Potatoes Kugel Bend

Visiting our friends Dinah and Steve in Bend this weekend, we adapted a recipe for a shredded potato dish to have as a side dish for the main course of shrimp. Our friend Dinah adapted this recipe from a magazine for Potato Kugel.
She started by preheating the oven to 400 degrees and sprayed a 9 by 13 inch glass Pyrex pan with cooking spray. Next, she chopped three small yellow onions and the bulb from a fennel plant. She sautéed the onion and fennel in a large frying pan with olive oil on medium heat until browned.

In a large bowl, we combined three eggs, the white from one egg, one package Knorrs Spring Recipe Mix, one-teaspoon salt, 1 /4-teaspoon black pepper. The original recipe called for 1 /4-cup of fresh chopped parsley and one-teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves. We didn’t have either one, so we had a group consensus to use the Knorrs mix.

After I peeled the potatoes; my wife shredded them with a box grater and then added the potatoes to the egg mixture. We cooled the onion/fennel mixture for a bit and then added it to the egg/potato mixture and stirred it all together.

The resulting mixture was transferred to the prepared dish and spread evenly across the pan then cooked for about one hour at the 400 degrees until brown on top.

We thought it tasted good and fairly low in calories, we all had second helpings. We all decided that it seemed a little bland and could have used a little more salt and pepper in the recipe. We also though that it could be improved by adding one cup of grated cheddar cheese on top about 10 minutes before it finishes cooking (so much for low fat).

We served this dish warm to accompany the shrimp in garlic butter and a green salad. We were all full from our dinner, but we all had a little more room for Traditional Bled Cream Cake (more on this to come).

Adventure In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Belle Kitty

This week we had to have our 18-year-old kitty Belle, put down.  She was a beautiful calico cat that definitely had her own mind!

She ruled our yard and kept if free of other cats, mice, squirrels, and even raccoons.

She was usually a loving cat, but also ocasionally cantankerous.  She will be missed by everyone who knew her, especially us.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling, Austria to Slovenia

This is another installment regarding food and travel experiences from our 2007 Fall Europe trip. My last post about this trip was about the small hotel we found on the German/Austrian border. After we left the little hotel, we drove through the middle of Salzburg and headed for Slovenia. We chose Slovenia because of the beautiful scenery (and the famous dessert) around the resort town of Lake Bled.

At one point we traveled down the A10 freeway through a very long tunnel in the Alps. When we emerged from the other end of the tunnel, we were in a picturesque little valley with a castle covering the top of a hill. We thought the castle was very interesting so we exited the freeway and drove up a mountain on the far side of the valley to get a good view of the Castle Werfen.

One thing we like to do when traveling is purchase some of the local snacks. In this case they were strangely enough, paprika crackers in the shape of a kangaroo. The kangaroo crackers were good and tasted like a BBQ flavored potato chip. I though it would make a fun photo to have a perspective photo with the kangaroo and the castle.

We drove down to the base of the castle to check on visits and tours, but as much as we would like, we didn’t have the time it would take to hike up the hill and tour the castle. We decided to continue our trip to Lake Bled in Slovenia.

While passing the town of Sittal, we could see from the freeway a giant red chair sitting in a store parking lot and we had to go look. We pulled into the parking lot of a Spar supermarket and parked under the chair (that’s our rental car underneath). It was Sunday and the market was closed, so we sat in our car under the giant chair and had our lunch. We are always prepared for days with lots of driving with cheeses, bread, fruit and yoghurt. We carry small folding cups and plastic utensils, so we can eat just about anywhere.

After our lunch, we were back on the road to Slovenia. When we reached the border of Slovenia, we were required to show our passports before entering. We pulled off the road, entered the information for Lake Bled into our GPS. We were very surprised to find that the included maps of Europe only provide information on the main highways for many of the former Soviet Bloc countries. Fortunately, Lake Bled (not on the main highway) was very easy to find and is as beautiful as advertised. Now if the food is as good!

