Athletes

Baseball food

It's time to take the kids to the park for a healthy dose of unhealthy-ness. Here in DC we have the greatest hot dog on earth, the half-smoke. For those uninformed, the City Paper did a great story on half-smokes a couple of years ago.

I went to opening day in DC today and Dippin' Dots, my girls' reason for going to games were nowhere to be found. But they did have 20 different gelatos. Go figure. That and Peroni on tap. Maybe the Nats could at least beat the Italian national soccer team...in baseball.

Latest Food TV obsession is Chopped. My 10 year old daughter turned me onto it. Which is odd. I'm sure a band is next.

Have some Easter leftovers to deal with so there should be some soups coming soon,

Remnants

Leftovers. Great if you can get another dinner out of them, but if you can't - do lunch. I had some roasted chicken that needed consumption and was out of bread except hot dog buns.

I'm not a big fan of lobster rolls because I don't like lobster. I prefer my crustaceans to be of the Maryland Blue variety. But my wife likes them so I know what they are. Since I only had a hot dog bun, I decided on a quick, poor man's version with chicken. For flavor I looked around the fridge and found a half stick of pepperoni from the last time we made pizza and made a couple of thin vertical slices; some cheddar, cornichons, mayo and yellow mustard. Usually I use dijon, but I reckoned the pepperoni would be enough of a kick. For the younger set, try a milder salami.

Lay the chicken, salami and grated cheese on a hot dog bun and put it in the oven onder the broiler for a couple of minutes. When cheese is melted, remove, slap on the condiments and enjoy.

Inspiration and influences

I've had a few people ask me what my influences are beyond the few cookbooks I've mentioned. I guess if I had to choose a singular influencing factor, it would be this.

Recession recipe #1

So I've been trying to spend less money at the store over the last few months as my 401(k) has become a 001(k). I honestly never paid that much attention to what I was buying cost-wise...I just replaced what we'd gone through the week before. Since it was time to shake up the menu as all four of us were getting into a rut, I decided to take the opportunity to pare down the grocery budget. You know what's cheap? Beans. Lentils, black, black eyed, split pea, etc. The beef and barley soup from earlier benefited from this new found frugality as well.

Now for the recipe: Split Pea and Ham Soup. (Replace the chicken stock with veggie stock and leave out the ham for the non-carnivore version.)

We eat chicken at least once a week and as you know, buying a whole chicken is usually cheaper than the sum of it's parts. Since I can't give the bones to the dog, I have a big freezer bag of chicken bones and parts in the freezer and when it gets full, I make chicken stock.

A chicken carcass. I love the word carcass.
6 cups of water
Celery
Onion
Carrots
Bay leaf
Salt

Combine, boil and simmer for 4 - 5 hours. Should yield 4 cups of stock.

Refrigerate or freeze the stock depending on when you are going to use it.

For the soup:

4 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb split peas
Fresh thyme
1 small vidalia onion
3/4 cup cubed ham. More if you want it
s & p

Wash and pick through spit peas.
In a stock pot (a Le Creuset works well) caramelize onions over low heat.
When onions are translucent, add ham and spices and saute for a couple minutes.
Add stock and peas and bring to a boil
Reduce and simmer for 90 minutes

Enjoy

Simplicity

I was the first one home so dinner fell to me. When the wife and kids arrived, she said something interesting. "I love it when you cook dinner. When I make dinner, I make it too complicated."

I try to keep things to two pans max...one if possible. Tonight was pan fried pork chops and bow tie pasta & broccoli.

4 pork chops (more if your family is larger)
Herbs de Provence
s & p
Olive oil
Bow tie pasta
Italian cheese (romano or parmesan or both)
Broccoli
Garlic

Marinade pork chops in a Pyrex dish with olive oil, garlic, HDP and S&P to taste

Heat oven to 425
Cook pasta
While pasta is cooking, boil water to steam broccoli
Heat more olive oil in oven safe pan for chops
Sear pork chops on one side till brown and turn. Cook for 2 more minutes
Steam broccoli
Put chops in oven for about 10 minutes tops depending on thickness
Once pasta and broccoli are done, put in one pot and add cheese to taste; mix and cover
Take chops from oven and put on platter
Put chops pan on stove, scrape out fatty chunks and boil down juices for about a minute; when done, pour over chops and serve with broccoli and pasta in seperate dish

Start to finish should take about a half hour.


Cook pasta

While pasta is cooking,

Weclome, 2009

Being old and boring, I stayed in last night so I didn't really need a bloody mary. But it is new year's day so what the hell. Like the martini, the bloody mary is a perfect drink if made properly. My version has a slight regional variation as I add the classic mid-atlantic staple of Old Bay. I know it's widely available because I used to buy it in the middle west when I was in college. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

I've varied the recipe over the years. I used to add Clamato to it but that grossed out my wife too much so I'm back to V8. If you do use Clamato, I recommend that you mix with tomato juice and not V8.

Fill a 12 oz glass with 10 oz of V8.
Add lemon juice
Worcester sauce
a tsp of Old Bay
fresh ground pepper
a tsp of prepared horseradish (not sauce)
a few dashes of whatever hot sauce you have. I use Valentina.

Stir it up.

Fill a pint glass with ice and pour in 2 oz of decent vodka. I use Smirnoff. No need for top shelf here.

Add the bloody mary mix, stir and garnish with a lemon wedge and celery stalk.
If you're from the mid-atlantic and like Old Bay, rim the glass with it like salt on a margarita glass.

Repeat as necessary.

Peace.