Quick Cheese Bread

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've posted, but I got a new cookbook and just made the best quick cheese bread loaf ever! 

Btw, the new book is Bread Illustrated by America's Test Kitchen. 

Beef and Broccoli

From Cooking for Two by America's Test Kitchen

Cookiemon

I think I've mentioned this before, but Karen found a small group of people around our age that play board games every week. This week we hosted and I wanted to make something tasty and also super nerdy. Both of those criteria were met in full when I found a recipe on youtube for PokeBall cookies. As it turned out I used the idea from the video and a sugar cookie recipe from my very favorite-est food person, Alton Brown.

Ingredients!

The sugar cookies came together very quickly even though my butter was not quite as softened as it should have been before creaming together with the sugar. In the mean time I sifted together the flour, salt, and baking powder. After the butter was well creamed and light, fluffy, and pale yellow, I added one egg with some milk. I believe it was a tablespoon, but I'll post the link to the recipe and the youtube video at the end of the post.

Light and fluffy.

I love these tiny glass ramekins for everything when i'm cooking.

After the egg and milk mixture was incorporated I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The recipe does not call for it but I enjoy a bit of vanilla in any cookies I make. After mixing the vanilla in for another 30 seconds to a minute, I began to slowly add in the dry ingredients. Be sure to scrape down the sides between adding new ingredients so you make sure everything gets incorporated. If you're like me and always discover that you've dropped a bit of flour over the side of your mixer, don't worry. It'll still turn out fine. Mix your dough until it comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Split the dough into halves and color one half red. Be smarter than me and don't try to mix the color in by hand. It takes forever. Roll into logs, wrap in plastic, and place in the fridge for about an hour.

It's lo-og! It's lo-og!

After your cookie dough logs have firmed up, remove them from the fridge and slice down the center, splitting them into half moon shapes. Stick a red half to a white half. You can use water or egg wash to seal the two halves before you re-wrap in plastic and stash in the fridge for another hour.

I am very happy these stuck together.

After your cookie dough has chilled for another hour or so slice off rounds. Remember to use a circle cookie cutter to make a nicely rounded shape. I didn't. I still think they looked good. Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes, or until the edges are just browning, in a 375 degree oven. Let the cookies cool, then ice the cookies with a black line across the seam where the red and white mix and a black circle in the middle of the cookie. Top the black circle with either a small white round candy like smarties, or with a mini marshmallow cut in half.

Don't try to carry more than 6 cookies at once!

All that's left now is to enjoy! Maybe pretend it's still back in the day when the first games came out, too.

Bye!

-R

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLCwWl_Gyc <- The YouTube video I got the idea from.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html <- The sugar cookie recipe from Food Network

Steaks, sans grill.

Sometimes I have conversations with my wife, and halfway through I realize I have stopped making much sense. Such was the case when Karen told me that she wanted to have steaks and I momentarily forgot that I was in control of making that happen.

Since I often have less working time than she does, I have taken to doing a lot of the menu planning and cooking. This works out great, because of the fact that I love to cook and love more to be in charge of all of the things that go on while cooking.

Not too long after our wedding, we were up at my mom's lake house near the lake of the ozarks. The weather can be unpredictable in the spring, so we were caught somewhat off-guard by a sudden rainstorm and I had to change from grilling to some other method for cooking the steaks we had purchased at the grocery store on the way in. I'd always read about how good cast-iron was for this particular purpose, but I hadn't really had a chance to try it out prior to this situation being thrust upon me.

While the first occasion was with a ribeye steak, our most recent steak adventure was with a sirloin of some variety that we purchased from target. Forget your fancy rubs and seasonings. For me, the best way to go about adorning your steak is salt and pepper only.

I really should have trimmed them, but a bit of fat is tasty.

After the salt and pepper, on both sides of course, is allowed to sit for a few minutes, and the steaks have come to something near to room temperature, they get placed into a very hot cast iron pan to sear for a few minutes on each side. Contrary to what you may have heard this does not 'seal in juices'. Quite the opposite actually as the increased heat actually does more cellular damage to the structures holding the water and various dissolved elements inside the steak. What it does do is create a flavorful browned layer on the exterior through a process called the 'Maillard reaction'. This is a similar process as what creates the brown crust on breads and baked goods.