Adventure In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Gina's Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe

It came to my attention from a friend, that the recipe for Gina’s Flourless Chocolate Cake that I discussed in a previous post (Beef Vegetable Soup and Flourless Chocolate Cake) is no longer available on The Food Network site. Fortunately, I had printed a copy that I as able to scan it to recover the recipe.

Gina's Flourless Chocolate Cake

Recipe courtesy: The Neelys

Prep Time:                10 min       Level:    Serves:
Inactive Prep Time:      -             Easy      8 servings
Cook Time:            1 hr 0 min

Ingredients

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup brandy
• Powdered sugar, sifted, for garnish
• Seasonal berries, for garnish
• Whipped Cream, recipe follows

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a 9-inch springform pan with baking spray.

Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper and spray again.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the chocolate and butter, constantly stirring until fully incorporated. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl add the sugar and eggs. Using a handheld mixer beat together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. While mixing, slowly add cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, and brandy. Add the chocolate mixture and blend until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven for about 50 minutes or until a thin crust forms on the top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with few crumbs attached. Remove and cool in the pan on a bakers rack. Invert onto a cake plate and remove parchment paper. Dust with powdered sugar and arrange seasonal berries in a pleasing fashion on and around the cake. Serve with Whipped Cream.

Whipped Cream:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon brandy

With a hand-held mixer, beat the cream until peaks soft peaks form. Add the sugar and brandy and beat until well combined.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Steak and Potatoes, It’s What For Dinner

On Wednesday, I went shopping at Costco and looked to see what I thought would be good for our dinner.  I looked at the seafood and passed, and then I got to the meat area and saw the steak.  I remembered watching a steak cooking challenge on The Food Network and how one of the contestants used a cast iron frying pan to cook her steak in the BBQ.  I thought that was an interesting way of cooking steak.

While at Costco, I looked at the Kirkland set of stainless steel cookware for $169.  I thought it looks like a good possibility to purchase.  It has a 5-ply construction with a copper heat spreader on the bottom.  It’s something for us to consider because $169 is much better than $1599!

When I arrived home, I took a trip into our attic.  Even though our house is only 21 years old, it still has about 1000 square feet of walk-in attic space, so even after multiple trips to Goodwill; we still have quite a few “treasures” stored away in the attic.  In December on one of my trips to get some Christmas lights, I remembered seeing an old cast iron frying pan that my mom had given me 25 years ago or so.

In the attic, I quickly located the #8 cast iron frying pan and took it downstairs to take a look.  I had to wipe out chunks of wood and dirt that had fallen into the pan when we had the wood shake roof removed and a composition roof put on the house.  I thought I remembered that the pan might be cracked on the bottom, but so far it looks fine – no crack.

I used a wet paper towel and wiped out some of the grime and what I thought might be 25-year-old egg on the inside of the pan.  I put about two cups of water in the pan and put in on the range top on high heat to boil for a bit.  This was a good test to see if the water foamed which would be an indication that soap was used to clean the pan in the past (would not be good).  No foaming was present and the boiling water loosened the remaining food in the pan.

I dried the pan and then wiped the pan with a thin coating of canola oil and placed it back on the burner on medium high.  Once the oil started to smoke, then I wiped the inside of the pan with a good coat of Crisco.  I let the pan sit on the heat (with our vent fan on full) for several minutes, then turned off the burner and let the pan cool.  I repeated the process with the Crisco a second time after about an hour.  This provided the inside pan with a very nice protective non-stick coating.

While cleaning the pan, I took the top round steak from Costco and trimmed off the fat and filleted each steak in half to make them thinner.  I placed two of the steaks (now four pieces) into a zip lock bag with some salt and pepper seasoning and a little (1/4 cup) Paul Newman’s Caesar Salad dressing.  Closing the bag, I gave it a good shake and then massaged the contents to work the oil and seasoning into all the pieces, then tossed the bag in the refrigerator to marinate.

