Dijon and Dill Pork-splosion!!!

This was so easy to make and so good.  It started when I remembered that I've forgotten all about using fresh dill in my cooking.  I used to use dill to make a lemon-dill chicken recipe found here:

http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/cookbook-of-the-month-recipe-roast-dill-scented-chicken-with-leeks-and-potatoes/

When I tried to find the recipe I remembered originally getting it from the PBS show New Scandinavian Cooking with everyone's favorite host Andreas Viestad (kind of a cutie!)  I made the chicken recipe many times and it was always perfect and buttery.  You have to put the dill butter under the skin of the chicken, it's SOOO good!

So back to the pork.  What I made was a variation on a recipe I found here online:

http://www.angiesbigloveoffood.com/2011/09/mustard-dill-pork-tenderloin.html

The way I made it was with the butter added, like I used to do with the chicken.  I baked it with some veggies, here's what you need:

• generous amount of fresh dill
• pork tenderloin 
• lemon
• onion
• Adobo
• black pepper
• garlic powder
• dijon mustard, from the jar is what I used
• celery
• bok choy
• red potatoes
• BUTTER

So to get the pork ready I mixed together dijon mustard, butter and dill in a bowl.  Then I put some salt, pepper and garlic powder on the meat, followed by the delicious messy buttery dill and onion slices.  Set that aside and chop your veggies for the mix.  Here's the pork in the marinade mode, it was awesome!

Chop up the potatoes, celery, onion and bok choy and put some Adobo on there.  Then you add slices of lemon to the mix with dill.  Butter on top of the veggies too!  Put your pork pieces on last, over the veggies, cover and put this in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.  Then uncover it and cook it until your potatoes are soft and the meat is cooked throughly.  Squeeze some more lemon over everything when you take it out of the oven.

The key is to use tons of lemon and dill and it turns out great...  mmm

I have to MEOW about this other gal's blog.  She's all about locally grown food and fancy Southern cuisine!  It's got professional grade recipes that you won't find here.  It's very inspiring.

http://www.angiesbigloveoffood.com/

Meow MEOWS Angie!!!

Kittenz B Hungry

Given the fact that the bitchez often "meow-appetite" we should not forget about the the kittenz!

This is my happy and apparently always hungry cat bitchin' to be fed... after eating some of my flowers- that's how he is.

Some days its tuna mixed with his regular cat chow, sometimes canned chicken.  Occasionally I give him nibbles of lunch meat.  It's the highlight of his day!

In thinking of my kitty, I decided to read up on how other people decide to make their own cat food.  I used to treat my cat to the canned cat food, but even the most expensive, claiming to be the healthiest, still looks like it's already been chewed or went all the way to the poop shoot!  All that gooey stuff in it makes me think of hoofs... I could go on and on.  Dog food looks even worse.

So this website I found has some pretty good tips on how to feed your cat a natural raw diet of meat:

http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.html

Of course that cannot go without controversy from a cat food company namely Hill, makers of Science Diet.  You know, the food your cats love to hate!  Here's what they have to say about your cat eating raw meat:

http://www.hillspet.com/cat-care/homemade-cat-food-raises-concerns-adt.html

Insane to think that a feline would eat the meat of the animals they kill without cooking it!

Wait, it gets even better... this very cute and albeit amusing slide show claims that your cat  (ominous)  don don don ...will get addicted to canned tuna!  Really, this link is a must see for cat lovers:

http://pets.webmd.com/cats/ss/slideshow-foods-your-cat-should-never-eat

Almost as scary as people WebMD.  I really don't get too involved in my cat's diet, I just want him to be happy and I don't want him to be eating weird looking crap (aside from the kibbles).  Here's his current favorite dish, chicken with cat chow:

As Lidia says, "Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!"  (loosly translated "kitties to the table to eat!")

Pesto Chicken... in a casserole of course!

I've realized that I make a lot of casseroles!  Not necessarily because I like my veggies mushy enough so I don't even have to chew- they don't come out that way all the time... I think sometimes it's just easy when you're cooking for friends to throw everything in a pan and walk away.  That gives you time to chat and drink I guess!

