Steak Cobb

One of the happiest cooking moments is to create something out of leftovers that you like better than the original meal. (A theme lately for me.)  Maybe you make chicken so you can have chicken sandwiches.  Or meatloaf for meatloaf sandwiches.  (I clearly remember my first meatloaf sandwich at Danny Izzo's house while I was in college; my mom didn't make meatloaf sandwiches.)  Grilled salmon for scrambled eggs, omelet, or frittata.  Roast pork for tacos.  Roast beef and/or baked sweet potatoes for hash.  Easter eggs for deviled eggs or egg salad. Steak for salads like the one above/below and lots of other meals.

We usually don't eat steak at all through the winter, but wait (as we do for hamburgers) for grilling time.  And then I cook two steaks anyway.  Because we like steak and eggs, steak sandwiches, frittatas with leftover potato, steak, and vegetables, or steak hash.  Or a new favorite of mine, Steak Cobb.

Now I don't know if anyone else makes Steak Cobb. I had the ingredients and it sounded good to me.  It makes leftover restaurant steak into a lovely, beautiful salad or gives you a reason to make an extra steak on the grill any time at all.  Here's how if you need directions other than from the photos:

steak cobb for one

• two cups fresh greens (I like spinach for this)
• 2 ounces leftover cold steak, sliced thinly
• 2 scallions (green onions-green and white parts) sliced very thinly
• 1/4 cup chopped red pepper
• 1-2 strips bacon, cooked crisply and chopped
• 1 boiled egg, sliced
• 1/2 - 1 cup sauteed vegetables (or fresh) of your choice   
• 1/2 tomato, sliced
• 1-2 tablespoons blue cheese dressing
• kosher salt/fresh ground pepper
• fresh lemon juice

1. Arrange greens in a large shallow bowl and top with steak and scallions.
2. Place bacon at one corner, sliced egg at another, vegetables at the third and tomato at the fourth.
3. Spoon dressing into the leftover space.   Don't toss this salad.  Dip its elements into the dressing and only use what you need; the blue cheese will overwhelm everything else otherwise.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon juice over all.     

Things that make this fast and simple--mostly pantry info:
 I keep Nueske's bacon in 2- and 4-piece packages in the freezer so I can unthaw and cook it quickly in the microwave when needed.
  I "boil" eggs in the microwave for quick salads like this:  Spray a deep cereal bowl with PAM or grease lightly. Crack egg  in and, using a sharp knife, pierce yolk once and white several times.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave on full power for one minute.  (Tightly being the important word here.)  Carefully remove bowl from oven, let sit a minute, tip out onto cutting board and slice.



 I keep blue cheese in the frig and make dressing in the food processor while the bacon cooks:
2 ounces blue cheese, 1-2 cloves garlic (chopped), 1/4 cup mayonnaise, pinch salt and pepper, 2 shakes hot sauce, 2 tablespoons milk blended well and tasted for seasoning. (approximate amounts)
Of course you can make this without a food processor:  Mash up the blue cheese with a table fork.  Crush the garlic with the flat side of a chef's knife and chop it well. Beat well with remainder of ingredients and adjust seasonings.
I am only without lemons if I'm leaving tomorrow on a plane and usually not then. 
When I cook vegetables, I cook enough for a couple of days or more--such as sauteed onions, peppers, zucchini, asparagus, green beans,  garlic, mushrooms, etc. 
I have pasta bowls perfect for composed salads and believe this makes a difference.  This will work on a plate, but not as well.  The ingredients are lost in a jumble, though they'll taste good, if you toss this up in a chili bowl.

... ... ... ...