My wife and I went to exercise and when we returned home it was kind of late, so quickly decided to pass on lighting briquettes for our Weber BBQ as it takes a good 20 or more minutes to be ready to cook.  I thought why not use our Coleman stove, and cook outside without making a splatter mess on our range top.

Out came the Coleman stove and I placed the newly seasoned frying pan on the burner to heat.  I went inside and washed two potatoes and placed them in the microwave to cook for nine minutes while I cooked the steaks.  I also washed and trimmed some asparagus and placed it in a pan to steam on low heat.

I put the steak in the cast iron frying pan and let it cook (flipping once) until it they were cooked to medium.  I took my potatoes and sliced them crosswise into 3/8-inch slices.  Removing the steaks from the pan, I placed them in a glass Pyrex container to allow the steaks to rest.  Into the frying pan, I put some margarine then placed the sliced potato pieces to cook.  After a few minutes, I flipped the potato pieces and then cooked them until both sides were slightly crispy.

My wife peeled and sliced some raw carrots and we were ready to eat.

The steak was very moist and cooked to perfection.  Next time I might try adding a little butter on top of the steaks while they cook like I saw on TV, but the marinade seemed to do a great job of adding flavor and keeping the steak moist.  The potatoes were cooked all the way through because I had micro waved them before pan cooking.  They had a crisp exterior and tasted a little like French fries.  This time the asparagus was cooked to just the right texture, slightly crunchy.  It turns out that 30-year-old Revere Ware can cook on low heat and perform the same as the expensive waterless cookware!

Cleanup of the pan took two minutes with some hot water and some course steel wool.  A light coating of vegetable oil over the entire pan and it is ready for it’s next use.

I look forward to trying the frying pan in the BBQ and see if by adding the lid on the BBQ changes the cooking properties of the pan (bake and sear).

This also revives the way my mom used to cook when our family went camping.  The next time my wife and I go camping, the cast iron frying pan will go with us!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Grilled Cheese Please

For lunch I decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches in our new pan.  You may ask why I would write about plain old grilled cheese sandwiches.  It’s because of when I talked with the chef, he said if you have a surgical steel pan, you can make great grilled cheese sandwiches without using any margarine on the outside.  When the sandwich is cooked, you end up with a crisp, toasted outside and the soft cheese inside.

I got out the new pan and set it to head on the range top while I sliced some nice Tillamook medium cheddar cheese.  I got out some slices of Dave’s Killer Bread – Good Seed and placed the cheese in the middle.

I placed the plain bread (no margarine) into the pan and set the lid in place and cooked it for 2 or three minutes.  I flipped the sandwich and it looked great!  Replacing the lid, I cooked it for another 2 minutes.  Everything is going great.

When I lifted the sandwich from the pan, a small piece of cheese slipped out into the pan and started to sear.  I quickly removed as much of the cheese as I could, but the remaining cheese baked into a brown lump.  Hmmm, maybe I have the pan just a little too hot.

The one drawback to the multi-ply pans is that once they are hot, they stay hot for a long time.  I ran warm water into the pan and gradually decreased the temperature trying to cool off the pan so I could clean it.  Finally, after several minutes the pan was cool enough not to burn me as I cleaned it to get out the remaining cheese.

I checked my sandwich and it was a little dark brown on the bottom, but still edible.

I went back, tried again, this time with a little margarine on the bread, and turned out a great sandwich for my wife.

The next time I make grilled cheese; I will use the no margarine method again with lower heat.  It is nice having a the outside crisp instead of being soggy with margarine and it adds a nice texture to the grilled cheese sandwich.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Bad Reichenhall, Germany

After a wonderful afternoon in Kufstein Austria, we drove back into Germany to the Königssee.  The Königssee is a large lake nestled in a valley of the Alps that we had read in our Rick Steves Germany guide that this area is quite beautiful.  Our plan was to find a room in one of the local hotels and then travel by a short boat ride to a baroque style St. Bartholomä Church on the far shore of the lake. 

When we arrived, it was later in the day and all the hotels were full which was fine with us.  The lake and mountains were beautiful, but the little town at the waters edge was a little tourist tacky that detracted from the experience.  We decided to just look around the beautiful lake and then move on to find a place to stay for the night.

