Home With The Range

I didn’t take a photo of the butter sauce that I made last night, but did want to write a little bit about it.  (Frankly, I wonder if anybody ever actually reads my posts because all I ever get are SPAM comments.)

Last night I had about 1 pound of scallops ready to cook for dinner.  I took them out of the bag and was somewhat dismayed at how little 1 pound really is when they are huge scallops.  For hubby and I there were only 3 each.  So, to make them look more plentiful, I cut them into smaller pieces.  Then, to make them more filling and satisfying, I bathed them in lemon-butter sauce.  I also poured it over the zucchini and rice which were also on the plate.  Hmmmm. . . yum.  (Paula Dean you’ve got my vote when it comes to butter.)

I used the recipe for “Butter Sauce” from my Julia Child recipe book.  Now, mind you, I’ve never made butter sauce before (Why?  Just count the calories.)  so I started out with some trepidation.  However, I read the recipe over several times and set out all the ingredients and measured them in advance.  The recipe called for the sauce to be made in an enameled saucepan.  I don’t have one, so I substituted a glass one.  (I figured the reason may be that the metal of a normal suacepan causes some reaction with the sauce.)   In any case, I followed the recipe very carefully, and it turned out just perfectly.  Hubby commented on it, he liked it so well.  (Well . . duh. )  It really was no help at all when it comes to the size of our waistlines or the health of our arteries, but it sure was darn good on the taste buds!

I doubt if I’ll be making it again any time soon, considering the amount of butter in the sauce.  Heck, it’s almost nothing but butter.  Nevertheless, I am not going to apologize for it.  It was good, it served the purpose, and we both went to bed happy and full.  So there.

Superbowl Sunday has almost become a national holiday, or perhaps I should say “party day.”  As a result, I stay home and watch the game, just like everyone else, even though I’m really not a football fan.  Yesterday was no exception, and I did enjoy the day.  Even hubby commented this morning on what a nice day it was.  Well, that didn’t just happen.  It took several hours in the kitchen, as well as some household clean-up to make the day so pleasant.  But then what guy doesn’t enjoy a good game on the flat screen with lots of goodies to eat and drink in a clean house?

The eating part was carefully planned by me, and prepared by me too.  Even though it was just hubby and I, the food would have been enough for a crowd.  I didn’t make everything I had planned, but here is what I did make, and we were very full at the end of the day.

First I baked some prepared mini-pastries which I had bought during the holidays and not prepared.  They were just OK.   (I won’t be buying them again.)

Then, I made a batch of chicken wings using this wonderful recipe from food.com.  I highly recommend you try it.  Why go to the trouble and mess to make those unhealthy fried wings when you can make these.  They are super easy to do, and taste great!   http://www.food.com/recipe/fantastic-hot-n-spicy-wings-124868

Chicken Wings

I’m usually not a big fan of chicken wings, but they are kind of a requirement for game day – almost like turkey is for Thanksgiving.  I followed the recipe to a T, using Pete’s Hot Sauce, and they turned out great.

Now keep in mind that hubby is diabetic, so we have to keep the carb count low.  (Yes, I know these chicken wings are not really low carb.)  So, I fixed a mix of raw vegetables and ranch dip.  That sounds healthy, doesn’t it?  Well, let me tell you that the calories in the dip were only 130 per 2 Tbsp.  We almost finished off the entire container, so I guess you know what that did to my calorie count for the day.

Raw Veges

I got a chance to use our cowboy hat shaped chip and dip dish.  Cute, isn’t it?  I can say that the jicama was the best of all the raw veges.  For those of you outside the Southwest area, you may have only seen this vegetable in the market and not known what to do with it.  You just peel it, slice it, and dip it in your favorite dip.  It’s great.  It’s strong enough to hold it’s own in the dip, mild enough to not overpower any dip flavors, and somewhat sweet too.  It has a texture something like water chestnuts, but tastes nothing like them.  The one I bought had been dipped in wax (to preserve it longer I assume.)  That made it harder to peel, and it’s a pretty thick skin to begin with.  (Using my potato peeler, I had to remove the skin from it by hand with almost every swipe.)  As it was, I found some brown spots inside that I had to cut out and discard, but most of it was that wonderful pristeen white that it is supposed to be.

I also prepared some pork spare ribs, which I cooked in the crock pot.  The way I do it is just to put them in the pot dry, bone side down, then squirt some bottled BBQ sauce on top.  I use just enough sauce to cover the top of the ribs.  (I do have to cut the piece of ribs in half to make them fit in the pot.)  I had them cooking on low for about 6 hours, and they weren’t quite done, so I turned the pot up to high heat for another hour or so, and they then got done.  I think next time I’ll just cook them on high the whole time.  That should get them well done in 6 hours, but most likely less time.

I didn’t eat any of the ribs, as I was already too full from the veges and chicken, but hubby enjoyed them after the game, so I didn’t even have to cook dinner.   That is a good thing, as I had already spent at least 3 hours in the kitchen peeling, chopping, broiling, and the like.

But, hey, wasn’t that a great game?

Yup, you guessed it.  I failed to take photos of Thanksgiving dinner.  Yes, I know I promised.  Sorry about that.

Just one comment about that meal – the chocolate cheesecake was a superb success.  Here is why.  I checked when my timer went off to see if it was done, and it looked like it was almost done, but not quite.  So, I turned off the oven heat and left the door closed.  That little bit of extra baking was all it needed.  This was absolutely the best cheesecake I have ever eaten, let alone baked myself.  It was like silk on the tongue.  I have made this particular recipe several times before, and it was always heavy, as cheesecake usually is.  This time, it was light and melt-in-the-mouth delicious.   I have to assume that I have been over-cooking cheesecake in the past.  Little did I know. . . I just figured it always had to be heavy.  It is not heavy when it is perfectly done.

Speaking of a perfectly done cheesecake, this one did not crack either.  Often, when cheesecake is cooled too quickly, it cracks.  The key is to let it cool a couple hours in the oven, with the door just cracked open after baking.  That way, the cooling is slow.

I think I’m going to try another cheesecake for Christmas dinner, just to see if I can replicate the perfection of this last one as far as baking time.  Speaking of Christmas dinner, I need to do a menu for that one too.  Tomorrow is another day, and I’m rushed for time right now.

Oh, just an FYI, the crock pot cooked stuffing and turkey breast was great!  I’m doing it that way again for sure.

Cranberry Fruit Coleslaw

I’ve been trying to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet, in hopes that they will reduce the amount of meat and fat that I eat.  Consequently, I’ve been trying different salads.  A secondary reason I have to try many salads is to increase my repetoire of holiday meal side dishes.  I do get tired of the same old favorites at those holiday meals, but don’t like to experiment at a special event meal.  (It’s better to have tried and tasted something before you put it in front of others on a special occasion.)

So, I decided to try this recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/cranberry-fruit-coleslaw-101803 which I found online.  I like to try lots of recipes from different souces, but keep coming back to this site, because they show comments and ratings from others who have tried the recipe.  That way, you kind of know whether it’s good before you give it a “go.”

I did notice that some of the photos taken of this dish on food.com were significantly better than mine.  Obviously, I have a lot to learn about food photography.  Since that is not really my hobby, I have not made much effort at food photography, although I have been trying to take better photos of my beads, which I sell online.  Taking a bead photo is VERY different than taking a food photo.  The bead is usually shot with zero background, where food photos are really enhanced with appropriate backgrounds and props.  Well. . . maybe I’ll get better at it with time.

I did comment on the food.com web site about this dish, but didn’t really say much about the flavor.  I did like this salad, really quite a lot, but I have to admit it is not my most favorite one.  I’m a big fan of the Cobb Salad, and have posted about it previously.  Still, as a side dish salad, cole slaw is good.

I think this version is quite a lot richer than the usual cole slaw, what with the added fruits.  I think I could live without the raisins in it, but the dried apricots and fresh grapes were simply fabulous.  Also, the raspberry vinegar in the dressing was really a nice change of pace.  When the salad was newly made, the vinegar flavor was very identifiable as raspberry, and it added a bright fresh flavor to the dressing.  However, as the salad sat overnight, that flavor blended into all the others and became indistinct.  I guess that is what you want vinegar to do, but I kind of felt that this salad was better when newly made (maybe 1 hour or 2 of sitting time is a good idea.)  It is a rare salad that is better after sitting overnight in the fridge, so I really shouldn’t have expected it to be any better the next day.

Now, I’ll be honest.  I didn’t put this recipe in my “favorites” cookbook.  Why?  Well, I just didn’t feel it was all that unique.  You could probably add fruit to pretty much any cole slaw and get something similar.  The dressing on this was good, but not so special that I felt I needed to record it.  Besides, I can always go back to food.com and get it again if I want to, but frankly I think my memory is enough to be able to re-create it without a recipe in the future.

Yup, there is such a thing.  Here is the recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/bellas-whole-wheat-belgian-waffles-109880

Here is the photo:

Whole Wheat Waffles

OK, so how did I decide to try these things?  First, let me say I have not made waffles for some time, as hubby is diabetic.  White flour things are bad for diabetics.  Hence, no waffles.  However, I love waffles for breakfast.

I’ve been hankering for Belgian waffles ever since my stay at a Bed and Breakfast over the holidays where they served them to me.  (Hubby had an omelet.)  So, when I saw the great deal on one of those double waffle irons at Costco, I snapped it up.  The appliance had been “on sale” in the catalogues for $99.00 (regularly $169) and Costco had them for $59.95.  I HAD to have one.

So, first off I made the recipe that came with the appliance (using white flour) and did so when hubby wasn’t around to eat them.  They were good, but I didn’t feel that all the extra work to make them was really worth my time, AND they did spike my blood sugar too, even though I am not diabetic.  (I could feel it.)

So, then I went on a mission to find a good whole wheat waffle that would make it possible for hubby to enjoy my new kitchen appliance as well.  That’s when I found this recipe.  I tried it myself (before serving to hubby) to see if it was going to taste OK, and was very pleased.

I have some white whole wheat flour that I bought from King Arthur Flour.  It is supposed to behave more like white flour than any other whole wheat flour, so I used that in the recipe.  I am very glad I did, as the result was pretty wonderful.  The preparation was easy and fast, plus they cooked up perfectly on the normal heat setting.

I won’t be making these for breakfast every day, but it is nice to be able to enjoy waffles again once in a while.  Now all I have to do is find a place to store my honking big new waffle iron.  (It is HUGE.)

Salmon and Asparagus Quiche

Here is a different use for asparagus that you may have not tried.  This lovely salmon and asparagus quiche is a mix of smoked salmon and asparagus.  I found this recipe here:  http://www.food.com/recipe/quiche-aux-asperges-et-saumon-asparagus-salmon-quiche-256035 .

I did have to make two quiches, as I could see easily that the amount of filling in the recipe would overflow my 9″ purchased frozen pie crust.  But that’s OK, since the crusts come in a 2-pack.  I just divided the filling into the two pie crusts.  They were not as full as I usually fill them, but that was better than tossing a good portion of the filling out.

One of the ingredients that this recipe called for was cream fraiche.  Now I have NEVER seen that item at the grocery store in New Mexico.  Consequently, I made my own by putting 2 Tbsp. buttermilk in 1 cup of heavy cream, covering it with some plastic wrap, and letting it sit on the counter for 24 hours.  This time of year, my house is pretty comfortable temperature-wise, so it was ready after that amount of time.  I suspect it would have taken longer in the Winter, when the house is not as warm.

Since this was my first attempt at making cream fraiche, I used store-bought buttermilk.  I did have powdered buttermilk, but wasn’t sure if that would work.  (I’ll try that next time.)  If you do want to make it yourself, be sure you buy the garden variety of pasturized buttermilk, not the ultra-pasturized kind.  It doesn’t last as long in your fridge, but it also will thicken up the cream faster than the new-fangled kind.  The label on the buttermilk that I bought that indicated it was just pasturized, not ultra-pasturized, was so small I almost couldn’t read it.  So, you may have to really scrutinize your buttermilk container to figure out which kind it is.

Being from the Northwest, I have grown up on smoked salmon.  There, the majority of the smoked salmon is dry smoked, not the kind that is super moist found in other parts of the country.  It is also called “kippered” salmon.  It worked out really well in this recipe, as it does for many others.  You just crumble it with your fingers, and it breaks apart into bite sized pieces easily.

Hubby didn’t really like this dish much, but I did.  That is to be expected, as this dish did not have the kind of flavors that really hit you hard.  It is a much more delicate dish than what most men like.  However, when I had some left-overs that were cold, the flavors stood out more.  That led me to assume that this would make GREAT mini-quiche appetizers at a buffet or cocktail party where the food is room temperature for the majority of the event.  It is visually attractive, and offers a different flavor combination than other kinds of quiche.  So, give it a try, but don’t expect rave reviews from the guys.  It just isn’t “guy food.”