If you're interested in helping solve a current and immediate hunger need, please read this blogpost on LEAVE IT WHERE JESUS FLANG IT.  Margaret Watson is an Episcopal priest on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota where many--elderly, handicapped, grandparents raising kids-- are hungry due to sequester cuts;  her own cupboards and freezer are bare.    Please write your congressional reps to end the sequester where it is creating more and more hunger or pain and/or drop a note in the comments on Margaret's blog to see how you might personally help.  Here are her own words:

But more importantly, the clients themselves have been cut off --they have received no monies since the beginning of March. They are coming to my door asking for heating fuel, food, clothes, diapers. Children are at risk. There are no Tribal programs that can assist these folks, they are mostly disabled, elderly with grandchildren in the home, or are desperate for work. Last night, after a funeral, I delivered left over food to people's homes. Funeral food to a family of six of baloney sandwiches, biscuits, two apples, two oranges and some chocolate cake.
I cannot afford to feed all the people who come to my door asking for help. I have emptied my own freezer, my own cupboard in order to help these desperate folks.

...    In the last six months, I have done 40 funerals --six infants, two teen suicides, and many, many folks under the age 40.

And food, shelter and heat are not the only problems here --the Indian Health Services were also part of the Sequester cuts. And the cuts are affecting the Head Start programs.

---from Margaret's post Shocked and Depressed.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Please help?
Alyce

Swordfish with Ginger-Asparagus Rice and Mango Salsa (Another Help! I've Got Leftover Take-out Rice and Don't Know What To Do With It)

I'm likely to decide on what's for Sunday supper as I sit at Sunday lunch.  Often there are leftovers, soup in the freezer, or a nice piece of cheese that only needs a nice glass of wine to balance out all of my food groups.  Whatever happens, I rarely cook.  Sunday's a work day for me and Sunday evening is one I like to spend with my best guy, the dogs, and a tv tray.

Fried Egg on Potato Cake with Blue Cheese Wedge, Tomatoes, and Scallions

 Tonight I was hungry, but had had a fattening lunch.  A little egg supper was in order, along with a bit of salad.  I threw in a potato cake because I had some cold mashed potatoes in the frig. (Potato cakes are just leftover mashed potatoes patted out like a pancake and fried in butter until very crisp.) Hey, they needed to be used.  If you've never made anything on top  of a potato cake, now's the time.  Try this:

Roast Chicken with Vegetables and Spicy Potatoes--A Little Paris Bistro For You

The weekend is the perfect time for the solo cook -- or anyone-- to roast a chicken.  Why not?  If you'd like a friend to come over for dinner the day you make this, all the better.  If not, no problem.  Plenty for you all weekend long, bones and bits for stock, and luscious sandwiches or salads or soup for lunch for a couple of days.  Put on the music, pour a little wine, set yourself a pretty place just for the two (or one) of you or put on a good movie while the whole meal cooks at once without you stirring a thing.

Skip the rotisserie chicken at the store, despite the price--at least for this time.  Save it for when you're really desperate.  They're often old, tiny, stringy, overdone, mushy, or include some ingredients you don't really want to eat.  If you have a couple of hours, you have your own chicken. I mean, sticking a whole chicken in the oven can't be too hard, right?  (I'll talk you through the process to a golden, tender, beautiful chicken.)  While I've blogged my own roast chicken recipes before (scroll down to bottom), this one happens to be Perfect Roast Chicken by Ina Garten. 

Hot Cross Buns -- One a Penny, Two a Penny...

 It is a tradition amongst many Christian bakers to produce a batch of Hot Cross Buns (Click to sing the nursery rhyme!) for Good Friday.  And, if not, we stop at the local bakery and see if THEY made any.  These barely sweet firm rolls, served on a day when no meat is eaten,  are hearty tea treats of the first order--complete with a light buttery hum that is almost topped by the spice notes.  The pretty "X" snipped into the top (and often emphasized with a bit of icing painted into the grooves) lets the world--and you, too-- know what kind of bread this is.  An "X"  on bread can also be assumed to keep evil away.

I'd Just Like a Little Chicken and Salad, Please

More than once, I've heard Ina Garten say (about roast chicken), "That's all that anyone really ever wants for dinner anyway, isn't it?"  If you're like me, you love roast chicken, but it definitely isn't the only thing I ever want for dinner.  Hello?  I love pizza, lamb chops, Vietnamese soup, beef stew, salmon...   But there maybe are a few nights in the year when you really do just want  a little chicken.  If you're not in the mood to roast a whole bird tonight, this meal is for you.  Especially if you keep frozen chicken thighs (boneless and bone-in) in the freezer at all times--a great treasure trove for very fast meals.

