Peanut Butter Cookies and Sunday Prep

I was clipping coupons earlier today and in one of the circulars that came with the newspaper I found a recipe for two desserts using peanut butter. I clipped them out for future use and left them on the table, where SP found them and decided to make peanut butter cookies:



... that are light as a feather and slightly chewy.

I spent the afternoon prepping tonight's dinner (meatloaf, potato gratin and roasted broccoli), making Tuesday night's dinner (baked potato soup) and getting everything ready for Thursday's Cajun Chicken Fettuccine.

Peanut Butter Cookies

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 stick of butter
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla; beat at medium speed with a hand mixer until well blended. Add egg and beat until just blended. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture and beat on low speed until just blended.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. With tines of a fork dipped in flour, flatten slightly in criss-cross pattern. Bake 7-8 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown. Allow to cool completely before storing.

Asian-Inspired Dinner

After a long day of packing and other moving-related chores, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner:



... of seared tuna steaks and cold sesame noodles. I was going for sushi take-out, only without the hassle of rolling my own sushi.

The tuna was simply seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil, seared quickly on both sides and cut into thin strips across the grain. Then I drizzled some soy sauce and chopped scallions over the slices.

The cold sesame noodles were our second (and probably last) attempt at Rachael Ray's recipe. I had very high hopes this time since the noodles looked so beautiful and shiny in the mixing bowl. Since they were too sesame-y last time, I used only 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and heaped on the peanut butter, but the noodles were still not peanut buttery enough. They were, however, very spicy from the two tablespoons of hot sauce the recipe called for. I also undercooked the noodles by about a minute, which didn't help matters.

So, the search continues for an excellent make-at-home version of cold sesame noodles.

Pizza Friday

Last week's bacon and garlic pizza was such a hit that we're repeating it this week:



... only this time I minced the garlic instead of slicing it so it would roast better in the oven.

More Chicken Fingers and Fries

I was looking forward to my dinner of chicken fingers and oven fries with a honey mustard dipping sauce all day:



... but unfortunately I ended up with lots of naked chicken and a pile of fried batter. I'm not sure what went wrong, but at least they were still tasty, if not very photogenic. It was quite aggravating trying to fry the fingers when the batter outright refused to stay on the chicken, preferring instead to stick to the bottom of the pan I was frying them in. The only thing I did differently was I used a different kind of beer for the batter, but I can't see how that would make much of a difference.

Beef Stroganoff over Mashed Potatoes

The week of Rachael Ray recipes continues tonight with Beef and Potato Stroganoff from Everyday with Rachael Ray:



... it might not look anything like the photo from the recipe, but it tasted great.

I made a few modifications to the original recipe, mainly in the presentation. Two weeks ago I bought a 5-pound bag of potatoes because they were on sale. The potatoes in those bags are always small, so cutting them open and trying to stuff the beef mixture inside would not have worked. But since I already had plenty of potatoes at home I couldn't justify buying large potatoes just for this recipe. So instead, I served the beef mixture over the mashed potatoes, which worked out well since the potatoes were perfect for sopping up all the delicious sauce.

And speaking of the sauce, SP and I decided to try an experiment this week by buying half-and-half instead of the heavy cream the recipe called. Half-and-half was half the price of the heavy cream and SP remembered that when he worked at a restaurant as a teenager, the chef would substitute half-and-half for heavy cream in some of the dishes. For this recipe, the substitution didn't really work. The sauce was too loose and I had to add some sour cream in an attempt to thicken it up.

It wasn't pretty, but the most important thing is that it tasted good. Here's the original recipe. Below is my modified version.

Beef and Potato Stroganoff
Slightly Adapted From Everyday with Rachael Ray

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 pound lean ground beef, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
Chopped parsley, for garnish

In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat, add the mushrooms, onion and garlic and cook about 10 minutes. Stir in 3/4 cup water and boil to reduce the liquid by half, about 2 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and sour cream and remove from heat.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, brown the ground beef over high heat, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the mushroom mixture; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the beef mixture over mashed potatoes, garnished with parsley.

Super-Size Turkey Meatballs

Remember those turkey meatballs I made on Sunday? Tonight they became Rachael Ray's Super-Size Turkey Meatballs with Spinach and Cheese served over buttered egg noodles:



... and once again, the resulting dish was quite tasty. The meatballs were especially flavorful with the spinach, garlic and onion. And since I cooked the meatballs on Sunday all I had to do tonight was cook the noodles and make the cheese sauce. Dinner was ready in less than 20 minutes.

