The Soup is Mocking Me

So there I am in my kitchen, gripped by spring fever, desperately wracking my brain for cooking inspiration, and all I can think about are strawberries, fresh garden greens, summer beer in big orange coolers, the smell of charcoal burning to that perfect gray….but nothing NOTHING came to mind for dinner. Please not another soup, the trademark of cold weather. (Is it possible the soup is mocking me?)Although this week’s weather has been gorgeous, I still had to scrape ice off my truck windows before leaving for work this morning. I am So. Over. Winter. For those of you who are also dancing to this particular song of sorrow: tadah! A recipe that covers both bases, it is simple and fresh but still hearty and bold making it perfect for this time of year. Also, it was husband-approved, which is a mighty feat for an entrée salad. Yes, its a temporary solution but hey, it'll be grilling weather in no time! You just hang in there, sport!

Almost-Spring Spinach Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

Fresh Spinach, stems removed and rinsed

Red Onion, thinly sliced

Portobello Mushrooms, thinly sliced

Feta or Cheddar Cheese

Hardboiled Eggs, sliced

Bacon, cooked and diced

Olive Oil

Red Wine Vinegar

Sugar

Dijon Mustard

Black Pepper

Chop your spinach into whatever size pleases you. Mix onion, mushrooms, cheese, sliced hardboiled eggs, and spinach. Place your bacon pieces in a separate bowl, preferably when they’re still warm. Drizzle two parts olive oil to one part red wine vinegar over the bacon. Add a squeeze of Dijon mustard, a palmful of sugar, and black pepper to the mix and stir. If you really want to make this bacon-y, you can use some of your bacon grease in the vinaigrette instead of some of the olive oil. I don’t use salt in this vinaigrette because of the saltiness of the bacon. Mix the dressing well and toss with the salad mix. Make sure everything is well-coated and taste, adjust to preference, and enjoy!!

True Story, Real People

This is a conversation I had only moments ago with a friend on email chat. Prepare yourself for the genius! And yes, to answer your inevitable question, this is representative of an average conversation.

Me: “You don’t like guacamole!? How come?”

Him:  “Its green! Haha, no its not bad”

Me:  “Don't you like other green foods?”

Him:  “Green beans are so so…but peas are terrible!!”

Me: “ I like peas! You must've been a hard kid to feed!!”

Him:  “Just not a very big veggie fan. I love fruits tho.”

Me:  “You like corn. Everyone likes corn. Corn is the girl-next-door of vegetables.”

Him:  “Well, duh. And tomatoes n okra.”

Me: “Tomatoes are fruit.”

Him:  “…………..So does that make ketchup a smoothie?”

:)

Beer Cheese: A Tailgating Revelation OR Jordy Nelson is a Pimp

In honor of the most holy of Sundays -- SuperBowl Sunday -- we thought we'd take a beloved tailgating standby and kick it up a notch. What can we possibly do to Little Smokies to take it to the house? Oh yes....you know what's coming. I kid you not, this stuff is incredible and, more importantly incredibly easy to make! (We've got places to go, beer to drink....preferably in that order!) Below is my disjointed and somewhat freeform recipe for you all to try, adapt, and subsequently find your own perfect zen garden of cheesy goodness.

Beer Cheese

Garlic

Shiner Bock (You can use other beers but seriously...why?)

One bag shredded or 16 ounces Swiss Cheese

One bag shredded or 16 ounces Cheddar Cheese

Chicken Broth

Flour

First, chop the garlic and saute lightly in a small amount of butter until soft and beautiful. I only used one clove because my husband, we're pretty sure, is part vampire and extremely sensitive. Left to my own devices I would have probably used three. Add one and a half bottles of Shiner Bock and about a cup of chicken stock to the butter and garlic. Bring up the heat to a nice simmer, do not let it get to a hard boil. Dump your shredded cheeses into a big bowl and throw a handful of flour in with it. Toss to coat. Coat the cheese! This prevents the sauce from getting lumpy when the flour is added and you don’t have to go to all the trouble to babysit a roux. Who knew? Coat the cheese. Brilliant. Now add the cheese by handfuls to the beer, stirring regularly until its all in and it’s nice and smooth. Add a little S&P and you’re done, baby.