So this pesto chicken idea started with a package of pesto chicken pre-made from Trader Joe's- see I don't do all my shopping at Aldi.  The thing I realized about Trader Joe's pesto, this includes the pesto in the chicken and the pesto you can buy in a tub, TJ's pesto doesn't have pine nuts in it!  It's made with almonds, which is cheaper- why it's affordable, but it just isn't the same as when it does have pine nuts.  That's why you're going to add pine nuts to this dish!  Ironically, you're also going to add almonds.  Ok, here's what you need:

• The TJ's Pesto Chicken
• carrots
• spinach or green of your choice
• pine nuts
• slivered almonds
• extra pesto!

As simple as every casserole is, you're going to basically just dump all these ingredients in a pan.  There isn't a lot of extra pesto with the chicken when you buy it, that's why you need a little bit more to go on the veggies in here.  You could easily also include potatoes in this, or really any kind of veggies you happen to have at the time.  As for the nuts, the pine nuts are to help the pesto taste more like pesto, and the slivered almonds are for crunching!

You wanna put this in about a 375 degree oven for about 40 or 50 minutes.  The carrots won't turn to mush if you leave them in bigger chunks.  Uncover it at the end of the cook time.  Oh, did I mention to cover it when you put it in the oven?  This is very very pesto yummy!

Meow-appetite

Focaccia Inspired Quesadillas

Unlike the canned meat and pasta failure, this leftover special gets five stars!  What you need for some very un-Mexican quesadillas: 

• Corn tortillas
• Shredded cheese, Monterey Jack or a blend that includes it
• Black olives
• Left over chicken, or cook a small amount of chicken in a skillet
• Butter
• Oregano
• Garlic powder

This was inspired by leftovers and what just happened to be around the house.  That and the fact that I don't have money to spend on food at the moment and I had a craving for something buttery and baked, also focaccia bread with cheese and olives on top!  I was also somewhat in the mood for quesadillas, so why not have Italy-Mex?  

You need a pan, buttered and then also foiled if your pans look like mine do.  Place some tortillas on the heavily buttered pan.  Add your cooked chicken and sliced olives, then add as much or as little cheese as you prefer.  There should be enough cheese for the tortillas to stick together.  Sprinkle on your herbs and you should have something that looks like this:

I thought it would be fun to try photographing the food.  I don't have a camera, only my iPad... That's whatcha get when your house becomes a free for all.  Try not to let that happen.  I have to say, the iPad does a fair job for casual photos, not the ideal choice, but anyway...  Pictures of food are fun!

After adding the ingredients, cover them with another tortilla and cover that with more butter.  Sprinkle garlic powder and oregano on the top over the buttered tortilla.  This is ready for a 375 to 400 degree oven for ten minutes or so, then flip them over and give 'em another ten.  Get the tortillas golden brown, that's what the butter is for.  Yes, use real butter- no margarine, no can't believe it's fake spread, and please don't cheat with cooking spray!  Although it might work if you want to try olive oil, which would also match with the ingredients. 

Crispy, golden, Italian inspired quesadillas will look this good!

As they say on TV, "My table to yours!"

Curry Chicken Tacos and Tempeh... Tacos?

Ok, these are not your corner taqueria style of tacos.  Let's start with the curry!

Curry Chicken Tacos- Fusion Baby!

What you'll need:

• Chicken, thighs, breasts or ground is fun too- your choice 
• Madras curry powder, I like the SWAD brand in a big bag.  DO NOT BUY CURRY IN A LITTLE SPICE BOTTLE
• Chili powder
• Garlic powder
• Chopped onion, one whole onion will do
• Olive oil
• Potatoes if you have chosen ground chicken 

So you've decided to start this time with chicken breasts and thighs.  Get the bones out of there and cut or tear the chicken up into pieces a little bigger than a golf ball, bigger than bite size because you're going to cut them up after they're cooked some more.  

Make sure you wash your hands because food poisoning sucks and dive into your spice drawer and get the dry spices.  Put them into a little bowl, alright let me explain the curry thing.  You're going to start with a BIG pile of curry in your little bowl.  Of you're making this with four chicken thighs or two chicken breasts, you want five or more tablespoons of curry.  Now it's easy to understand what a waste it is to get a small, expensive jar of it.  Besides curry power from Whole Foods or Dominick's, even McCormick fancy spice kind is just bad.  It doesn't taste the way it's supposed to.  So then add chili and garlic powder to your curry, add some and taste.  Make it as hot or as garlicky as you like.  Your bowl should have a substantial amount of spice powder in it- you want to have a lot.  Now add the olive oil to it, starting with a tablespoon and stirring it to make a paste, adding more oil as needed.  Yes, you can also buy curry paste and this is done for you!  Make the paste a little more oily so it can coat the chicken.