We drove the small roads in the direction of Salzburg Austria while looking for a place to eat and spend the night (we did drive a nice Opal, but the car wasn’t that large).  We were just driving along when we saw a small hotel beside the road.  We could see that they had rooms available so we went in to check it out.  The zum Kaiser Karl was a delightful small hotel that includes a nice little restaurant.

We were surprised as the hotel is right on the Austrian and German border.  You walk out the front door of the hotel in Germany, walk 30 feet to the West over a small river and you are in Austria!  No border crossing or fences in sight.

We went to our room and were very happy with the accommodations.  We could tell that it was an older building as the floors creaked, sagged, and were not even close to level.  The entrance to our hotel room was interesting; it consisted of two doors, one on the outside of the room and one inside.  Each door could be locked independently; I guess it is for soundproofing or privacy.  Even though the building was very old, we had a sparkling bathroom that looked like it was from a five star hotel.

We ate in the dining room and had a wonderful meal.  I had chicken cordon bleu with a side salad, my wife had chicken paprika with spätzl (small dumpling noodles).  To go with our dinner we had a very smooth dark (dunkel) beer; Konig Ludwig.

After a long day of traveling and sight seeing, it was an excellent meal, and a great way to prepare us for our trip to Slovenia the next day.

We always find the best and most interesting food for each country/region is found in smaller, out of the way locations.  Not only is the food good, but if you chat with the people who live there, you find out all kinds of interesting information about the people and how they live.  After all isn’t that why you travel.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Braised Cabbage and Carrots

While checking out a recipe on the FoodNetwork web site, I ran across a recipe by The Neely’s for Braised Cabbage and Carrots.  This recipe sounded good, and I wanted to see how this dish compared to the braised Red Cabbage that I made in December.

The afternoon I was going to make the Chicken Cutlets with Almond Butter Sauce, I decided I would make the cabbage dish to go with dinner.  I already knew that it takes over two hours to cook; I planned accordingly so that this cabbage dish would be ready with the rest of the dinner.

I grabbed our largest pot and tossed in six slices of bacon to brown on medium heat.  When they were about half cooked, I added the head of green cabbage, cut into two-inch chunks.  Into the pot, I added the seasoning consisting of cayenne pepper, celery seed, and garlic powder as well as the one-cup of water and set the heat to simmer.

The recipe says to stir the cabbage every fifteen minutes while simmering for two hours.  I noticed that after the first fifteen minutes that the cabbage we pretty well cooked.  I made sure the heat was at the lowest setting and continued to let it cook.

While the cabbage was cooking, I prepared the chicken cutlets and the almond butter sauce.

After the two hours were up, I noted that that the cabbage in the pot now looked like cabbage mush, but I went ahead and added the bag of baby carrots and let them cook.

I tasted the resulting dish before serving and thought that it might be a little spicy…  A little spicy is an understatement!  I ate about three bites and my wife maybe two bites.  We decided that anytime a recipe calls for one teaspoon of cayenne pepper, I will cut it at least by half.  We ended up discarding the remainder, as there was no way we could eat it.  It also was not very appetizing after the cabbage turned to mush.

If you would like to make this dish, I recommend cutting the cooking time by at least an hour and adding a little of the spices to your taste, not the recipe.

As a side note, I think it's funny that when I made this dish I was reading a cooking murder mystery by Peter King titled: Spiced To Death.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Cookware

Wow, after our brush with the Professional Platinum cookware home demonstration (see My New Pan), we have done quite a bit of research on different cookware products.  We know that we want to replace several of our existing pots and pans with better products, but this has been very low on our priority list, as we first need to finish the kitchen remodel.

Even though the night of the demonstration we had the chance to purchase a $2400 set of cookware (that night only) specially priced for only $1599 (including a bonus grill pan), we passed on the opportunity and are really glad that we passed!

