the agony of defeat

Shockingly, my experiments in the kitchen don't always turn out as good as I would like.  Tonight was one such experiment. 

First off, at first glance, I thought I had couscous in my pantry.  I wanted to make couscous with dried fruit and almonds.  It's so tasty and almost seems dessert-ish.  Next, I thought, why don't I mix ground turkey with some feta and some spices and make some meatballs. 

None of it worked out.

First I tried to make meatballs.  I had chosen the 97% fat free kind of ground turkey, and let me say, if ever there were a confirmation that fat adds flavor...'cause this stuff was taste-free.  I mixed in some diced onion, feta cheese, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I thought for sure that would help things.  I balled them up into about golf ball sized meatballs and put them on a pam-sprayed baking sheet.  Into the oven they went at 350 for 20 minutes. 

As it turned out, I had quinoa and not couscous.  I still chopped up the dried apricots and mixed them with the slivered almonds and the sultanas (golden raisins) while the quinoa was cooking...just so I could get my head around things.  I also realized...well, if I'm cooking quinoa, I should use broth.  And then I opened the pantry.  Sweet.  Just one cup of stock.  So the quinoa, after being rinsed thoroughly and toasted in the pan with a tiny bit of oil was cooked in one cup of chicken stock and one cup of water.  Not what I would normally do, but this was just the way the night was going.

The meatballs came out and despite being completely cooked, they looked anemic.  B-O-R-I-N-G.  Despite all the things that I put in the mix, they tasted as anemic as they looked.  Again I say...sweet. 

Then I thought, well, I'll just forgo the dried fruit and almonds (they were really for the imaginary couscous), and I'll add black beans into my quinoa.  I'll throw a little "house dressing" on it too.  I get the house dressing out of the fridge.  It's pretty much empty.  So I put what is left in the bowl and then went to make more dressing.  No balsamic.  It's at the boyfriend's house.  Strike85 against this meal. 

The boyfriend decided to add marcona (as he calls somewhat jokingly "maricopa county") almonds to his quinoa, black beans, and cut up meatballs.  He said he liked it a few times and that the almonds really made it. 

I had quinoa, black beans, a tiny bit of house dressing, and cut up meatballs.  A passable meal, but man, it was not what I had planned in my head.  I'll have to go and get some couscous to do my dried fruit/slivered almond meal. 

(As an aside, two nights ago I made leek/broccoli soup and put too much liquid in it.  The tilapia I made was fine, and actually tasted pretty good when piled into a bowl of the soup, but nothing earth-shattering.  Let's assume this was not the beginning of a streak of mediocre meals.)

Lemony Schnitzel

Okay, let me start by saying, I am a British Isles Mutt. I am not of Austrian extraction. So my version of weiner schnitzel would likely offend the purists out there. With the disclaimers out of the way, on we go.

As part of my "grand plans" purchases yesterday, I bought some thinly-sliced pork cutlets and a big package of baby spinach. After having had amazing schnitzel in Fredericksburg, I had been wanting to give it a try. Tonight my original plan was to make my Melting Pot Soup, but without the orzo or the sufficient chicken stock that plan was thwarted. One lemon left....schnitzel it is.

For those of you who might wonder did the breading puff up, the answer is no. I used bread crumbs. For my set up, I had a plate of two eggs (probably could have stuck with one) scrambled and another plate of breadcrumbs.

In the pan I used a little butter and a little canola oil (so the butter won't burn). Unfortunately, the fire was a little too high for the first two pieces, as you can see in the picture. I turned the heat down for the next two batches, and they came out perfectly golden and crispy. In between each batch I added just a tad more oil and a tiny sliver of butter to make sure there was enough to pan fry in.

As I had the cutlets out of the pan and on the drying rack (so they could drip any excess oil they might have), I decided to make a pan sauce. I deglazed the pan with the juice of one lemon and a little more butter to make the sauce shine. It smelled amazing. I probably could have added some herbs, but I didn't have any on hand.

In retrospect, there was a bit too much butter and too much lemon. Had I had white wine on hand (which I never have because I don't like it), I should have deglazed with a bit of that, thrown in some shallots, and then done about half a lemon.

I got to thinking that I need to probably also have some green. I decided that a big pile of baby spinach sprinkled with a bit of "House Dressing" with a couple cutlets on top. A little drizzle of sauce on top.

I think this will make for some very tasty leftovers too.

When you feel cruddy....

Recently I sent a message out to my friends on Facebook asking what they like to eat when they're not feeling well. The way I see it, there are three kinds of not feeling well. Headaches (I get the migraine kind), colds/sinus infections, and stomach issues are another. I guess just being down in the dumps or having the blues, as I often refer to it, is a fourth kind. So I'm adjusting my previous statement - there are four kinds of not feeling well.