Super-Size Turkey Meatballs with Spinach and Cheese
Slighty Adapted From Everyday with Rachael Ray

One 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast (I used ground turkey, which is white and dark meat combined)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (2 generous handfuls)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
One 8-ounce package shredded Italian cheese blend
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 package egg noodles, cooked according to package directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wring the spinach dry in a clean kitchen towel. Place the ground turkey in a large bowl and make a well in the middle of the turkey. Add the spinach, half of the onion, the garlic, the egg, 1/4 cup of the milk, the bread crumbs and the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and season with salt and pepper. Mix until combined, then form the turkey mixture into 12 large balls, arrange on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter to the pan. Melt the butter, add the remaining onion and cook for 2 minutes, then whisk in the flour. Cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the remaining 1 1/2 cups of milk and the broth. Bring the liquid to a boil, then stir in the cheese. Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and the nutmeg.

Toss egg noodles with butter and parsley and top with turkey meatballs drizzled with sauce.

Meat Goulash with Macaroni and Savoy Cabbage

I was going through old issues of Everyday with Rachael Ray looking for easy recipes for this week that used ground beef when I came across a recipe for meat goulash. It was in a section for 30-minute TV dinner-style meals and was paired with Savoy cabbage, so I thought I'd give the whole menu a try.

The result was amazing:



... and I knew it was a keeper when SP (who was wary of the cabbage as it was cooking) practically inhaled his first serving before jumping up from the table to get seconds.

Meat Goulash with Macaroni
Slighty Adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray

Salt
1 pound short penne rigate
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 pound ground beef
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
Freshly ground pepper
1 11-oz jar roasted red peppers, drained
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup sour cream
Flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt the water, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside.

While the pasta cooks, heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, about 3 minutes, then move the bacon to the side of the pan and add the ground meat, crumbling it. Brown the meat for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the garlic and onion; season with the paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

In a food processor, puree the peppers until smooth and stir into the meat. Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in the beef broth and simmer for a couple of minutes. Stir in the sour cream and cooked pasta. Top with the parsley.

The cabbage recipe called for caraway seeds, which I didn't have on hand, so I just bought a small head of Savoy cabbage, removed the outer leaves, cored it and sliced it thinly. In a skillet I melted 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat, added a bay leaf and the sliced cabbage, salt, pepper and about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. I covered the skillet and let it steam for about 10-15 minutes, stirring it every few minutes.

And for dessert:



...two yummy cupcakes and a tall glass of ice-cold milk.

Sunday Prep Work

I love when everything works out so that I can spend my Sunday afternoons cooking and prepping for the week. I haven't had a Sunday like that in a long time so when I realized this Sunday would be one of those days, I was very happy.

In addition to slicing mushrooms, chopping onions and breaking down chicken breasts into chicken fingers, I baked some turkey meatballs for a dish later in the week:



... and since the oven was on for the turkey meatballs, I thought I'd bake some cupcakes for SP. He's been craving them recently and since I usually eat most of them before he has a chance to enjoy any, I thought I'd make a batch especially for him:



... These are chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Since I prefer vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, I think SP has a good chance at getting his fair share.

Chinese Take Out

One of my favorite food blogs, The Food Pornographer, recently had some take out Chinese food that I've been salivating over - ma po tofu. The problem is that she's from Perth, Australia and I couldn't find the dish on any take out menu here in Jersey. Then she clued me in to the possibility that ma po tofu could be bean curd Szechuan style here in the states, so tonight we got take out Chinese from our favorite place in order to find out.

Here's the bean curd Szechuan style:



... it doesn't look quite the same, but it was still pretty tasty. Even though it was under the "pork" category on the menu, I didn't see any pork in the dish. But the huge chunks of silky tofu were quite tasty.

We also got an old favorite:



... roast pork egg foo yung, as well as broccoli with garlic sauce:



... that was more spicy than garlicky.

Pizza Friday

Tonight we had pizza with bacon and sliced garlic:



... and I even managed to make the crust almost completely round. I think this is probably the most photogenic pizza I've made so far for Pizza Friday.

Chicken Enchiladas

After a few disappointing meals, The Home Cook's got her groove back:



... with cheesy, spicy chicken enchiladas. I used the recipe from one of my America's Test Kitchen cookbooks and the outcome was excellent.

Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chile Sauce
Courtesy of America's Test Kitchen

Sauce and Filling:

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 4 thighs), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips (I used chicken breasts because I bought the huge pack from the wholesale club)
2 cans tomato sauce (8 ounces each)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 can (4 ounces) pickled jalapenos, drained and chopped (about 1/4 cup)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (2 cups)

Tortillas and Toppings:

10 corn tortillas (six-inch)
Vegetable cooking spray
3 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup sour cream

For the Sauce and Filling: Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, salt, and sugar; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until coated with spices, about 30 seconds.

