Ja cię kocham…

These ribs are always a huge hit with our family and friends, and I cannot take one ounce of credit.  These are made by my grill master husband, Jay.   If something needs to be grilled, he is always ready to go, beer and cigar in hand.  It’s so funny because on our teeny, tiny patio outside we have a huge Weber grill, a charcoal grill, and a smoker.  Do we have enough??  Apparently not because we’re thinking about getting a tailgate grill for when we go to sports events, too.  Ha.  We love our food in this house.

We pretty much always get our meats from the super wholesale store, Costco.  Their meats are outta this world.  Honestly, a lot of Costco’s stuff is pretty amazing.  (Their birthday cakes are unbelievable!)  If we don’t go to Costco, then we go to our local Amish farmer’s markets for meats.  They, too, have great stuff for great prices.  And I have to just give a shout out to Trader Joe’s because it’s my favorite grocery store.  I can’t talk about good food and prices without mentioning TJ’s.

So…. the superbowl is about a month away and you need a great recipe for a party, don’t you?  I suggest you try these ribs.  They can be cooked in the oven, on a grill, or in a smoker.  Does not matter.  We’ve done it all and they are always a huge hit.  HUGE hit.

My only critique is the price of the food to make this meal, but it is important to know before you get to the grocery store.  Bobby Flay uses 2 different types of chili powder both of which are expensive (and hard to find) in addition to a whole lot of maple syrup, which is also expensive. It’s totally fine to use any chili powder and syrup you have in the house.  Yes, the specific kinds that are chosen do make these ribs particularly yummy, but using any chili powder and syrup still tastes amazing and you will still rock the house in grilling.

For New Years we served these babies with Sauerkraut with Bacon and apples (recipe follows).  Mmmmmmm…..

Spice Rubbed Smoked Ribs with Maple-Horseradish Baste

Source: Bobby Flay

Serves 8

Prep Time: 15 min

Inactive Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min

Ingredients:

Maple-Horseradish Glaze:

2 cups pure maple syrup
1/2 cup prepared horseradish, drained
2 heaping tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Ribs:

1/3 cup Spanish paprika
3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
3 tablespoons New Mexican chili powder
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3 cups wood chips (hickory, mesquite, or applewood)
4 racks pork ribs (3 pounds each)

Directions:

Glaze:

Whisk all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Ribs:

Stir spices together in a medium bowl.

About 1/2 hour before cooking time, soak hickory chips in enough water to cover. Drain chips. In a covered grill, place slow burning charcoal in both sides of a drip pan. Sprinkle coals with wood chips.

Rub top side of each rack of ribs with about 3 tablespoons of the rub. Place ribs, bone side down, on grill. Close cover or place cover on the smoker. Grill about 1 1/2 hours, adding chips every 20 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of grilling, brush liberally with the Maple-Horseradish Glaze.

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SERVED WITH:

Image courtesy of Simply Recipes

Sauerkraut with Bacon and Apples

Source: Simply recipes

Serves 8-10

Here is a little secret for you all.

I want a Canon Rebel XSi with a 100mm macro lens for Christmas.

I know what you’re thinking – “Keep dreaming…” – I know this, but a girl has to dream, right??  I’m getting pretty tired of mediocre pictures.  I made an amazing pre-Thanksgiving feast last night with pictures that do not do the meal justice whatsoever.  Boooo.  Boooo to you crappy pictures.

Even though the pictures of my meal are an absolute eye-sore, I am posting anyway.  The recipes are too good, too healthy, and too easy to ignore.  So I say just cringe at the crappy pictures and move on.  I will try my very best to do the same.

It’s November, and you know what that means, right?  Thanksgiving is just around the corner!  I cannot wait to gorge myself with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and more!!  Just the thought of Turkey Day makes my mouth water.  I decided to have a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for the hubby and I just to get into the spirit of the holiday season.  This meal consisted of recipes from the Clean Eating Magazine, which I absolutely adore.   CE Mag makes fresh food and wholesome food seem so simple and appetizing.  No bland recipes here.  They are so full of flavor that you’re family won’t know how healthy they really are.

