean sprouts and a little more sauce mmmmm. Lyn freezes plain spaghetti squash but told me it is a little watery when reheated so I got my pan very hot and stir-fried until reheated this got rid of the excess moisture.

Freezer Burn

Freezer burn is not a food safety risk. It appears as grayish-brown leathery spots on frozen food, and occurs when air reaches the food’s surface and dries out the product. This can happen any time food is not securely wrapped in air-tight packaging. Color changes result from chemical changes in the food’s pigment. Although undesirable, freezer burn does not make the food unsafe. It merely causes dry spots in foods. Kind of looks like when you defrost in Microwave and some of the edges or thinner parts start to cook, I know you’ve been there.

Save It for Later

http://allrecipes.com

Making meals in advance can be as simple as doubling a casserole recipe or tossing an extra meatloaf into the oven.

Before You Freeze

Before freezing hot food, it’s important to let it cool down. Heat will raise the temperature of the freezer; and the food will not freeze uniformly, the outer edges of the hot dish will freeze hard quickly while the inside might not cool in time to prevent spoilage.

There are just a few things to keep in mind:

Cool precooked dishes as quickly as possible before they are placed in the freezer.
For fastest cooling, place the pan of hot food in a sink filled with ice water (or in a larger pan of ice water). If you’re cooling a soup, stew, or sauce, stir occasionally to help it cool evenly.
Once the dish is cooled, portion it into meal-sized containers or packages. Label and date the containers. Place them in a single layer in the coldest area of your freezer until completely frozen. Rearrange as necessary.

Tips for Freezing Foods

Poorly wrapped foods run the risk of developing freezer burn and unpleasant odors from other foods in the freezer. Follow these simple wrapping and container tips to ensure the quality and safety of your food:

Use only specialty freezer wrappings: they should be both moisture-proof and vapor-proof.
Leave as little air as possible in the packages and containers. When freezing liquids in containers, allow a small amount of head room for expansion. When using freezer bags, be sure to remove as much air as possible before closing.
Wrap solids foods like meats and baked goods tightly in foil before you bag them.
Use rigid containers with an air-tight lid and keep the sealing edge free from moisture or food to ensure proper closure.
Secure wrapped packages and containers with freezer tape, and write the dish and the date on the tape with a marker.
In many cases, meats and fish wrapped by the grocer or butcher need no extra attention before freezing. However, meat wrapped on Styrofoam trays with plastic wrap will not hold up well to freezing. If the food you want to freeze was not specially wrapped, then re-wrap them at home.
Freeze in small containers with no more than a 1-quart capacity to ensure that freezing takes place in a timely manner (i.e., within four hours). Food that is two inches thick will take about two hours to freeze completely.

Thawing Frozen Foods

With the exception of muffins, breads, and other baked goods, do not thaw foods at room temperature. Bacteria can grow in the thawed portion of prepared foods, releasing toxins that are unsafe to eat even after cooking.

To ensure that your food is safe to eat, follow one of these proper ways to thaw:

In the refrigerator: This is the slowest but safest thawing technique. Small frozen items might thaw in a few hours, while larger items will take significantly longer–overnight and then some.

In cold water: Place the frozen food in a leak-proof bag and place in a large container of cold water.

In a microwave on the defrost setting: Plan to cook the food immediately after it has thawed in a microwave, because some areas of the food might have begun cooking during the defrost cycle.

Best if Used By:

Although freezing keeps food safe for an indefinite amount of time, eventually the flavor will be affected. If the food is obviously damaged (shriveled, with white or frosty spots) it should be discarded.

This chart lists recommended storage times for popular precooked foods–casseroles, soups, lasagna–to ensure high-quality results:

Type of Food

Tomato/vegetable sauces – 6 months

Meatloaf (any type of meat) – 6 months

Soups and stews – 2-3 months

Poultry and Meat Casseroles – 6 months

Poultry (cooked, no gravy) – 3 months

Poultry (with gravy/sauce) – 5-6 months

Meatballs in sauce – 6 months

Pizza dough (raw, homemade) – 3-4 weeks

Muffins/quick breads (baked) 2-3 months

Don’t Crowd the Freezer

A temperature of 0 degrees F (-18 degrees C) is best for maintaining food quality. Proper air circulation is key to keeping your freezer operating at maximum efficiency.

Freezing does not kill bacteria, yeast and molds that might be in your foods–it merely holds them at bay by keeping them inactive. If the freezer’s temperature is disturbed often or altered for an extended period of time (such as a door left ajar or power outages) these microbes can compromise your food’s safety.

June 9, 2013 by stevesacooking

Cherry Tomatoes

I picked the first of what I hope of dozens of cherry tomatoes yesterday. I have one plant in a container on the deck and two other grape varieties in the bed. I am hoping there is not a repeat of the chipmunk and ground-hog war that we suffered last year there don’t seem to be as many this year. Famous last words. Anyway I love this fruit and when they first start to ripen they very seldom make it into the house Pop Pop oh what a treat they are.