This amazing beer cheese sauce can be used for so many applications it will blow your mind. We used it this time to pour into a slow cooker with two packages of Little Smokies and a scoop of sauerkraut for what we call “Ballpark Smokies”. They were delicious! This could easily be adapted into a soup, a dip, a fondue; oh, the possibilities! I plan to employ this novel principle of  “Coating the Cheese” (not to be confused with the less popular “Cutting the Cheese”) the next time I make a cheese sauce of any kind.

On a side note....did anyone see Jordy Nelson (leading SuperBowl receiver and former Kansas State Wildcat) crash into the endzone for the first touchdown of SuperBowl 45?! Congratulations, Jordy! You did the Wildcat Nation proud.

A (Long Overdue) Cocktail Party Story

The instant I got the message stating that we and my in-laws would be having a small family Christmas at my house on the 23rd, admittedly I first experienced a shallow "oh shit" wave which quickly passed and the menu started immediately taking shape. I jotted notes on a Post-It at my desk and worked impatiently until my lunch break when I jetted out to my truck and upon my handy-dandy notebook penned these words "Cocktail Party Menu"....Challenge Accepted! There are a couple things you may keep in mind while reading this overtly enthusiastic account. 1) There would only be 8 people attending this Christmas party and 2) I started planning on about December 5th...I may or may not have gone a little overboard. Nonetheless! The party was on and I was going to make the most of the opportunity! My goal was to transform the traditional Christmas atmosphere from sleepy and predictable into a quirky little wine-soaked adventure. I ran the menu by my husband a few days before the event but, let's be honest, I was already set and unless his suggestions were additions, they would most likely have been politely nudged aside. (Sorry, honey!)

The 23rd arrives and I have the entire day to prepare but do I? No, of course not, being well-prepared would be completely out of character. I have to sleep in, go to lunch, and shop for ingredients the day of so that I'm not prepping until about 3:00 when guests are to arrive at 7:00. Yeah, that's more like it. My menu was broken down into three categories: Finger Foods, Sophisticates, and Substance (These categories exist nowhere but in my head). Careful not to choose too many new recipes for the occasion, I settled on a cohesive eccentricity of seven dishes. I start first with the slow cooker dishes. Cream Cheese Queso in one and Raspberry Jalapeno Meatballs in the other. Red and white, very festive. Out comes my trusty santoku and the chopping extravaganza begins! Bruschetta Two Ways, a classic tomato, mozzarella, and basil bruschetta and a fruit version.  For the fruit version, I substituted strawberries, mangoes, and kiwi for tomatoes and mint for the basil, covering the mixture with a sweet and tart pomegranate vinaigrette. Classic will be served with crusty sourdough and the fruit with toasted Hawaiian bread. A beautiful cheese, cracker, and fruit plate was a necessity and came together flawlessly; a French blue, local Alma Creamery Smoked Monterey Jack, and a brisk New York white cheddar. You just can't beat the flavor of blue cheese and grapes together with a stick! Next I started on the paninis, doing double duty as a substance and sophisticated component, the centerpiece of the table, drumroll please.......Turkey Cranberry Paninis.