The 21-piece Professional Platinum Cookware is a very nice set of cookware.  It is a waterless cooking system that uses lower heat and typically longer cooking times when cooking.  The set has an outside coating of 18/0 steel so that it will work on any heat source including induction.  A quick review of eBay showed someone selling a new set for $699 (no bonus grill pan), but that set would not carry the factory warranty, so that was not the way we would go.  We were able to contact another distributor and find the cookware on sale for $999 (including the bonus grill pan).

In addition, we found that Lake Industries is the parent company of the Platinum cookware and also offers several other lines and price points of waterless cookware that look remarkably the same as the Platinum series.  An example is Nutri-Stahl (22-piece set for $699) that looks exactly like the more expensive Platinum series.  We did find out that the more expensive 21-piece Platinum set weighs 8 pounds more than the 22-piece Nutri-Stahl when shipped, so they do use thicker metal in the Platinum pan set.  They both have the same 24-ply construction designed for even heat distribution across the bottom of the pans.  It is interesting because both brands have a thermometer built into the lid handle for the pots, though the color-coded gauges on the less expensive (Nutri-Stahl) brand is easier to read then the display on the Platinum brand.

This weekend we visited a large Macy's store in our area and met with one of the major cookware manufacturers factory representative.  He was very informative on all brands of cookware and pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of each product line.  It was also helpful to review some of the FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) statements made by our Platinum salesperson during the home demonstration.  This is just a few of the statements:

• “By steaming your vegetables, you destroy all the nutrients and vitamins.  The Platinum series cooks rather than steams.”  It is true that excessive heat will reduce the nutrients and vitamins, though you can steam vegetables and retain their nutrients by using less water and cooking on a lower heat.  Also don’t over cook the vegetables.  Interestingly enough, the Platinum series is a waterless cooking system, but as verified by the manufacturer, they use the moisture in the vegetables (or added water) to cook with steam.
• “The coating inside enamel cookware (like our Le Creuset Dutch oven) is basically house paint.”  The helpful cookware representative informed us that the linings of these products use specially formulated enamel products, very similar to glass, and that it is inert and non-reactive to foods.
• “Cooking with glass cookware like Pyrex is bad because it contains lead.”  I found a nice web site (your cookware helper) that discussed this statement, the basic answer is that glass including Pyrex is totally inert and non-reactive and that is why it is used in cookware as well as in delicate chemistry applications (think back to your high school class).

The factory cookware representative at Macy’s provided some very good topics to consider when purchasing cookware:

1. How does the handle fit in your hand?  A good example is the All-Clad stainless steel pans that have a sturdy handle that was designed for professional chefs and meant to be grabbed with a toweled hand.  It is not very ergonomic to hold with a bare hand and it can get very hot.
2. Will you cook on an induction cook top?  Some stainless steel cookware is grade 18/10 that is non-magnetic and will not work on an induction range.  If the outer layer of steel is 18/0, it is magnetic and will work on induction cook tops.  For instance, we saw some beautiful Calphalon stainless cookware that is constructed using 18/10 stainless steel on the inside and outside and will not work on induction heat.  During our remodel, we changed from electric to a gas range, but in the future we are considering an induction range so any pans we purchase today, will need to work on induction in the future.  It’s too bad because I really enjoy using our Calphalon knife set!
3. How does the pan feel for weight and balance?  We looked at some pans with large copper heat spreaders on the bottom that made the pans quite heavy and could be difficult to lift with one hand.

We also had a nice discussion on non-stick and anodized pans.  I found this very interesting regarding the construction and composition of modern non-stick pans and coatings.

I have had other discussions with a professional chef that would like to use cookware like the Platinum series that contains titanium on the inside and how it makes the best non-stick coating, but the price of titanium cookware is excessive.  However, even this video demonstration of the Platinum cookware show the presenter using a thin coating of cooking lubrication when cooking eggs.

The professional chef also said that he prefers to use grape seed oil when cooking as it is flavorless and has a higher smoking point than olive oil.  As oils have a limited shelf life, he keeps a small amount in a spray bottle to sprits into pans when he is cooking, and keeps the rest of the bottle in the refrigerator where it will last longer.  Now we have to find a source for grape seed oil.