Add tomato sauce and 1/4 cup water; stir to separate chicken pieces. Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through and flavors have melded, about 8 minutes. Pour mixture through medium-mesh strainer into medium bowl, pressing on chicken and onions to extract as much sauce as possible; set sauce aside. Transfer chicken mixture to large plate; freeze for 10 minutes to cool, then combine with cilantro, jalapenos, and cheese in medium bowl and set aside.

Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees. Smear entire bottom of 13 by 9-inch baking dish with 3/4 cup chili sauce. Place tortillas on two baking sheets. Spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, about 4 minutes. Place warm tortillas on counter-top. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll each tortilla tightly by hand and place in baking dish, side by side, seam-side down. Pour remaining chili sauce over top of enchiladas. Use back of spoon to spread sauce so it coats top of each tortilla. Sprinkle 1/4 cup grated cheese down center of enchiladas.

Cover baking dish with foil. Bake enchiladas on lower-middle rack until heated through and cheese is melted, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and serve immediately, passing sour cream.

Make Your Own Take Out

When SP came home on Friday I was watching 30 Minute Meals and Rachael Ray was making cold sesame noodles and Thai chicken wraps. They looked so good that he decided to make them both for dinner tonight. The result was a mixed bag.



The cold sesame noodles looked really good, but they suffered from too much sesame oil. The sesame flavor completely overpowered the dish and I couldn't even taste the peanut butter. SP followed the recipe exactly, but we had regular sesame oil on hand and the recipe called for dark sesame. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but next time we make these we'll definitely cut back on the sesame oil.

The Thai chicken wraps were really good. Very gingery, with moist bites of chicken and strips of red pepper. The diced cucumber on top added a nice refreshing crunch. We wrapped the chicken in ice burg lettuce leaves, which made the whole dish seem healthier.

Cajun Chicken Fettucine

This innocent-looking bowl of chicken and pasta:



... packed a real whallop! I think SP's brow is still beaded with sweat.

My buddy D recently made a recipe for Cajun Chicken Fettucine that sounded tasty. What made the recipe even more appealing was that I could prep all the ingredients ahead of time. I prepped everything on Saturday so that when I got home from work today all I needed to do was throw on my apron and start cooking. I was looking forward to tonight's dinner all day.

Where things went awry was the part in the recipe that called for Cajun seasoning. I have a very large selection of spices, so I looked up Cajun seasoning online so I could make my own at home. I mixed all the different spices together and cooked a test piece of chicken in order to make sure the seasoning was right. The test piece had a kick to it, but I failed to realize that 30-plus pieces of chicken with that seasoning would pack more of a punch than one. The resulting dish was really good but way, way, way too spicy, even for us. Between gulps of water SP asked me to please cut down on the cayenne next time.

It was still a keeper, though. Thanks for sharing, D!

Cajun Chicken Fettucine

1 pound spaghetti
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (my recipe follows)
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 package mushrooms, cut into chunks
5 scallions, sliced
1 green bell pepper cut into strips
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 - 1 cup pasta cooking water

Cook fettucine according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water.

Meanwhile, sprinkle chicken with seasoning. In a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the chicken over medium heat until no longer pink. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add the mushrooms, scallions, green pepper and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Combine cornstarch and heavy cream until smooth and stir into vegetable mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, until thickened. Add the chicken back to the pan, then add the fettucine, tossing to combine. Add pasta cooking water to thin out sauce, if necessary.

Cajun Seasoning

1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Stir to combine the spices together.

Pastitsio

When I was growing up my mom made pastitsio for dinner on a semi-regular basis. The pasta, meat and creamy sauce seasoned with cinnamon and other spices was as comforting as it was different from our usual dinners.

I'd been thinking about pastitsio recently so I decided to make it this weekend. I asked my mom for the recipe but because it serves 8, I halved it. My mom recommended doubling the sauce recipe for a "saucier" pastitsio, so I kept the sauce recipe the same while dividing the rest of the ingredients in half.

I made the pastitsio Saturday night, refrigerated it and baked it last night so I could have it for dinner tonight. I was eagerly anticipating a blast from my past, but the dish was not as I remembered it. Despite the extra sauce, the dish was dry, not to mention underseasoned. I think the pasta absorbed too much of the sauce. I'll have to keep tweaking.

Breakfast Tacos

Our supermarket's ethnic food aisle stocks these amazingly soft corn tortillas that were perfect for making breakfast tacos this morning:



... I got the idea from an old issue of Everyday Food. It's a very simple recipe. All you need are corn tortillas, eggs (one per taco), salsa and sour cream. Toast the tortillas in the toaster oven and set aside. Beat the eggs with some salt and pepper until frothy. Heat a skillet over low heat, add some butter and when the butter is melted and starting to bubble, add the eggs. Cook, stirring constantly, until set. Spoon the egg into the tortilla, top with salsa and sour cream and serve.

