Holiday mashed potato and celery root

I remember last Christmas, I was shopping for all the supplies needed for Christmas dinner. When I was checking out, the young lady at the register, about 22, said she was just learning to cook with different ingredients. While she was ringing up my groceries, she kept asking questions like, “What’s this?” and “How do you cook that?” But her biggest curiosity was when she picked up the celery root. “Oh my gosh,” she said, “What is that thing?” 

Well, I admit if you have never seen a celery root, they are strange looking. I told her that I was going to make a special version of mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. She looked like she had her doubts, as she placed the celery root in the grocery bag. Here’s what I did with it.

1 big nasty looking celery root

5 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

10 cloves of garlic

Water

Sea salt

Olive oil

Butter

Smoked paprika

Preparation

Now, if you never looked at a celery root before, it looks like something out of a science fiction/horror film. It is a big gnarly ball, with some tentacle looking things, all twisted up on the bottom, with lots of dirt and gunk between the appendages. You need to peel it, and have a paring knife to cut any dirty nooks off of it. Once you do, cut it into chunks and put it in a pot. 

Peel the potatoes and add them to the pot. Peel the onion and quarter it. Add that to the pot as well. Peel the garlic cloves and add them to the pot. Now add enough water to cover the vegetables. Add a palmful of salt to the water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Let it simmer until the celery root is tender when pierced with a fork, about a half hour. 

Drain the vegetables and return them to the pot. Add a splash of your best olive oil and use a potato masher to mash all the vegetables together. Then use the masher with rapid circular motions to beat the vegetables into a smooth, uniform texture. Place them in a serving bowl or leave them it the pot. Add about three pats of butter and sprinkle on some smoked paprika. 

Serving

Serve a big mound of this winter mash on a plate next to pieces of roast duck - a breast and leg quarter. Add lots of gravy to the duck and a little butter to the mash. Now add a big pile of mixed vegetables (you know, the frozen mix - think Green Giant). Slice some fresh homemade bread and open a bottle of Zinfandel and dinner should be set. 

Broiled lamb chops with mushrooms

As many readers already know, I’m an old grouch who lives alone with my two dogs, Squeeky and Camper. My neighbor down the block has a key to my house, and he takes care of things whenever I’m traveling. Sometimes he ‘drops off’ as well. 

My neighbor has developed a habit of stocking my house with beer when I’m out. I’ll come home and find a case of beer there, which wasn’t there when I left in the morning. He likes to keep a good supply of beer at my house, so he can escape, and have a couple, away from the watchful eye of his wife.

I remember about a year ago, I was away for the weekend. I drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. With Christmas approaching, I offered to drive my son home from college. That Sunday, after I dropped my son off at his mom’s house, I arrived home. I discovered that, not only did my supply of beer increase, but there was a package of large meaty lamb chops in my refrigerator. My neighbor knows I have a real weakness for lamb, and he picked them up for me at the butcher shop. After I called and thanked him, this is how I prepared the lamb chops that night. 

6 giant meaty lamb chops,

Cajun seasoning

Olive oil

Fresh ground white pepper

1/2 lb. sliced shiitake mushrooms

1 cup of white wine

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron fry pan and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Season the chops with cajun seasoning on both sides. Place the chops in the cast iron and place them under a hot broiler. 

When the lamb starts to char on top, remove the pan. Turn the chops over and add the mushrooms around the chops. Return to the broiler. When there is a nice char on the chops, turn them over again and stir the mushrooms as you do. Return the chops to the broiler for a final minute or so until everything is sizzling. 

Set the chops on a serving platter and add the wine to the pan. Bring that to a boil, an stir, scraping up anything that has stuck to the pan. Let the wine simmer for a couple minutes, to reduce, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

Serve these sizzling chops on a plate and smother them with mushrooms. Add a big piled of steamed wild rice and then a huge pile of broccoli seared with onions. Drizzle some of the leftover wine in the pan, over the wild rice, and then sprinkle a touch of soy sauce over the rice. 

