What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Presto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5IXlfJSEi4

Sheet pan time: chicken pieces in the style of tandoori, and a mixed sheet of butternut squash, heirloom carrots, and whole Cremini mushrooms. The chicken was marinated for several hours in a mix of unsweetened mango yogurt, lemon juice, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and heaping tablespoons of Penzey's Tandoori seasoning. The squash and carrots were tossed with olive oil, white pepper, nigellum, and a bit of maple syrup. Roasted the whole shebang at 425*F for an hour. The vegetables got their caramelly/blackened bits and the chicken retained some of the marinade flavors. Very happy with it.

Over the weekend I made my favorite chuck roast, smothered in Brunos Wax Peppers with the jar juice, a jar of fire-roasted red peppers drained, beef consumé, and lots of garlic, Roast is rubbed with smoked paprika, sea salt, and bold freshly ground black peppercorns. Roast is pulled and mixed it with resulting delicious juices and other ingredients. Served with Roasted Spanish Potatoes. These are tossed in avocado oil, white vinegar, and tomato paste. Then tossed again in a mix of chili powder, dried parsley, smoked paprika, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper. Roasted at 400 for 35 minutes. Very buttery inside, crispy outside.
I am turning this mixture into tacos tonight, serving with a simple salad with various salad greens from my lettuce pot, radishes, tomatoes, and avocado. All topped off with my favorite taco condiment, Lindy's Red Taco Sauce.

Jeff, I love sheet pan cooking, and what you made sounds delicious. Such a great way to cook good food.

Over the weekend I made my favorite chuck roast, smothered in Brunos Wax Peppers with the jar juice, a jar of fire-roasted red peppers drained, beef consumé, and lots of garlic, Roast is rubbed with smoked paprika, sea salt, and bold freshly ground black peppercorns. Roast is pulled and mixed it with resulting delicious juices and other ingredients.

So, I imagine a chuck roast standing, halfway up, in consomme and heaps of yellow and red peppers. Then "pulled" which means torn to shreds?

Served with Roasted Spanish Potatoes. These are tossed in avocado oil, white vinegar, and tomato paste. Then tossed again in a mix of chili powder, dried parsley, smoked paprika, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper. Roasted at 400 for 35 minutes. Very buttery inside, crispy outside.

I like the sound of these but two questions: how much white vinegar? (his Squashy Majesty is not a fan of sour) and does dried parsley really add anything???

[Jenise]

The subject of ouzo recently came up with friends--she loves anything licorice--and about then I saw a recipe for shrimp in an ouzo and orange sauce (orange might be her second favorite flavor) so I invited them for dinner and made that. GREAT dish. The shrimp is browned on one side, removed from the pan, then shallot, tomato and orange or red bell pepper are added. When softened, the shrimp go back in the pan with ouzo, orange juice, orange zest, fresh oregano, and butter. It was divine, it really was.

The meal wasn't Greek, but it was Greek-ish. And this couple is on a diet, avoiding carbs especially. So my intention had been, and I explained this at the beginning as I was in the midst of making the pita chips when they arrived, to serve each couple a bowl of pita chips which would carry them through the entire meal which was going to be a garlicky artichoke/green olive puree for a starter, followed by a mini potato and green bean salad on lettuce leaf (kind of a Greek salad without all the elements they don't eat which is everything except green beans and potatoes) and finally the shrimp, which I would serve in large boat shaped dishes, one shared per couple, for scooping up all that wonderful sauce.

Nobody listened. The pita chips got inhaled with the first two courses and I cooked orzo to go with the shrimp. Dessert was ouzo on the rocks.

Over the weekend I made my favorite chuck roast, smothered in Brunos Wax Peppers with the jar juice, a jar of fire-roasted red peppers drained, beef consumé, and lots of garlic, Roast is rubbed with smoked paprika, sea salt, and bold freshly ground black peppercorns. Roast is pulled and mixed it with resulting delicious juices and other ingredients.

So, I imagine a chuck roast standing, halfway up, in consomme and heaps of yellow and red peppers. Then "pulled" which means torn to shreds?