Chop up your onion and throw it into the container with your chicken.  Get ready to make those fingers yellow!  Dump the curry and oil blend in with the chicken and onions and get everything nice and curried up.  Put this in the fridge for two hours, even longer, even overnight.  If you decided to do this with ground chicken, everything is the same except you can use less oil in your paste because you don't need it when you work the spices into the ground chicken with your hands.  When you cook it, you'll first cook some chopped potatoes in oil, dusted with curry and the other seasonings as they cook.  Then add the chicken and follow the cooking instructions below.

Now get your super awesome wok, or a boring frying pan and put a little oil in there.  Heat it up and dump in your chicken stuff.  Cook it until its all lightly browned.  Let it cool.  Next you can put it back on the *cleaned and sterilized* cutting board and cut the chicken up further so it starts to look like taco meat strips.  Serve with lettuce and tomato, cheese if you want.  Toast some corn tortillas for your tacos.  Salsa from the small cans is good with this.  The kind that has tomatoes, onion, jalapeño and cilantro.  Fresh cilantro is great with this taco filling also as it's used in Indian dishes as well.  If you don't want a total fusion meal, for the most curry chicken flavor, don't use a salsa, just lettuce, onion and cilantro.  You're gonna like this one!

Tempeh Tacos... What!?

What you'll need:

• Organic tempeh, one pack
• Garlic powder 
• Onion powder 
• Annato powder
• Ground cinnamon
• Soy sauce
• Veggie oil

Ok, what is tempeh?  For those who haven't tried it, it's a fermented soybean product originally from Indonesia.  It comes in different varieties, some of which have wheat in them.  I stay away from too much wheat, so I use the flax variety that has cultured soybeans, flax seed and brown rice in it.  There are other tempeh taco recipes online, so people are eating this and its very good!

Prepare your brick of tempeh by slicing it into thin strips and then the strips into smaller squares.  Now it's ready for a spice dusting!  If the spice mix sounds a little like the one used in preparing arrachera, that's because it's almost the same, although there are many different recipes for arrachera...  I didn't use lime with the tempeh... only because I didn't have it at the time.  Sprinkle the spices in equal amounts over your tempeh squares stirring them around to get each square spiced up.  Now you can take one packet of soy sauce (everyone has those lying around) and sprinkle the whole packet evenly over the tempeh, which will soak it up.  This is how it's gonna look!

It looks very much like tofu, but its more dense and firm.  Put the tempeh in the fridge to marinate.  I think overnight is probably a bit much because it's not meat- an hour should be enough.

Get your wok and put some veggie oil in there, be generous.  Add the tempeh and cook until its golden brown.  Toast some tortillas and pick out your taco toppings.  The tempeh is seasoned the same way you'd season thin strips of pounded steak for tacos or fajitas, so the toppings you choose can be the same as I mentioned above, or any other traditional Mexican ones you like.  Grilled poblano pepper is good or fajita style with peppers and onions, jalapeños, cilantro, salsa and so on...  Give it a try, weird can be good!

Chillin' and Grillin' - Meat Ideas

Lots of chillin' and grillin' went on in the past two days in the fancy outdoor kitchen with my grill mates, the center piece of which is a table top Kingsford grill with two racks and a hinged lid.  It's wonderful to use and cost less than $40.  It can't be left outdoors though when not in use or it might rust.

So here are some easy ideas for spicing up your meats on the grill:

Chipotle Chicken Breast

All you need to make smoky and delicious chipotle chicken breast is the chicken and a pack of Weber Grill Chipotle Chicken Seasoning.  To prepare the seasoning all you have to do is mix it with some veggie or olive oil and rub it on your chicken.  Half of the package was more than enough for three chicken breasts.  The instructions tell you to marinate it for 15 minutes, but I always think the longer the better!  I marinated mine for a couple of hours.

