Kitchen Tradition: Look Who's Coming to Dinner and Peeling Tomatoes

I'm having company tonight for a simple Italian meal. I have to work to keep simple the operative word when it is time for me to have company, so I usually limit myself to an entree, two sides and a salad. My guests usually bring their specialty. Tonight's guest's specialty is BRICK OVEN BREAD! She has this contraption I've never seen that goes in her regular oven. All I know is that it is probably some of the best Artisan-style bread I've ever had. She brings these little bowls and olive oil and spices and it's all I can do to keep myself from eating only bread.

So I am going to make Bruschetta to serve on her bread. It starts with tomatos diced up so tiny you can spoon them. There's chopped garlic, olive oil (of course) and basil. To me, oregano is too strong for this, but if you want, oregano works. A little bit of balsamic vinegar and it's done.

You'll need to peel the tomatoes. That can be done by LIGHTLY scoring the skins, dipping them in super boiling water for a count of somewhere around 30 seconds. You'll see the skins begin to recede. Don't cook the tomato. I hold onto them with tongs or these things in the picture:

This is what I use to hold on to the tomato in the boiling water.

I learned how to do that when I worked the dining room at a Holiday Inn. Yes, Holiday Inns used to be very upscale. This particular dining room was the nicest restaurant I've ever worked at. There was a man that came in every evening for tomatos and burnt toast. The hotel was on a golf course that was surrounded by an upper class community. Funny how we remember these things. I also learned how to fold napkins in a really fancy way for their dinner seating. Maybe we'll hit on that some other day.

Anyway, back to the tomato peeling. The man liked his tomato peeled and sliced and that's how I learned.

A New Restaurant: Paquito's Miami

Tonight, we went out for Mexican food at Paquito's Miami. We did not order any mixed drinks or beer, so I can't comment on that. However, the food was delicious. I ordered the Pescado Paquito. It was a catch of the day on this indescribably garlic onion cream sauce with a spring green salad and delicious oil and vinegar dressing. The chips and salsa that preceeded the meal were just as delicious. The thing that made the meal was the ambiance. Strollling mariachi and lots of wonderful things to look at on the walls and ceiling. Our server was wonderful. We wanted to leave him a nice tip. With a party of five, he kept the drinks, chips, salsa and hospitality coming. I will be returning to Paquito's the next time I'm in Miami.

Kitchen Traditions: Stinky Stank

I am obssessed about the way my house smells. Perhaps it's because I have friends and family whose homes--well--stink. Like dog, like cigarette smoke, like onions. You name it. I have six cats, so I am always tuned in to the way my house smells. I've got some really great heated wax/oil from Scentsy that I use when I expect company for the evening, but most days I rely on this great new discovery I bought at Pet Supermarket. (It's about the same price on ebay. Believe me, I checked!)

Natural Air Sponge Odor Absorber
Stock Photo

A company called Seapro International appear to be the geniuses behind this awesome product. I don't know what it's made of. It feels like that spongy stuff you stand on in some public showers or at water theme parks. Up close it has a kind of baby powder smell that I was not so sure I wanted my house to smell like. Once the cup is opened and this awesome product goes to work, there's no baby powder smell. In fact there is no smell at all.

I have one sitting on top of each of my litter boxes and I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but the sponge I place on smellliest room and most used box is shriveling at a much higher rate than the other. I'm not sure how this works, so if you want that kind of information, it will have to wait, but for now I highly recommend this over any other odor absorbing/masking thing I've bought to date.

Kitchen Tradition #5: OMG, Left Overs

I have always used something in the bottom of my pots to make a sound when they come to a boil. For years it was a glass ring. It made the most appealing sound when water began to simmer. After that was broken--not funny yet--I bought stone lobster character that does the same thing, it's just not as elegant.

This is my little stone lobster.
Not as elegant as the glass one I had that got broken.

I've got some left over chicken from our Cinco de Mayo celebration a few weekends ago so I'm going to throw together some "Chicken Alfredo". Probably not really considered Chicken Alfredo because the chicken was marinated in Mojo Criollo, but here it is. My family likes it and it's a great way to get rid of left over noodles, cheeses and chicken.

Cooked chicken
Frozen veggies (I like broccoli, peas or mixed vegetables)
Bottle of Alfredo Sauce (Today, I'm using Classic Sun-Dried Tomato)
Sour Cream
Bag(s) of cheese (Stay away from anything that might be too stringy. It will wad up in the bowl)
Noodles (I always dump whatever I have in there--makes it interesting)

I think I'm going to invent something that holds
a bottle upside down over the dish or pan.

I slightly undercook the noodles because I'm going to need to be able to stir this all up. While the noodles are cooking, chop up the chicken, add the cheeses, creams, veggies and sauces, stir them up in an oven proof dish that has a lid. Add the noodles and gently turn everything in.

You can make this up in the morning while you're getting ready for work or when you get home. If you prepare it in advance, put a lid on it and put it in the 'fridge. It'll keep nice.

When you're ready for it, set the oven to about 350-375 and heat it until it's either hot all the way through or the veggies are cooked. You can stick a fork through the vegetables while it's in the dish to see if they are tender enough to your liking.

When you bring it out, let it cool a little. Depending on the proportions of what you added, it will be very juicy or almost like a casserole. It doesn't matter, you used up a bunch of leftover stuff that might have gone to waste anyway.

Ready for the oven. This is delicious!

Kitchen Traditions: Carrots

I love fresh carrots above just about any vegetable. We had them last night, and they aren't that difficult to prepare just "labor intense" to quote my husband.

Peel them
Chop them
Boil them
When they are tender to your liking, drain them

We like butter, salt and pepper added right to the bowl of drained, hot carrots. This is not the most healthy way to serve a vegetable. However, "health" food is not my claim here. We served them with freshly steamed Jasmine rice and a thin-cut steak. Perfect meal. No additives, no preservatives and a 1/2 cup of butter.

Kitchen Tradition: 'Rasslin' with Collard Greens

Now this is one that I adapted from a cabbage recipe from a semi-pro wrestler about 20 years ago. What a fun guy. He'd shout things out the window of the car at people walking. He had a great relationship with his mom. One night we were all sitting around in our apartment and the people upstairs were making a terrible racket. Something we'd learned to live with. He took a broom handle and started beating on the ceiling and yelling up for them to quit "walkin'" around so loud.

Anyway. I digress . . .

Collard Greens have to cook and cook . . . cook, so if you're planning on serving these, you'll need to start in advance.

A fresh bundle cost me $2.99 at the grocery store this week. Could be cheaper at a roadside stand or out the back of somebody's pick up truck. So, here's the southern/country style collard greens that people beg me for when they see collards coming into the stores. I don't have measurements. You'll have to figure that one out the same way I did.

Collards (duh) - you have to wash the real good. Cut off the stems up into the leaves.
fatback or bacon - the wrestler used bacon, I use fatback
onions - for a bunch of them, I use two big onions chopped up pretty small
garlic - I use about four - six big cloves sliced real thin
salt and pepper
stick of butter
bottle (or two) of beer - he didn't use the beer
a small amount of crushed red pepper - he didn't use crushed red pepper
ham or pork bouillon - I recently discovered "Better Than Bouillon" Ham Base - other than that, I think BADIA has a pork base that's pretty good.

Put the butter in a big pot, melt it and add the onions, and little while later add the garlic. Last, add the fat back. Saute it up passed the point of being sauteed but not fried. It should turn a nice caramel or butterscotch color and start sticking to the bottom of the pot.

If you leave the stems on the collards, I think they will be bitter. I don't know that for sure. That's just what I was told. Lay the leaf out flat, cut along the stem on each side. It should make a super skinny "V" shape in the leaf. Throw the leaf in a sink full of cold water. When you've got them all done, move the water around the leaves real good so the sand can fall to the bottom of the sink.

Lay the leaves on top of each other in manageable piles on a cutting board and cut the leaves into approximately 2 inch squares. Put the leaves in a collander and rinse them . . . again. To be sure you got all the sand.

Put the beer in the pot with the onions mixture. Now add the collards with the heat temporarily turned off. When the pot is full of collards, fill the pot about half way with water and add the bouillion. The collards will make their own water. This keeps them from sticking. Stirring them every now and then distributes the onion, garlic and fatback.

They will go from a bright green to a dark pine green and be tender, but not mushy like cabbage when they are done. Most of the water will evaporate. Keep an ear and nose out for it to scorch. That smells terrible! It takes about an hour to boil them down completely, but I like to play it by sight and texture.

Don't add too much water at the beginning or at the end. It won't boil off. Wait until you watch how they're going to do on their own. Put the crushed red pepper in to taste. Some people like heat, others like flavor.

Well, that's about as southern or country style as you can get when it comes to collards. My husband never had a collard green in his life until I cooked them for him. When he sees a bunch on the counter, he says his heart "skips a beat".

Once, when I was telling my father-in-law how to make string beans he told me there was no such thing as ham or pork bouillon. I just smiled 'cause I knew there was.

Kitchen Tradition: My Mother's Chicken and Dumplings

We had Chicken and Dumplings (C&D) this week and I made the comment that even though the roots of my meal come directly from my mother, my C&D are different. We agreed that mine had a more rustic restaurant-style appeal than hers. Well, that may be a wrong choice of words. Perhaps mine has evolved due to my husband's Central New York influence. One way it has changed is the seasonings I use in the "soup" portion of the entree and in the biscuits. I use a lot of parsley, rosemary and thyme in my broth. Not to mention I use organic chicken broth. She uses the water from boiling her chicken. I don't boil my chicken. I roast or better yet--smoke it. I put garlic and chunks of butter in my biscuits as well. Sometimes, when I can find an extra extra wide noodle, I will add a few to the broth. Here's the breakdown of mine:

Base
small baked/roasted chicken (picked from the bone, chopped up)
four boxes of organic chicken broth (this could be considered cheating--I find it lower in salt)
parsley
rosemary
thyme
salt
pepper

Bring that to a LOW simmer.

Biscuits
Self-rising flour
Milk
(about 2 to1)
garlic and chopped up butter
romano cheese (good, but makes the biscuits a little dense if you don't like that)

Stir it up. It should be pretty thick. Drop large spoonfuls into the broth and make sure that the broth is not boiling or simmering too much. (Too high of a boil can either break apart the biscuits or make the broth too clear)

Put on a tight fitting lid and leave it alone for a about 20 - 25 minutes. My mother says if you open the lid too soon, the dumplings will "fall". I've never experienced this phenomenon, but then again, I have never opened the lid too soon.

I'm sorry this recipe doesn't have any measurements. I've never measured anything pertaining to this recipe. After 24 years, I pretty much eye ball it. So you'll have to learn to do the same. This is a family favorite that I have never experienced leftovers for more than a day or two.

Let me know how you like it.

Getting To Know Me: I Love Pie -- I Hate Lying

My husband says the other day I was going on and on about Pecan Pie. I think he's wrong, but at the same time, I do like pie and Pecan Pie is my favorite. Of the all the wonderful things I do so well, I can't bake a Pecan Pie. Admittedly, I haven't tried but a few times and was so discouraged at the finished product, I just leave it to Edward's Pies.

Now, I do make a better-than-anything-known-to-man Pumpkin Pie and an even better Country-style Apple Pie. The recipe for the apple came out of a magazine probably something like 20 years ago. It has a great little brown sugar and butter crumb topping and the filling is nothing but apples, sugar and some spices. There's just something about the combination that is a hit. When I make the apple, I have to make two, one to keep at home and the other to take with me.

The Pumpkin Pie is nothing but a dressed up recipe from the outside of the can of Libbys solid pumpkin label. "If it says libby's, libby's, libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it on your table, table table . . ." I remember one Thanksgiving my father-in-law gave me a song and dance about some kind of gastric problem my mother-in-law had with cloves, could I please make one with "less cloves". I was pretty naive at the time. I figured out through process of illimination that he just didn't like cloves and was especially unappreciative of the amount of ground cloves I put in my pumpkin pie. I remember being more angry that he had to lie to me and put it on my mother-in-law. Why couldn't he just tell me to cut back on the cloves on one of the pies at Thanksgiving? He was like that, though. A manipulative liar and a cheat. I didn't offer my pies around the holidays any more while he was alive. I hate lying.

Both pies were good enough to make it to a little waffle house/cafe in our little neighborhood. For a little while, I made two pies each of apple and pumpkin a day until the crusts stuck in the pan and were soggy a few times. The owner of the cafe said my pies were not "consistent" enough. She was going to switch to a prepared pie from a distributor. Her loss.

Ah, well, now I have gone on about pie. I think I will go get an Edward's Pie tomorrow afternoon to have with dinner. Pecan Pie.