After searing another wonderful advantage of cast iron is revealed when you slide the whole pan straight into a preheated oven. Ours is most commonly set at 350, and the steaks cook for just under 10 minutes. Less if you prefer your steaks rarer than medium to medium well. More time if your steaks are thicker, or you prefer well done.

Into the hot-box! Use oven mitts!

After you remove your by now seared and wonderfully browned and fabulously smelling steaks, make extra sure to let them rest under foil for another 5 minutes or so. This will allow all of the juices that have been concentrated by the heat to redistribute themselves throughout your steak. Cut early, and a pool on your plate will be the result.

I kept the sides simple, as I wanted to make the beautiful steak the star of the show. I steamed some green beans, and sliced up a really interesting looking pretzel bread loaf I found at Whole Foods. Have I mentioned yet how in favor of the whole pretzel bread craze I am? It's quite a bit.

A light grind of salt and pepper for the beans and butter for the bread. A fantastic meal!

Hopefully this will inspire one of you, at the very least, to pick up a not-too-expensive cast iron pan, pre-seasoned please, and try your hand at seared and oven finished steaks.

See you next time!

-R

Roasted Hatch Chile Pepper Burgers

I think I may have mentioned before how bad it is that I discovered the fact that whole foods is about a mile away from where I work. On one of the post-work trips for produce, I discovered that it was nearing the end of the season for Hatch peppers.

As far as I can tell, Hatch peppers are grown pretty exclusively in New Mexico and are harvested in late August. The pods are long and slender and are a lighter yellow-green as compared to the dark green of a jalapeno. The heat level can vary wildly between varieties, from mild to extremely hot. I was sort of hoping that the ones I bought would fall more in the middle of the scale, but they turned out to be on the milder side.

Halved chiles being prepared for the broiler.

To start my burgers, first the chiles had to be roasted. Not being in possession of a fancy rotating gas powered roaster myself, I turned to the broiler to get the job done. I've used this method on bell peppers before and it has yielded consistently good results. Aside from the lovely roasted flavor this process brings, roasting chars the outside skin of the pepper making it much easier to remove prior to use. The skin on most chiles, at least the ones I have personally used, is very thin and almost waxy and unpleasant to eat. I peel any chiles I roast. A handy trick for the peeling is to let the chiles steam for 5 to 10 minutes in a paper bag or in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. The steam further loosens the skin.

Roasted chiles, before peeling.

After steaming it is often possible to peel the skin off in one or two large pieces, but often there are parts around the outer edge that are more stubborn. After peeling, I chopped the chiles into about 1/2 inch cubes and mixed them into the ground beef along with chopped onion.

It's at this point that I get to talk about one of my very favorite kitchen toys ever. The burger press.

Burger press and pre-cut parchment paper squares.

Shortly after we got married my wife and I went on a restrained but still somewhat extended shopping trip with some gift cards and other money we received from the wedding. This is definitely in the top 5 of my favorite post-wedding gifts.

The press is adjustable, for one, which means you can make anywhere from 1/4 pound burgers all the way up to 1 pound monstrosities. The parchment squares are especially useful if you plan to make a quantity of burgers and then freeze them for later, though I do also enjoy them just for the ease of handling and transferring the patties between whatever tray you're staging them on and the grill.

One square of parchment goes down on the bottom of the press, then the meat goes on top of the paper, and another paper goes on top of the meat. It's a little parchment paper burger sandwich.

All neat and orderly. Plus it keeps your press and tray clean!

Since we're not currently in a position to use an outdoor grill, due to the joys of second floor apartment living, I once again utilized the services of the panini grill to cook the burgers. Honestly it doesn't do a bad job. I still prefer a propane or charcoal grill, though.

Mmm, chiles.

While those were sizzling away, I simply sliced some more white onion and tomato, and pulled off a few leaves of this tiny head of butter lettuce I found in the produce dept. at target. I'm pretty fond of these tiny heads of lettuce especially for things like sandwiches and burgers.

Any opportunity to show off my knife.