When I have a headache, I'm often not hungry. The headache can lead into nausea, so situations one and three can morph from time to time. But typically in those cases, I end up just picking at food, not really eating anything of worth (and probably not anything that's actually too good for me). When it comes to stomach issues, Campbell's Chicken and Noodle (or Rice) Soup is a winner. Actually, Campbell's Alphabet Soup (I'm not sure what the official title is) with a splash of milk and some crushed up saltines wins in any situation, regardless of the ailment.

When feeling blue, the only solution is plain old comfort food. Down here in Austin, a great and cheap option is the "veggie" plate at Luby's. If you've ever seen King of the Hill when they go to a big cafeteria style restaurant with a bunch of blue-haired bitties...that's Luby's. It's extremely busy in the late afternoon....prime dinner time for the walker set. Their veggie plate includes three "vegetables" (which basically just means "non-meat"). I usually will choose two helpings of mac and cheese and one of fried okra (now you see why I put the word vegetables in quotes).

A small digression, I remember the first time I saw mac and cheese listed as a "vegetable" on a menu. There was this small Southern restaurant around the corner from my house in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This restaurant was as authentic as it could be in NYC, where the female chef walked around in her boots, played Lucinda Williams on the music system, and cooked some mean Southern comfort food. Delish. I believe it was there that I was first amused by a restaurant listing mac and cheese as a "vegetable." Sadly, that restaurant (as many in the high turnover neighborhood of Park Slope) didn't last, and I believe it has since been a wide variety of institutions including a sushi place, some sort of fusion restaurant, and a coffee bar.

But back to the "not feeling so hot" food parade. When I asked my friends what they recommend, there was an interesting array of responses. One friend suggested that hot Dr. Pepper with lemon is a great sore throat cure. (I can't believe I didn't try it a couple weeks ago when I had the worst sore throat. I'm sure there will be another opportunity.) There were the obligatory "chicken soup" responses, which, let's face it, is a good answer to just about any ill...book titles notwithstanding.

Now I've been sick for close to three weeks, so my culinary muscles are not so much looking for ways to flex. I have been leaning on cold fast food treats (frosties, ice cream sundae-type things, and so on). But tonight, I actually opened up a can or three. Back to my low-energy, no frills, feel better meal - a can of black beans, a can of corn niblets, and a can of tuna...plus a little House dressing (Good Seasons Italian Dressing) okay, a lot. Some Diet Coke and grapes, and a meal is made.

Wow...I sure am a gourmande.

Foul Foul

I hate breaking down cooked chickens. I learned in my cooking class how to break down a raw chicken (not that I remember how at this point), but one of the reasons I don't roast whole chickens very often (aside from not owning a roasting pan) is that I really think picking apart the cooked chicken is a pain in the butt. A secondary reason is that I think poultry is terribly boring, but that wouldn't really be the reason not to roast.

But as I mentioned in my last post, there was a deal at the grocery store for a rotisserie chicken with a free baguette and a free family-sized caesar salad. So I went for it. I got the chicken home, and the next day I was wrist deep in the greasy skin of the chicken while my dog was apoplectic due to the aroma. I pulled off the drumsticks and made a pile of skin and a pile of meat. I cut off the breasts, which remained mainly intact. And this is where I believe diminishing returns begins. I start poking around looking for more edible flesh. I pull off what must be the thighs, I pull off some some other little pieces here and there, and eventually I decide I've done my best.

I called my mother to complain mildly about the process. She said, "don't you just love picking the meat off the bones?" Uhhh....no. "Isn't it a great sense of accomplishment?" Uhhh....no.

All in all, I got some good meat off the bones. I've already had three meals and probably have another three using it, so that's good. Definitely good yield for the money. I had a couple small chicken sandwiches (using the baguette as well), and I did another one of my "casserole" dishes. I put some Uncle Ben's 90-second Whole Grain Vegetable Harvest Rice, some of my ubiquitous canned green beans, some of the chicken, and some of our "House Dressing" in a container together. Shook it up, and voila!

By the way, I don't know if I've ever explained my family's "house dressing." I'll leave that for another post where I'll talk about some family memories I have around food. As I say in the cookbook I'm slowly but surely putting together, memory is our sixth and possibly most powerful sense when it comes to food.

But I digress. The thing that I'm most looking forward to is boiling the devil out of that carcass with the Trinity (onion, celery, and carrots) all to make some great stock. That stock will, hopefully, be turned into my kinda wannabe Italian wedding soup that's not really Italian wedding soup. It's super tasty and has bok choy, sausage, orzo, and tons of goodness....especially if there's homemade stock. Yum.