music night

Here are recipes I made for the RS Night of Music.

Rather than type them again, I'm doing it this way.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is the latest chocolate chip recipe that I use when I bake cookies. Which of course is at least once a week. I got the recipe from my neighbor Rebeeca who uses Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chunks bought at Sam's club. They are a little more expensive...but...WORTH IT!

Cream together:
1 c. crisco (reg. flavor)
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Add:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking sodea
1 tsp. salt.

Mix.

Then add 2 cups of chocolate chips. I prefer semi sweet. Or splurge with the Ghiradellis once in awhile.

Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven promptly at 10 minutes even though they will look "not done." Let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes, then remove them to a cooling rack.

DELICIOUS! (Even the next day!!)

Homemade Tortillas by Hank

2 cups All Purpose flour

1/2 cup + 2 tbs water

1/4 cup veg oil

1-2 tsp adobo

Mix everything together in a medium bowl with your hand until you get a soft, moist but not sticky dough—add water or flour as needed, flour by the Tablespoon and water by dipping your hand in water or running water on it and then mixing.

For 6-8" tortillas: divide the dough into 6 pieces

For 10-12" inch tortillas: divide the dough into 4 pieces

With a stone or inverted cookie sheet on the middle rack, preheat your oven to 450º

Let the balls rest for 30min. The gluten will relax in this time and you'll be able to roll 'em out with ease. When you are ready to roll 'em out, wet your hand once again and dampen your work surface. Take a cup or so of flour and sprinkle 1/3-1/2 on the dampened surface and spread it around until your flour sticks to the board evenly and a dusted surface has been created. Push remaining flour off to the side of your work surface. The water helps the flour stay put, and keeps a good amount off your tortillas. Pat the balls flat then roll 'em out rotating the pin and/or dough with each pass, sometimes it helps to flip the dough after a few passes. Once you have a tortilla to the desired diameter, drape it over your hand, open the oven door and lay it flat on your stone.

It will bake in about 2-21/2 min about the same time it should take to roll out a tortilla once you get the hang of it. So what i do is roll one out, stick it on the oven, roll out another, remove the baked/place it under a towel, insert the newly rolled, roll out another…and so on until all are baked.

****my comments...these were even better than the ones Juanita Gonzales taught the RS to make decades ago...and I think the trick was also the heated in the oven to bake them on, one at a time. But they bubbled up nicely....hank then had this great stuff to put inside and rolled them up larger than the buritos you get at chipotle. You'll love this...gotta get what he put inside, too.

Ranch Style Chicken from hank and marissa

We just returned from Hotlanta and had a lovely near week...this is what Hank and Marissa served us on the first night. Ranch Style Chicken from The Pioneer Woman Cooks Website

Theirs turned out looking exactly like this picture.

I have copied only the Pioneer Woman's running dialog/recipe but if you go the link, you can see the actual pictures or the recipe in progress.







The Cast of Characters:

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Thick cut bacon
Bacon grease
Honey
Dijon Mustard
Lemon juice
Paprika
Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Canola oil (not shown, because I’m an airhead.)

To begin, mix together 1/2 cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with 1/2 cup honey. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. And have some fun here! Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy.

Whisk it together until smooth.

Next, rinse the chicken breasts under cool water and pat them dry.

We’re going to pound the chicken breasts so they have a more uniform thickness, which means they’ll cook more evenly and won’t be dry around the edges.

Plus, I just like to pound things with my mallet. It’s an unbelievably effective stress reducer.

Place one chicken breast between two sheets of waxed paper…

Lightly pat the waxed paper so it adheres to the chicken. The reason we’re using waxed paper is that it will prevent teeny tiny bits of grody raw chicken from flying al over the kitchen.

Because nothing ruins your day more than finding a teeny tiny bit of grody raw chicken stuck to the side of your blender. *Shudder.*

With a mallet or a rolling pin (you can also use a heavy can!) lightly pound the chicken breast so that the thickness is uniform. By the time it all evens up, it’s usually around 1/2 to 3/4″ thick.

Nice and even. And you can go ahead and trim off the little pieces of fat if you’d like. Also, if the chicken breasts are overly huge, I often cut them in half just to create more manageable (and kid-friendly) pieces.

Next, just add all the chicken to the bowl with the marinade. You’ll want to cover this with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge for at least an hour—usually I let it go about 2 to 3 hours, but that’s only because I’m always running behind.

While the chicken is marinating, go ahead and fry up some bacon:

I happen to think there’s nothing better on earth than thick cut peppered bacon. But not all areas of the country—or supermarket chains—agree. So any kind of bacon will do; just keep in mind that the bacon will eventually go into the oven, so you don’t want to get it too crisp in the skillet.

A warning about thick cut (or any) bacon: make ten times (not an exaggeration) more than you think you’re going to need. This has been a public service announcement.

Next, and this is important, reserve 1/4 cup of the bacon grease, and go ahead and clean out the skillet. Otherwise, it’ll get too smoky.

When you’re ready to prepare the chicken, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the chicken from the fridge and pour off excess marinade into the sink. Heat half of the reserved bacon grease with an equal quantity of Canola Oil in the clean skillet over medium-high to high heat. (We want to sear the chicken, not cook it completely.) When the grease is sufficiently heated, add a batch of chicken to the skillet. Don’t overcrowd the skillet—just 3 pieces is usually enough.

Watch the chicken, and when it starts to get brown/black on one side…

Flip it to the other side. Cook just until brown/blackish areas appear. Each side should cook for a maximum of 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Fact: Your kitchen smells divine right about now.

Repeat with all the chicken breasts, then set them on a large baking sheet. If you look a little closer, you’ll notice the chicken is definitely not fully cooked. Gross, man.