Served with Roasted Spanish Potatoes. These are tossed in avocado oil, white vinegar, and tomato paste. Then tossed again in a mix of chili powder, dried parsley, smoked paprika, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper. Roasted at 400 for 35 minutes. Very buttery inside, crispy outside.

I like the sound of these but two questions: how much white vinegar? (his Squashy Majesty is not a fan of sour) and does dried parsley really add anything???

The chuck roast is flat, about 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. Yes, after it gets to the fall-apart stage, I pull it into shreds and it is mixed up with all the goodies in the juice. Re: the potatoes, it is 2 lbs of potatoes, to 3 tbsp avocado oil, 2 tbsp white vinegar, and 2 tbsp tomato paste. The dried parsley is probably more for color, and I like to add some fresh in at serving. Never understood dried parsley, but I do use it. I do feel that some dried herbs are better used in recipes rather than fresh. But still, parsley?
https://whatscookingamerica.net/karenca ... edbeef.htm

The chuck roast is flat, about 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. Yes, after it gets to the fall-apart stage, I pull it into shreds and it is mixed up with all the goodies in the juice. https://whatscookingamerica.net/karenca ... edbeef.htm

That's a funny-looking recipe: halfway through it says "pulled pork" and refers to a can of French onion soup (but worries whether they'll be enough salt???). I'm guessing this is an upgrade to an old Campbell's soup can recipe.

Looks a little like ropa vieja.

Re: the potatoes, it is 2 lbs of potatoes, to 3 tbsp avocado oil, 2 tbsp white vinegar, and 2 tbsp tomato paste.

Thanks.

The dried parsley is probably more for color, and I like to add some fresh in at serving. Never understood dried parsley, but I do use it. I do feel that some dried herbs are better used in recipes rather than fresh. But still, parsley?

Right. I think parsley goes in the 'better fresh' category along with rosemary. I think oregano goes in the 'better dried' category. Most of the others are good either way - thyme is equally good, tarragon and sage are a tad better fresh, basil is a completely different thing fresh vs dried (but both good). I like savory but don't think I've ever had it fresh.

[Jenise]

Bobo had surgery yesterday afternoon to remove a bunch of tiny cysts from around both eyes, an event requiring us to pick up a prescription antiobiotic ointment on the way home. We had it phoned into an in-store pharmacy at a local grocer which turned into a supply-chain-related out-of-stock incident which sent me into roaming the county for another source. (This happened twice at this same location twice in the pre-Covid past, but on those occasions the pharmacist found the secondary source, transferred the Rx, and all I had to do was go pick it up. Apparently such service is now part of The Good Old Days and the new young pharmacist can't be bothered.) While in the store getting the bad news, though, I did trip over a pair of chuck eye steaks which I buy and throw in the freezer whenever I'm lucky enough to find them, and by the time we got home they sounded better to Bob than the meatless meal I'd planned. So we had cast iron-seared pepper steak with green beans and a romaine/raw mushroom/onion salad.

Jenise, a run around with a silver lining. Perhaps worse is waiting in a 2 hour line at the chain pharmacy because their staff is out sick and they are understaffed to begin with because open positions go wanting. Fortunately the desired item is very common and was available. I could understand mayhem if a 2 hour wait produced a turn away a la Soviet times.

[Jenise]

Christina, so right, and more than that. From now on I'm sending all my Rx's to this little family pharmacy which I had not even known existed until a friend mentioned it very recently). I'm fed up with Walgreens which I started using during the pandemic in order 100% for the use of the drive-thru. But they got so messed up that every trip there was a major calamity and recently they closed the drive-thru altogether. There really IS a silver lining.

So this couple are on a low carb diet, but they have a salad with potatoes in it?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

So this couple are on a low carb diet, but they have a salad with potatoes in it?

-Paul W.

Sure, it's all a matter of degrees. The husband's a meat and potatoes guy, doesn't eat most vegetables. Five halves of baby potatoes to add color and texture to a pile of green beans wasn't going to get in his way--he just needs to stay away from McDonalds.