I happened to have made a huge vat of potatoes and vegetables to go with some fried trout for breakfast last Friday.  Saturday night, all I had to do was cook the chicken and I was about ready to eat.

Frosted Brownies for You

On the rare occasion, you'll eat a brownie somewhere that, while you're unsure why, just doesn't measure down to the brownies sitting around most kitchens, potluck tables, or bakeries for that matter.  You are unsure why.  Maybe it's fresh.  Frosted? Tender?  Tastes of chocolate rather than cocoa and flour?  Not dry?  Not wet? Firm enough as in done, but definitely not gooey?

I make those brownies, she said... though I can't make them often.  Because I'd eat them, you see.  You can make them, too.  The differences between what are soon to be your brownies and the regular, old garden variety brownies are basic, but not always obvious.

Irish Fruit Scones

I borrowed a little bit of one of the More Time at the Table St. Pat's posts and hope you enjoy making an easy small quick bread.  Conquer it, make it yours!  Here's how:

Patted out dough waiting to be cut with a floured cutter or knife.

irish fruit scones     makes about 10  2-inch scones
Adapted for American kitchens-   original recipe by Edmund Cronin, THATCH COTTAGE, County Kerry 

 INGREDIENTS:

•  8 ounces all purpose, unbleached flour (1 3/4 cups approx.)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 50 g (2 ounces or 4 tablespoons) butter
• 50 g (2 ounces or 1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 75 g (3 ounces or 1/2 cup) sultanas (raisins)--I used currants
• 1/4 pint/ 125 ml (1/2 cup approx) milk       

Cut-out scones waiting to be baked.

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 F/ gas mark 7)
2. Lightly grease a small baking sheet.
3. Mix together flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.  Cut in butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in sugar and raisins or currants.
4. Add milk and mix to produce a soft dough.
5. Turn the dough onto a floured board or counter and knead about a minute until well-combined and holding together.
6. Roll out dough to about 3/4-inch thick.  Using a floured 2-inch cutter, cut scones into rounds and place on baking tray.
7. Brush with milk to glaze.
8. Bake 12 minutes or until done to your liking; I like them a bit crisp on the outside.
9. Remove scones to a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature with soft Irish butter. (The Irish and many others might serve these with whipped cream rather than butter.)

Baker's notes:  I used a food processor fitted with a steel blade for steps 1-4, but I turned the mixture out and did the rest by hand, including working in the last of the milk.  The dried fruit would be chopped finely if you continued in the food processor much longer.  To do the whole thing by hand or with a pastry cutter would be fairly quick and simple, as well.  Some cooks would just use their hands to get the butter into the flour; I find it melts too much from the heat of my hands and prefer a metal cutting force of some sort--either the pastry cutter or the food processor blade.

Scone Song...listen here. 

Just out of the oven.  Best the day they're made.

 Here's the little booklet with the recipe I bought in Ireland right at the Thatch Cottage:

Ready for their close-up on my piano in the afternoon light.

People always talk about the green in Ireland; I loved the oh-so-blue sky:

Favorite Irish movie:  The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

Have fun cooking and taking care of yourself,
Happy Saint Patrick's Day,
Alyce

Lentil-Wild Rice Soup with Kale and Sausage or Cleaning Out for Spring

There are moments when the seasons are about to begin changing that I start looking in the pantry, frig, and freezer and know it's time to use up a few things.   Today, this is what I saw:

•  A cup of green lentils.
•  4 frozen chicken sausages.
•  A bag of  frozen ham from Christmas.
• Lots of wild rice.
• Frozen small bag of tomato paste.  1/4 bottle white wine.
• Wilting parsley.
•   Lots of fresh kale.

Black Pepper-Green Onion Cornbread

I love beans and cornbread.  Plain old pinto beans with onions and maybe some ground beef--a bit of ham if you're flush.  I make them when life is fine and when life is low. I crumble cornbread into the beans or I butter it up and have it leftover with my coffee of a morning.  It is comfort food par excellence.  And, oh, by the way, it's simple and filling.  Honey?  Yes.  But not required.