The turkey was sliced especially for these sandwiches, no ordinary deli meat would do. I told the helpful lady behind the counter "when you think it is sliced a little too thick, that is perfect!" Layering thinly sliced red onion, fresh baby spinach, slices of Muenster cheese (an afterthought...had I considered needing more cheese I would've picked a different variety), and the turkey onto some springy sourdough, there was just one step remaining, the cranberry creation I'd dreamed up to take the panini from tasty to Buttery-Grilled-Christmas. In a fortuitous turn of events, I made allies with some adorable church ladies in the international foods aisle who directed me to the deli section for homemade cranberry sauce. It was incredible! A tad sweet for my taste and, I'm sorry to say, walnuts (Sorry cranberry sauce purists!) were mixed in. My plan was to blend some sort of cranberry chutney with cream cheese to make the critical cranberry concoction...what I didn't anticipate, as any second grader can tell you, is that red cranberry sauce and white cream cheese makes an eye-popping hot pink. (Eat your heart out, Pepto!) Too late to turn back now, I slathered them, stacked them, and smashed them into hot butter. The flavor turned out to be tremendous in spite of the off-putting neon spread. They were even delicious as leftovers, cold or crisped under the broiler.

Last but not least come the Union Square Bar Nuts and this is the recipe I'm going to pass on to you today. This recipe first came to my attention on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate: Snack Attack" episode as Giada's choice and man, she was not wrong! I repurposed a tin of mixed nuts I was given by a coworker for Christmas, tossing them in a delectable sauce of butter and seasonings that I'll share below. My precious herb garden struggling to exist in front of a back bedroom window generously provided the basil for the bruschetta and the rosemary for the bar nuts. The recipe below is Nigella Lawson's post on the Food Network website. I, true to form, did not follow the recipe exactly, (I used salted mixed nuts). Feel free to play with it...and make a big batch! It keeps much longer than one would think!

Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups (18-ounces) assorted unsalted nuts, including peeled peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans and whole unpeeled almonds
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar




Bear with me....I know this pic is atrocious.


• 2 teaspoons Maldon or other sea salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven until light golden brown, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt and melted butter.
Thoroughly toss the toasted nuts in the spiced butter and serve warm. And once you eat these, you will never want to stop.

The party was a success and the five empty wine bottles told me everyone had a good time! I'm sorry this post is so overdue. I will get back on the horse and get some fresh posts to you pronto! Happy Snacking!

I Want to Write!

If one were to reduce me to the very most basic elements of my being right now, I believe they would find wine, music, Starbucks, and cream cheese. These are what I feel I've been living on for the past month! Except of course, for the exception of music which is provided very generously by the near-constant radio playing in my head which provided me with a bizarre mashup of two songs this morning that no radio dj in his right mind would combine...it's a problem...and I've gotten distracted once again! (Raise your hand if you're shocked...no one?) The point of this post is that I want to blog! I do! My next post will include a detailed description of my first attempt at hosting a family Christmas "cocktail party" at my house and some recipes! Recipes!! Gotta go!

What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours?

And then God said, "Let there be Starbucks" and he tasted of the grande-caramel-brulee-latte-nonfat-with-whip and he saw that it was good....

Do you see those tiny little crunchy bits of heaven on top of the cream? That's toffee...that's toffee.... Not since the dulce de leche latte of a couple years ago have I felt so warm and tingly towards a coffee beverage. Yum. Get one.

So what's been goin' on? I haven't posted in awhile. I'm a little short on time today and am headed home for Thanksgiving tonight so I'll give you a quickie top five for November...

1. The Great Nacho Cheese Battle of 2010 - After an epic tailgate party at the Kansas State vs. Texas football game (GO CATS!), my husband, Matt and I inherited a massive bucket of nacho cheese. "Sweet!", we thought, "We will put cheese on everything!" So we dug in, covering everything with gooey, fluorescent orange goodness.



Nacho Cheeseburger with Grilled Cheese Buns and a Fried Egg (you heard it!)

 Day 1: Nachos  
Day 2: Cheese Fries  
Day 3: Enchiladas  
Day 4: Nacho Cheeseburgers  
Day 5: Tortilla Pizzas with Nacho Cheese Sauce  
Day 6: Why isn't it going away? 
Day 7: Please no...
Day 8: Make it stop!

Long story short, we still have an unnatural amount of day-glo cheese goop in a pan in our refrigerator that will not die. I hate to admit defeat but I'm quite certain concession stand-style nacho cheese would survive the apocalypse....you win, cheese....well played.

