Hoisin-Marinaded Steak with Onions & Mushrooms

In the previous post I mentioned when a friend invited me over to grill. He bought the food, I did the cooking. That's not a bad deal if you ask me! If any of you are familiar with Iowa grocery stores, you will know there is a widely-held belief that Fareway has the best meat market. I firmly believe that to be true. (My dad doesn't, for the record. He likes to be able to feel the meat in a cellophane packaging to gauge it's toughness.)

To quote the movie Tommie Boy: "You can get a pretty good look at a T-bone by sticking your head up a cow's a$$, but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it!"

Being at another person's house when you're cooking can be a challenge. I just did it over the weekend too, when I was making a new pasta salad for a family party. But this time it was a lot of fun because I had access to a pantry full of ingredients that I don't normally have. I saw hoisin sauce and got pretty excited. I decided to make up my own marinade on the fly using a little olive oil, some Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, a dash of balsamic vinegar, some pickling liquid, and a garlic-y seasoning blend.

My thought was that the Worcestershire and balsamic would play off the hoisin flavor, and the garlic and lime would balance it out and run with that Asian flair. The pickling liquid, vinegar, and lime juice all add some tangy acidity and will help to tenderize the meat a little more.

After letting that marinade for a couple hours, I grilled it up with some mushrooms & onions and we had a great meal.  Thanks Eric!

...Oh, and there was enough steak for Eric to return the favor the next morning and make me steak & eggs with cheesy hash browns. This guy really knows how to make you feel at home!

Summer Grilling Season

"Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride. Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no!"

That's how I felt grilling in the rain recently. I had burgers, red bell peppers, zucchini, and onion all ready to be grilled. Then, the rain starting coming down.  At first I started heating up my grill pan to cook inside as a Plan-B. Those grill pans work alright. But for me that has to be a last resort in the winter. This is summer! I'm going to grill on my actual GRILL.

Thankfully the wind wasn't too crazy and the rain was coming straight down. So I pulled my grill over in front of our sliding door where it was protected by the eave of our house. I literally stood inside my house and grilled. Both the food and the cook stayed perfectly dry. I was so proud of myself that I took a picture!

Here's another example of grilling through adversity. (Maybe "adversity" isn't the right word. When a friend buys nice steaks, fresh vegetables, beers, and invites you over to grill at his house ... that isn't exactly a difficult scenario.) But I didn't have my home court advantage. And I actually really like the grill racks for vegetables. It keeps things from slipping through the cracks. So I took turns with the asparagus, and later the onions & mushrooms in between the pan and the grill rack.

See? I started out by seasoning the asparagus and grilling them.

After a while I decided the onions and mushrooms weren't cooking down fast enough so I switched them. It was a little bit of jockeying for space on the grill. But we made it work.

Fresh Orange Smoothie

We are trying to eat a little more healthy these days. My wife is pregnant and we have been making a concerted effort to eat right and get some exercise. We both eat very sensible breakfast & lunch every day. Dinner tends to be when we get the largest meal ... but then there are snacks. That is possibly my biggest dietary weakness. I have officially stopped eating after 8:30 PM as a way to limit how much I snack at night.

Normally I would love to have something like chips, mixed nuts, or even ice cream. But I usually try to get a sweeter cereal to take care of my snack craving. Sometimes I'm feeling a little more motivated and make myself a smoothie. This past week I bought some nice oranges and decided to put one to work. I loved Orange Julius as a kid; so I thought I would try to make a healthier adult version.

I wanted to get as much orange flavor as possible into this smoothie, so I zested the outside of the orange and added all that to my blender.

Zest is a great way to get an even stronger & brighter flavor from citrus fruits. Then I added one vanilla yogurt, some milk, a few teaspoons of sugar, some vanilla extract, and lots of ice. Let it blend up for a long time. I had a lazily mixed Piña Colada this weekend and spent the whole time wishing all those chunks of ice had been blended better. It's called a "smoothie" for a reason -- it should be smooth.

This was a bright and fresh snack, but it had that sweetness from the vanilla yogurt & extract along with a bit of sugar. I let the natural sugars and fruit flavors carry the smoothie, though. And I think it was a pretty big success.

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

I have seen this made a few times on cooking competitions, so when my wife bought a full watermelon last weekend I thought I would give it a try. I probably should have looked up some recipes first, rather than right now. ;-)

This is what was left after I sliced up a watermelon for us to eat later. Then I took my sharp knife and started slicing off pieces of the rind -- but I don't think I went deep enough. Everything I have read now says they're using almost exclusively the white part of the rinds. I used the more pinkish area that's a little bitter and you wouldn't normally eat.

So mine is really more like a watermelon-rind hybrid, rather than a purely watermelon rind. Live & learn, right? You may remember that the blog started with me experimenting with new recipes. I wanted to share my learning much like the move "Julie & Julia". (I'm only now realizing that I have been subconsciously copying her idea to blog about learning to cook.)

I made my own pickling brine using apple cider vinegar as the base. I like to use them when I pickle red onions because it's sweeter. I also added a bit of balsamic vinegar because I knew that paired well with watermelon. Then I added pickling salt, sugar, and distilled water. That's it. I have been reading that you could use cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mustard, etc. I'll consider that for my next batch.

I poured the hot liquid over my sliced watermelon-rind pieces and let it set for a few minutes. They are sweet and bitter. It was a bit odd tasting it right away because they were warm. I put them in the refrigerator in this tupperware and now I have these cool, crisp, little pieces of briny watermelon-like fruit to eat. It's not bad at all. And now I want to try it again with exclusively the whites, and maybe a slightly different brine.

Cucumber Sandwiches with Fresh Dill

We hosted a baby shower at our house recently. The ultra-decadent cupcakes were meant to be the star of the show, so everything else was meant as afternoon finger food. We had little bags of white cheddar popcorn, carrots & celery with French onion dip, cashews, and these little open-face sandwiches I made.

Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint exactly why something sounds good to me. But this is the first (and only) thing I thought of to make for the party. They are cool, clean, and crisp. It wouldn't require any silverware, and with a crowed house it was important that our guests would be able to eat easily without being seated at a table. So in that sense, these were perfect.

I made this up. Most of the time I am following a recipe -- but not in this case. So I started by very finely slicing a green onion and some celery. I wanted a bit of that aromatic quality to compliment the dill; but I also wanted a little crunch. I was using thin radish slices on top, so I also decided to finely chop some of the radish greens to carry that flavor throughout. (Later I brought the celery leaves to the party as well.)

I set out two packages of Neufchatel cheese at room temperature for a few hours to allow it to soften. Then I added one package of plan Chobani Greek yogurt, 1-2 Tbsp of lemon juice, and 1 tsp of Lowry's seasoning salt. I used Greek yogurt instead of mayo to make this a lighter dish, and I also wanted some of that tang to play with the lemon juice,

As the name should suggest, dill was a major component of this spread. I chopped up a bunch of fresh dill and blended everything together for a few minutes with a hand mixer.

I carefully spread it out onto these cute little wheat toasts and topped them with thinly sliced cucumber and radish. I was able to use the mandolin to quickly & evenly make super-thin slices of the cucumber. But the radishes are rather small, and I'm pretty gun-shy around the mandolin ever since I sliced a big chunk of my right thumb off during last Thanksgiving. So I just sharpened my nice chef's knife and did those by hand. I topped them all with a little bit of celery leaves, some more fresh dill, and a little bit of fine pickling salt.

I had to try them out and get the green light from the Mrs before proceeding. I decided to add a little more lemon juice and dill. But she said they were great. So that made me feel pretty confident they were good.

This is about two-thirds of the total amount we made -- and they were almost all eaten. I even got a great compliment from my mother-in-law when she asked my wife where we bought that delicious spread. It was certainly a moment of pride when my wife said that I made it. =)

This is a great little snack when you have a house full of mostly women on a very hot day. I think they went over a lot better than if I had made a much heavier appetizer featuring some kind of pork (which would be my tailgate go-to). The dill and lemon is bright along with the tangy cheese and yogurt. You get a cool, crisp bite from the cucumber and radish and it all is a delightful little snack.

Sweet & Sticky Honey-Lime Chicken

There are almost too many flavor adjectives to describe this chicken. It has the honey and lime I noted in the title, but there is also a very strong soy sauce and garlic flavor to the profile. When you combine soy, garlic, lime, and something sweet, it all comes together in a really wonderful way. That can be the base for a marinade, a stir-fry, or even a dipping sauce.  This takes it a step further by using it as a marinade and then reducing it down into a great sticky sauce.

Start by marinading chicken (I used a breast for the Mrs and a leg for me) in 1/4 cup of lime juice, two cloves of garlic (minced), 1/4 cup of soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp of honey. I threw the squeezed lime halves in too.  Let that sit for 30-60 minutes. I usually like to poke some holes in my chicken with a fork to let some of that flavor permeate the flesh of the meat.

The recipe said to bake this dish, but it's summer time and I'm in a grilling mood. So I put the whole darned thing on the grill! I like to sear the outside of the meat to get a nice crust, and also to lock in the juices. The limes will get a nice char on them on the grill as well and it will bring out some of the remaining moisture that I couldn't squeeze entirely out. I had them above the chicken so that juice could drip down onto the meat while it was cooking.

Let the sauce bubble away until it reduces and become sweet & sticky. Warning: it's a pain in the butt to clean that pan afterward. Sorry folks.

Baste the chicken in that wonderful sauce and serve the charred lime halves as a garnish. There is a wonderful combination of sweetness and acidity in this sauce. And I just love a sticky glaze on chicken or pork. The garlic and soy lend what many call "umami" to the flavor profile. All in all this is a really jam-packed and balanced piece of chicken.  My wife made a quick Asian slaw out of cabbage, apples, carrots and cilantro. This is a really fun twist on your every day grilled chicken dinner.

Pulled Pork Loaded Baked Potato

This was a stroke of genius -- if I'm in the patting myself on the back mood.  We had some pulled pork leftovers and a bunch of yukon gold potatoes in the house. You can find my Whiskey & Coke Pulled Pork recipe here. And as always, I have my customary pickled jalapeno peppers on hand. So this dish basically makes itself.

Loaded baked potatoes are a great quick meal idea for a weeknight after you have had a long day. You can go so many different directions with them. It's also a great way to use leftovers. You can add broccoli & cheese, or chili, or taco toppings, you name it!  This time I got a little creative and went the BBQ route.

I added shredded sharp cheddar, sliced green onions, sour cream, pickled peppers, my pulled pork, and this fantastic tangy mustard BBQ sauce my parents bring back from Texas.

This is a super flavorful and filling dish. There is a great acidic & spicy note from the peppers, but the sour cream cools it off. And then you get rich pork and melted cheese, and I'm sold. Yum.

Quick Asian Salad

My wife made a really delicious Asian salad with cabbage the other night. You'll see a glimpse of it in my next post about a sticky grilled chicken with honey, garlic, soy sauce, and lime. I asked her, "How did you make this vinaigrette? It's really good!"

She said, "I didn't. It's in a bottle."

Ha! How do you like that? It's just a simple sesame dressing by Kraft. I had never had it before and it's really tasty. So I decided to make my simple side salads a little more exciting. The one pictured above was just thrown together on the fly. It was so good that I decided to make it a gain a night or two later.

I tried to make it a little fancy for you guys. So I thinly julienned some cucumber, carrots, and red bell peppers. I even sliced the cherry tomatoes and green onions thinly to keep the theme going. But the key here is cilantro. If you fall on the "Like Cilantro" side of the debate, it is a great way to brighten up a salad.

In this case it adds a little more Asian flair to my simple side salad of mixed spring greens. Then the cucumber and green onions really bring it together. I like to add a little touch of Thai chili paste too. Lime juice wouldn't be a bad idea either. But it's that bottled sesame dressing that is the real star.

Also, one little hint on salad dressing: use less than you did as a kid. Like a lot less. If your salad is "over-dressed" it will be really wet & heavy. And you likely will negate any of the good effects that eating those vegetables could have by adding a bunch of calories from a salad dressing.

The one thing that was missing was some chopped peanuts. (And it turns out we had them all along! I just saw them in the pantry. Oops.)

It turns out I can bake!

We watch a lot of cooking competitions, and the chefs always say "I'm not  pastry chef."  One time one of the judges responded, "Neither is my grandma. But she can bake a pie."

Deserts seem to be a specialty that not everybody has the patience for. The main difference that I have noticed is that baking is an exact science. You can't just put a dash of this, some of that, and a couple eggs and hope it turns out. Cooking savory food is much more forgiving. You can taste as you go along and adjust based on what you like.

I think that could be what scars some people away. My wife likes to bake. There was a time when she denied it. But after a few years of building a reputation for always bringing delicious baked goods to parties and tailgates, there was no denying it any more.

I used to say that I was her sous chef. Now I do 90% of the cooking, so I started to say she was my pastry chef. But recently I decided to surprise her by baking what were described as basically cinnamon-sugar donuts in muffin form. I knew she would love them!

I gave a link to the recipe in my previous post. The interesting parts for me were combining butter and sugar with a hand mixer until it turned fluffy. It shouldn't come as a surprise when using two delicious ingredients like sugar & butter ... but that fluffy stuff is pretty tasty!

Like many baking recipes, I mixed the wet ingredients separate from the dry ingredients. Then you need to combine them gradually. In this instance, they were very specific to add dry, wet, dry, wet, and then dry. I followed all their instructions to a tee and they turned out perfectly.

So don't be afraid to bake! They give you the entire playbook if you just have the confidence to try it, and the patience to see it through. I may be inspired to do some more baking in the upcoming weeks. Some of you may know that my wife is with child. She isn't too excited about me grilling meat at the moment (bummer for me). But she is usually in the mood for something sweet. So I may just have to take over as the pastry chef too.