For my first post of the pre-Thanksgiving Feast, I am sharing the cranberry sauce.  It was done in 12 minutes, and it tastes soooo much better than the canned stuff.  Oh how I love recipes that are super easy… they make my world go ’round.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Ginger

Source: Clean Eating Magazine Nov/Dec 2009

Serves: 8 (or 4-6 hungry folks)

A much prettier picture courtesy of The Food Network and Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

12 oz. cranberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted
1 apple, cored and chopped into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup honey (CE calls for raw)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 Tbs. fresh ginger, finely minced
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until cranberries break down, apples soften, and mixture thickens.

Stir often.

Transfer to a serving dish or storage container and allow to chill in fridge.  Serve at room temperature.

Egg McMuffins from Mickey D’s rock my world.  I can eat one in a matter of moments.  I TRY to savor the taste of each bite but it never works because no sooner I bite the sucker, it’s gone.  My excitement is over.

I try to make “Egg McMuffins” at home but they are always so dry – even with the cheese.  I’ve sprayed/slathered the English Muffin with butter to try to moisten it, but nooooo, the sandwich remained disgustingly dry.  After making my Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce, which is essentially blue cheese with milk, flour, and butter (simple), I decided to use it to alleviate the over-crustiness of my sandwich.  Over-crustiness?  You get my point.

Since I’m “off” from work this week to focus on my thesis for grad school – being “off” is a whole other story in itself – I’ve been making heartier breakfasts.  This particular sandwich is for Jay because it’s really spicy, but the heat can easily be turned down for a heat-sensitive palette.  All that I did was add XXX hot sauce to the cheese sauce recipe.  It was really good but my mouth was on FIRE.  Perfect for Jay.  Then I threw some hot peppers on top.  He loved it.  I should call the sandwich Jay’s Inferno or eat this and your tongue will fall out.  Like I said, don’t do the hot sauce or the hot peppers, and there is no heat.  You’ll survive.  And so will your tongue.

Bacon Egg, and Spicy Cheese Sandwich

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 english muffins
2 eggs
4 slices reduced sodium, bacon (I like center-cut)
Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce + hot sauce stirred in it (hot sauce optional)
hot peppers (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook bacon in a medium/large skillet.  When it’s almost done, push bacon to the side of the skillet and cook the eggs.  If you want to saute your peppers, throw them in the skillet as well.

While eggs are cooking, toast your english muffins.

Place your toasted english muffins on your serving plate and spread the top half with the cheese sauce.  On the bottom half add the egg, bacon, and peppers.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Close them, arrange them so they look pretty on your plate, and enjoy!

This chicken was a huge accomplishment for me.  For months I could not go near meat.  I was utterly repulsed.  I blame the Travel Channel and their wacky food shows.  Thank you Travel Channel for ruining meat for me for several months.

I have since overcome this repulsion and am back in the omnivorous swing of things.  What makes this particular recipe an accomplishment is the fact that it’s an entire chicken.  I can easily consume chicken, but when it’s whole… let’s just say I tend to stop in my tracks, stare at it and eeeeeew.  I have the same issues with the Thanksgiving Turkey.   I will spare you my exact thoughts.

What makes this less of an accomplishment for me was the fact that Jay did most of the hands-on prepping with the raw chicken.  I prepared the herbs and whatnot, and he put it on the chicken.  I can’t touch a whole chicken.  Weird, I know.  Again, blame the Travel Channel.

Once the chicken was cooking and the unbelievably appetizing aroma began swirling around my house, my phobia/repulsion/”sissy-ness” subsided.  Forget you and your creepiness whole chicken.  I will not let you ruin me!  Although I wussed out on tying the arms of the chicken back to prevent them from burning… Next time, chicken!  Your arms will be mine to defeat!

Boy… this whole chicken thing is a little outta control, don’t you think??

Emeril rocked this recipe!  This is a simple roasted chicken that takes 45-50 minutes to cook!  I love it!  It wasn’t the 2 1/2 hour ordeal that other recipes require.  AND the ingredients were not hard to find.  They were all in my kitchen cabinet.  ANNNNND buying a whole chicken is way cheaper than buying a pack of chicken breasts.  My whole chicken was $5.50!  Perfect for a family of two for dinner and lunch the next day.  See?  I’m starting to love this whole chicken business more now.