If you're tired of your sweet cornbread, or wish for one of the grittier experiences of dining life, try this: 

Apple Crisp in One Minute or Sauteed Apples with Granola for Breakfast; What's In a Name?

 This is one of those odd little dishes that you could eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or snack.  I like it for breakfast, but also know it's sweet-fast conclusion to a filling supper.  It might fill the bill when you're desperate for dessert and all your time was spent at

• the doctor's office, or
• the car repair place, or
• sitting at the airport, or
• fuming at the traffic that never moved, or
• work, reading a novel, playing the piano, talking to your best friend.

Salmon and Kale on Pea Risotto- With Music for Cooking

Here's another take on the salmon for one meal.  While this takes a little bit of time (risotto isn't as time-consuming as people make out, though), it's worth it as the leftover risotto is then lunch and perhaps a risotto cake in a day or two.  If you make extra kale, you can use it for snacks as this version is light, oniony, and crispy with a good dose of salt and pepper.  Try this:

Pan-Grilled Double Lamb Chops with Oven-Roasted Whole Carrots and a Make-Ahead Fresh Green Bean Salad

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a menu you can make for you and a friend, you and a lover, or for special you with great leftovers.  Whatever you do, read through the whole thing before beginning.  This post features big double lamb chops (with a tapenade topping) grilled first and finished in the oven; meantime you'll roast large, whole carrots to go with it.  There's a make early green bean salad and I also give simple suggestions for wine and dessert if you scroll down to the end.

Start with a beautiful sparkler that needn't cost much.  I heartily recommend a New Mexico sparkling wine such as  Gruet rather than splurge on a French champagne.  Add some of the tapenade with baguette or crackers or a bowl of great potato chips--my favorite sparkler pairing.  Stay away from cheese; fresh vegetables would work wonderfully.  Just stick with something light; this is a big meal.  Lamb is a loving, but filling meal.  

If you're cooking for just you, open the wine, turn on the music, set the table, and enjoy a beautiful night.  If you've got a companion, the more the merrier.  Whatever you do, have fun cooking and taking care of yourself!

Make-Ahead Green Bean Salad with Cream Shallot Dressing    serves 2

This recipe calls for you to blanch the beans and fresh peas briefly in boiling water, drain, and cool quickly in an ice bath.  You can also cook them, separately, in the microwave for 2-3 minutes with just a couple of tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe covered bowl.

BLT Panini with Cheese

Trying to give a few L-Bs away (any takers?), I am not eating BLT Paninis.  Not that I couldn't have a half; I could.  But I'm counting my calories and watching my protein; I'm eating way more vegetables and I was already eating vegetables at every meal.  Dave (the hub), however, is not on my program.  South Beach really did the trick for him last year (as it didn't for me), so while he doesn't eat a panini every day--or any other sandwich--he does indulge once a week or so.

Anyone who cooks for themselves has their shortlist of easy favorites and my guess is the list often includes a much-loved, go to sandwich.  A panini morphs the most mundane into a warm, welcomed meal.  Takes vegetables and meat to a new combined level, if you will. Even a PBJ or everyday grilled cheese takes on a new life when made into a panini.   Leftovers breathe afresh when weighed down by cast iron until steaming hot and tender--think sliced cold chicken with roasted red peppers or pot roast with grilled onions.   (Don't forget to use a spread on the inside or to season your ingredients, except for PBJs, of course.)

Tomato Soup Faster Than You Can Say Grilled Cheese

I'm on a fitness program that includes lots of vegetable meals for lunch.  So instead of getting tired of one green salad after another, I switch off between soup, vegetables with vegetable dip, salad, and so on.  Luckily I cook.  Today I had a taste for tomato soup and no, I didn't want canned.  I have nothing against canned tomato soup and keep it in my pantry; there are days nothing else appeals.  But today I wanted real food.

Done in under a half hour, this lusty (I almost said perky, but perky it isn't) soup just about jumped out of the pot, put its arms around me, and begged me to eat it.  If you have no fresh basil, increase the Herbes de Provence (or a combination of dried basil, thyme, etc.) to a teaspoonful and then test taste it.   Easily vegan and gluten-free (without some of the garnishes), this meal will heat everyone up despite the weather.  It's sunny, but snowy in Saint Paul today.