The chef also recommended a great internet site for additional information on all types of cooking issues (including oils): Cooking for Engineers.

He also suggested a cookbook for our library: How To Cook Everything.  I am going to get this cookbook as it provides multiple ways of cooking just about any type of food.

The bottom line when purchasing cookware is to educate yourself on what features and benefits are important to you.  Shop around, visit stores that carry quality products and perform field research by examining and holding different cookware pieces to see what feels good to you.  Don’t let yourself be pressured into a price that is “for tonight only”, if the company really wants to make a sale, the price will he honored for as long as necessary, or it will go on sale again.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Hazelnut Pancakes

This morning my wife flashed her big blue eyes at me and asked if I would make pancakes.  She didn’t mean just any old pancakes from a box, these are Hazelnut Banana Blueberry pancakes made with a hazelnut breakfast mix from Hazelnut Hills in Oregon.

We first learned about Hazelnut Hills products when our friends Marcia and David sent our family a gift pack of various items for Christmas.  The pancakes and waffles that we make from the mix are so good, that we continue to visit their store or purchase by mail order several packages of the mix at a time so that we don’t run out.

This recipe is very easy, 2-cups of hazelnut breakfast mix, 1 1 /2-cups milk, 1 egg, a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir until all the ingredients are broken up and wet.  To this basic recipe, I add a few drops of vanilla extract, a crushed banana and about two cups of room temperature blue berries.

In the summer, we always purchase pre-picked or go to a u-pick farm to get several pounds of blueberries.  We rinse the blueberries, remove any lingering stems, and then freeze the blueberries, keeping them frozen until we need them in a recipe.

On our large non-stick Toastmaster griddle, I usually cook 4 to 8 pancakes at a time.  Topped with a little margarine and syrup, pancakes are one of our favorite breakfast foods.

Now don’t tell my wife, but when it is time to make the last pancake, usually all the blueberries are already cooked, so I will grab about 10 chocolate chips and sprinkle them into the batter once it is on the griddle.  This special pancake is always mine!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Kufstein, Austria

After leaving Oberammergau (Fall 2007 Europe trip), we traveled due East to Kufstein Austria.  The driving is Austria was very easy once we purchased our required road pass and bright green emergency vest (in case you have to get out of the car on the road).

Why would we pick Kufstein you might ask?  When we were planning our trip, my wife received some information from a friend that had the dates for the town of Kufstein’s fall festival.  We decided that if the dates matched with when we would be in the area, that we would try to attend.

We drove into the outskirts of Kufstein and visited a supermarket.  We are always amazed at the wonderful assortment of yogurt available in central Europe.  We have not found anything quite like it in the states.  The photo is of the yogurt aisle.

Once we stocked up on food, we drove to the center of town to find the festival area.  It was easy to find the square with the festival because of the banners and people.  We parked in a nearby parking garage and walked across the street to the festival.

The first thing saw were all the people of all ages enjoying the festival.  It was quite fascinating because when we arrived, music was playing and a group of the local men dressed in their lederhosen and white shirts were snapping cart whips with the music.  I used our digital camera to take some brief low-quality movies.


As for the band playing at the end of the video: Die Brixentaler, and yes we purchased their CD.  My favorite tracks are: 30 Jahre Brixentaler and Stiegle Bier-Polka.

As the band played on and the dancing continued, we walked the three block length of the festival.  I had a good laugh at the name of the café at the far end of the street.


There was a very wide array of products offered for sale, beer, wine, cheese, honey products (including honey wine), smoked meats, roasted nuts, bread, potato dumplings and Prügeltorte.

What is Prügeltorte?  Until yesterday, we really didn’t know.  I had tried looking it up on Google several times without any luck, but yesterday I found an obscure reference that took me to information about Baumkuchen or Cake of Kings.  In Kufstein, we purchased a ring of the pastry, which is crisp but not too hard and has a taste like sweet goats milk.  It was very good to eat, but even more fascinating to watch it made.

