chickenless chicken pot pie

yesterday i did nothing but watch season 2 of californication. it's such a good show. love it.

but when 530 rolled around i knew raul would be home soon and i needed to make dinner. it's the least i can do when i sit around all day and he works at a job he hates. seriously, the least.

so while i was watching alton brown my favorite molecular gastronomer he told me that i should make chicken pot pie so i did.

i went to august where awkward guy was working. i saw that they had carrots (out of season i buy carrots from an organic distributor called goodness greeness. i'm usually just a season eater but i've met the guy from goodness greeness and he has kids etc.) so i grabbed some carrots, a few waxy potatoes, some flour, one onion, chives and some cheese.

**a word about potatoes. waxy potatoes can be white or red but they are different from russet potatoes which are mealy. waxy potatoes hold their shape when cooked. they're still soft but they're not mushy. russet potatoes are what you use for mashed potatoes because they don't hold their shape. so for stews and other long cooking use waxy so you don't have a pile of mashed potatoes at the bottom**

3 carrots, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, minced
3 small waxy potatoes, chopped - about same size as carrots
3 tbs butter
1/3 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
salt n' peppa to taste

biscuit dough
2 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup cold milk
7 tbs cold butter, sliced
1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chives, chopped

first, the fillings.
in a sauce pan melt the butter. sautee potatoes and carrots for a while. then add onions. cook until onions start to brown - not that long.
add flour and stir well.
add chicken stock and cook until very thick. set aside.

preheat your oven to 450

the biscuit!
in a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
incorporate 2 tbs butter until it's completely mixed in. (that means smash the butter with your hands until it's in tiny little pieces mixed into the dough)
take the rest of the butter and do the same thing except you want the pieces to be pea sized not completely gone.
add lemon zest to the milk and add the milk to the bowl.
add chives and cheese on top of that.
mix until it makes a loose dough.
on a floured surface pat out the dough out into a flatter shape

now the tricky part.

transfer your filling to a glass baking dish. that's easy.
you can do the biscuits two ways:

1. transfer the whole piece of dough to cover the dish and seal in the juices - like a top crust of a pie. then cut a hole in the top so it doesn't explode.

2. you can break off pieces of your dough and place them in the fillings making sure to cover the whole thing. there will be spaces between and you'll see the filling but make sure everyone will get a piece of biscuit.

i did it the second way, i think the biscuits soak up the juices better this way and ugh just taste so good.

put the whole thing in the 'fridge for 5-10 minutes.

bake for 20 minutes and let it rest for 5 minutes before you eat it.

i loved it and so did raul (he had seconds!) and you'll never miss the chicken.

love,
keighty

cookies cookies cookies

in honour of the holidays here are two great cookie recipes.

sugar cookies.

classic. delicious. can't picture christmas without them.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

cream butter and sugar. add eggs one at a time. add vanilla. add dry mixture in slowly. scape the bowl and make sure everything is mixed well.

cut dough into two pieces. flatten into disks, wrap in plastic and put in the 'fridge for 12 hours.
after the long wait, leave the dough out on the table for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up. on a WELL floured surface (it's sticky!) roll out the dough. make sure that your rolling pin or wine bottle (i didn't have a rolling pin of my own until this year, prior, i've always used a wine bottle - whatever works!) is well floured too.
cut the dough with adorable cookie cutters that your mom bought and shipped to you. they're all cute except that one that i don't know what it is - it may be a santa hat but i'm not sure. i don't use that one.

bake on a un-greased cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes. when the edges are starting to get brown take them out. give them a few minutes to rest on the pan, then put them on a cooling rack to, you know, cool. keep doing that until all the dough is gone or you've eaten so much that you have a stomach ache.

you can also freeze the dough for later. and this isn't like pie dough so you can roll it out as many times as you want!

------

pecan shortbread linzer cookies!

my dad, who doesn't like cookies (i know, what a freak), ate all of these. all. ray had one and that was it. so these are good. and they look super fancy so your friends will think you're the best.

1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
20 tbs butter (2 1/2 sticks) softened
1 cup 10x sugar (powdered sugar), plus extra!
1 tsp vanilla
raspberry jam
fluted biscuit cutters - two sizes (depending on how big you want the cookies: a big size and little size for the cut out)

in a food processor, pulse pecans and sugar to make a coarse meal. save that.
mix dry ingredients. save that.
cream butter. once it's creamy add 10x sugar.
once it's mixed together well add pecan mix and vanilla. - mix well!
then add dry mixture slowly.
mix on high until the dough becomes a homogenous mass of deliciousness.

**if your dough is not becoming a mass and is just crumbly, add a tiny bit of water to the mixer. it should then start sticking together. only use a little at a time though!!**

cut the dough in half, flatten, cover with plastic and put in the 'fridge for 2 hours.

preheat the oven to 350.
you can line your sheet pans with parchment paper or you can use a silpat mat. these are like reusable parchment. they're kind of greasy so nothing sticks to them and you don't have to throw it away. totally worth it for cookie makers. you can get them at any cooking store. probably target too, but i'm not sure.

on a floured surface, roll out the dough. it will be hard to roll out because there's not a lot of liquid in this dough. it'll crack but that's ok.

with fluted biscuit cutters cut out the cookies. then on every other cookie cut out the middle.   (save the middles! they make tiny cookies that you can roll in 10x sugar and gobble up)

bake them for 16 minutes - turning them around half way through.

let them cool completely.
keep doing this until all the dough is used up. or again, you can freeze it for later.

take all the tops (the ones with the hole in the middle) and line them up on a sheet pan (cooled!). in a wire sieve dust them completely with 10x sugar until they're totally coated.
with the other halves spread a bit of raspberry jam in the middle of the cookie. you can leave the edges clear so it doesn't drip out everywhere.
then put the two pieces together for a fancy beautiful sandwich cookie.

they're so good. you may have to make extra to make up for the fact that you're going to eat about half of them before you're ready to give them out.

cookies are a good way to say, 'i wanted to remember you at christmas but i have no money to buy you that wii you wanted.' plus this is, for some reason, the one time of year that's it's socially acceptable to eat everything you see - which around christmas, is pretty much just cookies.

joyeux noel.

love,
keighty

pound cake for dessert

pound cake used to be made by using a pound of all the ingredients, hence it's name. but now we don't need the biggest cake ever. we can do with a little version. 

this is my fall twist on regular pound cake. it's not different at all except i use braised cranberries and pumpkin seeds on top. fancy.

1 1.5 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

.25 cup lemon juice

1.5 cup cranberries

.5 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (remember you pumpkin soup?!)

mix dry ingredients.

cream butter and sugar. add eggs, one at a time. add vanilla.

add dry to wet in small batches. 

add lemon juice. 

pour into a well greased loaf pan. 

bake at 350. 

check the cake at 30 minutes. if the knife comes out clean, take it out. 

if not, keep checking every ten minutes until it's been an hour. it should be done by then. 

(i don't know if it's the crookedness of my kitchen or the way my oven leans but my loaf took 30 minutes...)

in the meantime get your cranberries and your extra 1/3 cup of sugar and start braising. put both in a lidded sauce pan on low heat. there's not liquid now but the cranberries will make some. let that cook for a while. 

get your pumpkin seeds and if you haven't already toasted them, do so. spread them out on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and salt. bake at 350 with the pound cake in there until crispy. 

check on your cranberries, stirring all the time so it doesn't burn. 

once the cake is done. take out of the oven and turn the pan on it's side to cool. that will make it easier to get the loaf out. even if you fill the whole thing up with butter it'll still want to stick. something about those sassy pound cakes that don't want to do what they're supposed to. 

now you can add them all together. 

serve a slice of pound cake and drizzle the cranberry sauce on top. sprinkle with few seeds. ta da! fabulous dessert. 

a good pound cake is something that you should know because it can be fancy and good moist cake is always a hit, whatever you put on it. 

happy new year everyone. 

love,

keighty

pumpkin soup

my stock pile for the winter is getting low but i think i did ok for my first year. but one thing i had a lot of was pumpkins.

i made a pumpkin pie that didn't taste good but other than that i use my pumpkins for soup!

when raul doesn't like something he doesn't eat it and when i'm done quickly offers to do the dishes so he can throw away his food. that is to say that he doesn't do that with this soup. he even gets seconds!

1 small cooking pumpkin (not the biggest jack-o-latern you can find, those are not that good tasting since they're so big. hint. get it in your produce section not somewhere that has pony rides)
6 cups of chicken stock
3 big dashes of nutmeg
1 onion minced
 salt and pepper
annci di peppe pasta (they're tiny tiny pieces of pasta, a little bigger than a rice grain - in your pasta aisle)

chop pumpkin up and scoop out the seeds. save them for later!
start boiling the chicken stock. drop the pumpkin pieces in there and let them cook a little. pumpkins are really hard to peel so letting them cook for a while until they're tender lets the rind come off really easily once they're cooled.
when they're ready take them out and save the stock in the pot. let them cool for a little bit then just take the rind off - easy! much better than struggling to slice it off. this way you get still get all the meat.
in a sautee pan sautee onions and garlic for a short while.
add the pumpkin, onion and garlic back to the stock. and simmer for a while.

if you have an immersion blender:
simply blend all the ingredients together in the pot until smooth.

if you have a regular blender:
strain all the ingredients out of the stock. again, save the stock. let the ingredients cool slightly. in batches, puree them in the blender and add back to the soup. whisk together for a good incorporation.

if you have neither of those things:
use a potato masher to mash up the pumpkin chunks. your soup won't be a puree but it'll still taste good. whisk together to make sure they're all incorporated.

for seasoning you have to add a little then taste it. salt is one thing i've had a problem with. it doesn't need as much as you think. nutmeg too. if you put half the bottle in there it'll taste like a gingerbread cookie (and not in a good way). just carefully add your seasonings.

now you can add the pasta. pasta gets bigger so don't add too much. after a few minutes of cooking stir the pot. the pasta can get caught in the pumpkin fibers and sink to the bottom in a clump. make sure they don't stay there and burn.

taste a piece of pasta and make sure it's cook. once they are, stir the pot one more time and serve with delicious bread!

you can save this soup too and it reheats really well!

love,
keighty

new internet, new recipes.

so in the winter it's hard to find good tomatoes. no, it's impossible because they're not in season. but canned tomatoes are a good replacement. i found a nice company that's from western illinois that cans their tomatoes in season and has a nice happy old school italian clown on the front.

that story is necessary because today we're making pasta sauce!

1 lrg can of tomatoes (3 fresh tomatoes, pureed, only if you're in california)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 chicken stock
dash of nutmeg
1/16 of a cup of white wine (a little like than 1/4 - eyeball it)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
2 tbs olive oil
2 big pinches of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

in a sauce pan heat up olive oil. add garlic and onion. sautee until onion is wilted but before garlic gets too brown.
add everything but the nutmeg, sugar, salt and pepper. make sure to whisk in the sour cream since it's thick. you don't want sour cream chunks...
on a low heat, simmer that for a while.
taste it. is it too salty or bitter? add sugar until it tastes right, one pinch at a time
too sweet now? add more wine.
salt and pepper it at the end and let it simmer until it's served.

serve it with curly pasta to catch all the goodness it's their ridges.

this sauce can be frozen too. so you can make a lot and have it when you need it!

love,
keighty

omg. apples.

so for laurel's birthday we went apple picking in woodstock, il. it was magical and you can see pictures here. the point is when we got home we had an incredible amount of apples. even with laurel taking home a lot we still had a ton. raul made cider and i made apple butter. and that took care of those pesky apples.

so if you have a bunch of apples just hangin' around your house causin' trouble, take care of them with these recipes!

raul's spicy cider

.5 peck of apples, it's about 16 apples, yeah, i don't know what a peck is either
3 tbs cinnamon
2 tbs nutmeg

core your apples. be careful, don't stab your hand. put them in a food processor and mash 'em up. after they're processed squeeze them through cheese cloth. this is messy. you just want the juice and not the skin. collect all the juice in a big pot and add spices. do it to taste - you can use cloves or whatever you like. cook on low until it simmers. don't boil it though. drink up. cute cinnamon stick, optional.


apple butter
just so you know, this isn't butter. sadly. it's just melted apples that give the appearance of butter. i don't like the name apple butter because it's really just apple preserves. no one calls strawberry jam strawberry butter. ugh. regardless. this stuff is good and easy to make!

.5 peck apples - you know
cinnamon, sugar to taste

core and slice apples thinly. put them in a crock pot and cook them on low until they're mush. keep checking. it smells great! once they're really mushy. stir them up. it's weird - they're melted! add spices. i say to taste because i didn't measure but just drop some in and taste it and add more. spoon into clear jars (i just an old honey bear jar. not the plastic one. this one says bron's bee co. and it cost $9, yikes!) and let them sit on the counters with the lids on but not sealed. once cooled stick them in the 'fridge. share with friends!

after these you'll be tired of apples just in time for them to go out of season!

enjoy.

love,
keighty

wow. it's been a while

i used to ride my bike everyday and then one day i broke my foot. then i got married yada yada. then i just stopped riding my bike. i rode it to work today and it was hard and i was really slow and got really sweaty. 

that is like this blog. i lost the internet. then got busy. you get the idea. 

anyway. i'm back and i'm already getting sweaty so it's going to be great. 

first up: banana cranberry apple cider muffins

1.5 c sugar

.5 c butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

3 tbs water

3 c flour

1 tsp. baking powder

.5 tsp salt

1 1/3 c. apple cider

3 ripe bananas - ripe means brown and mushy, folks

dried cranberries, 2 small handfulls?

cream butter and sugar, add eggs, one at a time. add soda, water. mix together dry ingredients. add flour mix and cider alternately. add bananas and cranberries. drop into a muffin tin and bake them til they're done at 375. 

this is a perfect time to mention that raul got me a present. so we registered for that stand up mixer of my dreams. sadly, we didn't get it. but! macy's is really cool about your registry and they give you a hella discount on the stuff you didn't get. plus, get this, they were having a sale. so raul comes home really sweaty and out of breath and i didn't get it and he didn't explain. i didn't for one second think that he ran home, though, never. anyway. he carried the mixer all the way from downtown. ah! anyway. here's a picture of the beauty. 

i made those muffins with that sweet ass mixer. ugh. i'm too excited. oh and those cool decals are of montreal, from ellyn. great wedding present! 

more to come! 

love,

keighty

internet is down...

so i have a lot more recipes to add but i have no internet. i'm at a coffee shop and only have a few minutes before work. but soon, friends, soon.

let's just say laurel got me an immersion hand blender and raul bought a standing mixer... so things are gonna get crazy.

hope to write soon!

love,
keighty

fall pasta

today i got to join in on the server meeting and taste farm dinner. of course it was delicious and of course it threw off my groove as far as figuring out what to make for dinner. anything i would make would not be as good. plus i have been trying wine all day so i'm a bit off. p.s being a bartender is kind of like getting paid to drink all day. not bad. 

i stopped by august looking for inspiration. i bought two parsnips, one portabella mushroom, a chunk of parmesan and one shallot. 

i had my idea. 

fall pasta

about 10 small brussel sprouts, cored and halved

2 parsnips, diced

1 shallot clove, minced

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 cup cream

parmesan cheese

3 tbs butter

2 dashes of flour

1 portabella mushroom cap

preheat oven to 395. on a sheet pan pile brussel sprouts and parsnips. salt and pepper them. drizzle olive oil and mix to get them coated. let them do their thing. 

in a sauce pan, heat up cream. 

in a saute pan melt butter and shallots. as soon as the butter starts to brown throw in flour and whisk in the cream. cook on low-medium heat to thicken it up. add as much cheese as you like. let that sit for a little while, whisking every so often. keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over (it shouldn't be boiling, though). 

boil water for your pasta. you can use whatever you like. i don't like spaghetti or long pasta and my favorite is penne, but anything works. while that's boiling, turn off the oven but leave the veg in there. they'll keep cooking. if you have some bread you can put it in the oven too to crisp up. 

as soon as your pasta is almost done add your chopped up mushroom to the sauce and mix well. drain your pasta and put back in the pot. add the sauce to the pasta and coat well. 

serve the veg on the side. 

i really really liked this sauce. it's so easy and tastes so good. the cheese is so subtle and it picks up the mushroom notes that gives the pasta an earthy taste that mixes well with the vegetables. 

i think easy dishes that seem fancy are great. they make you seem like you're so crazy for making your own sauce but it's easy. promise. and sauces are great ways to try out flavors and add things that you like! don't eat prego anymore - this is better. 

i should mention that the dodgers are beating the phillies right now. just in case they lose, raul would be happy to see that i gave his team a shout out. 

enjoy! 

love,

keighty

north and south fight about more than just baseball...

1.5 million people in illinois are on food stamps.

there are 10 farmers markets in the state that take them.

unacceptable.

familyfarmed.org is working to fix these problems but the city of chicago won't get behind this idea.

how could you not get behind the idea of making sure everyone has healthy, nutritious food? everyone. not just northsiders.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-00south_side_farmers_marketoct10,0,4291373.story

north side market vs. south side market.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-00city_farmers_marketsoct10,0,6760909.story

i have been blessed with a job and a supportive husband but not everyone can afford to eat like i do. but i just eat vegetables, rarely meat. something is wrong when it's cheaper to buy processed food than real food.

the food industry is out of control. how do you sleep at night, purposely making people unhealthy? disgusting.

october orange: carrot soup and pumpkin ice cream

inspired by lisa's love for pumpkin pie i decided i should try to make some pumpkin pie ice cream because everything tastes better as an ice cream.

but first let's talk about pumpkin pie spice. this handy spice is totally worth the $6. it is allspice, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg - all the spices you need for pumpkin pie. i have nutmeg and cinnamon but i don't use the other two enough to have them. so pumpkin pie spice is perfect. plus you can sprinkle it in your kitchen to make it spell like pumpkin pie. ok, probably only i will do that.

you can do this with or without an ice cream maker. of course, with the maker it's creamier and a little better (i'm biased!). but you can also follow the recipe and put it in the freezer.

pumpkin pie ice cream

3/4 cup of cooked pumpkin puree or 1 small pumpkin - scooped and chopped into 1in pieces
1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 light brown sugar
pumpkin pie spice - to taste (or smell if you don't want to taste this), two good dashes is probably it

if you're doing this pumpkin puree from scratch, boil some water and put your pumpkin pieces in there and let them boil for a while like potatoes. in a short bit they're be super tender. drain and let them cool for a second. the rind will just come off. make sure all of it is off then put in a food processor and puree it. this can be store for a few days to be used later.
heat cream and both sugars in a small sauce pan until small bubbles form around the edges. don't boil it though. remove and whisk to make sure all sugar is dissolved. cool to room temperature.
if you have a hand mixer or better yet a stand up mixer, give yourself a high five. congrats, your life is great and your kitchen is clean. i don't have either so i use a whisk. whatever your level of appliance, beat pumpkin puree, cream mixture and pumpkin spice until it's whipped.
pour mixture into ice cream machine and let it do it's thing.

depending on what kind of ice cream maker you have it can take longer or shorter but it should look like soft serve. it will thicken up in the freezer.

another thing i did was add fixins to the ice cream. i baked a graham cracker crust and broke up pieces and added them to the ice cream just as it was almost done thickening. i was influenced by nice cream that always has pieces of food in the flavors (ie. blueberry pie flavor had piece of crust) but you can also just eat it the way it is.


so today we had chris and tricia over for dinner and i made carrot soup and wilted kale and leeks. for the last few weeks we have received so many carrots in our csa that to be honest, i had become overwhelmed. several stews and cole slaws later, we still had our weight in carrots. (don't worry a carrot cake is coming!) but it's soup weather so carrot soup it is.

a word on carrots. this may sound predictable on my part, but seriously, organic carrots taste the best. i have made this soup with carrots from the store and it's still good but the organic carrots add something extra. the only thing i would do is make sure that you peel your carrots if they're not organic. i'm not completely convinced that organic is always the most important factor but i do make sure i buy organic for a few things. carrots and potatoes being two. these grow in the ground and soak up the nutrients in the soil. if the "nutrients" are actually chemical fertilizers they soak those up too and store them in their skin which you should not eat. but if it's organic then there are no chemicals, just dirt, which isn't bad for you. (not to be gross, but i rarely wash my vegetables- dirt isn't bad!)

ok, on to the cream of carrot soup

1/4 cup butter
5 medium carrots, chopped finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup rice
1 cup heavy cream

in a large pot, melt butter.
add veg and cook until tender-ish about 15 minutes.
add stock and rice and cook until completely tender.
drain, save the liquid and put all the chunks in a food processor.
add puree back to the stock.
whisk in cream, season and heat up again.

can be kept on low heat and saved until your friends get there, in case they are running late.

the kale and leek is easy. chop them up and pile them high in saute pan. pour olive oil over them and cook on high and watch them wilt! season with salt and pepper and cook them until they're the right crunchiness for you.


hope you're enjoying the fall.

love,
keighty

ugh.

i apologize for formatting problems. for some reason that last post was far too hard for blogspot.

love,

keighty

i need dinner. where can i go?!

Anna wanted to know where you can shop around here to find good food. Here's a list of places I go. 

The Green Grocer

1402 W Grand Ave

(312) 624-9508

-staff is really nice

-beer/wine pairings on tuesdays!

-you can get blue marble products here

-they have really great wine

-for the most part they have only things bought from farmers at the markets, it's where you can go when the markets are over for the day

-have nice cream ice cream! 

Stanley's Fruits and Vegetables

 N. Elston Ave 

(773) 276-8050

-everyone loves stanley's

-he buys produce from farmers when it's about to go bad, so it's super cheap

-they usually mark what is not local so you know

-they make their own chips now and they have a deli- it's out of control

-they have pasta, some canned goods and bread, but don't count of them having everything. bank on the veg. 

-they have a ton of spices! 

Whole Food Market

various locations

-ugh. go here if you have to. 

-they do have a ridiculous selection

-i go here for those really weird things you can't find anywhere else

-they do buy some things from local farmers but the produce is usually not local

August: A Grocery Store

1500 W Division St

(773) 252-9560

-owned by a nice family

-have the staples

-different meat and cheese selections every day

-have some produce but sometimes they have dole pineapples, so check where it's from! 

-they have some bomb pasta, locally made

-cheap yeast

-have nice cream ice cream!

Chicago Green City Market

outdoor: in lincoln park, close to clark and la salle

indoor: peggy notebaert nature museum 2430 n. cannon

-where you should start

-they have bread, milk, cheese, meat, eggs, and of course produce

-easy to know where your food comes from here. 

Wicker Park Farmers Market

corner of wicker park and damen

-same as above but smaller. 

-has a special place in my heart because it's a really slow market

-ends oct 25th. 

Eat Well Guide

this is a great source where you can put in your zip code and find all the store, restaurants, farmers markets etc. -- anywhere in the country! 

seasonal food guide

featured guides by city

and of course you can get a csa... there are still some winter shares available! 

go shopping and find delicious food. 

love,

keighty

but besides the pumpkin pie...

last night we had our friends ali and brandon over for dinner. for the occasion i made peasant bread, the same butternut/acorn squash soup as before, rosemary/mushroom risotto and pumpkin pie.

the dinner was great but the pie was less so. without the cinnamon whipped cream i made it would have been a disaster. maybe the pumpkin wasn't ripe enough. either way i'm not giving that recipe until i figure out why it did not taste good. my polite guests finished their slices regardless of the taste. i think they just liked the whipped cream.

rosemary and mushroom risotto.

this is a fancy dish that is not too hard to make, even though everyone thinks it is. so you will look like a star in the kitchen with minimal effort.

1 cup arborio rice
1 cup milk
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 medium yellow onion, minced (in culinary school the trick was the make the onion the same size as the rice so that you couldn't tell which was which until you ate it.)
chicken stock
mushrooms, chopped, any kind you like
two good sprinkles of dry rosemary
salt and pepper
1 tbs olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup parmesan cheese

in a sauce pan pour about 3-4 cups of chicken stock - save the container because you may have leftovers. heat it on low. have a small ladle near by for scooping. next to the sauce pan, in a skillet heat up olive oil. add garlic and onions. sautee until the garlic starts to brown a little and the onions are translucent. add parsley, rosemary and mushrooms. lower the heat to a simmer and cook until mushrooms are soft. season with salt and pepper. add milk and stir in rice. when milk is absorbed add one ladle of chicken stock. stir the rice until the stock is absorbed - this is called au sec or until it's dry. keep doing this until the rice is cooked. keep tasting it to make sure. while i a big supporter of al dente pasta i am not a fan of al dente rice. if it's not done add more stock. be patient. when you feel that rice is done, stir in the cheese. cook for a few more seconds and serve right away.

it can be kept warm for a little while but it starts to get gluey. our guests were late and the rice sat for a while so it wasn't the best. but straight out of the pan all gooey and creamy. i almost died it was so good.


peasant bread.
another fancy looking thing that's really simple to make.

i saw mark bittman do his thing for ny times and he visited a bakery that makes this bread. it's so easy a 6 year old can do it - they say this several times.

3 cups warm water (100 degrees)
1 1/2 tbs dry active yeast
1/2 tbs salt
6 1/2 cups flour (all purpose)

put all dry ingredients in large bowl. mix together loosely. add water. stir. when it gets dough-ish. cover with a towel and let it rest for about 2-3 hours.
when you come back it will be huge! and dough may or may not be on the towel. there was dough on my towel.
get a floured surface ready. flour your hands well. reach in a grab a big grapefruit sized ball of this dough (save the rest) it's very wet and sticky so just get ready. plop this glob on the floured surface.  sprinkle with flour and lightly stretch it into a ball, folding the sides under to create a smooth top. then put this ball into a pie plate or cake pan, cover and let it rest for 2 hours. preheat your oven at 500 degrees. place a bowl of ice cubes at the bottom of the oven. bake the bread for 10 minutes at 500. lower the temp to 450 for another 10 minutes. then take the bread out of the pan and put it directly on the rack. lower the temp again to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes. check to make sure it's the color you want and put it on a cooling rack. then eat it.

the dough recipe makes a ton of dough and you can save it in the 'fridge for up to 2 weeks!

there are other ways to make this bread like with a dutch oven like in the video. but i don't have one so i did it this way. it still turns out delish though. plus the great thing about bread is that it tastes like bread regardless of what it looks like.

as lisa would say, stay classy, chicago.

love,
keighty

chili and co'n bread - is that inappropriate?!

but seriously.

chili and corn bread. or as my great grandpa used to call it, corn pone. why? i don't know. italians don't speak english well.

chili is the best.

there are many ways to eat chili but rarely is this delicacy found alone. not in my house anyway.

my favorite partner is fritos.

others are mashed potatoes and corn bread.

when it was my birthday and my mom would make me whatever dinner i wanted i asked for chili and fritos. so to honor my mom, since i just trashed her about steaming vegetables, i will write about chili. although her chili came from a can i still love the idea of it.

chili is in the same category as stews and soups. a group which rarely has down to the letter directions. with these things you taste as you go and add things as they come up.

that said....

tomato sauce - i used carmelita brand from august. you can also cook down your own tomatoes but i didn't have a lot of time.

1 onion - we had half a red onion and half a yellow onion so i used both. two halves equal one whole!

cumin

cayenne pepper

2 pinches of brown sugar

1/2 tomato - unless you like the chunks they use the whole thing

1/2 red pepper

1/2 serano chili pepper

2 splashes of darker beer (optional, i was just drinking one at the time)

you can easily add meat to this too, just brown it first and add it in. i didn't use meat because august didn't have any today.

chop up your veg and throw everything into the pot. cook on high until it starts to boil then simmer it for say, 35 minutes or so and let is simmer while everyone takes their time coming to the dinner table. shred some cheese on top and serve!

serve with corn bread. use the recipe on the back of the corn meal box. or if in a pinch use the blue jiffy box mix. the only mix i ever use. hot damn it's good. and oh so cheap.

like i said chili can be whatever you want, so do you thing with it.

enjoy and happy fall everyone.

love,

keighty

oh the wonders of cauliflower

upon returning home from my honeymoon i found a gigantic cauliflower in my 'fridge and decided it must be eaten. 'but i hate cauliflower', i tell myself. no. i hate steamed cauliflower. for some reason my mom felt that steaming vegetables was the best way to make them. in her defense i think everyone in the 80s and 90s did. but they are wrong. to quote amy poelher in baby mama, 'oh you are dead wrong'.

sauteeing, blanching or baking are the best way to eat vegetables. besides raw of course. steaming tastes bad, plus they're all sogged out and unless you drink that green liquid left in the pot, all the nutrients are gone. please don't drink that, that would be sick.

so on to this recipe.

accompanying sauteed sweet potatoes and herb and cheese biscuits i made crunchy cauliflower.

a lot of cauliflower
1 slice of bread - for crumbs!
cheese
2 tbs butter
salt and pepper

chop cauliflower into bite-sized chunks. take of the trunks of the trees! they taste bad. unless you like..ugh. throw your white trees into a baking dish. cover with grated cheese, bread crumbs and dot the top with butter bits. like if you were making a cobbler. season it up. bake at 400 until it's done. which is really quickly.

this is such an easy dish but i really liked it and so did raul. i don't know if it was the fresh cauliflower or just the fact that i wasn't eating a soggy piece of crap, but this vegetable is back in the game. give it a try. you'll like it.


but really, all that was just a way of getting to the main story. this is for jessica longeuay. they girl with too many vowels in her last name. but that's going to change. in honour of her engagement to the adorable mike takacs (forgive me if that's spelled wrong, according to spell check it is. he doesn't have a facebook how can i know the spelling?!) i am posting her idea about cauliflower mashed potatoes.

while i have not tried this recipe myself, i think i actually will. i'll let you know how it goes.

http://www.mealsmatter.org/recipes-meals/recipe/9906

while this one says to use butter and heavy cream, something which i think jess' co-workers would have not used, this is all i could find. if you're dieting, use 'i can't believe it's not butter'. the thing i don't get is, if you want something to taste like mashed potatoes why would you eat cauliflower? are potatoes bad for you? i'm going to research this weird problem.

anyway. jessica. we love you and mike and wish you the best!

someone tell that kid that's staring at my vespa to get a grip.

love,
keighty

summer's over, hooray for fall!

when i got to the market on sunday morning i walked past iron creek as i always do but something was different. the tables were not lined with tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce but instead something glorious was there: SQUASH! and SWEET POTATOES! and decorative baby pumpkins! that's right, friends. fall is here.

i am so excited. i cannot wait to eat stew and soup and squash and delish fall foods.

i got a big butternut squash, an acorn squash and two sweet potatoes. (also jane at seedling gave me a bottle of apple cider and that's fall too!) i also got sunflowers! my house is so fall.

after work raul and i had to run errands including replacing tricia's book that i borrowed and destroyed and getting pastry bags - see cream puff post. (i also ended up getting a yellow 3-cup food processor - cuisinart! on sale!

it started to rain and it got all scarf-ish outside so i knew it was time for butternut squash soup.

1 onion, chopped, pretty finely
2 tbs butter
1 lrg. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1 in chunks
6 cups of chicken stock
salt, pepper and nutmeg

in a large pot melt butter and add onions. sautee until translucent. add stock and butternut squash chunks. boil until chunks are tender. with a slotted spoon remove the chunks and put in a blender (or food processor if you have one that's bigger than 3 cups...) puree the chunks and put them back in the pot. whisk the squash back into the stock and onion mix until it's consistent. season with salt and pepper and nutmeg. ** careful with nutmeg! only use a tiny bit. i used two quick shakes. and always taste it before you add more. nutmeg is the silent killer of food - see beet cake post** put back on low heat until you're ready to serve.

my mouth is watering right now. i'm going to get a barrel for my kitchen where i can store all my squash and potatoes for the winter so i won't have to eat anything else until spring! yes. i am excited.

stay dry, chicago.

love,
keighty

cream puff update

upon further research about cream puffs i realized that you don't need a pastry bag to make them creamy! in fact most cream puffs are big puffs, half puffs filled with cream and topped with a lid. the little ones with the cream inside is a minority puff.

so to alter the recipe a little.

let them cool, but you before you devour them. cut each puff in half. spoon in a bit of the filling and put the lid back on. you can also get rid of the lid, but really, why? serve it with the lid on the side like a clam chowder bread bowl.

so while chris, tricia, and raul and i were held back by my ignorance of cream puffs you and your party will not.

vacation over.

ok so. i got married, my foot healed enough for me to walk, i went to catalina for two days, i found out i got replaced at the farmers market - a lot has happened. but most important is what kind of food did i eat while it was all happening.

while in california i can not remember eating dinner, except one time we ate hot dogs outside. i did eat some dinner at my wedding but i also broke a champagne flute while making fun of thomas so that pretty much made me not hungry.

but i had some delish seafood while in catalina fresh out of the sea. that was refreshing.

we technically got home on wednesday but we were available on friday. so chris and tricia had us over for dinner. chris made mussels and rosemary beans and bread. i made cream puff sans cream and a salad - first vegetables in weeks.

the cream puffs are so easy to make. the only reason i didn't put cream in them is because i couldn't find my pastry bag and we had nothing to make a make-shift one with. so i dusted them with powdered sugar and moved on.

cream puff sans o avec creme.

1 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs

preheat oven to 450
in a sauce pan boil water, butter and salt. when it gets nice and boily, remove from heat and add flour all at once. stir it vigorously until it forms a ball. as soon as it does add one egg at a time. incorporate the egg completely before adding the next. on a cookie sheet (i also used my silpat mat to keep them from sticking but you could use parchment, or just grease the pan really well. this egg fest of a cream puff will want to stick to the pan for sure) spoon out bits of cream puff batter. so, these things get pretty big - i put 12 on the pan and that was all the batter and they were really filling. you can make them smaller for sure too, just do it in a few batches.
put puffs in the oven for 10 minutes at 450. after 10 minutes drop the heat to 350 and bake for another 25 minutes. you're freaking out right now and saying food can't tell time, it's done when it's done -- but remember, eggs are the smartest and most evolved food, they can tell time and since this dish is mostly eggs, cream puffs can also tell time.
let cool and devour.

now do your thing as far as filling goes. i used powdered sugar on top but you could whip up some whipped cream you could make a cream cheese filling... sky's the limit.


glad to be back.

love,
keighty

foot injury and one last hurrah.

so it's wednesday night and i'm excited about seeing the handsome devilz - yes, a smiths cover band. they were playing with mr. gray - a joy division cover band. so great. so we get off the train and we're walking towards the club when i fall of a broken sidewalk and hit the ground hard. glasses go flying, i cut my leg and i'm dying. it hurts so bad. BUT i must see the smiths so i keep going limping. but suddenly i can't take it anymore and my sandal is too tight and i make it to a bus stop bench and hold back the tears. after calling everyone we know with a car and getting all of their voicemails i hopped back to the train and mogan carried me down the stairs. fast forward to drinking a corona and crying about how i can't afford to go to the doctor.

now i'm working from home and the only thing i've eaten is the soup that alicia left on my back porch - thanks girl. this is my way of saying that i won't be cooking for a while. since my cooking style involves flying around the kitchen, forgetting ingredients and burning myself it will be a while before i can get in there without my stupid stupid crutches.

i'm very sad but i will be back soon after the wedding probably. but i got a new wok set and a mandolin so far so we'll be cooking soon.

watch out for cracks in the sidewalk!

love,
keighty

p.s before i broke myself i made roasted green pepper and ricotta raviolis.

to roast the peppers simply light them on fire. the easiest cooking technique! turn on your store and just put the pepper right on the fire. keep turning it to get all the skin nice and charred. once it's all black, put them in a zip lock bag, get the air out and seal it. let it steam for a few minutes. then rinse the peppers and peel off the charred skin. it should come right off. save the green parts. once you have all the green bits, chop them up into tiny, mushy pieces. throw in a bowl with a few spoons of ricotta, salt and pepper and mix together. then put in the 'fridge for later.

pasta dough.

3 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
a tiny bit of water
1 tsp olive oil

make a well with the flour. in a separate bowl beat the eggs. pour the eggs and oil into the well. then slowly incorporate mixture. add water to make the dough form. use a little - you can always add more, but don't use too much! once you get a dough, knead it for a while. cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. roll out dough on a floured surface roll out the dough as thin as you can. if you have a pasta roller - get that crap out and use it. use a biscuit cutter and cut out circles. each circle has a partner so make enough! fill each circle with just enough filling. don't overfill because they'll explode everywhere. top with the partner circle and crimp with a fork. let rest, covered, while you make the sauce

milk

two pinches of flour
3 tbs butter
salt and pepper
pasta sauce - preferably tomato mountain brand

pour milk into a pan - the amount that you need for sauce - maybe a cup. add butter and flour. whisk together on high heat. keep whisking and watching while it boils and reduces until it is the thickness that you want. add pasta sauce and whisk together. serve on top of the raviolis.

enjoy.

polish day - blueberry perogi...

in honour of blueberry season denise and i made blueberry perogi! these are the polish answer to the potsticker. they make denise so excited and they're really delicious.

i learned her secret family recipe but can't repeat it - because it's in polish.

the only problem is is that it's all polish - measurements etc... but denise says you have to go to a polish grocery store and get all the ingredients... no english! except we used mick klug's blueberries. $20 for a 5lb box!


from watching her i can figure that the english translation is this.

1/2 kilo flour
1 egg
2 cups warm water
4 tsp oil
a pinch of salt (but we forgot that)

you can make whatever filling you want. obviously we chose blueberries. we filled a bowl with blueberries and coat them well with sugar.... polish sugar, and let it sit in the 'fridge.

mix is like you're making pasta. start with flour and make a well in the middle. add egg. then slowly add water a little at a time while you slowly incorporate it all into the flour. keep doing that until you have a dough. onto a floured surface drop this dough and roll as thin as you can. get a biscuit cutter and cut out circles. fill each circle with a bit of filling, fold them, and crimp the edges with a water-wetted fork (like ravioli).
boil a bit pot of water. once you have a rolling boil drop in a few perogi. and just like raviolis they will pop to the top of the pot when they're done. let cool for a few minutes and eat!

if you want to be extra fancy make some whipped cream to go on top.

1 pint heavy whipping cream
powdered sugar
vanilla

pour the whipping cream in a bowl and pour about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. (i don't actually know the measurements for the sugar and vanilla. just keep tasting it. if it tastes like milk, add more). start whisking - fast. keep doing it until it's whipped cream. you can also you a hand mixer or a stand up mixer if you have one.

enjoy!

love,
keighty

fancy mac and cheese

mac and cheese is one of my favorite dishes. and you can still have it if you've given up shopping at the super market or eating food out of boxes. all mac and cheese doesn't start with elbow macaroni and powder cheese! phew.

first i want to take a moment to share my knowledge of macaroni. i am in super debt from the culinary school escapade so let me use what i learned! macaroni is the name for dried pasta, as opposed to fresh pasta. fresh being pasta that you make, let sit for a second, then throw in the pot. that pasta takes 30 seconds to cook, dried pasta, as you know takes longer. if you've never made your own pasta is incredible. it tastes ridiculous and, like baking bread, gives you this sense of wonder and excitement that you created something that you thought you only buy at the store. no one makes bread or pasta, they buy it! but someone made it and you can too! but for the time being we'll use this great pasta that i found at august that is made in chicago. you can also you pasta puttana but it's not bite-sized. 

all that to say, mac and cheese is just dried pasta and cheese. so you don't have to limit yourself to elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese. just because kraft says that's mac and cheese does not mean that's the only way. plus kraft says a lot of things that aren't true. so let's leave them now. 

pasta - penne is my favorite - i think it stems back to this time in my life when i would go to the market city caffe with my friend natalie and have fancy lunches. back when we worked so much and had nothing to spend our money on because we didn't drive and had no bills. we would always order chicken penne with cream sauce, no broccoli, every time. plus i really don't like slurping up spaghetti, it's unlady like. 

cheese sauce...

i got this recipe in an hilarious place. from a 'friends' cookbook. like the tv show. there are a lot of stupid recipes in there but this one is really great.

1 cup milk

3 tbs butter

1 1/2 tbs flour

1 1/2 lb of cheese -- any kind! i used a mixture of this ridic goat cheese and some cheddar

dash of cayenne pepper

start boiling the water for pasta.

heat up milk in a small pan.

melt butter in another pan until foamy. 

add pasta to water.

stir in flour and cook for two minutes.

slowly whisk in milk, until smooth.

continue cooking on low heat until mixture turns to cream (about five minutes)

add cheese, salt and pepper to taste and a little cayenne. 

drain pasta. put back in pot and pour cheese all over it! 

for extra fanciness add tuna! this is a far cry from laurel's m'n'c dinner  but it is equal if not better in taste... 

enjoy!

love,

keighty

appetizers for dinner.

i should apologize for my long absence. my sister, julie, was diagnosed with polycystic kidneys , i had bridal showers in california, i'm having a terrible time feeling comfortable in my own home. a lot of things have been going on with work. needless to say i've still been cooking so i'm going to update all my most recent dishes.


i got this cookbook called 'plates to share' and it's full of dinner menus that are made up of appetizer sized portions - a whole bunch of them.

for dinner i made mini pissaladieres - essentially mini french pizzas. this is the night i learned my family does not eat green olives but at the time i thought everyone did.

9oz frozen puff pastry (i do use frozen even though i make a lot of bread but puff pastry takes soooo long to make, yes all those Os are necessary.)
 1 1/2 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced - in season right now, delish.
5 tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tbs dried herbes de provence
2 1/2 anchovy fillets, halved lengthwise (i actually skipped these, not because i don't like them, because i do! but because they were $10 at the store. plus raul and alisa probably would have taken them off anyway)
a small handful of green olives (or olive of your choice)
salt and pepper
grated havarti cheese (i added this. the nuttiness of the cheese mixed with the sweet onions and salty olives was perfect)

preheat oven to 400 degrees.
unroll pastry dough and use a pastry cutter to stamp out 20 circles. (i do have a pastry cutter but if you don't you can also use a drinking glass or something else round. you can even cut them out yourself with a pastry wheel aka. a pizza cutter) refrigerate until needed.
heat olive oil in a large sauce pan (actually a small pot, not a frying pan - confusing!). add onions and season will with salt and pepper. cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. add garlic, sugar and vinegar. reduce heat and gently saute for about 20 minutes until onions have caramelized. remove pan from heat.
Place the pastry circles on baking sheets and divide the onion between them.
arrange the anchovies (if you have those) on top, sprinkle with herbs and add a few olives.
here's where you grate a little cheese on top. you can do it again after they come out of the oven if you want.
bake for 25 minutes or until crisp.

i served this with fried bananas and zucchini.

the fried bananas are not really fried but i don't know what else to call them.

chop a banana into bite sized pieces. i used a real banana, not a plantain.
heat up a little bit of olive oil in the pan.
add bananas, placing them in there, rather than having a big pile. make sure each piece is touching the bottom of the pan.
sprinkle with sugar and salt and pepper.
flip them and repeat sprinkling.
serve warm.

i did the same thing with the squash.


hope you have the best dinner.

love, keighty

mini vacation for raul's birthday.

raul had his birthday last sunday. my dad was in town and we had a bunch of people over for dinner and it was too busy to make dinner. so my present to raul was a date night. a night away from the kids. simultaneously, raul got a great review at work, got a raise and a bonus! we went on hotwire to get the next cheap hotel room downtown. we found one for $90 at the swissotel right on the lake on the 29th floor!. we made a fancy dinner and packed it in tupperware, bought some champagne and then we got on the train to check into the hotel. it was a really nice night and that hotel is super fancy.

anyway here's the menu for the fancy birthday dinner.

portabella bella mushroom, chicken, squash quesadillas with a little spice
pan roasted potatoes with onions
homemade ranch dressing with assorted veg
fruit salad ala mick klug farms

quesadillas

1/2 squash - zucchini, chopped
2 small chicken breasts
1 portabella mushroom, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, fine dice
4 taco sized tortillas
grated cheese.
refried beans 1/4 can
3 tbs butter

melt 1 tbs butter in sautee pan. sautee veg. add jalapeno, stir well. you don't want one giant bite of jalapeno... or maybe you do if you're raul. set aside
cook chicken however you see fit - grill, bake, or pan fry like i did (p.s pan fry does not mean fry... this isn't kfc in other words, just cooked in a pan) set aside
lay out tortillas and layer the beans and top with the rest of the fixin's top with cheese. fold tortilla in half. repeat two other times.
melt 1 tbs butter in sautee pan and place two quesadillas in the pan and brown both sides. repeat with the last bit of butter and the last two quesadillas.
cut the quesas in half.

ranch dressing

1 cup milk
1 cup mayonaise
1 tbs chopped parsely
3 cloves garlic, chopped
salt n' pepp

mix it all together and refrigerate.

potatoes and onions.

self explanatory but just don't rush it. let potatoes and onions cook as long as they need on low heat.

by the time we got the hotel the food was a little less than warm but it was still good so when you make it at home and eat it hot it'll taste even better.