Emeril Lagasse’s Perfected Roasted Chicken

Mildly Adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds
3 ribs celery, peeled and cut into thirds
3 onions, peeled and cut into quarters
1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons cracked white pepper
1 lemon, halved
2 fresh bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped, plus 1 tablespoon for gravy
5 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
1 Tbs. dried celery flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup chicken stock*
2 tablespoons roasted garlic*
1 cup dry white wine*

** denotes ingredients for chicken gravy, which I did not make**

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

In a 9 by 13-inch roasting pan, add the carrots, celery and onions.

Season the chicken both inside and out with the kosher salt and white pepper. Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken and place the rinds inside the cavity. Place the bay leaves inside the cavity.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, rosemary, sage, celery flakes, olive oil and butter. Rub the chicken both inside and out with the garlic rosemary blend and place in the roasting pan.

Place the pan in the oven and roast the chicken for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the juices run clear. To test this, insert a thermometer in the thickest part of a leg. It should register at 160 degrees internal temperature. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

Pour off excess fat from pan and return to heat. Whisk in chicken stock, roasted garlic, white wine and chopped rosemary, scraping up the bits on the bottom of pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Reduce gravy by half, until thickened.*

Serve chicken with gravy on the side.*

** denotes directions to make the chicken gravy, which I did not make**

I love pesto.  Basically anything with basil in it gets a thumbs up from me.  What I never thought about was how versatile pesto is.  Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, cheese… that was pesto to me.  Oh how I was wrong!   You can change up the pine nuts with walnuts or almonds… change the basil to thyme… throw in red pepper flakes… or even sun-dried tomatoes!

A little bit of this particular pesto goes a long way.  I think I actually made too much.  Because I have so much left over, I’m putting on my chicken, crackers with cheese, on my sandwiches, as a dip for my raw vegetables, and anything else that I can think of.

I’ve cut the recipe in half.  The changes are reflected in the recipe below.

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Red Pesto

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Serves 4

Ingredients:

12 plump, chewy sun-dried tomatoes (about 2 ounces)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
a couple big pinches of red pepper flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
handful of fresh basil
1/4 cup walnuts or pine nuts, lightly toasted
zest of half a lemon

Directions:

Pulse all ingredients in your food processor until it reaches a crumbled texture.  If you are using the pesto with pasta, add 1/2 cup of the pasta water with 2/3 of the pesto sauce and then add the rest of the pesto to the mixture.  If not, use a small amount of hot water to thin it out.  I suggest gradually adding the water so you can get the consistency that you prefer.

This was an absolute last minute meal.  Jay picked me up from the train station later in the evening and asked me what I wanted to do for dinner.  All that I knew was that I wanted chicken.   What kind of chicken was beyond me.  We stopped at Wegmans for some cutlets where we happened to walk by the gourmet cheese section.  In a matter of minutes I lost Jay in the abyss of cheese.  When he finally surface he had a nice chunk of Blue Stilton Cheese.

The thoughts about what to do with my chicken started to come alive.

This recipe is really simple.  I just made a rue sauce with the Stilton.  Ooooh was it good!  Good thing that we stopped at Wegmans.  This one is a keeper.

Chicken with Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
4 thin chicken breast cutlets
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. butter (I used yogurt butter)
1 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. cream/half and half (optional)
1/2 cup skim milk
2 oz blue Stilton or your favorite blue cheese

Directions:

Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready and within reach.

Preheat a large skillet to medium heat.  Add olive oil.  Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to skillet.  Cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

While chicken is cooking, preheat a small saucepan to low heat.  Add butter and stir until melted.  Whisk in flour.  At this point your are going to continually whisk.  Once the butter/flour mixture thickens, whisk in cream.  Gradually whisk in skim milk until desired consistency.  Add cheese and a generous amount of pepper.  Whisk until incorporated and cheese is melted.

On a serving platter, arrange chicken and top with cheese sauce.

