Random Web Links for 2008-01-31

• Spicy Chickpea Stew - recipe to try
• Miso Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings Recipe - recipe to try
• Dried Apricot and Pistachio Scone - recipe to try
• A new reference source - great idea, now if only I had the time to validate its content
• Peppermint Marshmallows - I wanted to make these for Em during the holidays but never got around to them
• Smoked Salmon and Potato Breakfast Casserole - sounded yummy
• Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think - hopefully
• Fresh Cranberry Scones - sounded like a great way to use up some left over cranberries, haven't tried yet
• Cranberry Hungarian Pastry - another interesting cranberry recipe
• Spanish Potato Omelet - great ingredients make good food, I need to try this one
• Rustic Pear and Apple Galette - mm fruit pizza

Cambell's Soup At Hand

At this very moment (well the moment I am writing this, not the moment you are reading this ...) I am enjoying a Cambell's Soup at Hand - Italian Style Wedding [soup].

As a person who enjoys making homemade soup and soup in general, whenever they have soup on sale at the store Em and I usually pick up a few to keep in the apt. They work great when I forget to make my lunch or nothing sounds good.

At some point we picked up some of the new "Soup at hand" soups and until today, I hadn't tried one. As a concept, I am undecided. I am for the ease of eating (the small plastic spoons they have here at work are horrible soup spoons), but the image of running out the door and drinking my lunch as I go to a meeting seems like a bit much. From an execution point of view, I found only one flaw: the "Mini Meatballs". The meatballs in the normal can are already pretty mini by my standards being around the size of a dime/nickel. These truly mini meatballs are about the size of a BB. The flavor of the soup is fine (very good actually considering they can sit on a shelf for months and heat up in a minute) but the texture is a little funky as these BBs of meat try to make there way through the can's spout and/or stick to the bottom.

Meatballs aside, the soup is good and does what it says it does.

Balsamic Cranberry Sauce

I really like cranberries, but until recently I had never cooked with fresh ones before. So I wan excited when Em and I decided to make a chicken recipe that called for them. The dish was really good, but the chicken portion wasn't anything really new or exciting. The cranberry sauce/glaze was, so here is what I can remember of how to make it...

Ingredients

• 2 cp fresh cranberries
• 1/4 cp sugar
• 1/4 cp balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cp water
• dash salt and pepper
  

Steps

1. In the same pan used for the chicken, add all of the liquids plus the cranberries to a boil
2. add sugar and salt/pepper while stirring
   
3. simmer, stirring occasionally, until thicken and reduced by at least half (aprox. 5 minutes)
   

Thoughts

At first I was worried about the cranberries since they were fairly hard to start out with and brightly colored (which looked nothing like the sauce in the picture), but over time the cranberries began to "pop" and cook down turning the whole mess a great deep burgundy color. The smell of balsamic was pretty overpowering at first, but by the time the sauce was done it had mellowed and the whole thing was great over the chicken.

[ADDED] I just found this recipe for Cranberry Chipotle sauce which has a ton more ingredients but also sounds great.

Ben's Chili

This recipe is only an approximation since I don't really follow a given recipe but usually just build off of a few key ingredients ... many of the people who have had this chili outside of my immediate family have stated that the chili they were used to was often much thinner and involved fewer ingredients (namely the vegetables). This recipe is my own adaptation of the chili I grew up with which was even thicker and chunkier than mine (almost stew like). Love it or hate it, this is my favorite and I stand by it. (makes a decent size pot full, however many servings that is)

Ingredients

• Peppers, diced
  
• usually 2-3 bell peppers of varying colors (I like a good mix of colors)
• A good handful of jalapeno/serano/banana/wax peppers (4+)
• Meat
• 1 pound hot pork sausage
• 1 pound ground beef
• Other Vegetables, diced
  
• 1 large onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• Seasoning
• 2+ tbsp chili powder
• several good dashes garlic powder
• 2+ dashes oregano
• dash cayenne pepper
• dash red chili flakes
• 1+ tbsp sugar
• couple glugs white wine
  
• salt and pepper
  

Steps

1. brown all meat in large stock pot; remove and set aside
   
2. sweat vegetables (minus beans and tomatoes) with salt until tender
3. add rest of seasonings; heat until fragrant
   
4. return meat to stock pot with tomatoes and wine; cook for at least 1 hour, 2+ is better
   
5. aprox. 30 minutes prior to serving add beans. stir to combine and leave alone util ready to serve
6. serve in large bowls with a dollop of sour cream and/or shredded cheddar cheese and a square of corn bread on the side
   

Thoughts

I can think of few things better than a cold day, a big bowl of chili and some good football on the TV. I have made the same basic chili with different amounts of veggies and seasoning depending on who I am making it for and it has turned out good each time. Personally I like it fairly thick (enough to hold the spoon up in the middle of the pot) but with a decent amount of "Chili Juice" to keep things sloppy. The peppers and vegetables give the sauce a great taste but if you prefer a smoother chili just dice the vegetables smaller or run them through a food processor.

Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops w/ Creamy Lime Salsa

This past weekend Em and I were standing in our local Schucks and couldn't decide on our last meal for the upcoming week (we normally decide and make a list for our meals before leaving for the store, it makes everything way easier/faster). As we were standing there in the middle of the produce it dawned on me that I was standing right beside a big recipe kiosk. Schnucks has a few of these kiosks in the store (mainly near the front) which I never really paid much attention to.

Obviously they were there to show people recipes that they could make, but I never tried them for some reason. Well, now I have, and I can say that the interface was super easy, they had a surprisingly wide variety of recipes to choose from (including some fairly unusual ones) and a great "print" feature. You click "print" and out pops the recipe on a card listing how to make everything, all of the ingredients, wine pairings, safe cooking warnings, nutritional information and where all of the ingredients are in the store. Pretty slick.

Tonights dinner was from that card ...
Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops with Creamy Lime Salsa and Mangos!

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Mayo
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• 1/4 tsp. grated lime peel
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1/4 c. red onion, finely chopped
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 2-3 medium boneless pork chops
• 1+ tbsp. Jamaican Jerk seasoning
• 1 mango, sliced

Steps

1. For salsa, mix mayo, lime juice, onion, garlic, lime peel, and pepper. Set aside.
2. Rub jerk seasoning into pork chops and let marinate for a bit
3. Cook chops (Em broiled them until the thermometer went off at 160 F.)
4. Serve over rice, spoon salsa mixture over pork chop and accompany with a few slices of fresh mango

Thoughts

This meal was super easy and actually really good. I was a bit sceptical of the "Creamy Lime Salsa" since I am not much of a mayo guy (just a smidgen on my sandwich, no more) but ti was really good and we ended up pouring it over pretty much everything. The pork chops were a bit tough, but I don't think it had anything to do with the recipe. All in all, a fast new meal. Plus now we have a whole jar of jerk seasoning to try on other things.