I also made some hash browns to go with our tacos. I peeled two small potatoes and cut them into a large dice. I also largely diced half a medium onion. In a non-stick skillet, heat some oil over medium-high heat and added the potato and onion. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are browned and soft, stirring occasionaly.

Pizza Friday

Tonight marks the return of buffalo chicken pizza:



... only this time with extra hot sauce and an extra thick coating of blue cheese dressing. I think this was the best buffalo chicken pizza I've made to date.

More Pierogies and Broccoli

This is what happens when you belong to a wholesale club:



...you end up with 5 pounds of pierogies, thus necessitating pierogies with broccoli every few weeks. I'm sure I could vary the way I cook the pierogies, but I truly love this combination and can't imagine enjoying them any other way.

SP Takes Over the Kitchen

Tonight the lovely and talented SP whipped up some pork chops with dijon mustard sauce, mashed potatoes and peas:



Anyone else starting to sense a pattern? It seems like whenever SP cooks dinner we have pork chops with dijon sauce. It's not that he can't cook anything else; quite the contrary. On Sunday he made a fantastic vodka penne, but I didn't take any pictures of it because he made it for Monday's dinner (which I eat at work since I have yoga that night).

Part of the problem is that I haven't let him in the kitchen lately. That and the fact that up until last week when he dropped his grad school class we only ate dinner together two weeknights. And one of those nights, Friday, was always homemade pizza night. With yoga for me on Mondays, his band practice on Tuesday and his grad school class on Thursday he didn't have much of a chance to cook. I'm trying to lessen my control over the kitchen and let him back in because, it must be said, he's an excellent cook. There's nothing better then coming home and seeing the table set and food cooking on the stove. All I had to do was sit down and eat.

Throw Together Dinner

Dinner tonight was basically a way for me to use up some tomatoes Mom gave us last week. When we took possession of them they were rock solid and unripe. After sitting on our windowsill for over a week they still weren't all that ripe, but they were starting to develop rotten spots so they needed to be used.

Here's what I came up with:



Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Here's what I did: I cooked one medium onion, thinly sliced, in some oil along with a few cloves of minced garlic, salt and pepper. I blanched the tomatoes in the water I boiled to cook the pasta so I could take the skin off. Once the tomatoes were peeled and coarsely chopped, those went in to the pan as well. I added some white wine and chicken stock to make a sauce, added the thin spaghetti, tossed it all together with some grated cheese and called it dinner. It was surprisingly good for something that only took 15 minutes to throw together.

Vegetables Galore!

My stepfather is away this week so my mom shared the contents of her vegetable box with us. We got two green peppers, some scallions, a head of cauliflower, a small head of broccoli, arugula, lettuce, cilantro and beets. I also had some mushrooms from last week on hand, as well as four red potatoes, a package of chicken thighs and a quarter of a red onion.

I went on to the Food Network Web site and typed in "chicken thighs" and the first recipe that came up was for Rachael Ray's Grilled Chicken Thighs Cacciatore with Super Smashed Garlic Potatoes. As luck would have it, the cacciatore recipe used all the ingredients I had on hand. I always love mashed potatoes, so I was happy to see she recommended serving them with the cacciatore.

Of course I modified her recipe a tad since I was using small button mushrooms instead of portabellos, I don't own a grill pan anymore and I had green peppers instead of cubanelles, but the basic recipe was the same and boy was it tasty! I was surprised at how good it was for a meal I kind of threw together after not cooking for 3 days in a row.

I made my own garlic smashed potatoes by boiling the red potatoes (skin on!) with three cloves of garlic and then mashing everything together with butter, milk, salt and pepper. I chopped some scallions and threw those in for some onion-y flavor.

For our vegetable I decided to roast the broccoli and cauliflower. I love roasting broccoli. The flavor is unlike any other method for cooking the vegetable; it makes it nice and nutty. Since I had cauliflower as well I decided to roast both together. I cut both heads into floret, coated them with oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in a 400-degree oven for about 20-30 minutes, checking them every so often to make sure they weren't burning. Once the florets were nice and tender, I gave them a spritz of lemon, which really brightened them up.

Here's what I did for the cacciatore:

2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
button mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 pounds, 6 pieces or 1 package, boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Coarse black pepper
2 green peppers), seeded and thinly sliced
quarter of a red onion, thinly sliced
1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes, pureed

In a large bowl, combine balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire and crushed red pepper flakes. Add chicken thighs to marinade and coat evenly. Add some oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and then add the chicken. Cook 3 to 4 minutes before adding the garlic, mushrooms, peppers and onions to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cook, tossing frequently, 7 to 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and heat through, allowing the sauce to thicken some.