Oven-Baked Vegetable Soup with Poached Egg

Warm, comforting, simple winter fare.   How does that happen without creating a heavy meal?  Like this:

Spirea at SW corner of house

•  A big pot of vegan vegetable soup (see below for recipe--it's WW 0 Points) stored in the garage frig.  A small bowl stored indoors in the kitchen frig.  3 degrees Fahrenheit with winds creating below zero wind chill.  Hm...probably skipping the trip to the garage.   Next:

• Oven heating to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Alyce tripping to the basement store room to fetch onion soup ramekins. Quick, thorough wash and warm up of the bowls (with hot water) while soup heats on stove.
• Pouring about a cup of hot soup into the bowl.  Making a hole in the middle and pouring in an egg  cracked into a measuring cup.  Sprinkling with salt, pepper, and a little grated Parmesan since I had it.   (continued...)

• Placing bowl on rimmed sheet and baking about 18- 20 minutes for runny eggs and about 23 for soft-set.  25-30 for hard set--a guess, as I only let mine go to 23!
• Happily dining.

Enjoy!

30-Minute Vegan and Gluten-Free Vegetable Soup a la Provence

Have fun cooking and taking care of yourself as you stay warm,
Alyce

One-Pan Seared Salmon with Red Peppers, Onions, and Spinach

All in one pan in, oh, maybe 15 minutes, including chopping time.

Maybe I'm an unusual cook in that when I am home alone and cooking for myself, I cook the most gorgeous healthy meal I can find in that refrigerator.  I often make a big pot of soup just for me. Perhaps many people are like this; I really don't know.  I save the Beef Burgundy (not that Beef Burgundy is UN-healthy) for when the hub comes in from work on Friday night.  I wait for the burger in summer when he's grilling out back. (If we're out at the local bar--in Minnesota this is mostly about families, games, and beer-- I am the weird one out--ordering the veggie burger and wine.)  Last weekend, I made ribs for Dave.  I was sick of winter food, so I did eat some, too.  I even made potato salad, though I made it with vinaigrette, not mayonnaise.  Loved doing it, but I don't make ribs for me.  And it's not because they're time-consuming.

Scones for Breakfast; Scones for Lunch

  

I'm a biscuit maker from way back, but as a Scot, scones and I have always loved one another.  A tiny bit sweet and lovely with butter, jam, cheese, ham or honey, they're biscuit like in taste and texture, but are also just enough different that you'll become pretty obsessive about them once they're made once or twice. 

Clean Out the Frig One-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

I stretched an 8" pie crust into one for a 9" pie--it works, but it shows, too.

We had friends to dinner Friday night for Zucchini Soup with Pistachios (testing soup for the book), Lemon Roast Chicken (a six-pound roaster), Rosemary Potatoes, Garlic Green Beans, and Cherry Pie.  Pretty American, huh?  And lest you think that was too much, we had potato chips and sparkling wine for starters.  Just because I had a sparkler left from the holidays and I'm not embarrassed to say one of my favorite things is champagne and potato chips.   Well... The pie crust was a vegan one to avoid use of dairy (allergies) and I didn't even realize I'd have enough left for an 8 or 9" pie or a pot pie top crust.  (I created my own vegan pie crust--not terribly difficult!  Afterward, I decided to google vegan pie crusts--only to find some people use vodka for the liquid in them.  Who knew?  I might start making vegan pie crusts more often.)

Cooling the pie in the dining room where I won't knock it down like I did last time.

So-

One-Pan Lemon Chicken with Mushrooms and Shallots

 You may like boneless chicken breasts more than I do.  I'm much more fond of bone-in chicken breasts for many reasons.  And I'm even fonder of whole chickens, period!  But there are moments when a boneless chicken breast or two is just simpler, faster, or more useful.  Not often, but occasionally.  And if I'm in need of fast, this is what I do...

I can't call this  a recipe...but if you must: