How Green is My Garden…

Posted on by
Reply

Anyone can stop by the market on the way home and for pennies (nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars) pick up veggies for dinner. Some people prefer to grow their own… veggies. This is a much more un-economical method of providing for your family. It requires work and luck and a bit of skill. Needless to say, (then why say it!) I started a garden this year. I planted 2 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, pole beans, cucumbers, carrots, scallions and two varieties of lettuce. I researched online about square foot, or intensive gardening and was able to fit this entire crop into a raised bed garden measuring 3 feet by 8 feet. I started many of the plants from seeds, but replaced several that did not take well with established plantlings.

Someone has been eating my pole beans!! Time to plant some natural pest repellents, marigolds, can you spell marigolds? Or maybe some crysanthomums, can you spell crysanthomums? (I can’t.) These flowers are supposed to keep most of the little blighters from my garden. We shall see… we shall see.

Hall of Famers don’t hit home runs every time…

Posted on by
Reply

Not every at bat will be a homer, some are base hits, sometimes you strike out.

Last night was an extra base hit. The flavors were good, the presentation adequate

but, for me, it lacked snap. The mahi-mahi recipe was good, not great. I won’t do it again and won’t post the recipe. The rice was very good (thanks to Keith B.) The dessert was a cake I saw online. Again the flavor was good but the presentation – no so much.

Rice: Cut corn from a fresh ear and saute in a little butter and EVO until tender. Boil about 3/4th’s cup of water with 3-4oz of tomato juice. Remove from heat, add rice, corn and a little cut cilantro. Let the rice soak up the liquid and fluff with a fork.

The chocolate rolls were excellent (tasted like tootsie roll) made from chocolate fondant and white gum paste. Full disclosure: usually I make my own fondant and gum paste, but I have not been able to make a good chocolate fondant. I bought this at Michael’s.

rolled together, cut into rectangles and rolled up loosely. The cake was too high for what it was. The layers should have been half as high, 1/2″ rather than 1″. the cake would have been lower resulting in smaller portions but easier to balance.

Cake: the cake is a white velvet made in a jelly roll pan.

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. In a small bowl, sift 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
  2. Blend shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Mix in the flour mixture. Add 3/4 cup milk; beat for 2 minutes. Add egg whites, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup milk. Beat well.
  3. Grease and flour 8 1/2 x 12″ Jelly Roll pan. Pour the batter into the pans.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake layers on a wire rack
The chocolate base for the cake is made by melting 2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate ( I use a double boiler) and adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of HOT heavy cream. Mix it well and when still hot and pliable spread a thin layer on waxed paper. The size should be about 1/3rd of the size of your cake pan.
Cut the cake into thirds so each will be about 8″ x 4″. Place the lower layer in the still warm chocolate. Frost the top of that layer with butter cream frosting. Add the second, and third layers with frosting in between.
I tried a number of ways to make the orange drizzle frosting. The easiest was to melt some apple jelly, add some orange essence and some orange food coloring. The best tasting was to mix 1/4 cup filtered orange juice (running through a coffee filter clarifies the OJ), adding 1 cup sugar and 1/2 packet of gelatin. I may want to cut back on the gelatin. bring it all to a boil then refrigerate until thick. Spread over the top letting it drizzle down the sides. Make a little royal icing (1 tsp meringue power, 1/2 cup powered sugar and 1 – 2 tablespoons warm water, depending on how thick you want the icing) and “glue” a chocolate roll on each piece of cake using the royal icing. Note: one of mine would not stick to the orange glaze so I pushed a toothpick through the icing into the cake.
Why is a nice easy chicken parmigiana, linguine and maybe a chocolate souffle sounding good to me? Or maybe wings at Bru’s room.

Beer Basics, my way

Posted on by
Reply

Beer contains only 4 ingredients, water, sugar (usually derived from the starch in some grain), yeast and hops (the flower of a climbing vine.) Brewing beer (ales in my case, but just calling all home brew beer is a little easier) is really quite simple. Extract the sugar from the grain in hot water then boil the sugar water.  Add different varieties of hops at different times during the boil. Some impart bitterness, some flavor and some aroma. Once the specified time is complete chill the wort (yes, it is called wort at this point) quickly.Yesterday (Oct 5) I used my new home designed and made wort chiller for the first time.

 Basically, it is a long coil of copper tubing connected at both ends to flexible tubing. One end is connected to a pump which is immersed in ice water the other end is put into the drain. The hot mixture from the boiler is put into the sink and the cold water is pumped through the tubing.

