Great Side - Tortellini

Last night we had a family dinner for Austin, before he leaves for the Army.  Lauren was in charge of the menu and she chose grilled, marinated chicken breasts, Roasted Garlic Alfredo Tortellini, sautéed asparagus, and her French toast a la mode for dessert...it was amazing!
Most of the stuff was basic (except Lauren's French Toast, which she did), but the Tortellini is a 'keeper'!

ROASTED GARLIC ALFREDO TORTELLINI

Serves 4+

INGREDIENTS

2 heads of roasted garlic (see below, it's simple!)
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 cup Heavy Cream, divided
¼ cup, heaping Sour Cream
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese + another ¼-1/2 cup
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 20oz. container of tortellini (refrigerated or frozen - cook according to directions beforehand)
3 Tbsp. of butter
Parsley to garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Roasted Garlic: Just slice off the top ends of the entire garlic head, leaving the root bottom alone.  Place them in a tin foil ‘boat’ then pour about 1 teaspoon of oil over each head. Fold the ends of the tinfoil up over the garlic, making an aluminum foil pouch of sorts. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour exactly.  Let cool until cool enough to handle, or refrigerate if you plan on using it later.
1. In a food processor or blender, combine the 2 heads of roasted garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, & ¼ cup of the heavy cream.  Blend until the garlic is pulverized.  Into the garlic mixture, pour in the remaining ¾ cup heavy cream, heaping ¼ cup sour cream, & ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Blend the mixture for 30-60 seconds until everything is combined. The mixture will be thick & slightly lumpy, which is perfectly normal! Set the sauce aside.
2. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet.  Add your tortellini & toss the pasta around in the melted butter to coat.  Pour the sauce on top of the pasta, & stir gently to combine.  Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring gently occasionally.  The sauce will thicken.
3. Sprinkle on ¼ cup to ½ cup of shredded Parmesan cheese (depending on your taste), stir to combine and remove from the heat.  Pour the tortellini into a serving vessel, & garnish with chopped fresh parsley if desired.

Weeknight Meal - Chicken, Garlic, Lemon and Artichoke Hearts

This fall, Smiths had a great deal on chicken thighs and drumsticks ($.69/lb.) so of course I had to buy quite a few of these 4lb.+, family-sized offerings.  Who doesn't like marinated, grilled dark meat chicken, right?  Well, apparently we didn't eat as many as I thought, so we have quite a lot of frozen chicken in the freezer that needs to be eaten.  Thank God for Google and recipes on the internet.  I found a version of the following, and as usual had to adjust it to our taste...

Braised Chicken Thighs with Garlic, Lemon and Artichoke Hearts

INGREDIENTS

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
10 garlic cloves
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds discarded
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (thyme, oregano), plus more for garnish
1 tsp. ground Coriander
1 small jar artichoke hearts, chopped in large pieces
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup chicken stock

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove the chicken from the fridge 20 minutes before cooking to remove the chill. Preheat the oven to 350°. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. In a large ovenproof pan or Dutch oven large enough to hold all the thighs in a single layer, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken, skin-side down, and sear until golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic cloves to the pan and flip the thighs over. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and has gotten a little brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the chicken and garlic from the pan and set aside.
3. While the pan is still hot, add the onions, lemon slices, coriander and herbs, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the onions have wilted and the brown bits on the bottom of the pan have loosened, 6 to 8 minutes.
4. Nestle the thighs skin-side up in the onion mixture and add the garlic and the artichoke hearts. Pour the lemon juice and chicken stock around the chicken (so you don’t disturb the crispy skin) and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake for ~40 minutes. Scatter fresh herbs over the top and serve with your choice of rice and a green salad.

Tasty Breads...

We planted a garden this year, hoping for some summer-time abundance and I have mixed emotions on the outcome.  The cherry tomatoes did very well, the two other beefsteak tomato plants I planted have each yielded two marginal looking yet very tasty tomatoes total...that's right two plants, and two f-ing tomatoes.  The one zucchini plant we have gave us plenty of zucchini, for what we eat and quite a few to spare, consequently I needed to find a use for them...Zucchini Bread!
This is a pretty damn good recipe if I do say so my damn self...

JD'S ZUCCHINI BREAD

INGREDIENTS

Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 ¼ cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans (optional)
Crumb Topping:
½ cup quick oats
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup butter (soft or melted)

DIRECTIONS

Grease and flour three 4” x 8” pans. Preheat oven to 325° F.
Combine ingredients for the crumb topping and set aside.
Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined.
Pour batter into prepared pans and top with crumb topping.
Bake for 50-60 minutes in a convection oven (or about 60-75 minutes in a regular oven), or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 10-15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool (I recommend cutting yourself a few pieces, slathering them with butter and eating them with reckless abandon when you remove the loaf from the pan).
Bread will freeze well, and keep in refrigerator for weeks.

Since I have had a little extra time on my hands, I have been doing quite a bit of baking in addition to the normal cooking I do.

My banana bread recipe is pretty good as well...

BANANA BREAD

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour
Yield: Makes one+ loaf.  I recommend doubling the recipe and making three 4"x8" loaves.

No need for a mixer for this recipe! Clean-up is easy too, if you want, you can mix everything in one bowl.  The best bananas to use for banana bread are those that are over-ripe. The yellow peels should be at least half browned, and the bananas inside squishy and browning.

INGREDIENTS

2-3 very ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup of sugar (can easily use 3/4 cup, or drop it down to 1/2 cup if you want it less sweet)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

-Preheat the oven to 350°F, and butter and flour two 4x8-inch loaf pans.
-In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork (or paddle attachment) until smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.
-Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract.
-Mix the baking soda and salt with the flour. Mix in the flour mixture.
-Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes (check at 50 minutes) at 350°F, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
-Remove from oven and cool completely on a rack. Remove the banana bread from the pan. Slice and serve. (A bread knife helps to make slices that aren't crumbly.)

Game On...

Not long ago, a friend approached me on the proper way to prepare wild game.  While I do have experience eating (and enjoying) everything from Caribou to Elk, Deer and Moose; and even wild boar and rattlesnake, my experience cleaning and dressing of the animal is somewhat limited.  The raw meat we have enjoyed had been prepared by someone with a lot more experience than I had, usually Julie’s grandfather or uncle.

Wild deer lead unpredictable lives with widely varying diets. That means their meat can range from tender and veal-like to strong and gamey, which poses a problem for venison-loving cooks. Although a hint of gaminess is a welcome reminder that you're eating wild-caught meat, anything more than that quickly becomes a fault. Although much of the game, or gamey, taste of venison occurs during the cleaning and dressing of the deer. The more care that is taken during this process, the less gaminess the meat will have. Yet some older bucks and does will retain a game flavor, no matter how meticulous the cleaning process. Some venison has a stronger flavor than others primarily because deer eat a varied diet of weeds, acorn and wood bark. If their diet consists of more acorns than greens the venison will have a "gamier" taste.

Harvested during fall hunting seasons, venison is a lean meat that is lower in fat and calories than an equal-sized portion of beef or pork. Likewise, venison also has less cholesterol than other meats. Fortunately, there are several well-proven techniques to reduce or mask the musky gaminess of wild venison…

Diligent Trimming

With domestic meats such as beef or pork, seams of fat or connective tissue aren't necessarily a flaw in the meat. Both break down as the meat cooks, lending flavor, richness and juiciness to the finished meal. With venison the situation is rather different, because much of the undesirably gamey flavor is concentrated in precisely those tissues. Before cooking your venison, use a sharp knife to trim away any surface fat or large seams of fat between the muscles. If the cut has any observable connective tissue or "silverskin" -- the thin, silvery sheath that encloses some muscles -- trim those away, too.

Soak in Buttermilk

A good way to remove a lot of the gaminess is to soak the venison in milk or buttermilk, which -- like a brine -- leaches away some of the meat's own strong flavor. Food scientists have noted that possibly because of naturally occurring enzymes, dairy products also tenderize the sometimes-tough meat more effectively than traditional acidic marinades. Soaking the meat overnight in buttermilk will help remove the blood from the meat that may be causing a gamey taste.  Slice the fat and silver skin off the venison if there is any present. You want the buttermilk to be able to get into the meat. Rinse the venison in cold water. Place in a large enough bowl that you have enough room to cover it with the buttermilk. Poke holes in the venison with a fork to allow buttermilk to soak into the venison.  Pour enough buttermilk over the venison to cover it entirely. If you do not have buttermilk you can use whole milk and add 1 tbsp. of vinegar for each cup you use. This makes a buttermilk substitute. Let soak at least 90 minutes. You can soak overnight or up to 24 hours. Rinse the buttermilk off the venison. Cook using the recipe of your choice.

Quick Brining

Soaking meats in a concentrated salt solution is a centuries-old preservation method, used to prepare hams and corned beef, among other cuts. If you reduce the percentage of salt, and soak your venison for just hours instead of days, the brine will draw out a portion of the natural juices from your venison. The meat absorbs some of the brine as well, seasoning the meat deeply and diluting its gamey flavor. Brining has the added advantage of helping meat stay moist when cooked, a significant benefit with lean, easily overcooked venison. Rinse thoroughly after brining.

Using Marinades

Some venison and wild game recipes call for strongly flavored marinades to tame the wild-caught flavor. Traditional mixtures include ingredients such as red wine and red wine vinegar, garlic, onions and strong, woodsy-tasting herbs such as rosemary and juniper berries. These are all potent flavors in their own right, and counter the meat's gamey flavor by meeting it head-on and overpowering it. Marinade the meat in your favorite acid-based beef marinade for up to 24 hours before cooking. If you don't have a favorite marinade recipe, you can use oil and vinegar-based Italian salad dressing. When marinating venison, use a base of lemon juice, wine, vinegar or other acid. This will help draw out the gamey taste of the meat. Make a fresh batch of marinade to brush the meat while it is cooking.

Strong Seasoning

When a gamey flavor persists despite your best efforts, flavoring the dish generously is the final weapon in your arsenal. Deep, complex flavors like good curry or chili powders can mask a lot the gaminess of your meat. Earthy, smoky spices such as cumin, paprika and chipotle are especially good at this. Long, slow cooking in a flavorful sauce will usually subdue the meat's gaminess to a tolerable or even an enjoyable level. If the spiciness of curry or chili doesn't appeal to you, a rich tomato sauce or mushroom sauce has a similar effect without the heat.

Other Suggestions

Age the meat in the refrigerator for three to seven days. This will help to improve the flavor of the venison.

Never add salt to raw venison. The salt draws the natural juices out of the meat, making it dryer.

Venison is a very lean meat and as it is low in fat content, it tends to dry out rather quickly. Venison should not be overcooked. Venison should be cooked to no more than medium-rare for the best flavor. Overcooking can cause the meat to become tough and stringy.

You can wrap cuts of meat from older bucks and does in bacon to add moisture and flavor to these tougher venison steaks and roasts.

Ground Venison

Place the ground venison in a bowl. The size of the bowl is determined by the amount of meat that you will soak. Make sure the bowl is large enough to hold the milk as well. Pour milk or buttermilk over the ground venison until it is completely covered. The amount of ground venison and the size of the bowl determine the amount of milk used. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours or overnight. Drain the milk from the bowl and rinse the meat in cold water. Rinsing the meat ensures all milk and blood are removed from the meat, further removing the "gamey" taste.

Ground venison can be flavored with herbs and spices to help cut the gamey taste of the burger.  To prevent the venison from drying out during cooking, preheat the oven or grill and when pan frying, make sure the pan is hot before adding the meat.

The Great Sonoma Secret

Growing up in the small town of Sonoma, California, we had a lot of activities that centered around the Plaza and the whole town got involved.
One of the things I remembered from a July Celebration in the town was the marinated turkey roasted over hot coals in big pits at the Plaza and then passed out on paper plates (I'm sure they sold it, but as a kid I just remember eating it, not the transaction involved in getting it on the plate).
My parents were friends with the guy who ran the turkey ranch for Nicholas Turkey Farms (more on Nicholas later) who supplied the turkey, and after a lot of pestering he told me the recipe for the marinade - Soy Sauce, 7-Up, Oil and a secret ingredient.
For years I tried to duplicate this marinade, trying herbs, spices, garlic, anything I could think of...it was close, but I could never get it to taste like I remembered.  Then, one day it dawned on me...we lived in Sonoma, in the heart of Wine Country...yep...WINE Country.
So, with equal parts (1 cup) Soy Sauce, Canola Oil, Chardonnay and a can of 7-Up I ventured out to marinade the turkey, then grill it over an open flame...PERFECTION!
This marinade works well with all poultry, but has a better flavor with the dark meat.