Trader Joe’s is by far my favorite grocery store.  Besides the local produce stands, which I LOVE, Trader Joe’s is the best!  They have the best selection of wild fish that I have ever seen.  I prefer wild fish because there aren’t color injections (C’mon, is the salmon in the grocery store naturally THAT pink??), the fish get to swim in wide open spaces preventing disgusting stuff from infiltrating the flesh, and there is less fat.   The more I think about it, the more grossed out I am with farm-raised fish.

I have never had red snapper before, and I have never cooked it before.  That being said, I am not sure how I feel about it.  It tasted wonderful, but the consistency was a little off to me.  The meat didn’t flake off of the skin like other fish usually does.  I cooked it for well over the time that the package called for, and it still was gummy.  Maybe that’s how the fish is.  I don’t know.

Regardless of the consistency of the fish, the sauce I made to go with it was awesome!!  It could easily be used on salmon, mahi mahi, catfish, flounder, crab, shrimp…etc. etc.  (All the fish that I have cooked and have enjoyed thoroughly.)

If you are familiar with red snapper and enjoy it, then by all means make this recipe verbatim.  If you’re a little unsure because of my testimony, then by all means substitute the snapper for another type of fish.  Just TRY to use wild fish if you can. 

Red Snapper with Orange Chipotle Butter Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 red snapper fillets
4-5 Tbs. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. chipotle pepper seasoning, divided
1-2 Tbs. orange juice (I like mine freshly squeezed)
3 Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Add flour and half of the chipotle pepper to a large plate.  Mix well.

Preheat medium-sized skillet to medium-high.  Add olive oil.

Pat fillets dry with paper towel.  Dunk both sides with flour mixture and place in skillet skin side up first.  Cook 4-6 minutes on each side.  Place on platter.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Mash butter, orange juice and remainder of chipotle pepper together.  Gently place a generous amount on each fillet.  Garnish with cilantro.

Tis the season for glorious tomatoes!   Driving to work I pass lovely produce stands filled with freshly picked tomatoes.  How could I not indulge?   For the fantastic price of $5.50 I got myself 11 beefsteak tomatoes just waiting to be used for a homemade sauce.

Given the fact that I am not a fan of jarred spaghetti sauce, I’ve made plenty of my own but never with fresh garden tomatoes.  I typically use canned crushed tomatoes and go from there.  It is by no means as wonderful as making a sauce from scratch, but it does save time.  This recipe is a little more time consuming that a typical Ja cie kocham post, but it is well worth the wait.

My only advice is this – if you are going to invest the time to make homemade sauce, you might as well make a lot so you have some for later.  Being a novice spaghetti sauce maker, I failed in this regard.  I made just enough sauce for one box of spaghetti.  Keep that in mind.

I have a few reasons for making this spaghetti sauce – 1.  I’ve always wanted to make it from scratch.  2.  I’ve made a pledge to Buy Fresh and Buy Local as much as I can for the months of July and August.  3.  My parents 30-year anniversary was on Monday, and as a gift I made them dinner.

This sauce was a huge hit with my parents!  I also sauteed some fresh zucchini, onion, and eggplant in olive oil and placed it on top of the sauce to give it some color.  I WISH that I took a picture of the final pasta dish that I made for my parents.  Looks like I’m going to have to make it all again just for you!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Source: Loosely Adapted from Allrecipes

Time: Prep: 45 minutes  Cook: 2hr 15min

Serves 6-8 (makes enough for one box of spaghetti)

Ingredients:

**feel free to double or triple the batch for leftovers!!**

10 beefsteak tomatoes
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. butter
1 white or sweet onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
generous handful of fresh basil, torn (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs. corn starch
fresh lemon zest

Directions:

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor.

In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in bouillon cubes, basil, Italian seasoning salt and pepper. Place bay leaves in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours.   Every 30 minutes, drain the excess liquid from the pot.  With a 30 minutes left or so, stir in the corn starch.  This will help the sauce thicken faster. When at desired thickness, discard bay leaf, add lemon zest and serve.

Please pardon the horrible picture with the enormous shadow.  It was pretty late at night, and the lighting was non-existent.

