A Bit of Everything Casserole Type of Post

Yep, this post is going to have a bit of this and that, just like the best casseroles.  It won’t however have the usual can of Cream of Mushroom soup.  Instead (since it’s been so long since I last posted) it does contain a bit of ketchup.  Get it??  Ketchup, catch up…  Yeah, that was horrible…

First, like I’ve done on my other two blogs, I should mention that it’s been a busy summer.  Not only did my wife finish up her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, but we also moved from Madison to the Twin Cities (of Minnesota) as she found a job here.  Also in between her getting her doctorate and moving, we went on a trip to Ireland for two and half weeks.  Looking back it was a strange moment in life – the hectic time of packing/moving from one place to another, but also having this relaxing “not-a-care-in-the-world” trip right in the middle of it.

Food wise, Joan and I had a lot of great food and drink experiences as we circumvented the green isle.  However, as I have too many good pictures to share, I’ll have to leave that for another post.  (I promise it will happen though because I already have a start on it.)  For now, here’s an Irish food teaser.  It’s a pic of a new recipe that has quickly become a favorite, Dingle Pies –

Although we never actually had them when we visited the town of Dingle, we thought this was a great meal to make while showing our Ireland pictures to both sets of parents.  Similar to a Cornish pasty, a Dingle Pie is a meal in itself, but of course is not a bad idea to have with a side salad of greens.  We found the recipe in an Irish cookbook and set upon making it a bit simpler, using refrigerated pie dough instead of making it from scratch.  Not needing to hold myself to more promises, I’ll be sure to share this recipe on the blog as well.

Besides new recipes, I’ve also been trying a new cooking technique – grilling!  Our new place has a ground level cement porch so we finally had the perfect spot for a grill.  We just bought a simple charcoal grill, a classic black Weber, but it’s already done wonders.  Whether it’s been burgers, hot dogs, chicken, or veggies, the grill has been a blast to use.  It’s also been great enjoying all the food from it, with the smoky charred taste that only charcoal can give.

Lastly I missed commenting at all back on August 15^th, the day that would have been Julia Child’s 100^th birthday.  Of course I’ve always been enamored with Julia Child.  I always think back at my college semester spent in Washington, DC when I interned at the Smithsonian.  At the Museum of American History they have reconstructed her kitchen from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Moved piece by piece from New England, it’s set out exactly how she had it.  There’s also a video monitor playing various moments from her TV shows.  I would just sit there, letting my eyes explore the kitchen and watching those classic moments of early culinary television.  Other visitors would move through, but I would remain for long periods, even through multiple cycles of the video monitor track.  I don’t exactly know what it is about Julia that I like so much, but to attempt to sum it up – she loves food, loves making food, but also makes cooking/baking approachable.  

With all that said, here’s a remix PBS made about Julia Child.  While I’m never sure if I should laugh or cry at what the creator of this video has done with Julia’s TV clips, I thought it was at least worth sharing.

Recipe: Taco Casserole

I’ve not been the best about posting anything here for awhile, so in an effort to get some “foodie” writing jump-started, I’m going to post a couple favorite recipes.

My wife and I made taco casserole the other night, which made me think that I’m much overdue sharing the recipe here on the blog.  This taco casserole has been a favorite meal of mine since my mom first started making it back when I was in junior high.  Now I think my wife likes it even more than me!  When I plan out meals at the beginning of the week, she requests it nearly every time.  Originally we used the normal recipe but we now have made a few alterations.  The changes keep the taste the same but bring down the fat and calories.  

Here is the original recipe, verbatim from my mom, first.  The recipe after is the adjusted healthier one – 

Original recipe:

1 lb. ground beef

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

1 small carton sour cream

1 large bag Doritos

1 tube crescent rolls

Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Onion, diced

Green pepper, diced

Tomato, diced

Additional shredded cheese

  

Brown the meat, drain.  Add taco seasoning mix, following directions on the package.  Add sour cream.

Spray a 9 by 13 glass baking dish with non stick spray.  Line bottom with crescent rolls.  Crush chips and arrange half of them evenly on top of the rolls.  Scoop meat mixture in an even layer on top of chips.  Top with remaining chips. Bake 20 mins at 325 degrees.  Add a layer of cheese and return to oven until cheese melts.  Serve with toppings (the onion, green pepper, tomato, etc).

Edited, healthier recipe:

2 x 15 oz cans of black beans

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

1 small carton sour cream

1 large bag Baked Doritos

1 tube reduced fat crescent rolls

Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Onion, diced

Green pepper, diced

Tomato, diced

Additional shredded cheese

  

Open cans of black beans and drain, leaving juice a few tablespoons of the liquid from the can.  Place beans in a bowl and add the taco seasoning.  (Depending on your tastes you may not want to add the whole package.)  Add sour cream to the bowl with the black bean mixture and mix.  Spray a 9 by 13 glass baking dish with non stick spray (or lightly wipe the dish with a paper towel and vegetable oil).  Line bottom with crescent rolls.  Crush chips and arrange half of them evenly on top of the rolls.  Scoop black bean mixture in an even layer on top of chips.  Top with remaining chips. Bake 20 mins at 325 degrees.  Add a layer of cheese and return to oven until cheese melts.  Serve with toppings (the onion, green pepper, tomato, etc).

If we had to pick, this household likes the black bean option.  However, go make the different recipes yourself and see what you think.  Either way I think you’ll be adding a new casserole to your stable of recipes. 

When All Else Fails... Make an Omelet

I was supposed to bike over to Mickie’s Dairy Bar, the local greasy spoon diner, to meet my coworkers for breakfast before work. The weather though had other ideas. I woke up at 5:00 to rain. By 5:30 it was a deluge that included lightening which continued through 6:15 – well past my departure time to get to breakfast.

At that point I was up and wasn’t going back to bed. I would instead salvage my morning with a little diner like action of my own. I would get out the French press to make some coffee but more importantly, would scrounge up ingredients to make an omelet.

Growing up, my father didn’t do much in the kitchen, but he was king at fried potatoes and eggs. For the latter his specialties are egg sandwiches and especially omelets. He even put his omelet “recipe” in the church cookbook, listing your standard omelet fillings – i.e. ham, mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. – but then completed the list with the phrase “anything loose in the back of the refrigerator.” I would like to think that my omelet making skills are partly from my dad – and also from Julia Child. No really, I must have watched the French Chef omelet episode dozens of times by now…

This morning I decided on making a sensible two egg omelet. I cracked the two eggs into a bowl and added a splash of milk. Not everyone does this but that’s the way I’ve always known (how dad did it) and I swear it adds some fluffiness to the eggs. I whipped up the eggs and poured them into a very lightly oiled frying pan on medium high heat. There’s two important things right there. You can’t have too much oil, because if you do the eggs will just kind of bubble and sit on top of the oil and be messy. The pan also needs to be hot. If I remember right, Julia uses high heat, but I find medium high gives a bit more control.

The next step after pouring in the eggs is to swirl them in the pan. You can sort of stir / scramble them first (as Julia does) but I find that just swirling works fine too. Swirling the pan evenly distributes the egg in the pan to make the omelet even thickness. As it gets maybe halfway through setting, you then need to start prying at the edges with your spatula. You do this to make sure the edges come away from the pan when you want to fold, but also when you want to plate the omelet.

Once the omelet is about three-fourths cooked you need to add the filling to one side of the eggs. This morning I just put down a layer of cheddar cheese and some baby spinach. After the filling, then comes the tricky part – folding the omelet in half. This morning I happened to get the omelet cooked perfectly on the underside and had a good edge so I could really get the spatula under the egg and flip it over the filling. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it goes horribly wrong. Luckily it all tastes the same and I’m usually making an omelet for just myself anyway.

I have no pictures to prove it, but today was indeed one of those times it worked out – not only for my omelet but also for my morning. I didn’t get to bike to the diner this morning as I initially wanted, but as I sat down to have my perfect looking omelet with a nice fresh steaming cup of French press coffee, I was kind of glad it was pouring rain.

For Me, There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Corned Beef

My wife was away for the week last week, so that of course meant it was again time for me to make a large chunk of meat for my personal consumption. Last time she was out, I made a classic slow cooker pot roast, but last week with St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday I decided I needed to make some classic corned beef – as in corned beef with cabbage and potatoes. I of course always like Irish fair and corned beef is definitely not an exception. While I like the complete dish, I can say fairly confidently that corned beef itself is in my top ten favorite meats.

It made for a bit of a late night but I made my corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes (I used small reds), on Wednesday evening after getting home from work. Traditionally recipes from the British Isles call for boiling the hell out of everything and that’s basically what I did for this. I put the corned beef in a cast iron Dutch oven, added the seasoning packet, and added water to cover the meat. The pot was then brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer. The recipe then called for simmering the meat until tender which they said would be 50 minutes per pound. My corned beef was four pounds, but it did not take over three hours. It was nicely tender after just two. Once tender, I added wedges of cabbage and probably around twenty red potatoes. I let the Dutch oven continue to simmer for another half hour. At that point, the cabbage was getting starting to get a big soggy and overcooked, so I pulled it out. The meat and potatoes continued to cook for only fifteen minutes more. I scooped those out of the Dutch oven and let the corned beef for a bit before slicing and going to town eating my Irish meal.

It was about 9:30 by the time I sat down to eat, so I was starving. The corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes definitely filled me up quickly though so I was sufficiently stuffed. It probably wasn’t so good that I was stuffing myself so close to bedtime, but my corned beef meal couldn’t have been much better. The only things I can think of would be if I would’ve had some soda bread and a pint of Guinness. It’s stereotypical, yes, but would have just seemed so right.

Making a whole Dutch oven of food, you can guess that I had a lot of leftovers to go through. On Thursday, my work provided a lunch of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes for all employees so I partook in that offering but then skipped having my own corned beef leftovers that night. Friday night I did have some leftovers, reheating and again stuffing myself easily. Saturday morning though I did something special that I had planned for the leftovers. Corned beef hash!! I diced up the remaining potatoes, some of the corned beef, and even a small bit of cabbage. In a frying pan I heated some oil and quickly sautéed some shallot and garlic, then added the diced up leftovers after a minute. I stirred / tossed everything to get good mix of everything and then lightly flattened the mixture to the bottom of the pan. After a few minutes, the bottom side was browned and I flipped / tossed the mixture to do another round of browning. I browned the mixture one additional time and then dumped the mixture onto a large plate. It was a large breakfast for sure, but I always like good filling breakfasts on the weekends. It’s a much needed break from quick “milk and cereal” type breakfasts during the week.

On Sunday, I finished up what was left of the corned beef. I just sliced it up, reheated it in the microwave, topped it with good coarse-ground horseradish mustard, and put it between two pieces of wheat toast. It was a nice simply tasty hearty sandwich to finish off the meat. Sadly, I had to throw out the small bit of leftover cabbage as it was just getting too water logged and soggy. Still I can’t complain. The five straight days of corned beef were wonderful.