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!"

Roast Beef Hash with Rigatoni (back to the test kitchen for you)

The other night I had a bad idea for a late night meal that I'd like to share with you.  I thought that somehow cooking rigatoni, setting it aside, then cooking a can of roast beef hash in my wok and then combining and frying to two would be a neat idea.  It's not.  I even started scribbling some notes as I often do when I'm making a new concoction, but I scrapped the idea when I saw the end result.

I don't know if it's worth a trip back to the test kitchen with this idea, or if meat in a can is only meant for cats.  This meal gets two meows down!

Dinner on the Grill

Last week my friend and I made the most wonderful dinner in the outdoor kitchen, all on the grill.  I thought it would be fun to outline the preparation in full... we had a pile of different foods!  It's like we couldn't stop putting stuff on there to see how it would taste BBQ style.  

Cinnamon-amon-namon BBQ Carrots

In my grilling pan I put baby carrots sprinkled with cinnamon and garlic powder.  I should mention that throughout the cooking process we had hickory chunks smokin' up the grill, yummy!  So I had the wee carrots seasoned in the pan also with a little bit of butter and olive oil and a minimal amount of water to help them steam slightly.  We put them on the grill and closed the lid so they would get smoke.  I had them covered with foil to aid in the steaming process- I poked holes in the foil to let the smoke penetrate.  

After they were on there for a bit, maybe 15 minutes, we uncovered them and let them cook more.  (uncovered is better so they get more smoke).  The final stage is the most exciting!  Now you're gonna add some of your favorite BBQ sauce, I used Trader Joe's Bold and Smoky KC Style.  That's what I had left in the fridge from the ribs.  I didn't use a ton of BBQ sauce because I don't like too much sticky and sweet.  Let them cook a little bit with the sauce and you'll have BBQ sweet and cinnamon carrots!

The Sweet Sides

In addition to the carrots, we also had an assortment of side yummies and grilled up condiments for the main course.  The grilled condiments included the traditional burned up poblano pepper, grilled onions and garlic.

We also put frozen sweet potato fries on an oiled disposable aluminum pan.  The pan was placed over the cool area of the fire and closely monitored so the fries would not burn.  We ended up with gently charred on the bottom super smoky fries.  They turned out perfect.

The most interesting side dish by far was the coconut shrimp!  These were also frozen, so putting them on the grill was taking a chance because who knows how hot the fire really is.  We did our best to try to follow the cooking instructions.  I know it must sound like I do all my shopping at Aldi... yes I did get the shrimp from Aldi.  Hey, but the BQ sauce was from Trader Joe's and the rest from the grocery store and fruit market.  Note on the shrimp:  lotta breading, which you'd expect from a bargain frozen seafood case.  They come with a sweet sauce that was actually good, but you have to really like coconut to enjoy these shrimp.  I liked them, but I wouldn't want to eat a whole pile, too much coconut for me!

So frozen food that is meant to be baked does work on the grill.

The Main Course

I don't know if you can call it a main course, but we're talking grilled turkey burgers.  In case you have food intolerances, Butterball Sweet Onion Turkey Burgers are gluten free, kinda neat.  Ok, we did thaw the burgers before tossing them on the grill.  I usually get carried away with seasoning and prepping my food, but I didn't do anything to the burgers.  The main seasoning I felt would come from the hickory and the cheese I chose to top them with.  Land O'Lakes Four Cheese Blend from the deli.  It's a brick of cheese that is sliced, not shredded cheese in a package.  The four cheeses are Parmesan, Asiago, Romano and American.  It's quite a potent cheese, but on a burger it's just right.

So we grilled up the burgers, putting the cheese on at the end of the cooking process.  The cheese is firm, so it didn't get mushy and drippy on the grill.  Toast up a few buns and you have smoky, cheesy, dreamy burgers!  We also topped them with Dijon mustard and I had wasabi mayo on the side and I tried that on almost everything a little.  The wasabi took down the coconut on the shrimp, worked for me!

Happy grilling, try some frozen food too.  I think I'm gonna try jalapeño poppers one of these days.  Mee-ows!

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!

Hot Links to Vegetarian Grilling Ideas

Tomato and Olive Stuffed Portabella Caps!

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/tomato-olive-stuffed-portobello-caps-recipe-5337

Tempeh, Green Beans and Pineapple- MMMM

http://www.vegkitchen.com/recipes/special-occasions-and-entertaining/vegan-grilling/grilled-tempeh-green-beans-and-pineapple/

Helpful Fruit and Veggie Grilling Chart- Take Out the Guess Work

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Fruit-and-Vegetable-Grilling-Chart

Blackened Grilled Tofu

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/tofurecipes/r/blackenedtofu.htm

Vegetarian and Vegan Grilling Ideas From Another Cooking Blogger!

http://wedonteatanythingwithaface.blogspot.com/2011/04/vegetarian-and-vegan-barbecue-recipes.html

There's more to BBQ than just burgers and sausages, hope you're daring and try a few new things.  I still remember the first time I grilled tofu, it was an experience and turned out better than I thought..  I know yours will turn out yummy too!

Chillin' and Grillin' - Veggie Edition

Quick and Easy Veggies, No Prep Needed!

Corn-  there is a debate about husk on or off, and the use of foil.  I remove the husk and just throw the ears on there.  Getting some browning makes it good, I don't see the need to keep the husk on or use foil as if you need the corn to steam.  You can eat corn raw, like many other foods people don't think of.  Put it on there this way and it'll turn out nice.

Portabella Mushrooms-  just like the corn, all you have to do is put it on there.  Mushrooms really soak up the smoke on the grill.  A little cracked pepper is all you need if you feel compelled to put something on them.

Mixed Veggies-  I have a pan that I use on the grill.  It's scorched all over on the outside, I got it at the dollar store.  You can put any assortment of veggies you want in a pan like that and cover with foil so they steam in there.  Most recently I made bok choy this way.  Friday night I put a mix of chopped white mushrooms, onion, celery, green pepper and broccoli In my pan with some olive oil and butter.  I also used a small amount of the Aldi Poultry Grinder spice which has peppers and salt in it.  Uncovering them for a period of time to get the smoke is tasty!  (ok, there was a little prep on this one)

Roasted Garlic-  take a clove of garlic and put it on the grill until it gets mushy inside.  This goes great as a condiment.  To use just squeeze the cloves and the garlic is yummy gooey and comes right out.

Baba Ghanouj

Here’s what you’ll need to make your delicious eggplant dip:

• 2 medium or large eggplants, about 1 pound
• 1 small garlic clove, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tahini  or sesame seed paste
• olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
salt, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
• parsley (optional)

Grill the eggplants RIGHT ON THE COALS for about 15 or 20 minutes, turning then over until they are charred and slightly wrinkled. You can have wood chips smoking on the coals with them to get that flavor too!  They're going to look burned, but that's ok. Let the eggplants cool so you can work with them.

Next, split the eggplants and scoop out the inside part, separating it from the burned up skin. Using a fork, squeeze out excess moisture from the eggplants and drain the bitter liquid.

Mash the eggplants with a fork until creamy. Add the finely minced garlic, tahini, and lemon juice while mixing it together. Season with salt and add the ground cumin (if you want). Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Wait, back up...  what is tahini and where can I get it?  Tahini is a vegan sesame seed paste that contains  the seeds and the oil of the seeds.  Some brands may have other ingredients, shop around for one you like.  You can get it at the healthy grocery or neighborhood grocery if yours caters to Middle Eastern shoppers.

Dip chips, pita or veggies into your home made baba ghanouj.  Some veggie grilling links in another post...

Try Platanitos Chips

I was telling a friend about these chips so I took a picture of the bag to include in the email conversation.  Since I have talked about brands I like in this blog, I thought I'd share the joy of plantain chips with you!

They are not spicy, even though chili-lemon (I think they mean lime because there are limes pictured on the bag) sounds like it should be spicy.  They're kinda salty, but over all very tasty.  Give 'em a try.

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!

Welcome to My Kitchen

With all of my chatter about cooking things my way, it seems only right that I invite you to my kitchen!  Welcome.  Cooking is something that has been a great relief and comfort to me in the past year.  It's given me the opportunity to share food with people, and cook with them too!

Every chef should have an indoor and an outdoor kitchen.  Here are mine.

Wonderful grilling stories to come!  I'm very happy to share with you my time in the kitchen, thank you for reading.

MEOWS

Fried Tortellini! Whoa...

What you will need for this recipe is as follows:

• one package of tortellini

• three sausage links

• two russet potatoes

• olive oil and vegetable oil

• parmesan cheese

• oregano or an italian herb blend

The first thing to start with is a tortellini that you really like.  I used Pasta Prima 100% natural Spinach and Cheese Tortellini.  One package should be enough.

Second ingredient is your favorite sausage, one that will compliment or even contrast the pasta.  I chose Hillshire Farm Turkey Polska Kielbasa.  Three links of whatever kinda sausage you like!

Cook your pasta as directed, drain and rinse with cold water.  Set it aside for later.

Next you will need to get two russet potatoes and give them a rough chop.

Get a pan or I prefer to use my wok.  I use my wok for so many things, I couldn't live without it!  Put some olive oil and vegetable oil in the wok.  Blending the two oils allows you to use more heat without burning your oil.  Olive oil can't take higher temperatures, but it tastes good, so giving it a little help with the veggie oil works well.  Throw your potatoes in there to cook them.  You can add a small amount of water and cover them as they cook for part of the time to make sure that they are cooked through.

Turn up the heat in the wok to make sure you've burned off any excess water.  Get those taters a little brown!  Reduce heat and add some more olive oil.  I've been using Pompeian brand, it tastes ok.  When it's on sale I like Filippo Berio Extra Virgin, but when it's not on sale it's kinda pricy.  I bought the Pompeian with a coupon given to me by a friend with a coupon clipping shopping addiction.  I'm not laughing, it's an addiction for this individual.  Anyway...

So you've added some more oil.  Now it's time to throw in your cooked tortellini and let them meow with the potatoes!  Oh, I did forget to mention putting the  sliced sausage in with your taters after you make sure the water has been cooked off, then the pasta follows in shortly after the sausage.  Did I mention slicing the sausage?  Do that before it goes in the pan.

Fry them up until everything is lightly browned, we don't want that char broiled favor for this one.  Slightly crispy is also the goal.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and italian herbs to garnish.  If you got the Pasta Prima they give you a fun little pack of cheese and herbs so you're already set with that.  Pasta Prima has another variety of mushroom ravioli, which also comes with the cheese pack.  That might be another version of this recipe that could work well, especially with sausage.

Now it's time to plate your delicious and heart unhealthy fried tortellini.  Enjoy it, that's what frying is all about!