At this point, tragedy struck. I was looking around for the hamburger buns and was shocked to find that they were entirely absent. Luckily I had purchased some small square ciabatta rolls for sandwich making a few days earlier. Crisis averted. Plus they were really good!

The finished product.

Thank you all for reading! Other than the minor snag with the hamburger buns this recipe was a total success. Perhaps in the future I will try again with a slightly hotter pepper. See you next week!

Panini Press Quesadillas

When we bought our panini press we also picked up a small book called "Panini" from Williams-Sonoma. I've gotten a few good ideas out of it so far. Usually what will end up happening though is that i'll tweak whatever recipe I decide on so that it fits more closely with what we like to eat and what I did and didn't forget to get at the grocery store.

We eat a fair amount of chicken around here and finding new ways to use it is somewhat of a challenge. Karen and I both enjoy quesadillas, however, so I decided I'd give the recipe a shot as well as making a easy and delicious fresh tomato salsa to go along with it. Plus, it gave me a chance to play with the new Le Creuset grill pan I got from work.

Fits over one burner, pretty convenient.

Firstly, I seasoned the chicken breasts with a chili lime spice rub mixture. I could do with this particular spice rub being a bit hotter, but I like the flavor otherwise. This recipe would certainly work with a simple salt and pepper seasoning,or any taco or fajita seasoning you like. After the grill pan heated up I placed the chicken breasts on and smiled with relief that they barely fit.

I was a little nervous. Didn't know if there would be room for all three.

While the chicken was cooking, I began chopping away on all the vegetation that would be required for my salsa. There's no real recipe to it. I usually just chop up one to two medium tomatoes, 3-5 green onions, using the white and the green part after trimming the ends, 1-2 jalapeños, and approximately half of a white onion. When I'm making salsa for my family's events I will often add roasted red bell peppers. After that, some lime juice and salt to finish off. Sadly with this batch I got a little carried away with the lime juice. Oh well, it was still good.

The last little bit of prep to do was grating some nice Jack cheese to go inside the tortillas. Luckily for me I had a lovely assistant to capture action shots of the grating in progress. Exactly what this blog needed. Action. And shots?

ACTION!

The assembly was sort of unique, as the recipe called for you to spread a sour cream and green onion mixture on the tortillas along with the chicken and cheese. In the future i will most likely skip this part and opt to have any sour cream involvement be strictly limited to the outside of the quesadilla device. After a nice sear in the panini press to get those pretty grill lines, I did some quality control and it was so good I forgot to take a picture of the finished product until half-way through. Oops!

The finished product. Half of it, anyways.

I really enjoyed this meal and, even though tweaks were made and further tweaks likely required, will probably do it again. Maybe even with steak!

Super neat tip if you don't have a panini press: Get a clean new brick, wrap it in several layers of aluminum foil like you were wrapping a present, brush with melted butter. Prepare your sandwich or other device to be squished, place said device in a fry pan, heat, and apply brick. Cook until brown on one side, then flip and cook on other side. Easy machine-less pressed sandwiches!

Next week: What happens when Rob finds out that Whole Foods is only a mile away from work? Burgers, apparently.

-R

Pops and Pawns

The regularly scheduled post will be up tomorrow but I wanted to make a tiny post to share one of my favorite things about moving back to the north oklahoma city area. Pops.

Pops is a gas station/soda shop/diner/route 66 landmark. It's located in a town called Arcadia. Awesome town name, for one, and an even more awesome giant soda bottle shaped neon sign out front. I've never eaten at the diner, though it is usually busy when we go. This most recent trip it was busier than most, due to some sort of motorcycle show occuring out front.

The big attraction to me is the wide selection of different "pops" they carry in the soda shop portion. Pops carries everything from bizarre novelty flavors like bacon and candy cane, to the slightly out of the ordinary strawberry, grape, peach, and other fruits, to the more standard cola, root beer, and cream soda. There are generally several different brands of each variety to try, and it's hard for me to leave with only one 6-pack of bottles.

The one i'm most excited about is the Leninade.

It's definitely worth making the trip at least once if you live anywhere close. If you are anything like me with regards to trying new and interesting sodas you'll be back multiple times.

-R