Omigosh, this salad was SOOOO good.  My favorite part is the Creamy Cilantro Dressing.  I used fresh limes, and it is absolutely divine.  I’m typically a ranch girl, but this dressing has swayed me away from ranch.

Another not so pretty picture, but it’s so delicious that I want to lick my computer screen!

This salad is really fun because I used a glass trifle dish to expose all the colorful layers of the salad.  It’s perfect for a small gathering of friends and family.  This baby makes you look like you know what you’re doing, and it’s so simple.

Aside from the fact that it is quite tasty and presentable, there are a few changes that I will definitely be making.   There was simply not enough lettuce.  I felt like I was eating a cheese salad.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love cheese, but I need some other flavors and textures incorporated in there.  Next time I’m going to add an additional layer of lettuce after the first layer of cheese.

Secondly, inasmuch as the cornbread croutons look amazing nestled on top of the salad, there were simply too many of them!   My plate was full of cornbread and I had to put them back in the trifle dish.  It’s a shame because that’s what really makes the salad look beautiful.  I say either bake half of the amount of cornbread mix the recipe calls for or just bake all of the mix, put half on the salad, and serve slices on the side as well.

With minor alterations, this salad is extraordinary!  It’s fresh, vibrant, and oh so yummy.

Layered Tex-Mex Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

Source: Cooking for Real by Sunny Anderson

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Butter, for preparing 8 by 8-inch glass pan
1 (8.5-ounce) box cornbread mix (recommended: Jiffy)
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 packet sazon seasoning (It’s made by Goya, but 1-2 tsp. ground coriander and 1-2 tsp. cumin work well if you don’t have sazon.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup salsa
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 large head romaine lettuce, cut into strips
Creamy Lime Dressing, recipe follows*
1 1/2 cups grated Monterey jack Cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease an 8 by 8-inch glass pan with butter.

Stir together the cornbread mix with the egg and milk. Evenly spread into prepared pan and bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cool completely.

Mix together the beans with the sazon (or cumin and coriander) and season with salt and pepper.

Toss the salsa with the tomatoes.

When ready to serve, cut the cornbread into 1/2-inch croutons.

Toss the lettuce with 3/4 cups of the dressing and split into two piles.

In a clear trifle dish, layer the Tex-Mex Salad beginning with the black beans followed by the Monterey jack cheese, one pile of lettuce, the tomato salsa mixture, the Cheddar, the remainder of the lettuce and top with the cornbread croutons. Serve the remaining dressing on the side.

Creamy Lime Dressing*

Yields 1 1/2 cups

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/4 cup lime juice (I recommend FRESH!!)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients except the olive oil until smooth. While machine is running, slowly drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Soooooo good!!!

I tend to run into the same problem all the time.  I find an awesome recipe that requires me to buy maybe one or two things.  Quick trip to the store right?  WRONG.  I end up going to several stores trying to find one thing and end up never finding it.  Grrrr… that’s annoying.  Chutney tends to be one of those things that I can NEVER find in the grocery store.

So you know what I do?  I make it myself.  Take THAT grocery store!

I found a really easy recipe for homemade pineapple chutney using simple pantry ingredients.  Rather than using canned crushed pineapple, I decided to use fresh pineapple and crush it myself.  It turned out quite well.  I was a little nervous because the apple cider vinegar was all I could smell in my house, but when I tasted the chutney, the cider vinegar was not too powerful.  This is a great item to put on chicken or fish – and it took me far less time to cook it than to go on a county-wide hunt for the stuff.

Homemade Pineapple Chutney

Yields: 3 – 12 oz. jars.

Source: Recipezaar

4 cups fresh pineapple, crushed and well drained
2 cups brown sugar, packed tightly
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup bell pepper (any color), seeded and chopped
1 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Combine pineapple, sugar, vinegar and salt in a large saucepan.

Heat to boil; simmer gently, stirring frequently for 25 minutes.

Stir in remaining ingredients.

Cook slowly, stirring often, until mixture thickens.

Ladle into sterilized hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal; process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.

I didn’t worry about the jars since I used the chutney right away…