I’d start the meal off with a crisp salad. I also recommend setting out a bowl of mixed Italian olives. Finally, I’d open a good bottle of Italian red wine and sit down to your feast! 

A quick pasta to go with sausage and peppers

I was going trough my recipes the other day, and I found my notes for sausage and peppers. After reading it I was in the mood for some all day. I eventually caved in, and went to the local little Italian grocery to pick up some sausage and peppers. Their homemade sausage is still as good as ever. 

Mid afternoon, I couldn’t wait any longer, and I started cooking the sausage, peppers and garlic. Then I heated up more garlic and oil for the pasta. When I sat down, I thought I’d eat about half of it. I was wrong. My eyes were smaller than my stomach. I ate the whole mess. Here’s how I put it together. 

Olive oil, use the good stuff

1 lb. Italian sausage

2 large bell peppers

Lots of garlic

Red pepper flakes

1 lb. Italian egg pasta, one of those funny shaped rolled pastas

Salted water to cook pasta

1 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese, plus a little extra

3/4 cup of reserved pasta water

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350º. Heat a large cast iron fry pan over medium heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom and then add the sausage. If it is in one ‘rope’, uncoil it a little so it is evenly spread out in the pan. Let that sear while you cut up the bell peppers (into bite-sized pieces). When the first pepper is cut up, turn the sausage over. 

After both sides of the sausage are seared, take a knife and fork and cut the sausage into roughly one inch lengths. Stir and add the peppers. While that’s on the stove, peel, smash and mince four cloves of garlic. Put the salted pasta water on to boil. When the peppers are starting to soften, add the garlic. Stir well and put the pan in the oven, on the top shelf. 

Take a small sauce pan and add about an inch of your best olive oil (roughly about three quarters of a cup). Heat that over medium heat. Smash and mince about four garlic cloves and add those to the oil with some red pepper flakes. If you’re like me, add a lot of red pepper flakes. If you are a little wimpy, add less. Once the garlic is sizzling, turn the heat off and swirl the oil until the sizzling stops. Set that aside. 

When the pasta water is boiling, add the pasta, and a dribble of olive oil, to the water. Cook the pasta until it is just cooked through, so it still has a little chewiness to it. Save 3⁄4 of a cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and place it in a bowl. Add the oil and garlic to the pasta and stir. Now stir in one cup of grated parmesan cheese and add the reserved pasta water. Stir well. Remove the sausage and peppers from the oven and add a bunch of parmesan to that as well. 

Serving

Take a large mound of the pasta and place it on a plate. Now scoop on lots of the sausage and peppers. Make sure you get lots of garlic too. Sprinkle on lots of grated parmesan and maybe a little fresh ground white pepper. Now, set out a bowl of carrot sticks, a bowl of kalamata olives, and slice some fresh baked homemade bread. Pour a bottle of your favorite Italian red wine and your set to feast. For goodness sakes, go back for seconds. It’s good for you! 

Norman's Wednesday night dinner cheese bread

I bake a lot of bread. I don’t think much of it. If I’m making a roast or spaghetti or whatever, I throw ingredients into a bowl and put some bread dough together. There is just something about warm bread, fresh out of the oven, that people love. Of all the breads I’ve made, this is the one that people ask for the most. 

This is my famous cheese bread. Now keep in mind that you can use different cheese too. Provolone, parmesan, swiss, pepper jack or even feta would work. Even just straight cheddar is good. You could also add some cooked Italian sausage with the cheese and call it sausage bread. Or, how about some thinly shaved ham, that can’t be bad. 

4 cups of unbleached bread flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1/4 of olive oil

2 tbs. instant yeast

2 cups (approximate) of lukewarm water

1/2 lb. shredded mozzarella

1/2 lb. shredded cheddar

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flour, sugar, salt, olive oil and yeast with most of the water in your stand mixer (by now I am sure you have gone out and purchased one). Mix it all together with the dough hooks until a dough is formed - again, you may have to adjust the amount of flour and water to get the dough right. If you do, don’t complain, just adjust it. 