Loving my Calabrian chili so I marinated shrimp in lemon juice, zest, garlic, olive oil and minced chile. Then threw that into a pan of sauteed red onion and sundried tomatoes. Finished off cooking the pasta with some pasta water and Parm and chopped basil. Quite nice.

Jeff, the recipe actually comes from Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman. I've followed her since her kids were babies, I like the ranch style, horses, cattle, and found her a very interesting person and how she and her husband transformed a tiny burg into a destination place for travelers. The recipe called for Beef Consume or French Onion Soup. I actually prefer beef stock. This is Linda Stradley's website, you might remember her as she visited this site years ago. She turned her website over to her two girls to run and a while back they did a total rewrite of recipes. I have seen a lot of errors, and try to let her know each time I run across one, but I don't think Linda monitors the website like she used to. Either way, it is a good, down-home comfort meal, which is full of flavor and the tacos I made using it were outstanding.

Christina, sounds delicious. I will be trying this, for sure.

This is Linda Stradley's website, you might remember her as she visited this site years ago.

I think I remember her as "the verjus lady" because she was stumping for verjus at the time.

Gangbusters with sausage. Got an itch to make Italian sausage so...invited friends for a demonstration. Yesterday I demonstrated boning, trimming, grinding and seasoning 7.5 # pork butt down to 6# sweet Italian sausage. Let it cure overnight. Today we stuffed 4# and left 2 # bulk. Tomorrow we're having Cascatelli with the sausage and garlicky broccolini. A wonderful demo, cook and eat event with our bubble. Another 5 # butt came in today [ husband liked the smell and seasoning taste so much he wanted more.] Another 2# Italian, 1.5 # Andouille [ don't have a smoker so used some smoked paprika and chipotle for the "smoke" and the remainder as breakfast sausage. The Andouille is because I have a hankering for a gumbo or paella type dish.
All in all a very fun 2 days and looking forward to dinner tomorrow.
Butts are on sale and I also have a hankering for carnitas........so many ideas.....

We like cascatelli, too!

And, I'll send Pumpkin right over... he loves sweet Italian sausage.

Jeff, Sfoglini also makes a Rye Trumpet pasta that is just fantastic. I've made it with a mushroom ragu, a ham and braised cabbage sauce and a Gruyere balsamella. Has been fun trying new options. I do not recommend their hemp pastas however. Just nasty texture and taste.

Recently, I've had a craving for creamed chipped beef on toast (SOS) for whatever reason. I baked a nice loaf of bread last night and had purchased a jar of dried beef previously, so it all came together quickly. I hadn't eaten SOS for years, but it brought back childhood memories, tasted good, and was an extraordinarily easy recipe.

Jeff, Sfoglini also makes a Rye Trumpet pasta that is just fantastic. I've made it with a mushroom ragu, a ham and braised cabbage sauce and a Gruyere balsamella. Has been fun trying new options. I do not recommend their hemp pastas however. Just nasty texture and taste.

Thanks for the rec and the warning. I usually like flavored pastas -- porcini, beet, tomato, etc. -- but I shy away from replacing grains with legumes. My local grocery store also has diverse pastas (lentil, chickpea, etc.). But rye sounds good to me so it goes on the list! (Gotta get through some cascatelli first... had to buy four boxes....)

This is Linda Stradley's website, you might remember her as she visited this site years ago.

I think I remember her as "the verjus lady" because she was stumping for verjus at the time.

Yes, she and her husband lived in OR in a small town, had a small vineyard and made Pinot Noir, as I recall. Very nice lady and we visited each other for several years, had wonderful dinners and wine at their home. We still keep in touch but not as much as we used to.

[Jenise]

So this couple are on a low carb diet, but they have a salad with potatoes in it?

-Paul W.

Same couple was at a dinner party last night. The hosts served two vegetables, red cabbage and sauteed rainbow carrots and provided each guest with a composed plate. Neither touched the cabbage. He ate all the carrots but she only ate the orange ones. In a way that explains my potato and green bean salad--the list of options is short and narrow.