Here it is, isn’t she a beauty? This one made it in to the house but did not last long, I blinded it with the camera flash grabbed it and popped. Oh that what Lyn I blinded not the tomato.

Growing Trouble-Free Cherry Tomatoes

KitchenGardener Magazine, archive

Cherry tomatoes are easy-going fruits, which, if grown right, will yield basket after basket of flavorful harvests. They are less prone to many of the problems that plague larger-fruited varieties and they often produce fruit early.

My 96-year-old grandmother, Jinx, when asked the secret to her longevity, advises: “Never say can’t, try everything once, and make one new friend each year.” She should add growing cherry tomatoes to her litany. Other than walking the dog or taking a language class, I’ve found that the best way to increase my circle of friends is to grow cherry tomatoes. When they start ripening in late July, I place small baskets of these multicolored sweets around the office. Without fail, people I’ve never met before approach me to say how much they enjoyed a particular variety, and I invite them to visit my garden for more.

Wild cherry tomatoes are the grandmothers of most tomato varieties we enjoy today. Native to the South American Andes, they traveled north through Central America to Mexico, where they were domesticated and cultivated before the arrival of Columbus. In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors returned from Mexico with the seeds of small-fruited tomatoes, as well as those of larger, irregularly lobed cultivars.

According to Andrew F. Smith, author of The Tomato in America, many European varieties were derived from crosses between these different forms. A related species, the tiny-fruited currant tomato (Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium) is native to the western coastal areas of Peru and Ecuador, where it grows as a sprawling weed.

Because of its resistance to diseases like fusarium and bacterial wilt, as well as its habit of producing fruit in long trusses, the currant tomato has been crossbred with other tomatoes, producing many modern cherry tomato varieties.

Chose varieties for your region
At a market garden I worked for in Germany, we would sprinkle a few gold tomatoes in each box of Sweet 100s, just to highlight their glowing red color. Imagine what you could do with today’s array of cherry tomato colors and shapes…. Read more

June 9, 2013 by stevesacooking

Smoked BBQ Bone in Chicken Breast

We were at Wholefoods today to pick up some yogurt and bone in chicken split breasts on sale, needless to say the two bags I brought in with us were not enough, we have to stop walking the isles. Hey, just trying to get our steps in! I’m all for the 10,000 steps a day diet check it out. There are arguments for bone in and bone out I recently went back to bone in and found that it cooks juicier and with more flavor. You may disagree but that is just how I feel this week. Anyway we picked up about 8 lbs., hit the food saver on our return and I decided to leave a couple out. I made a quick brine of kosher salt and a little raw sugar let the chicken in sit in it for about 1 hour in the frig.

I had seen these FLAVORWOOD smoke in a can things asked Lyn the next time she is on Amazon to pick up some. She gets free shipping cause she shops so much. After paper towel drying I let sit covered to get closer to room temp. Once the grill heated up that little can was smoking up a storm there is this little hole on the top and the smoke comes billowing out. Either oil the grates or chicken and put skin down over hot fire for about 2-3 minutes until the skin starts to slight brown and bubble, oil the other side and flip for about 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat off on one side of grill spread the chicken with Rufus Teague BBQ sauce about 1/3 cup,

cook 15-25 minutes cover both side with another 1/3 cup and continue to cook skin side up on the cold side of grill. Cook until it reaches about 160 degree, remove from grill cover loosely for about 10 minutes. While this was resting I grilled some fresh asparagus. Did you know that asparagus are better for you when eaten raw? Try it they are good, I julienned and used in coleslaw and in my minced chicken lettuce wraps.

So we both like this meal hence it goes up on the site. Plus the bones gave me something to suck the last of the sauce off of, the cashier today said that the sauce was awesome and she was right.

Healthy Eating: Chicken barbecue doesn’t have to be bad for you (triblive.com)
BBQ chicken (pmetro.wordpress.com)
BBQ Chicken (recipekingnw.wordpress.com)
Raspberry BBQ sauce Stevesacooking.com
Root beer BBQ sauce Stevesacooking.com

June 3, 2013 by stevesacooking

Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai

Another Lyn free meal that she found on Pinterest. We love spaghetti squash there is just so much you can do with it. It is wicked easy to prepare then you just get inventive. This recipe is adapted from Dr. Mark Hyman site. Just a few additions and some substitutions and there we had it, one of my favorite meals but no noodles

In this classic Thai dish you can maximize your nutrition by trading carbohydrate-rich rice noodles for low-glycemic and vitamin-A- rich spaghetti squash. You’ll find Thai fish sauce in your local Asian or natural food market, or in the international aisle of most large supermarkets.