Let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Make sure your counter is clean and dry. Lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough until a large oval is formed. By large, I mean very large, almost the width of the counter. Spread the cheese evenly over the dough - but have no cheese on the outer two inches of the dough. Fold this outer edge over the cheese. Now gently roll the dough up like you would roll up a carpet. 

Set the rolled up loaf on a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Allow the loaf to rise for 30 minutes. Bake the loaf for about 30 minutes at 400º, until it is a nice dark brown. Allow the bread to sit for 15 minutes before slicing. 

Serving

Serve this bread with almost any pasta or, how about serving it with roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed vegetables and a crisp salad! Open a good Cabernet Sauvignon and you’re all set. Now that sounds like a meal! 

Whole wheat bread made with buckwheat honey

Here’s another bread recipe. In this one, I used buckwheat honey, as well as clover honey, for a different flavor. Now that the cold weather is upon us, I am cooking bigger, heartier meals, and with those, I like lots of freshly baked bread and butter. If you give this one a try, let me know how you liked it.

2 cups of whole wheat flour

2 cups of unbleached bread flour

1/2 cup of buckwheat honey

1/2 cup of clover honey

1 tsp. sea salt, plus a little extra

2 tbs. instant yeast

2 tbs. room temperature butter

2 cups (approximate) lukewarm water

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flour, honey, salt and yeast into the mixing bowl. Add the butter and turn the dough hooks on to mix the ingredients. Add most of the water and bring the dough together. You may have to add a bit more water or flour to get it right. You want a dough that is still somewhat wet, but stiff enough that you can handle it with a little flour on your hands. 

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, place it back in the mixing bowl, and let it rise in a warm place for a half hour. After it has risen, knead the dough for a minute or so and shape it into a loaf. Plop it on to a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal, and let it rise again in a warm place for another half hour. Place a few slashes on the loaf, and then sprinkle it with some sea salt.

Place the bread into a 380º oven. Let it bake for at least a half hour, until it is golden brown. Take it out of the bread pan and place it back on the rack in the oven for another minute or so. Let the bread cool on a rack for at least five minutes before slicing. 

Serving

Serve this bread with lots of butter. What else? Hmm. How about medium rare roast beef, mashed potatoes, lots of gravy, steamed Brussels sprouts, a crisp salad, and a nice Cabernet from Washington State. For dessert, a platter of sliced melons is nice.

Pizza with several cheeses and prosciutto

I swear I eat pizza at least once a week. Most of my recipes are variations of my house pizza. Recently, I made this pizza to go with a garlicky Tortellini Soup. Here is last night’s version of pizza. 

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbs. instant yeast

Olive oil

1 cup of water

1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. basil

Adobo seasoning

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

Tabasco

4 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto

4 oz. shredded parmesan cheese

8 oz. package of mixed Italian blend shredded cheese

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh ground white pepper

Corn meal

Preparation

For the dough, add the flour to your mixing bowl. Add the sugar, salt, yeast, about a tablespoon of olive oil and the water, to the flour and bring the dough together. If necessary, adjust by adding a spec more flour or water to make it right. Knead it for a minute and then let it rise while you make the sauce. 

For the sauce, place the tomato sauce in a bowl and add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Now add the oregano, basil, garlic and a good sprinkle of adobo seasoning. Give it a couple shakes of Tabasco. Stir the sauce together and let it rest while you sit and enjoy a glass of wine. As you pour the wine, preheat the oven to 450º. 

When the oven dings that it is at the right temperature, start working the dough into a 17” circle, flouring it as you work it. Once you have it right, slide it into a pizza pan that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Fold the edges to form a crust. 

Spoon on enough tomato sauce to cover the pizza dough (use any leftover sauce for your second pizza. You wouldn’t make just one pizza, would you?). Sprinkle on the shredded parmesan cheese. Take your sliced prosciutto and cover the pizza with the it, use it all. Add the mixed Italian cheese, use it all. Add the mozzarella cheese, use it all. Grind some white pepper over the top of the pizza. Bake the pizza in the 450º oven until the cheese is nicely brown and bubbling. Sprinkle the pizza with some of your best olive oil and then let the pizza sit for a couple of minutes before slicing. 

Serving

Serve the pizza with several bowls of garlic tortellini soup. Enjoy this with lots of red wine from Greece. Eat until a button pops off your shirt. 

Scotch Broth

One of the best things about roasting a large leg of lamb is that, when you are done, you have that big lamb bone to make soup. Scotch Broth is my favorite form of lamb soup. 

Many times I like to substitute barley for rice, but with Scotch Broth, barley is the norm. Lamb, rutabaga, barley and carrots, blend together to make this traditional soup. How do I know it is is traditional? I don’t. I just made that up, but it sounds nice. 

1 meaty bone from a roast leg of lamb

1 large onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

Lots of water, somewhere near 6 quarts

1 small rutabaga, diced

3 large carrots, diced

1 cup of roast lamb, chopped

1/2 tsp. of allspice

1 leak, chopped

1 cup of red lentils

1/2 cup of uncooked barley

1 bowl of chopped cabbage

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. thyme

Cajun seasoning

Sea salt

Preparation

Place the lamb bone in a large soup pot. You may have to break it at the joint to fit in your pot. Add water to cover, enough for a lot of soup. Add the chopped onion. Bring that to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let that simmer for about twenty minutes. 

Add the rutabaga, carrots, lamb, allspice, and lentils. Let that simmer for about an hour. Add the leek, cabbage, barley and potato. Season it with the onion powder, white pepper, thyme and a little cajun seasoning. Let that simmer for another hour. Taste and adjust the soup for salt, pepper and cajun seasoning. Keep simmering until the soup is nice and thick. Taste and adjust the seasonings one more time and turn the heat off. 

Serving

I like to serve Scotch Broth with a homemade bread that was made with whole wheat, buckwheat honey and brown sugar. Oh, and course, slathered with lots of butter. 

This can be first course followed by reheated roast lamb, mashed potatoes and gravy, assuming you have enough of that leftover. If not, you can follow the soup with seared pork chops and steamed Brussels sprouts. All that can be followed with even more soup. Pick out a nice Greek red to wash everything down 

Autumn honey bread

Recently, I made my first batch of pea soup for the fall. Pea soup is a favorite of mine and almost a ritual for me during the fall and winter. The one thing you need, when you serve pea soup, is warm homemade bread, fresh out of the oven. 

As I started making my bread, I remembered that I had couple jars of honey. Hmm. Why not add some of that? Honey adds a nice fragrant touch to fresh homemade bread. Here’s how I made it.

You could also use Maple syrup if you like. 

4 cups of unbleached bread flour

1 cup of honey

2 tbs. of room temperature butter

1 tsp. of sea salt

2 tbs. of instant yeast

2 cups of lukewarm water (approximate)

Additional butter for when the bread comes out of the oven

Preparation

Place the flour in your mixing bowl. Add the salt, honey, butter and yeast. Turn the dough hooks on and add the water. As the flour comes together, you may have to adjust it by adding a bit more flour or water. Don’t holler at me. I never measure this stuff. If you need to adjust it, do so quietly.

Once the dough comes together, knead it for a couple of minutes. Dust it with flour and let it rise in a warm place, for about a half hour or so. When the time is up, knead the dough again and divide it into two equal parts. Shape them into long thin loaves and let them rise for another twenty minutes or so.

Place a few slash marks across the top of the loaves and place them in a 460º oven. They’ll need about twenty to thirty minutes. You want the loaves to be dark golden brown. Remove the loaves to a cooling rack and rub the loaves with butter, getting a nice sheen on them. Let them cool for five or ten minutes before slicing.

Serving

Serve this bread with lots of butter, while you enjoy several bowls of pea soup. Warm homemade bread, slathered with melting butter, can turn pea soup into a feast. I know. I frequently wolf down half a loaf while enjoying several bowls. Now, open a bottle of Merlot and dinner is ready. It is a beautiful thing.

October whole pea soup

Around this time of year, I have a fondness for soup, especially pea soup. Normally, I prefer to use a ham bone for pea soup, but I don’t always have one available. Instead, you can use two large smoked ham hocks, and make the pea soup out of that. 

Now, if you read most cookbooks, they’ll tell you that you have to soak the peas first, either over night, or for an hour in water that was brought to a boil. Well, the last time I made this, it was already past noon when I started, so I skipped the soaking step. Here’s what I did instead.

Grape seed oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

2 large stalks of celery

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage

1/2 tsp. oregano

2 large smoked ham hocks

1 cup of chopped roast pork or ham (optional)

2 bay leaves

4 quarts of water

1 lb. dried whole green peas

1 tbs. dried onion flakes

Cajun seasoning

Adobo seasoning

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat a large soup pot and add enough grape seed oil to coat the bottom. Add the medium chopped onion, the red pepper flakes, the thyme, sage, oregano, the ham hocks and the chopped pork. Stir and cook until the onions have softened and start to brown.

Add the bay leaves, the rinsed and sorted peas and the water. As the water is coming to a boil, add the chopped carrot, chopped celery, the large chopped onion, the garlic and the onion flakes. Sprinkle on some cajun seasoning and adobo seasoning. Now add some salt and pepper.

Let this simmer, very gently, for four hours and stir often. You may need to add some additional water to maintain the volume. After about three hours, smash some peas against the side of the pot as you stir. 

During the last hour, taste the soup for seasoning. You’ll need to add more cajun seasoning and more salt. Taste it and adjust it several times during that last hour. Also break up the ham hocks as you stir. I’d add a little more thyme during the last hour as well. The soup is ready when it has thickened and has lots of little pea shells floating on top.

Serving

October pea soup is easy to serve. Bake a loaf of homemade bread during the last hour of simmering, and serve that while it is still warm enough to melt the butter. Have several large bowls of soup with lots of bread and butter. I also suggest adding some Louisiana Hot Sauce to each bowl. Open a bottle of California Merlot and you can enjoy dinner. Ripe red pears make a nice dessert. I find that it takes  three or four bowls of soup, before I can leave the table.

Burritos made with chicken thighs

When I was cooking last night, I used my last onion. As I wrote onions on to my shopping list, I remembered the time last year, when my neighbor offered me an onion in a similar situation. This was just about a year ago. I still had the family, from the house next door, living with me after the Great Lisle Flood Of 2013. 

This day, I went to the grocery store, and bought a package of chicken thighs and was planning to make burritos. When I arrived home, my housemates were having a beer with my neighbor from down the street. I sat down and had a beer with them, then got up to start dinner.

As I pulled out my ingredients, I noticed I only had one onion, and I needed two. I was going to run out to buy some onions, when my neighbor said he’d go to his house and grab an onion for me. Oh good, I thought. I forgot, that my neighbor hates onions. He brought me this little onion, which was barely bigger than a pearl onion. I looked at him, and said, “Really?”

Buy now, I had already started cooking, so I had to use what I had. I took the onion and thanked my neighbor. Here’s how I put dinner together. Even with the onion deficit, it turned out good.

1 lb. chicken thighs, cut into strips

Grape seed oil

Cajun seasoning

1 tbs. dried minced onion

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. smoked paprika

3 green and 2 bell peppers

1 medium and 1 tiny onion

Adobo seasoning

Soy sauce

1 lime, cut into wedges

1/4 cup white wine

Whole wheat tortillas

Canned jalapeños

Preparation

Get a very large cast iron pan real hot. Add enough grape seed oil to coat the bottom. Add the chicken strips and stir. Sprinkle them with lots of cajun seasoning. Add the dried minced onion and the thyme, paprika and oregano. Stir and sear the chicken until it starts to brown.

Add the pepper strips and stir. Cook that, stirring frequently until the peppers start to soften. Add your paltry amount of fresh onion and stir. When the onion begins to soften, sprinkle on some adobo seasoning and a little soy sauce. Squeeze on the limes and stir in the white wine. When the liquid is sizzling, turn off the heat and serve.

Serving

Heat a large cast iron griddle, for your dinner guests to heat their tortillas. Spoon on the pepper and chicken mixture. Slice some of those canned jalapeños in half and add a few of those to your burrito. Roll it up and wolf it down with lots of beer. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until you are ready to burst.

Chicken ragú for tortellini

Last night, I was reading through some of my recipes, and I found this one. This was back about a year ago, when my neighbors from the house next door, were still living with me as a result of the Great Lisle Flood Of 2013. In the freezer I had four bags of frozen tortellini that my housemates bought, and some frozen chicken that I bought. That sounded like a plan.

I remember I told my housemates, that I was making a pasta sauce with chicken and peppers. One of them warily asked, “W-w-what kind of peppers?” I answered that the peppers were bell peppers and I saw the worry dissipate from their faces. During the time they lived with me, they’ve come to know my fondness for hot peppers. Well, I guess their hesitation was justified. I admit, I’ve tested their tolerance levels more than once. I’ve left the hot peppers out of this recipe, so you have no reason to worry either.

1 lb. frozen chicken, cut into strips

Olive oil

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Cajun seasoning

Adobo seasoning

1 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. marjoram

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/2 cup Marsala

1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

Frozen tortellini

Preparation

Heat a large braising pan which has a tight fitting lid. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom and add the chicken strips (you don’t have to thaw them first). Sprinkle the chicken with cajun and adobo seasoning. Cover and let that cook for about five minutes. Turn the chicken over and add the peppers, onion and garlic. Add the black pepper, basil, marjoram and thyme. Cover and let that cook for fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the Marsala and the San Marzano tomatoes. Break them up with a knife and fork. Add the tomato paste and rinse out the cans with a little more Marsala and add that to the sauce. Stir to dissolve the paste. Cover and simmer, stirring often while you put water on to boil the tortellini. Cook the tortellini and you’re ready to serve.

Serving

We served this very simply. Pile on a big bunch of tortellini. Smother it in the sauce. Sprinkle on some grated parmesan cheese. Now add some homemade garlic bread, a salad, a bowl of olives and open a bottle of Italian red wine.

Beef roasted over two fires

Well, we’ve had a few real nice warm fall days recently. I love setting my chair in the back yard to read, when its like that. Another thing I really love doing in the fall, is roasting beef over two charcoal fires, with a little mulberry wood added in for smoke.

Recently, I went to my local grocery and picked up two beef roasts, about two and a half pounds each and then lit two piles of charcoal in my grill. I seasoned up the beef and placed both roasts next to each other on a cast iron pan. In about an hour and a half, they were perfectly medium rare. Here’s how I did that.

2 2-1/2 lb. beef roasts, each with a layer of fat

Olive oil

Adobo seasoning

Cajun seasoning

Red pepper flakes

1 quart of beef broth

Flour

Smoked paprika

Preparation

Take the roasts and rub them with olive oil. Place them, fat side up, in a cast iron skillet. Season them with adobo seasoning and cajun seasoning. Don’t measure, just sprinkle both on heavily. Now sprinkle on some red pepper flakes. Let the beef sit at room temperature while you prepare grill.

You need a big enough grill, so you can light two piles of charcoal and still fit the cast iron pan between them, without being directly over the coals. To light the coals, make two piles of charcoal and then go break up some hardwood branches and pile the sticks on top of the coals. Light the sticks with a propane torch. The sticks will burn down and light the coals. I never use charcoal starter. I like my food to taste like wood smoke, not lighter fluid.

When some of the coals start to glow, place the cast iron pan with the beef, on the grate, centered between the two fires. Close the lid. My charcoal piles were fairly deep, so this cooked faster than I expected. In an hour and a half, it was ready. I pull the beef off when an instant read thermometer shows 120º in the center of the roast. When it does, put the roasts onto a platter in a warm place to rest while you make gravy.

For the gravy, place the cast iron skillet on the stove. You should have a nice amount of beef fat in it. Turn the stove on medium high. Add enough flour (and about a teaspoon of smoked paprika) to absorb the fat, but still be somewhat wet while you stir it.

Stir the flour for a couple of minutes, scraping up the stuff that stuck to the pan. Add beef broth, about a cup at a time, and stir. After each addition, bring it to a boil. Keep adding broth until you have a nice gravy, with just the right thickness. Taste and adjust the gravy for salt and pepper. Add the gravy to a bowl. Slice the beef thin and place it on a warm serving platter. Pour any juices from the beef into the gravy.

Serving

Serve lots of beef next to a large boiled potato, that has been broken apart with a fork. Cover both with gravy. Add some broccoli that was sautéed with garlic, some homemade bread, and open a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Dinner is served.

Chicken pasta that I didn't know how to make

I had some frozen chicken breast strips in the freezer that I bought on a whim. When I arrived home from work the other day, I decided that I was going to use them in a pasta somehow. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, so I started making bread while I ran a few options through my head.

Well, when it came time to start cooking, I still didn’t know how I was going to cook this. I decided to just start, and make it up as I go. Here’s what I did. To my surprise, this came out quite tasty. The sweet of the Marsala was balanced by the bite of the red pepper flakes.

1-1/2 lb. frozen chicken breast strips

Olive oil

Adobo seasoning

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. white pepper

1 cup sweet Marsala

1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1 lb. corkscrew pasta

3 sprigs of fresh chopped tarragon

2 sprigs of fresh chopped oregano

5 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Preparation

Heat a large braising pan that has a tight fitting lid. When it is hot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Sear the chicken breast pieces (right from the freezer is ok) on one side. Turn them over and sprinkle them with some adobo seasoning. Add the onion, shallots, garlic, red pepper, the dry basil and the white pepper. Stir and cover the pan.

Let the chicken cook this way for about ten minutes, but turn the chicken over and stir every couple of minutes. When you are not stirring, keep the lid on. You want the chicken and vegetables to steam together so the flavors can blend. After about ten minutes, add the Marsala and stir. Return the lid and let that simmer for at least ten more minutes.

Add the crushed tomatoes and the chopped fresh herbs. Stir and let that simmer, covered, while you put the pasta water on to boil. Stir the chicken often while you cook and drain the pasta.

Serving

Take a big pile of pasta and ladle on the chicken and tomato sauce. Sprinkle on some grated parmesan. Slice the homemade bread and set it out with lots of butter. Make a nice Greek style salad and open a bottle of spicy California Zinfandel. Dinner is served. I may not know how to make this, but it turned out good anyways.

Steak and vegetable fajitas

Well, I just returned from a camping trip in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest, which explains why there were no posts last week. Today I face reality and it is back to work.

Well, I mentioned this before, but last year, the pallet company I work for sold it’s plant and office, and we moved to a small rented office space in West Chicago. For you readers out of state, West Chicago isn’t near the city where bullets are flying. It is a suburb that is roughly forty miles west of the city. It is, however, a great town for Mexican food. I’ve often have great meals at Mr. Papa’s.

I also go to a Mexican grocery that’s right next to our office. It has Mexican music playing over the sound system and had an amazing selection of Mexican foods. Recently, I went to the meat counter and bought several thin flat steaks (about a pound and a half), and then got a little tub of their Mexican red sauce (salsa Mexicana) and a tub of their avocado dip. I like to make fajitas and do so quite often. Here’s one of the ways I prepare them, when serving a big group.

1-1/2 lb. thin beef steaks

Vegetable oil

Adobo seasoning

2 large red bell peppers

1 large green bell pepper

6 large jalapeños

4 medium onions

4 stalks of celery

Worcestershire sauce

Large burrito wraps

Corn tortillas

Hot Mexican red salsa

Guacamole

Shredded Mexican style cheese

1 bowl of lime wedges

Preparation

Cut all the vegetables in wedges or strips. Season the steaks lightly with adobo seasoning. Heat a very large cast iron pan (one of the big ones, that are difficult to lift one handed, even when empty) until it is very hot. Add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom. Sear the steaks quickly on both sides and remove them to a cutting board. Let them cool while you cook the vegetables.

Let the cast iron get hot again. Add the vegetables and stir. Let them cook for about ten minutes until the onions soften, and stir every time you think of it. When the vegetables are hot and starting to soften, slice the beef steaks into strips and add them to the pan. Stir.

Squeeze on about four wedges of lime juice and shake on some Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle on more adobo seasoning. Stir and turn off the heat.

Serving

Heat another large cast iron pan so your dinner guests can heat their tortillas and wraps. Spoon on some meat and vegetables on your warm tortilla and wrap. Add some guacamole, cheese and lots of red sauce. Roll or fold as appropriate. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Wash everything down with ice cold beer.

Pasta for the campground hosts

I’m in the midst of planning my next camping trip to the Hiawatha National Forest. I don’t know if we’ll ever develop a time machine, but if scientists are actually looking for a breakthrough, they have to look at how time speeds up, when you’re on vacation. I swear, when I’m camping, a week goes by in the span of a few minutes!

I’ve become friends with the campground hosts at the National Forest campground I heading to.  They are a couple, about my age, who campground host full time, sort of a working retirement. I usually have them over to my campsite for dinner, at least once while I’m there. Last year, I made this pasta sauce for them, and they really seemed to like it. Here’s what I did.

1 lb. hot Italian sausage

Olive oil

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

1 shallot, sliced razor thin

1 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. marjoram

Cajun seasoning

1 can of tomato paste

1 cup of red wine

1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 lb. corkscrew pasta, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a medium sized dutch oven and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the sausage and break it up. Let that cook until it starts to loose it’s pink color. Add the garlic and the shallots and continue to cook until the sausage starts to brown. Stir in the basil, oregano, marjoram and sprinkle on a little cajun seasoning.

Add the tomato paste and the wine. Stir until the paste is worked evenly into the sausage. Add the canned tomatoes and break them up with a knife and fork. Let the sauce simmer gently, for about ten minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and stir in the grated parmesan.

Serving

Serve big piles of the pasta and bury them in this sauce. Add a fresh heirloom tomato salad (tomato wedges with olive oil, salt, pepper and basil) and set out a bowl of Italian olives.

I opened a bottle of Zinfandel, while the hosts brought over another bottle of red wine and some crystal wine glasses, for us to use during dinner. The pasta must have been ok, because they went back for seconds. (I did too, but we’ve come to expect that by now.)

Quick chicken burritos for a crowd

I don’t know why, but I like burritos on a hot summer evening. Last Saturday was another lazy day for us ‘river people’ at my humble abode. I spent most of the afternoon with my book and a chair in a shady spot in my backyard.

At dinnertime, I pulled out my cutting board and started slicing. I was in the mood for something spicy. This is how I put dinner together. It must have been ok because there are no leftovers and there were only three of us.

Olive oil

2-1/2 lb. chicken breasts, cut into strips

3 bell peppers, cut into strips

4 jalapeños, cut into strips

3 large onions, cut into wedges

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. adobo seasoning

4 limes, cut into wedges

Extra large sized tortillas - burrito wraps

Preparation

Heat an extra large cast iron pan and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the chicken and spread it out. Cook the chicken until it starts to brown and any liquid is boiled off. Stir often. Add the seasoning a little at a time as you stir.

When the chicken is cooked through, add the peppers and stir. After about five minutes, add the onions and stir. Keep cooking, stirring often, until the onions are softened. Squeeze the lime wedges and stir.

Serving

Heat another large cast iron pan until it is very hot. Have each person heat their large tortilla and place it on the plate. Next you simply add some of the meat and vegetables. Now add some hot salsa, a little greek yogurt and a bit of cheese and wrap it up like a burrito. 

Wolf that down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Ice cold beer is good for washing everything down.