Santa Fe Chipotle Soup

Here's a quick & easy way to have dinner on the table in a matter of minutes, yet still add that personal touch.  I've said it many times, but sometimes you just need an easy way to have something good to eat without much fuss.  Again, staying away from the drive-through lane being the key objective.

This was a soup packet from the dried food area of the soup isle.  But we decided to add frozen corn to the mix to add another textural component, as well as some more vegetables (albeit of the starchy variety).

Then the key comes at the very end.  Slice up some cherry tomatoes and green onions.  Top the soup with a little sour cream, tomatoes, and green onions and then crush tortillas chips on top.  The chips add another crunch element, and take the place of oyster crackers.  A also like to top mine with a few drizzles of hot sauce for an added kick.

Adding the fresh elements on the end makes all the difference in the world.  It takes an ordinary pre-made soup and really  makes it feel more like a meal.

Parmesan-Roasted Cauliflower

When people find out you like to cook, they start giving you recipe suggestions to try out.  Of even better, they pay for a one year subscription to Bon Appétit magazine so recipes arrive at your doorstep every month.  Thanks Grandpa Gary!

Preheat the oven to 425-degrees.  Cut cauliflower into florets, and toss them onto a baking sheet with a white onion sliced into medium-sized strips.  Add thyme, garlic and olive oil and toss to coat.  Then sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Roast this all off, tossing occassionally, for about 35-40 minutes.  They will develop really rich flavors, and get to that almost burnt quality on one side.

Toss them with grated Parmesan and serve.  Vegetable eaters will love this flavorful dish, and you'll probably be able to convert some people who think they don't like cauliflower  They just haven't had anyone treat it with this much respect.  Because cauliflower is definitely the star here.

Ropa Vieja

Ropa Vieja is a traditional Spanish dish that is especially popular in the Caribbean.  It literally translates to "old clothes", which I'll admit doesn't sound that appetizing.  It got the name because of the consistency of the shredded beef.  I think it is pretty similar to pulled pork.

I used the crock pot or slow cooker to make mine.  That way you could start it in the morning before work, and then come home to a house smelling delicious with dinner ready to go!  You will start by adding a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, 3 tbsp ketchup, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1.5 tsp of ground cumin to your crock pot at the "low" setting.

Next cut a red & green bell pepper into 1/2 inch pieces.  Be sure to remove the ribs and seeds from the peppers.

Slice a small onion into thin strips and add that, along with your peppers, to the crock pot.  Stir everything together to coat. And then place 1.5 lbs of beef in the bottom underneath all the vegetables.  It is traditional to use flank steak, skirt steak, or hanger steak.  But really, any decent cut of beef with be really tender after 8 hours in the slow cooker.

This is a set-it-and-forget-it dish.  So leave it the heck alone!  It should bubble and simmer away all day long while you busy yourself with something else.  When you take the lid off after 8 hours, here's what you'll be looking at:

Carefully remove the beef from the liquid and transfer to a plate or cutting board.  It will be falling apart it's so tender, so you may need to use a slotted spoon.  Then pull it apart with a fork until it is shredded like this:

Toss it back in to the liquid and stir to coat.  Next add a small can of olives along with 1 tbsp of the brine from the can.

Serve this over rice.  Since I'm an American after all, I added a nice dollop of sour cream to the top.

You really can't mess this one up.  The crock pot does all the work for you.  And the house smelled really great.  I think this could be a big hit next time you have company over.  Give it a shot.  Serve it with some chips & homemade guacamole and margaritas and you've got yourself a little fiesta.

Pork & Muenster Panini

This is a leftover (l-word).  I used the apple & radish stuffed pork loin to make this panini.  We have a panini press -- which is essentially a wide, flat George Forman grill.

I took the pork and rough chopped it into bite-sized pieces.  Then spray the top and bottom of the hot press with butter flavored non-stick spray.  You could use butter on your bread; but we prefer our panini's to be a little cleaner and crisper.  The butter would make it a bit ... I shouldn't say greasy ... but wetter?

Next comes a twist I got from my wife:  spread apricot jam on the inside of one slice of bread.  This will really make your sandwich sing.  And the apricot plays well with the apples and pork.  Then place that slice on the press and layer the pork atop the jam.  Top it with a slice of muenster cheese, add the top slice of bread, and close the top.

Now squeeze the top town.  We like our paninis to be crisp and thin.  I served this with some leftover french onion soup and we had a nice little dinner one night.  It's a quick & easy way to make a delicious meal and not waste food.

Cheddar Onion Turnovers

Last week my wife & I went to a 4-course dinner for Valentine's Day at one of the nicest restaurants in the area.  Courses 2-4 allowed you to chose between two options.  When it came to the main course, The Mrs chose butter-poached lobster tail over beef tenderloin -- not because she likes it better, but because she liked the sides better.  She said that is often how she will chose an entree selection.

Well, in the dinner I made yesterday the sides quite possibly stole the show!

They are pretty easy to make too.  You can use either biscuit dough or crescent roll dough.  I used crescent roll.  I lumped it together in a mound and then rolled it flat with a rolling pin.  Then I used a circular cutout to make rounds about 3 inches wide.

Melt some butter in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt and some cayenne pepper.  Then use a basting brush to paint the little rounds with your butter mixture.  Then top on half of the round with a little shredded cheese and some sliced green onions.  You could use other cheeses as well, or chives instead of green onions.  But don't put too much inside these because you need to be able to close them.


Then fold the other half over top and press the edge together with a fork.  Brush the top with your butter mixture and arrange them on a baking sheet with parchment paper. The parchment paper will help so they don't stick ... and it makes clean-up really easy.

Bake them for around 10-13 minutes at 375 degrees until they are golden brown and the cheese has melted.  They are crazy delicious.  I probably could have eaten a dozen of these little goodies.  They will also make a perfect appetizer for a party you're hosting.



Now that I'm thinking about it, you could easily make these sweet as well. Fill them with some apples or pears, and brush the top with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Now I have something else to try!

Pork Loin stuffed with Apples & Radishes

I have spoken many times of the quality, and availability, of good pork in the great state of Iowa. This was a Hormel pork loin that I stuffed myself.  I had seen the technique many times on TV, but was always a bit nervous to try it myself.  I have to say there were a few hiccups at the beginning, but then I got the hang of it. And I'll show you how you can do it yourself.

First peel & dice apples and radishes and saute them in butter, some brown sugar, and a little cinnamon.  Try to keep the pieces small so it's easier to eat.  You should also keep them as uniform in size as possible so they cook at the same time.  Set aside to cool completely.

Next, slice the tenderloin down the middle with a sharp knife. Then lay it on top of wax paper and place another sheet of wax paper on top.  Now smash it flat.  I don't have a meat mallet or a big rubber hammer, so I just used the bottom of a sturdy saute pan.  And just whack away until you have flattened it out to 1/2 inch in thickness.

Liberally season the meat with salt & pepper.  Then fill it with your apples and radishes and then bring both sides up around to the top and completely envelope the fillings.  You should truss the loin together with twine.  Or if you don't have any, you can use dental floss like I did.  I thought I was being a culinary MacGyver with that one!

Start by tying a full loop at one and, then wrap the twine underneath and pass it through your original loop.  Repeat this same movement every inch until you get to the other end of the loin.  Be sure to cinch it tight so the filling doesn't spill out when  you cook it later.  Then tie another loop at the far end.  Season the outside of the loin.  I used a combination of garlic salt, onion powder, salt, and black pepper.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  In a Dutch oven heat up vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  Sear all four sides of the tenderloin in the pan for about 2-3 minutes per side.  Then add apple cider to the pan and transfer it to the oven.  Bake until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.  You can pull it out periodically and baste it with the juices in the pan to maintain moisture.

Set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes with a foil tent over top.  

Apples & pork are a natural combination.  They just go really well together.  I added the radishes for a little bit of vegetables and some more Earthy flavors.  You could top this with a sauce made from any pan drippings you have, or even serve with a BBQ sauce.

The picture at the beginning was what I served to The Mrs because I did a better job keeping the slices together.  Here's what happened when I was a little less careful:

Later this week I'm going to explain how to make those tasty little sides!

Pizzadillas

This was an idea I came up with a while back when I had a good jar of pesto.  I was trying to find more ways to use that delicious garlicky spread.  So I decided to take my love of crispy cheese-filled tortillas and give them an Italian spin.  The result was so good that I'm still making them 2 years later.

This takes everything that you love about quesadillas, and marries that with some of the best parts of a pizza: namely cheese & sauce.  The crust in pizza is important -- don't get me wrong.  But somebody once described their love for thin crust pizza like this:  The crust is just a vessel for transporting the cheese and sauce into your mouth.

So if you like thin crust pizza, why not take two super-thin crusts and envelope your favorite toppings between them?

All you need to do is heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Spread a little butter on one side of a nice tortilla and lay it in your skillet. Then start adding pizza ingredients. I love to spread some pesto around, and then add pepperonis, mozzarella cheese, black olives, and a little onion.  I prefer to use green onions here because they won't really cook inside your pizzadilla, so they work better than raw yellow or white onions. Plus, green onions fit better with that whole Mexican/Italian fusion thing going on here.

Top it all with the another tortilla with a butter spread on the outside. Wait until it's golden & crispy, and then carefully flip it over until it's crispy on both sides. Take it out onto a cutting board and slice it into wedges.  In this picture I dusted the outside with that Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza Pizzaz seasoning I described in the previous post, along with Parmesan cheese and oregano.

Heat up some pizza sauce for dipping, and enjoy this fun twist on two classics!

Pepperoni Calzones

Over the years I've made many pizzas and I've even made several stombolis. But I think I had only made a calzone once before.  That might surprise some of you -- because it surprised me. And judging by how delicious these were, I'll be making many more from now on.

It is a great twist on the traditional pizza, while using the same ingredients.  I started by slicing green pepper and onion really thin.  And I mean almost transparent they were so thin.  They are going to cook inside your calzone, and you don't want to bit into big chunks of semi-cooked aromatics.  So practice your knife skills here.

Take a basic pizza dough and spread it out into a round.  Fill one half with your normal pizza ingredients with one major difference:  don't put any sauce in it.  The sauce goes on the side. I once asked my friend who's family owned a pizzeria.  And she confirmed that calzones should have the sauce served on the side.  You can also pour it over afterward -- but I think that is too messy.  Plus with a bowl of sauce for dipping, you can control exactly how much you get with each bite.  My wife loves sauce, so she likes to scoop up as much as possible.

After you have filled one half of your dough with your chozen ingredients, carefully fold over the other half and seal the edges together. You can use a fork, or twist it by hand.  It's kind of like a larger empanada.  You can also use a little water to seal the crust together.  And if you want a really nice golden, flaky crust, you can do a light egg wash.

Rip a small slit in the top of our dough to allow some steam to escape. And bake it until the crust is perfectly golden brown.

We topped ours with a spice blend we got from Chicago called "Deep-Dish Pizza Pizzaz" which has Parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian herbs, sweet paprika, salt, onion, and black pepper.  That's the color you're seeing on top of the calzone. And it really added another dimension to the flavor of these.

French Onion Soup

Hopefully the picture above accurately depicts just how amazing this soup was. As my wife said, the "soup" is just an excuse to get bread, cheese, and onions into your mouth.  And she found a perfect way to do just that.  I told her I haven't always been a big fan of French onion soup. But if it were made like this more often, then there would be no denying my allegiance.

As the name clearly indicates, you're going to use a lot of onion in this dish. So slice up two large onions and add them to a stock pot with some oil or butter, and start caramelizing them.

The trick to caramelized onions is patience. Don't be tempted to turn up the heat and try to speed the process up.  You'll just burn the onions and have to start all over.

The steam got in the way of a better picture. But here's what you're looking for in color and consistency.  This will take a lot of that strong onion taste out, and release the natural sweetness in onions.  Then you start to build your soup by adding stock.  You can use chicken broth, beef broth, or a combination of both. Add some water so it isn't too rich. You can add red wine or sherry for more depth of flavor. Season with thyme, bay leaf, salt, and black pepper.

In the meantime, take some nice rolls or a good loaf of bread and tear it into chunks.  Throw them into the oven to make your own croutons.  These will really bulk up your soup and add to the decadence of the whole experience.

Once you have given the flavors in your soup time to marry, transfer some to an oven safe bowl and add the croutons. Then top the whole thing with Gruyere or mozzarella cheese and throw them under the broiler.

Be careful when you're using the broiler. You need to watch very closely because it only takes a few seconds to go from perfectly golden & bubbly ... to burnt and acrid. Don't let your momentary lapse of concentration ruin a dish at the very last second.

Once you break through that gooey layer of cheese, waiting below is a rich & caramely broth with totally saturated bread chunks. It's like if French Dip and Grilled Cheese had a baby, and that baby was a soup.

Oh. My. God. This soup is delicious. It's one of those things where you try to eat slowly, taking time to savor each bite, and try to make the experience last. I even ate way too much because it was just that good.

Tony's Famous Italian Stew

Tony is my dad's name.  And while he isn't actually Italian, it's perfectly fitting since this is my very favorite dish he makes.  A while back my brother decided to start a tradition where we would always eat this on Christmas Eve together.  Being from the Midwest, it's always cold on Christmas.  So what would be more perfect then leaning over a steaming bowl of something this hearty?

You start by browning spicy Italian sausage in a Dutch oven or stock pot.  When it is about half-way done browning, throw in 1/2 of a large onion and 1 green bell pepper, both diced.  Continue sweating the onions & peppers in the natural oils from the sausage.  If it is particularly greasy, then you can scoop everything out onto a paper towel and drain the pot.

Your house should already smell delicious.  Next you will add a 14 oz can of stewed tomatoes, a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, and a 14 oz can of tomato sauce, 1 chicken bouillon cube, and 1-2 cans of water.  If you like this soup-ier, add more liquid.  If you prefer it thicker, use less.  I usually like it somewhere in between.  That's why it's called "stew".

I like to add garlic, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, and a little balsamic vinegar or red wine.  Then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add pasta spirals or shells and continue cooking for another 7 minutes until the pasta is cooked through.

Serve in a wide bowl and top it with mozzarella cheese.  The stringy cheese, and all those chunky tomatoes, make this a really satisfying dish.  It is so robust and full-flavored that it is always a hit.  It is possibly my signature dish.  It's amazing that it has taken me this long to blog about it.

...but all credit goes to chef Tony!

Hummus

I used to be a very picky eater.  Unfortunately that meant my stomach lead a very sheltered life until I was more mature and willing to try new things.  Back then, hummus would have been something that scared me off.  But now I feel like it is much more common for people to eat in America.

We were recently over at a friend's house and my wife was teasing the host relentlessly for making a hummus from a box.  Basically you just add water & olive oil.  I think we hold him to higher standards, though, because he's from Lebanon.  But as The Mrs will tell anyone willing to listen, hummus isn't hard to make.

Many of us domesticated sorts are in possession of a food processor.  If you are among the kitchen gadget crowd, then this dish will be a piece of cake for you.  Here is all you'll need:

• 19 oz can of garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp Tahini paste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Puree this all up in your fancy-schmancy food processor until it's smooth & creamy.  And there you go!  Now you're cultured. ;-)

You can jazz this up with some roasted red pepper, or top it with salsa, or some olive tapenade.  Hummus goes great with chips (pictured here with blue corn tortilla chips), naan bread, pretzels, carrots, etc.  If you're a fan of dips, you should give this a try.  It is creamy and rich, and the tahini gives it a little something else. It's hard to put my finger on the taste ... but it's good.