Once the spice pack has time to get aquinted with the meat, it's time to start the grill.  I use a chimney starter to avoid the use of lighter fluid. That tastes yucky, and you CAN taste it in your food.  The fun smokey part in this chicken comes from the use of a few chunks of hickory, soaked for at least 1/2 an hour to prevent burning when placed on the coals.  Any kinda coals will do just as long as they don't have lighter fluid already in them.  

Dump out your lit charcoal in the grill making sure you have a hot zone and a cool spot.  Add the wood chuncks and get them smokin'.  Put your chicken on over the cool zone and close the lid.  Let the smoke do its thing and keep an eye on the meat so that it doesn't burn.  Temp it if you like to check for doneness.

Take 'em off the grill and enjoy!

Greek Sausage (Loukaniko)

This is about as easy as it gets.  I got a package of Greek sausage from the local deli by my house.  The package did not show an ingredient list, so I looked it up.  This is what's in Greek sausage:

• lamb trimmings
• pork shoulder
• ground red pepper
• garlic 
• ground coriander seed
• dried oregano
• fennel pollen
• cracked black pepper
• orange zest
• Retsina wine (or another Greek white wine)

Just put it on the grill with wood chips of your choice and let it get the smoke!

Spicy Baby Back Ribs

For this I used Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken and Trader Joes Smoky Kansas City BBQ Sauce.

Marinate the ribs (raw ones, not the precooked) with the Kickin' Chicken and coat with a small amount of BBQ sauce.  After some time marinating put the ribs in a 300 degree oven for 45 minutes or so.  The oven can be cooler if you have more time to do the precooking.  You want the pork to be at least 160 degrees for safety.  I've seen precooking take place in a microwave, but to me that's just weird.

Set up your grill with the hot and cool zones and add hickory for smoke.  Put your ribs on there over the cool area and let them smoke.  Check for doneness with a meat thermometer and add more BBQ sauce at the end when it's less likely to burn.  You can get ribs at a very reasonable price at Aldi and they come out great on the grill.

Lamb Cheeseburgers 

The neighborhood grocery near my house sells lamb patties at the deli.  They have a few green onions and parsley on the top.  I haven't seen ground lamb at the major grocery store chains, so you may have some searching to do to get ground lamb.

The cheese I used on the burgers was also from the mom and pop grocery.  I chose chipotle smoked Gouda.  It was really good!

Throw your lamb patties on the grill preferably not directly over the coals.  Lamb is like an instant fire starter because it's such a fatty meat, be ready for the flare-ups and don't leave it unattended for a second!  Press out more oil with your spatula as they're cooking.  Keep them moving and monitor them so they don't burn.  If you happen to have wood chips on your grill that tastes really good, but is not entirely necessary.

When your lamb burgers are almost done add the sliced cheese to each burger and let that melt in.  Your burgers are done.

Fun grilled condiments include char blackened Poblano peppers, portabella mushrooms, roasted garlic and grilled onion.  Dijon mustard tastes excellent on there too.  Toast your buns on the grill... crunchy crunchy.  Lettuce and tomato top the perfect lamb cheeseburger!

That's the carnivore's grill tour...   Meow-appetite!

Slightly Indian Chicken Marinade

Here's the first marinade entry!  Wahoo...  So here's what you're going to need to whip this one together:

• annato
• cumin
• cinnamon
• garam masala
• chili
• adobo
• soy sauce 
• olive oil

The dry ingredients are all in powder form, you'll mix those together in a small bowl.  You can play with this one, like all of the other recipes mentioned, that's the point.  You're going to want to watch your usage of Adobo and soy sauce because you don't want an overpowering salty taste, or a heart attack!  Go easy with the cinnamon and add that slowly tasting as you go.  It's a strong flavor and you want the other flavors to have a chance.  You're looking for balance.

Focus on the garam masala flavor, you should definitely taste this.  The annato is typically a spice used in Mexican dishes, but the clever part is being able to taste it with the Indian flavor.  Chili powder is there to increase the heat, use it more or less to your liking.

Once you have the dry spices married just the way you like them add your soy sauce (one of those little packets is just about right) and mix in olive oil.  You don't want too much oil.  It should be an even ratio of oil to powder visually before you mix it together.

Put this on your chicken and let it sit refrigerated for at least an hour if not longer.  I like to let my meat marinade for hours while I do other things, sleep or go to work.  That doesn't hurt.  Make sure the spices and your chicken have fun together before they get scorched!