Peppermint-Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Christmastime ... hmm, 'tis the season! When I was younger, now was the time I'd raid the family freezer plundering it of my mother's homemade Christmas cookies. I could not be stopped. To this very day I remain prideful of my erstwhile cookie thieving ability. Stealth was only a part of my game. Locks could not impede me and were soon broken. The methods and manner of resealing packages became an art. Despicably, so that the finger of blame would point elsewhere, I'd leave false clues. The lower I dove into my bag of nefarious tricks the higher I soared. I have no regrets. Hey! Mom's Christmas cookies were that good! Well, all that was back in the day. Now, I'm making my own cookies. This recipe will get you some pretty good cookies and they're not overly difficult to make. I got the recipe from bon appetit.


Peppermint-Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups - semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups - all purpose flour
1/4 cup - unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp - baking powder
1 tsp - instant coffee
1/2 tsp - salt
1/2 cup - unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
1 cup - sugar
1 tsp - vanilla extract
1 tsp - peppermint extract
2 - large eggs
16 - red-and-white striped peppermint candies, crushed coarsely

Preparations:

Stir 2 cups chocolate chips in metal bowl (breakfast bowl size), set over saucepan of simmering water until melted, stir occasionally. Measure out 2/3 cup melted chocolate transfer to another metal bowl. Reserve for drizzling.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, instant coffee, and salt in medium bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add sugar and both extracts (vanilla, peppermint). Beat until smooth. Add eggs an beat to blend. Beat in melted chocolate (excepting the 2/3 cup which has been reserved). Add the dry ingredients and beat just to blend. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Measure 1 level tablespoonful dough, roll dough between palms to form ball. (Note, if the dough mixture is too gooey to work at this point, you'll need to refrigerate it for at least an hour. The refrigeration, if needed, will firm up the dough making it easier to work with.) Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet (rimmed bake sheet covered with parchment paper). Space the dough balls 1-1/2 inches apart.

Cooking:

Bake cookies in a 375 degree oven for 9 minutes. The cookie tops should be cracked all over, some will be dramatically cracked though most will be subtly cracked. My experience called for 12 minutes.

Remove cookies from oven, cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies and parchment paper to counter top to cool completely.

Rewarm reserved 2/3 cup chocolate over saucepan of simmering water. Using a fork, drizzle chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over, arrange some of the pieces to show their red parts. Chill until chocolate sets, about 20 minutes.

Comments:

Crush the peppermint more finely than that shown in the above photo. Nice cookie to serve cool or frozen.

Grilled Corn

This recipe also includes a spicy butter spread for the grilled corn.

Grilled Corn with Honey-Arbol Chile Butter

Ingredients:

8 - tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room termperature, divided
1 - tablespoon arbol chile powder
1 - teaspoon ground cumin
1 - tablespoon honey
1/2 - teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 - teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 - teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 - teaspoon onion powder
8 - ears of corn, husked

Honey-Arbol Chile Butter spread preparation: Melt two tablespoons butter in small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile powder and cumin, stir for 10 seconds. Remove from heat and transfer to small bowl. Stir in honey and cool. Add oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and 6 tablespoons butter to butter mixture. Mix until smooth. This can be made two days ahead, cover and chill. To serve, bring it back to room termperature.

Grilled Corn: Prepare the grill to medium high heat. Grill the corn for about 13 minutes turning often. You want the corn to be charred in infrequent spots, too much charring will dry out the corn. The charring will carmelize some of the corn's natural sugar and that is the purpose of grilling it unhusked. Some charring is good, just remember, less is more here! Think highly infrequent flecks of charring and you'll be happier with the results.

Final Preparation: Transfer corn to platter. Serve with honey-arbol chile butter.

Comments: I wanted to keep the recipes from my Brrr BQ'd Thanksgiving Day Vegetables separate. Be sure to reference that blog post for a fuller story.

Brrrr BQ'd Thanksgiving Vegetables

First, why would anyone BBQ vegetables on Thankgiving? As this year's Thanksgiving was going to be a shared responsibility, I anticipated a crowded kitchen. I figured there might be too many cooks banging into each other and such things seldom work out very well. Stories anyone? Anyways, for added challenge, this year's Thanksgiving preparations were done on the road. I wasn't the only one facing this challenge as Tim and Lisa (my brother and sister-in-law) also came in from out of town and were charged with the more involved preparations of the turkey and dressing, gravy and other more traditional Thanksgiving type fare.

Thanksgiving Day morning everyone participated in a fun 5 km run/walk. This is an enjoyable tradition which my Dad loves to do every year. It's called the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot and it allows its participants to meet up with friends and family while working up an appetite for the day's big meal! The weather was quite nice for this year's run as we only needed light jackets and many people opted to do without those. The nice weather did not hold though as that afternoon brought in a blustery cold front just in time for the vegetable BBQ! What started out as a BBQ turned into a BRRR-BQ! The food turned out nicely done despite the weather. And, my teeth stopped chattering before the meal's prayer was given so all was good.

For grilling I chose four vegetables, ears of corn, quartered zucchini, a red bell pepper and sliced egg plant. Corn ears are available all year round and are perfect for grilling, easy choice. Eggplants? Well, Dad's garden had just received a hard freeze and that meant a total harvest of all produce, so there were plenty of eggplants too (an earlier eggplant recipe: Dave's Blog: Eggplant Gazpacho). The July 2010 issue of "bon appetit" provided helpful guidance for this recipe. The eggplant recipe is better served at room temperature and that proves advantageous. First you grill the eggplant which can be done up to two hours before serving. This allows you to easily time grilling the corn. You'll need about 15 minutes in order to serve the corn hot along side the other meal preparations.

In order to keep the recipes separate, I have blogged the eggplant lettuce wraps and the grilled corn as separate blog posts. This post will be for the eggplant. Here's the link for the grilled corn: Dave's Blog: Grilled Corn with Honey-Arbol Chile Butter).

Eggplant Lettuce Wraps
Grilling Ingredients:

3 - tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 - red bell pepper, quartered, seeded
1 - 1-1/2 pound eggplant, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick rounds
4 - medium zucchini, halved lengthwise then crosswise

Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 - cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 - teaspoons ground coriander
1-1/2 - teaspoons arbol chile powder
1 - teaspoon garlic powder
1 - teaspoon paprika
1 - teaspoon cumin
1 - teaspoon onion powder
1/2 - teaspoon salt
1/4 - teaspoon cayenne pepper

Alternativly, purchase harissa powder at a middle-eastern grocery.

Additional Ingredients Wraps:

1 - package, large romaine lettuce leaves (about 20 leaves)
10 - lemon wedges for garnish
3 - tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat parsley

Grilling Vegetables:

We want to grill the red bell peppers first and then skin them. Place the quartered bell peppers skin side down on a high heat grill. Cook until the skin is blackened all over, do not turn over. Once cooked, place them into a paper bag for 10 minutes letting them "steam" themselves with their residual heat. Remove from bag and peel the skin off.

After the peppers have come off of the grill turn the grill down to medium. Spread 3 tablespoons of oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place the eggplant rounds and zucchini onto the prepared baking sheet turning to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill for about 10 minutes cooking through. Turn occasionally, they should be charred in spots and show grill marks. Once cooked, return to the same rimmed baking sheet.

Sauce:

Wisk all of the sauce ingredients together.

Final Preparation:

Line platter with lettuce. Cut eggplant rounds crosswise in half, arrange these over the lettuce along the outside edge of the platter working inwards in over-lapping layers. Leave the center empty. Cut bell pepper and zucchini into 1-inch pieces, mound in center. Drizzle some of the sauce over. Sprinkle with chopped flat Italian parsley. Serve with lemon wedges with additional sauce on the side.

To Eat:

Have the diners use a lettuce leaf to wrap some of the vegetables. Their choice for more sauce or a sprinkle of lemon juice.

Comments:

This is a nice showy salad. It has a great convenience in that it is better served at room termperature.

Philadelphia Meatloaf

This recipe features mushrooms and then more mushrooms. The 9x5x3 inch loaf pan will perfectly hold the combined ingredients and that means a cleaner more direct cooking task with no wastage of ingredients. Meatloaf needs to be tender and this recipe meets that need. I found the result easy to achieve. My taster in chief liked it a bit more than did I as I thought it on the bland side. Nevertheless, it has a good number of positives going for it and those positives are enough to make it blog worthy.

Philadelphia Meatloaf

Gravy
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 pounds crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1-1/2 cups chopped celery
1-1/4 cups shallots
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 cup dry red wine
6 cups low-salt beef broth
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/4 cup buttermilk

Meatloaf
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-1/2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only; 2 to 3 Lrg)
8 ounces thinly sliced crimini (baby bella) mushrooms (about 3 cups)
6 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 pounds ground beef (20% fat)
2 tablespoons buttermilk

Gravy Preparation: Start the gravy preparation first as it needs time to reduce (boiled down). Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, celery, shallots garlic, and thyme. Saute until vegetables are soft, about 18 minutes. Add wine and boil until reduced to glaze, about 5 minutes. Add broth. Boil until mixture is reduced to 4 cups, about 25 minutes (my experience was that it took much longer than 25 minutes to reduce).
Blend butter and flour to a smooth paste. Stir buttermilk and flour paste into gravy. Simmer until thick, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Can be made one day ahead.

Meatloaf: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute until soft, about 10 minutes; scrape into processor. Add mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Blend until coarsely chopped; transfer to large bowl and cool. Mix eggs and panko into vegetables, then mix in beef and buttermilk. Transfer to 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake meatloaf until thermometer inserted into center registers 160 degrees, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours. Remove from oven and let meatloaf rest 15 minutes; turn onto platter. Serve with gravy.

Comments: I think the next time I make this I'll try to add cayenne pepper to the mix and I may also think about adding some type of peppers. Buying a prepared gravy would certainly be a time and money saver.

This recipe was inspired by a very similar recipe provided to "bon appetit" magazine by the Philadelphia restaurant Midatlantic Restaurant & Tap Room.

A Favorite Movie Remade

"True Grit" was one of my favorite movies. The movie was made in 1969 and starred John Wayne. It was one amongst a fairly thin book of movies that our parents ever took us to as a family. Other titles we saw included, "The Sound of Music", "Mary Poppins", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", "Finian's Rainbow", "The King and I", "Jeremiah Johnson", "My Fair Lady", and the drive-in specials "Planet of the Apes" and "Cat Baloo". I'm sure that I've missed a couple and hope that my sisters and brother might help to remember those.

Anyways, it's a fair assortment of decent movies but I'll have to pick "True Grit" as my number one. The new "True Grit" due out this winter will have trouble matching up to the original, but I wish them luck and intend to go see it. The original movie featured John Wayne in what many people considered to be his finest role. Also, the original was loaded with great dialogue and a part of that dialogue has endured in my memory though I never quite knew what it meant. With his gang in tow, the bad-gun Ned (Robert Duvall) scoffs at Rooster's (John Wayne) challenge by saying "What's your intention, Rooster? You think one on four is a dog-fall?"

So, what the heck is a dog-fall? I found it's definition on this interesting site (it's a time suck):

http://www.metaphordogs.org/Dogs/contents.html

And, here's the web address to the original movie trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3741254425/

Spicy Chicken and Broccoli Risotto

Well, it's been a while since my last post and I'm hoping that I'll still be able to right!

Anyways, I've come to view risottos as one of my cooking mainstays. Risottos are very flexible and, characteristically, are a one fry pan cleanup. I make sure to use arboreal rice when making risottos. Arboreal rice is more expensive than regular rice but it remains within the bounds of most budgets. Use the right rice, arboreal rice, and everything else just kind of falls into place.

Spicy Chicken and Broccoli Risotto

Ingredients:


1 & 1/2 lbs - chicken thigh meat (pre-packaged)
1 & 1/3 cups - arboreal rice
1 & 1/2 cups - white table wine
28 oz - reduced sodium chicken broth

12 oz - frozen broccoli
1 - serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and deveined then minced
1 - scallion bulb thinly sliced then chopped

1 tbsp - cream cheese, be generous
3/4 oz - shredded parmesan cheese (packaged shredded 3-cheese Italian combo subs fine)

1/8 tsp - black pepper
1/8 tsp - cinnamon
1/8 tsp - sea salt
1/16 tsp - cayenne pepper (enough to dust)

2 oz - olive oil
1/2 oz - pomegranite syrup (optional)

Preparation:

Two fry pans would certainly save time. One pan could be used to cook the chicken while the other pan was being used to cook the rice. But, in this post I'll describe it as a one pan recipe. Please note, the fry pans need to be large.

First, I heat the olive oil over medium heat then I cook the chicken thigh meat for about 12 minutes or until done. At about the half way mark of this cooking cycle (6 min.) I'll add the minced serrano pepper and the finely chopped scallion. I'll also lightly dust the meat with the cinnamon and the cayenne pepper. Once cooked, break apart the meat into bite sized chunks with a spatula. This is much easier to do when they're cooked rather than trying to chop them when they're raw.

Remove the cooked, spiced chicken from the pan. There should be a little olive oil left in the pan, if not then add another tablespoon more.

To the pan add the measured rice and stir for one minute so as to coat the rice kernels with oil. We're still using the medium heat setting though kicking the temperature up a little bit would not hurt. Add the wine and chicken broth in half cup increments stirring continuously. Let the rice absorb the liquid before adding more. Also, add the 1/4 tsp of black pepper and the 1/4 tsp of sea salt.

Arboreal rice cooked in this manner should take about 20 minutes to become tender, but, since we'll be adding frozen broccoli at about the 12 minute mark the cooking time will be extended to 30 minutes. Microwaving the broccoli separately could be a time saver here, I guess it depends upon how committed you are to using just one fry pan.

When cooked the rice and broccoli mixture should be tender and creamy. Now stir in the generous tbsp of cream cheese, the 3/4 oz of shredded parmesan and the cooked chicken pieces. Stir well to mix and to heat through.

Now if you're like me and you're really committed to using just one fry pan, then you'll serve it directly from the fry pan! Otherwise, transfer the mixture to a serving dish and spread evenly.

There remains one problem, the appearance of this entree can look a bit gloppy. So, be prepared to garnish. One person has suggested a dusting of paprika. My personal choice was to drizzle a little pomegranite syrup over the top. The pomegranite syrup added a tangy note to the dish which I enjoyed. A little bit of syrup goes a long way here.

Comments:

The pre-packaged chicken thigh meat was a convenience though since it is processed it will have added salt. On the positive side, the serrano chile seemed to do a very good job of bringing out the salt taste, it's something you'll have to judge for yourself. This is a spicy dish though the heat does not linger in your mouth, I consider that a positive. This recipe will certainly stay in my repertoire. A multi-tasking person could probably complete this recipe in about 30 minutes though for me, and allowing for my one fry pan commitment, the preparation took closer to 60 minutes.

St. Patrick's Day Schtick (Blarney)

I always have fun catching people who on St. Patrick's Day have failed to wear green. I don't ever actually pinch anyone but I do threaten to do so in a kidding type of way. Here are some ways to have fun with it.

1) Hold forth that you are kind of like a doctor and that the threatened pinching is simply akin to a common medical procedure. Further claim that this is a procedure for which you have trained and that you have performed the procedure many times previously. Your patient (victim) can be confident that they will be in good hands.

2) Try to expand upon the idea of establishing a practitioner-patient relationship. Acknowledge that during the intended procedure (pinching) the patient might experience some discomfort and that you as a concerned practitioner will truly want to hear some feedback. Imply that if the patient screamed or squealed that that would help you (the practitioner) in determining the pinching regimen. Explain that you consider practitioner-patient feedback to be very important. The simple short pinch is now expanded to a time absorbing regimen.

3) Acknowledge that the patient might too nervous to receive their pinching right away and then volunteer that you could perhaps fit them in for a 2 o'clock appointment.

4) Hold your hands awkwardly like they were crab claws.

5) Just think of the different things your doctor might say to you, then apply them in funny ways to the pinching situation.

Note, you might be doing this with co-workers and so I do not advise actually pinching anyone. Keep it light and innocuous.

Spring Greens & Calamata Olives & a Rant

How supportive are you of the locavore movement? I've got to say I'm only moderately supportive. Sure, I'd like to see more local production as I assume local production implies greater freshness, but, I'd sure miss the produce that comes up from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and also the produce grown in the Winter Garden region of Texas. While both of these areas are in Texas they remain quite distant from Houston; they're probably a 7 to 8 hour drive at the minimum.

The reddish area shows the Winter Garden region of Texas and the Rio Grande Valley is located at the Texas-Mexico border. Houston is located in the southeast corner of Texas nearer to the Texas- Louisiana border. Could these areas be considered local to one another? My opinion is no, they are not local to one another. And yet, the locavore movement would have us isolate these low-population though productive agriculture areas from the higher population areas that are less agriculturally productive, namely places like Houston.

Often, proponents of the locavore movement will mention that we should consider the potential energy savings found when the distance from farm to market is made shorter. I don't think there'd be any energy savings, in fact, I think there'd be increased energy waste. I can envision thousands of boutique farms springing to life, all necessary, just to service Houston's food needs. Each farm would most likely need its own pickup and tractor and so that's not an energy saving option. Also, each farm would need substantial investment, and continuing investments, for infrastructure improvements; these investments are needed to turn nonproductive land into productive land. The infrastructure necessary to do this would itself be energy intensive, so again, no energy savings are found there either.

I have to conclude that the locavore movement is justified only by its claims to freshness and taste. These claims are subjective, but they're fair enough to make. Myself, I'll mostly ignore the locavore movement while continuing to look forward to the juice oranges and produce that come to Houston from Texas' Rio Grande Valley and it's Winter Garden region.

Spring Greens & Calamata Olives

The year's best crop of greens will come during springtime. It's hard to go wrong when picking which kind you want to prepare. My father has some experience with greens as he successfully grows several varieties (Notice to locavores: in growing these greens he lavishes great effort and great expense, he does get great results). His advice is to mix them and I've got to say he makes a mean pot of greens! At any rate, pick the greens with fresh leaves and stems, checking the bottom of stems for freshness helps. You can choose mustard greens, beat greens, swiss chard or turnip greens, all are good during springtime. We used turnip greens at 99 cents per bunch rather than the more expensive swiss chard which was $2.99 per bunch.

Ingredients:

2 - large bunches turnip greens

5 - tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 4 and 1

1/3 - cup coarsly chopped oil cured black calamata olives

2 - garlic cloves, minced

1 - tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

Using your hands, shred the leaf away from the stem of the turnip greens. Reserve the stems and leaves in separate bowls. Now cut the stems cross-wise into 1/2" pieces.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then add the stem pieces cooking them for about 4 minutes just until tender. Next, add the turnip leaves and cook for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Now dump the cooked greens into a large colander so as to drain away the water. Press on the greens to extract more water.

Heat 5 tablespoons oil in large fry pan over medium heat. Add olives and garlic and saute these for about 2 minutes. Add the turnip greens and stems tossing until heated through, about 4 minutes. Mix in lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then transfer the greens to a serving bowl.

Comments:

Have a mild vinegar available on the table letting each diner choose to use it or not. Also, this would be a good spot for a flavored olive oil.

Parsley Dumpling, Mushroom and Leek Soup

I've often been frustrated by the challenge of using all those fresh herbs that are sometimes bought for a recipe. Often, I'll use but a tablespoon of the herb and then have the remainder stuck inside the refrigerator inducing guilt as the herbs deteriorate with each passing day. Alot of times these herbs are of the leafy greens type (think Italian flat parsley or cilantro) and so it seems a particular shame to waste them. Though frequently overlooked, leafy greens are properly accorded the greatest respect amongst nutritionists. This recipe uses a good quantity of herbs and helps to solve some of the waste of food problems that so often occur when cooking at home. I've read that Americans will typically waste about 25% of their food purchases...ouch!

This recipe has three steps. The steps: soup preparation, dumpling preparation, final preparation, will each be discussed separately.

Soup Ingredients:

2 - cups water
3/4 - ounce dried shitake mushrooms
3 1/2 - tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 - garlic cloves, minced
8 - ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 - teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
salt - fine sea salt suggested
3 - tablespoons Lillet or dry sherry
1 - medium onion, chopped
3 - cups thinly sliced leeks, white and pale green parts only; about 2 large
8 - cups vegetable broth
1 - pinch cayenne pepper

Parsley Dumpling Ingredients:

3/4 - cup low-fat cottage cheese
3 - tablespoons butter
2 - large eggs, room temperature
1 - cups all purpose flour, divided
1 - teaspoon salt, fine sea salt suggested
1 - pinch ground nutmeg
1/4 - grated pecorino romano cheese
3/4 - cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Soup Preparation:

Using the soup ingredients, combine the 2 cups of water along with the dried mushrooms then heat to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for 20 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the mushrooms to a work surface, reserve the liquid. Slice the mushrooms, about 1/8" strips.

Next, heat on medium-high 2 tablespoons of oil in a large fry pan, add garlic and stir briefly to separate. Add the baby bella mushrooms and thyme. Sprinkle lightly with salt, saute for about 12 minutes stirring frequently until the mushrooms are browned. Add Lillet, stir until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Remove cooked mushroom mixture to a bowl.

We now have an empty fry pan. Add 1-1/2 tablespoons oil, heat on medium-high. Add onion, cook until translucent and beginning to brown, stir often, about 6 minutes. Add leeks, reduce heat to medium, sprinkle with salt, saute until vegetables are soft and golden, stir often, about 15 minutes.

In a large pot, heat broth to simmer over medium-high heat. Add the reserved mushroom cooking liquid ( be sure to leave the sediment behind). Add all the mushrooms, onion mixture, and cayenne. Simmer 1 minute to heat through. Season to taste with salt.

Parsley Dumplings:

Puree cottage cheese until smooth (blender does OK job here). Using an electric mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter and eggs in medium bowl. Add cottage cheese, 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt and nutmeg. Beat on low speed just to blend. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, cheese, and parsley.

Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Using a flatware teaspoon, scoop piece of dough about cherry sized. Hold the spoon just above the boiling water, use a second spoon to push the dough into the water. Repeat this step about 15 times, representing the first batch (total batch number could be 3 or 4 batches). When the dumplings rise to the top, simmer for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes to cook through. The dumplings might stick to the bottom, if so, be sure to loosen free with a spoon. When cooked through, use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate. Proceed to do another batch.

Final Preparation:

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a large fry pan over medium heat. Working in two batches, add dumplings to fry pan. Cook until brown in spots, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Bring soup to a simmer. Divide dumplings amongst serving bowls, divide soup amongst serving bowls. Time to eat!

Fessin' Up:
The original recipe called for parmesan cheese, dry sherry and dried porcini mushrooms. The next time, I won't use a fry pan and butter to reheat the dumplings. Instead, I'll just microwave the parsley dumplings. Also, the next time out, I'll be looking to save steps by combining functions. The blender should be able to sub in for the electric mixer and could also help chop the parsley.

Comments:
This is a fairly healthy eat your vegetables type of soup, it has a nice taste and is deceptively substantial. The dumplings are nice too. Everything except the final preparation can be done the day before. One negative, there will be lots of pots and pans and machinery to clean up. This recipe was adapted from one seen in the magazine, "bon appetit".

SUPERBOWL RIB SANDWICH

I'm a sandwich guy. I took a sandwich test once, the kind you see every now and then when you're cruising about the internet, and I did not miss a question. Now this isn't a blog to prove my sandwich IQ, I use it as a personal reference and also hope that anyone who may read it can learn a few things too. In that vein, for guest readers of this blog, my great sandwich hint is for everyone to try out Vietnamese sandwiches. These sandwiches sell for about $3 and can stand with the best of sandwiches. Ask for extra vegetables and you will end up with a healthier than normal sandwich that tastes great! Most Vietnamese sandwiches come with julienned carrots. The carrots have a light vinegar dressing that gives the sandwich a slight tanginess. I spied a recipe that does the same thing with an onion topping on some well-cooked beef short ribs and decided to give it a try. The end result of this effort is a restaurant quality sandwich, stout enough to satisfy and perfectly fit for a crazed crowd of Superbowl fans.

This recipe will be discussed in three parts. I'll discuss cooking the short ribs and then follow that with a discussion of the onion topping, lastly, the final assembly will be reviewed.

Short Ribs

3 1/2 - lbs. beef short ribs
1/4 - cup butter (1/2 stick)
3 - celery stalks, chopped
2 - large carrots, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 - medium onion, chopped
3/4 - cup, dry red wine
1 - can, beef broth
1/3 - cup, medium-dry sherry
2 - garlic cloves, peeled
3 - bay leaves
1 - large fresh thyme sprig

Melt butter in a large fry pan then add the short ribs and brown them at medium high heat for about 6 minutes. You will probably need to brown the ribs in two batches to avoid overcrowding. Remove the ribs from the pan then add the celery, carrots and onion sauteing until just soft, about 5 minutes. Add the broth, wine, sherry, bay leaves, thyme and garlic. Bring to a boil scraping up browned bits, season with salt and pepper. Return the ribs to the pan, propping up on their sides arranged in a single layer. Cover and cook at a medium low simmer for 1 hour.

After an hour of cooking, turn the ribs over and cook for an additional 1-1/2 hours. If sauce thickens - that's good - be sure to rearrange the ribs occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove and cool for 30 minutes.

Transfer ribs to work surface, discard thyme sprig and bay leaves. Spoon off fat from the remaing sauce or if time allows refrigerate the sauce so as to solidify the fat, remove the fat when solidified. There is alot of fat rendered from short ribs so don't shortcut this step! Now, turning our attention back to the ribs, these need to be deboned and trimmed of fat, dispose of bones and trimmed fat.

Note: Were you to stop here, or perhaps even before deboning, you have the makings of a very good and very tender short rib dinner. You just need some sides and any ribs leftover can be made into Superbowl sandwiches the next day.

Onion Topping

1 - tablespoon butter
2 - large sweet onions, halved, thinly sliced crosswise
4 1/2 - tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 - teaspoons sugar

Melt butter in a pan on medium high heat. Add sliced onions, sprinkle with salt and saute for about 10 minutes stirring often. Add vinegar and sugar sauting until almost all of the vinegar is absorbed, about one minute. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the onions to a microwave safe bowl as we'll most likely need to nuke it later to rewarm.

Final Assembly

2 - tablespoons butter, melted
12 - slices country-style crusty white bread
6 - slices monterey jack cheese
1 - bunch leaf lettuce, loosely torn

Butter one side of each bread slice, then place buttered side down. Top six of the bread slices with a fair portion of beef mixture (about 1/2 cup), top beef mixture with slice of monterey jack. Building further, top the cheese with prepared onions (warmed, about 1/4 cup) and top the onions with a handful of leaf lettuce. Close out the sandwich by topping each with one of the remaining 6 bread slices (buttered side out)

Heat pan or griddle to medium, cook each sandwich until bread is golden brown and cheese melts, about 3 minutes per side. Cut each sandwich in half on the diagonal and serve.

Confessions: Instead of cooking sherry, I used lillet. I'd like to try Kahlua too. Also, I used mozzarella cheese rather than monterey jack. And, I used rice vinegar mixed with cider vinegar in place of the red wine vinegar. The original recipe called for 1-1/4 cup red wine and only 1/2 cup of beef broth, but I wanted to just go ahead and use the whole can of beef broth. Even with the changes, we felt the sandwiches were of restaurant quality.

Comments: Adapted from a recipe seen in the magazine, "bon appetit", courtesy of the Los Angeles restaurant, Joan's on Third. I really liked the quality that came through even though we used short ribs, an oft maligned cut of meat.

Additional Comments: Colts by 4 over the Saints.

Change Your Game Mexican Meatballs

Here's a recipe that might take you out of your comfort zone. Have a bit of courage with this one and you just might decide that your comfort zone has expanded! We've done this recipe twice and both times it finished out nicely. This is a three part recipe. The meatballs, soup and toppings will each be discussed separately.

Meatballs

2 - large fresh poblano chiles
1 - lb. ground beef, 20% fat
1/4 - cup finely grated onion
1/2 - cup coarsly grated zucchini
1/4 - cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 - large egg beaten to mix
2 - garlic cloves pressed
1 - tablespoon ground cumin
1 - teaspoon dried oregano (mexican oregano preferred) crumbled
1/2 - teaspoon salt

Soup

1 - tablespoon olive oil
1/2 - medium onion coarsely grated
2 - garlic cloves minced
2 - tablespoons arbol chile powder
2 - teaspoons ground cumin
1 - quart low-salt beef broth
1/2 - teaspoon dried oregano (mexican oregano preferred)
1 - cup coarsely grated zucchini
1/4 - cup long-grained white rice
1/4 - cup chopped fresh cilanto
1 - tablespoon fresh lime juice (or more)

Toppings

3 - tablespoons vegetable oil (more if needed)
4 - corn tortillas, cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
1/4 - cup chopped fresh cilantro

Meatball preparation

Before anything else is done, we must first skin the chiles. It's the hardest part of the recipe, but if I can do it, then you're likely to able to do so too. Here's the method - put the poblano chiles on a baking sheet and place them into an oven. Set the oven to broil. Have the baking sheet on the top rung of the oven so that the chiles are close to the broiling coils. We want to scorch the chiles on all sides, so keep an eye on them and rotate them as is necessary. They'll end up looking charred and this is what we want. Place them into a paper bag the fold the bag to enclose. We want the chiles to steam inside the bag for about 10 minutes using the residual heat from their time in the oven. Once this is done take the chiles out and begin the work of skinning, stemming and deseeding them. You should end up with about 3/4 cup of chile pulp which then needs to be chopped fine.

Combine all of the ingredients listed for the meatball segment, mix together gently. We want to form meatballs of 1 inch diameters by lightly rolling about 1 tablespoon of mixture between the palms of our hands. If the mixture is too goopy, then chill it for 30 minutes and try working it with water moistened hands. Cook the meatballs in a medium pot at a simmer using the 1 quart of beef broth. Cook for about 1 hour, remove the meatballs, reserve the broth. Separated into their respective containers place each into the refrigerator. We want to skim some of the fat from the broth and refrigeration will solidify the fat making it easier to remove. Remember, we are using an 80-20 mixture of hamburger. This will result in a smoother meatball but also makes fat removal from the broth a desirable part of the recipe.

Soup Preparation

OK, so we're back at it. We'll remove the fat from our refrigerated broth, it's solidified on top and it's now easy to dispose of. Using the ingredients listed under the soup portion, we'll put the oil into a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, saute for about 3 minutes until the onion is tender. Add the chile powder and cumin, stir 1 minute. Add the beef broth and oregano bring to a rolling boil. Simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Stir in the zucchini and rice, raise heat to medium. Drop in the meatballs one at a time. Return soup to a simmer, cover the pot and cook until the rice is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Toppings

Here we're just crisping the corn tortillas in oil. Put oil into a fry pan and heat to medium. Put about 1/2 the tortilla strips into the fry pan, fry to crisp about 3 minutes. Remove and place the strips on a paper towel to drain, fry the remaining strips, same manner as before.

Serving

Ladle out meatballs and soup into a bowl, broth will be scant. Top with crisped tortilla strips and sprinkle with fresh cilantro. My taster-in-chief gave this recipe her highest marks.

Notes: Try to use a single source chile powder, we used chile de arbol. Most chile powders are a combination of spices and that would be a no-no in this recipe.

This recipe is best done in three stages. First, the night before serving, have all your vegetable chopping done and the measuring of all spices done as well. Also, we'll prepare the meat mixture. Refrigerate everything as we'll not do the second stage until the next morning. Before leaving for work the next day, heat the 32 ounces of beef broth in a medium pot to a soft boil. Take the meat mixture and roll your meatballs as previously described. As you finish rolling each meatball, place it into the hot beef broth. Cover the broth/meatball stew once all the meat mixture has been rolled into meatballs. Let the meatballs cook at a simmer for about one hour. Most likely, you'll be getting ready for work during this cooking time. Remove the meatballs when done, refrigerate broth and meatballs separately. When you come home from work you'll be starting the third and final stage, consider the recipe nearly done. Just restart the recipe where it's labeled soup preparation.

Memories of Roasted Chestnuts

Once again I delve back into my memories to come up with a blog post. And, once again, my memories are of the food my family ate as I was growing up. My father loved a working fireplace and so we always had a supply of wood laid in for the winter and on most every evening we'd have a fire going. This all took great effort. First dad would need to find a source of felled trees that no one else wanted. Then he'd load up the station wagon with his heavy red chain saw and other deemed necessary equipment. He'd bought the chainsaw used and it was always balky and always seemed to be undergoing refurbishment. Anyways, lastly he'd round up us not-so-spirited kids, perhaps even more balky than the chainsaw, and off we'd go to an akimbo splayed pile of logs for a day of wood cutting and hauling. Seeing a chainsaw rip through a log is undeniably a curious sight, but, such a task comes with a patent risk too; one year the chainsaw did bite into dad's leg. All of this is just to note how much my father loves a working fireplace. I guess I'll always have a warm feeling for fireplaces which will go beyond the physical warmth they're able to radiate.

Sometime around Christmas we'd try roasting chestnuts by the warmth of these fires. We had a special roaster bought just for these occasions. After cutting a slit on each chestnut we'd place them into the roaster and shake them for an interminable amount of time over the fire. Often, the heat would get to us before it got to the chestnuts and we'd sidle about the hearth looking for some protection from the heat while the chestnuts were cooking. The results weren't always spectacular but occasionally we'd get an exceptionally sweet nut roasted to perfection.

I found some chestnuts for sale in Houston and decided to give them a try. Soak the chestnuts in warm water for 20 minutes. Cut an X on their flat side (it's better than the single slit we did when we were young). Be careful not to cut into the meat. Place the prepared nuts on a cookie sheet then place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Roast for about 17 minutes, the edges of the shells should be peeling back from their exposure to the heat. Turned out nice and tasty!

Here's an interesting chestnut blog:
http//www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2005/10/31/from-soup-to-nuts.html