2. Smoked Wings Send Taste Buds Packing - For the aforementioned tailgate party, Matt and I lit our trusty smoker much to the delight of our friends and family. We threw in the old standbys, baby back ribs and pork loins, but decided to expand our culinary arsenal and try smoking chicken wings. I may or may not have been a teensy bit heavyhanded with the black pepper. All in all, they were a great first attempt, and with some adjustment of the seasoning, should be a new favorite. In fact, they were gone before Matt even got a chance to try them! We sauced half the batch, rolling them in Sriracha, butter, and honey, before returning them to the smoker. The sauced wings were my favorite. I once heard sweet and hot wings on Triple D called "meat candy" and snickered smugly. I now understand what you mean, lady in the diner, you're totally right!

3. A Veritable Pantheon of Culinary Giants - Food Network junkies! Lend me your spoonulas! In case you missed it, the newest addition to the Chairman's weekly circus of succulence, also known as Iron Chef America, is Iron Chef Marc Forgione. Unfortunately, my girl Chef Celina Tio, of Kansas City's JULIAN, didn't make it into the finals but I hope the national publicity brought her a winfall nonetheless! Iron Chef Forgione's first battle will be shown this Sunday in all of it's sparky, mohawked glory. My wine and I will be watching!

4. Back to Basics - Matt has challenged me/us to really learn to perfect the classics in preparation for our potential future food service business. What if someone asks for meatloaf? Just a meatloaf -- and we can't whip up the most delicious meatloaf they've ever eaten? What kind of restauranteurs does that make us? So last night, I pounded out a homecooked, fairly well-rounded meal of what I called Meatloaf Rollatini, Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, and Green Beans. The meatloaf was mixed with spices, caramelized onions, and garlic, along with all the normal meatloaf fixin's, then filled with fresh spinach and parmesan cheese, rolled up and baked with the traditional zigzag of ketchup along the crest. The potatoes were sliced and layered in a pan with a quick cheese sauce made with cheddar and Italian cheeses, then topped with french fried onions and baked. The green beans were blanched and combined with crispy ham and sauteed mushrooms in a smoky liquid so simple yet tasty that I'm not sure I want to share it quite yet. It took Matt at least five minutes to make a comment because his mouth was full so it must've been good! Next I'm going to attempt a chicken fried steak and some Mom-style icicle-melting potato soup. Stay tuned!

5. Gravy Day! - Let's face it -- the turkey isn't the real MVP of Thanksgiving. Gravy is! Gravy gets the most playing time and packs the most punch. If I had a giant foam finger that said "Go Gravy!" I would wave it at every meal. Foodies, carnivores, and traditionalists unite! This week we celebrate one of the most exciting and anticipated food holidays of the year! Thanksgiving is the only federal holiday that isn't predominantly commercial and truly focuses on the family and, of course, the food. My tip for this year's dinner: Keep it simple. I have been assigned Spinach and Artichoke Dip and Homemade Mac and Cheese, dishes I've made several times. My solemn vow is to keep it simple, do it quick, and try my best to enjoy the day. I hope you all do the same! Oh right, I almost forgot, Tip #2: Buy plenty of wine. But of course you already knew that.

Let the Binging Begin!

bad cell phone photo by me

In honor of some VIP houseguests flying in last night to stay for the weekend, and influenced by the late hour of the flight arrival, a "welcome dinner" was required. What does one make to welcome folks to a much colder part of the country on a dark, windy night, knowing these particular visitors live predominantly on take-out and Happy Hour? Lasagna! Brilliant! Gracefully accompanied by a tangy spinach salad with red onion, fresh mushrooms, pine nuts and feta, coated oh-so-lightly by my favorite homemade balsamic vinaigrette and some buttery whole clove garlic french bread.. . Was it the gooeyness of the generous slabs of melted mozzarella? Was it the Giada-inspired bechamel/tomato sauce peeking between the layers? Was it the two bottles of wine? No matter! Dinner Success!!