foodiefanatics

Made super good ribs yesterday.  Made a rub with 1 t paprika, 1 T freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt and 1 T brown sugar.  Rubbed this all over the pork baby back ribs after I removed the white skin stuff off the back of them.  Then I rubbed them with a glaze of 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 chipotle, 1/4 cup dried mustard.  Let them sit in the fridge for at least four hours (or so).  Then bake for 2 hours in the oven, tightly sealed with foil, at about 350 degrees. They should be falling apart.
Make bbq sauce meanwhile: mix ketchup and some bbq sauce if you have some you need to get rid of to make 2 cups. Pour in a pan. Add 1 chipotle chile, 3 T brown sugar, 2 T molasses, 1 t freshly ground black pepper, 3T vinegar, 1 T mustard, 1/2 red onion finely chopped.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for at least half hour. Try it and add more brown sugar if it's not sweet enough, or more vinegar if it's too sweet.

When ribs are cooked, preheat the grill to medium heat.  Brush the ribs with some sauce and grill about 4 minutes per side until a crust forms.

accompaniments that I made
pasta salad with goat cheese (cooking light, may 07) not worth repeating.
spicy coleslaw (I served the ribs on the slaw and it worked great). From NYT magazine, 5/24/09

Another mac and cheese attempt. THis one was quite bad. I don't know if it was me or the recipe. This one emphasized aged gouda and edam, and lots of it.  The cheeses didn't have much taste once I cooked the mac and cheese.  You layer the mac and cheese with swiss chard which I thought might be a good use of this common CSA veggie, but it didn't really work. It just got in way of the texture.  Overall, I wouldn't make this again. (From bon appetit, may 09)

Made banana bread this morning that was excellent. It was almost like dessert. The recipe is from Williams and Sonoma quick breads and calls for 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour which you would think would make the bread dried out, but instead it was light and sweet and quite tasty. I will definitely make this again.
Last week I made carrot bread starting with a recipe from Cookinglight, apr 09 but wildly adapting it. 
1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t baking soda, 1/4 t salt, 1/4 cup flax seed (mix this together)
2/3 cup grated apple, 2/3 cup grated carrot, 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2 T oil, 2 large eggs (mix together)
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, add the nuts, stir and bake in a greased bread pan at 350 for 45 minutes.

Hot weather last weekend led us to select some meals that could be done on the grill. We had people in and out all weekend so the food had to be flexible, quick to cook and not likely to heat up the house.  I made salmon burgers from cooking light (May. 09) that were good but needed a bit more flavor. I served these on some great Brioche buns from whole foods which I highly recommend.  These were easy to prepare, just throw everything into the food processor, form and they are ready to go. I refriged them for a while, making them stay together better. We put these on the grill and they didn't fall apart. 
Also on the grill, we made the Sausage, sourdough and bell pepper spiedini (bon may 09).  The kabobs were drizzled with a mustard vinaigrette which was also tossed with a light salad that the kababs were served on.  This was light, easy and tasty.
Farm Stand brownies from bon may 09 looked really good (with 3 1/2 cups of chocolate chips) but they ended up a bit dry. I don't know if I overcooked them or what. They taste great but the texture isn't so good.
Curried carrot salad with nonfat yogurt from bon, may 09 was a great use of both the carrots from the CSA and some hot serranos (the recipe didn't call for). I put the carrots and the serranos through the shredder and the salad was very tasty and spicy (just as good the next day too).

Lots of great recipes over the past month but hadn't the opportunity to post on them.
Potato au gratin (off the web, but I can't remember where) used dutch gouda, aged asiago, cheddar and gruyere cheese with just a bit of liquid. I thought it would be dry but it turned out great.
Halibut with coocnut red curry sauce (from Cooking Light 3/09). This is the best fish dish I've made. It is so flavorful and intense. Major flavors are the coconut and curry paste.
Creamy Caramel Pudding, Food and Wine 3/09
This is fast and good and almost healthy. Make sure to cook the caramel to an almost dark brown color to get a good color for the pudding.
Best ever nut brittle (food and wine on the web). This is very good and not difficult but it didn't have as much flavor as I would have liked. I sprinkled it on the caramel pudding.
Radish, cucumber salad with tarragon pesto (from bonappetiti 4/09). This was really tasty and a good use of CSA veggies.  It calls for grilled chicken but we used it as a side instead.
Waldorf Salad, Cook's Country, 4/09
I love apple salad and this one is tasty, crunchy and flavorful.
goat cheese and roasted corn quesadillas (cooking light 3/09) These aren't particularly flavorful. I wouldn't make it again.
Cucumber, buffalo mozzarella and farro salad (gourmet 4/09) This salad is wonderful, light, lemony and flavorul.  The fresh mozzarella is great.
Chocolate pistachio biscotti (everyday cooking, 4/09, p. 139) Not very chocolatey. I'm wondering if I need a better brand of cocoa.
scrambled eggs with sausage, mushrooms and fresh herbs (bon appetit, 2/03). Very good, sweet and flavorful
Pear clafouti, bon appetit 2/03, very good, I also used apples
Pan roasted new potatoes with rosemary (bon appetit, 2/03) just like the mission!  Great with both red skinned, idaho russet and yukon gold (which melt in your mouth). I've also added sweet potato
black bean burgers (gourmet 2/09). Kesh loved these and asked for them again. Simple recipe.
Brunch panini (rachelray 4/09) not as good as my other breakfast sandwich (see below) but pretty good. Includes raspberry jam and prosciutto.
Cucumber and radish salad (internet off Martha Stewart) another CSA recipe that was excellent and simple
Gnocchi nicoise (food network magazine 2/09) Kids loved this and the sauce of tomato, bacon, carrots, beef is very tasty.
Chilled cream of corn soup with white truffle oil (bon appetit--really old I don't know the year) This soup is almost other worldy. Very simple flavors that accentuates the corn and truffle. Really good.
Baked potato soup (cooking light, 10/02).  I made this for a party and people didn't want to eat it because of "all the cream". When I told them there wasn't any cream just blended potato and milk with some sour cream, they loved it.
Corn chowder with green chiles (vegetarian times, 11/02) Good but not very flavorful
Kale and white bean soup (gourmet 2/02) We really liked this soup even days later (especially days later). It is very tasty and the texture is smooth and silky. YOu can add Kielbasa for more flavor.
Southwestern style mashed potato cakes (cooking light 12/08)
Okay
Rigatoni with salami, oven roasted tomato and olives and capers (Food and wine) Very flavorful and very easy.  Can be served hot or cold.

We did one of our wine/food dinners Saturday. This time the theme was Central Mexican. At first, I was concerned that this region lacked the flavor and spice of Northern and Oaxacan Mexican, but we were more than pleasantly surprised at how everything turned out. Not one dish bombed and most of them were fantastic.
The menu was taken entirely from The Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook (which by the way is a great cookbook but a horrible disaster to cook with because the book is so darn big and won't fit anywhere)
Our menu:


Mexican Dinner, II

(May 9, 2009)


Starters (from Jalisco)

Melted cheese with mushroom and chile, German Riesling or Pinot Gris

Chicken Tostado, Albarino


Soup

Sopa de pasta, Riesling or Pinot Gris


Mains

Green Enchiladas (from Aquascalientes), Cote de Rhones and Red Burgundy

Sailfish with tomato sauce, (Colima), Sangiovese and Barbara


Sides (the sides will be served with the mains)

Green rice with poblano (Morelos)

Green beans with onion and tomato (Guanajuato)

Dessert

Flan

Mango Sorbet (Colima), Asti or Champagne

Tres Leches Cake (Guerrero)

I just emailed a friend some tips for making good pizza crust. Here's what I sent: I've had lots of pizza dough failures and here are the things I've done that may have contributed to success: 
1.  preheat the oven to your highest temp (not broil obviously) for at least 1/2 hour  

2. I roll the dough out on my counters (which are granite). I don't know what your counters are, but the idea is to roll them somewhere that the dough kind of sticks (not like sticky sticks) but so that the dough stays spread out for a while. Sometimes I have to put a little bit of flour so it isn't too sticky but if you put too much flour it just springs back on itself (what sometimes works is to put flour kind of in the center of where you are rolling and when you've got it rolled out pretty thin, pull each edge over to the counter where there isn't any flour so it sticks spread out thinner--hope that makes sense).

3. Roll it out at least 15 minutes before you are going to put it on your cookie sheet (this is especially important with Trader Joes dough which seems to be way over elastic).  Let the dough sit on the counter in that stretched position while the oven preheats.  I roll it out as thin as I can at this point.  

4. Put the dough on a cookie sheet when the oven is preheated and pre cook the crust for about 7-8 minutes so that it isn't doughy but isn't really done.  Remove and either put on your toppings and put back in on your baking stone or cool (at this point, you can wrap it in plastic and keep overnight). If you do put it right back in on the baking stone, the stone needs to be preheated.  

What I did was pre-cook the crusts (I doubled the dough and made two crusts) the day before, and then wrapped them in plastic.  The next day, I preheated the pizza stones in the oven at 500 for 1/2 hour, topped my pizzas and gently put on the preheated pizza stones for about 6 minutes.  I'm guessing you can freeze the prebaked crusts too but I haven't done it yet.   
  
Dough Recipe
The dough recipe is from Williams and Sonoma Italy cookbook   In small bowl, sprinkle 1 1/4t yeast over 1/2 cup warm water and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. STir until dissolved.   In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups flour and 1t salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms (I do this in my  mixer with the dough hook).  I mix with the dough hook for about 8 minutes.  The recipe says to stir until a soft dough forms (about two minutes). Knead on a lightly floured surface about 10 minutes (I don't do this when I use the mixer).   Place the dough in a floured bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled in bulk about 2 hours.   Punch down the dough and knead briefly on a floured work surface. leave the ball on the surface, invert a bowl over it and let stand for another hour.   Now roll out as I stated above.  

HInts for the dough--the dough consistency in the mixer when the kneading is over should be such that you can touch it and it kind of pulls away with your finger but doesn't stick if that makes sense.  You should have a ball in the mixer but not a firm ball.  Again, I've probably done this 50 times and I'm only now starting to get it right.

This cake is very yummy. It's from Gourmet (March 2009).  A traditional pound cake infused with cardamom seeds and vanilla pods (I put in vanilla as well because I love vanilla).  The cake gets better over time as the flavors become more pronounced. Served with strawberries and whipped cream, the cake almost melts in your mouth. I cooked it in two loaf pans (the recipe says use a bundt cake pan).

From our CSA, I made artichokes with green garlic dip. Steam the artichokes (after cutting off the tips and the stem so that the artichokes will sit in the steamer) for 40 minutes or until you can easily pull a leaf from the middle.  For the dip, quickly par boil the green garlic (I used two stems) then mix in the blender with 1/4 cup mayo and 1/4 cup sour cream (or yogurt), add some milk if your blender won't mix. Add red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
I also made this really good sweet potatoes, apples and greens with chili.
Preheat oven to 400. Clean and cut up three or four yams. Toss with 3 T melted butter, 1 T chili pwd, 1/2 t red pepper and spread on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Bake for 25 minutes until yams are soft. While they are cooking, heat 2 T butter in a large skillet and saute chopped, cleaned greens (about 1-1/2 pounds of whatever you have. I used collards and kale). In a 10 inch skillet, heat another 2 T butter and cook three peeled, sliced apples until they begin to caramelize (about 10 minutes). Mix everything into the large skillet and flavor with salt. This is really good but it's kind of a fall veggie (even though I got all these veggies in my spring box!)

For Easter, we were pretty non-traditional, but yummy.  We started the morning with a honeyed yogurt and blueberry tart with ginger crust (Food and Wine, March 09). This tart was easy and relatively healthy (you mix 10 graham crackers with 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger, 3 T butter and one egg white and bake. On top is drained Greek yogurt mixed with 2 T honey and spread with blueberries). I used frozen wild maine blueberries that had thawed and just put blueberries on each individual piece.
For dinner, we had hunks of bread spread with olive oil and grilled then sprinkled with sea salt (really good and really easy), a salad with a homemade creamy italian and a homemade mac and cheese

Hard cheese mac and cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil about 3/4 lb pasta (gemelli, fusili, something that will catch the sauce).
While the water is boiling, head 1 T olive oil in a large sauce pan and sear 3/4lb italian sausage (I used precooked. If it isn't precooked you need to fully cook it).  Drain. In the same pan, saute 2 chopped shallots, 1 T chopped garlic for five minutes. Add 3 T flour and stir for two minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Then slowly pour in 3 cups of chicken broth and whole milk (I used about half and half).  Bring to a boil and turn off.
Shred 2 cups of cheese. I used a mixture of Italian Pecorino and sharp cheddar. Add the cheese to the hot milk mixture, whisking until it melts.  Add 1 1/2 cups peas (thawed if frozen) and 1/4 cup chopped jalapeno.  Mix in pasta and sausage and 1 t black pepper.