SONOMA WAYNE'S MARINDADE

Ingredients
1 cup Canola Oil
1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup White wine (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, etc.)
1 can 7-Up (I prefer 7-Up to Sprite or any of the other shitty alternatives)

Directions
In a large container with a lid, mix all ingredients.
Add your favorite poultry to the container, making sure the marinade covers the meat entirely.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and for as much as 24 hours.  Make sure to stir everything every so often as the marinade does tend to separate and the meat at the bottom will be darker due to the soy sauce if you let it sit for too long.

Now about Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms...
Nicholas bred and raised turkeys for commercial distribution on farms throughout California.  Many of us high school students worked for Nicholas at various times in our high school career.  I personally worked in the hatchery located in town, doing anything from maintenance and cleaning to eventually working my way up to delivering of the baby poults to the farms.
Anyway...Nicolas was known for producing award winning turkeys and bred their turkeys with extremely large breasts, sometimes two to three times the industry standard.   Now you know!

Notes on Entertaining

The way things are at our house, relatively open to friends and family, there have been times where we have had some additional guests at dinner that may have been...shall we say...unexpected.  I found an article that helped me put into words what we usually do...
Adapted from an article on TastingTable.com..

PORTION CONTROL

How to plan the right amount of food for a dinner party 

We don’t do a ton of large dinner parties, but we do ‘entertain’ the family and friends on a regular basis.  It doesn’t always happen, but every once in a while we’ll have ‘extra’ guests show up.  I have come to realize a couple of things: a) it’s never a bad idea to cook a little more than you think you'll need, and b) As long as the cook is calm, the guests will be calm. I don't think they even had a clue that I had to stretch the food. Nevertheless, here are a few tips for figuring out how much to make for your next dinner party.

Sketch out your menu first. Once you've decided what you're having, you can start thinking about portion sizes. As a general rule, the more dishes you serve the less of each you need to make.

Play the numbers game. Throw out the old-school recommendation for eight ounces of protein per person: With individual pieces of meat or fish, plan for about four ounces per person instead, or roughly the size of a deck of cards. For pasta, plan on about one cup per person, and for other sides like grains or vegetables, shoot for about a half cup each—unless it's a leafy salad, in which case you should budget about ¾ cup per person.

Sometimes less is more. With roasted meats and stews, the four-ounce recommendation can go out the door. If you cook a large chunk of meat and slice it thinly, people will end up eating far less than if you serve individual steaks, pork chops or a rack of lamb. The same goes for a stew or casserole.

Recipe servings are merely a guide. Recipe amounts are written as though that dish is the only thing you're eating for your meal. So if you see a salad recipe that says it serves four, and you're making it as part of a large buffet spread, chances are that salad will stretch to feed six or eight people.

Plan pre-party bites carefully. Limit appetizers to just one item you have to make—say, wings, crostini, cheese plate, or shrimp cocktail and fill things in with other things you don't have to prep much, like little bowls of olives or roasted nuts. You don't want people filling up before the main event—you're just providing something for them to nibble on while you finish. If you're having cocktail hour before dinner, plan on serving enough for people to have three to five bites of food along with their drink.

Keep dessert servings small. At the end of a three-hour dinner party, your guests aren't going to want a big slab of pie or wedge of cake—just a little something sweet will suffice. A flourless chocolate cake recipe might say it feeds eight, but you can slice it into 12 slivers and garnish each with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and raspberries to fill out the plate. The goal is to leave your guests wanting more, not waddling home stuffed.

Bottom line…Relax and enjoy the party as well!

Drill Comp

We're here at a high school in our region for a drill team competition, so no cooking for today, but this next week I plan on adding a bunch of easy and quick recipes for during the week. I'll keep you posted...
So, about Drill Competition...don't get me wrong, I love and support my girls, so I don't mind sitting in a high school gym for 16 hours, but come on! We got here at 5:20am, stood in 27 degree weather until they let us in at 6:00 and were seated at 6:30. Awards are planned to start at 9:30pm...you do the math!!!