The cooling time went from 20+ minutes to Dilute the mixture to the specified amount (in my case about 5 gallons.) Once it is cool enough that it won’t harm the yeast you can “pitch the yeast”. (Add the yeast and aerate it well to mix some oxygen into the solution to aid inabout 10. These apparati are available online but use tap water for chilling. At 80 deg our tap water is not very efficient. The water going into the wort was 54 deg. Initially the exit water was 140 deg. That went down quickly at first the more slowly as the wort cooled and the temperature differential reduced.fermentation. Cap it with an airlock and wait. There is an initial violent primary or attentuative phase where the yeast really eats the sugar like crazy. Then a second or conditioning phase occurs where some of the remaining fermentables (sugar) are still eaten by the yeast and converted to alcohol. If you don’t do this there are esters and phenols left which adversely affect the flavor of your brew.

After 3-4 weeks add a little more sugar and bottle the batch.  After 2-3 weeks (or more) in the bottle the yeast will have converted the new sugar to alcohol and produced a by produce, namely carbon dioxide, which gives the brew its fizz.

Whew! That’s a lot but it’s not really that hard. Mix, boil, mix, cool, mix, wait, wait, wait, drink! It’s the waiting that is the killer.

It’s All About the Beer

Posted on by
Reply

It probably all started with beer. That’s not really true, it began with ale. Lagers must be fermented cool (45- 55deg F) are more difficult to brew here in Florida without some sort of cooling jacket. On the other hand, ales can be fermented at room temperature (75deg F) and not create some of the ester/phenol flavors created with fermenting lagers at our room temperatures

Garry P, Mike B and I started brewing at a brew house in Davie in October of 2006. When they shut down in 2008 we set up operations on my patio and list so many revisionists in the world, the history starts there.

We made quite a few batches of Home Brew since we started back on Day 1. (Did you know the day of creation for computers is Jan 1, 1900?)

Next I will give a short explanation of how to make brews that are better than any you can buy.

 

Except Parfaits, perhaps the bestest dessert there is

Posted on by
1

Chocolate Souffle, need I say more? This is the first  try. I sprinkled powder sugar over the top as I thought perhaps all the sugar inside and chocolate would be a bit tart?
The second version used some vanilla ice cream to enhance the calories. The last version used the vanilla ice cream again but then balanced that with a chocolate glaze drizzle.

You know, Donkey may have been wrong.

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons (1 oz.) unsalted butter
2 large eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup (1 oz.) confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur

1. Lightly butter two 6-ounce souffle dish and dust with granulated sugar, tapping out excess. Set the ramekins on a small baking sheet.Set aside.
2. In bowl over saucepan of hot water (not boiling)or in a microwave, melt chocolate with butter.Remove from the heat and whisk until glossy and smooth. Stir in the chocolate liqueur and the salt.
3. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form, and beat in 3 tablespoon of the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form.
4. In another bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow. Beat in chocolate mixture until incorporated. Fold in one-quarter of the egg whites; gently fold in remaining whites. Divide into prepared container. (Can be prepared to this point and refrigerated for up to 4 hours or freeze for up to two weeks.)
5. Place dish on baking sheet. Bake in lower third of 375°F oven for 18 minutes or until puffed and the exterior is set but interior is still a bit loose and creamy and risen about 1 inch above the ramekin. Careful not to overbake. Dust souffles with powdered sugar (or ice cream or ice cream and chocolate drizzle) and serve immediately as is. (To bake straight from the freezer, unwrap the ramekins and set on a small baking sheet or jellyroll pan. Let them sit for 20 min. while heating the oven to 400°F. Bake on the baking sheet until puffed and risen about 1 inch above the ramekin, 18 min.)

Tomato Squash Casserole even Fran would eat

Posted on by
Reply

The Porterhouse steaks were still on sale at Fresh Market for $7.99/lb. We decided a second carnivore night fit out budget. Last time I made the aBatteredOldSuitcase-wide famous garlic cheese roasted red potatoes with garlic tomato/green-been veg. I needed another hook to trick, er no, convince, yeah that’s the ticket, another dish for Fran to eat veggies twice this week. Tonight I made the post titled Tomato Squash Casserole.
Here is how I made this:

For the two of use, I used:

  • One small yellow squash, (I wanted acorn squash but apparently it is not in season here now) steamed for about 10 min or until soft enough to mash.
  • I like to reduce the plum tomatoes by cooking them down in a small skillet and making them a bit thicker.
  • Mix one egg, a couple of table spoons of heavy cream but not so much that it overwhelms the egg and other ingredients.
  • 3 or 4 scallions from the end to just into the green stem, cut small. If you like onions, use more
  • Some diced green bell pepper. I like bell peppers so I used about ¼ of one.
  • I wanted to use stuffing but we didn’t have any, so I made some toast and cut it into small pieces, about 1/2” square.
  • 1/8 to ¼ cut grated Parmesan cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Mix the egg, cream, squashed squash, peeled and reduced tomatoes, scallions, green pepper, toast cubes and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl. Transfer the mixture into a greased or sprayed casserole dish. (I used one of my new au gratin dishes)
  • Sprinkle with rosemary
  • Cover the dish with thin sliced tomatoes
  • Sprinkle with 2-3 table spoons of Feta cheese
  • Bake for 45 min at 350 F or until slightly browned.
  • We ended up with enough for 3, but better a little to much that still wanting.

This was paired with the still on sale Porterhouse steak ($7.99/lb. at Fresh Market) and a Black Ale bottled Sept 5, 2011 with an approx. 4% ABV.

You Know How to Whistle, Don’t You?

Posted on by
Reply

It’s early October and if I were only 42 years younger, I would be back at school.

But I’m not and its football season, time for tailgating, beer and hot wings. Ok, we gave up our Dolphins tickets (good decision this year) and we are not tailgating any more. HOWEVER, I make these grilled buffalo wings that will knock your socks off. (I personally don’t wear them often, mostly sandals and I am not old enough to wear socks and sandals.)

Ingredients:

  • 8 small drumsticks (single serving)
  • 1 cup Louisiana-style hot sauce
  • 1/2 can of Coke (I use Coke Zero as I am so health conscious)
  • Cayenne and black pepper to taste (more than 1/4 teaspoon is a lot, I use about 1/2 teaspoon of each.)
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
Warm the sauce (I used the extra burner to the left, but then move it to part of the grill. The burner is too hot and it boils constantly causing the sauce to thicken too much.) Soak the wings in the sauce for 10 min, then grill on low for 10 min. Repeat 5 cycles (I CANNOT stand underdone chicken. 90+ min is fine with me.)
If you want your wings milder add more soda and don’t put the wings back into the sauce when you take them from the BBQ the last time. If you like them HOT put them back in the sauce as you bring them inside.
Choose your home-brew/wings pairing (for me it was a Big Honkin’ Stout, bottled May 28, 2011 and wings.)
Now, after the last wing your beer should be gone. At this point you may want to form your lips as if you were going to whistle, instead, breathe in, then relax and exhale, Repeat for a while, you will be fine.

Pies, Pies, Pies, Pies….

Posted on by
Reply

Raspberry

What do you do when left home alone for a week? It obvious isn’t it? You cook whatever you want! I decided this would be desert week (plus one “Dave’s Dinner” that I only make when Fran is not home.)

This week was pies. To not be gluttonous, I decided to make mini-pies in little 5″ pie plates. The recipes all come from Allrecipies.comand I did not change them at all. I made a raspberry, a blueberry, a raspberry/blueberry and

Granny Smith Apple

an apple pie. It was a good time to learn how to lattice the crust of a pie. (Alone time is good for experimentation and practice, practice practice.)  Double wrapped in  Darnel wrap, they froze perfectly. I defrosted at 350 until no longer frozen, then nuked the serving for that night separately.

Blueberry

Blueberry/Raspberry

Garlic and Pepper Chicken

Posted on by
Reply

I remember we had some peppers in the fridge and I wanted to use them before they spoiled. While driving home i thought, why not cook them up with some chicken and plum tomatoes then throw in some fettuccine to make a dinner.

A little EVO in the skillet, burner on med-hi add the chicken and peeled tomatoes (Do you score an X in the end of the tomato and toss them into boiling water until the skin curls? Works great for peelin.) along with a little garlic, salt, pepper and any other spices you think will complement the dish. I used a Cajun blackening on the chicken before tossing it in the skillet. Let the chicken cook and tomatoes reduce (I drain some of the liquid off after 15 – 20 min) before adding the sliced peppers. I wish I had some green peppers for color, but I always use what is in the cupboard and fridge.

I cooked the fettuccine for about 8 of the suggested 10-12 min then threw it on the skillet on top of everything, cover and simmer for another 10 min or until the fettuccine is done to your liking