The cook starts with a four foot long tapered cylinder that is rotating horizontally on a spit by the fire.  They pour the thick batter over the length of the cylinder.  As the cylinder rotates, the batter starts to cook and adheres to the cylinder.  Some of the excess batter drips off the cylinder into a pan below, but most stays on to cook into a pastry.  They continue this process of adding a little batter, cooking, and more batter until the cooked pastry is about one inch thick.  When they reach the desired thickness, then remove the cylinder from the heat and then let it cool.  When it is cool, they slide the approximately three foot long pastry off the cylinder and then using a saw, cut it into sections for sale.

The great thing about this festival is that the town tried to include all ages into the celebration.  Even the children were able to participate by wrapping dough around the end of a stick and roasting it over a fire. 

We really enjoy visiting small towns during their celebrations, it is a unique way to experience the culture and try some foods and products that you normally you wouldn’t find.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Chicken Cutlets with Almond Butter Sauce

Mmm, doesn’t just the name alone get your mouth watering?  Recently my mom sent me a subscription to Cuisine at home, and in the April 2010 issue, I saw this great looking chicken entree and decided to make it for dinner.  On one of my recent trips to the store, I picked up four chicken breasts hand selected by the butcher.

When it was time for dinner, I gathered all my ingredients and then unwrapped the chicken.  One at a time, I placed each breast in a large zip-lock bag and then beat it with a rolling pin to flatten it to the desired 1/ 2-inch thickness.  This was fine for the first two breasts, but the next two were huge!  The butcher must have selected the largest breast in his case because when I pounded them flat, each one just about covered the bottom of our 12-inch frying pan.

Once all the breasts were flattened, I dredged each one in flour.  There was no way that the recommended 2-tablespoons of flour would be enough for the dredging, and I ended up using almost two cups of flour.

I heated the large frying pan over medium-high heat and added a little olive oil then cooked each chicken breast for seven minutes per side.  When each one was cooked, I placed it in the warm oven in a glass-baking dish to stay warm.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sliced almonds, and I though, no problem, I can slice them.  Wrong!  I did manage to get an approximation of sliced, but there were just as many chopped almonds.  In the end, they were just fine.  My wife said that next time I should just used pre-sliced almonds.

I added my “sliced’ almonds into the frying pan and browned them for a couple of minutes then added the 1/2-cup of white wine and deglazed the pan using my silicone spatula.  Simmering for three minutes, the wine and almond mixture started to thicken.

I added my 2-tablespoons of butter (the recipe calls for 4) to the pan, I stirred all the sauce ingredients over low heat until the butter was melted.  I added the 1/4-cup of green onions and stirred to mix the sauce.

It was time to serve, so I got out the red plates (white food), added some brown rice to the plate, put a portion of the chicken cutlet on each plate with some of the almond butter sauce on top.  I added some steamed peas and a little of the braised cabbage with carrots (more about that recipe in another post).

The result was a very colorful and tasty dinner.  The chicken was thoroughly cooked without getting dried out.  The sauce was a wonderful addition to both the chicken and the rice.  We just wish there was more sauce.  For our leftovers tonight, I will have to make more of the sauce.

This recipe (without the cabbage) will be added to ongoing our dinner menu.  Thank you to Cuisine At Home!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies - Revisited

Yesterday morning I decided to make more of “The Chewy” chocolate chip cookies that I discussed in my earlier post: Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I again followed the Alton Brown recipe found on page 167 of the Alton Brown Good Eats book.  It took me about 15 minutes to mix the dough and unlike the first time I made the cookies, this time I took photos of the process.

The photo to the left was taken after I had creamed the butter and sugars together and added the egg mixture.  The batter became very creamy and seemed to double in volume.


After refrigerating the dough for an hour, I rolled the dough into 1.5-inch balls and place 6 balls on each cookie sheet for baking.  Using convection cooking mode, I cooked two cookie sheets at a time for 12 minutes.  The cookies were cooked to perfection.