Go ahead and throw the pan of chicken into the hot oven for about ten minutes to continue cooking. Then remove the pan from the oven…

And lay a couple of bacon slices over each chicken breast.

Next, grab some grated sharp cheddar and sprinkle it over the top as generously as you’d like.

I really like to grate my own cheese. I just like the way it melts.

Just return the pan to the oven for an additional five minutes, or until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling.

Then serve immediately…

Moroccan Chicken with Lemon

Duuuuuude. This dish is going to rock. your. world.

from Bon Appetit Magazine.

to your mouth.














Moroccan Chicken with Lemon

2 Meyer lemons or regular lemons
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin -we replaced this with chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 4 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed -we had boneless
1/2 cup green olives


Preparation
Cut 1 lemon into 8 wedges. Squeeze enough juice from second lemon to measure 2 tablespoons; set wedges and juice aside. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 8 minutes. next 5 ingredients; stir 1 minute. broth; bring to boil. Sprinkle chicken with and pepper; add to skillet. Add lemon wedges. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. olives and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over chicken. Add olives and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over chicken.

Tastes fabulous with rice. I am pretty sure I could drink the sauce and be content. And when I say I'm pretty sure, I'm letting you know that this, in fact, is what I did.

Farmer's Whole Wheat Bread

Farmer's Whole Wheat Bread

Whole Wheat Farm Bread--I use this recipe most of the time to make my bread.
by Alana Lee

For 80% Whole Wheat
3-1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. honey
1-1/2 T. salt
1/3 c. gluten flour
1-1/2 c. bread flour
3-1/2 c. whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine water and yeast and wheat flour. Let sit five minutes (whole wheat flour absorbs more water.) Add oil, honey, salt, gluten flour and bread flour.
2. Add whole wheat flour. Stir as much as you can and then begin kneading in bowl. Once most of flour is incorporated, transfer dough to counter and knead until fairly smooth. Clean the bowl, spray it with Pam, and return dough to bowl. Turn once to coat dough. Cover and let rise until doubled*.
3. Punch down and divide dough into thirds. Knead each and form into loaves; place in greased bread pans. Let raise until doubled. Bake for 24-27 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes three loaves.

Cook’s Note: I got this 80% recipe from the farmer’s wife from whom we buy our hard red wheat. Can be doubled. Also, if your whole wheat flour is warm from being freshly ground, the water you start with should be cold.

*I like to raise my dough on a heating pad. I place the bowl or pans directly on the heating pad, loosely covered with plastic wrap, on a medium setting.

Variations
For 65% Whole Wheat
3-1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. honey
1-1/2 T. salt
1/3 c. gluten flour
3-1/4 c. bread flour
1-3/4 c. whole wheat flour

For 50% Whole Wheat
3-1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
3 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. honey
1-1/2 T. salt
1/3 c. gluten flour
4-1/2 c. bread flour
1-1/2 c. whole wheat flour

*The Farmer's wife usually made 80% whole wheat. She noticed that her son's asthma would worsen if she increased the percentage of whole wheat in her bread. Some people's tolerance for wheat is altered because of medical conditions. I suggest starting with 50% and then working your way up gradually. That's what I had to do after my appendix surgery. I actually had to start with white bread and then work my way up.

monte cubano sandwiches

This hearty little sammich has been in heavy rotation lately at the hank & marissa homestead. Also in heavy rotation is the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations Cleveland episode. Has anyone seen that one? It's like chicken soup for the Missing Cleveland In all its Crustiness Soul. But I digress...

Monte Cubano
courtesy of Gourmet magazine
serves 1

2 slices firm bread (nothing like specific instructions, eh? We've used sourdough)
1 to 2 tsp mustard
4 or 5 dill pickle rounds
2 slices ham
2 slices turkey
2 thin slices Swiss (I've used Muenster or Havarti, Hank stays true to the Swiss)
1/2 garlic clove
1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp butter (Pam sprayed on the pan is great, too)

-Spread 1 slice of bread with mustard and top with pickles, meats, cheese. Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, then mix with mayo. Spread on remaining slice of bread and assemble sandwich.
-Beat together egg, milk, and a little bit of salt and pepper, then soak sandwich in egg mixture.
-Melt butter in skillet over med-low heat. Cook sandwich, uncovered , until underside is well browned, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook remaining side, covered, until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. remove from heat and let stand, covered, 1 minute.

Eat it, love it, eat it again. Think of how much you love me for posting this recipe.

...and Hank, for finding it.

M

What's for dessert? Hot Toddy Pudding Cake!

Seriously. This stuff is good. Hank, being the culinary adventurer he is, made this today after about a month of salivating over the recipe. Dreams do come true. It is tasty! I was skeptical at first, because it was neither a 1. cookie, or 2. included chocolate chips...but let me tell you, it is well worth making! Try it!

Hot Toddy Pudding Cake
serves 6 (or 2 people really into food)
Eat this while it's still warm from the oven

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 Tbsp mild honey
1 tsp grated lemon zest
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature 30 minutes
1/3 cup sugar

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle. Butter a 1 1/2-qt shallow baking dish

-Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together milk, lemon juice, butter, honey, zest, and yolks, then stir into flour mixture.

-Beat whites with an electric mixer at medium speed until frothy. Increase speed to medium-high and add sugar, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating until whites just hold stiff peaks.

-Stir about 1/3 of whites into flour mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Pour batter into baking dish and bake in a water bath (Put filled pan in a larger pan and place in oven, then add enough boiling-hot water to reach halfway up the side of the smaller pan) until puffed and golden-brown, 45-50 minutes. Serve warm.

WARM, I SAY!