Soup weather

Tonight's Menu

• Portuguese soup w/sausage, cabbage and potatoes
  

It's been really damp and chilly the past few days here -- perfect soup weather! This is one of my favorite soups for fall and winter. It's not heavy but it really warms you up and is very satisfying. The original recipe made a TON and included kidney beans, which I love but DH and the girl are allergic to. So here's my version:

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound kielbasa or smoked beef sausage, sliced into half-moons
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
about 6 red-skinned new potatoes, cut in chunks
4 cups beef broth
1 cup water
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

In a large soup pot or dutch oven, saute onion and garlic in some olive oil over medium heat until softened and translucent. Add sausage and brown it just a bit. Add cabbage, potatoes, broth, water, ketchup and vinegar to the pot and bring it to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Really yummy and even better the second day!

Stupid easy food for a (small) crowd

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked beef brisket
  
• whole-grain tortilla chips w/bottled salsa
  
• coleslaw
  

Hey, so tomorrow is my birthday and today we had my parents over to celebrate. Which presented a TINY conundrum -- I don't really feel like I should HAVE to cook on my birthday, but throwing that duty to DH kind of stresses him out since he only cooks dinner maybe three times a year. (Which is fine; we divide our labor this way ON PURPOSE because I like to cook. Just not on my birthday.)

So, I wanted to feed everyone, but I didn't want to go to any real TROUBLE about it, you know? Which is why this particular thrown-together dinner was perfect! Ten minutes of work early in the day, and then all I had to do was slice the meat and throw a bunch of stuff on the table. Yay!

For the brisket, I made a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and dry mustard. Just dump and stir -- way easy. I rubbed this all over both sides of the brisket, then put it fat-side-up on a rack in a roasting pan. I filled the bottom of the pan with water, covered it tightly with heavy-duty foil, and stuck it in the oven at around 10:00 a.m., while my coffee was brewing. It cooked unattended at 200 degrees F for about 7 hours, then I uncovered it and boosted the heat up to 400 for about 15 minutes to crisp up the fat. Sliced thinly across the grain, it was fork tender and delicious!

The coleslaw was the usual -- shredded cabbage tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, white vinegar, sugar and celery seeds. I made this earlier in the day, too, and just stuck it in the fridge. Easy!

Here's the timeline for this incredibly easy meal:

• At least 6 hours before serving time, prepare the brisket w/rub and stick it in the oven.
• Make coleslaw and stick that in the fridge.
• Welcome birthday party guests, open presents, play a couple of cutthroat games of In A Pickle and Skip-Bo. (Assuming it's your birthday, that is.)
• 20 minutes before dinnertime, uncover the brisket and turn up the heat for 15 minutes.
• Take brisket out of oven and let rest.
• Break out the coleslaw, chips and salsa.
• Slice the brisket thinly across the grain and serve.
• Follow up with birthday cake, if you can manage it!
  

Memorial Day "picnic"

Tonight's Menu

• bbq pork spareribs
  
• grilled garlic toast
  
• potato-artichoke salad
• coleslaw
  

Okay, so it was too hot to eat outside. But I grilled a lot of stuff! Does that count?

The spareribs were my usual, finished on the grill (meat side down over medium heat for 4 minutes, meat side up and slathered in Carolina-style barbecue sauce for 4 minutes, rest before cutting into riblets).

I grill everything from meat to veggies to fruit, but I think this might have been my first time grilling bread! We had some leftover boule (yes, from the book -- I SWEAR I don't have any relationship with the authors/publisher) so I cut that into half-inch slices, brushed it on both sides with olive oil (LIGHTLY -- you don't want to soak it), and grilled it over high heat until it picked up some grill marks, which didn't take long at all. Then I rubbed a cut garlic clove over both sides of each slice of bread. So easy, yummy and fresh tasting! The girl particulary loved this bread. Of course, she lives on bread, so take that with a grain of salt, maybe.

The salad was my favorite summer salad. It's finally summery enough to serve this again, yay!

And the coleslaw was my usual, except I used savoy cabbage because that's what I had.

Here's the timeline:

• Three and a half hours before serving, rub the ribs with spices and put them in the oven at 325 degrees F, TIGHTLY covered with foil.
• Make potato salad and coleslaw after putting ribs in oven; put both salads in fridge.
• Thirty minutes before serving, light grill and pull ribs out of oven.
• Grill ribs as described above.
• Remove ribs from grill; cover with foil and let rest.
• Grill bread and remove.
• Cut ribs into riblets.
• Pull salads out of fridge.
• Serve it up!

A (mostly) make-ahead meal

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked beef brisket
  
• fresh bread
  
• tangy coleslaw
• grilled apricots
  

My day today was such that my afternoon and early evening were insanely busy, but my morning was relatively calm. So 90% of the work for this meal was done well before the after-school frenzy, and I was still able to get dinner on the table at a decent time. YAY for mostly make-ahead meals!

The brisket was my usual. I made a dry rub of sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard, dried oregano, salt and freshly ground pepper. Then I rubbed it all over the brisket on both sides and put the meat fat-side up in a roasting pan. You could put it on a rack but I no longer have one, so I wad up some tin foil into balls and line the bottom of the pan with those, then place the meat on top. Works great! Add a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, then cover tightly with heavy-duty foil.

The cooking time and temperature can vary quite a bit, depending on the size of your hunk o' meat, the amount of time you have to work with, and how you like your meat cooked. We like a very tender, melt-in-your-mouth brisket with crispy fat; my roast was about 2.5 to 3 pounds, and I had all day, really. So I cooked this at 225 degrees F for about five hours, then uncovered it and boosted the heat up to 400 for 15 minutes or so to get the fat nice and crispy. Then I let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it thinly across the grain. You could do this same size roast for maybe two hours at 375, as long as there's water in the pan and it's tightly covered. It won't be quite as tender, but you can make up for that by slicing it nice and thin.

The bread was plain boule from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I am STILL loving that book! The authors have a blog where they share recipes, too!

For the coleslaw, I whisked together 1/4 cup each of sugar and apple cider vinegar until the sugar was mostly dissolved, then whisked in a tablespoon of canola oil and about a teaspoon of celery seed. Pour it over half a head of shredded cabbage, toss to coat, and stick it in the fridge for several hours or overnight. I like this version of coleslaw over the creamy mayonnaise type when I'm serving a fairy rich, fatty meat -- the acidity really helps cut the richness.

The apricots could not have been easier -- just cut a few in half, make sure to oil your grill grate, and grill them cut-side down until they pick up some grill marks and get SLIGHTLY soft. Don't overcook these or they will go mushy. I really like apricots with spiced beef -- something about that flavor combination just works for me!

Okay, so here was the timeline I followed:

1. Make the bread in the morning (or the day before)(or just buy some damn bread, already!).
2. Prepare the brisket and stick it in the oven (I did this five and a half hours before I planned to serve it -- see above).
3. Make the coleslaw and stick it in the fridge (you could do this the night before).
4. Thirty minutes before serving, uncover the brisket and turn up the heat to crisp the fat.
5. Wrap the bread in foil and slice the apricots in half, removing pits.
   
6. Light the grill for indirect heat (for my grill this means two burners on, one off).
7. Put the foil-wrapped bread on the unlit burner to warm it as the grill heats.
8. When the grill is hot, take brisket out of oven, re-cover and let rest.
9. Put apricots on grill; remove bread from grill.
10. Slice bread and re-wrap in foil to keep warm.
11. Take apricots off grill, cover to keep warm.
12. Slice brisket and put on serving platter.
13. Remove coleslaw from fridge and give it another toss or two.
14. Soup's on!
    

One of the few meals everyone will eat

Tonight's Menu

• pork spare ribs, spiced & sauced
  
• homemade cornbread
• coleslaw
  

Seriously, this is one of the few meals I make that everyone in the family will happily eat (with no substitutions of cheese for meat or mundane vegetables for the coleslaw). It's one of those meals that require a bit of advance preparation, but then very little actual work at mealtime. Everyone's happy!

The spare ribs (which are cheap at my local grocery, and very few meats are these days) were rubbed with a mixture of brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, smoked paprika, dried oregano and garam masala. Then I stuck them in the oven, in a pan tightly covered with heavy-duty foil, for about 3 hours at 300 degrees F. I usually cook them longer on a lower heat with a bit of liquid, but they tend to fall off the bone when I do that and I wanted these to have some structural integrity so I could finish them on the grill. Which I did! I put them flesh-side down over high heat for about 4 minutes, then bone-side down over low heat for maybe 7 minutes, slathered on both sides with bottled Carolina-style (think mustard-based) barbecue sauce. They came out tender and extremely delicious, if I do say so myself!

I've already given you the recipe for the cornbread. I swear this isn't much more trouble than those "just add water" mixes. This particular cornbread was leftover from last week. It freezes really well! To reheat, I drizzled it with a bit of water and then stuck it in the oven, tightly covered, for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. It tasted freshly baked! Honest!

The coleslaw was my usual -- half a head of green cabbage, shredded, tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, white vinegar, sugar and celery seed. Even the girl will eat this, and she doesn't like ANYTHING.

And now for something COMPLETELY different

Tonight's Menu

• grilled mild Italian sausages
  
• homemade egg noodles
  
• buttery green cabbage
  

Dudes! I made homemade pasta for the first time ever! I am a little excited about it, so we're going to have to discuss it first, if you don't mind. I've been wanting a manual pasta machine for AGES and I finally got one last week. It's a really cheap-ass model, which may have been a mistake, but oh well. Homemade pasta! It's all good!

I used a recipe from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It was super easy: just combine two cups of all-purpose flour (I used unbleached), one teaspoon of salt (I used fine sea salt) and three eggs in a food processor until it forms a ball. Knead until smooth, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour. Then divide the dough into 4-6 pieces and work these pieces through your pasta machine one at a time until they're as thin as you want them. Cut into shapes, dry, then boil in salted water for 3-5 minutes. Easy, right?

WRONG, if you have a crappy pasta machine, which I apparently do. The first batch was a disaster -- it stuck to the rollers and made a godawful mess. Eventually I got the hang of it but it required adding a LOT of flour to the dough and I was worried that the end result would be super tough noodles. I pressed on, though -- making about five pasta sheets, cutting them into 5- to 6-inch lengths and then cutting those into 1/4-inch strips. I was going for a basic egg noodle kind of thing. I shook off all the excess flour I could and then spread them on my kitchen counter to dry for about an hour before cooking.

They actually came out really good! They were super tasty and the kids both had seconds. Next time I'll roll them a little thinner -- I was so aggravated by the sticky roller issue that I only did them to number 4 on the dial, and they thickened a bit while cooking, so the end result was vaguely dumpling-like. But still very tasty! Not bad for a first effort, I think. I'm excited about experimenting with this!

I cooked the sausages inside because it was WICKED windy/chilly outside today. First I simmered them in water for 15 minutes, as usual, then I browned them off on my beloved IKEA grill pan. You can just brown them in a skillet if you don't have a grill pan, or broil them in the oven until the skins are nice and crispy.

For the cabbage, I chopped half a head of green cabbage and sauteed it in a skillet with three tablespoons of butter. I had the heat up fairly high because I wanted the cabbage to caramelize and pick up some color. When it was just the way I wanted it, I seasoned it with salt and pepper, turned off the heat, and kept it covered until serving time. It was tender, buttery and delicious! I loves me some cabbage, y'all.

Typical weeknight meal

Tonight's Menu

• spiced pork tenderloin
  
• whole-wheat couscous
• sweet and sour red cabbage
  

I'm feeling MUCH better today so tonight I made what is pretty much a typical meal for us.

The pork tenderloin recipe is here. It's pretty easy and a nice "bridge" entree between cold-weather oven meals and warm-weather grilling meals.

The couscous was just made according to the package directions. The final vote is in for our family on the couscous: the boys prefer it to quinoa, while the girls have the opposite preference. Go figure!

The sweet and sour cabbage is a favorite of mine, but it's been ages since I've made it. It's really pretty easy, though it does require some babysitting while it cooks.

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage

1 small onion, halved lengthwise then sliced cross-wise
1 Tbs canola or other vegetable oil
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded (ours was from the CSA)
1/2 cup water
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 Tbs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

In a large skillet, saute onion in oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, cover pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender. Uncover pan, turn heat up to high until all liquid has evaporated.

Soup weather

Tonight's Menu

• Portuguese soup
  
• beer bread
  

It was damp, foggy and generally yucky out today, which gave me the perfect opportunity to make something I had been craving for a while -- this delicious sausage soup! It's been forever since I've made it. The original recipe calls for potatoes but I didn't have any, so I substituted kohlrabi from the CSA instead. It really made no difference at all in the taste of the soup -- it was delicious as always!

The beer bread was leftover from a couple of nights ago, just wrapped in foil and reheated in the toaster oven. Yum!

Skillet supper

Tonight's Menu

• sausage and potato skillet with cabbage and onions
  
• green salad "bar"
  

This was one of those "throw it together" suppers. I honestly had no idea what I was going to make until about five minutes before it was time to start dinner. Thank goodness for a well-stocked refrigerator!

I had some smoked beef sausage -- the kind that comes in a big ring, usually found near the kielbasa in the supermarket -- so I sliced some of that up and tossed it in a big skillet over medium-high heat with a little bit of canola oil. When the sausage started to brown, I added one small yellow onion cut into chunks and maybe 6-8 very small red-skinned potatoes cut into quarters. Once the onions and potatoes had picked up a little color I added about a cup of chopped green cabbage (you could use any kind, really) and snipped in some fresh rosemary. I stirred this around for a bit before grinding on some fresh pepper (I didn't add salt because the sausage was salty), then I added a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan, covered it, and turned the heat down to low to let it all simmer until the potatoes were tender (this took about 15 minutes).

This is one of my favorite comfort meals -- sausage, potatoes, onions and whatever veggies are lying around, all tossed together in a skillet. It's definitely not DH's favorite, but guess what, y'all? The boy child had THIRDS of this! He was crazy about it! I'm pretty sure he wouldn't even TOUCH it the last time I made it, but that was quite a while ago. Kids! They keep you guessing, that's for sure!

The salad tonight was just green leaf lettuce, shredded carrots, and sliced cucumber (out of season, and you have no idea how it pains me to buy it, but DH and the kids insisted).

Using up the CSA veggies (again!)

Tonight's Menu

• oven-roasted pork chops and sweet potatoes
  
• buttery cabbage
  

We only get a CSA share every other week (our choice) and we end up using most of it pretty quickly, but there are always a couple of long-storing items left over right before the next pickup day. Tonight we still had a lovely head of plain green cabbage and a couple of sweet potatoes in the fridge, so I threw together this meal.

What I did was take a couple of sweet potatoes and cut them into lengthwise wedges. I didn't bother to peel them first or anything, just cut them up and chucked them into a foil-lined roasting pan. Then I threw in four nice, thick boneless pork chops. I drizzled everything with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then snipped some fresh rosemary onto the chops. The pan went into the oven uncovered at 400 degrees for about an hour, until the potatoes were tender and the chops were cooked through (with crispy fat around the edges -- unhealthy, but SO YUMMY).

For the cabbage, I cored a small head and cut it into wedges (it yielded about 8). I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet and carefully laid the cabbage wedges in cut-side down, not moving them until they had browned on the bottom. At that point I flipped them so the OTHER cut side was down and let them get nice and brown on that side, too. (Don't sweat it if they fall apart a little bit -- they'll still taste good!) Then I reduced the heat to low, added a couple of tablespoons of water, covered the pan and let them simmer for just a minute or two before turning off the heat altogether. They sat, covered, until the chops and potatoes were done, and I seasoned them with salt and pepper before serving.

This was a super easy but delicious meal, and a great way to use up some winter veggies!

Pork roast redux

Tonight's Menu

• BBQ pork sandwiches
  
• tangy apple coleslaw
  

It was leftovers night here at Chez Badger, y'all. We have a TON of pork roast left from last night, so I took a bit of that, heated it in the microwave with some bottled Carolina-style barbecue sauce, and served it on buns with sliced onions. Yummy and fast!

The coleslaw recipe is here. I used savoy cabbage because that's what I had (half a head left over from last night's saute).

I probably should have rustled up some chips or pickles or something to go with this, but I couldn't be bothered. Leftovers night = lazy night, yo.

Pork roast

Tonight's Menu

• cider-braised pork roast
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• sauteed cabbage w/mustard
  

Oh, people. If you're wondering where I've been the past couple of weeks, I'll tell you: I've been hobbling around with a sprained ankle! It hasn't been much fun, to say the least. DH has been taking dinner duty while I've been recuperating, and while he certainly made a good effort, he ... well, he doesn't really cook. So, er, there hasn't been much to report as far as our dinners go. But FINALLY I'm off the crutches and able to be up and around long enough to cook a decent dinner, so that's what I did tonight!

The pork roast was a ginormous bone-in pork butt. You could also use shoulder or something of that nature -- basically a big ol' hunk of well-marbled pork. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and then browned it on the stovetop in an enameled cast-iron dutch oven. Once it was browned on all sides I took it off the heat, poured in a 12-ounce bottle of hard cider (Hornsby's Draft) and just a bit of water, then arranged the following around the roast: four big sprigs of fresh rosemary, several sprigs of fresh thyme, a couple of bay leaves (all from my herb garden), a chopped onion and a handful of whole peppercorns. Then I covered the pot and stuck the whole thing in the oven at 225 degrees F for about six hours. The house smelled AMAZING while it cooked and it was soooo tender!

When the roast was done I removed it from the pan (in pieces; it was falling apart!), shredded it and set it aside. Then I poured the pan juices through a mesh strainer to remove all the herbs and whatnot, poured the juices back into the dutch oven, and used flour to thicken it all into a delicious gravy on the stovetop. SO good! It didn't even need added seasoning thanks to all those herbs.

For the cabbage, I just chopped half a head of savoy cabbage (that's the crinkly one) into chunks, then sauteed it in a skillet with a couple tablespoons of butter until it was nice and wilted. Then I seasoned with salt and pepper and stirred in maybe a teaspoon of whole-grain mustard. Easy and delicious!

Okay, can we talk about mashed potatoes for a minute, y'all? Longtime readers know that I tend to skimp when it comes to this dish. I don't like the nasty powdered kind, but I LOVE Ore-Ida's frozen mashed potatoes that you heat in the microwave and then season to taste. Well, suddenly I can't find them anymore! All the store had this week were these new "steamers", which are just cubed, peeled potatoes that steam in a bag in the microwave. You still have to add milk, butter, seasonings, etc., and actually mash them yourself. I went ahead and bought them anyway, but it was hardly worth it. They were tasty, but didn't save me much in the way of work. I guess I'll be making mine from scratch from here on out. Curses!

Oh well, I guess I'll deal. I'm just SO GLAD to be back in the kitchen!

More ribs!

Tonight's Menu

• baby back ribs
  
• chili potatoes
  
• tangy apple coleslaw
  

Why yes, ribs ARE all we ever eat around here! Thank you for asking! (Hee!)

These were pork baby back ribs; I'm not sure of the weight but it was a rack of 14 ribs. I rubbed them on both sides with a mixture of brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard, dried oregano, salt, pepper and a wee bit of garam masala. Then I stuck them on a rack in a roasting pan (I had to cut the rack of ribs in half to make them fit) with a bit of water on the bottom, covered the pan tightly with heavy-duty foil, and popped them in the oven at 300 degrees F for two hours. I finished them on the grill like this: meat-side down over high heat for about five minutes, then flipped to meat-side up and basted with bottled Memphis-style barbecue sauce. As soon as I basted them, I turned off one of the burners on my grill, turned the other two burners to low, and put the ribs on the unlit burner for about 10-15 minutes, just to bake the sauce onto the ribs. They were tender and delicious, and honestly, they probably would have been fine without the sauce. What can I say, I like messy ribs!

For the potatoes, I just cut some unpeeled baking potatoes into chunks, tossed them in a foil-lined pan with some EVOO, and sprinkled them with salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic powder. I popped those in the oven at 450 degrees F for 30-35 minutes (this was after the ribs came out), stirring every 10 minutes or so, until they were nice and crispy. Yum!

The coleslaw was kind of an experiment. I wasn't in the mood for my usual creamy coleslaw, so I went the vinegar route instead. I actually paid attention to what the heck I was doing so I could write this one in recipe form for a change! Yay, me!

Badger's Tangy Apple Coleslaw

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1-2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and shredded
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. canola or other mild vegetable oil

Toss the shredded cabbage and apples together in a medium bowl. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl or glass measuring cup and pour over the cabbage mixture; toss to coat. Chill for at least 2-4 hours. Can be made the night before. Serves about 4-6 people.

This was way yummy and made a nice change from my usual coleslaw. The vinegary dressing was a great complement to the richness of the ribs!

Rushing the season

Tonight's Menu

• pork chops with apples & onions in a cider mustard cream sauce
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• sauteed cabbage with bacon
  

Oh people, it's not even quite September yet and I am SO ready for fall! I can't help it; it's been a loooong summer here in central Texas. I was in the mood for fall food tonight, and nothing says fall to me like pork, apples and cabbage.

So, the pork! I had some really large but thin bone-in chops that I just seasoned with salt and pepper and then browned on both sides in a heavy skillet with a little bit of oil. I removed the chops to a plate and covered them with foil to keep warm, then dumped half a Granny Smith apple (peeled and sliced relatively thin) and half a sweet yellow onion (also sliced thin, lengthwise) into the skillet. I tossed them around to pick up some color, then briefly removed the pan from the heat so I could pour in about 10 ounces of hard cider. (You could also use regular non-alcoholic apple cider, in which case there's no danger of a flareup and thus no need to take the pan off the heat.)

I put the pan back on the heat and left it to simmer away, uncovered, until the onions and apples were tender and the cider had evaporated by about half. Then I stirred in one tablespoon of whole-grain mustard (because I like the seeds) and slowly added about half a cup of heavy cream. I let it bubble away for just a minute before taking it off the heat.

The idea is to serve the apple-onion sauce over the chops, but I put it on the side because I knew the kids would never eat it that way. And yes, they are still free to Make (Their) Own Damn Dinner(s) if they don't like what I'm serving, but they both DO like pork chops and it's no skin off my nose to put the sauce on the side.

The mashed potatoes were my usual frozen Ore-Ida, jazzed up with milk, butter, salt and pepper. I KNOW! But for a processed food this one doesn't contain too much scary crap, and I just HATE making mashed potatoes from scratch.

For the cabbage, I just browned off some chopped bacon in a skillet and then dumped in a bunch of chopped cabbage. Stir, stir, stir until the cabbage is tender, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Easy!

Easy dinner

Tonight's Menu

• grilled boneless pork chops
  
• grilled cabbage wedges
  
• green salad "bar"
  

This was super easy and really good, if a tad bit boring.

All I did with the pork chops was sprinkle them on both sides with Jane's Krazy Salt and some garlic pepper, then grilled them 5 minutes per side over high heat (they were a little thick -- you could knock that back a bit for thinner chops). STUPID easy, y'all.

For the cabbage, I halved a head of green cabbage lengthwise, reserving one half for coleslaw tomorrow. The other half I just cored and cut into four wedges. I brushed the cut sides with EVOO and sprinkled them with salt and pepper, then cooked them exactly the same way, and at the same time, as the pork chops. They did tend to fall apart just a little bit when I turned them, but not so much that I lost them down the grill slats or anything. This was really tasty and easy and I'd definitely make cabbage this way again!

Tonight's salad bar was mixed leaf lettuces with sliced carrots, sliced cucumbers, and wedged tomatoes. Have I mentioned that I'm getting totally BORED with the salad bar thing? The kids are still eating it so I'm still making it, but I'm also making all these awesome CSA veggies and no one is eating them but me! Argh. It's not like the salad isn't HEALTHY or anything, so I don't want to press the point, but I'm pretty much OVER green salads right now, y'all.

Ribs on the grill

Tonight's Menu

• sweet & spicy grilled pork spareribs
  
• grilled potato-onion packets
  
• coleslaw
  

I've never figured out how to make ribs 100% on the grill without drying them out or undercooking them. So while these ribs were FINISHED on the grill, they were STARTED in the oven.

What I did was mix up some brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, sea salt and my secret ingredient -- garam masala. This is a blend of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander and other spices that's used frequently in Indian food, and it gives a nice, sweet-spicy kick to dry rubs and marinades. I rubbed this spice mixture on both sides of a rack of pork spareribs, then put them in a rack in a roasting pan. After adding a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, I covered it tightly with foil and stuck it in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Then I mixed up a wet sauce -- ketchup, honey, cayenne, sea salt and more garam masala, along with the juice and grated zest of half an orange. I put the meat on the grill over LOW heat for about 10 minutes per side, basting liberally with this mixture. The ribs came out sticky, tender and delicious! And fortunately, they didn't dry out on the grill. I think they would have over a higher heat, though.

The potato packet was my usual -- red potatoes sliced thin, along with a thinly sliced sweet yellow onion, then alternating layers on a sheet of heavy foil with some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and blobs of butter. Fold it all into a packet, folding the ends in, and place it on the upper rack of your grill (if you have one, otherwise put it over an unlit burner or a pan of water) for about 30 minutes. They come out SO sweet and yummy! This time the potato (one GIANT one) was from our CSA share.

The coleslaw was made with savoy cabbage this time around, just for something different. I still made the dressing from mayo, vinegar and sugar with a bit of celery seed.

It is almost too hot to grill here already, y'all! I can't stand to sit out there and babysit the meat anymore. The back of our house, where the grill is, faces north and gets NO shade in the evenings this time of year. Oh no! What am I going to do?! It's to hot to use the oven much, either. I forsee a lot of salads in our future!

Slow-cooked comfort food

Tonight's Menu

• beef short ribs in the slow-cooker
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• sauteed cabbage
  

We had some wicked thunder and hail storms roll through here last night, leaving us with mostly overcast skies and slightly cooler temperatures today. As luck would have it, I had bought some beef short ribs this week and decided to fire up the ol' crockpot for some comfort food!

We love our usual short rib recipe (found here) so much that I couldn't bring myself to deviate from it. Except I sort of did anyway. I didn't bother to dredge the ribs in seasoned flour before browning -- I just sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper and browned 'em off naked. And I was out of chili sauce, so I substituted ketchup. I also laid the sliced onions on top of the ribs and poured the rest of the mixed-together sauce ingredients on top, instead of adding the onions to the sauce. But other than that, it was the same as usual, and every bit as delicious!

The mashed potatoes were frozen Ore-Ida, doctored up with some butter, salt and pepper. Shut up.

For the cabbage, all I did was take half a head of plain old green cabbage, core it, chop it into chunks, then saute in a mixture of EVOO and butter until it was tender. I let it get a bit of caramelization for extra flavor. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dump into a serving bowl. Easy!

Tomorrow it's back to grilling. Oh yes, best beloveds.

No corned beef here

Tonight's Menu

• Guinness roast beef
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• buttered cabbage
  

I literally dreamed up this beef recipe. At night, while I was asleep. I know. I'm a freak.

What I did was take a big ol' beef roast (I think it was either chuck or shoulder), season it with salt and pepper, and brown it on both sides in a skillet. Then I whomped it in a baking pan with about a tablespoon of whole peppercorns, one chopped onion, three large bay leaves and a bottle of Guinness stout. Cover, cook in the oven at 250 degrees F for about 4-5 hours, then remove from oven. Take the beef out of the pan (it will be falling apart, if you're lucky) and set it aside to keep warm. Then pour the pan juices through a mesh strainer into a saucepan, discarding the onion, peppercorns and bay leaves. Whisk a bit of flour and water into the pan juices, bring to a boil, and cook until the gravy has thickened. Serve alongside beef.

The mashed potatoes were Ore-Ida frozen, jazzed up with butter, salt and pepper. I know, my Irish ancestors are all rolling in their graves.

The cabbage was half a head of savoy, chopped into large-ish chunks, then steamed in a pan on the stove (just add a couple of tablespoons of water to the cabbage, then cover and simmer) until crisp-tender. Then I tossed in a big knob of butter, some salt and freshly ground pepper. Then I poured myself a Guinness and forgot that I'd left the stove on. Heh. It didn't burn, thank goodness, but it got a bit more caramelized than I was really going for. Oh well, it was still good.

I don't usually talk about dessert on here, but you all have to bear witness to the degree that I half-assed this thing. I knew I should make SOME sort of special dessert, it being St. Patrick's Day and all, but I didn't want to mess with cookies or cake or anything like that. Besides, by the time I thought of dessert, the meat was already in the oven on low heat so I couldn't have baked anything anyway. I had just about decided to run to the corner drugstore and pray that they had a box of lime Jello (what? it's green!) when I remembered some no-bake cookies that I used to make for my kids when they were little. I knew they involved oatmeal somehow, and oatmeal = Irish! It does! Shut up!

Anyway, I found the recipe! (If that link doesn't work, search Allrecipes.com for Carolina Delights.) So I made them. I couldn't even be arsed to make them into drop cookies; I just dumped the pot of goo into a 9x13-inch baking dish (which made for REALLY thin bar cookies -- you might want to go with an 8- or 9-inch square pan instead if you try this at home).

For an extra measure of Irish-osity, I drizzled them with an icing made from powdered sugar, milk and green food coloring. Oh hell yeah, I did.

If I were Catholic, I'd have to go to confession over this, y'all. But I'm not, so I believe I'll just have another Guinness!

Slainte!

Another (delicious!) take on cabbage

Tonight's Menu

• sauteed rainbow trout fillets
  
• mixed-grain rice
  
• savoy cabbage with bacon and mustard
  

Yes, I know. I'm talking about cabbage again. But hey! Don't run away! This time there was BACON!

All I did was lop off about half a head of savoy cabbage and cut it into 1-inch wide strips (more or less). Then I chopped up a few thick strips of bacon and cooked them in a large skillet until they were not quite crisp and had rendered out quite a bit of fat. I tossed in the cabbage, stirring until it had wilted down a bit and the bacon had crisped up. I ended up having not QUITE enough bacon fat to really wilt down the cabbage, so I added just a few tablespoons of water to get some braising/steaming action happening. When the cabbage was tender, I stirred in a teensy amount of stone-ground mustard (like maybe half a teaspoon) and some freshly ground pepper. I didn't add salt because both the bacon and mustard were salty.

This was absolutely DELICIOUS, I am not kidding. You couldn't really taste the mustard at all, but it gave the dish a nice depth and provided some acidity to balance out the richness of the bacon. The crinkly texture of the savoy cabbage (as opposed to my usual plain green cabbage) was a perfect vehicle for the crunchy mustard seeds and crispy bits of bacon. SO GOOD! I will make it this way again for sure.

The trout fillets were just seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper, then sauteed in a large skillet with some EVOO (that's extra virgin olive oil, for those who don't know). I started them skin-side down and then flipped them halfway through. They really only take about five minutes total, if that.

The grain thing was something new. My favorite skincare company, DHC, also sells a few high-end food items and when I placed my last order for moisturizer I decided to give the multi-grain rice a try. It was kind of a pain, actually -- you have to soak it for 30 minutes, then cook it for 15. Not all of the water got absorbed so I let it sit, covered, for a while and then ended up draining it. It was actually really good, though! It has barley and rye berries in addition to a couple of different types of rice, and it has a lot more flavor and texture than plain rice. With a little salt and pepper, it makes a really tasty side dish. DH even liked it, and the boy had multiple helpings!

It was SO cold and windy and nasty today, but I'm hoping this is winter's last hurrah. I have a bunch more GRILLING to do, yo! Stay tuned!

Eat your cabbage

Tonight's Menu

• grilled NY strip steaks
  
• chuffed potatoes
  
• steamed cabbage
  

Super easy dinner tonight, y'all.

I had some nice, thick NY strip steaks that I just seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, then grilled over high heat on my IKEA grill pan. Since the boys like their steak cooked medium, I stuck theirs into the oven for a couple of minutes at 350 degrees to finish them off. They came out tender, juicy and SO yummy. We haven't had much beef the past couple of weeks and I think we were all going through withdrawal!

The chuffed potatoes were the usual -- small red potatoes parboiled for 15 minutes, then drained and chuffed up in a hot pan with butter until golden brown and crispy on the outside.

I usually saute the cabbage, but I had two burners going already so I did things a little differently this time. I just cut about half a head of green cabbage into roughly 1-inch chunks, stuck them in a bowl with a bit of water, covered with plastic wrap and steamed them in the microwave. Then I tossed them with a bit of butter (REAL butter), salt and freshly ground pepper. The cabbage doesn't caramelize this way, but it does come out really tender and sweet.

I swear, I could eat cabbage at every meal. It's so incredibly cheap and believe it or not, it's REALLY good for you. For real. Common green cabbage is packed with fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, B vitamins, calcium, potassium and all sorts of cancer-fighting phytonutrients. It's a nutritional powerhouse, yo!