The Messy Chef

BBQ Fanatics Rejoice

2011-02-06T09:59:00.003-05:00

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3 blog posts in a month - careful this could be habit forming....

I love Barbecue. I dream about Barbecue. If you cut me open I bleed BBQ sauce[1]. I have become one with the cue...

This weeks entry is about a key distinction; cooking steaks on your grill (although delicious) is not BBQ.

Grilling is the act of cooking meat quickly over direct heat.

BBQ is the art of slow cooking meat over indirect heat to infuse the maximum amount of flavor and create the maximum amount of tenderness.

Grilling is my preferred method of cooking for steak and most chicken. I love trying to create perfect grill marks in my steaks and make them look like a $50 steakhouse. BBQ is my preferred method for cooking Ribs and Brisket because the slow cooking breaks down the tough meat and connective tissue creating a tender and flavorful result. I intend to write many BBQ related posts this year[2] so if you are a BBQ enthusiast like me you'll be excited for upcoming original recipes as well as tips for prep, rubs and smoking[3].

This entry I am going to show you how to make your own BBQ sauce. Yes that's right I make my own sauce and you should too. It's easy and tastes 1000x better[4] than the store-bought varieties. One of my favorite things about making sauce is that you can tweak it to your own personal taste. I like mine sweet with a little spicy kick[5].

This sauce is the Carolina sweet type which is a vinegar/water base. I also make a more traditional tomato based sauce but I'll save that for another exciting upcoming episode.

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons butter

Preparation:

Mix all except soy, butter and smoke. Simmer 30 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 more minutes.

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[1] Just a figure of speech so please don't acutally do this.

[2] I also intend to win the lottery, a Pulitzer prize and climb the Himalaya's - big year.

[3] Insert smoking joke here.

[4] Approximately

[5] Like my women (you're welcome Barri).
[6] Add it to the list

Busting Through the Stereotypes

2011-01-26T09:48:00.003-05:00

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Here at Iamthemessychef Inc. we have very strict rules about equal rights. Employees are encouraged to contribute regardless of age, sex or mental ability[1]. We refuse to perpetuate the stereotypical family ideal where the Dad does all the cooking and cleaning and the Mom goes off to work all day. In our house the women are required to help with the domestic chores on a regular basis. Even Eden is starting to find her way[2] into the cooking activities.

In this installment the girls are making Maddy's fav dinner, Stuffed Shells. As a "pinch hitter" chef the Mrs. does a great job with this recipe. Look for future guest blogs from her with such favorites as Chicken Piccata, Chinese tofu stir fry and peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. As you can see from Maddy's ingredient list this recipe is a precise and detail oriented job that requires many cooking techniques.

Actual Ingredients:

1/2 box pasta shells
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (shredded)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
1 jar tomato sauce

Optional Ingredients[3], [4]:

1 box frozen spinach
6 slices prosciutto

Preheat Oven to 350. Cook shells according to package directions. Cook prosciutto in pan until it begins to firm up [5].

Add oil, spinach and garlic to pan and cook for 2-5 min until spinach is reduced and garlic is fragrant, add salt/pepper and move to bowl to cool. In separate bowl mix together 3 cheeses, egg and nutmeg with a spoon. Add cheese mixture to the spinach mixture and fill shells. Line the bottom of a baking dish with sauce and put shells on top. Sprinkle sauce across the top of all shells. Bake for 25 min or until thoroughly heated.

Serve hot out of the oven.

_____________________________

[1] Clearly mental ability is not a prerequisite for writing a blog
[2] By "find her way" I mean scream, push and flail until she is in the center of whatever is going on at that moment. Think you can stop her? She scoffs at your bravado.
[3] Also actual ingredients.
[4] Note that The Madster does not eat things with spinach or prosciutto which might be the same with your 6 year old so feel free to leave this out and skip the parts that talk about cooking these ingredients. I am confident that one day you will not need reminding of this.
[5] I was searching for a better way to say cook it a little until it starts to brown but doesn't get too hard and doesn't burn. 3 min tops.

Today's Forecast: Chili with a chance of blogging

2011-01-14T08:26:00.005-05:00

.......

Holy Crap I actually wrote a blog!! Thank you thank you! Don't applaud just throw money......

I am not a professional chef[1]. I realize this comes as a huge suprise but I thought I would clear the air. Not being a professional[2] makes writing a cooking blog (especially one about cooking with kids) a real challenge. I only had 20 or so recipes in my head when I started writing this over a year ago and frankly - I covered almost all of them[3].

I am however a professional excuse maker.[4] I think about this blog all the time and often decide to scout a recipe and cook with Maddy. Then life gets in the way and 1000 other things take priority. I make excuses about being busy at work, with kids, new baby, blah blah blah. In the end I know that you know that I know that you know [5] that its all just excuses.

So quickly before I make an excuse or change my mind here is Maddy and my version of beef chili. It was amazing - some of the best chili I've ever had. Key is to cook it slow and stir often. DON'T LET IT BURN - that will ruin the chili and the pan. Enjoy[6]

Ingredients:

a few cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound 85 percent lean ground beef
1 cup beer
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (24-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (24-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
Lime wedges, for garnish
Sour cream, for garnish
Shredded Cheddar, for garnish
Sliced scallions, for garnish

OPTIONAL:[7]
- 6 slices thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
- 1 pound ground pork

Directions:

In large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat until lightly crisp, stirring occasionally. Once the bacon is browned, add the garlic, onions, bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, oregano, and smoked paprika and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the vegetables are tender and seasonings are aromatic.

Add the beef and break it up with a wooden spoon. Once beef is broken up and beginning to brown, add the pork. Break up with wooden spoon like the beef, and brown, until no longer pink, roughly 4 minutes. Stir in the beer and beans. Toss together, then add the crushed and diced tomatoes.

Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, if necessary. Transfer the chili to serving bowls and garnish with lime wedges, sour cream, shredded cheese, and sliced scallions.

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[1] I don't get paid for it so technically an amateur
[2] Not even all that good a cook
[3] You might ask "if you still had recipes left why didn't you write blogs about them?" You might be really annoying.
[4] Again not getting paid so technically an amateur
[5] Said with Eddy Murphy "Ralph Cramden" impression from Eddie Murphy "Raw"
[6] Or don't....at this point I'm just happy to have written something.
[7] Optional as in: If you don't use these your chili will come out fine (as ours did) and you should skip the parts in the recipe where it says stuff about them. Sad that I needed to tell you that.

Worst Blogger Ever

2010-08-14T11:37:00.000-04:00

SAD.

That's all I can really say about it. Sad sad sad. I haven't posted here since April.

In my defense I've flown 45,000 miles already in 2010 and my wife is pregnant with our 3rd kid so life isn't exactly docile at the moment...but it doesn't matter. I should make more time to cook with Maddy and to record it for posterity, and I will....soon.....someday.......when I'm not so freaking busy every moment.......really....I will....stop looking at me like that....

:(

more to come soon.....

Wafflicious

2010-04-21T14:08:00.090-04:00

Making waffles sound bite Eddie Murphy sound bites

The quote above is one of my all time favorites. Feel free to click play and listen to it 6 or 7 times. It gets funnier each time.

Maybe the reason I find this so hilarious is that it sounds so good to me. Hang out with Eddie Murphy till all hours of the night getting our buzz on and swapping "manly stories" then you had better believe I'd be whippin up some homemade waffles.

Back on planet reality Maddy and I do a fine job of waffle making. If you've been reading this blog then you know about my love of pancakes. Waffles are in that same "hope to never have to live without" category [1] as pancakes.

You will need a waffle iron for this [2] so if you don't have one go buy one [3]. This recipe works almost exactly like the ricotta pancake mixture from my blog post of 10/4/09. Use the 3 bowl method by separating eggs and mix the whites in last - right before cooking.

As an added bonus for the first 100 callers we'll include a recipe for Hash Browns so hurry and order now because these won't be around for long.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nonstick cooking spray, optional

Directions

Preheat a waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Into a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine

Add the flour mixture to the egg-milk mixture and whisk just until blended. Do not overmix. In a third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter, being careful not to overmix.

Coat the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray, if required [4], and pour enough batter in the iron to just cover the waffle grid. Close and cook as per the manufacturer's instructions until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. (Do not open the waffle iron for at least 1 minute.) Repeat with the remaining batter.

Hash Browns

3 strips bacon
1 potato cut into pieces
1/2 red pepper (or 1/4 green 1/4 red)
1/2 onion chopped
Vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 350

Cook bacon till crispy in pan. Saute potatoes in leftover bacon grease for 5-10 minutes until cooked on outside but not all the way through. Remove potatoes from pan. Crumble or cut bacon into small pieces. Add onions and peppers and cooked bacon to pan and cook 2-5 minutes until soft [5]. Add potatoes back to pan and coat mixture with vegetable oil. Put the whole pan in the oven and cook 15-20 minutes until potatoes are cooked through. Salt/Pepper to taste.

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[1] A sweet bread-y conduit for syrup
[2] Duh
[3] Or just come over and we'll make them
[4] Not sure what "if required" means - I certainly am not requiring you to and for the record I use butter
[5] The bacon wont be

A blog full o firsts....

2010-04-04T19:02:00.009-04:00

I know I know its been a while since my last post. I am a bad son/husband/dad....I never take you anywhere.....I never buy you anything.....I should go to Shul more.....I should eat my vegetables....I should get enough sleep...am I a mencsch or what? Answer me! Such are the joys of Passover in our household.

This Passover holiday was filled with firsts. It was the first time we had hosted both nights. It was the first Passover Brisket I had made and today is the first blog that Maddy has helped with.

Me - what was you favorite part about making the brisket for Passover?
Maddy - I liked putting the garlic in the meat.
Me - did you think we used too much?
Maddy - yes too much.
Me - But did it come out good?
Maddy - Ya - I think so I didn't even try it.
Me - Whats best part of the passover dinner?
Maddy - The Matzoh ball soup! And Matzoh too!
Me - What else should we write about in this blog?
Maddy - You should tell everyone how we made the brisket...it was really good
Me - I thought you said you didnt try it
Maddy - Oh yea I didnt - but dont write that in your blog - I'm going to keep hitting you until you stop writing that
Me - Ow...stop that....ow.....

Dadddy and Maddy's (borrowed from Emeril) Passover Brisket

Ingredients

8 to 10 pound brisket
Garlic cloves
1 quart beef stock (unsalted or low salt)
3 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup ketchup
1 cup chili sauce
1 cup brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Using a paring knife and your finger, stuff brisket all over with garlic.

Place brisket in a baking dish or casserole and bake until browned on top, remove from oven, turn brisket and return to oven until browned on both sides. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Add enough beef stock to casserole to come up 1 inch on sides, cover with foil and bake one hour.

While brisket is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and saute onions in vegetable oil, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and most liquid has evaporated, about 20 minutes. Set aside.

Remove brisket from oven after one hour and add caramelized onions and all remaining ingredients, moving meat around to combine ingredients.[1] Cover and continue to bake until very tender but not falling apart, another 2 to 3 hours [2]. Remove brisket to a carving board and slice.

Strain reserved cooking liquids and pour over sliced brisket. Take the whole brisket out and let it rest for 2-5 min before slicing. Brisket may be returned to casserole dish and allowed to cool, then served the next day. (Reheated in oven.)

This recipe is great. Easy to make and full of flavor. It is not technically kosher for passover since there is corn syrup in the chili sauce.

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[1] I had to cut the brisket in half to make it fit in the pot.
[2] I cooked it for longer than that thinking you can't overcook brisket and I was wrong - it was a little softer than I would have liked
[3] There is no footnote #3

Mama Mia!

2010-02-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

For any chef perfecting the art of making pasta is a right of passage, an eye opener, a change of perspective. Once you've had the real deal the blue box seems weak. Simple ingredients combined simply make one of the best foods ever created. If you're like me [1] and love Italian food then owe it to yourself to learn what real pasta is. I've explained here previously my method for making pasta noodles but today I thought I would share my recipe for stuffed pasta - in this case Tortelloni. You might ask "Why not Tortellini?" [2]. The difference between the two is the size. Tortellini is smaller and I find much harder to make by hand. Here is what wikipedia has to say about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortelloni

Start with the same pasta recipe as before (see my post of 10/14/09).

Make a filling for your pasta. We used:

2oz Goat Cheese

1oz Ricotta Cheese

1/3 cup sauteed portobello mushrooms

Fresh nutmeg

Several sprigs fresh sage

salt, pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl or cusinart but dont overmix[3]. Use a microplane (zester) to shred the nutmeg. After you roll out the pasta do not cut it into noodles.

Cool tool # 43b - The Ring Mold. This can be used for stacking foods in a perfect circle for presentation[4] or for cutting pasta into perfect circles.

Combine water and egg in a bowl to make an egg wash. Cut the pasta into circles. Place a small amount [5] of the filling in the center of each circle. Rub your fingers in the egg wash and run them around the edges of the circle on either side. Fold the circle over and pinch the edges to seal. You will now have a half moon shapped pasta. Fold the corners into one another to make the Tortelloni shape.

Let the pasta rest on a plate for 5-10 minutes for the egg wash to dry/harden before dropping into boiling water. Cook for 2-5 minutes until just cooked through[6].

I like to serve with a brown butter sauce. Mario Batali offers this one:

* 4 tablespoons butter

* 8 sage leaves

* 1/2 lemon, juiced

* 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

While your pasta cooks, melt butter in a 12 to 14-inch saute pan and continue cooking until golden brown color ("noisette") appears in the thinnest liquid of the butter. Add sage leaves and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and set aside. Drain the pasta, but leaving some cooking water, and gently pour into saute pan and return to heat. Add the cheese, toss to coat and serve immediately.

Mangia!!

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[1] Litterally hundreds of footnotes would be appropriate here. I've decided to go with 3

1. Then you are a very handome and powerful man

2. I feel very sorry for you

3. You have an unexplained fear of cauliflower

[2] You might be really annoying

[3] Truly a subjective statement. I think its best if you can still see some mushroom pieces.

[4] I'm sure you've seen this on Iron Chef or Top Chef or one of the 400 other Secrets of the Worst Chopped Chef in America Challenge competition/cooking shows that are on

[5] More art than science

[6] If you cook this for too long the terrorists win.

Me Love you Long Time....

2010-02-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

Yes its been wayyy too long since my last blog. For a while I was like a kid in a candy shop with so much I wanted to say. So happy that I had been able to post weekly. Now I've gone more than a month since writing a word. Key though: its not for a lack of trying. I keep making plans to cook / blog and somehow they keep falling through. I had even planned to blog while visiting family over the holidays in Dec. I was going to cook with Maddy and friends on New Years Eve but that didn't work out either. My work schedule has been crazy (traveling quite a bit) so I've been playing a lot of catchup.

With a renewed determination I set out one weekend in mid Jan to make my favorite food in the world. I had all the ingredients and a scheduled time with Maddy for her assistance. I eagerly waited for the right time and was so excited when the time finally arrived.

That's when it all turned to crap.[1]

BBQ RIBS SAGA

I love ribs. Not some elementary school playground puppy love. More like wanna take you out back and have my way with you kinda love. I could eat BBQ Ribs every day and if I had the time I could spend the 4-5 hours necessary to cook them.[2] The key to making great ribs is patience [3]. Good ribs take 6 hours including prep time. They also require a lot of love and more than just a few steps in the cooking process.

On this particular day it was cold and overcast outside. We spent the day cleaning the house and playing wii. We were expecting friends over for dinner and I was looking forward to making ribs for all and with Maddy's help document things for my blog. Around 11a I asked Maddy to help me prep the ribs and instead of her normal cooperative self she had a total meltdown. I ADMIT I didn't handle it as well as I could have[4] but I had been looking forward to this and got upset when she refused to help. After a quick 20 min war[5] we made amends and Maddy reluctantly helped me make the rub and soak the wood.

2 hours later I was ready to light the grill when suddenly it began to rain. But I had planned this day and I wasn't going to let a little thing like rain stop me! So I went outside and lit the charcoal but to no avail. I fought the rain and the charcoal for 30 minutes before I discovered it had gotten wet previously and refused to light. Now I was wet, cold and behind schedule.

This day I was forced to do the whole thing indoors. Ribs werent ready till after 7p and they weren't my best. I didn't wind up documenting any of the cooking and now a month later I'm first writing about it. Interestingly my company loved the ribs. (I hope they weren't just being nice).

Assuming you have better weather and a decent grill - here is what I recommend:

MY (soon to be) WORLD FAMOUS BBQ BABY BACK RIBS

First key to making great ribs is to remove the membrane on the back. Here is a video that will show you how to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9plB5BYhj8

After the membrane is gone and you have trimmed excess fat off the back of the ribs (don't cut much fat off the front unless its really bad in which case you should have bought a different rack) its time to apply the rub. I like my ribs sweet so for each rack I use:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Mix it all together and rub 90% on the front of the ribs[6].Then wrap the ribs in tin foil and put them in the refrigerator for 2 hours minimum.

First cooking step is to smoke the ribs for at least and hour. I set up my grill to cook with indirect heat - charcoal on the right and a pan with water on the left. Similar to this:

Buy a bag of wood for smoking[7] (apple or hickory wood is my fav) and soak several handfuls in water for 30 min then place half of it directly on the hot charcoal. This will cause the smoke you need. Place the ribs over the pan not the charcoal and let the smoke cook them for 60-90 min until the ribs start to crust around the edges and the bones begin to show. Adding the remaining soaked wood halfway through the cooking.

After 60 min of smoking take the ribs off the grill and bring them inside. Wrap them in tinfoil and baste them with honey and your favorite BBQ sauce. Pour 1/2 cup of apple juice into the tinfoil and seal it up. This will cause the juice to steam the ribs while they cook. Place the wrapped ribs into the oven on 250 for 3 hours, checking regularly and basting with additional BBQ sauce. After 3 hours place them under the broiler for 5 min before serving.

I usually serve family style and let people have at em. You can tell how good they are by how long they last. Either way its hard for me to imagine anything more rewarding then when people tell you how good your BBQ ribs are.

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[1] Poop, Caca, Doodie
[2] Add this to the long list of reasons I need to win the lottery
[3] It's not really a secret
[4] By that I mean I was a total ass who yelled at my 5 year old for not cooking with me...
[5] Not quick in any sense of the word perhaps the longest 20 min of 2010 so far
[6] I'll let you figure out what percent goes on the back
[7] Insert smoking joke here

Easy (or not) Entertaining

2009-12-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

Holiday time often brings us together to celebrate with friends and family. This is great for everyone except the chef. Cooking for 8 is very different than cooking for 4. Even if you intend to make the same dish - increasing a recipe to feed twice as many people can be tricky business.[1] I encourage you to think ahead when feeding the unwashed masses because its not as simple as you suspect. This past week during the Hanukkah celebration we had a group of our closest [2] friends over. In advance I asked my good friend Bob what he would like to eat and he said Chicken Marsala. I was happy he asked for this having made a good version of this before. What I didn't account for was that cooking twice as much required so many mushrooms they barely fit in the pan. Then I went to add twice the wine and chicken stock and it also barely fit in the pan. Finally, I normally cook the chicken+sauce in the oven for 5-10 min before serving and there was no way 14 pieces of chicken + 9 cups of mushrooms and sauce was going to fit.[3] In a last minute save I decided to whip out another pan for the oven roasting and cook half of the total recipe in each.

Normally Maddy would have helped more than she did but she was busy entertaining.

EMERIL'S CHICKEN MARSALA

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Essence, recipe follows
2 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves and pounded thin
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups sliced mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake)
3/4 cup Marsala
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions

In a shallow bowl or plate combine the flour and Essence [4] and stir to combine thoroughly. Quickly dredge the chicken breast halves in the seasoned flour mixture, shaking to remove any excess flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook the chicken breasts until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter to the pan and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are golden brown around the edges and have given off their liquid. Add the Marsala wine and bring to a boil, scraping to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the wine has reduced by half, add the chicken stock and cook for 3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Lower the heat to medium and return the chicken breasts to the pan and continue to cook until they are cooked through and the sauce has thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, add salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.

Maddy did help with the slicing of mushrooms. This is a good job to give a kid since they can use a butter knife and still feel like a big part of the process.

When you put your mushrooms in the pan make sure to stir well and get all the good stuff off the bottom of the pan.

Reduce, Reduce Reduce. I typically let the wine then the stock reduce for longer than the recipe calls for. The key is to concentrate those flavors into the mushrooms.

Use quality ingredients. Buy actual Marsala wine - not some cooking wine from the grocery shelf.

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[1] It's tricky to rock a rhyme to rock a rhyme that's right on time its tricky.

[2] closest = people who will actually come over

[3] maybe what i need is a really big pan
[4] I do not use Emeril's essence. I simply add salt, pepper and garlic powder to the flour

Kiss my wok

2009-12-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Be careful what you say to your kids.

One day Maddy and I were talking about what we should have for dinner when she suggested we go our for Chinese Food. Not wanting to spend the money (and always looking for new blog material) I suggested we stay in and make dinner. Maddy was against my home cooked plan and insisted that we have sesame chicken for dinner to which I replied "Why don't we make sesame chicken?". For a brief moment after I said this it seemed as if time stood still. This was one of those moments in life where I say something and only after the words have come out of my mouth begin to digest the ramifications of what I'd said. Did I really offer to make sesame chicken? Will it taste at ALL like the one from the restaurant we go to? If not will Maddy eat any? Delivery is sounding great right about now. So we set off home to find a good sesame chicken recipe and see what we could do. What happened was that we combined two recipes we found [1] based on the ingredients we had on hand. The final recipe we used was:

Flawless Sesame Chicken (Restaurant Style) Recipe

2 whole boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
2 green onions (sliced)

Marinade-
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon cooking wine or dry sherry
3 drops sesame oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Batter-
½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg (beaten)
½ cup water (or as much as needed to make batter smooth)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Sauce-
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sugar
salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
a sprinkle of ground black pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Cut chicken breasts into 1” chunks and in a glass bowl combine all of the marinade ingredients and mix well. Add the chicken and coat evenly. Cover and marinade for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Step 2: Meanwhile, in separate bowl combine all of the batter ingredients and mix thoroughly. The batter should be thick enough to coat the chicken but thin enough to flow around the pieces. Set aside.

Step 3: Using a fork or tongs remove the pieces of chicken from the marinade and dip them into the batter to coat evenly (one by one). Deep fry the chicken in batches in your deep fryer for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. (or you can fry in hot oil at about 325 degrees in your wok for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown)

Step 4: In your wok combine the sauce ingredients and warm over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring and simmer until sauce slightly thickens.

Step 5: In the wok or in a serving dish coat chicken with the sauce and garnish with sliced scallions and sesame seeds.

This recipe was both fun and easy to make. It involves 3 steps - marinate, prep, fry. Maddy helped me make the marinade and then pour it on the chicken.

While the chicken is marinading in the refrigerator make the batter that you will use to deep fry.

If you don't have a deep fryer [2] I suggest you use the tallest pot you have. If you don't have an oil thermometer [3] stick a wooden spoon in the oil and see if it bubbles. 325 is not hot enough to make the oil smoke so if you see smoke turn the heat down.[4]

As you can see the finished product looked amazing. Just like actual Chinese Food [5].

The consistency was perfect - crunchy but not overly so and tender on the inside. The taste was good but not like the sesame chicken we are used to.

In the end it didnt taste like our local Chinese place and Maddy didnt like it. I think if we make this again I'll try a different sauce - one recipe called for fruity wine (which we didn't have). If you have made similar and can recommend a good sauce we're open to suggestions.[6]

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[1] Often a recipe for disaster - pun intended
[2] We both know you don't have a deep fryer
[3] You could go broke buying me all the kitchen gadgets on my list- I'm just saying
[4] Insert smoking joke here
[5] Which is nothing like food in China - its our Americanized version so it should be called Amerinese food
[6] Or you're welcome to bring over take out

Pictures in this Blog

2009-11-30T14:41:00.001-05:00

FYI - All the pictures in this blog are clickable which will bring up the full size photo. Enjoy.

If at first you don’t succeed – soup soup again.

2009-11-21T08:05:00.000-05:00

As promised in earlier ramblings tonight we are going to make a new soup. Here’s the catch: we know in advance that Maddy won’t eat it. You might ask why we would make a soup that Maddy won't eat. The answer is simple: if it’s not Campbell’s Tomato or Chicken Noodle [1] don’t waste your or my time. So tonight will have to be one of those instructional times where we enjoy the cooking together as a family and understand that at least one of us is still 5 years old.[2]

Tonights Soup is:

Wild Mushroom Soup with Sherry
    * 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature
    * 2 cups sliced celery
    * 1 cup sliced shallots
    * 3/4 cup chopped onion
    * 3 garlic cloves, minced
    * 3 cups sliced stemmed fresh shiitake mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
    * 3 cups sliced crimini mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
    * 3 cups sliced oyster mushrooms (about 4 1/2 ounces)
    * 1/2 cup dry white wine
    * 1/2 cup dry Sherry
    * 1/4 cup all purpose flour
    * 8 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
    * 1/2 cup whipping cream

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add celery, shallots, onion and garlic and sauté until onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add all mushrooms and sauté until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add white wine and Sherry. Boil until liquid is reduced to glaze, about 6 minutes.

Mix remaining 2 tablespoons butter and 1/4 cup flour in small bowl until smooth paste forms. Add flour paste to mushroom mixture in pot; stir until mixture melts and coats vegetables. Gradually mix in stock. Bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until mushrooms are tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper. Working in batches, puree soup in blender or processor until smooth. Return soup to pot. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium-low heat before serving.) Ladle soup into bowls and serve.

So there you have it. The recipe in “real time” before I’ve even made the soup. How much more exciting does a cooking blog get than that? [3] Don’t expect any play-by-play cause soup making just aint that exciting. Time to make da soup!

[2 hours later]

Making the soup was fun! [4]

First thing to note was we cut everything in half and it came out great! Our best soup yet. It was creamier than I realized it was going to be. It tasted like a jazzed-up [5] version of the traditional cream of mushroom I’m used to. Maddy enjoyed helping cut up veggies and adding them to the pot.

She’s still a little afraid of the heat so she didn’t want to stir the veggies in the pot. Basically this recipe is a bunch of steps off adding things and then blending them.

A tip for good flavor is to keep a bottle of dry sherry in the house. Get the good stuff at a liquor store and not some cooking wine from grocery. I wind up using it a lot for braising, sauces etc.

Cool tool #27 - The immersion blender.

If you have an immersion blender you don’t need to put the soup in the actual blender. Either way I wouldn’t recommend over-blending. I thought the consistency was nice to be a little thicker than other mushroom soups. Keep in mind we were serving this as a vegetarian main course with salad so we were going for a hearty solution. We like to serve vegetarian meals once a week and making this soup was a fun and fulfilling

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[1] Don’t even think of substituting some other chicken noodle soup on the Madster. She will make you pay….dearly. We even tried the SAME soup with different shaped noodles and were dismissed like yesterday’s news.
[2] Others of us just pretend to be. I’m just saying…
[3] Don’t answer that.
[4] Lots of trust involved in you reading my blog – I could be making all this up – I’m just saying….
[5] Better, more good, mushroomier

C is for Cookie

2009-11-07T21:28:00.001-05:00

3 of 3

If you are under the age of 12 please stop reading this blog right now. I don’t want to make you sad or crush your dreams so please stop now. I’m serious – go play a video game or watch Nick Jr. or something but stop reading this blog right now! You’ve been warned! Last chance! OK This is it – the big news is……..

Cookie Monster is not real.

It’s true. He is not a living monster of any kind. Instead he is in fact a puppet made of fabric and foam and other puppety things[1] . However: The cookies he “eats” ARE real. The sad reality is that since he is a puppet he doesn’t actually eat them so much as mush them up into pieces while making the famed “argharghargh” sound. This is an atrocity! How sad that throughout the 30+ year history of Sesame Street hundreds if not thousands of perfectly good cookies[2] were destroyed by this “simulated” cookie eating act! Although I assume there are no homeless puppets on Sesame Street surely there are needy (and most likely underpaid) crew members involved with lighting, filming and puppeteering who could have enjoyed those perfectly good cookies![3] America let’s not let our cookies go to waste! It’s time we took a stand for cookie rights! All I can say is I’m glad that the cookies we make in our house are eaten by real live monsters [4] and not simply swept up and discarded after a long day of filming the most beloved children’s show of all time.[5]

The third thing Maddy and I make best is cookies. We have made several different kinds. We’ve made some great eats and some nasty burnt things.[6] Now that I am writing this blog I’ve decided to try and make more “fancy” style cookies such as tuiles and filled cookies. However I’d like to start by sharing the easiest cookie recipe in history that you can be eating 20 minutes from now.[7]

Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

½ cup salted butter, softened

¼ cup white sugar

½ cup honey

1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300. In a small bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside. In another medium bowl blend butter, sugar and hone with an electric mixer at medium speed. Beat until fully combined the scrape sides of bowl. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips and blend at low speed just until combined. Do not over mix. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 ½ inches apart. Bake 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown. Transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool flat surface.

This recipe is pretty straight forward. The only thing I will add is don’t be afraid to let your child hold the mixer. It is not dangerous if supervised and its Maddy’s favorite part.

Here is another version of the same recipe with totally different results [8].

Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies

Topping:

3tbsp white wugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Cookies:

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

½ cup white sugar

1 cup salted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300. In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon for topping and set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside. In a large bowl blend sugars with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add the butter and form a grainy paste. Scrape sides of bowl then add eggs and vanilla extract. Mix at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed just until combined. Do not overmix.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll each ball in cinnamon-sugar topping. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool flat surface.

Remember that cookies are fun food. This is not supposed to be serious stuff. Also this is a great way to get kids interested in cooking since you know they want to eat what they’re making here.

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[1] As you can tell I have no idea what puppets are made of
[2] I have no idea if they were good

[3] Still no idea if they were any good
[4] Also known as 5 year olds

[5] When you put it that way it doesn’t seem so bad
[6] When I mentioned to the Mrs. that I was going to write a blog about cookies her initial response was less than positive (something like “your cookies suck”). So the lesson for kids here is that even though we fail sometimes it is important to keep trying and focus on the successes in life - and to recognize that not everyone is a great chef who should be modifying recipes from people like Mrs. Fields or Famous Amos because that’s how they got famous in the first place.

[7] Assuming you are at home, with all the right ingredients, and have 20 min right now to make cookies.
[8] The last time I made this version the Mrs. commented that they were “the least dry cookies we’d ever made” which is a big compliment coming from her..

Eggplant Rollatini

2009-10-24T21:00:00.000-04:00

Salt Glorious Salt

Rock Salt, Table Salt, Kosher Salt or Sodium Chloride whatever you call it the truth about salt is that there is a lot more of it in your food than you realize. Great chefs know the secret to great food is intense flavor and no two ingredients help support and intensify flavor profiles quite like salt and butter.(1) Here in the US we LOVE excess and that doesn’t stop at the dinner table. According to www.healthymenumailer.com “The average American consumes between 4,000 and 5,000 mg of sodium (or salt) a day. That is close to double the recommended amount we should be consuming.”(2) Recently US restaurant chains have come under fire as the American Medical Association tries to thrust salt consumption into the limelight. Think about this: while our politicians debate the best way to approach our health care crisis an article in the New York Times claims”The United States could save $18 billion a year in health spending if Americans would cut their consumption of salt to the recommended level, the RAND Corporation reports in a new study. “

This would be the part where you might expect a low salt recipe or cooking technique. Obviously then we’ve never met. I’ll celebrate our addiction to salt by sharing a recipe that requires lots of it, adds in some pan frying for extra saturated fat and high-fat cheese to turn a perfectly healthy vegetarian dish into a delicious cholesterol and sodium infused killer.(3) I’ve been making this recipe for a long time so I do it from memory at this point. I even used it as my entry at my last Iron Chef party. I didn’t win but I’m not bitter.(4)

Eggplant Rollatini Florentine

1 Large Purple Eggplant
¼ cup Parmigianino Oreggiano
¼ cup whole milk ricotta cheese
½ package frozen spinach

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt
Black pepper
Flour or Bread crumbs
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
Eggs

Tomato Sauce

Toothpicks
Wax paper

First you need to cut the eggplant and you should NOT let your child help with this. The skin on the eggplant is slicker than it looks and a sharp cooks knife is best. Cut the top and the bottom off the eggplant and then trim off the rest of the skin and cut the remaining eggplant into 6 slices that have no skin on them. Lay all 6 slices on wax paper and salt liberally on both sides. Then cover with another sheet of wax paper and let them sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes you will see a liquid has appeared on the eggplant. Take paper towels and dry the liquid off. This is called sweating the eggplant and removing the liquid takes away most of the bitter flavor leaving a much sweeter taste.

Pour ½ inch of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. You can use flour or bread crumbs to make this - I find the flour burns in the oil quick so when Maddy is helping I err on the side of caution and use bread crumbs. Make an egg wash bowl and bread crumbs plate side by side for coating the eggplant (same way you might do fried chicken). Dredge the eggplant in the egg wash and then in the bread crumbs to coat before pan frying on each side for 2-5 min or until just golden brown. Since I can’t let Maddy place the eggplants in the hot oil she stands to my right and helps with the dredging and flouring while I place them in the pan.

Thaw the spinach and squeeze in paper towels to remove excess water.(5) Then mix together the spinach, cheeses, garlic powder, oregano, basil, salt and pepper with a fork. Take a small amount of the cheese mixture and place it on the end of a fried eggplant piece. Then roll the eggplant up over the cheese and secure with a toothpick. Maddy loves to help with the rolling part. Coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with the tomato sauce. Place all 6 rolled up eggplant pieces in the baking dish with more sauce on top. Cover and bake at 300 for 30-45 min or until hot. Remember to take the toothpicks out before serving.(6)

Interesting variation can be made by adding shredded prosciutto to the cheese mixture. When I do this I shred the meat in a food processor and fry in a dry pan for 2-3 min before adding to the cheese mixture to achieve a crispy texture.
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(1) I had to eat that 42 oz porterhouse.
(2) Do I find the most reliable sources or what?
(3) May take years. Not reccomended as a murder weapon.
(4) I am SO bitter.
(5) Dont skip this - you've been warned.
(6) Depending on how you feel about your guests.

2 of 3

2009-10-14T20:13:00.000-04:00

The second thing that Maddy and I make best is pasta. You might think that requires three steps

– boil water

– add pasta

– serve after 8 minutes.

Sorry but that would be the instructions for cooking the pasta not making it. Pasta does not grow on trees. Before it got to that box someone actually had to make it. I’m often surprised at how many other people are surprised we make pasta from scratch. The process is not complicated nor does it require expensive or hard to find ingredients. I think the real reason why more people don’t make their own pasta is that it is one of those things that absolutely requires enough advance prep time. For best results minimum prep + cooking time is 90 minutes with no Rachel Ray 30 min versions currently available(1) UNLESS you are making pizza dough which can be done with warm water and quick rising yeast but that’s not important right now.

I feel the same way about making pasta I do about playing chess: I can teach you how to do it simply and you can spend the rest of your life perfecting the art. Since 90% of the time I make the same pasta with Maddy let’s stick to basic pasta noodles(2) and meatballs.

HOMEMADE PASTA DOUGH

2 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. water
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour and rest of ingredients. Mix about 2 minutes with spoon; stir in enough flour to make a soft dough; knead about 20 times until smooth and not sticky, adding more flour is necessary. Cover with towel and let rest for 30 minutes. Makes 1 pound pasta dough.

If you do not have a Kitchenaid Standmixer(3) or similar with the fancy dough hook I recommend doing this whole process by hand. If you do have one good for you. I’m not at all jealous. The secret to this is to make the very wet version of the dough using only 1 cup of flour then add more flour a little at a time until it becomes not sticky at all. I find most times we wind up using around 2 cups of flour. This whole process is perfect for kids. It’s basically mixing a bunch of stuff in a bowl. I let Maddy do almost everything in the beginning when we’re adding ingredients so I can do most of the kneading of the dough. I let Maddy help with kneading as well but I find it requires more arm strength and bigger hands than she has.

Once you have a ball of dough you’re happy with put a tiny amount of oil on your hands and hold the ball of dough quickly so that the oil just coats the outside a little. Then put it in the bowl with a towel over it and leave it for at least 30 min. I recommend 1 hour if you have the time.

During that hour its time to make the meatballs. I like Bison. I’ve never met one personally but they taste good. The meat is lighter than beef and I find the consistency to be better especially for meatballs. You can find Bison in your local grocer by the beef. According to www.mobisonassoc.org “The American Heart Association recommends bison meat for a heart healthy diet due to its low fat and cholesterol content. Buffalo is high in protein, iron, selenium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins B6 and B12.”(4)

BISON MEATBALLS:

½ lb ground bison

Breadcrumbs

Oregano

Vegetable or Corn oil

Tomato Sauce

Flatten the meat on a plate and cover with breadcrumbs (around ¼ cup). Knead the meat until the breadcrumbs are totally absorbed by the meat. Flatten the meat again and add a handful (1 ½ tablespoons???) of oregano and mix into the meat. Form into meatball shapes / sizes of your liking. Coat a medium pan with oil and heat over medium-high heat. Flash fry the meatballs enough to cook the outsides but not all the way through (about 3 min turning often). Then place meatballs in small pot with tomato sauce. Cover and cook over low heat for 30 min or until JUST cooked all the way through.(5)

After an hour it’s time to roll/cut the pasta. I suggest you invest in a pasta roller. Ours was around $40(6) . I put wax paper down under the roller and flour on the wax paper to keep it not-sticky. Take the dough ball and dust lightly with flour before pressing into a flat disc sized shape. Then cut the disk into quarters. Set the roller to the largest number and crank the dough through. Then close the setting on the roller 1 and crank through again. Do this one time for each setting until the dough is a long very flat rectangle. Repeat this process until you have 4 flat rectangles. Cut each rectangle in half (or you will have 3 foot long noodles) and run it through the cutter side of your roller. I find that about 50% of the noodles aren’t cut perfectly by the machine and I still have to pull them apart by hand. You may want to put a small amount of flour on the cut noodles to prevent them from sticking as well.

Maddy helps by turning the crank on the roller while I feed the dough through. This can be an exercise in patience because she can’t always do it as fast as I would like and the crank is designed to come out which it does inexplicably all too often. There are always scraps of dough not being used after the noodles are cut and I give them to her to play with.

Once you have your cut noodles drop them in batches in boiling water for no more than 2 minutes(7) . This is where the art part comes in because depending on how much flour you used, the humidity where you are and other random things the cooking time will vary. Take each batch of noodles out and put them in a strainer with a nice splash of olive oil on them. Then add the next batch as its ready with more oil. Once all the noodles are done toss to distribute the oil before transferring to a bowl for serving.

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(1) It wouldn’t surprise me if someone in her empire is currently working on a genetically engineered dough that rises/sets instantly on her quest to have her face printed on every product on every shelf in every grocery in the universe

(2) Notice the clever omission of the type of pasta noodles. Most people think spaghetti naturally but I prefer linguine simply because I find it easier to cut out of my pasta roller.

(3) I do not have one so if you are not using yours feel free to leave it on my doorstep in the middle of the night or if you are my wife and are looking for gift suggestions…

(4) And how can we NOT trust the Missouri Bison Association

(5) Please don’t do this on high heat for a long time and turn them into molten rocks – that’s just sad.

(6) Minus the required 20% from a certain store that carries everything for your bed your bath and beyond.

(7) If you cook your noodles the same 8 minutes as dried pasta the terrorists win.

For The Soup Of It

2009-10-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

I encourage Maddy to be creative and explore different flavors and ingredients. I had hoped by doing this Maddy would be more open to eating new things. This has been an unmitigated failure. So much so that Maddy often expects to help make the food but not be required to eat any of it. Interesting quandary for me as I don’t want to say to her that she shouldn’t help with dinner prep (especially if I know I’ll be using a new cooking technique I want to share) simply because she doesn’t want to eat said food. It is important for me to remember that Maddy is still 5 and that her version of creative isn’t always a successful meal. This is most evident when Maddy wants to make what she calls soup.

According to dictionary.com the noun soup is defined as:
-a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, or vegetables with various added ingredients.

According to Maddy the noun soup is defined as:
-stuff + water mixed in a bowl.

Nothing about her soup is edible in any way. The last iteration was: water, wheat bread, celery seed, garlic powder and salt.

This is where as a parent I am torn between encouragement and honesty. I want to say “that’s nasty get it out of my face” but when the moment arises I find myself saying “Great Maddy I’m happy you made soup……again”. I think I’ll find a good soup recipe we can make together so I’ll have more of a base to stand up to my 5 year old next time she makes her “soup” and say “that’s great – but not as good as the soup we made together.”

The Big 3

2009-10-05T16:13:00.000-04:00

According to Schoolhouse Rocks, “3 is the magic number”. I believe the number 3 has many powers. In a joke there is always 3 (the first 2 are set up and the 3rd is always the punch line)(1) . The same has been true in my cooking with Maddy. Although we like to cook a lot of different things there are really three things that Maddy and I do best.

Today I am going to talk about the first of our cooking trinity:

PANCAKES.

Pancakes rock. They are without a doubt my all time favorite breakfast food. As a matter of fact I don’t even eat breakfast as often as I should and that all changes if pancakes are on the menu.

Pancakes are a great thing to make with kids:

They are quick to make and tend to produce a big mess.
If it’s your turn to watch them on a weekend morning it gives you something to do other than watch cartoons.(2)
They are one of the rare foods it is actually acceptable to put chocolate chips in. (3)
They go well with bacon. (4)

Allow me to digress for a moment and shame those parents reading this who serve their kids “Aunt Jemima” or some other pre-packaged syrup-like product. What’s wrong with you? Maple Syrup is an ingredient not a product. The only ingredient in the syrup we give our kids is maple syrup and I call on you to do the same. Yes it’s more expensive but it’s time we stop filling our kids with stuff we can’t pronounce.

I’ve tried to make just about every kind of pancake imaginable and in the end I have settled on one pancake recipe above all others. It is:

RICOTTA CHEESE PANCAKES

1 tablespoon baking powder
½ cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
2/3 cup milk
½ pound Ricotta cheese (low fat or whole milk)

Sift dry ingredients and set aside. Beat egg yolks until lemon colored. Add milk and cheese to egg yolks. Folk in dry ingredients. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture. Cook at once on a hot greased griddle.

You will need 3 bowls. Dry ingredients and egg whites each go into medium sized bowls and the egg yolks into a large bowl. This recipe needs to be followed exactly. So actually sift the darn flour and baking powder and don’t skip this. This is also a fun part for Maddy who uses any excuse to play with flour.

I don't recommend letting little kids try and separate eggs. Egg shell tastes terrible. I let Maddy crack the first egg and hand it to me so she feels like she helped. I do let her help me hold the hand blender to beat the yolks and the whites. Make sure the egg whites go in last and mix the finished batter with a spoon well before dropping on a buttered grill. Put more butter on the grill before each pancake.

Tip: Stack ready pancakes on a plate next to the griddle while you are making them and they will stay hot so you can serve all at once. Makes about 8 pancakes.

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(1) Now I've ruined every joke you will hear for the rest of your life
(2) I still watch cartoons
(3) May be habit forming
(4) What doesn't?

BLOGS ARE STUPID

2009-10-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

For the past several years I have been known to say that Blogs are stupid. In fact I've even said that bloggers are losers who either:

a) Have too much free time and nothing else better to do
b) Are so narcissistic they want everyone to know about everything they do
c) Think they have something to say that is so important that we all need to know about it
d) Think it will advance their careers by blogging about something work related

So you might be asking "why would you write a blog?" and this would be an excellent question.

To understand the answer lets hop in the wayback machine and begin in 1983 when my parents were divorced. After a while my sister and I went to live full time with our mom. Dr. Mom is not much of a chef (and I'm being nice cause I love you mom). I've even heard her say that she became a Dr. so she wouldn't have to learn how to cook. Add to that she is/was a busy Dr. and we didn't often have the stereotypical family dinner from a Rockwell painting. By the time I was in 8th grade it became apparent that if I wanted to eat more than a can of chef boyardee ravioli I was going to have to learn to cook it myself.

In 9th grade I signed up for home economics class and learned a few recipes that became the foundation for my cooking enthusiasm (chicken cordon bleu, veal/chicken parmesan, pancakes, eggs, etc). Suddenly a whole new world was open to me. I started with simple things like omelets (my mom had one of those omelet pans from the 1970's), hamburgers, sandwiches etc but soon learned that making "fancier" items wasn't so much difficult as it was learning some simple techniques (which I found out I could repeat with other dishes). I learned that most things taste better with a good sauce. I learned how to operate the grill and the right/wrong way to grill steaks. Mostly I learned that I love to cook.

By the time I got my driver’s license in 11th grade mom and I had a deal that if I would do the weekly grocery shopping I could buy pretty much anything I wanted. I regularly brought home things like tiger prawns, aged cheeses, Asian spices and other not-the-norm dinner materials.

Then in 1992 I met the love of my life whom I married in 1998. It must be true that we are attracted to people like our parents because like my mom the Mrs. isn’t into cooking much either. In her defense she has become a much better chef over time (partly because we like to cook together) but its certainly not on the top of her "things I like to do" list. To this day I do 90+% of the cooking in our family.

In 2004 the second love of my life was born (Maddy) and soon thereafter I found out how much fun it is to cook with her. She is always asking me to help with dinner or to make cookies (I think that might be more about the cookies though). For the last 5 years Maddy and I have cooked everything imaginable. Some good - some not-as-good but always we have fun doing it.

My issue with cooking is that professional chefs have a system for everything that keeps their kitchen's neat. Lets just say this is not my strongest suit. To the point that the Mrs. started calling me "The Messy Chef" a moniker I wholly embrace. Invite me over to your house and I'll cook a great meal as long as I don’t have to clean it when I'm done. I also figured out that when cooking with kids getting messy is part of the fun. Maddy is always asking me for flour she can play with while we cook and I'm happy to oblige.

So the answer to why I would create a blog even though I think most blogs are stupid is that I want everyone to cook with their kids. It’s a great teaching forum for math (2 teaspoons of this, 1/3 of a cup of that). It’s a great way to bond with your kids. It’s a great way to teach your kids to cook for themselves. It’s just plain great.

I hope that by writing this and sharing my recipes and stories from cooking with Maddy and other kids that you will be inspired to do the same with the kids in your life.

See I told you blogs are stupid.