This batch made almost three dozen cookies.  We could have made a full three dozen, but I made the first six cookies a little larger than the rest and then we ate some of the raw dough (yes, even with the raw eggs).


My wife let me know that these are still her favorite and that they taste as good as the first batch.  Thank you Alton!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Love Your Wife Chicken

While doing my 30-minutes of cardio exercise on the elliptical trainer at our health club, I was watching the Food Network on the integral TV.  The Neely’s were demonstrating several dishes, of which the main course looked very interesting.  I must say that I do not care for the name given to the dish: Get Yo’ Man Chicken.  As I made this recipe for my wife, I decided to change my title accordingly.

Yesterday morning was a nice sunny spring day, and I checked with my wife and we decided to have our larger meal of the day around noon.  After watching the TV program, I found and printed the recipe, then made sure I had some chicken thighs in the refrigerator.  I was fortunate the day I shopped at the grocery store as the chicken thighs were on sale, so I was able to purchase 6 to 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs discounted 30 percent.

If you compare my cooking steps to the original recipe, you will see that I made a number of changes based on the ingredients that I had on hand as well as how I thought the dish could be cooked.

The first thing I did was to get out the chicken thighs and patted them dry with paper towels.  I didn’t want another eruption of hot oil and water on our range top.  Then I heated our 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat on the range.  Once the pan was heated, I added about a tablespoon of olive oil and swirled it in the pan to heat.  I quickly added the unseasoned chicken thighs to the pan and then covered the pan with a splatter shield and let the thighs cook.

After about four minutes, the first side of the chicken thighs were browned, so I turned the thighs over and let the other side cook for about four minutes.  During the browning of the thighs, I quickly sliced a large white onion into larger pieces.  When the thighs were browned, I removed them from the pan and placed them on a plate for later.  If you only start with a little oil, there is no need to drain any excess after cooking the thighs.

I added a little (2 tablespoons) of the white wine into the pan and then added the chopped onion.  Using my silicon spatula I scraped the bits of chicken off the bottom and sides of the pan while sautéing the onions.  I remembered that I had finished the last bottle of white wine while making Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes and Basil, so I went to my storage area and grabbed the first bottle I found of white 3-buck chuck (Charles Shaw from Trader Joes).  Later I realized that I was fortunate to get the right wine as I had written “Dry” on the bottle of Pinot Grigio while at the store, so I would know to use it for cooking.

Sautéing the onions took about three minutes, then I added one-cup of chicken broth and an additional half cup of the wine.  As indicated in the recipe, I turned up the heat to reduce the volume of liquid by about one half.  When I went to get the can of crushed tomatoes, I found that we only had a can of stewed tomatoes.  OK, a little substitution should work fine.  The stewed tomatoes also have some celery and spices added that should enhance the flavor of the recipe.

Into the pan went the can of stewed tomatoes as well as 3/4-teaspoon of kosher salt, a couple of grinds of black pepper from the pepper mill, 1-teaspoon of dried thyme, and 1/2-teaspoon of Italian seasoning.  After turning the heat to low, I stirred all the ingredients in the pan together and tasted the seasoning - perfect!  I returned the chicken thighs to the pan, making sure to immerse them in the sauce, then covered the pan with a glass lid and stirring occasionally, simmered for 40 minutes.

While the chicken dish was cooking, I reheated some brown rice and cut some slices of thick bread that I had purchase for the Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes and Basil meal.

As most of the food in this meal is white or light brown, I remembered to use our new red plates for serving. 

We enjoyed a late lunch of chicken thighs over rice while sitting in the sunshine.  The stewed tomatoes along with the dried seasonings enhanced the flavor of the sauce.  The chicken was very moist and tender, cut like butter, and cooked to perfection.  My wife really enjoyed this meal and asked me to make it again in the future.

I strongly recommend this recipe to just about any skill level of cook.  I may make this recipe the next time we are camping, as it would be easy to make in my Dutch oven.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell