Only Communists don't like Chili
For realz. No lies. Cake is good. Frosting makes it great.
I love sprinkles, and frosting, and cakes! The ones in the upper-right are Erin's. 
I had a pretty cupcake-heavy couple of weeks a little while ago and I’ve been meaning to post a bit about them here, so it’s about time to finally catch up! And really, who doesn’t love cupcakes? People without souls, that’s who.
Well, I suppose the happiest steak would be the one on a still breathing cow? But then I’d be unhappy, because I wouldn’t have had this awesome dinner. And I’m pretty sure my feelings trump the feelings of a farm animal. Also, vegans/vegetarians/etc, don’t hate. I love animals, I really do. I just love me some red meat as well.
But before we get to the goods, let’s have a Food Shenanigans moment of cooking safety. You see this plate? This is what happens when you put a styrofoam plate on a still hot burner. You probably shouldn’t do that. And if you do unthinkingly follow my poor example, you might want to hide it in the trash better than I did, so that maybe your husband [or wife] won’t find it. Of course, the burnt bits of styrofoam on the stove probably would have given me away eventually.
ANYWAY. On to the cooking. I had the best of intentions in following recipes for this dinner, but ended up just doing a mish-mash of the various recipes I had read.
First, I got the onions going, since they were going to take the longest. My goal had been to do an onion jam as a topping for the filet, but I couldn’t wait that long. So we ended up with delicious balsamic caramelized onions that were just short of the time and effort involved in becoming a jam. I sliced one vidalia onion and added it to a pan with 1 tablespoon of salted butter. They cooked over a low heat for about 20 minutes until they were a nice even brown, and then I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar. Then they continued to cook another 20 minutes or so, basically right until the steak was ready to be served.
Next, I halved and then parboiled a package of brussels sprouts and in another pan started cooking 4 ounces of diced pancetta. After about three or four minutes, I removed the brussels sprouts from the water and drained them. The pancetta was likewise removed from the pan, and put on a plate to crisp up. At this point, the sprouts go in with the pancetta fat and a tablespoon of salted butter for good measure. The sprouts were cooked until they were nicely browned and starting to caramelize, and then the pancetta went back into the pan along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
The best part of the meal, in a cruel twist of fate, was the easiest one to cook. I oiled the two steaks, put some Montreal steak seasoning on them, and then slapped them into the cast iron pan. They cooked about four minutes on each side, so my pan definitely wasn’t hot enough [I still need to experiment with it more], but I had my trusty meat thermometer out and cooked it to 120 degrees and then let it rest until it came up to 125.
Everything came out really well, and I was happy to have finally cooked a steak perfectly; I almost always ended up cooking it to more of a medium, than a medium rare, and it makes me sad. But not anymore! Now, I shall always have perfectly cooked meats. Also, because I’m a jerk, I sent this picture to co-workers last week to taunt them with its awesomeness:
Also, another indicator that the dinner came out really well? It’s husband approved! [He's eating noodles that I made for him along with everything else that are not posted because they're from a boxed mix.] Aww, isn’t he precious?
These tacos are delicious and not at all difficult to make. They will definitely be making another appearance in our rotation of meals, as the husband still talks about how good they were. I made them as more of a Baja-style taco, ’cause I loved the tacos at the greatly missed El Pelon and any way I can work more vegetables into what we eat is a-okay with me.
Along with the shrimp, I made some pickled cabbage, fried plantains, and corn on the cob. The pickled cabbage in particular is something I really enjoy, as the cabbage was still crisp, but had a great flavorful bite to it. I’m pretty sure I could have eaten this on it’s own, but that probably wouldn’t have made a good dinner.
The cabbage is being pickled in a mixture of a cup of rice vinegar, 2/3 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup water that was brought to a boil and then mixed into the cabbage along with a sprinkle of salt.
For the plantains, I sliced them kind of thick (maybe half an inch? .. actually, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t even know what half an inch looks like), then fried them in my cast iron pan until they started to brown. Then I took them out, salted them, and let them rest for a bit, and repeated the frying process again right before I was about to serve the tacos to crisp them up and warm them.
The shrimp were the easiest part, as I just tossed them with some spices (salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper) and cooked them quickly in a pan. I figured they didn’t need to have overpowering flavor, since I had the cabbage and also some fresh salsa I picked up at the grocery store.
Once everything was ready (which, by the way, was a personal best of mine in getting everything to be ready at the same time – I almost always end up with something being just lukewarm by the time I’m ready to serve the meal), I set up a little taco assembly line complete with shrimp, cabbage, salsa, warm soft tortillas. And the end product? Such a perfect meal for a warm spring night:
Also, you guys? Why do people have such a hard time spelling shenanigans? It’s a word that’s bandied about occasionally by our group of friends (thus, the blog name) but for real, when I check how the stats on how people find our blog, I’m kind of amused/bewildered by the many variations of shenanigans that come up: shennanigans, shanagains, shannagians, and my personal favorite, shennanigin. The funniest part is that at least half of the misspellings came from our friends – I guess the important part is that they tried to find us?
And cake. But who doesn’t like some late-night alliteration?
I got both strawberries and rhubarb in my farm share last week, so the logical thing to do with them seemed to be dessert. I’ve eaten strawberry rhubarb pie before, but had never seen raw rhubarb in person until this week. It’s so colorful!
As it turns out, I’m way too lazy to make a pie crust from scratch nine times out of ten (or more). And I’d already eaten strawberry rhubarb pie anyways. Time for something new: cake! Cake that doesn’t tempt me to use the octopus pan. Cake that works like a clafoutis or an apple charlotte; cake where you just pour batter over fruit and hope for the best… easy, tasty cake.
So I came across the Boston Localvore site when I was looking for a farm share to join. They have a blog, too! They are a bit surly, but I love surly.
Yesterday, I read that they received a bunch of garlic scapes in their share and made pesto. Having never seen a garlic scape in person (and not really knowing what it was) I didn’t care too much and focused on the part where they made fun of Pete Wells for being a pansy and complaining about money (he’s an editor at the NYT).
On my way home today I passed a farmers’ market and, lo and behold, there were garlic scapes! And they were cheap. Take that, Pete Wells (even though I still like your writing).
A tangle of scapes
They come all tangled like that. A garlic scape is the stem of a garlic plant before it flowers. Apparently they straighten up some and bloom, but we (people) usually eat them before that can happen.
Here’s a single, tangly scape.
I have to admit, I wasn’t too imaginative with these, as I was way too excited about the idea making a pesto from scratch. So I did what the localvore ladies did. It’s extremely easy.
1. Chop up scapes into bits an inch or so long.
2. Fight with the safety on your food processor.
3. Calm down and then process the bits into a chunky mixture.
4. Add grated Parmesan cheese and process some more.
5. Add olive oil and process after each addition until you like it.
6. Consume!
Optional: I stole this from the localvores as well. Fill an ice cube tray with the pesto and then freeze it. Garlic scapes are pretty much only available in late June or early July, so now I can have this pesto whenever I want, in neat individual-sized portions. Ta-da!
For my birthday (30, shh!) the husband (he’s the one that calls himself Roach — don’t ask me, he had that name before I married him) got me a cast iron pan, since I’ve wanted one forever. Upon receiving it, my first thought was “wow, this is gonna hurt when I drop it on my foot.” In a poetic twist of fate, the first cast iron pan injury was somehow smashing my fingers into it. Also? Ow.
Anyway, the first thing I made in it was bacon (of course). But this bacon! This bacon had a purpose. It’s mission? To make the base for an awesome frittata.
I’ll admit, it doesn’t look exciting. But we all know that under that dull exterior, there is bacon fat rendering and waiting for me to do this:
Those onions never knew what hit them. As a side note, it’s at this point in the cooking process that I realize: it’s time to add the spinach, and immediately following was the thought that it’s time to add the spinach and I haven’t even rinsed it yet. There will be a day, I swear, when I ready all of the ingredients in their appropriate amounts before I start cooking. I mean, it’s the reasonable thing to do, and I am nothing if not reasonable.
Er… wait. Hm. Anyway, it is my goal that I will one day be more organized while cooking (and living). Regardless, I did get the spinach in the pan and wilted with the onions still in there.
With that on low heat, I did a rough chop of the bacon to add back into the pan along with the eggs. Once all of that was in the pan, I gave it a quick stir and let it sit for about three or four minutes.
Once it had started to set slightly, I added some mild cheddar and mozzarella on top, and threw it in the oven at 425 degrees. It cooked for about 7 minutes, and came out looking like this:
Weirdly enough, our rats didn’t seem to like this very much, but I feel like that’s not really indicative of whether or not I should make it again. I mean, I’ve seen them eat Peeps with poop on it, so what do they know? We both liked it a lot, and I’m thrilled that I got to trick the husband into eating spinach (albeit by flavoring it with bacon, which may or may not negate the good intentions of the spinach). This will be made again, especially now that I have a pan that I am actually supposed to put into the oven. Yay, cast iron!
Bacon, Spinach and Cheddar Frittata:
6 eggs, beaten with 1/3 cup of milk
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cups of washed and torn spinach
6 slices of bacon
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (I used half cheddar and half mozzarella, ’cause that’s what I had)
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425. Cook the bacon in a heated pan that can be transferred to the oven. Once the bacon is done, remove from the pan and add the onions. While the onions are cooking, do a rough chop of the bacon. Cook the onions until translucent and beginning to brown, then add the spinach. Let that wilt for a minute and then add the beaten eggs. Mix everything together in the pan, and then leave it alone. Please resist the urge to move anything around, and just let it cook. Give it three to four minutes, then add cheese on top of it and put it in the oven. Mine took about 7 minutes, but basically you’re looking for your desired doneness for the eggs. Take out of the oven and let it rest a few minutes, before slicing. Makes four servings.
Seriously. I made the second dish from my first farm share today; this time using the bok choy and Zephyr squash. Bok choy sounds cool. When you snap it from the base or whatever you call it, it makes a cracking/ snapping noise. When you rinse it or pull the leaves apart, it squeaks. When you slice it, there is a neat crunch and slice sound (this sound evokes the word “crisp” in my brain). And when it’s cooking in the pan, it makes sizzling/ bubbling/ popping noises. Food isn’t just about what you can taste and smell and see. It’s also about how food feels and, when you are cooking, sometimes sounds.
So yeah, bok choy sounds neat.
Like with the Daikon radish, bok choy is a food I’d never prepared before, but it turned out pretty ok. It’s a type of cabbage, and I love me some cabbage.
Stir-fried bok choy with Zephyr squash
Just look at these bright leaves! I used a whole head of the Chinese cabbage, tearing the leaves from the base and then rinsing them.
As it turns out, vegetables fresh from the farm are dirty. In the case of things with lots of crevices, you should probably rinse the leaves after you tear them off. I missed a little soil here and there.
When stir-frying bok choy, cook the stems a little longer than the rest, because they are a little tougher. I cut my cabbage into chunks and tossed the thicker ends in with a little vegetable oil (any neutral oil will do) over medium-high heat.
Cook the stems for about 3 minutes until they become a little softer. Then add the leaves and about a half a cup of water. You can eyeball this. You want enough to simmer the cabbage, but not so much that it’s still soaking when you are done. Leave the cabbage simmering in the water for about 8-10 minutes, until the stems and leaves have wilted and the water has evaporated. I cut up some of the Zephyr squash and added it in this step. Feel free to add some other vegetable with a smallish cooking time.
Used a little too much water, which i then had to pour down the sink. The bok choy should be wilted and tender, but not brown or super-soggy.
After draining the water, I finished with some kosher salt, soy sauce, a squirt of lemon juice, and a drizzle of sesame oil.
Unfortunately, this dish has no corroborating witnesses. I forgot that Justin doesn’t like sesame, so he wouldn’t try it. 
But I’m declaring this one a success. If I get more bok choy in Thursday’s farm share, I’ll likely make this again.
Doom doom doom doom … really? No fans of Invader Zim? Huh. Anyway.
This casserole is awesome-slash-ridiculous. It was inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Nuclear Toast. As soon as I saw it posted, I knew it had to be a poker night dish. The guys that come over for poker night are my guinea pigs for food I’d like to try and cook, but can’t bring myself to make it for just the husband and I.
My casserole has the basic same ingredients as the original, except I used ground beef, and I used homemade macaroni and cheese.
First, I put the tater tots in the oven at 400 degrees, to get them cooked through, and somewhat crispy.
While those are cooking, I cooked 1.25lbs of ground beef with half an onion, diced, and a generous sprinkle or twenty of seasoning salt.
Mmm, meat. As exciting as that is (okay, I know it’s not really, but you get step-by-step instructions regardless of how easy it is!), the best part was making the macaroni and cheese. Now, I’ve never made homemade mac and cheese, as my husband insists he doesn’t like it. He is a liar, because as soon as he saw me making it, he started hovering over the oven every time he got up. I have now decided that I will no longer listen to him when he tells me he doesn’t like things (note to husband: pretend you didn’t read that).
For the macaroni, I cooked a pound of elbows, and then made up a mixture of milk and cheese. If I were making the dish to stand on it’s own, I probably would have started with a béchamel sauce and gone from there, but for poker night this was good enough. I used two eggs, a cup of milk, and a pound of cheese consisting of mild cheddar, sharp cheddar and monterey jack, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and some garlic powder. None of the seasonings were measured, I just threw some in, and as I was stirring the mac and cheese while it was cooking, I adjusted the seasonings to taste.
About halfway through baking, this is how the macaroni looked. The cheese wasn’t fully melted, but I kept mixing it and eventually it did reach a smooth and creamy consistency. When it was all done, I layered the tots in a 13 x 9 baking dish, with the ground beef layered over that, and the macaroni and cheese topping it. Because everyone loves cheese, I added a layer of shredded cheddar on top for good measure. I threw all of that into the oven at 450 for about 20 minutes. When it was done, it looked and smelled amazing:
Surprisingly, it also came out of the pan pretty easily. I was half expecting it to fall apart, but it stayed in shape pretty well.
This went very quickly and people had bigger portions than I had expected; even though there was over 3lbs of food, there still wasn’t enough for everyone! A few people got stuck just eating brownies for dinner (aww, life is hard). I will definitely be making this again, most likely trying something different for one of the layers just to experiment.
Just read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and it reminded / inspired me to get a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm share. For a set price paid at the beginning of the season, I get a half-bushel (who knew that was still a valid unit?) of vegetables and fruits every week until November.
Yeah, I’m kind of impressionable.
I picked up my first share today! It was packaged in a cute box that tells you to eat vegetables because they are good for you.
Look at all these crazy vegetables and fruits I got!
So many veggies in a bushel! I don't even know all their names.
What is this wonky yellow and green thing? Squash maybe?
The farm that organizes this sends a newsletter each week telling me what could possibly be inside. I had to refer to this newsletter to figure out what the hell that green and yellow thing is. It’s a Zephyr Squash, in case you were wondering.
Here’s the very first dish I made with my very first box of produce:
Stir-fried snap peas and daikon radish, with an omelet
Start with a couple handfuls of sugar snap peas and remove the strings. You are supposed to snap off the stem and then peel the string off. I did my best with this and didn’t have any problems with the outcome, but you might do better.
Sugar snap peas. I tried to destring them. Really.
Slice the radish into thin pieces. Here’s the radish. It smelled great even before it was cut. It’s kind of earthy and spicy.
Daikon Radish
I don’t know if you are supposed to peel these things, and I was too hungry and impatient to google it. Before today, I’d never seen a raw daikon radish. See these weird little hairs on the daikon radish? Apparently both edible and weird.
What are these little hairs about? I almost didn't notice them.
Melt a little butter and a little olive oil in a pan and add garlic or shallots. Use your judgment for the amounts, but try to use both the butter and oil to add a depth of flavor you won’t get with just one or the other. When the shallots have browned a bit (or the garlic is a bit softer) add the radish and peas.
Saute for about five minutes, until the veggies are crisp and also tender.
Add a squirt of lemon or orange juice.
Finish with salt and pepper, to taste.
I wanted some protein, so I made a thin omelet in the same pan. Dinner is served (at the unreasonable hour of 10pm, but whatevs)!
So good!
Hat Tip: The idea of cooking the peas and radish together came from the Enterprise Produce newsletter. Good work, farm!
So last time I posted, I wrote about failure cake. Specifically, I talked about my failure to remove cakes from shaped pans. This time: Victory.
Last Saturday I was able to successfully unmold forty small flower shaped cakes!
Rose-shaped victory cake
The plan for Cake Experiment was to change one variable at a time. For example, last time I tried using this ridiculous pan, I greased it with melted butter and used a honey cake mix. So this time, I should have tried changing the grease or the mix, but not both. In the interest of actually getting to eat the cake, experimental integrity be damned. I changed both. The largest contributing factor was most likley the grease. This time I used Baker’s Joy. It’s this neat-o spray that does the greasing and the flouring at once.
This is the baking spray of victory. Also shown: victory cake mix and victory pan.
Baker’s Joy (or some similar spray) gets into all the detailed bits of the pan with the oil AND the flour, so nothing sticks!
The cake mix may have helped a little, too. The only other time this pan worked even a little bit, I used the same mix (Duncan Gernam Chocolate, in case you were wondering). Cake Experiment: Phase Two will involve cake from scratch, plus Baker’s Joy. I’ll report back my findings.
Shaped pan filled with delicious batter, pre-victory. See how it glistens with Baker's Joy goodness?
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Much of my time at home is spent in the kitchen; granted, some of that time is spent dropping things or accidentally grating my fingers, but you have to break a few eggs to make a cake, right? [Read More …]